AFGHAN TRANSLATOR LINKS US FORCES TO CIVILIAN KILLINGS

Kabul, 9 Ramadan 1434/17 July 2013 (MINA) – Zakeria Kandahari, an Afghan interpreter for US special forces arrested on accusations of torturing and killing civilians.

But Kandahari denied involvement in the murders to Afghan investigators, and said he was always acting on orders from his US military handlers, the Saudi Gazette quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Afghan authorities detained Zakeria Kandahari six weeks ago following allegations he was involved in atrocities against civilians in Wardak, a strategically important province close to Kabul.

Kandahari said he had worked for US special forces across Afghanistan for nine years, most recently in Wardak’s Nerkh district, where the allegations surfaced in February.

“I was a low-rank translator and had no access to roam around inside the base, or in interrogation rooms,” Kandahari told the investigators, according to the three-page document which carried his photograph on the front page, dressed in camouflage fatigues and a hat.

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The Afghan government has in the past said that Kandahari is Afghan-American, although his exact background remains unclear.

In the document, Kandahari identified three US special forces soldiers as “Dave, chief of the operations, Hagen and Chris” and told Afghan military interrogators that the trio had been fluent in both of Afghanistan’s major languages, Dari and Pashto.

This case threatens relations between the government and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), already tense over the issue of civilian deaths.

Torture Video

Investigators said in the document Sayed Mohammad, a Wardak resident, was seen in a mobile phone video being beaten by Kandahari, who the investigator said was a senior interpreter for US special forces. Mohammad was later found dead.

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“I also kicked him several times while I was taking him to the base. I handed him over to Mr Dave and Mr Hagen, but later I saw his body in a black body bag,” Kandahari told his interrogators, according to the record, written in Dari.

Afghan officials in Wardak and relatives told Saudi Gazette source earlier that Mohammad’s body was found near the Nerkh special forces base in May with both feet cut off. Mohammad first disappeared in November last year.

Atrocities against civilians have been a flashpoint in relations between the government and NATO-led forces since an American soldier was accused of murdering 16 civilians in Kandahar province in March last year.

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Afghan authorities have already arrested an Afghan army colonel who allegedly handed prisoners over to Kandahari. That arrest came after the bodies of three men detained in joint US-Afghan raids since November were last month found close to the Nerkh military base.

A list compiled by the Ministry of Defense of 18 men allegedly detained in Nerkh. The three whose bodies were found in June were among 10 listed as missing, villagers and officials said. The other eight were listed as dead. (T/P09/E1).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).