Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death

Afghan Massacre:
The Convoy of Death
Directed byJamie Doran
Produced byJamie Doran
CinematographyNajibullah Quraishi, Mark Oulson Jenkins, Steen Erikson
Edited byFranco Pistillo
Distributed byProbeTV
Release date
  • 11 November 2002 (2002-11-11)
Running time
50'

Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death (earlier title: Massacre at Mazar)[1] is a 2002 documentary by Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran and Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi. It documents alleged war crimes committed by National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, a faction of the Northern Alliance under the command of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, against captured Taliban fighters. The Taliban fighters, who had surrendered to Dostum's troops after the November 2001 siege of Kunduz, were transported to Sheberghan prison in sealed containers. Human rights groups estimate that several hundred of them died during and after this transit. The documentary presents testimony from interviewees stating that American military personnel were present at and complicit in some of the alleged war crimes, which became known as the Dasht-i-Leili massacre.

A short early version of the documentary was shown to the European and German parliaments in June 2002, causing widespread concern in Europe.[1][2][3][4] Against protests from the United States government, the completed documentary was shown later that year on many countries' national television channels, including German, British, Italian and Australian television. The programme was not screened in the US and received no US media coverage.[3][5][6][7] A Newsweek report in August 2002, based on a leaked UN memo, did confirm some of the details in Doran's documentary, as well as the presence of mass graves in the Dasht-i-Leili desert, but made no mention of the documentary.[4][8][9]

In July 2009, Barack Obama, the president of the United States, ordered a probe into allegations that the Bush administration had resisted efforts to have the massacre investigated.[10]

  1. ^ a b Mackay, Neil (16 June 2002). "Did the US massacre Taliban?". Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 5 December 2002. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  2. ^ Kellner, Douglas (2003). From 9/11 to Terror War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-7425-2638-9.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Finnegan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Goldberg, Michelle (20 August 2002). "When does a massacre matter?". Salon. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rall09-07-17 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Censored was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dnow2003b was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Newsweek-2002-08-26 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference guardaug was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cnn2009-07-12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).