WASHINGTON Jan 12, (Agencies): US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday condemned a video that apparently shows US Marines urinating on the corpses of Afghan men, footage that the Pentagon acknowledged did not appear to be fake.
“I have seen the footage, and I find the behavior depicted in it utterly deplorable,” Panetta said in a statement, adding that he had ordered the Marine Corps and the commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan to investigate the incident.
“Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent,” he said.
The video that surfaced a day earlier appeared to show American forces urinating on the bodies of dead Taleban fighters. It could aggravate anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan as the Obama administration hopes to end a decade-long war.
The video, posted on YouTube and other websites, shows four men in camouflage Marine combat uniforms urinating on three corpses. One of them jokes: “Have a nice day, buddy.” Another makes a lewd joke.
The video comes at a sensitive moment for the Obama administration, which is about to launch a flurry of diplomatic efforts it hopes will kindle peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taleban.
How the video will affect that initiative is unclear.
A senior member of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council said it would undermine the peace efforts, but a Taleban spokesman said it was accustomed to such “brutality” and suggested the video would not affect existing discussions.
The US Marine Corps has said it will investigate. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan described the acts depicted in the video as “disrespectful” and “inexplicable”.
Although the US military has stopped short of confirming the video is authentic, the Pentagon on Thursday came close.
“We don’t have any indication that it’s not authentic,” Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby said.
“It certainly appears to us to be what it appears to be to you guys ... troops urinating on corpses. But there’s an investigation process ongoing. We need to let that work its way through to determine all the facts of the case.”
The Afghan government and the Taleban condemned the video, but the Islamists backed negotiations to end their 10-year war.
President Hamid Karzai said in a statement that “the government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed” of what it called “desecrating dead bodies of three Afghans.”
“This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms,” said the statement.
“We expressly ask the US government to urgently investigate the video and apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime.”
The Taleban, who have made recent moves to talk an end to the war, described the apparent abuse as “an inhumane and savage act by the American soldiers in Afghanistan.”
But spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed added that he did not think it would derail peace negotiations with the US “which at this stage are mainly about prisoner exchange.”
Earlier in the day, the insurgents issued another statement supporting talks to end the war against US-led forces, while warning that this did not mean surrender.
The Pentagon says it has not yet verified the footage, which has been broadcast by leading Afghan television station Tolo News.
But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told AFP: “Regardless of the circumstances or who is in the video, this is... egregious, disgusting behavior, unacceptable for anyone in uniform.”
“It turned my stomach,” he added of the video, which was posted on the Live Leak website.
Nato forces in Afghanistan also condemned the video as appearing to show “US military personnel committing an inappropriate act with enemy corpses.
“This disrespectful act is inexplicable and not in keeping with the high moral standards we expect of coalition forces.
“ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force) strongly condemns the actions depicted in the video, which appear to have been conducted by a small group of US individuals who apparently are no longer serving in Afghanistan.”
On the subject of the peace talks, the Taleban, who have announced their readiness to open a political office in Qatar, said they had increased their “political efforts to come to mutual understanding with the world.”
“But this understanding does not mean a surrender from jihad and neither is it connected to an acceptance of the constitution of the stooge Kabul administration,” the hardline Islamists said in a statement received by AFP.
“But rather the Islamic Emirate (the Taleban) is utilising its political wing alongside its military presence and jihad in order to realise the national and Islamic aspirations of the nation and its martyrs.”
The statement could be seen as reassurance to rank-and-file Taleban members that the leadership is not abandoning jihad, or holy war, as it enters negotiations.
It came as the United States announced that it would send a senior official to meet Karzai next week to see whether he agrees to a resumption of preliminary talks with the Taleban.
A US official said the talks could open within weeks if Karzai was agreeable.
A key Washington demand for any progress in negotiations is that the Taleban accept the Afghan constitution, which mandates protection for the rights of women and minorities, which were stifled during Taleban rule from 1996 to 2001.
Another crucial element would be a renunciation of violence by the Taleban and a break with al-Qaeda and other “terrorist” groups, the US says.