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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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May 9th,
2007 - 69 Afghans’ Families Get a U.S. Apology |
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69 Afghans’
Families Get a U.S. Apology Marines Killed 19 Civilians in March By Josh White Washington Post May 9, 2007; A12 A U.S. Army brigade
commander in Afghanistan yesterday told the families of 69 civilians who were
killed or wounded by members of an elite Marine Special Forces unit in March
that he is "deeply, deeply ashamed" about the incident, describing
the series of shootings along a civilian thoroughfare as a "terrible,
terrible mistake." Col. John Nicholson said he
apologized to a group of Afghan people in the eastern Nangahar province on
behalf of the U.S. government and delivered solatia payments of approximately
$2,000 to the families of 19 innocent civilians who died as a result of the
March 4 attacks. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon via a video feed from
Afghanistan yesterday, Nicholson said the payments were "essentially a
symbol of our sympathy to them" and "a way of expressing our
genuine condolences over the incident occurring." U.S. commanders have said
that the incident began when a suicide bomber drove a small van filled with
explosives into a Marine Corps Forces Special Operations convoy that was on
its way to a base in Jalalabad. The Marines then fired on people nearby and
along several miles of their ensuing route through a crowded roadway,
according to early investigative findings and an Afghan government human
rights group. Early estimates showed that
about a dozen civilians were killed; Nicholson said yesterday that the death
toll has been confirmed to be 19, with 50 wounded. The incident - which
resulted in the largest number of civilian deaths from a single U.S. action
in the country since the war began - raised significant ire within Afghan
communities in the region. U.S. commanders quickly removed the Marine company
from Afghanistan after the incident because of the tensions it could have
caused among the local population. Maj. Gen. Frank H. Kearney III, who heads
the Special Operations Central Command, ordered an investigation. "The people are the
center of gravity here, so, first and foremost in all that we do, we seek to
do no harm to the people," Nicholson said. "So events such as that
do set us back with the population, and they have to be addressed very directly
and forthrightly with the Afghan people." Nicholson said that he met
with the families to explain that the United States goes to great lengths to
avoid civilian casualties, and that he read a statement expressing regret and
asking for forgiveness. Solatia payments of about $2,000 are fairly standard
in Iraq and Afghanistan when commanders believe U.S. troops are responsible
for civilian deaths or damage to civilian buildings; they are not legal
admissions of guilt or a crime, but instead are intended as signs of goodwill
in war zones where the enemy is often hard to distinguish from the innocent. "We are filled with
grief and sadness at the death of any Afghan, but the death and wounding of
innocent Afghans at the hand of Americans is a stain on our honor and on the
memory of the many Americans who have died defending Afghanistan and the
Afghan people," Nicholson read from the statement. "This was a
terrible, terrible mistake." Marine Corps Forces Special
Operations Command officials said most members of the Marine company are in
Kuwait. Eight members - including the company commander and the company's senior
noncommissioned officer - have returned to Camp Lejeune, N.C. "We regret the March 4
ambush of the Marine Special Operations Company in Afghanistan and offer our
deepest sympathy to all of those involved," Maj. Cliff W. Gilmore, a
spokesman for the command, said in a statement yesterday. "The events
related to that ambush are currently under investigation. In the interest of
preserving the presumption of innocence that all U.S. service members deserve
when facing allegations of misconduct, we will not characterize the incident
until we have all the facts." Nicholson said investigators
with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are in Afghanistan interviewing
witnesses and victims. Kearney told The Washington Post last month that no
evidence has been found showing that the Marine unit took enemy fire after
the suicide bomb was detonated. External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050801360_pf.html |