US told to act as desecration reports inflame Afghan riots
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Your support makes all the difference.At least 16 people were killed and 100 injured as violent protests spread across Afghanistan after reports that US interrogators in Guantanamo Bay had desecrated copies of the Koran.
At least 16 people were killed and 100 injured as violent protests spread across Afghanistan after reports that US interrogators in Guantanamo Bay had desecrated copies of the Koran.
In neighbouring Pakistan, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri demanded that the US punish those responsible and take "much stronger action" than it did over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.
Yesterday's protests represent the most serious public display of anger against the US in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. The unrest comes at a dangerous time, when the level of violence has started to rise again, and there are signs that the Taliban are regrouping.
The violence follows a report in Newsweek's 9 May edition that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had defiled copies of the Koran by placing them on toilets - and in one case flushing a copy down a toilet - in order to subject the detainees to psychological pressure.
Mr Kasuri said: "Even the worst enemy of the US could not harm the image of the United States in the Muslim world as effectively as they've done if this is correct." Desecrating the Koran is regarded as blasphemy in Islam. But part of the reason the report has provoked such an emotional reaction in Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent in Pakistan, is that the majority of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay are Afghans and Pakistani Taliban volunteers rounded up during the 2001 war in Afghanistan.
There has long been deep concern in Afghanistan and Pakistan over their treatment at the hands of US interrogators, especially since the scale of the abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq was revealed. The reports of desecration of the Koran by Americans at Guantanamo have touched a raw nerve.
It comes as the Taliban resumed their underground radio broadcasts. The level of violence is also noticeably rising - recent battles between US troops and Taliban fighters in the south left more than 70 dead. Even the capital, Kabul, which has generally been immune to the worst violence, has been affected, with a bomb attack on an internet cafe.
There have been protests in Pakistan as well, but they have been more muted. On a visit to Australia, Mr Kasuri said: "It's abominable the reports that emanated from Guantanamo Bay. It's unthinkable that someone could be so debased, inhuman, depraved as to provoke the feelings of not just those people there but all over the Muslim world."
"I have no doubt that the entire Muslim world is outraged. So I urge the US administration to take very strong action against the culprits, in order to send a message, particularly about prison abuses.
"I hope this time they take a much stronger action because the indignation and rage is universal."
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