SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA-- Serbia's nationalist President Tomislav Nikolic has personally apologised for the first time for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims, but stopped short of calling it genocide.

"I kneel and ask for forgiveness for Serbia for the crime committed in Srebrenica," Nikolic said on Thursday in an interview to be aired on Bosnian national television parts of which have been released on You Tube.

"I apologise for the crimes committed by any individual in the name of our state and our people," he said in the interview.

Nikolic's office confirmed to AFP news agency the authenticity of the statement.

Al Jazeera's Aljosa Milenkovic, reporting from Belgrade, said: "May be it is sounding like a small political earthquake here in Balkans as President Nikolic is apologising for crimes committed by the Serbs during the 1990s violent breakup of Yugoslavia."

"But when one reads more into the interview he still did not recognise what happened at Srebrenica as genocide."

Thousands of Bosnians, mostly Muslims, were killed by Serb soldiers during the Balkan War between 1992 and 1996.

After being elected last May, Nikolic caused a stir in the region by refusing to acknowledge that the massacre in the Bosnian enclave, was a genocide, despite it being ruled as such by two international courts.

Nikolic at the time said "there was no genocide in Srebrenica".

War crimes trial

Until five years ago Nikolic was a top official of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, which has denied that Serb forces committed crimes during the Balkans wars.

Its leader Vojislav Seselj is currently on trial for war crimes before The Hague-based UN International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

While this marks Nikolic's first apology on Srebrenica, Serbia has in the past expressed regret over the deaths.

In 2010, the Serbian parliament passed an historic declaration condemning the Srebrenica massacre in a gesture ending years of denial by Serbian politicians about the scale of the killings, but Nikolic at the time did not support the move.

Nikolic's predecessor Boris Tadic also apologised to Srebrenica victims during a commemoration event in 2005.

Both the ICTY and the United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice, have found that the Srebrenica massacre was a genocide.

Bosnian Serb wartime political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are currently on trial on genocide charges before the ICTY for their role in the massacre.

www.en.shafaqna.com

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The outlawed Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s massacre in Quetta.

A bomb attack targeting Shia Muslims in the main bazaar of the city in southwestern Pakistan killed at least 79 people, including women and children, and injured nearly 200 others, officials said early on Sunday morning.

According to the police, most of the victims were Hazara Shias. Burnt school bags and books of schoolchildren were scattered everywhere, witnesses said.

A spokesman for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the bombing. The group was founded in 1996 by Riaz Basra after he broke away from Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan over differences with his superiors.

"The explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device fitted to a motorcycle," said Wazir Khan Nasir, the deputy inspector general of police in Quetta. "This is a continuation of terrorism against Shias."

"I saw many bodies of women and children," said an eyewitness at a local hospital. "At least a dozen people were burned to death by the blast."

On January 10, a twin bomb attack at a crowded billiard hall killed more than 90 people, mostly Shia Muslims, in Quetta, which is the capital of Balochistan province. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi said it carried out the bombing.

Following the incident, massive demonstrations were held across the country to denounce the violence against Shia Muslims.

The demonstrators shouted slogans against the government and criticized Pakistan’s security forces for failing to provide security to the country’s Shia Muslims.

They also denounced the Saudi Arabian policy of funding extremist groups that commit acts of violence against Muslims in Pakistan.

In addition, the protesters called on the government to take immediate action against the forces involved in the sectarian killings.

Commenting on the January 10 bombing in Quetta, the Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch said, “2012 was the bloodiest year for Pakistan’s Shia community in living memory and if this latest attack is any indication, 2013 has started on an even more dismal note.”

“As Shia community members continue to be slaughtered in cold blood, the callousness and indifference of authorities offers a damning indictment of the state, its military, and security agencies,” Ali Dayan Hasan added.

“Pakistan’s tolerance for religious extremists is not just destroying lives and alienating entire communities, it is destroying Pakistani society across the board,” he stated.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Press TV

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Twelve-year-old Amal Samouni still has shrapnel in her skull from the time Israel bombed her neighborhood in Gaza in early 2009. Amal lost 21 members of her extended family in that massacre, including her father Attieh and her brother Ahmad. As if she hasn’t suffered enough, Amal has been refused permission to travel through Israel for sorely-needed treatment.

