The US military denied US soldiers who burned the bodies of Taliban militants have violated war law, but decided to punish them for violating Afghan tradition, according to the US military on Saturday.

   In a press conference held in Afghan southern Kandahar province to release the final investigation result of the burning affair, commander for US troops in Afghanistan Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya said the behavior of the two US officers who burned the bodies of Taliban militants is not against war law and Geneva Pact, but it is against Afghan culture and tradition that they are not familiar with.

   According to a footage broadcasted by an Australian TV station, some US soldiers burned two Taliban militants' bodies, which is against Islam and Afghan culture, and they shouted some profane words to civilians afterwards.

Some huge demonstrations were held after that to condemn the US soldiers' behavior, and the US military promised to conduct thorough investigation into the matter.

   The two officers burned Taliban militants' bodies in the mountain area of Kandahar after 24 hours of their death on Oct. 1, and they did that because of the consideration of sanitation problem. But they have been punished for deriving the right to get any promotion, Kamiya said.

   Kamiya said it was done by two other soldiers, and their initial aim was to ask the enemies to surrender, but the results came out different since they used the wrong way.

   Kamiya said a joint US-Afghan seminar has been held to show the US soldiers the Afghan culture and tradition with the aim to prevent the happening of this kind of affairs. Some local elders, Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) will be consulted in the cleanup operations by US forces in the future.

   Analysts said that as the US troops carry out cleanup operations against Taliban militants around the country, they have contradictions sometimes with local persons partially because of their inappropriate way of conducting operations. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has for several times asked US soldiers to be careful and pay attention to  civilians when they are targeting some terrorists.

   It's not the first time US soldiers involved in the abusing of detainees. In 2002, two Afghans in the detention center of Bagram were tortured to death. In 2003, another Afghan died in the US airbase of Helmand.

   At the end of October 2005, two US soldiers were accused of maltreating Afghan detainees by beating them on the chest, stomach and shoulders. 

Source: Xinhua