Exclusive: Death at the Afghan guesthouse

A U.N. security officer from Miami, Louis Maxwell, was most likely shot to death outside a U.N. guesthouse last October by Afghan security forces that mistook him for a Taliban insurgent, U.N. officials briefed on a draft report of a confidential, high-level U.N. inquiry into the case told Turtle Bay.

The revelation comes as a U.N. board of inquiry is finalizing a probe into the deaths of Maxwell and four other U.N. staffers who were killed during a violent October 28, 2009, attack on their U.N. residence in Kabul, which housed about 20 U.N. election officials.

The deaths were initially blamed on the Taliban, which had claimed responsibility for launching the pre-dawn raid on the U.N. residence in order to disrupt the country’s planned presidential runoff. The election was cancelled after President Hamid Karzai’s political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew from the race, saying he did not believe an election would be free and fair.

The assault by three heavily-armed Taliban militants was a watershed moment for the United Nations — representing the worst act of violence against the U.N. mission in Afghanistan and highlighting the emergence of the organization as a prime target of the Taliban. But U.N. investigators subsequently uncovered evidence — including witness testimony and an amateur video taken at the scene — indicating the 27-year-old African-American was killed by government forces that had come to the U.N.’s defense. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has also launched a parallel investigation into Maxwell’s killing.

The U.N. board of inquiry — headed by a former Australian federal police official Andrew Hughes — is also examining whether Afghan forces or Taliban militants were responsible for killing three other U.N. staff members who died from gunshot wounds inside the U.N. compound. A fifth U.N. official burned to death after the Taliban militants set fire to the U.N. building.

The U.N. board recently completed an initial draft of its report, which runs over 30 pages, and includes several binders filled with photos, autopsy reports, eyewitness testimony, and other evidence. It is now weighing a series of recommendations by U.N. lawyers before issuing the final report, which will include recommendations on whether a formal criminal investigation is required. The board is not required to accept the lawyers’ recommendations, and the report will not be made public.

U.N. officials described a scene of chaos and confusion as Taliban insurgents, dressed in police uniforms, exchanged gunfire with Afghan security officials wearing the same outfits and equipped with similar AK-47 assault rifles. Eyewitnesses provided varying accounts of events unfolding during the fight. The crime scene was never secured following the attack, allowing vital pieces of evidence to be compromised and contaminated.

Afghan authorities at the time claimed that Maxwell was probably either shot by Taliban fighters or blown up by a Taliban militant wearing a suicide vest. The incident prompted the United Nations, which employed more than 1,000 international staff in Afghanistan, to temporarily relocate several hundred of them outside the country in the weeks following the attack.

The United Nations obtained an amateur video that purportedly shows Maxwell being shot repeatedly by uniformed Afghan security forces after he emerged from the U.N. guesthouse. The grainy video, which was first broadcast by Germany’s Stern magazine, appears to shows a uniformed Afghan official pointing an assault rifle from close range in Maxwell’s direction and gunfire can be heard. A second Afghan officer standing nearby is shown picking up Maxwell’s assault rifle.

The video reinforces the U.N. case that Afghan forces were probably responsible for Maxwell’s death. But the board of inquiry’s preliminary findings appear to counter suspicions, also fueled by the release of the video, that Maxwell may have been executed while in Afghan custody, according to U.N. officials.

"The United Nations has reviewed the video. It’s one important piece of evidence; however, that evidence needs to be looked at in its totality," said Anthony Banbury, the U.N.’s assistant secretary general for the U.N. peacekeeping department’s division of field support. "There is other information that has been obtained by the board of inquiry which calls into question what appears to happen on the video. We need to wait for the board of inquiry to finalize its report before we reach any conclusions."

Afghan security forces probably killed Maxwell, who was dressed in civilian clothes and wore a U.N. identification tag, when he exited the building following a two-hour standoff with the Taliban, according to U.N. officials. During the siege, Maxwell and a Ghanaian security guard, Laurance Mefful, are credited with holding off the Taliban assault long enough to allow most of the U.N. residents to escape.

"They held off the attackers long enough for their colleagues to escape, armed only with pistols against assailants carrying automatic weapons and grenades and wearing suicide vests," Secretary-General Ban Ki moon told delegates in the U.N. General Assembly following the incident. "They fought through the corridors of the building and from the rooftop."

Following the siege, Ban had expressed frustration with the Afghan authorities’ sluggish response to the unfolding battle. "The U.N. security team repeatedly called for help from both Afghanistan government forces and other international partners," Ban said. "Initial reports suggest that it was approximately an hour, if not longer, before Afghan police or others arrived on the scene."

Maxwell, who is survived by two children, aged 1 and 7, was described by family as a promising trumpet player who turned down a musical scholarship to Florida A&M University to serve in the Navy. He later joined the United Nations as a security officer.

"I’m told from U.N. top officials that because of my son, 17 people are alive," Maxwell’s mother, Sandra Maxwell, told the Associated Press following her son’s death. "He was brave. He fought until he couldn’t fight anymore. He paid the ultimate price. He was a hero."

Banbury expressed concern about what he described as unfair allegations that the U.N. had tried to cover up the crime on behalf of the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, or that it has unjustifiably delayed the release of the U.N.’s findings.

"This is categorically not true," he said. "A high-level board of inquiry was convened and instructed to do everything they could to get to the bottom of this case. A proper inquiry takes time. We will follow the facts where they take us but quite to the contrary of an institutional cover-up the United Nations has been working diligently to establish what actually happened on that terrible day."

The U.N. established a high-level board of inquiry last January, after a preliminary U.N. investigation concluded in November raised the "disturbing possibility" that Maxwell may have been killed by "friendly fire," Martin Nesirky, the U.N.’s chief spokesman told reporters last week.

Banbury said it was premature to determine whether the U.N. will call for a formal criminal investigation into Maxwell’s killing, particularly since the board of inquiry has not concluded its work.

"It would be irresponsible for the United Nations to take any action now based on an incomplete investigation and report," he said. "However, once the report is in it would be equally irresponsible if we were not to take appropriate action. The United Nations fully intends to take appropriate steps based on the conclusions of the board, the facts established, and follow them wherever they take us without regard for political considerations in order to obtain justice for our U.N. colleagues who were killed in this terrible incident and for their families."

The report is expected as early as Wednesday.