Corpse-burning video sparks Pentagon probe

CTV.ca
Oct. 22, 2005

The Pentagon is launching an investigation into allegations that American soldiers deliberately burned the bodies of two Afghanistan fighters.

The allegations come after video was shown on Australian television. The photographer was a freelancer embedded with U.S. Special Forces.

The pictures depict two dead Taliban fighters with their bodies set on fire. Cremation is considered desecration in the Islamic faith, which calls for remains to be washed, prayed over, wrapped in a white cloth, and buried in 24 hours.

The photographer, Stephen Dupont, says the U.S. soldiers did it to bait the enemy in the hills outside the southern village of Gonbaz, close to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

"They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban, so that the Taliban could attack them, smoke them out," Dupont said.

Dupont says the burnings happened October first, and the bodies were faced west, toward Mecca to mock Islam. He says soldiers told him they burned the bodies for hygienic reasons.

The photographer says another group taunted the Taliban over loudspeakers saying, "Come and fight like men instead of cowardly dogs. You are the lady boys we always believed."

Dupont says the soldiers behind the messages were members of an American Army psychological operations unit.

The U.S. military says that if the allegations are proven true, they could be contrary to the Geneva Convention.

Under the convention, soldiers must make sure that the "dead are honorably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged."

The rules state that bodies should not be cremated, "except for imperative reasons of hygiene or for motives based on the religion of the deceased."

"This alleged action is repugnant to our common values," Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya said in a statement from the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan.

"This command takes all allegations of misconduct or inappropriate behavior seriously, and has directed an investigation into circumstances surrounding this allegation."

Senior military officials believe the tape may be authentic, and they have sent a team of investigators to Afghanistan hoping to contain what could become another military scandal.

Islamic leaders have warned this could trigger a violent backlash, similar to one last May over Newsweek reports that U.S. guards at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba had flushed the holy Koran down the toilet.

"This is against Islam. Afghans will be shocked by this news. It is so humiliating," Faiz Mohammed, a Muslim leader, told The Associated Press. "There are very, very dangerous consequences from this. People will be very angry."

Afghanistan's government has demanded that those responsible be tracked down and punished.