Human Rights in Afghanistan

Jailed Afghan rape victim freed

2011-12-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

An Afghan woman imprisoned for adultery after a relative raped her has been freed after President Hamid Karzai intervened on her behalf.

Jailed Afghan rape victim freed

The woman, identified only as Gulnaz for her own protection, had been sentenced to prison for 12 years after she reported that her cousin's husband had raped her two years ago. Wednesday, she was free, at a women's shelter in Kabul, with her daughter.

Her plight gained international attention when the European Union blocked the broadcast of a documentary about her ordeal, saying it would further jeopardize her safety.

Afghan Justice Minister Habibullah Ghaleb and a judiciary committee both proposed a pardon. Karzai then ordered authorities to decree Gulnaz's release.

After the attack two years ago, Gulnaz hid what happened as long as she could. She was afraid of reprisals. But soon she began vomiting in the mornings and showing signs of pregnancy. It was her attacker's child.

Raped Afghan woman gets reduced sentence In Afghanistan, this brought her not sympathy, but prosecution. She was found guilty by the courts of sex outside of marriage -- adultery -- and sentenced to 12 years in jail. She was only 19.

Interview with Gulnaz

In conservative Afghan society, Gulnaz faces considerable pressure to marry her attacker, thereby soothing the rift between the two families, restoring her honor and also legitimizing her daughter.

She was willing to do so in order to end her incarceration, she told CNN last month from Kabul's Badam Bagh jail, though she does not want that option. She would like to marry an educated man, according to U.S. attorney Kimberly Motley in Kabul.

How Gulnaz will be able to re-assimilate into the life she once had remains a confusing question.

Her choices are stark. Women in her situation are often killed for the shame their ordeal has brought the community. She could still be at risk, some say, from her attacker's family.

CNN

Afghanistan bombs kill 58 in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif

2011-12-06T05:11:00.000-08:00

Twin attacks apparently targeting Shia Muslims have killed at least 58 people in Afghanistan. In the deadliest incident, a suspected suicide bomb struck a shrine packed with worshippers in the capital, Kabul, killing at least 54.

BBC

Another blast hit the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif at about the same time, killing four people.

The attacks appear to be of a sectarian nature unprecedented in recent Afghan history, correspondents say.

They coincided with the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura - the most important day in the Shia calendar and marked with a public holiday in Afghanistan.

Ashura is the climax of Muharram, the month of mourning for the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

The police have cordoned off all roads to the blast site in the medieval Murad Khani district where many Shias had gathered to commemorate Ashura at the Abu Fazal mosque.

Here, at an emergency surgical centre just 10 minutes from the site, people are gathered crying and wailing. I have heard women shouting: "My son is dead, my son is dead." I have seen people with charred clothing.

Security forces have been ferrying victims to waiting ambulances. There are many wounded too. Those who were there say there are a lot of casualties. People are gathering in front of the hospital and the police are on the streets around here controlling the traffic.

Children hit

The near-simultaneous explosions happened at about midday (07:30 GMT).

In Kabul, the bomb went off near a gathering of hundreds of Shias singing at the Abu Fazal shrine.

Fifty-four people were killed in the blast, said health ministry spokesman Norughli Kargar, while 150 were injured.

"It was very loud. My ears went deaf and I was blown three metres [yards]," Mustafa, who uses only one name, told Associated Press news agency.

"There was smoke and red blood on the floor of the shrine. There were people lying everywhere."

Amid the chaos straight after the blast, a young girl, dressed in a green shalwar kameez (traditional dress) smeared in blood, stood shrieking, surrounded by the crumpled, piled-up bodies of children, AFP reported.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke of the unprecedented nature of the attack, saying it was "the first time that, on such an important religious day in Afghanistan, terrorism of that horrible nature is taking place".

No-one had claimed to have carried out the attacks, said Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's criminal investigation department.

A Taliban statement said the group had not been behind either incident.

Police said they foiled another attack elsewhere in the capital.

The bomb which exploded near the main mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif was apparently strapped to a bicycle, and went off shortly after the Kabul blast.

Balkh province Deputy Police Chief Abdul Raouf Taj said the device exploded as a convoy of Shias, shouting in celebration of Ashura, passed by, AP reported.

At least 17 people were injured.

Elsewhere, police said at least three people were wounded by a motorcycle bomb in the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland - but it appears to have been unconnected to the other two attacks.

Rarity

Mohammad Bakir Shaikzada, the top Shiite cleric in Kabul, said he could not remember a similar attack on such a scale.

"This is a crime against Muslims during the holy day of Ashura," he told AP.

"We Muslims will never forget these attacks. It is the enemy of the Muslims who are carrying them out," he said, though he would not speculate on who might be responsible.

There are tensions between Sunni and minority Shia Muslims in Afghanistan, but violence of the type seen in Pakistan or Iraq is rare, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says.

Over the past decade Shias in Afghanistan have celebrated their festivals more confidently, openly and on a bigger scale than ever before.

The attacks come a day after an international conference on Afghanistan's future was held, in the German city of Bonn.

Pakistan boycotted the conference, after a Nato attack killed 24 of its troops at a checkpoint near the Afghan border last month.

Afghan security officials held their breath during the conference, our correspondent says, fearing there might an attack in Kabul to divert attention.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the bomb attacks.

Are you in Kabul? Were you in the area? Did you witness anything? Send us your comments and experiences.

US Soldiers Killing Civilians

2011-04-05T01:25:00.000-07:00

Statement attributable to the Secretary-General

2011-04-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

Statement attributable to the Secretary-General
concerning the attack against the UNAMA compound in Mazar-i-Sharif

1 April 2011 - I condemn in the strongest terms the outrageous and cowardly attack against the United Nations office in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan. Our reports are still preliminary, but it appears that three United Nations international staff as well as four international security officers were killed in the attack. My Special Representative, Staffan de Mistura, has travelled to Mazar-i-Sharif and is personally overseeing the investigation.

Those who lost their lives in today’s attack were dedicated to the cause of peace in Afghanistan and to a better life for all Afghans. These brave men and women were working in the best tradition of the United Nations and gave their lives in the service of humanity.

I express my sincere condolences to the families and colleagues of those who were lost and call on the Afghan Government to thoroughly investigate this incident and bring its perpetrators to justice.

Nairobi/New York; 1 April 2011

UN staff killed during protest in northern Afghanistan

2011-04-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

At least seven foreign UN workers have been killed after protesters stormed a UN compound in the Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, officials say.

The compound was set alight as hundreds protested over the burning of the Koran in a US church last month. Several demonstrators were killed by guards.

Witnesses said the protest began peacefully but suddenly turned violent.

A local police spokesman told the BBC the city was now under control and a number of people had been arrested.

Dan McNorton, spokesman for the UN mission in Afghanistan, said: "Three international Unama (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) staff members were killed, and four international armed security guards were killed."

Initial reports said eight foreign UN workers had died.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt later confirmed that one of the dead was a Swede, 27-year-old UN worker Joakim Dungel.

The Norwegian defence ministry said another of those killed was Lt Col Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot. The other foreign victims are believed to be a Romanian and four Nepalese guards.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described it as "an outrageous and cowardly attack".

Continue reading the main story
Analysis

Bilal Sarwary
BBC News
Mazar-e Sharif is one of Afghanistan's largest cities - as well as one of its safest. Just last week, thousands peacefully celebrated the Persian new year.

The city is on a list of areas to be handed to full Afghan security control later this year. The attack on the UN compound raises serious questions about that plan.

A state of emergency has now been declared in the city, Afghan intelligence sources told the BBC. All roads in and out of Mazar have been blocked and cars are being checked. Special army and police units have been deployed to prevent further unrest.

The authorities are well aware of the dangers of protests spreading. In 2006, anger at cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper swept across Afghanistan. Dozens were killed or injured.

US President Barack Obama also condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms", saying the work of the UN "is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan".

The top UN representative in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, has flown to the area to handle the matter.

Weapons seized
Witnesses said a crowd of several hundred staged a protest outside the Blue Mosque in the city after Friday prayers.

The crowds moved to outside the UN compound, where a small group broke away.

Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for Balkh province, said the group seized weapons from the guards and opened fire before storming the building.

Local police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai told the BBC the attackers had used guns and knives.

He also told reporters that two of the dead UN staff were beheaded.

However, police Gen Abdul Rafu Taj said that "according to the initial reports... none were beheaded". He said they were shot in the head.

A number of suspected attackers have been arrested.

Officials have declared an emergency in the city - major roads in and out have been blocked.

'Hunted down'
Kieran Dwyer, director of communications for the UN mission in Afghanistan, said the UN workers had been trapped inside the compound and "hunted down" in what was an "overwhelming situation".

"These are civilian people, unarmed, here to do human rights work, to work for peace in Afghanistan - they were not prepared for this situation," he told the BBC.

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Farhan Haq of the UN said the organisation was still trying to establish the circumstances on the ground
Mr Dwyer said it was too early to tell how the attack happened or why the UN was targeted, but that the organisation would now take extra security measures.

But he added: "The UN is here to stay. We're here to work with the people to help them achieve peace, and this sort of thing just highlights how important that is."

On 20 March, Pastor Wayne Sapp set light to a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida.

The burning took place under the supervision of Terry Jones, another US pastor who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Protests were held in several other Afghan cities on Friday - which demonstrators in Herat had called a "day of anger", Afghanistan's Noor TV channel reports.

The BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul says Mazar-e Sharif is known to be a relatively peaceful part of the country, but that the Florida incident will raise questions of whether the city will be able to make the transition from foreign to Afghan security control later this year.

Our correspondent says that in a deeply religiously conservative country such as Afghanistan, that act has the power to inflame passions in otherwise peaceful areas.

Mr Jones told the BBC he was not responsible for the actions of the protesters.

The Kill Team, kill Haji

2011-03-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon.

Mark Boal

Early last year, after six hard months soldiering in Afghanistan, a group of American infantrymen reached a momentous decision: It was finally time to kill a haji. Among the men of Bravo Company, the notion of killing an Afghan civilian had been the subject of countless conversations, during lunchtime chats and late-night bull sessions. For weeks, they had weighed the ethics of bagging "savages" and debated the probability of getting caught. Some of them agonized over the idea; others were gung-ho from the start. But not long after the New Year, as winter descended on the arid plains of Kandahar Province, they agreed to stop talking and actually pull the trigger. Bravo Company had been stationed in the area since summer, struggling, with little success, to root out the Taliban and establish an American presence in one of the most violent and lawless regions of the country. On the morning of January 15th, the company's 3rd Platoon – part of the 5th Stryker Brigade, based out of Tacoma, Washington – left the mini-metropolis of tents and trailers at Forward Operating Base Ramrod in a convoy of armored Stryker troop carriers. The massive, eight-wheeled trucks surged across wide, vacant stretches of desert, until they came to La Mohammad Kalay, an isolated farming village tucked away behind a few poppy fields. to provide perimeter security, the soldiers parked the Strykers at the outskirts of the settlement, which was nothing more than a warren of mud-and-straw compounds. Then they set out on foot. Local villagers were suspected of supporting the Taliban, providing a safe haven for strikes against U.S. troops. But as the soldiers of 3rd Platoon walked through the alleys of La Mohammad Kalay, they saw no armed fighters, no evidence of enemy positions. Instead, they were greeted by a frustratingly familiar sight: destitute Afghan farmers living without electricity or running water; bearded men with poor teeth in tattered traditional clothes; young kids eager for candy and money. It was impossible to tell which, if any, of the villagers were sympathetic to the Taliban. The insurgents, for their part, preferred to stay hidden from American troops, striking from a distance with IEDs. While the officers of 3rd Platoon peeled off to talk to a village elder inside a compound, two soldiers walked away from the unit until they reached the far edge of the village. There, in a nearby poppy field, they began looking for someone to kill. "The general consensus was, if we are going to do something that fucking crazy, no one wanted anybody around to witness it," one of the men later told Army investigators. The poppy plants were still low to the ground at that time of year. The two soldiers, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes, saw a young farmer who was working by himself among the spiky shoots. Off in the distance, a few other soldiers stood sentry. But the farmer was the only Afghan in sight. With no one around to witness, the timing was right. And just like that, they picked him for execution. He was a smooth-faced kid, about 15 years old. Not much younger than they were: Morlock was 21, Holmes was 19. His name, they would later learn, was Gul Mudin, a common name in Afghanistan. He was wearing a little cap and a Western-style green jacket. He held nothing in his hand that could be interpreted as a weapon, not even a shovel. The expression on his face was welcoming. "He was not a threat," Morlock later confessed.

War of Afghanistan

Planting Trees, Burning Candles

2011-03-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

by Steve Clemens In the morning we walked in groups of five for about 30-45 minutes through our area of Kabul en route to our morning activity. I awoke at 4 AM to use the bathroom and when the call to prayer was broadcast from the nearby mosque about 40 minutes later, I knew it was time to get up because the dogs on the street also joined the chorus. The city is fairly dirty (what does one expect in one of the poorest countries in the world which is at war with the world’s largest military machines?) and the traffic has no street lights or road striping so the cars switch invisible lanes as the pedestrians dodge and move between them. Vendors crowd the sidewalk selling fruit, live chickens, freshly butchered meat, nuts, beans, and a multitude of other items. We travel in groups of 4 or 5 – always escorted by one of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers. I know I shouldn’t have favorites - they are all so wonderful and helpful – but I can’t help but respond most to 13 year-old Gholami, the youngest and smallest of the 8 who have joined us for several days. We walk in small groups so we blend in a little more than if we all walk together. About half of the International Peace Delegation is staying at a hotel, others of us are sleeping on the floor in the office building of a non-profit organization that has joined with AYPV in inviting us. After walking down two main streets, we branch off into what seems to be a side street which more resembles an alley with an open sewer/gutter on one side. As cars or trucks pass us they blow their horns so we can step aside. Vans come by with other delegates from the hotel and we are offered rides but Simon and I prefer to walk with several of the boys, enjoying the sunshine and “fresh air”. Actually, the air is often quite polluted with fumes from older, untuned vehicles. We walk purposefully and deliberately so as to not draw undue attention, despite our pale complexions. (Simon, from Australia, is fairer-skinned than me.) Since most of the others arrived before us, we missed part of the presentation at the private school which was our destination. Lena, the teacher who addressed our group at the school, was a young woman who described the school and answered our questions. We had “one cup of tea” (we could have had more if we wished – even 3 Cups of Tea) but were told what Afghanistan needs is not more money to build schools but rather to have teachers properly trained. Having school buildings does no good without trained teachers. And teachers have to be paid a wage they can live with. The public school teachers are not paid enough and often have class sizes of 50-70 students – an impossible situation to help students learn at the grade school level. This private school had 20-25 students per class and it appeared to me at the recess time that the predominance was girls at this school. When asked about whether the US military is needed for security, both the school’s principal and the teacher quickly said they wanted the US troops to leave. Lena added that “we need to make peace by ourselves” – it is not something that can be imposed from the outside. She continued, “Instead of waging war [here], the US could concentrate on education instead”, using the incredible amounts of money to train teachers. The AYPV had picked this school for the tree-planting opportunity as a way to symbolically celebrate the New Year which would begin two days hence on the first day of Spring. Afghans are about to begin Year 1390 – their calendar, like that it many other Muslim-dominated nations, is dated from the time of their Prophet Mohammad. Students at the school drew or painted pictures of trees as an art project to celebrate the tree-planting event in their schoolyard. Before we moved to the schoolyard to plant the trees, Hakim and the AYPV boys recited a poem they wrote the night before, “We Need a Different Tree” – a moving statement of choosing peace over war. It lamented how “power and privilege oppress the people – it is perfected in war. … Why would an Afghan mother want a tree that kills? … War is not a tree we want to plant – so, if we wish to live without war, we need to plant a different tree.” Then 55 trees, almond, poplar, plum, apricot, and apple, were placed in the already-dug holes provided. A local man pruned them after they were planted and watered. As we finished, the children were let out of the classrooms for recess/exercise and they were enamored at the visitors to their school; some loved posing for photos, other avoided our cameras. The school principal announced that the garden/schoolyard would be re-named “The Friendship Garden.” The van ride back to our office space –like all rides in the Kabul traffic – was another adventure. Just when you think the driver will hit a bike rider or pedestrian, scrape an on-coming car or one that you are passing, the brakes are applied or the steering wheel turned to prevent the accident. Any insurance agency would have to be crazy to cover someone for collision –although I don’t seem much beyond very close calls. It makes rush hour in the Twin Cities look positively relaxing. Next on the day’s list (after a light lunch) was to drive to the Emergency Medical Hospital for civilian war casualties operated by an Italian NGO to donate our blood. (Ironically, I was told in Minneapolis before I left that I will not be able to donate platelets for a full year if I travel to Afghanistan due to threat of malaria – even though the threat doesn’t arrive until May, long after I’ve left.) My group had some difficulty getting a taxi to the hospital so we missed most of the tour and discovered that they only needed O negative blood that day. Two of us met that requirement but Kathy, who was one of the two, was asked to wait a couple of weeks since she gave at that hospital only several weeks before. She will donate again before she returns to Chicago in a couple of weeks. Returning to the office, we had a convoy of 5 huge armored tan vehicles of the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) pass us. Even though there were no US markings, it is clear to everyone who is in sight that these behemoths are the dinosaurs of the crumbling American empire – unfortunately still very deadly in its decline. Later in the afternoon, we walked to the 3rd Eye Photojournalism Center, the host organization for the candlelight vigil in remembrance of the victims of war. A stunning gallery of wonderful photos taken from all over Afghanistan graced the walls of the four rooms and a table with candles encircling a banner reading “For the War’s Victims” in both English and Dari. After a few moving talks and the reading of the names of the 7 boys who were killed earlier this month in one of the northern provinces, the AYPV boys lit candles and passed them to all of us and we observed 2 minutes of silence in memory of all of war’s victims. Many of us felt tears welling up knowing that two of the boys present had lost their father to the Taliban several years ago. I am amazed at their courage and commitment. At dinner afterward, I had a great conversation with Zahra, yesterday’s moving speaker from the Open Society, deeply moved by this 23 year old women who refuses to wear the veil except when she is outdoors. She has many questions for me – why I came here, what do I think about Afghanistan, what other Americans think about the war, … . I’m sure we will have several more conversations before our week’s end. Having gotten up before dawn, I was very grateful for the air mattress and sleeping bag at 9 PM. I am so grateful for so many friends who have supported me/us on this pilgrimage/journey for peace.

Finding hope in Afghanistan

2011-03-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

In a country torn by thirty years of war, where the promise of peace continues to be broken, despair and resignation seem to be the norm for Afghan society. War – and its corollaries of social decay, poverty, corruption, and trauma – does not discriminate. Not a family in Afghanistan has been left unaffected by the death or disappearance of a loved one and the daily, traumatizing stress of living in an occupied war zone. Billions of aid intended for reconstruction has been siphoned off leaving little left over for meaningful, local development. Afghanistan is an unstable society wracked by corruption at nearly every level of government and a pervasive distrust of strangers and neighbors alike is the expectant result of such disintegration of social ties. But as the late Studs Terkel reminds us, “hope dies last.” And this is certainly true for the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, a small but growing group of young Afghans committed to a life of peace in the midst of so much violence. While cynicism and disbelief run deep across generations, the AYPVs have an alternative vision for their country embedded deep in their hearts – and they believe this hope for peace is already in the heart of every Afghan. Organized by the AYPVs, twenty-five international partners joined together with over fifty ordinary Afghans on Saturday to declare a commitment to an Afghanistan without war with fifty-five young saplings to mark the beginning of a new year in Afghanistan. The various apple, apricot, and almond trees were planted in a Kabul elementary and high school as a sign of hope and promise of peace. The previous day, the AYPVS along with members of the Open Society organized and participated in an inter-ethnic walk for an end to the war. As far as anyone can tell, this is the first public gathering calling for peace in Afghanistan that is not politically aligned or sponsored. The bright blue scarves of the AYPVs, their smiles and words of gratitude to the accompanying riot police, and banners denouncing warmongering is a considerable different message that most Kabulis are not used to seeing or hearing. The steadfast commitment to nonviolence of the AYPVs and their deep desire for peace offers a kind of hope that is unheard of in Afghanistan but it also offers a breath of fresh air. Slowly but surely the AYPVs and their partners – both Afghan and international – are growing into a sizable community with a peace-filled vision for Afghanistan. The planting of trees is a small gesture indeed and the challenges for ending the foreign occupation of Afghanistan, confronting corruption and human rights abuses (particularly of women), and promoting a culture of peace are many. But the planting of trees is a beginning and it may very well be the birth of a movement that transforms Afghanistan. Afghanistan War

Afghanistan stifled freedom!

2011-02-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

By Kelsey Meehan

Since October 2001, Afghanistan has been occupied by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). This group, comprised of both NATO and non-NATO member nations, has been in action in an attempt to bring aid to the Afghan people and rid the country of Taliban and al Qaeda forces. Their main goal has been to bring freedom to Afghanistan and its citizens.

Yet, throughout these last seven years, freedom of speech and expression in Afghanistan has been repeatedly called into question by these occupying forces, including Canada.

The government, militant groups such as the Taliban and erupting conflicts between the two group’s opposing views of the constitution has created an extremely difficult environment within the country for the average citizen.

Currently there are two main factors from the constitution of Afghanistan that set in motion the entire discourse on freedom of expression. Firstly, the religion sections of the constitution, Articles’ 2 and 3, states that people are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rights ‘within the limits of the law’.

Article 34 of the constitution states that freedom of expression ‘shall be invaluable'. Every Afghan shall have the right to express thoughts through speech, writing, illustrations, as well as other means in accordance with provisions of this constitution. Every Afghan shall have the right to print and publish on subjects without prior submission to state authorities.

But Dastageer Sakhizai, workforce planning branch consultant for the government of Saskatchewan who moved to Canada from Afghanistan 10 years ago, knows first hand the struggle people in Afghanistan go through every day to make their voices heard.

“There is no mention of freedom of consciousness within the constitution,” said Sakhizai.

In fact, apostasy from Islam is punishable by death as stated by both the constitution and under the rule of Sharia law.

The second main force of opposition against freedom of speech and expression in the country is one that has received much attention across the globe—the Taliban.

When any coverage in the press appears about opposition parties in Afghanistan, traditionally the Taliban are not included in this group. Even as the largest opposition group in the country and across the region, the Taliban are seen traditionally as holding only military or militant power, not political. But Taliban are in fact included in the long list of official political parties in Afghanistan, and are therefore by all rights allowed to be a part of the countries political process.
“It’s like they [the Taliban] don’t exist. Now, ironically, the whole West is pushing for negotiations with Taliban,” said Sakhizai.