The last time Amal was able to receive medical attention outside Gaza was in 2011. On that occasion, her aging grandmother Alia Arafat brought her to a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah. There, Amal underwent some cosmetic surgery on her forehead.

With her grandmother no longer able to take care of Amal, the girl’s mother, Zeinat — also known as Um Mahmoud — sent an application to the Palestinian Authority in November 2012. Zeinat asked the PA to seek the permission required from Israel to enable Amal attend an appointment in al-Maqasid hospital, which is based in East Jerusalem.

After making the request, Zeinat received a phone call from a PA official. “The official said, ‘sorry, Madam Zeinat, the Israeli authorities did not issue a travel permit for you,’” she recalled.

No explanation

Zeinat had previously been informed by officials that she was not allowed to go through Erez, the crossing between Gaza and Israel. No explanation was given.

“They told me that they can only allow my mother to enter [Israel], along with Amal,” she said. “I got very sad when I heard this news. As I am Amal’s mother, it is best if I escort her. My mother suffers from health issues like diabetes and high blood pressure and is much less active than she used to be.”

After losing both her husband and a son in the January 2009 attack on the al-Zaytoun area, south of Gaza City, Zeinat and her surviving children moved into a new house, built with the help of some charities.

Amal’s shrapnel injuries do not result from the bombing in which her father was killed but one that took place soon afterwards. The Zaytoun neighborhood sustained repeated attacks during Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s three-week offensive against Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009.

“After the Israeli army killed my husband and son in front of my eyes and those of my children, just tens of meters away from this new home, I managed to gather my strength and headed for a nearby relative’s house,” Zeinat explained.

“On our way to that house, while raising some white flags, my daughter Amal went to stay at the house of our cousin Wael Samouni, where more than 80 family members were seeking shelter. A large explosion ripped through that house. Following three or four days, I recall, rescue teams managed to get out the bodies of many of those killed, as well as to save several of the injured, including my daughter Amal,” she said.

Daily nose bleeds

Throughout 2009, Amal suffered from nose bleeds on a daily basis, as well as severe headaches and an ear infection. She began to lose concentration, became forgetful and encountered difficulties at school.

Amal initially received some care at a hospital in Cairo. Egyptian doctors referred her to an Italian specialist. “Right after this we were told that we should go back to Gaza as there seemed to be no treatment for Amal,” Zeinat said. Amal’s grandmother also brought her to Tel HaShomer, a hospital in Israel, for a day, “and then came back with no real treatment,” Zeinat added.

Amal is currently staying with some relatives in Saudi Arabia. She has been brought there for a holiday and possibly for some treatment.

Along with other local doctors, Gaza-based neurologist Usma al-Aklouk has followed Amal’s case for the past four years. Amal’s is one of many similar cases across the Gaza Strip.

Al-Aklouk explained that injuries caused by shrapnel lodging in the skull or brain “can be treated once the shrapnel is removed, but it is so sensitive to do such surgeries as they might cause paralysis in the person wounded.”

Human rights monitors have documented numerous cases in which Israel has refused permission to travel for medical treatment since it withdrew its settlers from Gaza in 2005. The World Health Organization recently reported that 178 applications to travel via the Erez crossing had been made by Gaza-based patients before Israel’s eight-day attack on Gaza this past November.

Just 62 of these permits were granted (“Initial Health Assessment Report Gaza Strip,” December 2012 [PDF]).

“Blackmail”

Khalil Abu Shammala, director of the Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights in Gaza, said that the Israeli authorities frequently tell patients who request permission to travel that they do not meet the criteria that would allow them enter Israel.

“We in right groups are not aware yet of what those criteria are,” he said. “I believe that Israel is dealing with Gaza from a security perspective, despite the fact that most of those wishing to enter [Israel] en route to the West Bank or Israel are either urgent medical cases or Gaza traders. We cannot find any concrete justification for such Israeli measures.”

Abu Shammala added that “in some of the complaints we have received, we found that some Gaza residents, who were escorting their own relatives for treatment, have been exposed to blackmail by Israeli intelligence services at the Erez crossing. Israeli intelligence personnel often ask patients or those escorting them to collaborate with the security services, in return for a smooth entry through the crossing.”

