Alleged war criminals, beware: eyes in the sky may be watching you. Satellite images may indicate apparent evidence tampering at a mass grave in Afghanistan.
In the summer of 2006, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Bush Administration, seeking documents relating to an alleged massacre of Taliban prisoners in November 2001. The prisoners' bodies had reportedly been dumped into a mass grave in the desert of Dasht-e-Leili, near Sheberghan, Afghanistan.
Six weeks after PHR filed its FOIA request, satellite images indicate possible evidence tampering at the alleged mass grave site at Dasht-e-Leili.
In 2002, PHR investigators first confirmed the presence of human remains in a mass grave at Dasht-e-Leili. Six and a half years later, in 2008, Stefan Schmitt, Director of PHR’s International Forensic Program, was in Afghanistan under contract with United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to conduct forensic assessments on several different grave sites in the country.
In an effort to re-visit sites which had been originally documented in 2002, Schmitt visited Dasht-e-Leili. In contrast to 2002, Schmitt came upon two sizeable pits which had disturbed the area originally documented in 2002 -- indicative of apparent evidence tampering. Schmitt raised concerns about the state of the alleged massacre site in meetings with UN and Afghan officials in Kabul.
August 5, 2006: One Pit Visible; Apparent Excavation Vehicles
On June 21, 2006, PHR submitted the FOIA request simultaneously to the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the CIA. A satellite image taken six weeks later, dated August 5, 2006, shows a large pit and the presence of apparent earth moving equipment in an area where human remains are suspected to be buried.
August 5, 2006: Possible Hydraulic Excavator and Possible Dump Truck (Close Up)
This close-up, according to AAAS, indicates possible vehicles on the Dasht-e-Leili site on August 5, 2006. The top vehicle is possibly a dump truck and the bottom vehicle could be a hydraulic excavator.
"They have taken all the bones and thrown them into the river"
Tom Lasseter of McClatchy Newspapers reported on December 11, 2008:
A U.N.-sponsored team of experts first spotted two large excavations on a visit in June, one of them about 100 feet long and more than 9 feet deep in places. A McClatchy reporter visited the site last month and found three additional smaller pits, which apparently had been dug since June.
Faqir Mohammed Jowzjani, a former Dostum ally and the deputy governor of Jowzjan province, where the graves were located, told McClatchy that it's common knowledge that Dostum sent in the bulldozers.
He speculated that Dostum wanted to destroy the evidence because of local political trouble that could have made him more prone to prosecution for the killings.
Last year, Dostum and the then-Jowzjan governor became embroiled in a feud that killed seven people and wounded more than 40. This year, Dostum and his men kidnapped and reportedly beat a rival Afghan leader.
"Maybe General Dostum did it because of a fear of prosecution in the future," Jowzjani said.
Another local Afghan official said that Dostum had begun to worry that the 2001 killings could come back to haunt him. "Everyone in the city (Sheberghan) knows that the evidence has been removed," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of worries about being killed for talking about the subject.
"When the crime happened, (Dostum and his commanders) didn't think they would ever be prosecuted," the official said. "But later they began to worry . . . they have taken all the bones and thrown them into the river" that's about half a mile from the graves.
In May of 2009 the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) undertook a review of satellite imagery acquired of the Sheberghan area of northern Afghanistan. This review was done at the request of Physicians for Human Rights. According to PHR, the graves had reportedly been created in 2001. Then at some point during 2006 two large pits were dug and the fill from them taken away. Hoping to clarify the excavation date, PHR requested that AAAS research and acquire available satellite imagery of the area to determine when two the sizeable pits possibly comprising the graves might have first appeared.
Using coordinates provided by PHR, AAAS located and analyzed multiple images of the site acquired by the QuickBird, Ikonos, TopSat, and SPOT-5 satellites.
Satellite imagery analysis provided by AAAS revealed that apparent earth-moving equipment was present at the site on August 5, 2006. The image shows the presence of one large pit and apparent earth-moving equipment in a second area.
October 24, 2007 (Wider View): Two Pits Visible
A subsequent satellite image from October 24, 2007, reveals a second pit where the apparent earth-moving equipment had been.
These satellite images are drawn from the AAAS report, High-Resolution Satellite Imagery and Possible Mass Graves in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, June 26, 2009 (PDF).
These images are also available for viewing and download on Flickr and as a .kml file for viewing in Google Earth.
July 2, 2004: No Pits Visible at Dasht-e-Leili Site
Sheberghan Prison and Pit Locations at Dasht-e-Leili
