Plan B Forum

Afghanistan demands NATO put Koran-burners on trial

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan wants NATO to put on public trial those who burned copies of the Koran at a NATO base, President Hamid Karzai's office said on Thursday, after a third day of bloody protests over the incident.

It said NATO had agreed to a trial, but that could not be immediately confirmed.

Karzai had earlier accused a U.S. officer of "ignorantly" burning copies of the Koran, in an incident that has deepened anti-Western sentiment in a country NATO is trying to stabilize before foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014.

Demonstrations have drawn thousands of angry Afghans to the streets, chanting "Death to America!" amid violence that has killed 11 people including two U.S. service personnel.

"NATO officials, in response to a request for the trial and punishment of the perpetrators ... promised this crime will brought to court as soon as possible," Karzai's office said in a statement.

President Barack Obama sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the burning of the Korans, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish at the sprawling Bagram air base.

Obama told Karzai the incident was not intentional.

The letter, which the White House said was a follow-up to a phone call earlier this week between the two leaders to discuss a "long-term partnership" between Washington and Kabul, was delivered to Karzai by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Karzai's office said in a statement Obama had promised to investigate those involved in the incident.

Karzai said the American officer had acted "out of ignorance and with poor understanding" of the Koran's importance, a presidential statement said.

TALIBAN CALL

The Taliban urged Afghan security forces to "turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders," it said on its site shahamat-english.com.

A U.S. official in Washington said two NATO soldiers killed by a man in Afghan army uniform were Americans.

NATO confirmed a man in Afghan army uniform had killed two of its troops in the east, but declined to say if the shooting was connected to the protests.

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

A protest of around 500 people turned violent in the capital Kabul, with police and plain-clothes intelligence officers charging demonstrators wearing bandanas and hurling rocks and sticks, firing low above their heads and sending them fleeing.

A wounded youth lay on a road, blood pouring from his side. Crouched over and cradling him, a relative appealed to the Afghan government.

"Ministry of the Interior! Don't you see we are fighting NATO?" said the man.

Masked men sped by on a motorcycle blasting a battle song played by the Taliban insurgency, while police in machinegun-mounted pick-up trucks picked up the wounded.

"Our brave people must target the military bases of the invaders, their military convoys and their invader forces," read an e-mailed Taliban statement released by the insurgency's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

"They have to kill them (Westerners), beat them and capture them to give them a lesson to never dare desecrate the holy Koran again."

FOREIGN BASES ATTACKED

Most Westerners were confined to their heavily fortified compounds, including the sprawling U.S. embassy complex and other embassies in central Kabul.

Around 400 protesters hurled rocks and set fire to cars at a Norwegian-led military base in Faryab province on the Turkmen border, which is centre for around 500 soldiers and civilians from Norway, Latvia, Macedonia, Iceland and the United States.

Twelve protesters were wounded in the attack, the head of the regional hospital Abdul Alim said, but Norway's ambassador to Kabul, Tore Hattrem, told Reuters no one was hurt and there was minimal damage.

A small number protested at a French military base in the eastern Kapisa province but police deterred them successfully, its police chief Abdul Hamid said.

President Barack Obama has apologised to the Afghan people for the burning of Korans by American troops at a US base.

In a letter to President Hamid Karzai, Mr Obama expressed his "deep regret" and said the incident earlier this week was a genuine mistake.

Demonstrations against the desecration have continued for a third day across northern and eastern Afghanistan.

Two US soldiers and two Afghans were killed in an attack on a military base. Elsewhere there were four other deaths.

On Wednesday, another seven people were killed and dozens injured in protests.

Mr Obama's letter, delivered by the US ambassador to Afghanistan, assured the Afghan president that US authorities would question all those responsible.

"I convey my deep sympathies and ask you and the people to accept my deep apologies," the letter said.

"The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible," it continued.

President Karzai told members of the Afghan parliament that a US officer was responsible for the burning.

But he said it was done out of "ignorance".

Lord Jim wrote:
This was apparently not deliberate, so I don't see how you justify putting anyone on "trial", but cripes, who the hell trained these guys?

The revelation that US troops had dumped copies of the Koran into an incineration pit may hasten that end.

And obviously it should also be said that there is no excuse for this sort of reaction, and these clowns need to grow up and get over themselves.

There are few more emotive issues in Afghanistan than allegations of the Islamic holy book being desecrated.

It has triggered violent disturbances as far back as 2005 - even when the claims of the Koran being mishandled have not been substantiated.

Last year, at least 10 people were killed in Mazar-e Sharif after news reached Afghanistan of an extremist American pastor burning a Koran in faraway Florida.

Crowds shouting "death to Obama" have been throwing stones and setting fire to the US flag.

Meanwhile the Taliban have called on Afghans to kill and beat all invading forces in revenge for "insulting" the Koran.

In a statement a Taliban spokesman said Afghans should "not stop at protesting" but instead target military bases and personnel to "teach them a lesson that they will never again dare to insult the Holy Koran"

Liberty1 wrote:When are the Afghans going to appologize to the US for one of their soliers killing 2 of ours because of this

Why are we even there in the first place?

Why should they?

Liberty1 wrote: Why did we? From what I heard it was a perfectly good reason to destroy them, even though it wasn't the correct process. An accident of sorts, they just need to get over it.

The White House echoed military officials in saying that the burning of Qurans and other Islamic reading material that had been tossed in a pile of garbage was an accident.

Meanwhile, nearly a dozen people have died in the aftermath, including two U.S. troops. And some analysts are criticizing the U.S. response.

"It just feeds the sense of grievance," Nina Shea, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute, said of the "constant round of apologies."

Shea, who sits on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, agreed with the U.S. decision to quickly apologize after the incident late Monday and order an investigation.

But she noted that the subsequent apologies "don't seem to have any effect."

Obama's letter on Thursday reportedly apologized for the "error" and assured Karzai that the U.S. government would take "appropriate steps" to make sure such an incident doesn't happen again, "to include holding accountable those responsible."

Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, an Army Reserve officer who served in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2004, concurred that the burning was "patently stupid" -- not just because it's religiously insensitive but because the messages inside the Korans by detainees could have been used for intelligence purposes.

"These are all threads. These things are threads that can be used to build that tapestry of an intelligence picture," Shaffer said.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02 ... z1nLHFnJnl

keld feldspar wrote:You must be thinking about conversion to even gives consideration...