At this point the Taliban are gaining power in the country politically, to the point that other parties in positions of power are seeking their approval and ‘blessing’. And Taliban have been the most prominent force against freedom of speech and expression in the country, implementing a highly strict form of Sharia law.

Bloggers like Basir Seeratmust overcome the risks of punishment for expressing their views about their country and the world online.

“The state has formulated the rules in which freedom of expression has significantly been safeguarded,” said Seerat, a blogger and photojournalist from Kabul.

The blocking factor of freedom of expression over the years has merely been the ‘Sharia-oriented’ vision by some religious leaders.

The Sharia law, or Islamic religious law, follows the guidelines and teachings found in the Koran, and often comes into conflict with the constitution of Afghanistan—particularly the article pertaining to civil and human rights. While the constitution mandates that people can print or publish their opinions freely, the rule of Islamic law does not permit publishing any material that is deemed against Islam itself.

Seerat has experienced this contradiction first-hand as a photojournalist. He spent 10 days in Taliban captivity for his attempts at shooting a documentary on a female political candidate attempting to break though in a male-dominated culture.

The future of freedom of expression in Afghanistan will no doubt be filled with challenges and risks like the ones Seerat has experienced. As the Taliban continues to grow and evolve into a younger, tech-savvy and increasingly more violent political power, more voices will be silenced and snuffed out.

2010-12-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

Afghanistan - The People’s December Review
December 25, 2010

In the first person voice of Abdulai, a fifteen year old Afghan boy whose father was killed by the Taliban:

“The place where I live is the worst place on earth in which to be born . Good thing my mother survived her pregnancies . But my father -- he didn’t survive the war. Isn’t it strange that there is a graveyard marked out especially for children in my small remote mountain village? A quarter of all children do not live beyond five years of age and they are buried there; we already have to find new space because the graveyard is filled. As 42 percent of Afghans live in poverty , my family could not afford a proper grave for my father for five years. My father would have understood our predicament: in a land with the worst food risk in the world , we make do with whatever food and clean water we can get. Since we don’t have electricity , we are grateful for diesel lamps. And most importantly, my father would have understood that we still struggle to stay away from the killings.

Since War World II, wars have killed mainly civilians and this war in Afghanistan is no exception. In fact, we now have nowhere to turn and nowhere to hide . We face night raids , computerized aerial bombings and the armed players who neither recognize our language nor our faces.

Many of our families and friends have sought refuge in far-away places . What can our people do? Wait to die of sickness or violence? Be pawns in the warlords’ games? I made hand-sewn leather cell-phone peace pouches for our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ in Kandahar and I know that before the NATO commander had launched the current offensive there, 94% of Kandaharis said they wanted peace talks , not war. But the US led coalition went ahead and launched its deadly military operation. They proved their utterly un-democratic, unimaginative addiction to an unchanging military solution.

Karzai said that more than 42 percent of children in Afghanistan still have no access to schooling : at least, that’s not as fatal as the three children killed daily in the conflict last year . If you don’t grasp how the Afghan state is the third most corrupt in the world , come take our school exams to experience the rampant bribery and cheating this war encourages. Like other war-torn countries, the influx of weapons and un-accounted monetary aid fosters corruption, fuelling deceit at all levels of our society.

Drugs made from poppies grown in our country are everywhere, with more than a million drug addicts in country . Perhaps, being doped is better than putting up with our sheer lack of work and recourse to government services or justice. Last year, estimates are that we Afghans had to pay $2.49 billion dollars in bribes to our own government officials , which is equivalent to 23% of our country’s GDP.

But heck it….we don’t even want your money! Two billion of which you spend on the military weekly and the remaining dirty trickle cannot even be accounted for by your Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) .

My mother and sister say to you that you can forget about promoting ‘women’s rights’ with your uniformed pride. Last year, there were 2300 suicides related to depression among women and girls . And don’t ever claim that a military strategy can stop them from taking their lives. Neither the US-NATO coalition nor our warlords can, with their violence, stop the desperation of our people. In fact, like the people caught in the Helmand operation that was declared a success, the women of Afghanistan want you, with full responsibility, to transition out as soon as possible .

President Obama, please completely rethink the ‘progress’ you declared in the
December review . To Ms. Hillary Clinton and Mr Robert Gates, we’re sorry for
your dismissal of world public opinion . Now, get ready for its flood!

This People’s December Review sought to speak from the ‘hearts and minds’ of ordinary Afghan people, commoners who share the same pain experienced by the impoverished and unheard masses everywhere.

It is a reflection of life as it really is for the people of Afghanistan.

The world should listen.

The people of the world should be listening to one another, because governments are not.

President Obama declared in his administration's December Review that there was ‘significant progress’ for America’s goals in Afghanistan.

He claimed to be ‘on track.’

But, Abdulai’s People’s December Review shows how far off-track Obama is from the people’s concerns and how U.S. foreign policy gives no alternative options for any citizen.

There ARE alternative options and views, a small number of which we’ve listed below, starting off with Prof. Noam Chomsky’s views expressed in the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers’ recent conversation with him.

In the bigger scheme of history, for too long now, the strategies for resolving global conflicts have been built predominantly around military force.

Soul-force must be given a chance.

Excerpts of interview with Prof Noam Chomsky
In a conversation with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers on the 17th of December 2010 for The People’s December Review.

On Obama’s claims of ‘significant progress’
…it’s worth noting that a few days ago the International Commission of the Red Cross released a report which is extremely unusual for them, -they rarely do it,- in which they said that the situation on the ground has deteriorated radically. They gave particulars and said it’s now far worse than it’s been in the past. They’re actually working there and have experience. Plainly that’s not consistent with the picture of progress.

On self-determination by the people
I know for me at least and the people I work with in the antiwar movement the goal for Afghanistan would be for Afghans themselves to take over the planning, the determination of what will happen ,so that there won’t be a review conference in Washington where they have their own goals, --the welfare of the people of Afghanistan is not high among them,-- but rather the decisions will be made by people like you and others in Afghanistan who have the fate of your country and your lives at heart and people of the US here should support your efforts in whatever way we can.

….But there is extensive study that demonstrates that there is a very wide gap between the decisions of the government and the will of the population. That’s true on domestic issues. It’s true on international issues, and it reflects the fact that though the U.S. is an unusually free country by comparative standards, it’s only in a very limited way a functioning democracy.

Power does not lie in the hands of the population except in a very limited way and popular opinion does not determine policy. And that’s in fact one of the reasons why there’s such hysteria over the leaks of government documents. Anyone who has studied secret documents for many years, as I have, knows one of their main purposes is to protect the government from the population, not security, but just keeping the public controlled and obedient. That’s a battle that has to be constantly fought in the more free societies as well to try to overcome this dysfunctional element of formal democracy which keeps it from functioning properly. Popular movements have in the past and should in this case too integrate themselves with those of other countries and form a common force, often against their own governments.

On reparations
Afghanistan has a very dramatic, important history of independence, but for the last thirty years it has simply been a plaything of the great powers which have virtually destroyed it. All of them. All of the ones who were involved owe Afghanistan not aid but reparations. Apology and reparations. That includes Russia, of course, and certainly the United States and it also includes Pakistan. Aid sounds like something we give out of our good nature or good will. Reparation means what we are responsible for providing because of the extreme damage we have caused. And yes, that‘s a very important demand. It should be made here and should be made in Afghanistan.

On the question of U.S. intentions in Afghanistan: eventual withdrawal or permanent presence?
At this point, I think it’s not unlikely that even just for domestic, political reasons, the U.S. will try to find a way to withdraw most of its forces and try to portray it as some kind a victory. That’s for domestic reasons.
But, I don’t think that’s what should concern us. We’re not concerned with making officials in Washington look good to their associates.
We should be concerned with what matters for the people of Afghanistan. And that’s of course for you and others like you to decide. Success, I would understand as meaning success in achieving your aims, not Washington’s aims.

On what Afghan and international peace activists should focus on
What Afghans should focus on is finding ways to join together to formulate their own ideas and plans as to the course of policy, internal to Afghanistan, and their demands on other countries that are engaged in Afghanistan. That means primarily the US but also others that are involved.

Afghans should formulate those goals and policies jointly with people in the rest of the world, in particular in the United States that work to support those plans, so the activists in the United States should be and to an extent are waiting to hear from people of Afghanistan. What do you want us to do?

A Sample of Alternative December Reviews

"So what's my option?" the president asked his war cabinet, seeking alternatives...
You have essentially given me one option. ...It's unacceptable.”
Obama's Wars, Bob Woodward

“Why not talks?”
“Why not reconciliation?”
“Why not non-violence?”

1. World Public Opinion Polls

International public opinion is largely opposed to the war in Afghanistan

The latest ABC polls show that 60 % of Americans think that the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting.

An earlier ABC/Washington Post Poll showed that Afghans have turned more negative in their assessment of the presence and performance of U.S. and NATO forces

Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates tried to belittle this significant public opinion. Read how they dismissed public opinion and democracy.

2. Letter from Afghan Experts to Barack Obama
Read how these Afghan Experts call Obama's strategy unsustainable

3. National Intelligence Estimates NIE
Read how 2 new NIE reports cast doubts on the Afghan war progress

4. Other Studies/Reports
A New Way Forward: Rethinking US Strategy in Afghanistan published by Washington-based Afghan Study Group

"Strategic Survey 2010" released by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies

Both studies above conclude that "a Taliban takeover is unlikely even if Washington reduces its military commitment" in Afghanistan, in good measure because the conditions that allowed the first Taliban takeover in the 1990s no longer exist and can't easily be repeated. As important, "there [are] no significant Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan today, and the risk of a new 'safe haven' there under more 'friendly' Taliban rule is overstated.”

Afghan Women Speak by David Cortright of Kroc Institute which expresses Afghan women’s recommendations to the US and NATO governments for a responsible withdrawal.

Harmful Traditional Practices and Implementation of the Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan

2010-12-09T12:40:00.000-08:00

Georgette Gagnon, UNAMA’s Director of Human Rights; and Ahmad Fahim Hakim, Deputy Chairman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

Kabul – 9 December 2010

UNAMA: Good morning. Thank you all for coming. Today’s launch of UNAMA's human rights report: Harmful Traditional Practices and Implementation of the Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan coincides with our celebration of International Human Rights Day, which is tomorrow 10 December. Every day, but on International Human Rights Day in particular, we commend the courage, commitment and dedication of all Afghan defenders of human rights and today we pay special tribute to those who defend the rights of Afghanistan women and girls. We are very pleased to have with us today the Deputy Chairman of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, Ahmad Fahim Hakim, who himself and his group are the key defenders of human rights in Afghanistan.

The report we are releasing today - and this is a very important point - represents the voices and views of Afghan men and women on harmful traditional practices. These include forced and child marriage, giving away girls to settle disputes under baad, honour killings and other forms of violence against women.

The report describes the prevalence of these practices; it look at the consequences these practices have on the lives of Afghan women and girls and the community as a whole and it also looks at the efforts of the Afghan Government to address violence against women, in particular the Government's implementation of the 2009 Law of Elimination of Violence Against Women.

This law, also know as the EVAW law came into force in August 2009. It represents a huge gain of legal protection of women's rights, because the law says customs, traditions and practices that cause violence against women, contrary to the religion of Islam, should be eliminated . The law makes it a crime to buy and sell women for marriage, to force a woman to marry without her consent, to force girls to marry when they are underage, and to force girls and women to commit self-immolation - when they set themselves on fire - and a number of other acts.

Now this report that we are releasing today is based on extensive research, direct discussions, and interviews with Afghan men and women, religious leaders, and Government officials, in almost all of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and it is also based on UNAMA human rights monitoring and the follow up of many, many individual cases of harmful traditional practices and violence against women.

What were the findings of our report? First, almost all the Afghan men and women we spoke to said they know there are harmful traditional practices in Afghanistan and they identified practices such as child marriage, forced marriage, baad, honour killings and inheritance of widows, among some other practices.

The second finding is these harmful practices are widespread, occurring in varying degrees in all communities - urban and rural - and among all ethnic groups and these practices have been worsened by more than 30 years of insecurity and poverty.

The next finding is that these practices are rooted in discriminatory views and beliefs of the role and position of women in Afghan society and have caused suffering, pain and humiliation and marginalisation for millions of Afghan women and girls.

For example, on child marriage we found as have other agencies such as UNIFEM, that half of all girls are married under the age of 15 and we were quoted a popular saying in many communities: "If you hit a girl with your hat and she doesn’t fall over, it’s time to marry her.”

And, of course, child marriage has lasting and damaging consequences for women and girls. They are often denied the right to health and education and this is reflected in the fact that Afghanistan has the worst maternal mortality rate in the world.

Our next finding is that often women and girls have no escape from the violence they experience everyday. They suffer physical and mental abuse and many told us that other than running away they have no option but to take that violence.

One very harmful practice that we heard a lot about is baad, which is the giving away of girls to settle disputes. Many of the women told us that instead of the murderer being punished, an innocent girl is punished and she has to spend all her life in slavery and subject to cruel violence. Sometimes she is forced to sleep with the animals in the barn.

Now a little bit of good news is that inspite of the prevalence of these practices, our research, interviews and discussions indicated that many communities are opposed to these harmful practices. One Provincial Council member in the northern region said that these practices can change or decrease over time. People tend to oppose baad even in rural areas have understood the negative consequences and have begun to value female family members.

Before I hand over to my colleague, one other key finding of the report is that many religious scholars and elders told us that many of these harmful practices are inconsistent with Sharia law. The role of religious leaders and community elders and to both continuing and ending these practices is critical.

AIHRC [summarised from Dari]: My colleague has highlighted the main findings. It was actually appalling to see the malpractices and enhanced victimisation of the women in Afghanistan. But to focus on solutions—one of the key players in Afghanistan are the religious elders and the ulemas who can enhance their efforts and awareness-raising of their constituents in mosques and all other available means they have. Since we have been witnessing various patterns of violence against women, it causes young girls and women to leave their houses and commit suicide and self-immolation. These are the shocking consequences of not dealing with violence against women.

Fortunately the implementation of the EVAW law is based on Article 54 of the Constitution to combat those practices that are violating women's and children's rights.

The good news is that now the level of awareness of this issue is being put into practice. In the last couple of days we heard from the Ministry of Interior that they arrested the father-in-law of Bibi Aisha, the lucky victim, who was rescued. For sure we have hundreds of Bibi Aishas in Afghanistan. So, this clearly shows that now our national forces, particularly police, can distinguish to some extent between the victim and the criminal and how to treat them.

Another point that I want to highlight is this misinformation about the effective role of shelters that emanates from a lack of awareness. Those women and girl victims of domestic violence who are forced to leave behind their homes—the only appropriate place for them is shelters not prisons. In the absence of shelters they are treated as criminals and put in prisons. We hope there will be an end to this since Afghanistan is committed to implementing the UN Millennium Development Goals. We hope this report enables the human rights support unit of the Ministry of Justice which was solely established to translate these recommendations into practical steps in terms of laws and official procedures.

UNAMA: One quick point is that ‘running away,’ which was mentioned is not a crime under Afghan law. Yet half of the female prison population in the country is in prison for a moral crime such as running away. That is a shocking statistic. Finally we would like to say that in our view little meaningful and sustainable progress for women's rights can be achieved in Afghanistan as long as women and girls are subject to these practices that harm, degrade, humiliate and deny them basic human rights. Ensuring the human rights of Afghan women is crucial, especially in this current peace, reintegration and reconciliation process and in their access to healthcare, education and employment. There are a lot of safeguards on paper but we all need to see much better implementation. Of course, the report makes a number of key recommendations to the Government, the police, religious community and international donors and we, the human rights community, are urging all these actors to move on these recommendations without delay to save the lives of women and girls. Thank you.

Questions and Answers:
RFE/RL: I wanted to know what you want the Government of Afghanistan to do to prevent violence against women in Afghanistan? Do your findings show that some Afghan law enforcement authorities are unaware of the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law? Many of these officials are unwilling or even unable to implement the law. Why don’t you want to disclose the names of these officials?

UNAMA: As you can see in the report there are 15 recommendations to the Afghan Government including the president. A couple of key ones are for the president to highlight continually that women’s rights are a priority in the peace, reintegration, and reconciliation process and also urging different Government authorities to implement the EVAW law quickly. Seven Government ministries have been tasked under the EVAW law. We are also calling on the authorities to consider ways and means to get these girls detained [for running away] released as quickly as possible.

AIHRC: Regarding your question: why do we not name, I think in this regard there is a need to bring awareness of this issue up and that protection and defense mechanisms should exist. While administrative corruption and impunity is existing in some parts of the administration that could create an additional risk for victims. When these mechanisms are put properly in place then names could be disclosed.

UNAMA: Regarding revealing in a public form the names of different officials who may not be acting properly under the law we have taken much of this information to the authorities we have done this in the areas with the local authorities and discussed getting some changes at those levels in addition, of course, to the highest level we have recommended that the Ministry of Interior, the police, the judges and the courts give out specific instructions, guidelines and supervise the activities of police in this area both at the local level and at the national level.

Saba TV [translated from Dari]: Could you tell us the number or percentage of the increase of violence against women? And tell us the factors behind the increase of violence against women and how the Government is successful against violence against women?

UNAMA: We don’t have a percentage per se. That’s not what is in the report. The whole report says clearly the reasons why this is still happening across the country. There are many factors and I have already described a number of them. The key thing is that those who are committing these practices must be brought to justice. And the communities that are letting this happen need to speak out. And we’ve indicated how they should do that.

BBC: My question was on the last point you made regarding factors of violence against women. These factors are not new. This is not the first time we are hearing this. In the last seven or eight years we have seen many of these reports. Why are you not doing something practically to eradicate that and what has been done to eliminate this violence?

UNAMA: What is new is that there is a new law that came in which is just over a year old. What is also new is that there have been some steps taken under the law to prosecute those who are committing these harmful traditional practices. What is also new is that many, many communities that we spoke to oppose them and many are working and to try and address the attitudes. But what is important is to keep highlighting that there is a problem. You have to keep highlighting issues like this and push to get them fixed.

AIHRC: I highlight that civil society groups, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and UNAMA are not executive bodies, but advocacy ones. They are doing advocacy work and raising the voice of the people. We are keen to enable the Government to fulfill its commitments.

El Mundo: How many shelters are there for women in Afghanistan right now? You said that many women have any no option but to run away?

UNAMA: Regarding the number of shelters there are not many shelters across the country and for a number of reasons - security reasons in particular - we don’t give out numbers. I can help you to find that exact information. The Elimination of Violence Against Women Law and the activities of the Department of Women Affairs at the provincial level are important. The law is designed to help women deal with violence in their home and communities and to get assistance through registering complaints with police and others and to go to shelters. The Department of Women’s Affairs has a key role in making this happen together with various women’s civil society groups. In terms of registering marriages one of our key recommendations if you looked at the report is that two people who are supposed to get married actually go to the registry office in person to be registered. This may be a way to deal with problems with very, very young girls who are getting married. That is addressed in our report.

El Mundo: What about registering?

AIHRC: This is not a common practice. This does happen in some cases. This is our suggestion to have it enforced. Unfortunately the new registration documents are not available to all. Sadly due to corruption and due to bureaucracy it’s time consuming. That’s why they revert to the old practices. That is another concern.

Noorin TV [translated from Dari]: Yesterday we spoke with the Deputy of Minister of Women Affairs who rejected that the fact that there had been an increase in violence against women. She said women had become more aware to their rights. The other main factor is that women have been asked to register if they face any violence. Is that the only reason violence against women has increased? What’s your view on this?

UNAMA: It is a very well known fact that once women feel they can report violence against women the number of reports go up. That’s a well-known fact and that’s a good thing because you want women to go to the court and to register their complaints, to get their complaints investigated and people prosecuted.

Of course the concern is that there are many cases we have heard about where women do not go and register a complaint and who are unable to get out of the situation they are in and use other ways to deal with it like setting themselves on fire or running away. But as we said the good news is there is a lot more awareness that these practices are not only hurting women, but the community as a whole and there have been some steps to deal with them.

Pajwok [translated from Dari]: With regard to the positive aspect of the decrease of violence against women, despite positive signs, why is the participation of women in the Government decreasing and what’s the main reason behind this? And about the implementation of the law of elimination of violence against women how do you think such law will be fully implemented in a country like this?

UNAMA: The report says quite clearly that implementing this law could help to end violence against women, not end all violence against women. Obviously there are all kinds of things that the community and the young men in this room need to do to promote better the rights of women and girls and, as we said in the report, the religious community and religious leaders are really important in all of this. The report is at the side of the room. It is quite a long report but has got a lot of interesting things in it. I urge you to read every word about it.

UNICEF calls for a comprehensive Child Act in Afghanistan

2010-11-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

Kabul, 23 November 2010- Afghanistan needs a comprehensive Child Act fully in line with the provisions and principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In Afghanistan today one in five children die before reaching their fifth birthday - mostly from easily preventable diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia – five million children are still out of school, over three million of whom are girls, and only six percent of children are registered at birth, leaving the great majority without a legal identity, protected and cared for by law.

”We are acutely aware of the difficulties facing the Government of Afghanistan in seeking to fulfill the rights of children in the country, especially in light of the ongoing conflict”, said UNICEF Representative Peter Crowley. “It is the responsibility of the Government of Afghanistan to ensure the existence of a complete legal framework to fully protect all children. UNICEF will continue to assist in that process”.

UNICEF welcomes the several important pieces of legislation and policies that have been developed and adopted since 2002; however inconsistencies remain between national legislation and the provisions of the Convention, as do challenges in ensuring effective implementation. Furthermore, while the Constitution of Afghanistan adopted in 2004 provides for progressive guarantees of international human rights standards, there is little direct reference to the specific rights of children.

It is for these reasons that UNICEF recommends to the Government that it prepare a comprehensive Child Act to encompass the full array of children's rights, backed by the necessary resources for implementation, as well as means to monitor and provide appropriate forms of redress. The Act would supersede all preceding legislation not in line with the Convention, and accord to the Convention a legal status that could be directly invoked within the domestic legal system. Once in place the successful implementation of a Child Act will require the fullest possible ownership and commitment from the senior-most levels of the Government of Afghanistan.

It is clear that legislative and policy frameworks alone will not automatically lead to the effective protection of child rights in Afghanistan. Awareness-raising on children’s rights among the general population will be vital, as will specific training for all relevant professionals with a duty of care towards children, including all law enforcement officials, national security forces, and education and health personnel. Furthermore, the specific integration of child and human rights education into the school curriculum is needed so that all children in Afghanistan understand the rights to which they themselves are entitled.

Finally, despite the efforts already made to ensure the rights of all children, both girls and boys, from all areas of Afghanistan, there continue to be clear disparities among the child population of the country.

