Torture Victim’s Body Is Found Near U.S. Base, Afghans Say
Source: New York Times
By ROD NORDLAND
Published: May 21, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan — The footless corpse of an Afghan man missing since November was found on Tuesday near the former American Special Forces base to which he was last seen being taken, according to Afghan officials and victims’ representatives. Afghan investigators said that after his disappearance, the man, Sayid Mohammad, was seen in a video undergoing torture at the hands of an Afghan-American named Zakaria Kandahari, who was the chief translator for an American Army Special Forces A Team stationed at the base, in Nerkh district of Wardak Province. The American military denies that Mr. Kandahari is an American citizen, and said he was no longer working for the A Team when the video was made.
Mr. Mohammad’s body was found about 200 yards outside the perimeter of the Nerkh base, which is now occupied by Afghan special forces after the American unit was removed following protests by Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai. Mohammad Hanif Hanafi, the Nerkh District governor, said it was found by laborers digging a water ditch when they unearthed what appeared to be a military-style black body bag. Relatives of Mr. Mohammad said his corpse was largely complete, except both of his feet had been cut off. They took his remains to the Nerkh district government center in protest. The partial remains and clothing of another missing person were earlier found near the base, family members and Afghan officials have said.
Afghan officials are seeking Mr. Kandahari’s arrest on murder, torture and abuse of prisoner charges, and accuse the American military of shielding him from capture. American military officials have insisted they do not have Mr. Zakaria and do not know his whereabouts; they also say that repeated military investigations into the disappearances and murders of at least 15 people from Wardak Province have shown no wrongdoing by American soldiers. The results of those investigations, however, have not been made public.
The senior Afghan investigator for the Ministry of Defense, who asked to speak anonymously in line with his division’s policy, said that investigators had now raised the toll of missing and dead to 17 people, all of whom disappeared after having been taken into custody by the A Team in Nerkh District. He provided a list of those peoples’ names. And while there was no testimony tying American soldiers directly to abuse of those detainees, the investigator said, none of them have been seen alive since. Nine are still missing up to six months later, and eight have been found dead.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/world/asia/torture-victims-body-is-found-near-us-base-afghans-say.html?_r=0
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