In Afghanistan, murderers get away with murder (News Feature)

By Can Merey Aug 10, 2010, 3:06 GMT

New Delhi/Kabul - In what is almost a knee-jerk reflex response, after every attack in Afghanistan, politicians call for those responsible to be brought to justice.

It is no different in the case of the health workers who were killed last week in northeastern Afghanistan, among them six US nationals, one German, and one Briton. Here too, the German government, for example, demanded 'punishment of the perpetrators of this crime'.

But experience shows that such demands inevitably remain wishful thinking. Even in the unlikely event that they are ever caught, the perpetrators seldom ever land in prison.

In May 2009, an elite German KSK special forces unit landed something of a coup in northern Afghanistan. After a chase of several hours, the soldiers captured a suspected Taliban leader who was believed to have carried out attacks against German forces.

'Anyone who attacks our soldiers or those of our allies in Afghanistan must know that he will be fought and brought to justice,' said the then German Foreign Minister Franz Josef Jung.

The suspect, Abdul Rasik, also known as Abd al-Racik, was handed over to prosecutors in Kabul.

'Hopefully, he will be speedily tried and convicted in conformity with the acknowledged principles of law,' said Christian Schmidt, parliamentary state secretary in the German Defence Ministry.

But the story dead-ended in Kabul. Regardless where you look or whom you ask: No one has ever heard of any legal proceedings against him, much less a conviction.

And anyone who is too persistent with questions is advised by Afghanistan authorities to drop the subject.

It is entirely possible that Abdul Rasik is languishing in some secret prison, which certainly would not be in accordance with acknowledged principles of law.

But it is also entirely possible that he simply bought his way to freedom.

That is what happened in the case of a Taliban leader called Mullah Sorkh Nakaibullah, or at least that is what he claims. He was accused of having staged attacks on British forces in the southern province of Helmand.

He told the BBC in January 2008 that he had been captured three times by security forces, but that he had always managed to bribe his way out of prison. In the most recent case, he said, he had bribed an Afghan NDS officer with 15,000 dollars.

The Afghanistan police and legal authorities are considered highly corrupt. For their part, the Taliban have lots of money - much of it from illicit drug dealings which, in turn, make corruption even more rife.

US special forces target some Afghan strongmen believed to be behind attacks for outright killing. But German forces are not permitted to do that.

A German captain in Kunduz reported recently his troops had captured a number of suspects and handed them over the police, only to watch the police release the prisoners right before their very eyes.

Indeed, justice has never been meted out for some of the attacks which have been carried out in recent years, not only against troops but also against foreign aid workers and journalists.

After an attack on a team from the medical aid organization Medicins sans Frontiers which claimed the lives of two foreigners and two Afghanis in 2004, the organisation withdrew from Afghanistan until 2009.

Prior to their withdrawal, Medicins sans Frontiers accused the Afghanistan government of failing to investigate the killings.

Another example is the murder of two journalists with the German foreign-language broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the Voice of Germany. Karen Fischer and Christian Struwe died in the summer of 2006.

When, two years later, no one had been charged yet in connection with the killings, Deutsche Welle head Erik Bettermann said, 'It is high time that those responsible are rounded up and the background of this deed is made public. The victims and their families are owed that much.'

What happened next surprised nobody: Nothing.