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US soldiers face punishment for burning bodies

Four US soldiers face disciplinary action for burning the bodies of Taliban rebels, but they won't be prosecuted because their actions were motivated by hygienic concerns, the military said after an inquiry into a videotaped incident that has sparked outrage in Afghanistan.

Television video recorded on Oct. 1 in a violent part of southern Afghanistan showed US soldiers setting fire to the bodies and then later boasting about the act on loudspeakers to taunt insurgents suspected to be hiding in a nearby village.

Islam bans cremation, and the video images were compared here to photographs of US troops abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Afghanistan's government condemned the incident and Muslim clerics warned of a possible violent anti-US backlash, though there have been no protests so far.

American commanders immediately launched an inquiry and vowed that anyone found guilty would be severely punished, fearing the incident could undermine public support for the war against a stubborn insurgency four years after US-led forces ousted the Taliban.

The US-led coalition's operational commander, Major-General Jason Kamiya, said on Saturday that two junior officers who ordered the bodies burned would be officially reprimanded for showing a lack of cultural and religious understanding, but he said the men were unaware that what they were doing was wrong.

Kamiya also said two noncommissioned officers would be reprimanded for using the burning of the bodies to taunt the rebels. The two men also would face non-judicial punishments, which could include a loss of pay or demotion in rank.

"Our investigation found there was no intent to desecrate the remains, but only to dispose of them for hygienic reasons," Kamiya said.

He added that the broadcasts about the burned remains, while "designed to incite fleeing Taliban to fight," violated military policy.

"We have confidence in this investigation," Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid said.

But Islamic clerics criticized the findings.

"These soldiers should be severely punished," said Khair Mohammed, a senior cleric in Kandahar. "Foreign soldiers in Afghanistan must respect our religion. If they continue to do things like this, every Muslim will be against them."

A Taliban commander in Shah Wali Kot district, where the bodies were burned, said that he was "outraged" by the incident.

"The Americans always claimed to respect human rights, our culture and religion, but now the whole world knows that these are all lies," he said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

The video shows about five soldiers in light-colored military fatigues, which did not have any distinguishing marks, standing near a bonfire in which two bodies were laid side by side.

Kamiya said the temperature at the time was 33oC, and the bodies had lain exposed on the ground for 24 hours and were rapidly decomposing.

"This posed an increasing health concern for our soldiers," Kamiya said. "The criminal investigation proved there was no violation of the rules of war."

The Geneva Convention forbids the burning of combatants except for hygienic purposes.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered his own inquiry. That probe has also been completed but officials say it is not clear when its findings will be released.
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