Meanwhile, Zeinat Samouni remains determined to find suitable treatment for her daughter. Noting that the name Amal means “hope” in Arabic, Zeinat said: “After losing my husband and son, I just hope that Amal will be able to make a recovery.”-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Electonicintifada

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Pakistan has been engulfed in violence as protests organized by a cleric demanding government resignations continue. Meanwhile villagers in the North of the country demand justice following a deadly assault on their settlement that left 15 dead.

Several thousand people took to the streets of north-western Pakistan shouting anti-army slogans and displaying the bodies of 15 local villagers who they claim they were murdered in their homes by the military in an overnight raid.

Around 3,000 protested outside the governor’s house of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Peshawar. They claim that men wearing military uniforms stormed homes and shot the villagers. The protesters called on the army to end its operations in the area. One sign read: "We are also Pakistanis. Don't kill us." The villagers were killed in a tribal region where the Pakistani military has been conducting a campaign against Islamic militants.

The rally recalled a similar protest in the city of Quetta last week where the relatives refused to bury the victims of a bomb attack for four days until the prime minister met their demands and dissolved the local government.

The rally comes as thousands of supporters of a Muslim cleric press on with their anti-government protest for a fourth day in the capital Islamabad. The man in charge of the protests, cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri addressed his supporters in a four-hour speech calling for the removal of the government and denounced the politicians as corrupt thieves, as he accused them of failing to fix severe energy and gas shortages. The cleric wants his followers to continue protesting until the government is dissolved and electoral reforms are introduced.

The 61-year-old Qadri recently returned to Pakistan after years in Canada, quickly establishing himself as a poliical force in his homeland. His success has sparked rumors that he is lobbying the army to delay parliamentary elections later this year in favor of a military-backed caretaker government. He denies the allegations.

The government has warned the demonstrators to leave Islamabad by Thursday or else the security forces will use water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds, said Interior Ministry spokesman, Nawabish Ali Khan.

Later, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said there would be no operation against the protesters, state-run news service reported. The interior minister then withdrew the earlier threat.

The country’s opposition has demanded an immediate timetable for polls. Their leader, Nawaz Sharif, announced that the opposition would not be joining forces with Qadri.

Meanwhile, the security forces have barricaded Pakistan's Parliament with three layers of shipping containers. Qadri has issued a final ultimatum with the prospect of revolution as the failure to comply.

RT caught up with Dr Sreeram Chaulia, professor and dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs, to discuss the meteoric rise of the cleric.

RT: In just a few short months, Dr Qadri rose from relative obscurity to political stardom. How's he managed to do that?

Sreeram Chaulia: Well he has got a lot of media coverage for sure. The media has been acting as the kind of watchdog of the people against the misgovernment and corruption of the ruling Pakistan People Party as well as the student governments which are run by the opposition, the Pakistan Muslim League. So the mainstream parties have been getting flack deservingly for failing people’s expectations both on the economic front and the wars that have been happening there. So suddenly like a meteor, he has risen up. And many people of course have the suspicion that he is being primed by the military establishment in order to further weaken all the civilian parties. That is why he is getting so much billing and being tipped as a savior and a messiah of the country who is anti-system, anti-political parties and he is upholding the common person’s grievances against the establishment.

I think, you know, his message has resonance. He is a televangelist. His brand of Islam, he is a moderate and Sufi. He is a magnetic speaker and a good communicator with the masses. All those areas matter, although frankly speaking in many ways, he is anti-democratic because he has not indicated if he himself will participate to contest the elections and has been demanding all these systemic reforms that mean possibly a delay of elections legislated for the next few months. So all these factors mean that he is a complicated figure and I do not think he should be welcomed outright.

SC: Tahir-ul-Qadri visited India last year and made some relatively pleasant statements which were well received. He talked about the need for peace between the two countries and also for diverting defense expenditure towards the developmental needs of the poor both in Pakistan and India. So he belongs to a sect of moderate Islam. The Sufi sect which also has ties with Northern India, the Barindhi School and all that. So there is a following for the brand of tolerant and open Islam that he espouses.

So in his own ideological way, he is not anti-India. What we are concerned about in India is that he might be opportunistically be riding on the coattails of the military and maybe using unelected undemocratic forces, like the judiciary and the military in order to rise to power. And we know that Pakistan’s history is full of such figures who have taken the help of the military and have later been dissolved by it. So if the military takes over, it means more tensions with India and more problems in Kashmir. There has, in fact, been an uptick in violence, ceasefire and border violations, within the past few months.

