PICTURES

SOUND

Mosque in barbwire ...

Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan, the birthplace of the Taliban.

Taliban video

The city’s under siege – mines and suicide bombs target American troops

Bomb aftermath

As well as the Afghan army and police.

But a hidden side of this war are the forces that NATO is unleashing to defeat the Taliban.

America ‘s creating militias - recruiting and arming irregular soldiers that operate in and out of uniform.

PTC

PTC: C4N looking been looking at the role of militias in Kandahar ; we’ve heard allegations of theft, corruption, targeted assassination, and murder. People here wonder if forces allied to NATO are out of control.

CASE STUDY – JANAN’s FAMILY

(tape 15, and 17)

CASE STUDY  'bullet ridden house' 6 month old. Etc

16.40 – Tape 17

CON:

Last November, this girl’s father, Janan Abdullah, was killed. His image survives on a mobile phone. He died when their home was stormed by what the family told us were US soldiers joined an armed Afghan group.

pecial Forces. They were joined by an Afghan militia.

()

TAPE 15 22.07 They threw the grenade through here.

TAPE 17 13.40; (new13.45) “Nothing was left without damage, they shot at everything.”

18.45 (VQ : “Everywhere you look you can find a bullet hole.”

According to the family, the Americans were in charge. But it was the Afghans who did the dirty work and fired the shots.

() 17.50.37 Janan was sprayed with bullets, His chest was riddled, his whole body was pierced. He was just lying in bed. I’d say they fired 200 bullets at him.

COM The family was told that Janan was a suspected terrorist. – but say they heard later from NATO it was all a mistake.

The next morning, the scene was photographed by human rights investigators.

Yet in a statement to Channel 4 News, US FORCES SAID THEY HAD ‘NO RECORD’ OF THE RAID THAT NIGHT.

The family told us the injured were taken for treatment at a nearby American base.

Night raid victims

(cut with 15.55.40 uncle crying)

() SOT 15.54.03// “What was their crime? Give me a single proof against them?, No human can bear this.

Night Raid Victims

COM: Not only was Janan killed and his wife paralysed... the Afghan militia stole nearly 3000 pounds, say the family...

Night raid uncle ...

()

SOT /15.44.19 We were surprised. It was our own people – Pashtuns – doing this to us. They were so cruel to us. We thought not even the Americans can be this cruel. And they aren’t even Muslims. But they weren’t that brutal. It was our own people doing this to us.

Walking around night raid victim’s house

This family is one of many in Kandahar who complain of being targeted by militia groups backed by the US.

US-backed Afghan militias.

CAMP GECKO

The militia alleged to have killed Janan is thought by human rights investigators to be based at a restricted American complex in the hills outside the city..

Known as Camp Gecko, behind its walls is the former home of the Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar. Its now the headquarters of both the CIA and US Special Forces.

Training video

The US is spending millions training conventional and elite Afghan forces to provide security.

But in Camp Gecko there is also a force wearing uniform and carrying American weapons that some locals regard it as little more than a death squad.

Chief military prosecutor in Kabul.

() 24.52.04 If you go to Kandahar people say these guys pretend to be interpreters but carry out night raids and assassinations. Most people in Kandahar are illiterate; they don’t know if they are Afghan special forces or militia. We hear lots of strange and shocking stories.

Leaving though files / et c

Still photo of Matiullah Qateh

General Ghulam Ranjbar is the chief military prosecutor of Afghanistan.

He’s investigating the role of the Camp Gecko militia in the now infamous killing of Kandahar’s police chief

Matiullah Qateh was gunned down in broad daylight last year, along with other senior policemen – by the Afghan militia based at Camp Gecko.

This is the crime scene. The group arrived here with American-supplied uniforms, weapons and vehicles. They came here to force prosecutors to release one of their members from jail.

We met a man who witnessed the killing...

(Signs Chief Prosecutor’s office) (Justice Ministry)

Scene of police chief killing

()28.14 The police chief took two steps forward, and that’s when they fired. Within a couple of seconds the chief was sprayed with bullets. Then the head of CID came over. He pulled out his pistol and prepared to fire but he was shot from behind. He lay there and screamed, ‘stop shooting’. That’s what happened.

Reuters pictures of men responsible in handcuffs.

Forty one members of the gang have now been jailed. – But the militia itself remains in operation – and those at its top have never been prosecuted.

We can reveal the Afghan prosecutor in charge has ordered the arrest of an American commander who he says sanctioned the fatal raid; he doesn’t claim Americans ordered the killing; but accuses them of creating a militia that was above the law.

A spokesman for US forces said the coalition was not involved in the attack and nor was it sanctioned, The US refuses to refer to the Camp Gecko force as a militia. The spokesman insisted both NATO and US Special Forces “do not support militia groups.”

General Ranjbar remains angry.

Kabul military prosecutor

() 24.40.47 We lost one this country’s best law enforcement officers for the release of a mercenary who is a criminal.

This isn’t the only militia working here in Kandahar. Some work not only for the coalition but in settling private scores.

Shahida Hussein meets victim Shah Agha

Shahida Hussein - a human rights campaigner – is meeting with Shah Agha. When he attempted to protect his daughter from marital abuse her husband, he says, hired a private militia.

