Media reports say Prince Harry’s new memoir “Spare” has sparked anger and protests in Afghanistan.
The Associated Press (AP) says that in his memoir, “Spare,” Harry says he killed more than two dozen Taliban militants while serving as an Apache helicopter copilot gunner in Afghanistan in 2012-2013. He reportedly writes that he feels neither satisfaction nor shame about his actions, and in the heat of battle regarded enemy combatants as pieces being removed from a chessboard, “Baddies eliminated before they could kill Goodies,” the prince writes.
Harry’s decision to put a number on those he killed, and the book’s comparison of those to chess pieces, drew outrage from Taliban officials, and concern from British veterans.
According to AP, protesters in southern Afghanistan on Sunday gathered following Prince Harry‘s claim in his new memoir that he killed 25 people he described as Taliban fighters while posted with British forces in the country.
Around 20 faculty and students reportedly demonstrated at a local university in Helmand, the province where British forces were largely concentrated during the NATO and U.S.-led coalition operations in Afghanistan.
“We condemn his (Prince Harry’s) action which is against all norms of humanity,” one demonstrator said. Others carried posters showing Harry’s portrait with a red `x’ across it.
“We ask the international community to put this person (Prince Harry) on trial, and we should get compensation for our losses,” said Mullah Abdullah, who lost four family members in what he described as a U.K. airstrike in 2011 that hit his family home in the Nahr-e-Saraj area of Helmand, according to AP.
Global News reports that Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban aide, responded to Harry’s claims on Twitter.
“Mr. Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return,” he wrote. “Among the killers of Afghans, not many have your decency to reveal their conscience and confess to their war crimes.”
Haqqani said he did not expect the International Criminal Court (ICC) to condemn Harry “because they are deaf and blind for you.”
“But hopefully these atrocities will be remembered in the history of humanity,” he concluded.
