Try Afghan Massacre Soldier in Afghanistan, suggests Mark McDonald

A US soldier is alleged to have left his base in Kandahar province early in the morning of 11 March 2012 and proceeded to kill Afghan civilians, including children. Villagers report that he then set fire to some of the bodies. The soldier is said to have immediately surrendered himself to the custody of the US military.

Since the US insists that many countries, including Afghanistan, sign bilateral agreements protecting US soldiers from prosecution abroad, it is almost inevitable that the soldier in question will be tried in the US.

In an interesting post on the International Herald Tribune’s “IHT Rendezvous” site, Mark McDonald asks, “Why Not a Massacre Tribunal in Afghanistan?”

In his post, Mr McDonald asks whether the United States is correct to resist so ardently the trial of its nationals in countries in which they are alleged to have committed terrible crimes. He suggests instead the establishment of a joint military tribunal or a combined court martial by the US military and the Afghan National Army.

Mr McDonald cites the comments of Prince Abdul Ali Seraj, the President of the National Coalition for Dialogue with the Tribes of Afghanistan, who has warned that trying the soldier in the US rather than Afghanistan “is not going to satisfy the people here.” (Prince Seraj’s comments are available here.)

Besides potentially operating as what Mr McDonald terms “soft-power diplomacy” or “calming outreach”, perhaps a judicial mechanism involving both the US and Afghanistan would be educational for both nations and help to restore Afghan trust in US forces.