Afghan president condemns US firing during protests

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai today condemned the use of gunfire by US troops to suppress Afghans angered by a traffic accident involving a military truck that sparked the worst riots in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.

Speaking in his native Pashto language, Karzai used phrases that left open whether the US troops had fired into a crowd that had gathered at the scene of Monday’s accident, or only over their heads. But he was strongly critical.

“The coalition opened fire, and we strongly condemn that,” Karzai said in a national radio address. “I have to say, all the time we tell them to be careful because we have one joint aim, which is the struggle against terrorism.”

A US military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on Karzai’s brief address which is likely to cause some friction between his US-backed government and Washington, amid growing disenchantment among Afghans over America’s powerful presence in the country.

Afghan authorities and the US military are investigating the crash in which a US truck that the military says suffered brake failure rammed into cars at an intersection, killing up to five people.

Investigators are also looking at whether US troops fired on Afghans angered by the accident, which sparked city-wide rioting, the worst since the Taliban’s ouster in late 2001.

Hundreds rampaged through Kabul, shouting ”Death to America!” In all, about 20 people died, mostly from gunshot wounds, Afghan authorities said.

AP television footage from Monday shows the mounted machine gun of a US Humvee firing over the heads of Afghans shortly after the accident.

Many Afghans at the scene and some officials say the US troops also fired into the crowd. The US military has only confirmed that its soldiers used their weapons in self-defence.

Today, a top Afghan judge said foreigners could be tried for crimes committed in Afghanistan, after Afghan politicians passed a nonbinding resolution calling for local prosecution of US troops responsible for the crash.

US Ambassador Ronald Neumann, however, said that American troops in Afghanistan couldn’t be punished under local law.

“But should the investigation reveal some wrongdoing, I’m sure the military would follow up on its own,” he told US National Public Radio in an interview broadcast Thursday.

He said the US military hadn’t signed any pact with Afghanistan that would allow local prosecutors to try US forces in an Afghan court.

“I don’t want to turn lawyer without being absolutely sure of my grounds, but you really can’t fight a war that way,” he said.

The deputy chief justice of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Malik Kamawi, said his interpretation of Afghan law is that if a foreigner commits a crime in the country, they’re subject to trial there.

The motion can’t compel the judiciary to pursue any charges against US troops, and no senior Afghan executive official has indicated they desire to.

There is also outrage in Afghanistan over civilian deaths caused by coalition military action against Taliban guerrillas.

The latest incident occurred last week, when a US airstrike killed at least 16 civilians in a southern village. A rights group said as many as 34 civilians died.

Neumann, the US ambassador, said it didn’t add up to rising hatred against Americans – or a push to get US troops to leave Afghanistan.

“I do not see any groundswell of anti-Americanism or any desire that we leave,” he said.