There are serious questions to be answered about the deaths of hundreds of Taliban and foreign troops in the Qala-i-Jhangi complex outside the Afghan town of Mazar-e-Sharif earlier this week. They had surrendered or been taken prisoner during the fighting and were transferred there for safekeeping. They were highly inconvenient prisoners, given their grisly record as fighters, their support for the al-Qaeda organisation and the determination with which they opposed their United States and Northern Alliance adversaries. But they were taken prisoner in a war and were entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions and to a fair trial in accordance with international law. Instead they were killed in a bloody fight to the end, backed up by intense US bombing.
All depends on the circumstances that led to this bloodletting. According to several credible reports, a section of the prisoners overwhelmed their guards after an effort by US CIA operatives to interrogate them, seized an arsenal and mounted an uprising. In the fighting, many Northern Alliance troops were killed. US bombers were called in as the fighting raged and inflicted heavy casualties.
International opinion has been shocked by reports and photographs of Northern Alliance troops stealing objects from the bodies, some of which had their hands tied behind their backs. Amnesty International has legitimately demanded an inquiry into the circumstances of these deaths - a call supported yesterday by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, insisted yesterday that any violations of human rights in the war must be investigated and condemned. She was referring to reports of summary executions as well as to suggestions that the prisoners were massacred in the Qala-i-Jhangi complex, not killed during an uprising.
The principle of proportionality has often been invoked since the military operation against the Taliban regime began. It applies fully to these events, as do the basic principles applying to prisoners-of-war. Northern Alliance forces have themselves a grisly record during Afghanistan's decades of civil war, which must not be overlooked just because they now enjoy the support of the United States and its allies. By the same token, reports that the prisoners were killed in an uprising, during which they fought to a deadly end, cannot be dismissed. Any inquiry must address such questions as to why they were not fully disarmed; why they were jailed near to an arsenal; why the CIA operatives did not interrogate them in smaller groups; and whether the intense US bombing was intended to annihilate them rather than bring the uprising under control.
It cannot be overstated that war is an exceedingly ugly and bloody business - particularly so between such unscrupulous enemies. But a war proclaimed as the response of the civilised world against the atrocities committed in New York and Washington on September 11th, must itself adhere to civilised values if it is not to lose moral credibility. Given the ferocious pace of military events, it is not surprising that there should be increasing concern about the human rights implications, as this phase of the war draws to a conclusion.