RT: Do you think that the government will yield to Qadri's demands, and let in a caretaker government?

SC: Nawaz Sharif, the main opposition leader has called Qadri’s promise of a revolution as more of a storm in a teacup. And my own feeling is that the media and some of the less democratic forces had a hand in fanning Qadri and making him look more menacing and more revolutionary than he really is. But one thing is for sure- the government is under pressure not only from the Qadri but also from the courts.

And I do not think that the courts are acting in tandem with Qadri but what has happened is that the courts had a long running with a civilian government, the existing one of President Zardari. And there it is like a pincer movement on both sides, possibly not coordinated. But what is happening is that it looks like both the mass movement that Qadri is trying to rig up as well as judiciary are seem to be taking cues from each other and timing their blows against the government almost simultaneously, which means the problem for democratic institutions in the long run. And I’m afraid it allows levy for the military to remain the ultimate king maker and the puppeteer behind the shadows, which is not great news for South Asia as a whole, because if Pakistan does not genuinely democratize, we’re in trouble-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: RT

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A Colombian firm that makes bulletproof vests is now creating armored clothing for children.

Factory owner Miguel Caballero said he never thought about making protective clothes for kids until requests came in following the deadly attack on Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut last month.

"After the tragedy in Connecticut, we started getting emails from customers asking for protected (clothing) because they were afraid to take their kids to school," Caballero said.

"We have received messages from all over the United States," seeking the protective gear, added Giovanni Cordero, the company's marketing director.

Products include child-sized armored vests, protective undershirts and backpacks with ballistic protection that can be used as shields.

The products are designed for children ages 8-16 years old and cost $150-$600 depending on the complexity of their construction. Each piece weighs 2-4 pounds.

"The products were created with the American market in mind, not for the Latino market," said Caballero. "All the designs and colors, everything is thought out with them in mind."

Caballero performed a test on a pink-and-yellow striped bulletproof backpack attached to a pale blue protective vest, firing a 9mm pistol and a machine gun to show it could withstand a barrage of bullets.

He said the backpack-vest combo and other protective gear have already been ordered by a U.S. distributor, although he would not identify it.

About 250 people work at Caballero's factory, which has been making armored vests for adults for more than 20 years. Colombia suffers from an internal conflict that has killed thousands of people over the last half-century.

Outside Colombia, the vests for adults are sold in some 20 countries, including Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico. They are also marketed in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed in the Dec. 14 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. The 20-year-old gunman, Adam Lanza, also shot and killed his mother inside their home before driving to the school and shooting his way inside. He committed suicide as police were closing in.

After the Newtown shooting, at least three American companies that were already making backpacks designed to shield children reported a spike in sales.

Massachusetts-based Bullet Blocker reported it was selling 50 to 100 bulletproof backpacks a day after the shooting, up from about 10 to 15 in an average week. The children's backpacks, which are designed to be used as shields, cost more than $200 each.

Most of the children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre were shot at close range and likely would not have been saved by armored backpacks. At any rate, children don't usually wear their backpacks at their desks or while walking around school.- www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Fox News

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation says it set a new record for single day background check submittals this past weekend. The CBI says it processed more than 4200 background checks just the day after the Newtown shooting.

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Gun shops across the US reported soaring sales over as national attention returns to gun control. The surge in sales is not unusual, because after a mass killing at a Colorado cinema in July, sales of guns rose more than 40% in a week. The murder two years ago of six people during an assassination attempt against congresswoman Giffords, who was badly wounded, prompted a 60% increase in gun sales in a single day in Arizona.

The buyers regard the Newtown killings as a tragedy but they say any connection to their right to own weapons as a political ploy aimed at depriving them of their guns. It's a common claim among gun owners that states with the greatest restrictions on weapons are facing rising crime. Research by the Center to Prevent Gun Violence in California found the opposite to be true. Seven of 10 states with the strongest gun laws including Connecticut, are among those with the lowest rates of deaths from guns.

