Afghan mass grave site has been disturbed, UN says

KABUL: The UN confirmed a mass grave in northern Afghanistan was disturbed, raising the possibility that evidence supporting allegations of a massacre seven years ago may have been removed. The Dasht-e-Leili grave site holds as many as 2,000 bodies of Taliban prisoners. A State Department report from 2002 says they died in transit after surrendering during one of the regime’s last stands in November 2001. Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the UN mission in Afghanistan, confirms that the site at Dasht-e-Leili has been disturbed. He declined to say how or when the site had changed, saying that details will be available in an upcoming report. Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights, which discovered the Dasht-e-Leili site in 2002, says its researchers found two large pits at the site. Both were about 30 metres by 15 metres and appeared to have been dug this year. "These are real holes appearing to have been professionally dug, and signs of heavy machinery were observed," the group’s deputy director, Susannah Sirkin, said.
Witnesses have claimed that forces with the U.S.-allied Northern Alliance placed the prisoners in sealed cargo containers over the two-day voyage to Sheberghan Prison, suffocating them. The prisoners were then buried en masse using bulldozers to move the bodies. Some Northern Alliance soldiers have said that some of their troops opened fire on the containers, killing those within. Representatives for northern Afghan strongman Abdul Rahim Dostum, the Northern Alliance general who is accused of overseeing the atrocities, could not be reached for comment. Dostum has previously denied the allegations. Physicians for Human Rights has repeatedly called for an investigation into Dasht-e-Leili, and for protection of the area as possible evidence of a massacre.The UN said it doesn’t have the authorization or the resources to protect all the mass grave sites in Afghanistan, a country still embroiled in conflict with Taliban fighters and other insurgent groups.