Poverty, disabilities, the impact of conflict, gender inequalities and the rural-urban divide all clearly affect access, or the failure of access, to basic education, health and other services. Targeted measures will therefore be required to address all such disparities. Equity considerations must be foremost in all planning and budgeting decisions that impact the welfare of children whoever they are and wherever they may live in the country.

UNICEF

NATO summit must protect basic human rights in Afghanistan

2010-11-22T09:58:00.000-08:00

Amnesty International has urged NATO leaders to protect human rights and ensure security for the people of Afghanistan as they prepare for the 2010 NATO Lisbon Summit.

The organization has sent letters to NATO leaders urging them to improve accountability for Afghan and international military forces, tackle arbitrary detention and torture and ensure human rights guarantees during any talks with the Taleban.

"As NATO begins to discuss its withdrawal from Afghanistan, it's crucial to explain to the Afghan people exactly how the international community will follow through on its promise to protect and promote their human rights," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Programme Director.

"These promises seem about to be discarded without fanfare, but the need for improving the human rights situation in Afghanistan is even more urgent now."

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that the 2010 Summit will mark a fundamentally new phase in NATO's operation in Afghanistan, as Allies will launch the process by which the Afghan government will take the lead for security throughout the country.

In letters to NATO leaders, Amnesty International has identified three concrete steps to improve governance, uphold the rule of law and human rights that would enhance security and stability for the Afghan people.

1. Improve the accountability of international and Afghan military and security forces
The Taleban and other insurgent groups are responsible for the vast majority of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, but that does not excuse the continuing lack of accountability and compensation for casualties caused by NATO and Afghan forces.

The current lack of accountability fuels and fosters resentment among Afghans that international forces are above the law and unaccountable for their actions, particularly when it comes to civilian casualties.

NATO continues to lack a coherent, credible mechanism for investigating civilian casualties. Non-binding guidelines adopted in June 2010 by NATO regarding civilian compensation need to be implemented as part of the existing rules of engagement.

2. Ensure no arbitrary detention or transfers to torture
The United States continues to arrest and detain hundreds of Afghans without proper judicial process. NATO countries continue to hand over detainees to the Afghan intelligence agency, National Directorate for Security (NDS), which has record of perpetrating human rights violations, with impunity.

The increase in the scope of fighting in Afghanistan as a result of the troop surge earlier this year is likely to lead to a rise in the number of people detained. The US government should immediately grant all detainees held by US, whether in Bagram, Guantánamo Bay or any other US detention facility, access to legal counsel, relatives, doctors, and to consular representatives, without delay and regularly thereafter.

The Afghan government and its international partners should seek mechanisms to ensure fair trials for those in detention, including the option of mixed tribunals to try those apprehended in counter-insurgency operations by either Afghan or international forces.

3. Guarantee human rights protections during reconciliation talks with the Taleban
Amnesty International calls on delegates to the NATO Summit to ensure that human rights, including women’s rights, are not traded away or compromised during any political process, including reconciliation talks with the Taleban in Afghanistan and that, in line with the demands of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, Afghan women are meaningfully represented in the planning stages and during the reconciliation talks.

"The implementation of these three steps would help signal that the interests of the Afghan people are the focus of the NATO governments and the international community," said Sam Zarifi.

The NATO Summit will convene in Lisbon on 18-19 November 2010. The Summit provides members with the opportunity to evaluate and shape the strategic direction for NATO activities, launch major new initiatives and forge partnerships with non-NATO countries. There have only been 24 Summits since NATO was established in 1949.

Amnesty

British doctor feared among 10 dead in Afghanistan ambush

2010-08-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

Bodies of western medical team and two Afghan interpreters found in Badakhshan province near their bullet-riddled vehicle

Jon Boone in Kabul
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 7 August 2010 15.18 BST
Article history

Karen Woo, the British doctor believed to have been killed in Afghanistan when a medical aid expedition was ambushed.

A female British doctor is understood to be among at least 10 people murdered by gunmen in the far north of Afghanistan on Friday.

The group included eight foreigners – one of them a Briton – six Americans and a German working for a project run by a small Christian aid organisation called International Assistance Mission (IAM).

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility saying the attack was on "Christian missionaries" who were carrying bibles. It is possible the Taliban were simply exploiting early media reports about killings they in fact had nothing to do with.

A British doctor called Karen Woo was known to be on the expedition and played a major part in organising it, including by running fundraising events in London and Kabul to pay for the "Nuristan Medical Expedition 2010".

Woo, from London, had established an organisation called Bridge Afghanistan to help run medical projects in the country.

Writing on the expedition's Facebook page, Woo described herself as the team doctor and said she would run the mother and child clinics inside Nuristan. She wrote that the team also included an eye doctor and a dental surgeon.

According to IAM the group were returning from a several week long trip to provide basic health in a remote area of Nuristan province when they were attacked by gunmen in a forested area of Badakhshan, the most north-eastern of Afghanistan's provinces.

Their bullet-riddled bodies were discovered by local officials on Friday next to three shot-up vehicles.

Dirk Frans, the director of the Christian organisation, said IAM had last been contacted by the group via satellite phone on Wednesday.

In a short statement on its website, the organisation said the victims were likely working on the organisation's "eye camp team" project in Nuristan at the invitation of local communities and were returning to Kabul when they were attacked.

"At this stage we do not have many details but our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who are presumed killed. If these reports are confirmed we object to this senseless killing of people who have done nothing but serve the poor. Some of the foreigners have worked alongside the Afghan people for decades."

General Agha Noor Kemtuz, the local police chief, told the Observer they were having lunch in heavily forested area at around 2pm when around 10 gunmen arrived and took all their money before shooting them one by one.

"They had been warned by locals not to stay in the forest because it is not safe," he said.

He said the only surviving member of the party was an Afghan man called Safiullah whose life was saved after he desperately recited passages from the Koran as the gunmen were executing the other people.

General Kemtuz said there had been 11 people in the party including three Afghans and eight foreigners.

Whilst the US embassy confirmed it believed several Americans were among the dead, the British embassy was unable to confirm whether any British citizens were killed.

"We are aware of the reports and are actively investigating them with local authorities and others in country," a spokeswoman for the embassy said.

Woo described the trip into the remote area of Nuristan in gruelling terms, saying much of it would be done on foot and with pack horses, travelling 120 miles and climbing 16,000ft at one point.

"The expedition will require a lot of physical and mental resolve and will not be without risk but ultimately, I believe that the provision of medical treatment is of fundamental importance and that the effort is worth it in order to assist those that need it most," she wrote.

With local officials reporting that almost everything of value was removed from the vehicles, it is widely assumed that robbery was the main motivation for the attackers.

However, a spokesman for the Taliban told the Associated Press that the hardline insurgent movement killed the group because they were "preaching Christianity" and "spying for the Americans".

The NGO, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 1966, describes itself as a non-profit Christian organisation that works on health projects and economic development.

However, there are many such Christian aid organisations operating in Afghanistan all of whom take enormous care not to be seen to be proselytising or seeking to convert Afghans. Such allegations, including some in May against Norwegian Church Aid, can quickly stir up enormous public controversy.

Ethnic Cleansing in Afghanistan in a Vedio

2010-07-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

Kabulpress.org was notified today of this video on YouTube. Taped by Mr. Mohammad Ahmadi in the Hazara area of Behshood, Afghanistan, the video shows a pick-up truck piled high with goods looted from the Hazara homes in the background.

Note that the goods include rugs, appliances, and large sacks of grain— all valuable items that can be re-sold. On the ground, clothing and other items have been strewn in the dirt. The goal is to discourage Hazara, who fled attacks that have led to many dead and wounded, from returning to their homes.

The Hazara people have lived in Behsood for at least 3,000 years, but their Asian roots and beliefs, stemming more from Buddhism than Islam have made them continual targets of Pashtuns. Hazara culture promotes democracy, equal justice, women’s rights and education for all, which has been a great problem with the autocratic Taliban supporters and fundamentalist Muslims, who have been intent on dispersing millions of Hazara and weakening their influence in modern Afghanistan.
This is of special import to the Obama Administration, the U.S. Army, and the families of the 100,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, because the Hazara are the most solid supporters of America’s anti-terrorist, anti-drug trafficking, and anti-corruption efforts in Afghanistan.

As the Hazara are disenfranchised, having their land and personal property destroyed and stolen, their homes burned, and their loved ones murdered, the U.S. is losing the most important foundation for building a just peace in Afghanistan.

Kabulpress.org hopes that U.S. officials, including Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Eikenberry, and President Obama recognize the ethnic cleansing that is occurring, with the consent of the Afghan National Army, and that Hamid Karzai and the Afghan government take immediate actions to prevent it and provide restitution and justice.

Taliban Kill 9 Members of Minority in Ambush

2010-06-30T02:59:00.000-07:00

KABUL, Afghanistan — At least nine Hazara men have been killed in an ambush in a remote area of central Afghanistan that is largely controlled by the Taliban, the police and a local representative of the Afghan intelligence service said Friday.

The area where the attack took place is dominated by Pashtuns, the same as the
Taliban, while the victims were Hazaras, an Afghan ethnic minority who fought
the Taliban when they were in power. The Taliban took responsibility for the
attack late Friday.

On Thursday, the Hazaras had come to the district center of Khas Uruzguan; they were ambushed as they were driving home in the early evening, said Juma Gul Himat, the provincial police chief. The attack occurred in a mountainous part of southeastern Uruguan Province that is not under government control, according to Afghan security officials.
Afghan law enforcement officials said they believed that the ambush and assassination took place because the Hazaras are viewed as spies and informants to NATO troops and Special Operations forces in the area.
Mr. Himat said he understood that the Taliban had accused the Hazara men of being spies for the NATO coalition. Many interpreters for NATO and Special Operations forces are Hazaras, according to the police chief and the intelligence representative.
About two weeks ago, Special Operations forces working with Afghan commandos raided a house in the area where mostly Hazaras live, but where there are also scattered Pashtun families. The Special Operations forces and the Afghan commandos killed several militants and three brothers of a Taliban commander who were all in the house, said the intelligence representative. Afterward, someone told the Taliban that it was Hazaras that had tipped off the Special Operations forces about the house.
Although there were reports that the men were beheaded, the area is so remote that both Mr. Himat and the intelligence representatives said they had not been able to verify the account. One man survived the attack, but they had not yet spoken to him, Afghan security officials said.
“We have not seen the bodies, but we have reports that some were shot, some were stabbed and some of their bodies were mangled, in pieces,” the national intelligence representative said.
The Taliban took responsibility for the attack late Friday in a text message sent to journalists, saying they had killed 10 village elders because they were trying to form a traditional local militia known as an arbiqui. However, they denied beheading them.
“For the last two years, we have been telling them not to form arbiquis,” said a Taliban spokesman, Qari Youssef Ahmadi, reached by telephone. “And they have not heeded our advice, and we finally decided to take action against them. And yesterday they went to Khas Uruzguan and met with district officials and some foreigners, and on the way back they were ambushed and were killed.”
Three NATO servicemen were also killed Friday, according to a statement from the NATO spokesman here. One died in a homemade bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, while two others died in attacks in eastern Afghanistan. A fourth was killed Thursday by a homemade bomb in southern Afghanistan.
Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan.
NYT

Pakistan: Massacre of Minority Ahmadis

2010-06-08T05:01:00.000-07:00

(New York) – Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments should take immediate legal action against Islamist extremist groups responsible for threats and violence against the minority Ahmadiyya religious community, Human Rights Watch said today.

On May 28, 2010, extremist Islamist militants attacked two Ahmadiyya mosques in the central Pakistani city of Lahore with guns, grenades, and suicide bombs, killing 94 people and injuring well over a hundred. Twenty-seven people were killed at the Baitul Nur Mosque in the Model Town area of Lahore; 67 were killed at the Darul Zikr mosque in the suburb of Garhi Shahu. The Punjabi Taliban, a local affiliate of the Pakistani Taliban, called the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility.

On the night of May 31, unidentified gunmen attacked the Intensive Care Unit of Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital, where victims and one of the alleged attackers in Friday's attacks were under treatment, sparking a shootout in which at least a further 12 people, mostly police officers and hospital staff, were killed. The assailants succeeded in escaping.

“The mosque attacks and the subsequent attack on the hospital, amid rising sectarian violence, underscore the vulnerability of the Ahmadi community,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government’s failure to address religious persecution by Islamist groups effectively enables such atrocities.”

The US Department of State annual report on human rights recorded the killing of 11 Ahmadis for their faith in 2009.

Human Rights Watch called on Pakistan's government to immediately introduce legislation in parliament to repeal laws discriminating against religious minorities such as the Ahmadis, including the penal statute that makes capital punishment mandatory for “blasphemy.”

Human Rights Watch also urged the government of Punjab province, controlled by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party, to investigate and prosecute as appropriate campaigns of intimidation, threats, and violence against the Ahmadiyya community by Islamist groups such as the Sunni Tehrik, Tehrik-e-Tahafaz-e-Naomoos-e-Risalat, Khatm-e-Nabuwat and other groups acting under the Taliban’s umbrella. Leaders of these groups have frequently threatened to kill Ahmadis and attack the mosques where the killings took place. The anti-Ahmadiyya campaign has intensified in the past year, exemplified by the government allowing groups to place banners seeking the death of “Qadianis” (a derogatory term for Ahmadis) on the main thoroughfares of Lahore.

The independent, non-governmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Ahmadi community leaders told Human Rights Watch that they had repeatedly brought these threats to the notice of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the provincial government, and the police controlled by the provincial authorities, and that they had asked for enhanced security for Ahmadiyya mosques given their vulnerability to attack. However, Human Rights Watch research found that the provincial government failed to act on the evidence or to ensure meaningful security to the mosques.

On May 30, Zaeem Qadri, advisor to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, said in an interview on Dunya TV that the provincial government had failed to remove the threatening banners from the city’s thoroughfares in order to prevent “adverse reaction against the government” by the groups responsible. On the same day, a Taliban statement “congratulated” Pakistanis for the attacks, calling people from the Ahmadiyya and Shia communities “the enemies of Islam and common people” and urging Pakistanis to take the “initiative” and kill every such person “in range.

“The Punjab government is either in denial about threats to Ahmadis and other minorities or is following a policy of willful discrimination,” said Hasan. “The Punjab government’s law enforcement authorities need to dispense with traditional prejudices and proactively protect heterodox communities like the Ahmadis, who now are in clear and serious danger from both the Taliban and sectarian militant groups historically supported by the state. ”

Founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Ahmadiyya community is a religious group that identifies itself as Muslim. Estimates suggest at least two million Ahmadis live in Pakistan. Ahmadis differ with other Muslims over the exact definition of Prophet Mohammad being the “final” monotheist prophet. Many Muslims consider the Ahmadiyya to be non-Muslims.

The persecution of the Ahmadiyya community is wholly legalized, even encouraged, by the Pakistani government. Pakistan’s penal code explicitly discriminates against religious minorities and targets Ahmadis in particular by prohibiting them from “indirectly or directly posing as a Muslim.” Ahmadis are prohibited from declaring or propagating their faith publicly, building mosques or even referring to them as such, or making the call for Muslim prayer.

Pakistan’s “Blasphemy Law,” as section 295-C of the Penal Code is known, makes the death penalty mandatory for blasphemy. Under this law, the Ahmadiyya belief in the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is considered blasphemous insofar as it “defiles the name of Prophet Muhammad.” In 2009, at least 50 Ahmadis were charged under various provisions of the blasphemy law across Pakistan. Many of these individuals remain imprisoned.

Since the military government of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq unleashed a wave of persecution in the 1980s, violence against the Ahmadiyya community has never really ceased. Ahmadis continue to be killed and injured, and have their homes and businesses burned down in anti-Ahmadi attacks. The authorities continue to arrest, jail and charge Ahmadis for blasphemy and other offenses because of their religious beliefs. In several instances, the police have been complicit in harassment and the framing of false charges against Ahmadis, or stood by in the face of anti-Ahmadi violence.

“Ahmadis unfortunately become easy targets in times of religious and political insecurity,” said Hasan. “The Pakistani government has emboldened the extremists by failing to take action. It needs to repeal the laws used to persecute Ahmadis, and it must prosecute those responsible for anti-Ahmadi intimidation and violence.”

However, the government seldom brings charges against perpetrators of anti-Ahmadi violence and discrimination. Research by Human Rights Watch indicates that the police have failed to apprehend anyone implicated in such activity in the last several years.

Since 2000, an estimated 400 Ahmadis have been formally charged in criminal cases, including blasphemy. Several have been convicted and face life imprisonment or death sentences pending appeal. The offenses charged included wearing an Islamic slogan on a shirt, planning to build an Ahmadi mosque in Lahore, and distributing Ahmadi literature in a public square. As a result, thousands of Ahmadis have fled Pakistan to seek asylum in countries including Canada and the United States.

Human Rights Watch said that the Pakistani government continues to actively encourage legal and procedural discrimination against Ahmadis. For example, all Pakistani Muslim citizens applying for passports are obliged to sign a statement explicitly stating that they consider the founder of the Ahmadi community an “imposter” and consider Ahmadis to be non-Muslims.

“Under Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law, virtually any public act of worship or devotion by an Ahmadi can be treated as a criminal offense,” said Hasan “Ahmadis could be sentenced to death for simply professing their faith.”

Human Rights Watch urged concerned governments and inter-governmental bodies to press the Pakistani government to:

Repeal the Blasphemy Law;
Prosecute those responsible for harassing, and planning and executing attacks against the Ahmadiyya and other minorities; and
Take steps to encourage religious tolerance within Pakistani society.

“Pakistan’s continued use of its blasphemy law against Ahamdis and other religious minorities is despicable,” said Hasan. “As long as such laws remain on the books, Pakistan will remain a laboratory for abuse in the name of religion.”

Background on the Ahmadiyya community

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the official name of the community, is a contemporary messianic movement founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839–1908), who was born in the Punjabi village of Qadian, now in India. The relevant discriminatory laws in the Pakistani constitution and extremist Islamist groups derogatorily refer to the Ahmadiyya community as the “Qadiani” community, a term derived from the birthplace of the founder of the movement. In 1889, Ahmad declared that he had received divine revelation authorizing him to accept the baya’ah, or allegiance of the faithful. In 1891, he claimed to be the expected mahdi or messiah of the latter days, the “Awaited One” of the monotheist community of religions, and the messiah foretold by the Prophet Mohammed. Ahmad described his teachings, incorporating both Sufi and orthodox Islamic and Christian elements, as an attempt to revitalize Islam in the face of the British Raj, proselytizing Protestant Christianity, and resurgent Hinduism. Thus, the Ahmadiyya community believes that Ahmad conceived the community as a revivalist movement within Islam and not as a new religion.

Members of the Ahmadiyya community (“Ahmadis”) profess to be Muslims. They contend that Ahmad meant to revive the true spirit and message of Islam that the Prophet Mohammed introduced and preached. Virtually all mainstream Muslim sects believe that Ahmad proclaimed himself as a prophet, thereby rejecting a fundamental tenet of Islam: Khatme Nabuwat (literally, the belief in the “finality of prophethood” – that the Prophet Mohammed was the last of the line of prophets leading back through Jesus, Moses, and Abraham). Ahmadis respond that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a non-law-bearing prophet subordinate in status to Prophet Mohammed; he came to illuminate and reform Islam, as predicted by Prophet Mohammed. For Ahmad and his followers, the Arabic Khatme Nabuwat does not refer to the finality of prophethood in a literal sense – that is, to prophethood’s chronological cessation – but rather to its culmination and exemplification in the Prophet Mohammed. Ahmadis believe that “finality” in a chronological sense is a worldly concept, whereas “finality” in a metaphoric sense carries much more spiritual significance.

The exact size of the Ahmadiyya community worldwide is unclear, but estimates suggest they number under 10 million, mostly concentrated in India and Pakistan but also present in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Europe, and North America.

Background on persecution of the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan

The Ahmadiyya community has long been persecuted in Pakistan. Since 1953, when the first post-independence anti-Ahmadiyya riots broke out, the relatively small Ahmadi community in Pakistan has lived under threat. Between 1953 and 1973, this persecution was sporadic but, in 1974, a new wave of anti-Ahmadi disturbances spread across Pakistan. In response, Pakistan’s parliament introduced amendments to the constitution which defined the term “Muslim” in the Pakistani context and listed groups that were deemed to be non-Muslim under Pakistani law. Put into effect on September 6, 1974, the amendment explicitly deprived Ahmadis of their identity as Muslims.

In 1984, Pakistan’s penal code was amended yet again. As a result of these amendments, five ordinances that explicitly targeted religious minorities acquired legal status: a law against blasphemy; a law punishing the defiling of the Quran; a prohibition against insulting the wives, family, or companions of the Prophet of Islam; and two laws specifically restricting the activities of Ahmadis. On April 26, 1984, Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq issued these last two laws as part of Martial Law Ordinance XX, which amended Pakistan’s Penal Code, sections 298-B and 298-C.

Ordinance XX undercut the activities of religious minorities generally, but struck at Ahmadis in particular by prohibiting them from “indirectly or directly posing as a Muslim.” Ahmadis thus could no longer profess their faith, either orally or in writing. Pakistani police destroyed Ahmadi translations of and commentaries on the Quran and banned Ahmadi publications, the use of any Islamic terminology on Ahmadi wedding invitations, the offering of Ahmadi funeral prayers, and the displaying of the Kalima (the statement that “there is no god but Allah, Mohammed is Allah’s prophet,” the principal creed of Muslims) on Ahmadi gravestones. In addition, Ordinance XX prohibited Ahmadis from declaring their faith publicly, propagating their faith, building mosques, or making the call for Muslim prayer. In short, virtually any public act of worship or devotion by an Ahmadi could be treated as a criminal offense.

With the passage of the Criminal Law Act of 1986, parliament added section 295-C to the Pakistan Penal Code. The “Blasphemy Law,” as it came to be known, made the death penalty mandatory for blasphemy. General Zia-ul-Haq and his military government institutionalized the persecution of Ahmadis as well as other minorities in Pakistan with section 295-C. The Ahmadi belief in the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was now considered blasphemous insofar as it “defiled the name of Prophet Muhammad.” Therefore, theoretically, Ahmadis could be sentenced to death for simply professing their faith. Though the numbers vary from year to year, Ahmadis have been charged every year under the Blasphemy laws since their introduction.