The prospect of a weapons ban after the Connecticut school massacre resulted in a surge of buying, as thousands of Americans stormed gun stores to buy the popular AR-15, the model used by the school gunman. The AR-15 is the civilian version of the military's M-16 and M-4. In surveys, about 50 percent of buyers say they own AR-15s for target practice; 30 percent for hunting and the rest for personal protection. According to dealers, the AR-15 is the most popular gun sold in the US today. About 220,000 were sold in 2010, after peaking at more than 300,000 immediately following Obama's election. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation says it set a new record for single day background check submittals this past weekend. The CBI says it processed more than 4200 background checks just the day after the Newtown shooting.

The Connecticut killer, 20 year old Adam Lanza killed his mother then took her car and rifle with two handguns driving to the Sandy Hook Elementary School. He then killed 20 children and six adults before killing himself. After the massacre Democratic lawmakers said there is a need for new gun measures and Obama has seemed to move in that direction without voicing support for specific legislation.

www.shafaqna.com/english

Source: Fox news

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Democrats say meaningful action in the wake of the school shootings in Connecticut must include a ban on military-style assault weapons and a look at how the nation deals with individuals suffering from serious mental illness.

Several Democratic lawmakers and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman said it was time to take a deeper look into the recent spate of mass shootings and what can be done to prevent them. Gun control was a hot topic in the early 1990s, when Congress enacted a 10-year ban on assault weapons. But since that ban expired in 2004, few Americans have wanted stricter laws and politicians say they don't want to become targets of a powerful gun-rights lobby.

Gun-rights advocates said that might all change after the latest shooting that killed 20 children aged 6 or 7. Police say the gunman, Adam Lanza, was carrying an arsenal of ammunition and used a high-powered rifle similar to the military's M-16.

At a Sunday night service in Newtown, Conn., the site of Friday's massacre, President Barack Obama did not specifically address gun control. But he vowed, "In the coming weeks I'll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement to mental health professionals to parents and educators in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this."

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2012/12/gun-control-debate-begins-to-s.html#storylink=cpy

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Demonstrators have taken to the streets across the globe to protest against the Israeli regime's relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets across the globe to protest against the Israeli regime's relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi to protest against the Israeli regime's relentless bombing campaign in Gaza and to voice support for the Palestinians in the besieged coastal territory.

“Indian people are not going to sit down and watch. Israel is committing war crimes and the world must stop it,” said one protester.

The demonstrators criticized the Indian government’s “cold response” to Israel’s aggression in Gaza and demanded that India cut all ties with the Israeli regime.

In Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, anti-Israel demonstrators condemned Tel Aviv’s "barbaric aggression in Gaza." They shouted “Down with Israel” and “Soldiers of Gaza, We Are With You” and burned Israeli flags.

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik accused the United States and the European Union of directly or indirectly giving the Israelis the license to kill humans in Palestine.

“Any human who looks at the photographs of the infants killed by the Israeli terrorists cannot stop his eyes from shedding tears,” he said.

In Karachi, hundreds of people staged a demonstration, demanding an immediate halt to the Israeli aggression and pledging solidarity with the Palestinians.

"The whole world is opposing Israeli attacks (on Gaza), but America is the bully that supports Israel, pats it on the back, encourages it and says that 'you reserve the right of your defense.' Defense from whom? Six-month old Palestinian infants, women, elderly people, sick who... are in their homes, in the hospitals and the ones who are victims of Israeli cruelty? Are they terrorists?" asked Naveed Qamar, the chief of the Karachi branch of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD).

On Sunday, similar demonstrations were held in Egypt, Lebanon, the US, Canada, and several other countries.

Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and artillery fire have left at least 109 Palestinians dead and over 900 others injured since November 14. Some of the injured are in critical condition.

Israel has conducted more than 1,350 aerial and sea attacks against the Gaza Strip since November 14.

Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.– www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Thagribnews

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Demonstrators have taken to the streets across the globe to protest against the Israeli regime's relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi to protest against the Israeli regime's relentless bombing campaign in Gaza and to voice support for the Palestinians in the besieged coastal territory.

“Indian people are not going to sit down and watch. Israel is committing war crimes and the world must stop it,” said one protester.

The demonstrators criticized the Indian government’s “cold response” to Israel’s aggression in Gaza and demanded that India cut all ties with the Israeli regime.

In Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, anti-Israel demonstrators condemned Tel Aviv’s "barbaric aggression in Gaza." They shouted “Down with Israel” and “Soldiers of Gaza, We Are With You” and burned Israeli flags.

