By Robert Verkaik
London - The United States would be in breach of its international obligations if it allowed the Northern Alliance to refuse to accept the surrender of Taliban soldiers in the Afghan cities of Kunduz and Kandahar, lawyers and human rights groups warned on Tuesday.
They said that under international law, the US could be held responsible for genocide if Taliban troops were massacred despite offering to surrender.
According to the Geneva Convention it is illegal to give no quarter to the enemy.
Richard Gordon QC, an international human rights barrister, said: "The US does bear some responsibility for ensuring that they (Taliban troops) are treated humanely because they (the US) are effectively in control."
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US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has already warned anti-Taliban fighters not to let Taliban and al-Qaeda hardliners negotiate flight from Afghanistan.
He has also expressed his opposition to any settlement that might permit the surrender and ultimate release of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters now trapped in the besieged cities of Kunduz in the north and Kandahar in the south.
Human Rights Watch said: "The Northern Alliance can fight the Taliban if they refuse to surrender, or arrest them for crimes they may have committed if they do surrender.
"But the Northern Alliance cannot refuse to accept an offer of surrender by the foreign fighters if such an offer is made."
Gordon said that as soon as soldiers surrender, they should be treated as non-combatants and afforded the protection of the Geneva Convention.
Human Rights Watch is also deeply concerned by reports of large-scale summary executions of would-be Taliban defectors by foreign fighters in Kunduz.
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