US commander calls for calm as Afghan backlash over Koran burning intensifies

Πηγή: New York Post
Feb 24 2012

KABUL -- The head of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan called for calm Friday, as demonstrations over the burning of Korans threatened to escalate.

As protesters took to the streets in Kabul for the fourth day and clerics around the country dedicated their weekly sermons to condemning the act, US commander General John Allen stressed the "only way" to "correct this major error" was for NATO to work together with the Afghan leadership "and ensure that it never happens again."

"I call on everyone throughout the country -- ISAF members and Afghans -- to exercise patience and restraint as we continue to gather the facts surrounding Sunday night's incident," he said in a statement.

Demonstrations against the burning of Islam's holiest book at the Bagram Air Field erupted at five locations in Kabul early Friday, senior police official Mohammad Zahir told AFP, adding, "We have no violence so far."

Protests across Kabul and Afghanistan's provinces have resulted in the deaths of two US troops and at least 10 Afghans so far this week. The demonstrations have targeted US and coalition military bases, Afghan government buildings and other symbols of Western presence.

On Thursday, hours after the Taliban called on Afghans to avenge the Koran burning by killing Western forces, an Afghan soldier opened fire on US troops at a base in the eastern Nangarhar Province.

Two American troops were killed before the Afghan soldier escaped into a crowd of protesters demonstrating outside the base in the province's Khogyani district.

A German Army spokesman said Friday that around 50 German soldiers withdrew early from a base in the northern Afghan city of Taluqan due to the unrest, after about 300 people demonstrated peacefully outside. The German forces had been due to leave the small base by the end of March.

The demonstrations erupted after coalition soldiers brought a truckload of Korans and other Islamic books from a Bagram detention facility to an incinerator at the Bagram Air Field.

Afghan workers at the base said they stopped the soldiers from destroying the books, but not before several copies of the Koran had been partially burned -- an act US President Barack Obama described as "inadvertent" sacrilege.

A joint ISAF and Afghan investigation to try to determine why the soldiers tried to burn Islamic materials continued Friday. According to some US officials, the books were slated for destruction because they contained "extremist literature" and prisoners' "clandestine communications."

Western embassies, aid groups and the US military have imposed strict travel bans on staff and warned foreigners to steer clear of protests, while the US Embassy in Kabul extended travel restrictions to northern Afghanistan.

Several reported killed in second day of Afghan protests over Koran burning

Πηγή: Washington Post
By Kevin Sieff and Sayed Salahuddin

Feb 22 2012

KABUL — A second day of violent protests over the burning of Korans at a NATO base spread across Afghanistan’s capital Tuesday, as demonstrators directed their anger at Western embassies and military installations.

Dozens were injured and at least one person was killed when protesters took to main thoroughfares, throwing stones, burning tires and attempting to storm a fortified compound in central Kabul where hundreds of American contractors live, said Kargar Noorughli, a spokesman for the Afghan public health ministry.

Security officials tried to quell the scattered protests — in some cases by firing on demonstrators — but by early afternoon the unrest showed no sign of dissipating.

Several demonstrators were killed during a clash with police in Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said Shah Wali, the province’s deputy governor.

Protests were also held in Jalalabad, a typically safe city east of Kabul, and outside of the Bagram air base, the largest NATO military base in Afghanistan, where the religious texts were inadvertently sent to an incinerator late Monday night, according to U.S. military officials.

In Jalalabad, hundreds of university students gathered to burn an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama, one witness said.

Fearing an escalation of violence, officials advised non-Afghans to take security precautions, lest they become targets. Last spring, a case of Koran-burning in Florida provoked an attack on a United Nations compound in northern Afghanistan, leaving seven foreigners and five Afghans dead.

“The embassy is on lockdown; all travel suspended. Please, everyone, be safe out there,” the U.S. Embassy posted on its official Twitter account Wednesday morning.

On Tuesday, Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, apologized for the incident and promised that all NATO forces in Afghanistan would complete training in the proper handling of religious materials by March 3.

“When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them,” Allen said in a statement. “We are taking steps to ensure this does not ever happen again. I assure you . . . I promise you . . . this was NOT intentional in any way.”

At a meeting with U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on Wednesday, President Hamid Karzai used the incident to bolster his claim that the U.S.-run military prison at Bagram, called the Parwan detention center, should be handed over to Afghans.