In 2009, at least 37 Ahmadis were charged under the general provisions of the Blasphemy Law and over 50 were charged under Ahmadi-specific provisions of the law. For example, in January 2009, five Ahmadis, including four children, were charged with blasphemy in Layyah district of Punjab province. The children were released after being jailed for six months. In July 2009, activists of the Sunni Tehreek, a militant group, staged protests until the local police in Faisalabad district of Punjab province agreed to register blasphemy cases against 32 Ahmadis for writing Quranic verses on the outer walls of their houses. The police registered cases against them under sections 295-A and 295-C. Throughout 2009, Ahmadi graveyards were threatened with desecration, and Ahmadi mosques continued to receive threats. In 2008, at least 15 Ahmadis were charged under various provisions of the Blasphemy Law. In addition to blasphemy charges, Ahmadis have sporadically come under physical attack. For example, in June 2006, a mob burned down Ahmadi shops and homes in Jhando Sahi village near the town of Daska in Punjab province, forcing more than 100 Ahmadis to flee. The police, though present at the scene, failed to intervene or arrest any of the culprits. However, the authorities charged seven Ahmadis under the blasphemy law. The Ahmadis subsequently returned to their homes. In October 2005, masked gunmen attacked Ahmadi worshippers in a mosque in the near the town of Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab province. Eight Ahmadis were killed and 18 injured in the attack. The perpetrators remain at large.

Human Rights watch

UN Criticises CIA Drone Attacks

2010-06-05T03:18:00.000-07:00

A UN human rights expert has criticised the US government's covert program to use unmanned drones to strike terrorists inside Pakistan

The attacks are not likely to stop or change, despite the criticism from the UN.

US officials insist the CIA program has been an effective tool to take out insurgents along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, particularly those hidden beyond the reach of the military.

The stepped-up use of drones over the past year has shown no signs of slowing down and was credited earlier this week with the killing inside Pakistan of al-Qaida's third in command.

The Obama administration does not acknowledge the secret program, but one senior US official defended its use Wednesday, saying a careful and rigorous targeting process is used to avoid civilian casualties.

The program, which officials say has killed hundreds of insurgents in dozens of strikes over the past year, has been condemned by critics who say it may constitute illegal assassinations and violate international law.

In a 29-page report released Wednesday, Philip Alston, the independent UN investigator on extrajudicial killings, called on countries to lay out rules for carrying out such strikes.

Quqnoos

Kabul Car Bomb Targets U.S. Convoy

2010-05-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

KABUL, Afghanistan—At least 18 people, including six coalition-force members, were killed and almost 50 were wounded when a suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. military convoy outside an Afghan military-recruitment center in Kabul Tuesday morning, police officials said.

A spokesman from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said six "international service members were killed and several wounded" in the attack. 21 Afghan civilians were killed too.
Gen. Khalil Dastyar, the deputy police chief of Kabul, said the dead NATO members were American as one of the six was a Canadian colonel, the highest-ranking Canadian killed since the country's Afghan mission began in 2002.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack, saying that a car loaded with 550 kilograms of explosives rammed into a U.S. convoy at about 8:30 a.m. local time. The blast destroyed at least 12 civilian vehicles, one of them a bus. NATO said five of its vehicles were damaged.

The bomber targeted a small convoy of U.S. military vehicles moving along the road near the recruitment center, officials said. The road also skirts a U.S. military base, Camp Julien, that hosts a counterinsurgency training academy for Afghan and U.S. military personnel.

"Today's attack was part of the Al Fatah operation, and we will continue attacking foreigners and government security forces and their associates," Mr. Mujahid said.

Earlier this month, the Taliban announced the launch of a spring offensive called Al Fatah, Arabic for "to conquer" or "victory." The Taliban said the offensive would besiege Afghanistan's major cities, and target the diplomats and infrastructure of both the Afghan government and NATO.

The Taliban's ability to strike in the capital underscores the insurgents' potency as coalition forces seek to oust them from the southern city of Marjah and are gearing up for a campaign to secure Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland.

The death toll from the attack could rise, according to an official. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said the "death toll is unclear" because officials are still checking hospitals. He said it had been weeks since the last attack in the capital.

Press Freedom Day

2010-05-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

This World Press Freedom Day, whose theme is Freedom of Information, offers us an occasion to remember the importance of our right to know.

Freedom of Information is the principle that organisations and governments have a duty to share or provide ready access to information they hold, to anyone who wants it, based on the public’s right to be informed.

The right to know is central for upholding other basic rights, for furthering transparency, justice and development. Hand-in-hand with the complementary notion of freedom of expression, it underpins democracy.

We may not consciously exercise our right to know. But each time we pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV or radio news, or go on the Internet, the quality of what we see or hear depends on these media having access to accurate and up to date information.

Obstacles in the way of our right to know take many forms, from a lack of resources and inadequate infrastructure to deliberate obstruction.

Far too many journalists exercise their profession in an environment where restrictions on information are the norm, where dealing with pressure, harassment intimidation or even physical assault are all in a day’s work.

Last year UNESCO condemned the killing of 77 journalists. For the most part these were not war casualties but local reporters covering local stories.

I invite all those commemorating World Press Freedom Day around the globe to observe a minute of silence: to remember those whom it is too late to help; to honour the journalists who paid with their lives for our right to know.

But today let us also acknowledge the significant advances that have been made.

More and more countries around the world are adopting freedom of information legislation. This makes it easier to scrutinize government actions, and it reinforces public accountability.

Meanwhile faster and cheaper technology means that more people in the world have ready access to information from outside their immediate environment than ever before.

Now is the time for us to capitalise on these advances, by strengthening institutions, by providing the necessary training for information professionals, by fostering greater open-ness within our public sectors and greater awareness among the public.

I call on governments, civil society, the news media and individuals everywhere to join forces with UNESCO in promoting Freedom of Information all over the world.

Stabilization or crisis in Kandahar?

2010-04-19T02:57:00.000-07:00

A week ago I was in Kandahar, a city at the center of the conflict in Afghanistan. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has said that Kandahar will follow the recent offensive in Marjah, Helmand, just next door, in June as the next stage of operations. He has suggested that a "win" there would turn the tide in Afghanistan.
Such a message should be a relief to citizens in Kandahar, who have long been working and living on the frontlines, their city a daily battleground for control between insurgents, the internationally-backed Afghan government, and criminal militias. But for many of the civilians I spoke to, the prospect of further operations in Kandahar inspires terror.
Though the operations in Marjah were touted as a success, particularly to the extent that they limited civilian casualties, citizens in Kandahar have a different view. They saw the thousands of refugees from Helmand fleeing to Kandahar, the vast majority still living in squalid camps on the outskirts of Kandahar or Lashkar Gah with barely enough food and shelter to survive, and unable to return because their communities are heavily mined, and still infiltrated by Taliban engaged in retaliatory abuses against the population.
The sad thing is that such experiences are not foreign to Kandaharis. The focal point of the conflict for the last several years, Kandaharis have seen time and again that when conflict comes to their doors, they are largely left to their own devices to pick up the pieces. There are humanitarian agencies operating in Kandahar, but with limited access due to security, and a shortfall of resources given the scope of the humanitarian crisis in the south. Not only does Kandahar have its own victims of the conflict to deal with, but it also serves the millions of conflict-affected civilians across the volatile southern region seeking urgent medical care or refuge from fighting.
Kandaharis expect the situation will only get worse with promises of fresh coalition operations. If insurgents plant even a fraction of the IEDs that were planted in Marjah in the Kandahar City area, they will cause immediate harm to civilians and cut off what is for many in the south the last resort for humanitarian care.
Since General McChrystal took charge last July, there has been a renewed focus on protecting the Afghan population in conflict areas. The new counterinsurgency logic is that only by stabilizing communities can you deny the insurgents a safe haven. U.S. and NATO forces have implemented this 1) by restraining force activities likely to cause harm, and 2) by trying to support governance, rule of law, and other "stabilization" activities once operations have happened.
These are both important steps, but they are not enough to stabilize the south. First, protecting the population means not harming the population. It also means ensuring that no one else harms the population either. So far, the internationally-backed Afghan government has not been able to guarantee that: not in Marjah, not in Kandahar, not in other "focal" points for operations.
Second, good governance and rule of law can only go so far when the most basic humanitarian needs of a population are not met. Civilians who are struggling for basic shelter, food, and medical care for months at a time are not going to be "stabilized" by the announcement of new governors or the development of civilian control centers. Law and order is necessary for long term stability -- but in the short term, expecting civilians who have been on a race for basic survival for the last few years to pick themselves up and rebuild without any assistance simply will not happen.
Unless greater attention is given to the basic security and humanitarian dilemmas that civilians in Kandahar face daily, new operations there cannot succeed.
Erica Gaston is a human rights lawyer based in Kabul, Afghanistan, consulting on civilian casualties issues for the Open Society Institute.
AFPAK

Civilians Killed as U.S. Troops Fire on Afghan Bus

2010-04-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

KABUL, Afghanistan — American troops raked a large passenger bus with gunfire near Kandahar on Monday morning, killing and wounding civilians, and igniting angry anti-American demonstrations in a city where winning over Afghan support is pivotal to the war effort.
The shooting, which killed as many as five civilians and wounded 18, occurred on the eve of the most important offensive of the war. In coming weeks thousands of American, NATO and Afghan troops are expected to try to take control of the Kandahar region, the spiritual home of the Taliban.
It was the latest case in which NATO or American forces fired on and killed civilians near a checkpoint or military convoy because they were perceived to have come too close or to be approaching too fast.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has made reducing civilian casualties a priority, and they have gone down over the last year. But checkpoint and convoy shootings have not declined, worrying commanders who believe that such killings are turning Afghans against foreign forces.
Monday’s shooting demonstrated those concerns. Afterward, hundreds of demonstrators poured into the area around a bus station where the damaged bus was taken on the western outskirts of Kandahar.
They blocked the road with burning tires for an hour and shouted, “Death to America!” and “Death to infidels!” while condemning the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, according to people there.
The American-led military command in Kabul called the killings a “tragic loss of life” and said that troops fired in the early morning light not knowing that the vehicle was a passenger bus and believing that it posed a threat to a military convoy clearing bombs from a highway.
But there were disputes over details including the number of dead, the relative positions of the convoys, and how the troops could not have understood that the vehicle was a passenger bus.
It was also unclear whether the troops had first shot flares and warned the driver to stay back, as military rules typically require. NATO said they did.
The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa, called for the commander of the military convoy that opened fire to be prosecuted under military law.
“If you want to stop the bus, it should be shot in the tires,” Mr. Wesa said. “Why shoot the people inside?”
Mr. Karzai, whose relationship with the United States has been particularly fraught in recent weeks, called the shooting “unjustifiable” and said that “firing on a passenger bus is against the NATO commitment to save civilian lives.”
More than 30 people have been killed and 80 wounded in convoy and checkpoint shootings since last summer, but not one of the people killed was found to have been a threat, military officials say.
The shooting near Kandahar occurred just after daybreak, as the bus was taking scores of passengers to Nimruz Province, said Zalmy Ayoubi, a spokesman for Governor Wesa.
Two people who had been on the bus said that an American convoy 60 to 70 yards ahead opened fire as the bus began to pull to the side of the road to allow another military convoy to pass from behind.
“An American convoy was ahead of us and another convoy was following us, and we were going to pull off of the road, and suddenly the Americans opened fire,” said one, Nida Muhammad, a passenger who suffered a shoulder wound.
“We were not close to them, maybe 60 yards away from their convoy,” Mr. Muhammad said. A helicopter came for some wounded, he said.
“This bus wasn’t like a suicide bomber, and we did not touch or come close to the convoy,” he said. “It seems they are opening fire on civilians intentionally.”
The two convoys and the bus were on the main highway in the Zhari district, west of the city of Kandahar. The windows on one side of the bus were shot out.
Governor Wesa and his spokesman said five civilians were killed and 18 wounded. The governor blamed American forces and said a dozen of the wounded were in serious condition.
A statement issued by the American-led military command in Kabul said that four people were killed. It said “an unknown, large vehicle” drove “at a high rate of speed” toward a slow-moving NATO convoy that was clearing mines.
The convoy could not move aside because of a steep embankment. Troops used a flashlight and three flares to try to warn the driver.
“Perceiving a threat when the vehicle approached once more at an increased rate of speed, the patrol attempted to warn off the vehicle with hand signals prior to firing upon it,” the statement said. “Once engaged, the vehicle then stopped.”
“Upon inspection,” it said, NATO forces “discovered the vehicle to be a passenger bus.”
A military spokeswoman confirmed that a convoy traveling west, in front of the bus, opened fire, but said the second convoy was traveling east toward the passenger bus. She also said the driver of the bus was killed.
A survivor, however, identified himself as the driver and said he did not violate any signal from the troops. “I was going to take the bus off the road,” said the man, Mohammed Nabi. Then the convoy ahead opened fire from 60 to 70 yards away, he said.
“It is a huge bus full of passengers, and if they think we were a suicide bomber, we are sad that the Americans have killed innocent people,” he said. “We don’t feel safe while traveling on the main highways anymore because of NATO convoys.”
General McChrystal has sought to emphasize to troops how such cases undermine Afghan support. But he has also stressed his sympathy for troops who have to make critical decisions in an instant.
“We really ask a lot of our young service people out on checkpoints because there’s danger, they’re asked to make very rapid decisions in often very unclear situations,” he told troops in a video conference last month.
“However, to my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I’ve been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it.”
Underscoring the instability in Kandahar, hours after the bus shooting, three suicide bombers attacked the Kandahar office of the Afghan intelligence service. Four officials and five civilians were wounded, Governor Wesa said, while two of the bombers died and the third was captured.
NYtimes

Report on the Human Rights Dimension of Poverty in Afghanistan.

2010-03-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

OHCHR (NORAH NILAND): Today, on behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, I am launching a report on the Human Rights Dimension of Poverty in Afghanistan. We are all aware that Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. One third of its population lives in absolute poverty. Afghanistan I think you also know has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world. This means that 25,000 women die each year because of complications associated with giving birth. This is the highest single cause of death in Afghanistan. Only 23 per cent of Afghans has access to safe drinking water. Only 24 per cent of the population above the age of 15 can read and write, and of course with much lower literacy rates among women and nomadic populations. According to UNICEF, 30 per cent of primary school children are working and are often the sole source of income for their families. Poverty kills. Poverty actually kills more Afghans than those who die as a direct result of the armed conflict. Poverty deprives two-thirds of the Afghan population from living a decent and dignified life – this includes the inability to enjoy their most basic and fundamental rights, such as getting an education or having access to health services. But who are the poor in Afghanistan and why are they poor? Statistics tend to hide the root causes of poverty. Statistics also tend to focus our attention to the consequences rather than causes of widespread impoverishment. As elsewhere in the world, poverty is multi-dimensional and can be traced to different sources and processes. Poverty is neither accidental, nor inevitable; it is both a cause and a consequence of a massive human rights deficit. The deficit includes widespread impunity and inadequate investment in, and attention to, human rights. Patronage, corruption, impunity and over-emphasis on short-term goals rather than targeted long-term development are exacerbating a situation of dire poverty that is the condition of an overwhelming majority of Afghans.
A human rights angle offers a complementary approach to existing poverty reduction strategies. The High Commissioner’s report concludes that sustainable poverty reduction is dependent on efforts that roll back abusive power structures. Vested interests in this country frequently shape the public agenda, whether in relation to the law, policy, or the allocation of resources. The High Commissioner’s report also argues that the poor must be at the centre of decision-making processes that affect their life. The poor need to be empowered to make free and informed choices about their future; they need to be involved, in a meaningful way, in efforts geared to overcoming poverty. The report calls on the Government of Afghanistan and its international partners to strengthen development policy and to implement strategies that adopt a human rights-based approach to poverty reduction efforts. Such an approach will help ensure that the specific needs and conditions of the poor are addressed and with their full participation. When emphasizing the importance of participation, the basic message is that the poor must become the architects of their own future. There needs to be strong efforts to empower women, nomadic communities, persons with disabilities and those who are among the least able to change the conditions that impoverish them. As noted in the High Commissioner’s report, more of the development money spent in this country must be geared to achieving the priorities set by the Government of Afghanistan in its fight against poverty. Security objectives must not sideline the urgent need to ramp up poverty reduction efforts. Resources allocation should not be driven by a military agenda, but by the needs and rights of Afghans especially those of course who are the most impoverished. Poverty reduction should build on existing successful models, such as the National Solidarity Programme, that is designed to capacitate concerned Afghans to make a meaningful contribution to poverty reduction strategies.
In closing, it is worth noting that that the poor desire a future where their human rights are respected. They must have a say in the events and circumstances that shape their life and that of their children. When Afghans have been consulted they have repeatedly identified poverty and unemployment as important factors in the spread of insecurity. Many have acknowledged that the militarized approach is not the answer to the crisis in Afghanistan. Solutions include far greater investment than before in poverty alleviation as well as the fight against impunity. And to conclude, rolling back poverty, means reducing marginalization and a debilitating sense of powerlessness and injustice. Righting this wrong is central to building a foundation for a just and sustainable peace in Afghanistan.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS :

TOLO TV [translated from Dari]: According to reports poverty and unemployment, mainly in the southern provinces, have been the root causes of giving an advantage to the armed opposition to enable them to recruit the younger generation as soldiers. I would like to know if you faced such issues while preparing yor report and what is the percentage of such a category of people who are affected by this?

OHCHR: Our survey did cover some 14 provinces in Afghanistan and less so I am afraid in the south. However, we have drawn on a lot of other sources including, of course the Oxfam study that came out recently on this. As noted in the report, poverty is multi-dimensional. There are lots of different factors that embed, exacerbate and perpetuate poverty. In terms of the relationship between poverty and the young men joining the armed opposition, many commentators have pointed to a direct link. Our study didn’t investigate that but it would indeed appear that there is a relationship between poverty and the injustice which goes with it and a lack of adequate confidence that the state-building project is going to deliver on basic services. So in other words there are multiple factors that promote or facilitate or influence young men joining the armed opposition.
And then one final comment on this if I may. While indeed spreading insecurity is a dominate concern in Afghanistan it is also needs to be borne in mind and this goes back to the first question that human security – in other words safety, wellbeing and access to employment – are equally important considerations for the Afghan people.

ARIANA TV [translated from Dari]: You just mentioned about the human rights dimensions of poverty in Afghanistan. Since we are living in this community and we know our neighbourhoods and conditions people are living in and we know how widespread poverty is in Afghanistan. On the other hand the report shows figures and statistics on what percentage of people are suffering from poverty and that is something which is adding to the misery of the Afghan people. I just want to know what specific programmes the UN has from the assistance that is given to Afghanistan to alleviate poverty in the country?

OHCHR: There are lots of programmes in Afghanistan to address poverty in the country. We as human rights in the UN system don’t do what is normally called development work per se. What our report is about is to try to draw attention to the root causes of poverty that are directly linked to human rights concerns, such as discrimination and the marginalization of women and girls especially and others, the abuse of power and the inability quite often of those who are powerless to be part and parcel of decision-making that affects their lives. While our report is really advocating that all of the agencies and including of course the Government that is concerned about the very high rate of poverty in this country, that it does understand what are the human rights underlying elements of that, so that poverty reduction initiatives have very clear human rights objectives and are designed and driven by human rights values.

BBC PERSIAN TV: How worried are you about the widening gap between the rich and poor in this country?
OHCHR: Very important question. I think all of us have to be worried about the huge proportion of Afghan people who are poor. That indeed is the effect of the last decade or near decade since the Bonn Agreement – there has not really been an adequate impact on their lives. Of course what the report says is that poverty is not accidental but neither is it inevitable. The report also says that poverty is the killer in this country. I think you are all familiar with our work on civilian casualties. It is important to bear in mind that in terms of maternal mortality alone 25,000 women die every year in Afghanistan giving birth. To link back to the first question about the sense of grievance associated with poverty, as in any country, but also here in Afghanistan, where its not new that there is a lot of poverty but when it is parallel and cheek by jowl with a number of individuals and entities which are getting very rich, that of course also adds to a sense of grievance and disillusionment with what are efforts have been made by the Government and international partners to improve their lives and that of their children.

RFE/RL [translated from Dari]: Question with two parts. You mentioned a number of factors for poverty in Afghanistan. Can you please name some of the main factors on why there is poverty in Afghanistan? What percentage of people are suffering from poverty in the country and would it be possible to tackle these issues in the short-term?

OHCHR: Actually, that is three questions but I will do my best to answer them. One of the factors – there are different drivers of poverty, and I do need to underline this. I am not saying that it is just human rights issues that drive poverty. Poverty is a multi-dimensional problem here in Afghanistan as elsewhere in world, so it is multi-faceted poverty. I am going to mention five drivers of poverty from a human rights perspective. On top of the list is the abuse of power. In other words, power and vested interest that drive the political agenda, often against the advantage of those who are already marginalized, and power, when it is abused, of course, have significant influence over laws, policy and the allocation of resources.
You will not be surprised when I note that discrimination and, of course, the marginalization that goes with it is a significant driver of poverty. And here, we are talking in particular about women, for example the Kuchi population with very high level of poverty, households with disabled people as the chief breadwinner, female-headed households, all of these particular groups are particularly affected by discrimination and marginalization. And, of course, Afghans who are poor and impoverished and marginalized will almost automatically have limited access to choices, will have fewer choices in their lives, and much fewer access to opportunities, whether that’s sending their children to school, or to income opportunities. Of course, it will not be a surprise to you when I say that the poor tend to be powerless and thus have limited, almost non-existent, but definitely have a very limited impact on decision-making, and decision-making that influence their lives and that of their families. And, of course, finally but not unimportant, the reality of the armed conflict and insecurity, not only this armed conflict, inhibits development opportunities. It also is much more expensive to get your child to a school or to get to a clinic. So armed conflict definitely and not just here, but in Afghanistan as elsewhere, tends to exacerbate poverty. And you asked about percentages. So one-third are absolutely poor with another third just hovering around the poverty line. And this basically means a hand-to-mouth existence so that if there is any shock, with a child getting sick, there is very little buffer, very little opportunity for the family to address that kind of problem. Then, I don’t remember that very last part your question, but maybe what I should do to pull this together – of course these problems are not, one, two, three, four or five. These problems intersect so, indeed, if you’re poor and a difficult situation arrives in the household for the individual, then you end up getting into a bigger cycle of poverty, so the problems intersect and compound.

AYNA TV [translated from Dari]: How much money is needed for poverty reduction in the short-term?

OHCHR: That’s one I am not able to answer. I should say of course monetary resources are needed since I am trying to shine the spotlight with your help on the human rights dimension. What is also no less important is that issues of discrimination, marginalization, the ability to participate in decision-making are even more important than the actual amount of monetary resources that are available. To conclude, I am not saying – because I don’t know the actual amount of financial resources that are needed – I am not saying it is unimportant – of course it is important to dig wells or to support healthcare infrastructure in a remote valley. Of course money is needed. What I want to underline this morning is the human rights dimension of the equation.

