Press TV
January 11, 2014
US seeks to ‘exonerate’ troops from ‘atrocious killings’: activist\
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The US government’s pressure on Afghanistan to sign a security pact is aimed at exonerating US troops from the “atrocious killings” and “unspeakable crimes” they are committing, a peace activist says.
The Obama administration has warned Afghanistan to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement within weeks, not months, otherwise US troops will completely withdraw from the country.
On Wednesday, a 4-year-old Afghan boy was shot and killed by US Marines in southern Afghanistan.
The “tragic and atrocious killing” of the Afghan child by US military forces is an indication of how the security agreement would be used to “exonerate and exculpate US forces from unspeakable crimes of this nature,” said Rick Rozoff, a member of Stop NATO International.
“There is such utter contempt towards the Afghan people themselves that civilians can be killed even children without the slightest degree of true remorse,” he said.
As part of the security agreement, which would allow presence of US troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Washington wants legal immunity for US soldiers.
Despite pressure from Washington, Kabul has so far ignored US demands for it to sign the agreement. The protracted negotiation over the deal has increased tensions between the two countries.
“No immunity agreement can be permitted by the Afghan government because it will be exploited to justify” the massacre and slaughter of innocent civilians, Rozoff said.
A large number of civilians have been killed or injured at the hands of US-led foreign forces — most of them in nighttime raids and airstrikes. The casualty rate has risen over the past few months, even though the Afghan government has asked foreign forces to make every effort to avoid killing civilians.
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