Afghanistan

Bereaved army colonel calls for US soldiers to be punished

Article published on the 2009-04-11 Latest update 2009-04-13 11:18 TU

Canadian soldiers with an Afghan police officer
(Photo: Reuters)

Afghan army colonel Awal Khan has demanded action against US-led troops who killed his wife, children and brother in a raid in the eastern province of Khost Wednesday. President Hamid Karzai has ordered government agencies to launch an enquiry into the deaths.

Khan, who is an Afghan National Army artillery commander, called on international forces in Afghanistan to "stop this cruelty and brutal action," in an interview with the AFP news agency in the village of Ali Daya a few kilometres south of Khost.

"I want the coalition leaders to expose those behind this and punish them," he said.

The deaths came when international soldiers descended on the village, apparently in pursuit of an armed Islamist, and took up positions on the roofs of houses. Police say that local people took them to be intruders and opened fire on them.

The troops then killed Khan's wife, a schoolteacher, his 17-year-old daughter and his 15-year-old son and his brother. They also wounded another of his daughter's and shot a pregnant woman, who survived but lost her baby.

The military initially claimed that four "armed militants" had been killed but a later investigation revealed that this was not the case. They have promised financial compensation.

In a statement expressing sadness about the incident, Karzai said he had ordered his Interior and Defence Ministries, the intelligence service and local government to investigate and present their findings to him Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Afghanistan's top Shia-Muslim cleric, Mohammad Asif Mohseni, called international objections to the Shia Personal Status Law "cultural invasion" and opposed a review ordered by Karzai.

Critics, including the US, Canada and the UN, say the law violates international rights standards, especially in a clause they claim allows marital rape by ruling that a wife cannot refuse to have sex with her husband except in exceptional circumstances.

Mohseni said that there had been poor translation of the law, but added that it is "compulsory" for a wife to meet her husband's demand for sex unless she is ill, having her period, recovering from childbirth, fasting or in other similar circumstance.

He also objected to changes that have already been made. They include an article that initially said a wife should always obtain her husband's permission to leave the house, except in difficult circumstances.