Reporter Yalda Hakim of Australia’s SBS network has become the first western journalist to visit the villages where a U.S. soldier allegedly killed 17 people.
In a remarkable report she talks with some of the survivors and some Afghan guards on duty at the military camp from where Staff Sergeant Robert Bales left on his alleged killing spree.
The video at the top of this story is Hakim’s account of her journey to the remote villages near Kandahar and what she was told.
Bales is now held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
The events of that March night in a rural area some 20 kilometers from Kandahar are being investigated by both the U.S. military and Afghan authorities.
But much remains unknown.
Many Afghans, including some of the survivors that night, believe more than one U.S. soldier was present in the two villages where the killings took place. Others speak of seeing a single American soldier leaving Camp Belambai that night
The U.S. military says there is no evidence that more than one man was involved in the shootings. Bales has not entered a plea.
The killings made headlines around the world but at times it seemed the victims were quickly forgotten.
Below CNN correspondent Sara Sidner explains her thoughts on the massacre victims:-
She argued that part of the problem was the risk of traveling around Afghanistan and the lack of communications in remote villages.
But she said it was her impression as a journalist, reader and citizen that victims of tragedies in developing nations are not given anywhere near the same coverage or attention as victims in developed nations by the international press.
But she said it was her impression as a journalist, reader and citizen that victims of tragedies in developing nations are not given anywhere near the same coverage or attention as victims in developed nations by the international press.
That is also reflected in the fairly low compensation being offered to the victims families.
In the spirit of praying for justice for all people
This is so upsetting and heartbreaking. especially knowing nothing in your power can be done to help.. Keep those families in your Dua.. May Allah Insha Allah bless and guide the people of Afghanistan in these hardships that they are enduring Ameen...
Or simply, bomb the country by giving them ''democracy''. Doesn't matter anyway, mujahideen of afghanistan is already gaining more ground, the war on islam is a lost cause for you. Peace talks with Taliban? Gah never, too late, the fate of the american soldiers is coming soon Insha'Allah.
http://www.youtube.com/user/robinb4life?feature=mhee
I will not calm down until I will put one cheek of a tyrant on the ground and the other under my feet, and for the poor and weak, I will put my cheek on the ground. - Umar ibn khattab(Ra)
We are all created by the same God, and the same God hears all our prayers, we must love God, love our neighbours and loves our enemies.
I look at the mess America and Britain have made of Iraq, it is our fault so many have been killed, we have destabilised their country, there are two million refugees because of our action.
We have no right to invade other countries and try and change them to our ways, they are all a part of God’s wonderful creation. If you want to change anything, then change America.
In the spirit of praying for justice for all people, and building a greater interfaith friendship.
"So long as western people imagine that there only exists a single type of humanity, that there is only one 'civilisation', at different stages of development, no mutual understanding will be possible." - Guénon in 1927
"So long as western people imagine that there only exists a single type of humanity, that there is only one 'civilisation', at different stages of development, no mutual understanding will be possible." - Guénon in 1927
This.
A great deal of people in the West seem to think that non-Western societies that are culturally different can be understood by looking at the past history of the West.
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