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik accused the United States and the European Union of directly or indirectly giving the Israelis the license to kill humans in Palestine.

“Any human who looks at the photographs of the infants killed by the Israeli terrorists cannot stop his eyes from shedding tears,” he said.

In Karachi, hundreds of people staged a demonstration, demanding an immediate halt to the Israeli aggression and pledging solidarity with the Palestinians.

"The whole world is opposing Israeli attacks (on Gaza), but America is the bully that supports Israel, pats it on the back, encourages it and says that 'you reserve the right of your defense.' Defense from whom? Six-month old Palestinian infants, women, elderly people, sick who... are in their homes, in the hospitals and the ones who are victims of Israeli cruelty? Are they terrorists?" asked Naveed Qamar, the chief of the Karachi branch of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD).

On Sunday, similar demonstrations were held in Egypt, Lebanon, the US, Canada, and several other countris.

Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and artillery fire have left at least 109 Palestinians dead and over 900 others injured since November 14. Some of the injured are in critical condition.

Israel has conducted more than 1,350 aerial and sea attacks against the Gaza Strip since November 14.

Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.-www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Army prosecutors have called for a US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers to face a full court-martial and the death penalty.

Wrapping up their case in the pre-trial hearing, prosecutors described the "heinous and despicable" alleged massacre in March by Sergeant Robert Bales, details of which were given during an eight-day hearing at a military base south of Seattle.

"Based on the sheer brutality and nature of the crimes, it is our recommendation to proceed to a general court-martial," said prosecutor Major Rob Stelle at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Washington.

"Because of the heinous, brutal and methodical [nature of the alleged crimes], we ask that the sentencing authority have the full range of punishment," including the death penalty, he added.

The family of Bales insisted he was innocent until proven guilty, calling him "courageous and honourable," while his lawyer raised questions about the role of alcohol, drugs and stress in the tragedy.

Murder charges

Bales faces 16 counts of murder, six of attempted murder, seven of assault, two of using drugs and one of drinking alcohol.

Seventeen of the 22 victims were women or children and almost all were shot in the head.

The 39-year-old allegedly left his base in the Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province on the night of March 11 to commit the killings, which included nine children. He allegedly set several of their bodies on fire.

Prosecutors at the so-called Article 32 pre-trial hearing have alleged that Bales left the base twice to carry out the killings, returning in between and even telling a colleague what he had done.

The week-long hearing included three evening sessions - daytime in Afghanistan - to hear testimony by video conference from Afghan victims and relatives of those who died.

Stelle said the case should go to a court-martial because "something horrible happened" and Bales was clearly aware of what he had done.

"The most telling evidence we have are the statements made by Sergeant Bales in the few hours [after the incident] - statements that demonstrate a clear memory of what happened and a clear sense of guilt," Stelle said.

'Number of questions'

But Bales's lawyer Emma Scanlan questioned whether there was enough evidence for the case to go to full trial, citing possible post-traumatic stress disorder and other medical issues.

"There are a number of questions that have not been answered," she said.

"We have been told that Sergeant Bales was 'lucid, coherent and responsive.' But we don't know what it means to be on alcohol, steroids and sleeping aids."

Reported inconsistencies included witnesses talking of possibly two gunmen, and mentioning a shooter with a light on his helmet, while Bales had none.

"We need to know if there was more than one person outside that wire," she said.

"We don't know so many things about this case ... we ask that everybody keep an open mind as we go forward as we investigate what is actually going on here."

'Presumed innocence'

The hearing was held to decide whether Bales should face a full court martial. Investigating Officer Colonel Lee Deneke said he would submit a written recommendation "later this week or over the weekend".

A three-star general at the base will then rule on whether to proceed with a court-martial.

In a statement read out by Stephanie Tandberg, the soldier's sister-in-law, after the hearing, the family said it had yet to learn the how, why and what of the incident.

"Much of the testimony was painful, even heartbreaking, but we are not convinced the government has shown us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what happened that night," it said.

"As a family, we all grieve deeply for the Afghani families who lost their loved ones on March 11, but we must all not rush to judgment.

"In America, due process means innocence is always presumed unless and until a trial proves otherwise.

"There has been no trial yet, and our family member is presumed by law, and by us, to be innocent."— www.shafaqna.com/English