RADIO KILLID [translated from Dari]: How do you see poverty in Afghanistan in terms of the severity of poverty last year? Second, you mentioned that about 25,000 women are dying because of complications during giving birth. I want to know how accurate this figure and whether it is accurate or is it just an estimate? If it is accurate, it means the majority of the Afghan population is going to die in the coming years.

OHCHR: In terms of the first part of the question, there has been some reduction in absolute poverty but the fact that two-thirds of the Afghan population is below or just above the poverty line has to be a major concern. On the second part of your question, it is not a High Commissioner figure. It draws on available statistics which comes from the Government, the World Health Organization and UNICEF. My understanding is it does reflect a vulnerable situation. It is the worst situation globally in terms of maternal mortality rate. We talked earlier about the discrimination. So let me not to go back to that issue, but women and girls are affected and many mothers are quite young. But women and girls have a low status in Afghan society and that is one of the biggest determinacy in the very alarming maternal mortality situation.

CHANNEL ONE TV: What do you request from the Government of Afghanistan in order to reduce poverty?

OHCHR: At the back of the report, page 21, there are a number of recommendations, both to the Government of Afghanistan but, of course, also to its international partners. There are six recommendations and I will just highlight them very briefly. The first one, of course, is about consultation. If you really want to address poverty, it is not just about building more wells and better roads, it is about empowering people. People cannot be empowered if they are not part and parcel of what, in principle, is there to improve their lives. There are lots of successful models of poverty reduction in the country such as, and we have mentioned in the report, the National Solidarity Programme, but there is also a host of NGOs doing very valuable work. So the proposal is to build on these successful models. The third recommendation is to constantly measure, review and evaluate; to see if your initiative, your poverty reduction programme, is working. As I mentioned earlier, poverty does not happen in a bubble, it is not something accidental, and neither is it inevitable. So if one of the driving factors of poverty, we talked a moment ago about maternal mortality rates, the very high rates, is discrimination, then to tackle poverty successfully, you need to also tackle the problem of discrimination and marginalization. And then the fifth recommendation is that the militarization of aid is not the way to go. The communities, and thus the civilians, need to be in charge, because, again, poverty reduction is really about empowering the poor. And then the final recommendation is actually a summary of the foregoing; it is to be guided by the principles and the aspirations of the poor, and not by short-term objectives, whether these are military or other.

BY UNAMA Kabul

Severin Bellanchet was my father!

2010-02-26T06:27:00.000-08:00

At least 17 people, including foreigners, have been killed and more than three dozens of others wounded in a series of suicide, bomb and gun attacks near a hotel and guest houses used by foreigners in the heart of Kabul City. It has been confirmed by the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, that among the people killed was my French film teacher Severin Blanchet. Kabul, Afghanistan. (Images taken in Afghanistan in 2009).
One of the explosions occurred inside a guesthouse leased by Indian embassy in the downtown Sharh-i-Naw, killing five Indian nationals and wounding eight others.
Two other explosions that damaged a high-rise hotel, Safi Landmark, were described as suicide bombings that also killed two policemen near the Kabul City Center, a nine-story shopping area that includes the luxury hotel.
My teacher, Severin Blanchet who had come from France to start new class of documentary film making was in the hotel and was also killed.
Severin Blanchet was a famous French documentary film maker who began training young Afghan film makers in 2006.
When I heard that my teacher was one of the wounded in the explosion, my colleague and friend Sahr Banoo Sadat, who is member of Atelier Varan Kabul, and I rushed to the hospitals around Kabul to find him but he was not to be found.
After 2 hours Ms. Rita, the head of Goethe-Institut of Kabul called me with the news that my teacher was among the victims killed in the blasts.
Atelier Varan is a French production which helps train film makers in the developing world. Since 2006, Atelier Varan in Afghanistan had trained more than 25 afghan young film makers, who have made a lot of documentaries in Afghanistan.
This is an extract of an email sent by Severin:

'I am planning a short visit to Kabul to get things going between the 15th and 26th of February. We will plan 3 meetings together to discuss the new "production workshop" that we will have this year and coming year. It will be the same principle as "Children of Kabul", a series of 5 short documentaries about a common theme. We will first discuss this common theme. Then we will see what subjects within this theme each of you would like to propose. I will also have individual meetings with those of you who want to discuss their personal projects with me or show me a choice of rushes'.
This is dedicated to my teacher Severin Blanchet.

Afghanistan: Investigate Death in Custody

2010-02-23T23:50:00.000-08:00

(New York) - The Afghan government should conduct an independent investigation into the suspicious death in custody of a suspect held by its intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Human Rights Watch said today.
On December 7, 2009, Abdul Basir died while in an NDS detention facility. Later that day the agency told family members that Basir committed suicide by throwing himself out of a window. On December 8 the authorities returned Basir's body to his family. Photographs obtained by Human Rights Watch show the deceased with small dark circles on his forehead, blackened cuts on his back, bruising in several places, and a large cut to his shin.
"Any attempts by the security directorate to block an investigation into Basir's death will only fuel suspicions of abuses," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The attorney general and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission should promptly investigate the cause of death, and the autopsy report should go to the family."
NDS Department 17, the intelligence service's investigatory branch, had detained Basir for approximately one month in connection with the October 28 attack on a Kabul guesthouse that housed many United Nations staff. Eight civilians died in the attack. Abdul Basir's father and two brothers were also detained and remain in custody.
An NDS official told family members that Basir's father, Zalmai, signed a statement confirming that Basir had committed suicide and that an autopsy was not required. The family told Human Rights Watch that NDS officials told them that if they buried the body, Basir's brothers and father would be released.
However, concerned that the marks on Basir's body may have been signs of torture, the family took the body to the Forensic Department of the Health Ministry where an autopsy was carried out. The findings have not been made public. The family reported that security agency officials later came to the house where the body was held and gave them a message to bury the body. When the family tried to take the body to parliament, they said, agency vehicles blocked their way.
One Afghan media outlet informed Human Rights Watch that they received phone calls from the NDS telling them not to report the incident, which has had limited coverage in the Afghan media.
Human Rights Watch has received many reports of torture during interrogations by Department 17. The NDS continues to deny regular access to all of its facilities to the Afghanistan

Independent Human Rights Commission and to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary, and Summary Executions provide that there "shall be thorough, prompt and impartial investigation" of all suspected cases of unnatural death in custody. The inquiry shall "determine the cause, manner and time of death, the person responsible, and any pattern or practice which may have brought about that death. It shall include an adequate autopsy, collection and analysis of all physical and documentary evidence and statements from witnesses." The detailed methods and findings of the investigation are to be made public, and the government should ensure that persons identified by the investigation as having participated in an unlawful killing are brought to justice.
Despite numerous credible allegations of torture in NDS detention, the Afghan government and international donors have failed to make reform of detention and interrogation practices a priority. The agency continues to operate without a transparent legal framework that defines its powers to investigate, arrest, and detain.
"The genuine threat to Afghanistan posed by extremist groups can never justify the resort to torture," Adams said. "Abusing suspects will only undermine the legitimacy of the Afghan government and serve as a recruiting sergeant for the insurgency."
Human Rights Watch

Afghanistan must not grant impunity to war criminals

2010-02-11T03:46:00.000-08:00

Amnesty International has called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan Parliament to immediately suspend controversial legislation that will give immunity from prosecution for serious violations of human rights, including war crimes and crimes against humanity committed, in the past 30 years.

The legislation, the "National Stability and Reconciliation" bill, was passed by both houses of the Afghan Parliament in early 2007 and published in the official Gazette in November 2008 but, unusually, it was not publicly divulged until January 2010.

Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, including the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), believe that this law is an attempt to provide legal cover for ongoing impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations, including the Taleban.

"The backers of this 'Impunity Bill' should note that they cannot simply legislate away the history of gross human rights violations and war crimes committed in Afghanistan over the past three decades. Nor can they silence the consistent demands of the Afghan people for justice and accountability," said Sam Zarifi, director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific programme.

"There are real doubts about the legal validity of this 'Impunity Bill', as no national legislation can immunize perpetrators of international crimes. Furthermore, President Karzai never signed this bill, and it was only divulged to the public almost two years after Parliament voted on it."

Under this legislation, people who committed serious human rights violations and violations of the laws of war, including massacres, widespread enforced disappearances, and systematic use of torture, rape, public executions and other forms of ill-treatment would be immune to criminal prosecution if they pledge cooperation with the Afghan government.

"The record of the past eight years has been crystal clear: attempts to accommodate human rights abusers have only led to a deterioration of security and an erosion of the government's legitimacy.

Many of the people facing accusations of human rights abuses in the past are now in prominent government posts, facing new charges of engaging in human rights violations," Sam Zarifi said.

Under the provisions of this legislation, Taleban figures who agree to cooperate with the Afghan government would also be immune to prosecution. The Afghan government and its international supporters identified reconciliation with the Taleban as a priority during the London conference in January 2010.

"Short term expediency in the form of reconciliation with the Taleban should not trump the rights of the Afghan people, and in particular Afghan women and girls, who have suffered greatly under the Taleban’s repressive strictures.

The Taleban have had a record of terrible human rights abuses, both when they ruled Afghanistan, and now in the areas they control. They should be held to account for their actions, not be granted official impunity," Sam Zarifi said.

"The Afghan people have time and again signalled that they want a government that protects and provides their human rights and that imposes the rule of law. This legislation is simply an effort to pervert the course of justice under the faulty guise of providing security."

Afghanistan: Human rights must be guaranteed during Taleban talks

2010-01-28T07:20:00.000-08:00

Human rights, including women’s rights, must not be traded away or compromised during any reconciliation talks with the Taleban in Afghanistan, Amnesty International said on the eve of a London conference set to discuss deteriorating security conditions in the country.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, other leaders and foreign ministers are to discuss security arrangements in Afghanistan for the next two years, including reconciliation programmes to reintegrate so-called moderate elements of Taleban.
"Any discussions with the Taleban must include clear commitments that they will respect and promote the rights of the Afghan people," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director.
“The Taleban established a terrible record of violating human rights during their rule and they have done nothing since then to indicate they will act differently if they return to power.”
"The policymakers gathered in London this week have to show that they will not sacrifice the well-being of the Afghan people at the altar of political and military expediency."
Similar deals with the Taleban in neighbouring Pakistan led to increased human rights violations in areas under Taleban control and a significant escalation in conflict and insecurity.
The Afghan government and insurgent groups must both adhere to Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law and domestic law, Amnesty International said.
The Taleban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan have shown little regard for human rights and the laws of war, deliberately targeting civilians, launching indiscriminate suicide attacks in which civilians are killed and engaging in the wholesale destruction of girls’ education.
According to UN figures, the Taleban were responsible for two thirds of the more than 2400 civilian casualties in Afghanistan last year, the bloodiest year yet since the fall of the Taleban.
In areas under their control, the Taleban have severely curtailed the rights of girls and women, including the denial of education, employment, freedom of movement and political participation and representation.
Afghan civil society groups, in particular women's groups, have voiced serious alarms about the prospect of ceding any type of political control to the Taleban.
“Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict are a positive step forward,” said Sam Zarifi, “but the rights of the Afghan people must never be negotiated away.
“It is our experience that peace without justice or human rights is not real peace and could ultimately lead to further conflict.”

UNAMA calls for safety first, as civilian casualties rise by 14% in 2009

2010-01-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in conjunction with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), today called on all sides of Afghanistan’s conflict to uphold their obligations under international law and minimize the impact of fighting on civilians. New statistics released by the UN mission showed that 2009 proved to be the deadliest year yet for civilians since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

The UN mission recorded 2,412 civilian casualties during 2009, up by 14 per cent from 2008 when the mission recorded 2,118 civilian deaths.

Of the 2,412 deaths reported last year, 1,630 (67%) were attributed to anti-Government elements while 596 (25%) were attributed to pro-Government forces. The remaining 186 deaths (8%) could not be attributed to any of the conflicting parties as they died as a result of cross fire or by unexploded ordinance. Ms Norah Niland, Chief Human Rights Officer said: ”Anti-Government elements remain responsible for the largest proportion of civilian deaths, killing three times as many civilians as pro-Government forces.

It is vital that determined efforts are now made by the insurgency to put into effect the Taliban “Code of Conduct” that calls on them to protect the lives of civilians. “Civilian deaths caused by the armed opposition increased by 41 per cent between 2008 and 2009 from 1,160 to 1,630. Suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices caused more civilian casualties than any other tactic killing 1,054 civilians last year.

Civilians are also being deliberately assassinated, abducted and executed if they are perceived as being supportive of, or associated with, the Government or the international community. “At the same time during 2009 we saw a reduction in the number of civilian casualties caused by pro-Government forces by 28 per cent between 2008 and 2009. This decrease reflects measures taken by international military forces to reduce the risk posed by military operations on the civilian population.

“However despite positive trends, actions by pro-Government forces continued to take an adverse toll on civilians; we recorded 359 civilians killed during aerial attacks, which constitute 61 per cent of the number of civilian deaths attributed to pro-Government forces. International and Afghan security forces also conducted a large number of search and seizure operations. These often involved excessive use of force, destruction of property and cultural insensitivity, particularly towards women.”

The UN mission also expressed concern on the location of military bases that are situated within, or close to, areas where civilians are concentrated saying that such bases increased the risks faced by civilians. Ms Niland underlined that all parties to the conflict have an obligation to avoid locating military assets, including personnel, in areas that put civilians at risk.

Ms Niland continued to say: “2009 has proven to be the worst year since the fall of the Taliban regime for civilians caught up in the armed conflict. The conflict has intensified and spread into areas that were previously considered safe. “Ensuring the safety and welfare of the civilian population must come first.

Anti-Government elements must realize that they too have obligations under international law while pro-Government forces must step up efforts to ensure that every measure is taken to protect civilians during the conduct of military operations. The United Nations calls for international law to be respected to minimise the impact of the conflict on civilians as we begin 2010.” Notes to Editors

• The report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict in Afghanistan in 2009 is compiled in pursuance of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) mandate under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1868 (2009).

• UNAMA Human Rights undertakes a range of activities aimed at minimizing the impact of the conflict on civilians; this includes independent and impartial monitoring of incidents involving loss of life or injury to civilians and analysis of trends to identify the circumstances in which loss of life occurs.

• UNAMA Human Rights officers, deployed across Afghanistan, utilize a broad range of techniques to gather information on specific cases irrespective of location or who may be responsible. Such information is cross-checked and analyzed, with a range of diverse sources, for credibility and reliability to the satisfaction of the Human Rights officer conducting the investigation, before details are recorded in a dedicated database.

Embedded Canadian reporter becomes seventh woman journalist killed in 2009

2010-01-02T07:02:00.000-08:00

Reporters Without Borders is shocked to learn that Canadian newspaper reporter Michelle Lang was killed yesterday in the southern province of Kandahar when a roadside bomb struck the Canadian military vehicle she was travelling in. Four Canadian soldiers were also killed.
“Lang’s death just two days before the New Year is a cruel reminder of the dangers that journalists face in war zones,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The growing number of cowardly, indiscriminate attacks by Islamist groups, not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan and Somalia, has greatly increased the dangers for reporters who take the risk of covering events close up.”
“’We offer our sincerest condolences to Michelle Lang’s family and condolences,” said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard and François Bugingo, the president of the organisation’s Canadian section.
A total of 19 journalists, 11 of them foreign, have been killed in Afghanistan since 11 September 2001. Five of the victims, including Afghan journalist Zakia Zaki and French journalist Johanne Sutton, were women.
Lang, who worked for the Calgary Herald, was on her first assignment to Afghanistan and was embedded with the Canadian troops whose main base in is the extremely volatile province of Kandahar. She was riding in a Canadian military vehicle that was hit when a roadside bomb went off at around 4 p.m. yesterday.
She was the seventh woman journalist to be killed in 2009. Three of the others were Russian, including journalist and human rights investigator Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in Chechnya. The other three were among the 30 reporters who were killed in an election-related massacre in the southern Philippines on 23 November.
Radical Islamist groups have caused the death of at least 16 journalists worldwide. The Al-Shabaab militia in Somalia has stepped up its targeting killings and suicide bombings. At least nine journalists have been killed in Somalia, including four working for Radio Shabelle, a station that has tried to keep covering developments amid the chaos.
Reporters are also increasingly being targeted by the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan. And Faheem Siddiqi, a Pakistani reporter working for Geo TV, was badly injured in a suicide bombing on a procession marking the Shiite religious ceremony of Ashura in Karachi on 28 December.

STATEMENT BY KAI EIDE, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR AFGHANISTAN

2009-12-31T23:55:00.000-08:00

In the early morning of 27 December, ten Afghans were killed during a raid by Afghan and international military forces in Narang district of Kunar province. Many details of the incident remain unclear. Based on our initial investigation, eight of those killed were students enrolled in local schools. There is also evidence to strongly indicate that there were insurgents in the area at the time. UNAMA continues to investigate this incident to help bring clarity to the situation; I welcome efforts by the Government of Afghanistan and the international military to do the same. I appeal for calm while these investigations continue.

The United Nations remains concerned about night-time raids given that they often result in lethal outcomes for civilians, the dangerous confusion that frequently arises when a family compound is invaded, and the frustration of local authorities when operations are not coordinated with them. Night time raids are a source of great distress to the families which are directly affected as well as communities throughout Afghanistan given safety and cultural concerns. I continue to raise such matters with the concerned authorities.

UNAMA is equally concerned about the risks posed to civilians by insurgents living or operating in residential areas. They account for the majority and an increasing proportion of civilian deaths. I appeal again to all of the armed actors to make every effort to minimise harm to civilians and want to underline the importance of taking all precautionary measures to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Greater efforts must be made to reverse current trends so that civilians are spared the worst effects of armed conflict in the coming year.

Afghanistan: Keep Promises to Afghan Women

2009-12-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

Extremist Threat to Women Increasing, Government Failing to Protect
New York) - Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, women and girls suffer high levels of violence and discrimination and have poor access to justice and education, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The Afghan government has also failed to bring killers of prominent women in public life to justice, creating an environment of impunity for those who target women.
The 96-page report, "We Have the Promises of the World: Women's Rights in Afghanistan," details emblematic cases of ongoing rights violations in five areas: attacks on women in public life; violence against women; child and forced marriage; access to justice; and girls' access to secondary education.
"The situation for Afghan women and girls is dire and could deteriorate," said Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. "While the world focuses on the Obama administration's new security strategy, it's critical to make sure that women's and girls' rights don't just get lip service while being pushed to the bottom of the list by the government and donors."
While the plight of women and girls under the Taliban was used to help justify the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, women's rights have not been a consistent priority of the government or its international backers. With fundamentalist factions in government gathering strength, the insurgency gaining ground, and some form of reconciliation with Taliban factions firmly on the horizon, the gains made by Afghan women and girls since 2001 in areas such as education, work, and freedom of movement are under serious threat.
"Women are not a priority for our own government or the international community," Shinkai Karokhail, a member of Parliament, told Human Rights Watch. "We've been forgotten."
Women in public life are subject to routine threats and intimidation. Several high profile women have been assassinated, but their killers have not been brought to justice. When Sitara Achakzai, an outspoken and courageous human rights defender and politician, was murdered in April 2009, her death was another warning to all women who are active in public life.
High profile women interviewed for this report say that they feel they are not taken seriously when they report threats. One member of parliament who, like some others, spoke anonymously because of the danger they face, told Human Rights Watch:
"I've had so many threats. I report them sometimes, but the authorities tell me not to make enemies, to keep quiet. But how can I stop talking about women's rights and human rights?"
A woman police officer who has received death threats said:
"They told me that they will kill my daughters. Every minute I'm afraid. I can never go home - the government cannot protect me there. My old life is over."
One nationwide survey of levels of violence against Afghan women found that 52 percent of respondents experienced physical violence, and 17 percent reported sexual violence. Yet because of social and legal obstacles to accessing justice, few women and girls report violence to the authorities. These barriers are particularly formidable in rape cases. Although women activists and members of parliament pushed hard and succeeded in putting rape on the statute books this year for the first time, the government has shown little willingness to treat each case as a serious crime or to engage in a public education campaign to change attitudes.
The lack of justice compounds women's vulnerability. One woman who was gang raped by a well connected local commander found that after a long fight to bring her rapists to justice, they were freed by a presidential decree. Soon after in 2009, her husband was assassinated. The woman told Human Rights Watch that he was killed because he had battled for her rights:
"I have lost my son, my honor, and now my husband," she said. "But I am just a poor woman, so who will listen to me?"
Surveys suggest that in more than half of all marriages, the wives are under age 16, and 70 to 80 percent of marriages take place without the consent of the woman or girl. These practices underlie many of the problems faced by women and girls, as there is a strong correlation between domestic violence and early and forced marriage.
A 13-year-old girl who was forced into marriage explained to Human Rights Watch that after she dared to escape she was hunted by her husband's family: "They came and asked for me to come back. I said no; they kept coming. I always say no... I can't go back. They want to kill me." Women activists who gave the girl shelter were denounced in parliament. Years later, the young woman is still fighting for a legal separation from her illegal marriage.
This case is just one in the report that illustrates the fundamental problem faced by women and girls of lack of access to justice. Studies suggest that more than half the women and girls in detention are being held for "moral crimes," such as adultery or running away from home, despite the fact that running away from home is not a crime in Afghan law or Sharia. But whether it is a high-profile woman under threat, a young woman who wants to escape a child marriage, or a victim of rape who wants to see the perpetrator punished, the response from the police or courts is often hostile.
"Police and judges see violence against women as legitimate so they do not prosecute cases," Dr. Soraya Sobhrang of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission told Human Rights Watch.
Law reforms that protect women's rights are important, but leadership is also required to help shift attitudes and prevent abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
"The government needs to take its responsibility to protect women and girls seriously," Reid said. "President Hamid Karzai has a lot of work to do to restore his reputation as a moderate on women's rights."
After the destruction of many girls' schools by the Taliban, education for girls became the most symbolic element of the international donor effort in Afghanistan. Despite significant gains, stark gender disparities remain. The majority of girls still do not attend primary school. A dismal 11 percent of secondary-school-age girls are enrolled in grades seven through nine. Only 4 percent of girls make it to grades 10 through 12. While the number of both boys and girls attending school drops dramatically at the secondary school level, the decline is much more pronounced for girls.
The diminishing status of women's rights in Afghanistan was forced back onto the agenda in March when the discriminatory Shia Personal Status law was passed by parliament and signed by Karzai. Faced with national and international protests, Karzai allowed the law to be amended, but many egregious articles remain that impose drastic restrictions upon Shia women, including the requirement that wives seek their husbands' permission before leaving home except for unspecified "reasonable legal reasons," and granting child custody rights solely to fathers and grandfathers.
"We welcomed the international community's words on the Shia law - really - they said many beautiful things, as they did in 2001" said Wazhma Frogh, women's rights activist. "We have the promises of the world. But still we wait to see what more they will do."
Karzai should revise the law to protect women's rights fully and appoint women who have been active defenders of women's rights to positions of power, Human Rights Watch said.
"The Shia law provided a timely reminder of how vulnerable Afghan women are to political deals and broken promises," Reid said. "Karzai should begin his new presidency with a clear signal to women that his will be a government that wants to advance equality."

