6 dead civilians 'not of great significance': US major

Readers may recall that six Polish soldiers (and Poland is a NATO country, remember) are facing war crimes charges stemming from the killing of six Afghan civilians in August (see previous entries here and here).

The news blackout on this trial is just about total. While the New York Times (Nov 29), the International Herald Tribune (Nov 29) and the LA Times (Nov 15) related the news of the soldiers' charges back in November, and the Financial Times also made note (Dec 7), my search turned up no other major mainstream coverage. A full-text search of all major Canadian dailies reveals that no domestic papers have even mentioned the charges. (The August event itself was reported in Poland but apparently nowhere in the English language press.)

Since then, the hearings occurring in Poland have been almost totally shut out of the English language press. The only exception is an excellent Inter Press Service report (as I blogged earlier).

Since the IPS report came out, a translation of a Polish article was carried by the BBC Foreign Service (via Lexus-Nexus). It was written by Pawel Solenski who won a journalism award from Reuters and Columbia University two years back.

To recap the case: On Aug 17, a unit of Polish soldiers mortared and machine-gunned a village named Nangarkhel, killing six civilians, including children. This fact is not disputed. What is at issue is whether there were Taliban fighters present or not.

In hearings, witnesses have reportedly testified not only that there were no insurgents present, but that the attack was pre-planned by the unit's superiors, likely in revenge for the killing of a Polish soldier by insurgents the day before. It has been learned that at least one other unit refused to carry out the same orders before the unit in question did so. It has also been asserted that American military officials had originally drawn up the plan, which included attacks on several villages.

Here are some excerpts from Solenski's long piece:

Right after Nangar Khel was fired upon, a counterintelligence report suggested this may have been an act of revenge. [Former Defence] Minister Szczyglo must have been familiar with it, yet publicly stated something else. ...

One major wearing the grey field uniform of the US army says: "The Poles are performing excellently in Afghanistan, and that is what should be the front-page news, not any Nangar Khel - something unfortunate, but not of great significance." ...

[After the killings, Nangarkhel] was given sheep and flour as compensation from the Republic of Poland. Those severely injured were given places in Polish hospitals. The placated village elders - the media reported - opted out of the traditional clan vengeance, and dealings with the local population allegedly did not change one bit.

But then: "the family atmosphere at Wazi-Khwa ended," wrote Gazeta Wyborcza reporters present at the base when Wazi-Khwa was fired upon. "On the bathroom wall, someone scribbled: 'Delta should be behind bars - murderers of children.'" ...

Suddenly, information comes spilling out. The soldiers had lied; there had been no Taleban at Nangar Khel and no-one had attacked the Poles. Were they horrified by the consequences of the attack? Did they want to conceal their true intentions?

The suspects testified that they had received orders to fire on three villages even before they had gone out on patrol, and even before they were notified that they should assist their colleagues who had struck a land mine. They conceded that civilians had been visible to the naked eye in Nangar Khel, but they did not refuse to carry out the orders. And after the massacre, their commanders invented justification.

Another Polish patrol, the newspapers reported, had refused to fire upon Nangar Khel. ...

The [Polish] special forces officer says: "... Colleagues of other nationalities have asked around about Nangar Khel, but cautiously and tactfully. Harming a civilian is something that could happen to any soldier."

"I have been sitting here for many months now, and over that period the danger has increased by some 300 per cent. We don't have the time or inclination to ponder or consider things overly much. The Americans experience similar incidents even once a week. Although a substantial majority of such cases result from poor air reconnaissance. ...

The high-ranking National Defence Ministry official says: "The ministry was informed about the massacre nearly immediately: several days after Nangar Khel was fired upon - on 20 August the first military counterintelligence report appeared on the desk of the defence minister at that time, which indicated that soldiers had perhaps committed an act of revenge, presumably for the killing of Second Lieutenant Kurowski. The report was turned over to the Military Police on 21 August. What happened next? We don't know."

Not long thereafter, Minister Aleksander Szczyglo publicly stated that the Poles had been fighting Taleban at Nangar Khel, and boasted that a dangerous terrorist had been apprehended. Not a word about the doubts included in the report. ...

The US major says: "I don't understand why an unimportant incident has gained such great significance in your country. Why so much attention? Civilian deaths occur every week, because Afghanistan is no Sunday-school ...