“The sooner you do the transfer of the prison, the less you will have problems and unfortunate incidents,” Karzai said.

A senior U.S. military official said Tuesday that the Korans were removed from the prison library because they had radical or inflammatory messages scrawled in them.

Last month, Karzai demanded that responsibility for the detention center be handed over to Afghanistan by the end of January. He has since extended that deadline until March 9. But U.S. officials continue to say that Afghan institutions are woefully unprepared to detain or try suspected terrorists.

Both Karzai and the Afghan parliament strongly denounced the Koran burnings. Karzai tasked a team composed of religious scholars to begin an investigation.

Nazeefa Zaki, a lawmaker representing Kabul, said parliament issued“a resolution strongly condemning this act and demanded punishment of the culprits.” Several lawmakers urged Afghans and the police to wage holy war against Americans, she said, echoing a sentiment commonly expressed during the ongoing demonstrations.

US and Nato apologise for erroneous Afghan Qur'an burning

Afghan protesters show copies of Qur’ans allegedly set alight by US soldiers at Bagram airbase. Nato and US officials quickly issued an apology for an error that caused the incineration.

Πηγή: The Guardian
By Emma Graham-Harrison

Feb 21 2012

Officials issue speedy apology to protesters over 'error' that caused incineration of religious books at Bagram military airbase.

US and Nato forces have rushed to apologise for discarding and possibly burning copies of the Qur'an, as thousands of furious Afghans gathered to protest outside Bagram military airbase.

Some carried ancient hunting rifles and others used slingshots to pelt the outer walls of the airbase with stones for several hours, shouting "down with America" and other slogans, despite the bitter cold.

The crowd swelled to between two and three thousand, and police stationed on roads leading to the base turned back other would-be protestors from further away, according to Parwan provincial police chief General Mohammad Akram Bekzad.

Any destruction of, or damage to, Islam's holy book is an extremely sensitive issue in Afghanistan, and has sparked violent and sometimes deadly riots in the past.

As details of the apparent burning emerged, a speedy and unusually heartfelt statement was issued by the top US and Nato general in Afghanistan, apologising and promising an inquiry – seemingly designed to try and contain the spreading outrage.

"I assure you ... I promise you ... this was NOT intentional in any way," General John Allen said in a statement addressed to the "noble people of Afghanistan".

Copies of the Qur'an taken from prisoners at the airbase had been handed over for incineration late on Monday, and were spotted by Afghan workers, according to Afghan and western officials.

It is routine practice to burn waste documents on military bases in Afghanistan, and police chief Bekzad said the copies of the Qur'an were discarded together with many other papers.

A spokesman for coalition forces, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, said the books were sent for incineration by mistake, but declined to further comment pending the results of the investigation.

"The decision to burn had nothing to do with the material being religious in nature or related to Islam … it was an error."

He said coalition forces were not yet sure how much religious material had been sent for incineration and whether any Qur'ans had actually been burned before the Afghan workers intervened.

Haji Ahmad Zaki Zahed, head of the Parwan provincial council, said 17 copies of the Qur'an were rescued after they had been set alight but before the flames fully took hold.

"I talked with five representatives of the workers who showed me the pieces of the holy book, which I saw for myself were partly burned," he said.

When US pastor Terry Jones burned a copy of the Qur'an last year , it triggered deadly protests across Afghanistan.

Nine people were killed and more than 80 injured in a riot in southern Kandahar city, and in normally peaceful northern Mazar-e-Sharif, an angry crowd overran a United Nations compound and killed seven foreign employees, slitting the throat of one.

In response to the latest incident, protesters said they wanted to meet with President Karzai on Tuesday evening or they would return to the gates of Bagram on Wednesday morning.

"I will decide whether to go back to my job when I get the results of the investigation," said 27-year-old protester Rahmatullah Nazari, who has worked inside Bagram airbase for nine years.

He said troops had tried to burn a vehicle with over 1,000 copies of the Qur'an inside, although both western and Afghan officials said the number was much lower. The figure was a reminder that rumours about desecration can also spread as fast as anger.

Nazari said he joined around 200 other protesters when he turned up at 3am for his shift, and found the base gates locked. By 6 or 7am, despite the bitter cold, that had swelled to more than 1,000.

"The people were very emotional, tempers were high. Why did the Americans do this?"