Key Recommendations of "We Have the Promises of the World: Women's rights in Afghanistan"

The government and donors should make the promotion and protection of women's rights a main priority of the country's reconstruction and a central pillar of their political, economic, and security strategies.

The government, with the support of donors, should embark on a large-scale awareness campaign to ensure that rape is understood to be a crime by law enforcement agencies, judges, parliament, civil servants, and the Afghan public. The campaign should also aim to reduce the stigmatization of victims of rape.

The government should make marriage registration more widely available and compulsory.

The president should order the release of, and offer an apology and compensation to, all women and girls wrongfully detained on the charge of "running away from home."

The government, with the support of donors, should increase the number and geographic coverage of girls' secondary classes by building more girls' secondary schools, and ensure the recruitment and training of female teachers is accelerated.

The government, with the support of the UN and other donors, should prioritize security for women candidates and voters in planning for the 2010 parliamentary elections.

International donors and the United Nations, in conjunction with the Ministry of Women's Affairs, should conduct a full gender audit of all spending in Afghanistan.

Human Rights watch

Urgent appeal to help our tortured and suffering Afghans

2009-12-16T23:40:00.000-08:00

I’m a human like you!
By Zahra Sadat / Translated by Basir Bita
In a warm afternoon of fall, there were two guards talking with one another inside entrance of Human Rights Commission and, right in front of them there were a few men sunbathing. I straddled much faster to get the office, I’m working in, sooner. All of a sudden, a man wearing a threadbare, broken and scar in his forehead coming down his tears, making his face more emotional turned my eye-side and stopped me.
Scratching his stick on the street, walking by an invisible power, I, unintentionally, took some coins out of my pocket and handed him. He said nothing in response, starring innocently down, but he could no longer keep silence and blasted out.
“I’m sick.” He said in a very low tone.
“What happened to your forehead?” I asked while staring. He blasted out as if he found what he was in search during all his life.
“I went to Human Rights Commission.” He said, clearing streaming his tears. “I told them about the situation of my life and that I’m sick. They answered me, get away from our face. I told them, doctors believed I would recover as soon as I go abroad. Right after being recovered I would start working because I have six children. I would no longer let them be illiterate, prevent them to start begging. They said we can do nothing for you, why don’t you go Red Cross Office? This is out of our duty. I went there not only once but over again, but they answered as you do. Human Right Commission employee interrupted saying we do something else; that’s out of our responsibility. As leaving the commission, I felt down because my mind was bewildered, even I didn’t know what to do where to go.
Pity! Pity! “What do you do?” I asked him. “You can do nothing?” He notoriously answered, I can do anything if get a little better. Weekly, I have to spend more than 1500 Afs going to and coming back from Bagram if we don’t count the debts I have to pay. Nobody cares about us. I went to religious leaders, but nobody paid me attention. After waiting a long time to meet Mula Mohseni, a famous religious leader, he made me more depressed saying I, myself have to pay my debts. “God bless you”. He told me, “you’re used to beg”. “No, I’m not.” I told. “Only help me to become better. I would work then. Have you ever thought what would happen to my family if I was dead?” I showed him prescription and medical letters. He mocked me saying I would give you half of Afghanistan if you pay me only 20000 Afs. You are used to buy a cow’s entrails stinking, coming to Mula Mohseni. Oh, this made me regretful.

One day I got to Muhaqeq. He told, we would cure you through Red Cross. This was a momentary morale. But in other turns, meaning, for other times, they only gave me little money in order to make me oblivious. I went somewhere else, and I was replied, here is where we play political affairs not a charity. When I go a charity or places like these, I hope I would never come to exist. But when I think of my family I become confused. I have to bear and live as I’ve done so far when Human Rights Commission, Red Cross, my religious leader and others don’t care about me.
I told to my self, he’s right. How could our leaders stay against each other black propagandizing if they help people like me?
There is a great deal of people living as Faqir Ali, but no Afghan official worry about such cases in Afghanistan. We hope at least you, as a reader, could help one of our tortured and suffering Afghans.

Faqir Alis No: 0093 700239122
His Bank Account No: 100803100070921
Bank Name: Bakhtar Bank Afghanistan.

Urgent appeal to help Afghan refugee children in Greece

2009-12-11T23:40:00.000-08:00

Winter is here, and children fleeing a terrible war, are living on the streets in desperate conditions. Lend your voice to those who cannot speak.

by Basir Ahang & Kabul Press

We all know what happens in Somalia, Afghanistan, Eritrea and many other countries devastated by war. At the heart of havoc, more victims are, as always unfortunately happens, children. They believe too often that when they reach Europe, the right to a peaceful life is guaranteed, because there are rules that expressly protect their rights. Unfortunately this is not true.
In Greece, a boy of only nine years old, too mature for his age, told us that when he had left Afghanistan he believed his troubles would be left behind; and only now he understands that the real problems are just beginning. This child still lives in the middle of a street in Athens, and his testimony was recorded during the course of an interview we conducted last August, when we went to Greece to conduct a journalistic investigation into the Afghan refugee situation.
There, we unfortunately saw the most serious violations of human rights experienced of all refugees, including Somalis, Eritreans, Iraqis, and Iranians, not just those from Afghanistan.
But here we want to dwell on the most intolerant part of the story: the situation of children. Sixty families are currently living on the streets of Athens, many of them in Athiki Park, and inside the sewers near the train station. Among them are babies who need healthcare. Sometimes you see them in the center when the market ends, picking up discarded fruit and vegetables from the asphalt, or rummaging through the garbage to find anything edible.
We had the opportunity to interview some of these families, who although a bit reluctant, granted us brief interviews. They tell of a continuous coming and going of European journalists who want to know what is happening in Greece. The information seems to fall on deaf ears, and the situation does not change; it only gets worse.

The repeated attacks in the park by armed groups of extreme right wingers against foreigners exposes these families daily to real physical danger, as real as what we had the misfortune to witness; the stabbing in the centre of Athiki of a young Afghan, and the beating of others (including one woman).
The question now is: Where are the Greek police in this? We discover the answer, noting the indifference and the support, of the "police," who in situations of physical, psychological and verbal attacks on refugees, suddenly forget their duties and international law. Another fact that emerges during the interview is that when families visit a hospital to request medical attention for their children, it will be only be granted after obtaining the fingerprints of the child; thereby limiting its refugee options to the hell of Greece.
But there’s more: at the time of our stay we discovered the fact that about thirty families with small children were in prison for trying to leave their miserable stopover in Greece, on ships heading to Italy. Is it legal to detain minors in prison? Given the situation, maybe yes, in Greece. Currently, nearly 350 people (number provided by the president of Nur, which provides support and advice to Afghan refugees) have returned to Patras to hide in a forest. Among them are also unaccompanied children, some just nine years old. This is because the Greek police pursue all refugees, and in Greece the right to asylum does not exist.
After interviewing members of Doctors Without Borders and members of the Greek humanitarian association, Kinisi, everyone seems to be very worried about the situation. In the last action taken on asylum by the Greek government, which is socialist in name only, entire families, men, elderly, women and children were deported en masse to Afghanistan, in deliberate defiance of international conventions and treaties. Many people have contacted us recently. They fear for their children and now that winter is upon them, the situation is becoming more grim. How can we respond to these people?
Many articles have been written about this situation, but always, too little attention is paid to these shameful human rights violations of adults and especially of the children. Conventions, declarations, and laws exist— the problem is that they are not observed.
We believe now that perhaps the only possibility is to unite our forces, because this must not be allowed to occur before our eyes—that Greece, which has the nerve to call itself “Europe” and attend “European Councils” acts in such an illegal and inhumane way. It is time to put pressure on the media and governments to change the situation. Now you also know. Don’t be a hidden accomplice of their deadly silences.
Tell the Greek government to honor international laws on fair and humane treatment of Afghan refugees who have landed in their country.

In the United States, contact The Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C. Phone: (202) 939 1300, Fax: (202) 939 1324 and (202) 939 1562 E-mail at Greece@greekembassy.org

State of the World’s Children Report Kabul launch – 22 November 2009

2009-11-22T22:43:00.000-08:00

22 November 2009 - Transcript of press conference held at UNAMA in Kabul by UNICEF's Catherine Mbengue, the EC's Hansjorg Kretschmer and EU Special Representative Ettore Francesco Sequi and Svante Kilander, Ambassador of Sweden to Afghanistan/EC Presidency on the State of the World's Children report.

CATHERINE MBENGUE, UNICEF REPRESENTATIVE
Good morning everyone and welcome to the Afghanistan launch of the Special Edition of the UNICEF flagship report: ‘State of the World’s Children’ – celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). I am extremely gratified to be joined by three distinguish guests: His Excellency Dr Hansjörg Kretschmer, Head of the European Commission Delegation to Afghanistan; His Excellency Ettore Francesco Sequin, European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; and His Excellency Svante Kilander, Ambassador of Sweden, EU Presidency. I am very gratified that we also have Paola Retaggi, who is working with Terre des Hommes, one of the key partners of UNICEF, the government and all child activists in this country as far as the Convention on the Rights of Child is concerned. The report was launched in New York on 19 November by UNICEF Executive Director Ms Ann Veneman, accompanied by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors Hollywood actress Lucy Liu and Grace Akallo, a former child soldier from Uganda. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted on 20 November 1989 by the United Nations General Assembly. It is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history and articulates the full complement of civil, political, cultural, social and economic rights for all children. The report addresses three main questions: First, what difference has the Convention made to the lives of children over the past two decades? Second, what is its role and relevance now in the face of the worst economic crisis in 90 years? Finally, what role can it have over the next 20 years and beyond, in an increasingly populous, urbanized, disparate and environmentally-challenged world?

The convention has four core principles:
The right to survival and development
The respect for the best interests of the child as a primary consideration;
The right of all children to express their views freely on all matters affecting them; and
The right of all children to enjoy all the rights of the Convention without discrimination of any kind. These principles guide the actions of all stakeholders, including children themselves, in realizing children’s rights to survival, development, protection and participation.

The Convention and its principles have influenced national and local legislatures, motivating governments worldwide to place children’s rights and development at the forefront of their legislative agendas. The most outstanding achievement in child survival and development has been a reduction in the annual number of under-five deaths, from 12.5 million in 1990 to less than nine million in 2008.
Afghanistan ratified the Convention in 1994, changing forever the country’s legal landscape by paving the way for its implementation for the benefit of the children of the country. Since then, we have seen some good progresses towards making the convention a reality for Afghan children. While we celebrate these achievements, which were accomplished due to the partnership between the Government , the people , non governmental organizations, civil society and international community, we remain mindful, that more needs to be done. We must work with an increased sense of urgency, to make the rights of Afghan children come true – too many of them still face violations of their basic rights in our communities. Family and community, civil society and media, development professionals, governments and international agencies, the private sector and youth are the key stakeholders in making the 54 provisions of the CRC a reality for the children of the world and Afghanistan. The roles of these actors are explored by the Report in a series of ten guest essays. Four European Union Commissioners – Jacques Barrett, Louis Michel, Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Javier Solana – have contributed four essays to the Report, in which they state the case for putting child rights higher up in the EU agenda. In line with this global movement for Children and on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Convention, the European Union and UNICEF Afghanistan, sign today a Declaration. This Declaration reiterates our commitment and partnership to continue to work with all stakeholders to make the 54 provisions and principles of the Conventions a reality for all children in Afghanistan and in the world. The declaration invites all of you to join this movement – so that we can work collectively for and with children, and together create a world fit for children here in Afghanistan and throughout the world.

DR HANSJORG KRETSCHMER, HEAD OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION DELEGATION TO AFGHANISTAN
Thank you very much, I am very pleased about the high turn out in journalists and cameras as this is certainly a subject which deserves our full attention. About 50 per cent of the population of Afghanistan is below 15 years of age and that already indicates the importance of the attention we dedicate to the faith of children in this country. What we fail to do in favour of these children will with no doubt reflect on the future of the entire country in a couple of years. But there has been some progress in the sense that Afghanistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and also the two optional protocols. The situation for the children in this country is still dramatically so bad that the recent article which was published by Reuters says that Afghanistan is the worst place in the world to be born in. In terms of infant mortality and below five mortality, Afghanistan is still more or less at the bottom of the world league of nations. Child labour is a very prevalent phenomenon. We do not have precise statistics on that but we know that there are a high number of children at work. There is a big problem in this country about sexual exploitation. The child protection action network handled in 2008, 1,459 cases but we can be certain that it is only the tip of the iceberg. And children are also being used as suicide bombers. Certain achievements without doubt have been made over the last couple of years. In terms of education, we are all proud that there are six to seven million children who are at primary schools but we should never forget about the quality of education they receive, the number of hours is very small, the quality of teachers is very poor and in certain seasons teaching is not possible at all because of the climatic conditions. There has been some progress in juvenile justice with the introduction of alternatives to detention for children. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in 2008 adopted a National Strategy for children with disabilities As far as the European Commission is concerned we have acted in the area of child development and children’s rights since 2003. A first big project with the child rights consortium of different NGOs ran from 2003 to 2008 for which we disbursed 5.8 million Euros and reached 14,500 children, essentially street children and working children in Kabul and also in Torkham. This project included elements like health checks, recreational activities, non-formal education and vocational training skills. The basic package of health services which is spread all over the country and is shared by the Commission together with the World Bank and USAID has a very important mother and child health component which in the end has led to the reduction of infant mortality down from 2.5 per cent to 1.9 per cent and the reduction of below five mortality – 1.6 per cent mortality to 1.3 per cent. Still these figures are very bad. But, as I said, it is significant improvement. Finally, in 2008 the European Commission launched a social protection programme which will have a value of 24 million Euros over a period of four years and in this context the issue of children is also among the most important. Of this amount: eight million Euros again goes to the child rights consortium which will deal with working children, with neglected IDP children and Kuchi children, with children in conflict and also looking at the issue of alternatives to detention in the law and social services to those which are in juvenile rehabilitation. This social protection programme also includes elements dealing with women at risk which has a special component for over age children of women who are in prison and a component for the social integration of the disabled which is also related to children in six different provinces of the country. These are the important efforts by the European Commission. There are similar efforts undertaken by other donors, but overall we must admit that these amounts are very small compared to the total funds which are flowing into Afghanistan for military purposes and do not constitute unfortunately more than a drop in the ocean. I must say that the innocent smiles of the children who sell trinkets to you in the street or who try to clean the screens of our cars deserve better because they are the future of this country. If we do not help them in an adequate way the future of the country indeed will be very bleak.

ETTORE FRANCESCO SEQUI, EUROPEAN UNION SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN
It happens very frequently that views that my friend Hansjorg Kretschmer has raised are exactly my same views so I will be extremely brief. First of all I am extremely happy to be here in the premises of UNAMA because for four years I worked in New York and dealt with the Third Committee which is exactly the committee that focuses on the rights of children. And I used to prepare for sometimes the words for the president of the Committee on the Rights of Children who sits in Geneva. The previous speakers have stressed that the situation is very serious, they also stressed that there are improvements. The question is: are we doing enough? When you speak about illiteracy, when you talk about health services, when you speak about labour then we need probably one thing: we do not stress enough the dimension of the development because without development it would be much more difficult to address all these problems. As Hansjorg said: Afghanistan has a very young population. I would give other figures that if the present demographic indicators continue in 10-15 years, 75 per cent of the population will be younger than 18. And it is extremely important to stress the sense of urgency. If we don’t act now we shall lose a generation. And we cannot afford that. Therefore I would like to do two appeals: the first is to the Afghan government to focus on these priorities, the priorities of roles and the situation of children. I think that in cooperation with UNAMA we need to encourage the government to intensify their efforts to prosecute all the perpetrators of crimes committed against children and to give in their programme the priorities to the issues we are discussing today. The second appeal is to the international community. There is a word which is very popular in the last few months which is surge. I think that what we need is a surge of attention and a surge of commitment of the international community. I read a very strong sentence of a child working in the streets – not in Kabul but in another country – but I think this could be applied to all the children in the same position. He had a few things stolen from him. He said “well I have nothing else to be stolen because my life is already stolen.” I had a chance to speak with President Karzai sometime ago about children. We are both fathers and it was an issue that we shared: the role and the situation of children and I found him very committed and very aware of the need to address this issue and to give the priority to that. In one conversation, the substance of the entire problem, at the end, came to the rights of the child. And the substance, I think, was the right one: the right of a child is the right to be a child.

SVANTE KILANDER, AMBASSADOR OF SWEDEN TO AFGHANISTAN/EU PRESIDENCY Thank you very much for having taken, Catherine, this initiative, indeed on these extremely important questions. Ettore said it is very difficult to follow up and say something on the wisdoms which Hansjorg has said. For me it is even more difficult to follow up something on what two of my colleagues have said. As Ettore said: we share the same values and we are pronouncing some accents rather than anything else. One basic principle here is that all European Union member states are also members of the United Nations. In Sweden‘s particular case, we were many years longer members of the UN than we have been of the European Union. But nevertheless we belong to the same family or to the same two families. In a context like this, when Sweden, when the European Union cooperates with the United Nations or share the same ideas as the United Nations, from the Swedish side, we usually put forward a grassroots perspective and I wonder if there is any context which is more related to real, the essence of grass root, than when we are dealing with children and children’s right. It is the fundamental, the basic issues for societies, for a society to develop. We speak about development and we speak about children’s rights and we speak about the combination of these, and it has already been mentioned here, the very important issue when we deal with UNICEF’s matters, with children’s matters, is the right to be a child, the right to the identity of a child, the right for a child not to immediately take on the responsibility of adults. From a Swedish perspective, when we deal with these matters it is very easy to come to think of one of our greatest writers, one of our greatest authors, who, let me say, specialized or who was the advocate of children. I would say 50 or 60 years ago, when she started her career as a writer, she introduced this into Swedish literature and to literature as a whole I would say, to put forward the ideas and the thoughts of children and this is now a part of world literature. And I will conclude there by saying that, whenever we deal with children and children’s rights, it is the child’s perspective which must be the guiding star. If we start from there, and with UNICEF, with the UN as a whole, within the European Union, and together with Afghan government and Afghan NGOs, the civil society, that is a necessary and a very good start for a continued work on children’s rights.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

PAJHWOK NEWS AGENCY [translated from Dari]: The reports that have been released by human rights groups recently show a high number of children being tortured or violated mostly by the national police and army. The reports show as well the opposition of the Government to using children as suicide bombers. I just want to know which actions and measures the United Nations are going to take to solve this?
UNICEF: It is a problem, indeed. As you know, we have now, luckily, a task force in Afghanistan. As you may know, last year, Afghanistan was put on the Security Council agenda under what we now call Resolution 1612, which, indeed, looks at the way war is impacting on children. We have a series of issues which are looked into, these two resolutions and, of course, Afghanistan is supposed to prepare a report for the Security Council for those items, which are: killing of children, sexual violence against children, and recruitment of children. We try to do this monitoring, and, then the report goes to the Security Council, including some recommendations. When the report comes back we discuss this with the Government and the various partners in order to address some of these issues collectively. I think the Excellencies here also mentioned the Child Protection Network, which is really a network of people working on child rights and child issues in this country. It includes the Government, civil society, national and international NGOs, and also child rights activists. They collect all the information related to the violation of child rights, issues which link to child rights, in terms of abuses and so on. Figures have also been given by the head of the European Commission here. These figures are then brought together, discussed, and made known, not only to the Government, but to all. Some of the violations of children’s rights start at home. We should not forget that. So all these issues are discussed and brought together.
ARIANA TV [translated from Dari]: My question is for the head of the European Commission in Afghanistan. You mentioned that above the assistance of the European Union for the children of Afghanistan, the Commission is also providing some money for different causes. Can you give us some figures about how many children have their rights violated, and also in which perspective their rights are violated? Are they used as child soldiers, for illegal labour, or are there other problems on top of that?
EC: All of what you mentioned is of course examples of abuse of children. It can be child soldiers, child labour, sexual exploitation of children, and all of this happens in Afghanistan. I believe nobody has to expect numbers, because the number of children we are dealing with within our project is of course very limited. I mentioned this programme from 2003 to 2008, covering 14,500 children, but there are other figures around, this enormous grey zone where we don’t have any figures about abuses of children. Certainly there is, in many areas of Afghanistan’s public life, a big difference between what is said in the laws, and the reality. I think that what is important, in relation to children, is that everybody has to work for them, you, as media, and also each individual who is concerned about this issue. We have to change minds. We have to bring everybody in Afghanistan to the conviction that children should not be used as tools, as instruments, they should not be exploited. Each child has a personality of its own, and we have to respect this personality, perhaps more than the personality of all the people, because a child is much more susceptible to shocks. So as long as everyone in Afghanistan, everyone who has responsibility for the future of this country doesn’t have this mindset, I think we don’t have a great hope in terms of children’s rights in this country. These are the fundamental things that projects can do and we can all do very small things, but the very big thing is to make all Afghans aware of the value of the children, and of the fact that children are the future of the country. 75 per cent of Afghans will be below the age of 18 in 2025, so we are talking about this part of the population that constitutes Afghanistan in a couple of years. If they are abused, if they are traumatized, if they don’t feel having a personality which is allowed to develop, it will be a disaster for this country, so we all have a responsibility, the donors, the Afghan politicians, those who are responsible in Afghanistan, and each Afghan citizen.

