4 Die in Afghan Protests Over Reported U.S. Abuse of Koran

Police opened fire Wednesday on protesters who were smashing windows, burning pictures of President Bush and shouting “Death to America!” in reaction to reports that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Koran. Officials reported that four demonstrators were killed and 71 injured.

The protests in the eastern city of Jalalabad followed the publication of a Newsweek magazine article that said investigators looking into abuses at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had discovered that interrogators “had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet.”

“If the U.S. government disrespects the Koran, then they are disrespecting the entire Muslim world, and the Americans always wonder why we don’t like them,” Mirwais Saibzada, a 22-year-old student, said by phone from the Jalalabad protest.

The protests in Jalalabad began Tuesday but took a violent turn the next day as more than 1,500 students and others burned United Nations vehicles, smashed store windows and attacked government offices and international agencies.

“People became very emotional after word spread about the report,” a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, where Jalalabad is located, said by telephone. He added that protesters then set fire to U.N. offices, the Pakistani Consulate and a library of the Ministry of Information and Culture.

Witnesses said U.S. military forces were present when the protest broke out but pulled back, leaving Afghan security to deal with the situation. Security officials said no foreign workers were injured but all had been advised to evacuate the area.

Peaceful protests over the alleged abuse of the Koran were reported in Laghman, Khowst and Wardak provinces.

This morning, a demonstration was beginning in Kabul. Hundreds of students were gathering for a rally at the university.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday that the U.S. was investigating the allegations raised by Newsweek.

“A desecration of religious texts and objects is repugnant to common values and an anathema to the American people,” spokesman Richard Boucher said. “The allegation is contrary to our respect for our cultural customs and the fundamental belief in the freedom of religion that we do practice.”

In Brussels, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said during a news conference at North Atlantic Treaty Organization offices that the clash did not suggest hostility toward the United States.

“It is a protest over news of the desecration of the holy Koran,” he said, according to Associated Press.

However, Karzai said the violence showed the need to improve security institutions throughout the country.

Some demonstrators called on Karzai’s government to not allow the U.S. military to establish permanent bases in Afghanistan and urged American troops to stop searching Afghan homes for Taliban and Al Qaeda rebels. They also pressed the U.S. government to release hundreds of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

“I think there are a combination of things that are worrying Afghans, but I am just not sure why they are destroying their own cities because of it,” said Saed Abdul Ghafoor, director of the government television station in Jalalabad.

Ghafoor said protesters stormed his studios as well, but he was able to talk them out of looting. “We just have a few broken windows,” he said.