ICRC investigates container deaths

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is investigating reports of Taliban prisoners-of-war dying in shipping containers while being transported by Northern Alliance (NA) forces in northern Afghanistan, an ICRC spokesman told IRIN on Thursday. While the information will not be made public, it will serve, depending on the findings, as the basis for discussions with the relevant authorities.

"ICRC is taking the allegation sufficiently serious to pursue an investigation on its own terms," committee spokesman, Kim Gordan-Bates said. "At the moment we are collecting information which will be analysed in a way as to not allow our sources to suffer reprisals," he explained.

His statement follows a report in the New York Times this week saying that up to 100 Taliban who had surrendered to NA forces died while being transported to the Shibarghan prison complex, the largest prison in northern Afghanistan. The prison reportedly holds some 3,000 Taliban fighters, many in need of medical attention. Quoting General Jubarek, an NA commander there, at least 43 prisoners had died of wounds or asphyxiation while being moved in shipping containers from the city of Konduz.

Additionally three others died from wounds after their arrival. The report maintained that hundreds of Taliban captives, many of them foreign fighters, were being transferred to the Shibarghan facility.

In a statement issued on Monday, ICRC stated: "Nothing can excuse willful disregard for the basic humanitarian rules applicable to all individuals, whether they are foreign nationals in a country at war or not. These rules stipulate that prisoners must be treated humanely and their dignity respected."

ICRC continues to remind all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particularly the Geneva Conventions, as it applies to the Afghan conflict, receiving assurances in this connection from the highest authorities.

To date, ICRC delegates have registered and visited over 1,000 prisoners in Afghanistan in an effort to get information on their arrest and detention. During these visits, which are ongoing, delegates provide basic medical care and offer the detainees a chance to write to their families.

Meanwhile, in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, ICRC has begun the grim task of burying what some reports say are up to 1,000 fighters who perished in fierce fighting there last week. Asked what efforts were being made to reach the families of the deceased, Gordan-Bates said: "There is a limit to what we can do and it isn't easy to find the families". When identification proves impossible, photos of the deceased and whatever identification they were carrying are taken.

Buried in marked graves, should the families come forward the bodies could be exhumed, he explained. ICRC has buried just under 240 fighters in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif and was continuing this effort throughout Afghanistan, he added.

Regarding how many graves had been dug in Kandahar, ICRC communications delegate in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, Antoine Hartmann told IRIN they didn't have exact numbers, but as of Wednesday, volunteers of various tribes had been assisting ICRC and about 100 graves had already been prepared.