TOLO TV [translated from Dari]: All the issues related to the child protection and child rights are mentioned here but in Afghanistan the situation is worsening day by day and you don’t see any single day that children are not working on the streets. Don’t you think that Afghanistan is one of the world’s dangerous places for children? If it is in which category does it come among the other countries in the world?
EC:
If I can say something to that I think you are right. The situation is not improving for the children but we also have this progress in terms of schooling and the schooling of girls and so on. These are of course steps forward but the dramatic economic situation is not helpful in terms of promoting the well-being of children because it has of course also had a strong impact on the minds of adulthood. But it is very difficult to make a ranking among the nations of the world since certainly we don’t know the details of the all poor countries in the world but I would think that Afghanistan is ranking very, very low in the scale of 190 or 195 nations of the world and it is not only the donors I think in this respect each and everyone is responsible to treat the children as they deserve to be treated.
http://unama.unmissions.org

President Karzai must commit to human rights

2009-11-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

Amnesty International urges Afghanistan’s newly re-elected President Hamid Karzai to prioritize human rights and the rule of law in his second term in order to strengthen the country’s stability and security.
“Afghans from around the country continue to tell us that they suffer from poor governance, endemic corruption, a weak and inept justice system and lack of respect for human rights and rule of law,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director. “All these factors weaken support for the government and its international allies.”
Amnesty International noted that the recent presidential elections were marred by human rights abuses by the candidates as well as the Taleban's increasing attacks against civilians. The organization raised concerns that the upcoming parliamentary elections, currently scheduled for August or September 2010, faced potentially even greater human rights violations as well as Taleban violence.
“Government officials and parliamentarians suspected of serious human rights violations and war crimes are enjoying blatant impunity. Many are also widely believed to be involved in corruption and criminal activities, but are rarely held accountable,” said Sam Zarifi.
“In order to rebuild the trust of the Afghan people and the international community, government officials and parliamentarians suspected of serious human rights violations must be kept out of the election process and held to account.”

Amnesty International

Iran moves to execute Afghan man for crime committed when he was 17

2009-10-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

The Iranian authorities are planning to execute a man alleged to have killed when he was only 17 on Monday. Amnesty International has warned that the execution, in Mashhad, north-eastern Iran, of Afghan national Abbas Hosseini must be stopped.

Amnesty International condemned the Iranian authorities’ moves to once more violate its international obligations by setting a renewed date for the execution of a juvenile offender.

“It is sickening that Iran continues to flout international law by arranging to kill those who committed crimes as children,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East Deputy Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“We appeal to the Head of the Judiciary to issue, with immediate effect, an order to stay this execution and to ensure that Abbas Hosseini’s death sentence is overturned.”

Abbas Hosseini’s June 2004 death sentence imposed by Branch 43 of the General Court in Mashhad for the murder of a man who had tried to rape him in July 2003 was upheld by Branch 41 of the Supreme Court on 30 September 2004.

He claimed before the court to have committed the crime "in a moment of insanity", but this was rejected.

He was due to be executed on 1 May 2005, but at the last minute was granted a one-week stay of execution to give the victim’s family another opportunity to accept payment of diyeh (blood money).

At the same time, the Head of the Judiciary ordered the local judiciary in Mashhad not to proceed with the execution and Abbas Hosseini’s case was sent for review.

On 27 April 2008, Branch 13 of the Supreme Court sent the case for retrial on account of Abbas Hosseini’s age at the time of the crime.

Nonetheless, he was sentenced to death once again on 5 August 2008 by Branch 103 of the General Juvenile Court in Mashhad.

This sentence was upheld on 29 December 2008 by Branch 33 of the Supreme Court and has been given final approval by the Head of the Judiciary, paving the way for the scheduling of his execution. The victim's family are refusing to pardon him in exchange for monetary compensation in the form of diyeh.“Not only has Abbas Hosseini been sentenced to death for a crime committed when he was a child," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. "But the protracted judicial uncertainty surrounding the review and retrial of his case, and the halting at the last minute of his scheduled execution which has led to him languishing on death row in prison since 2004, compounds his suffering.”

Since 1990, at least 41 alleged juvenile offenders have been executed in Iran and over 140 are known to remain on death row. At least three have been executed so far in 2009, in breach of Iran’s international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child which unequivocally ban the execution of juvenile offenders.

The killing of a Journalist is a threat to freedom of speech, freedom of the media and civil rights in Afghanistan

2009-09-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

On September 9th Mr. Sultan Manadi, a committed Journalist and former colleague of the Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN), was killed during a military rescue operation by foreign forces in Kondoz province of Afghanistan. Sultan Manadi and Stephen Farrell, a British national journalist, were kidnapped by Taliban militants from Essa Khel village of Chahar Dara district last Saturday. The reporters were in the district in order to ascertain information about a deadly NATO air strike that had killed about 95 people and wounded several others on Friday September 4 th.
The killing of Sultan has shocked civil society, Afghan intellectuals and the human rights community in Afghanistan . Sultan's killing indicates a lack of commitment on the part of the Afghan government to its citizens who work for civil freedom, the expansion of which has been one of the main achievements in Afghanistan during the post-Taliban period. Why the Afghan government forces could not rescue Sultan is the self-evident question posed by the Afghan Civil Society, which has so far been left unanswered.
In releasing this statement, CSHRN would like to emphasize the following points.
- The Afghan constitution clearly emphasizes the role and responsibility of the government and President to protect Afghan citizens' human rights. Afghanistan is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights. Effective protection of the human rights of Afghani citizens is the responsibility of the Afghan state. CSHRN would like to urge the Afghan government to take is human rights protection responsibilities seriously, to organize an enquiry into the killing of Sultan and to effectively prevent acts of violence such as this one from occurring again in the future.
- This is not the first time that Afghani civil society and journalists associations have asked the government to organize proper investigations to identify the reasons for the murders of journalists. A series of horrible killings of Afghan journalists carried out by international forces and insurgents during the ongoing military operations have not been investigated. CSHRN calls on the Afghan government in general, and it's investigative, justice and security sectors specifically, to put in place a mechanism capable of effectively investigating the killing of Sultan.
- CSHRN calls on the new government and President, who will start working after the election, to pay special attention to the provision of useful strategies for protection of the rights of journalists and human rights defenders.
- CSHRN would like to ask the new leader and government of Afghanistan to organize a constructive dialogue with those governments and international organizations which are involved in the security of Afghanistan . International forces must respect human rights of the Afghan citizens equally to those of their own citizens, according to Universal Declaration of Human Rights. NATO and ISAF forces should treat Afghan citizens, especially victims who are captured by Taliban, without discrimination during their operations.
CSHRN will closely follow the government's response to the matters raised in this statement and will react accordingly.

Afghan Civil Society Human Rights Network

Freed NYT Reporter Reminds Us of Dangers of Real Journalism

2009-09-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Stephen Farrell with Manadi in a Hospital

Yet it havn't either past two days from relese of Mr Parwiz Kambakhsh from prison, another tragedy has accured in Afghanistan which took the life of Afghan journalist in northern Afghanistan.

British commandos freed a New York Times reporter in an early Wednesday raid on a Taliban hide-out in northern Afghanistan. At least five people were killed in the rescue, including the journalist's Afghan translator who was Journalism student in Germany is killed too, one of the troops, officials said.
Reporter Stephen Farrell was taken hostage Saturday along with his Afghan journalist in the northern province of Kunduz when they went to cover a German-ordered airstrike of two hijacked fuel tankers. The bombing, carried out by U.S. jets, caused a number of civilian casualties.
Gunfire rang out from multiple sides during the rescue, and a British service member and Farrell's Afghan translator journalist, Sultan Munadi, 34, were killed. Farrell was unhurt.
A British defense official said he couldn't rule out the possibility Munadi was killed by British gunfire. The family buried Munadi's body late Wednesday without having the body examined to help determine if British bullets or Taliban gunfire killed him.
A Taliban commander in the house where the raid took place, the owner of the house and a woman were also among the dead, said Mohammad Sami Yowar, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor.
Afghan officials over the weekend said about 70 people died when U.S. jets dropped two bombs on the tankers, igniting them in a massive explosion. There were reports that villagers who had come to collect fuel from the tankers were among the dead, and Farrell wanted to interview villagers.
The Times reported that while Farrell and Munadi were talking to Afghans near the site of the bombing, an old man approached them and warned them to leave. Soon after, gunshots rang out and people shouted that the Taliban were approaching.
Police had warned reporters who traveled to the capital of Kunduz to cover the tanker strike that the village in question was controlled by the Taliban, and it would be dangerous to go there.
The Times kept the kidnappings quiet out of concern for the men's safety, and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, did not report the abductions following a request from the Times.
A story posted on the Times' Web site quoted Farrell as saying he had been "extracted" by a commando raid carried out by "a lot of soldiers" in a firefight.
British special forces dropped from helicopters early Wednesday onto the house where the two were being kept, and a gunbattle broke out, Yowar said.
Farrell, 46, a dual Irish-British citizen, told the Times that he saw Munadi step forward shouting "Journalist! Journalist!" but he then fell in a volley of bullets. Farrell said he did not know if the shots came from militants or the rescuing forces.
"I dived in a ditch," said Farrell. Moments later, he said he heard British voices and shouted, "British hostage!" The British voices told him to come over. As he did, Farrell said he saw Munadi.
"He was lying in the same position as he fell," Farrell told the Times. "That's all I know. I saw him go down in front of me. He did not move. He's dead. He was so close, he was just two feet in front of me when he dropped."
A British defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the incident, said he was not able to rule out the possibility that Munadi was killed by soldiers carrying out the rescue mission amid a fierce firefight with the journalists' captors.
"All reports of civilian fatalities are always investigated thoroughly," Britain's defense ministry said in a statement.
A top NATO and U.S. military spokesman, Col. Wayne Shanks, said he did not know if the military would also investigate which side fired the bullets.
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller said he had understood from the military that they did not intend to conduct a raid unless the situation turned "particularly menacing, and they had actionable intelligence and a high probability of success."
Keller said he doesn't know what triggered the decision to carry out the raid, but that Farrell told him the situation had turned "menacing." Keller said it was possible the militants may have planned to move the hostages and said he would not second guess the military's decision to take action.
A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jessica Barry, said the group had been "in contact with different parties" to urge for the journalists' unconditional release.
The British prime minister said the operation was carried out after "extensive planning and consideration" and that those involved knew the high risks they faced. Brown called the mission "breathtaking heroism."
"As we all know, and as last night once again demonstrated, our armed forces have the skill and courage to act. They are truly the finest among us, and all of us in Britain pay tribute to them, and to the families and communities who sustain them in their awesome responsibilities," Brown said.
Several Western reporters have been kidnapped in Afghanistan in the last several years, mostly while traveling in dangerous districts but also in and around Kabul. Kidnappings by the Taliban are often for ideological reasons, though kidnappings by criminals are done for ransom payments.
At least 16 Afghan and foreign journalists have been kidnapped in Afghanistan since January 2002, according to Reporters Without Borders. Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung and a Dutch reporter were kidnapped separately in or near Kabul last fall. Ransom was demanded in both cases and both were released within a month.
An American working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was abducted in August 2008 and held near Kabul for two months before being freed by U.S. Special Forces. The troops staged a nighttime raid on the captors' hideaway in October, the first known hostage rescue by American forces in Afghanistan.
Munadi was first employed by The New York Times in 2002, according to his colleagues. He left the company a few years later to work for a local radio station.
He was in Afghanistan on vacation from a master's program in Germany when he agreed to accompany Farrell to Kunduz on a freelance basis. He was married and had two young sons.
In a New York Times Web blog this month, Munadi wrote that he would never leave Afghanistan permanently and that "being a journalist is not enough; it will not solve the problems of Afghanistan. I want to work for the education of the country, because the majority of people are illiterate."
"And if I leave this country, if other people like me leave this country, who will come to Afghanistan?" he wrote.
Farrell joined the Times in 2007 in Baghdad. He has covered both the Afghan and Iraq conflicts for the paper.
He was briefly held hostage with an American journalist traveling in Iraq in 2004, when he was working for The Times of London. Militants questioned them for about seven hours before letting them go, he said afterward.
Farrell was the second Times journalist to be kidnapped in Afghanistan in a year.
In June, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Rohde and his Afghan colleague Tahir Ludin escaped from their Taliban captors in northwestern Pakistan. They had been abducted Nov. 10 south of Kabul and were moved across the border.
Keller said that reporters in the field are allowed a great deal of leeway, and that they are the best ones to judge the level of risk but that the Times would carry out a security review after the latest abduction.
___
Associated Press reporters Heidi Vogt in Kabul, David Stringer in London and Deepti Hajela in New York contributed to this report.

NYT reporter, interpreter kidnapped in Kunduz Afghanistan

2009-09-05T13:37:00.000-07:00

Taliban insurgents have kidnapped a foreign journalist associated with The New York Times in Chahar Dara district of northern Kunduz province, the governor said on Saturday.

Engineer Mohammad Omar told Pajhwok Afghan News they did not allow the reporter to visit the troubled district, where close to 100 people were killed in a NATO air strike on Friday.

But in defiance of government orders, the reporter went to Chahar Dara at his own risk. The governor added a Taliban commander named Mullah Abdur Rehman had abducted the British national along with an Afghan interpreter.

Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers found the reporter's vehicle during a search operation in the area. The journalist wanted to visit the area where the oil tankers hijacked by insurgents were struck. Residents say 150 locals were killed in the air raid
Pajhwok

Kunduz air strike killed 95 civilians....

2009-09-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Ninety-five people including dozens of civilians were killed and many others injured on Friday when NATO aircraft struck oil tankers hijacked by Taliban insurgents in Chahar Dara district of northern Kunduz province.
Kunduz Governor Eng. Mohammad Omar told Pajhwok Afghan News a Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Rahman, was among 45 insurgents killed in the incident that occurred in Haji Aman village of the restive district.
The International Security Assistance Force confirmed the air strike was carried out early this morning against a large number of insurgents after the Kunduz Operational Command Centre reported that two fuel trucks were stolen by insurgents.
Addressing a news conference, the provincial police chief said 65 guerrillas were killed in a huge explosion at the tanker after the NATO strike. The bombing came as militants and villagers emptied oil from the tanker into jerry canes.
Brig. Gen. Abdul Razaq Yaqubi told journalists more than a dozen Taliban were wounded in the massive blast. He acknowledged ordinary residents were among the dead and injured. However, the police chief explained the exact civilian toll was yet to be ascertained.
In response to a query, Gen. Abdul Rehman said drivers of the tankers -- belonging to a private firm -- were beheaded. Residents of Panjsher and Ghorband (Parwan), their headless bodies have been handed over to their kin, according to the police chief.
In a statement on its website, the NATO-led force said a local ISAF commander allowed the air raid after observing the insurgent activity and assessing civilians were not in the area. "A large number of insurgents were reported killed or injured and the fuel trucks were destroyed in the attack."
However, the 42-nation force later received reports that civilians were killed and injured in the air strike and "in conjunction with Afghan officials is now conducting an investigation into the claims."
The governor said the Taliban fighters hijacked two oil tankers carrying aircraft fuel for NATO forces from the Kunduz-Baghlan Highway. The militants were distributing fuel for free when the raid took place.

But a security official, seeking anonymity, said the death toll was more than 200. He claimed warplanes struck the people who had gathered to receive free oil distributed by the hijackers. The official would not give further details.
A dweller of the village, Noorullah, said one of his relatives was killed and another injured in the bombardment. Without giving evidence, he claimed the bombardment left 400 dead and wounded. Most of the injured were badly burnt, he said.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the gubernatorial assertion as false. The rebels suffered no casualties in the raid, he insisted, suggesting the dead were ordinary residents.

Director of Kunduz Civil Hospital, Humayun Khamosh said 15 wounded people were brought to hospital. Some of those hospitalised were writhing in pain, their skin peeling off as a result of the burns.
Statement by the Deputy UN Special Representative, Peter Galbraith on Kunduz airstrike Kabul, 4 September 2009 - I am very concerned by the reports we have seen this morning of casualties among civilians from an air strike against stolen trucks in Aliabad district of Kunduz province.As an immediate priority, everything possible must be done to ensure that people wounded by this attack are being properly cared for, and that families of the deceased are getting all the help they need.Steps must also be taken to examine what happened and why an air strike was employed in circumstances where it was hard to determine with certainty that civilians were not present. UNAMA is sending a team to look into the situation.

Security Council, Secretary-General deplore brutal bombing in southern Afghanistan

2009-08-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

26 August 2009 - The Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the senior United Nations official in Afghanistan have all condemned Tuesday’s suicide bomb attack in the southern city of Kandahar, which has killed more than 40 civilians and wounded at least 80 others. The truck bomb exploded on Tuesday evening in a residential area of Kandahar near a Japanese construction company, a guest house used by foreigners and Government offices, according to media reports. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was “shocked and dismayed” when he learned of the attack, his spokesperson said in a statement released today. “He condemns in the strongest possible terms this brutal and senseless act of violence.” The Security Council issued a press statement later today deploring the bombing and stressing that “no terrorist act can reverse the path towards peace, democracy and reconstruction in Afghanistan, which is supported by the people and the Government of Afghanistan and the international community.” Council members underlined the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of such acts to justice and urged all States to cooperate with Afghan authorities to this end, according to the press statement, read out by Ambassador John Sawers of the United Kingdom, which holds the rotating Council presidency this month.

“The members of the Security Council reiterated their serious concern at the threats posed by the Taliban, al-Qaida and other extremist groups to the local population, national security forces, international military and international assistance efforts in Afghanistan,” Mr. Sawers said. Kai Eide, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, offered his deep condolences to all those who have suffered as a result of the attack, which occurred just days after the country held presidential and provincial council elections. “The disregard for civilian lives shown by the perpetrators of this attack is staggering,” Mr. Eide said in a statement issued in Kabul.

Taliban killed Afghan Journalist in Pakistan

2009-08-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

JAMRUD, Pakistan, Aug 24 (Reuters)

Gunmen shot dead an Afghan journalist known as an outspoken critic of the Taliban as he travelled by bus through Pakistan's Khyber Pass on Monday, a Pakistani government official said.
Janullah Hashimzada was bureau chief in Pakistan for Afghanistan's Shamshad television channel and was travelling from Afghanistan when he was attacked.
"The attackers in a Toyota Corolla car intercepted the bus and made it stop and then they went inside and shot him dead," Rehan Khattak, a government official in Jamrud, the main town in the Khyber region, told Reuters.
One passenger was wounded, he said.
Khattak declined to say who might have been behind the attack.
Journalists in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province where Hashimzada was based, said he had been a vocal critic of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
"This was purely a targeted killing," Shamim Shahid, president of the Peshawar Press Club, told the vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI). "(He) was very critical of the Taliban, and some of his reporting was unacceptable both to Pakistani and Afghan governments and intelligence agencies.
"He had too much information regarding the militants, the Taliban and the intelligence agencies."
Violence has increased in Khyber over the past year with Pakistani Taliban launching attacks in an attempt to cut off supplies bound for Western forces in Afghanistan.
Kidnap and smuggling gangs also operate in the region, some of whose members also pose as Islamist militants. (Reporting by Ibrahim Shinwari; Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Ralph Boulton)

Hashimi is building Taliban’s regime back

2009-04-28T23:31:00.000-07:00

If Hashimi win the presidential election, he will build a regime in accordance to Taliban laws.

Afghanistan National Revolutionary Movement's nominate for Presidential election has said that if he wins the election, he will make a system according to Islamic rules.
Molawi Mohammad sayed Hashimi has stated this statement on 3 sour in a press conference in Kabul.

Hasimi said If he win the election, he will search some ways by which Afghan civilian will be able to learn according religious laws and will select those ministers and governors who aren't soaked with corruption.

He affirmed that will make large masques in Afghanistan so that Afghan civilian should not be compelled to immigrate in foreign countries for learning and Afghanistan will have its On Red/Lal Masques.

He also said that will make limited rules and regulations for media to eradicate Media's stubbornness.
According to the information we have, he was Afghanistan National Revolutionary Movement's ex leader (Moulawi Mohammad Nabi Mohammady)'s advisor, and than after year 1371 he worked for a year as consultant minister in Burhanuddin Rabani's government.

Till now beside Hashimi, 31 another persons have nominated themselves for presidential post.

Iranian-American journalist gets eight years on spying charge

2009-04-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

Reporters Without Borders “firmly condemns” the eight-year prison sentence which a Tehran revolutionary court passed today on Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi on a charge of spying for the United States.
“This conviction was unjust under the Iranian criminal code and the sentence was severe,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Saberi’s lawyer was not with her when she appeared before the judges for the single hearing on 13 April. Coming as it does in the run-up to elections, this sentence is a warning to all foreign journalists working in Iran.”
The Saberi case is the latest example of how the Iranian authorities arbitrarily use spying charges to arrest journalists and tighten the gag on free expression.
Aged 31, Saberi has been detained ever since her arrest in Tehran in late January. The trial opened before a revolutionary court on 13 April and only one hearing was held, lasting a day. Her lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, confirmed today to Reporters Without Borders that she has been convicted and sentenced and said he was going to appeal.
Saberi’s arrest was revealed by National Public Radio (NPR) in the United States on 1 March following a call it received from her father on 10 February. The day after the NPR report, the Iranian authorities confirmed she was being held in north Tehran’s Evin prison. On 2 March, foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said she had been working “illegally” in Iran. Judicial authority spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said on 3 March that she had been “arrested on the order of the Tehran revolutionary court and is now in detention in Evin prison.”
Born and brought up in the United States, Saberi has an Iranian father who became a US citizen. She moved to Iran six years ago, working as a stringer for NPR from 2002 to 2006. She also worked for the BBC and Fox News. The Iranian authorities do not recognise dual citizenship and regard her as an Iranian like any other.
Her father, Reza Saberi, told Reporters Without Borders that she had not worked for the media since 2006. She did not have access to news and information as she did not have press accreditation, he said. “Her writings were just personal notes and comments about cultural and literary subjects with a view to writing a book about Iran,” he said, adding that “she had been concentrating since 2006 on studying Farsi and Iranian culture at a Tehran university.”

