KABUL, Aug 27: The top UN official for Afghanistan said on Tuesday that until the safety of witnesses could be guaranteed no investigation should be held into alleged war crimes against Taliban prisoners in the north of the country.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan, said the United Nations was ensuring that a suspected mass grave site at Dasht-i-Leili remained undisturbed.

“I think we have a responsibility to find out what has happened, but our responsibility to the living has to have precedence,” Brahimi told reporters in Kabul at the end of a visit to Afghanistan.

“We must not put anyone’s lives in danger.”

The United Nations carried out a preliminary investigation into the grave site in May which suggested that some of the people whose bodies were found there had suffocated after the Taliban were ousted in November.

That was consistent with witness reports that hundreds, or perhaps as many as 1,000 Taliban prisoners died after being herded into airless truck containers while being transported across the north by the Northern Alliance.

“If we start an inquiry we’ve got to give names, addresses,” said Brahimi.

“Afghanistan has lots of problems and it is extremely difficult to establish priorities. There is no judicial system that you can really expect to face up to a situation like this ... there is no proper police to protect people.”

Brahimi said UN representatives were making regular visits to the grave site to ensure it was not being disturbed.—Reuters