Beheading of Taliban would be war crime - HRW

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL114247.htm

KABUL, June 23 (Reuters) - The reported beheading of Taliban prisoners by Afghan forces this week would be a war crime and the troops and commanders responsible should be put on trial, a leading U.S.-based rights group said on Wednesday.

Namatullah Tokhi, commander of the Afghan government's 27th division in southern Zabul province, said on Tuesday that soldiers there beheaded four Taliban fighters a day earlier after guerrillas cut off the heads of an Afghan interpreter for U.S.-led forces and an Afghan government soldier.

Summary executions of prisoners were a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions and human rights law, said John Sifton, Human Rights Watch representative for Afghanistan.

"If these beheadings actually occurred, it is a very serious incident: the killing of captured prisoners in the context of an international conflict is a war crime," he said.

The soldiers responsible, and the commanders who could have prevented the killings, should be arrested and tried, he said.

"If U.S. or coalition forces were on site during the killings, as they usually are during anti-Taliban operations, and they failed to try to stop the killings, they may be culpable in the crimes as well."

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[gottaB]

1. Demoralizing

that's a word for it

[struggle4progress]

2. kick for human rights

:kick:

[Massacure]

3. Were they given a fair trial?

The article doesn't mention anything about trials.

Beheading by itself as execution isn't a crime if they were tried properly, is it? Cruel and inhuman is kind of a gray area because different cultures have different standards.

[Columbia]

4. Good question

My guess is we'll never hear about this again to find out though.

[leesa]

5. So would the unprovoked invasion of a disarmed nation