He claims the militia ransacked his home, stole his valuables and used their connections to get him jailed.

(IN IS RIGHT) SOT: “14.02.54: We are tired; you need to help me; I am poor. I am in pieces. They shouldn’t do that. They shouldn’t

The private gangs that commit such crimes, says Shahida, operate with impunity because they have protection.

Shahida Hussein

tape 11: 01.02.13 If someone kills someone the government itself says don’t’ touch him, don’t’ bother him, he’s our friend, he’s our relative, he has a connection with us… (45.46) There is no real government here. Kandahar is run by people in the drugs trade, armed with weapons and backed by foreign countries.

Ahmed Wali Karzai.

Why are Kandahar’s militias so powerful. The question is answered by some locals in three words: Ahmed Wali Karzai.

Appearing here at a tribal meeting with his brother, the president of Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali, who is also chairman of the Kandahar Provincial Council, is said by insiders to supply gunmen to the US military and the CIA, as well as operate his own private forces.

Talking later to me, Ahmed Wali said he wants an amnesty for the killers of the police chief; describing the whole incident as a misunderstanding.

More broadly, though, he denies any involvement with any militias, and regards any allegations against him as mischief by his political opponents.

ANONYMOUS PROSECUTOR

One senior prosecutor in Kandahar – who asked for his face not to be shown - told us the President’s brother was un-touchable.

11.15.09
()To my knowledge there has never been a case filed against him so we don’t have anything on him. If someone was brave enough to complain then everybody could know about his activity. But even then it would not be possible to issue a warrant against him. He is above the law.

PTC:

“The United States has been in this country Afghanistan for more that 8 years, but in their haste to defeat first terrorism and then Al Qadea and more recently the revived Taliban, have they in effect been creating a monster, have they been arming the very people who have been driving the population into the arms of the Taliban and against the government.

JOURNEY TO MEET THE NEW MILITIAS

THEN SHOTS OF MILITIA.

We travelled outside Kandahar City.

Here in the countryside, where the Taliban dominates, some in the US military now believe that militias are a solution.

US Special Forces are discreetly organising villagers into armed irregular groups to defend their homes against the Taliban.

The military wouldn’t allow us access to these forces.

But with the help of local contacts we tracked one unit down.

These are exclusive pictures of America’s newest allies.

They may look like Taliban – with their Kalashnikovs, rocket propelled grenades and belts of ammunition.

But a yellow fluorescent belt , and a red cloth tied to their rifle ..is the signal that these are not enemy.

Village militia man

16. 18.33 Now that we provide security things are getting  done  in the village. Roads are being built, ditches are being built.

Village militia pix – with marijuana smoking

COM:

The men here relax in their home turf --- sometimes sampling the local marijuana. Though set up by US Special Forces, the men deny they’re under American orders.

Village militia man.

16. 16:26:

They have asked us to join them but we said no. We work with them sometimes but only for the sake of our village. Everyone here is happy with us, if you have any doubt then you can go and ask the people from these villages.

ELDER WITH AMERICAN SOLDIERS 1

COM

But the villagers I met were hostile. This man, an important elder, said the militia targeted innocent people and wasn't interested in security.

1b:11.45 These militia are from local tribes. They don’t care about their country. They are just concerned about money - that’s it. Because of these local militia our government is not improving. Security is worse now .

Kuhak shura

In another nearby village, elders have more complaints about the new militias.

SOT

Villager 1 in shura

03.7.49 Villager: We can’t tell who’s militia or Taliban, they’re all holding guns, they don’t have uniform. We can’t tell.

Afghan Army local commander

The Afghan Army commander, working with the Americans, has a solution: set up your own militia to handle security.

03.13.08

ANA Commander:

Look, you know the good and bad guys in your village. It’s entirely up to you how you rule them, I’ll support you and provide you weapons and salary. At least provide security for yourself. That’s why I beg you to make your own militia and protect your own village by yourself.  

His plea is evidence that rather than scaling back, the US is expanding the use of militias. Some aren’t impressed.

Villager 2 in shura

3.11.08 Villager: // I was with the army for 2 years and so the Taliban became my enemy. I am afraid of them. Now you say you will give me a gun – but tmrw you will take it away. By then I will have even more enemies./

KUHAQ HILL WITH AMERICAN PARATROOPERS

COM:

Even American soldiers on the ground point out the policy of creating a system of village militias is controversial – and echoes mistakes made by the Russians.

SOT:

02.28.17 th this area has had a history of , you don’t want to call them militias but that’s what the Russians tried to set up when they were here decades ago. You know, a local militia and the militia’s were horrible, they mistreated the people, they did some bad things. So historically they’ve been wary of outsiders coming in and saying we’re here to help when in fact they’re doing opposite.

The Americans are aware of the history of militias in Afghanistan. They say everything they’re doing has the backing of the Afghan Government.

Troops from NATO are preparing what they’re expecting to be a bloody summer of fighting. But there’s concern their new offensive in Kandahar is already being undermined by forces that were supposed to bring security.

ENDS