Two Minutes-Of-Shame That Shook Pakistan

2009-04-21T01:58:00.001-07:00

A two-minute video episode captured on a cell phone shook Pakistan when it penetrated the blogosphere and began making rounds as everybody with a mobile phone passed the footage to all the contacts in his/her phone book. The rough-and-ready footage emerged from Swat. Once a honeymoon destination, this scenic valley has, of late, become a Saudi-style puritan "Emirate of Taliban".
Having earned itself the neologism of "Swat video", this widely watched footage shows a burka-clad girl pinned to ground. Two men holding her hand and feet while the third - with a black turban and beard - canning the girl. Crying for mercy ("stop it please") and begging forgiveness, the girl struggles - instinctively but unsuccessfully - to free herself.
Silent onlookers watch on helplessly, apparently unmoved by the shameful spectacle on display. "Either kill me or stop", screams helpless girl yet again in her mother tongue, Pashto. Her pleas for mercy are instead countered by an off-camera instruction to the man holding her feet: "Hold her legs tightly". The flogging does not stop until the count is 34.
Silent onlookers watch on helplessly, apparently unmoved by the shameful spectacle on display. "Either kill me or stop", screams helpless girl yet again in her mother tongue, Pashto. Her pleas for mercy are instead countered by an off-camera instruction to the man holding her feet: "Hold her legs tightly". The flogging does not stop until the count is 34. When the lashing is over, she is led to a stone building nearby.
The footage was passed on to local journalists. Afraid of puritan wrath, the local journalists kept mum. Their fears were justified. Only weeks ago, a journalist was cold-bloodedly murdered in Swat. Elsewhere, Pakistan is no "safe haven" for journalists either. Almost 40 journalists have been killed in the last eight years, most of them in Taliban-controlled districts.
However, self censorship in the face of Taliban terror was not the only reason that mainstream media in Pakistan hushed this video up. Making a "breaking news" out of every trifle, a dozen or so Pakistani channels jealously vie with each other to be the first to report a particular incident. But this footage for days and days did not manage to gatecrash the newsrooms also because a big chunk of media men and women too sympathise with Taliban. A brave woman and documentary maker, Samar Minallah, passed the footage to local media.
"They were not ready to show it", she told this scribe on phone. Finally, she sent the video on to Islamabad-based foreign journalists. It made cautious headlines on April 2 in, for instance, the Guardian while BBC Urdu also hosted the news on its website.
Meantime, women rights groups began staging demonstrations in Lahore and Karachi. Thus, the silence was broken. Then the vultures from mainstream media-houses swooped on Swat. On April 3, electronic media swung to action while the morning papers on April 4 had wall-to-wall coverage of the incident with chilling details.
Universal outrage
The media coverage, however, was also triggered by the universal outrage. The anger is so widespread that even right-wing and Islamist parties, for the first time, have condemned the Taliban. Also, a host of columnists and anchorpersons sympathising with Taliban - touted as Media Mujahideen - are, for the first time, finding it hard to defend Taliban. Until now, every brutality Taliban has inflicted on their helpless victims, was justified in the name of resistance to US occupation of Afghanistan. When, for instance, the five-star Marriot was attacked by a suicide bomber in capital Islamabad, a leading Media Mujahid spun a cock-and-bull theory that hotel was housing US military facilities.
It turned out that a beautifully named 14-year-old girl, Chaand (moon in many South Asian languages) was accused of having an "affair" with Adalat Khan, a youth living in the same street. An electrician by profession, Adalat Khan was one day spotted coming out of Chaand’s home by Taliban. Adalat had been summoned by Chaand’s family to help fix some electric appliances. A Taliban militant had proposed Chaand. Her family turned down the suit. Now was a chance to take revenge. Hence, both Adalat and Chaand were dragged out of their respective homes and flogged. First, Adalat was administered 50 lashes. Later, Chaand was spanked with a leather belt.
Muslim Khan, a spokesperson for Taliban in Swat, while replying journalists’ queries not merely defended this disgracful butchery but claimed that the girl should have been stoned instead! Since the punishment was awarded, according to Muslim Khan, before the implementation of Sharia when Taliban were at war with the government hence a fatwa for stoning could not be obtained from a Sharia court.
Deal delivers Sharia law
Following a "peace deal" struck on February 21, between Taliban and the government, Sharia courts have been established. These courts pass a verdict in three days while local lawyers are not allowed to appear as counsels since they are not qualified in Sharia
Meantime, as this scribe is busy writing these lines, more information is pouring in and the latest news is: The Taliban also forced Adalat to marry Chaand. As more information reaches people, they are getting more agitated and outraged. This outrage is translating into protest demonstrations across Pakistan. Every demo is proving more fatal for Taliban than any US drone attack

A Step Forward or Backward

2009-04-21T01:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday، April 7، 2009

A Step Forward or Backward?
The Law on Private Matters of the Shiites in Afghanistan
President Karzai has recently signed Qanon-e Ahwal-e Shakhsiah Ahl-e Tashaio a, or the
Law on Private Matters of the Shiites, a new legislation dealing with the private matters of the
Shiite population of Afghanistan. The move has provoked an outcry among the Afghan civil
society and the international community. A number of articles in the new law contradict the basic
principles of human rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
and our national obligations under international human rights conventions and treaties,
particularly the Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In a
Taliban-style provision, this law conditions women s movement outside her house to the consent
of her husband. The law undermines the progress towards realization of human rights, empowers
and institutionalizes a radically hard-line interpretation of the holy religion of Islam and sets a
bad precedent for future conservative legislations and government policiesThe Afghanistan Watch has been following the debates surrounding the approval of the
legislation in the National Assembly. It believes that the law is written in line with the most
conservative interpretation of Shiite jurisprudence and many progressive and moderate voices
coming out of the Afghan civil society, the Shiite religious scholars and from within the
parliament during the debate over the draft law were ignored and sidelined. The views expressed
in the law are dictated by the most conservative and a minority of the Shiite ulema in
Afghanistan. The organization believes that enforcement of some provisions of the new law will
be a setback for the promotion of women s and children s rights which have often been presented
as the main goals of the international intervention and the post-Taliban political process in the
country. This will also erode the hopes and aspirations of Afghan women and children after years
of war and total exclusion under the Taliban for liberty, political and legal equality and
improvement in their living conditions after nearly 8 years of democratic experimentAs a member of Afghan civil society, the Afghanistan Watch is deeply alarmed that laws
such as this can be passed by the democratically elected national assembly and singed into effect
by the President

Afghanistan Watch calls on the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the
Speakers and Members of both Houses of the National Assembly to reconsider this law in line
with the commitments and obligations of Afghanistan under its Constitution and international
human rights obligations

The Afghanistan Watch also calls upon the international community, the UN, international
human rights organizations and the diplomatic community in Kabul to consistently advocate and
pressure the Afghan government and the parliament to respect universally recognized human
rights values and norms

Politicized Case Shows Grave Threat to Freedom of Expression

2009-04-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday، March 17، 2009

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch
(New York) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai should issue a pardon for Parwez Kambakhsh, a student and part-time journalist, whose 20-year prison sentence for blasphemy has been upheld by the Supreme Court, Human Rights Watch said today. The Supreme Court decision was the final stage in a highly politicized case that has repeatedly flouted Afghan and international law and highlighted the lack of professionalism among the Afghan judiciary

The court upheld the sentence on February 11, 2009, without informing Kambakhsh or his lawyer, or allowing the lawyer to submit arguments in Kambakhsh's defense. On March 7, the lawyer, Azfal Nooristani, discovered that the decision had been made
"The Supreme Court represented the last hope that Parwez Kambakhsh would receive a fair hearing, but once again justice was denied," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Kambakhsh has committed no crime. Now it is up to President Karzai to act on principle and free him"
Threats, prejudicial statements, and political interventions have marred the Kambakhsh case from the outset. "This case has been a conspiracy, it is about politics," Nooristani told Human Rights Watch. "I had a legal right to see the Supreme Court judges, but they would not see me; they did not let me submit my defense statement. They had already made up their minds

"
Kambakhsh was detained in Balkh province on October 27, 2007, accused of writing and distributing an article that criticized the role of women in the Quran. Kambakhsh says he merely downloaded the article from the internet and sent it to friends. While in detention, Kambakhsh says, he was forced to sign a confession under duress

On January 22, 2008, the Primary Court in Balkh sentenced him to death for blasphemy in a trial that lasted only a few minutes. No evidence was presented, and Kambakhsh was not given access to legal representation. It later emerged that the judges had accepted as evidence against Kambakhsh statements from fellow students and teachers that he asked "difficult questions" in class, a cell phone text message joke he had sent to a friend, and a history book found in his bedroom

In October 2008, the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction against Kambakhsh and commuted his sentence to 20 years in prison. The proceedings of the appellate court also had grave legal flaws. The prime witness for the prosecution retracted his statement, telling the court that he had been forced to make it because he had been threatened by the security forces. This was the sole piece of evidence that linked Kambakhsh to the article, a fact that was ignored in the court's written decision

Human Rights Watch expressed concern for Kambakhsh's safety. Kambakhsh has been informed that he will be transferred to Pul-i-Charki prison or to a prison in Balkh province, where in either case he believes he will be under threat from fellow prisoners. "The government says they will now move Kambakhsh to another prison, but there are Taliban and other Jihadis there," said Nooristani, his lawyer. "He thinks he will be killed. He is an innocent man, but he did not receive justice in the courts"
Human Rights Watch called upon the government of Afghanistan to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of Kambakhsh and to detain him in a prison where he will not be at risk

Human Rights Watch said that the Kambakhsh case is emblematic of a general diminution of freedom of expression in Afghanistan. In February, the Payman Daily newspaper was forced to close after it was accused of apostasy by the Ulema Council (a council of clerics). The paper had published an article downloaded from the internet about the apocalyptic prophesies of a Bulgarian mystic and self-proclaimed clairvoyant known as Baba Vanga, who raised questions about the afterlife. Staff members received death threats and the news editor, Nazari Paryani, spent 10 days in detention. Charges appear to be pending against him
Another journalist, Ghows Zalmai, is facing a 20-year jail sentence for blasphemy after publishing a translation of the Quran in Dari, one of the languages of Afghanistan. The Supreme Court is currently reviewing his case
"The Karzai government is allowing blasphemy cases against the press to go forward to keep the support of religious conservatives," said Adams. "Afghans were silenced by the Taliban, and do not want to be silenced again. The government must recommit itself defend freedom of expression"

A 15yeas old grill was raped number of times

2009-04-21T01:10:00.000-07:00

An 15 years old grill was raped a number tiomes in pakistan!

Zeba is 15 years old, originally from the southeast region, her parents died when she was a little child, her cousin Ali took her under custody and she grew up with his family as a refugee camp in Pakistan.

One day Ali told Zeba that he was going to take on trip and she agreed.
Zeba was handed to a man called Abdullah and a women living in his house.
Abdullah later told Zeba that he spent a lot of money for her and that she was his wife now.
Zeba wanted to refuse him but was afraid that he would kill her if she did.
She was not even able to communicate with Abdullah, well as he is a Dari speaker and she speaks only Pashto.
Zeba was raped a number of times after the Nikka (marriage) ceremony.
Towenty days later, Zeba had a chance to talk with her neighbor who understood Pashto and told her story.
While taking the women living in Abdullah’s house neighbor informed police and the arrested Abdullah."IOM"case record 2008.

Trafficking women and children

2009-04-21T01:08:00.000-07:00

12/24/08
A grill who burnt herself in Kandahar:

An eight year old afghan grill was kidnapped in the southern region in August 2006.
She was later found dead in house in the same province.
The autopsy revealed that she was first sexually abused and then burnt to death.

A F G H A N I S T A N Annual Report on Protection of Civilians

2009-04-21T01:04:00.001-07:00

Tuesday، February 17، 2009

Executive Summary UNAMA Human rghts Unit

1. This Report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict in Afghanistan in 2008 is
compiled in pursuance of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
mandate under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1806 (2008). UNAMA conducts
independent and impartial monitoring of incidents involving loss of life or injury to civilians
as well as damage or destruction of civilian infrastructure and conducts activities geared to
mitigating the impact of the armed conflict on civilians. UNAMA’s Human Rights Officers
(national and international), deployed in all of UNAMA’s regional offices and some
provincial offices, utilize a broad range of techniques to gather information on specific cases
irrespective of location or who may be responsible. Such information is cross-checked and
analysed, with a range of diverse sources, for credibility and reliability to the satisfaction of
the Human Rights Officer conducting the investigation, before details are recorded in a
dedicated data base. However, due to limitations arising from the operating environment,
such as the joint nature of some operations and the inability of primary sources in most
instances to precisely identify or distinguish between diverse military actors/insurgents,
UNAMA does not break down responsibility for particular incidents other than attributing
them to “pro-government forces” or “anti-government elements”. UNAMA does not claim
that the statistics presented in this report are complete; it may be the case that, given the
limitations in the operating environment, UNAMA is under-reporting civilian casualties. In
January 2009, UNAMA introduced a new electronic database which is designed to facilitate
the collection and analysis of information, including disaggregation by age and gender.
2. In compliance with its mandate granted under UN Security Council Resolution 1806 (2008),
paragraph (g), the Human Rights Unit of UNAMA (UNAMA Human Rights) undertakes a
range of activities aimed at minimizing the impact of the conflict on civilians, including
reporting through the UN Secretary General to the Security Council, the Special
Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) UNAMA, the UN Emergency Relief
Coordinator, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and other UN
mechanisms as appropriate. UNAMA Human Rights advocates with a range of actors
including Afghan authorities, international military forces (IMF), and others with a view to
strengthening compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law. It also
undertakes a range of activities on issues relating to the armed conflict and protection of
civilians with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), the
humanitarian community, and members of civil society.
3. The armed conflict intensified significantly throughout Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008, with
a corresponding rise in civilian casualties and a significant erosion of humanitarian space. In
addition to fatalities as a direct result of armed hostilities, civilians have suffered from
injury, loss of livelihood, displacement, destruction of property, as well as disruption of
access to education, healthcare and other essential services.
4. UNAMA Human Rights recorded a total of 2118 civilian casualties between 01 January and
31 December 2008. This figure represents an increase of almost 40% on the 1523 civilian
deaths recorded in the year of 2007. The 2008 civilian death toll is thus the highest of any
year since the end of major hostilities which resulted in the demise of the Taliban regime at
the end of 2001. Of the 2118 casualties reported in 2008, 1160 (55%) were attributed to antigovernment
elements (AGEs) and 828 (39%) to pro-government forces. The remaining 130
(6%) could not be attributed to any of the conflicting parties since, for example, some
iii
civilians died as a result of cross-fire or were killed by unexploded ordinance. The majority
of civilian casualties, namely 41%, occurred in the south of Afghanistan, which saw heavy
fighting in several provinces. High casualty figures have also been reported in the south-east
(20%), east (13%), central (13%) and western (9%) regions.
5. In 2007 Afghan security forces and IMF supporting the Government in Afghanistan were
responsible for 629 (or 41%) of the total civilian casualties recorded. At around 39% of total
civilian casualties, the relative proportion of deaths attributed to pro-government forces
remained relatively stable for 2008. However, at 828, the actual number of recorded noncombatant
deaths caused by pro-government forces amounts to a 31% increase over the
deaths recorded in 2007. This increase occurred notwithstanding various measures
introduced by the IMF to reduce the impact of the war on civilians.
6. Air-strikes remain responsible for the largest percentage of civilian deaths attributed to progovernment
forces. UNAMA recorded 552 civilian casualties of this nature in 2008. This
constitutes 64% of the 828 non-combatant deaths attributed to actions by pro-government
forces in 2008, and 26% of all civilians killed, as a result of armed conflict in 2008. Nighttime
raids, and “force protection incidents” which sometimes result in death and injury to
civilians, are of continuing concern. Also of concern is the transparency and independence
of procedures of inquiry into civilian casualties by the Afghan Government and the IMF; the
issuance of solatia payments to victims (given that the different troop contributing countries
have different conditions for such payments); and the placement of military bases in urban
and other areas with high concentrations of civilians which have subsequently become
targets of insurgent attacks.
7. In the reporting period, international military forces did attempt to address a number of
significant concerns. This included streamlining and greater transparency of command
structures between ISAF and Operation Enduring Freedom; the latter now, largely, operates
under the Commander of ISAF who is simultaneously Commander of US Forces
Afghanistan. However, some operators still remain outside his command. It is also
noteworthy that refined tactical directives on “force protection”, air-strikes and night-time
raids have been issued in the latter part of 2008. ISAF also introduced a centralised civilian
casualties tracking cell that is mirrored within US Forces Afghanistan by a similar tracking
cell, aimed at investigating all claims of civilian casualties attributed to ISAF/US Forces
Afghanistan. International military forces showed themselves more willing than before to
institute more regular and transparent inquiries into specific incidents (although the
independence of these inquiries is still questionable).
8. AGEs remain responsible for the largest proportion of civilian casualties. Civilian deaths
reportedly caused by AGEs rose from 700 in 2007 to 1,160 in 2008 – an increase of over
65%. While seasonal trends remained broadly consistent, in practically every month of 2008
the insurgent-caused death toll among civilians was higher than in the same month of 2007
and outstripped that resulting from the actions of pro-government forces. The vast majority
of those killed by the armed opposition are victims of suicide and other IED attacks (725
killed) and of targeted assassinations (271 killed). Together, these tactics accounted for over
85% of the non-combatant deaths attributed to AGE actions. The remainder of AGEinflicted
fatalities resulted primarily from rocket attacks and from ground engagements in
which civilians bystanders were directly affected.
iv
9. Accounting for 725 non-combatant deaths, or 34% of the total civilian casualties in 2008,
suicide and IED attacks killed more Afghan civilians than any other tactic used by the
parties to the conflict. UNDSS recorded 146 suicide attacks and 1,297 detonated IEDs in
2008, with another 93 suicide attacks and 843 IEDs that were discovered before they could
be detonated. Although the majority of such attacks have been directed primarily against
military or government targets, attacks are frequently carried out in crowded civilian areas
with apparent disregard for the extensive damage they cause to civilians. Throughout 2008,
insurgents have shown an increasing disregard for the harm they may inflict on civilians in
such attacks. There have been reports of insurgents using civilians as human shields during
operations and of deliberately basing themselves in civilian areas heedless of the toll that
may be inflicted on civilians. Insurgents have also increasingly targeted persons perceived to
be associated or supportive of the Government and its allies, including teachers, students,
doctors and health workers, tribal elders, civilian government employees, former police and
military personnel, and labourers involved in public-interest construction work. UN and
NGO staff members have also become victims of violence and have been killed, kidnapped
or received death threats on numerous occasions. Schools, particularly those for girls, have
come under increasing attack thereby depriving thousands of students, especially girls, of
their right of access to education. According to UNICEF, attacks on schools and educational
facilities rose by 24%, from 236 incidents reported in 2007 to 293 in 2008.1
10. The deteriorating security situation and drastically reduced humanitarian access intensified
the challenge for the humanitarian agencies to address the growing needs of vulnerable
Afghans. By the end of 2008, “humanitarian space” had shrunk considerably. Large parts of
the south, south-west, south-east, east, and central regions of Afghanistan are now classified
by the UN Department of Safety and Security as an “extreme risk, hostile environment” for
operations. In 2008, 38 aid workers (almost all from NGOs) were killed, double the number
in 2007, and a further 147 abducted. UNDSS recorded over 198 other direct attacks, threats
and intimidations targeting the aid community in 2008.
11. As the conflict intensifies, Afghans are suffering; in addition to the growing number of
deaths and injuries, vulnerable groups are also suffering in terms of destruction of
infrastructure, loss of income or earning opportunities, and deterioration of access to basic
life-supporting services. UNAMA, concerned about the high cost to civilians, calls upon all
parties to respect the relevant rules of international humanitarian law and human rights law
and to do everything in their power to ensure that the impact of their actions has the least
possible negative impact upon the civilian population.

The Afghanistan Justice Project,War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity (1978-2001)

2009-04-21T01:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday، February 15، 2009

Massacre and Mass Rape in Afshar
(February 12, 1993)
The Context of the Operation
The Afshar operation of February 1993 represented the largest and most integrated use of
military power undertaken by the ISA up to that time. There were two tactical objectives to the
Operation. First, Massoud intended, through the operation to capture the political and military
headquarters of Hizb-i Wahdat, (which was located in the Social Science Institute, adjoining, the
neighborhood below the Afshar mountain in west Kabul), and to capture Abdul Ali Mazari, the
leader of Hizb-i Wahdat. Second, the ISA intended to consolidate the areas of the capital directly
controlled by Islamic State forces by linking up parts of west Kabul controlled by Ittihad-i Islami
with parts of central Kabul controlled by Jamiat-i Islami. Given the political and military context of Kabul at the time, these two objectives (which were largely attained during the operation)
provide a compelling explanation of why the Islamic State forces attacked Afshar.

Responsibility for the abuses committed during the operation
The forces that launched the offensive in west Kabul on February 10-11, 1993 all formally
belonged to the ministry of defense of the ISA.
The minister of defense and de facto commander-in-chief of the ISA at the time of the Afshar
operation was Ahmad Shah Massoud. He had overall responsibility for planning and command of military operations. He directly controlled the Jamiat-i Islami units and indirectly controlled the
Ittihad-i Islami unit. Massoud secured the participation of the Ittihad-i Islami units through
agreement with Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the leader of the party. Although the Ittihad-i units had been given Afghan Army formation numbers, commanders in the field took their orders from senior
Ittihad-i commanders and Sayyaf himself. Sayyaf acted as the de facto general commander of
Ittihad-i forces during the operation and was directly in touch with senior commanders by radio.
In this sense, Sayyaf shares equal command and control responsibility with the top Jamiat
military leadership.

Massacre and Mass Rape in Afshar (February 1993)
Page 2 of 7
Given the pattern of violence and ethnic tension that had preceded the operation, the general
commanders could and should have anticipated the pattern of abuse that would result when
launching an offensive into a densely populated Hazara majority area.. Furthermore, as fighting
took place in an area barely two kilometers from the general command post, and field
commanders were equipped with radio communications, the general commander must have
known of the abuses taking place in Afshar as soon as they started. Both Massoud, together with his senior commanders, and Sayyaf failed to take effective measures to prevent abuses before
the operation commenced, or to stop them once the operation was underway.
While it has not been possible to identify individual commanders responsible for specific instances of execution or rape, the Afghanistan Justice Project has been able to identify a number of the commanders who led troops in the operation. Testimony indicates that both Jamiat and Ittihad-i troops committed abuses. Although some of the commanders were only involved in legitimate military actions, capturing and securing a designated objective, commanders who took place in the operation on the ground have a case to answer to determine whether they restrained their troops from abuses, or whether they and their men actively participated in the summary executions, rape, arbitrary detentions and other abuses that occurred during the operation.
The Islamic State, through Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud and leader of factional ally,Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, committed the following military forces to participate in the Afshar operation.

Jamiat-i Islami commanders and units
Mohammad Qasim Fahim, director of intelligence, with responsibility for special operations in
support of the offensive and participating in planning of the operation.
Anwar Dangar, commander of a division level unit of mujahidin from Shakkar Darra, Shamali,
named by numerous witnesses as leading troops in Afshar that carried out abuses on the first
two days of the operation.
Mullah Izzat, commander of a division level unit of mujahidin, from Paghman, named by
numerous eye witnesses as leading troops in Afshar that carried out abuses on the first two days
of the operation.
Mohammad Ishaq Panshiri, commander of a brigade level unit of mujahidin (lewa) that,
according to witnesses, participated in the assault.
Hajji Bahlol Panshiri , commander of a brigade level unit (lewa) that, according to witnesses
participated in the assault.
Baba Jullunder Panshiri , commander of a brigade level unit (lewa) that participated in the assault.
Khanjar Akhund, Panshiri , commander of a battalion level unit (ghund) that participated
in the assault.
Mushdoq Lalai , battalion level, participated in the assault.
Baz Mohammad Ahmadi Badakhshani , commander of a division level unit that participated in the assault, attacking from Qargha
Massacre and Mass Rape in Afshar (February 1993)
Page 3 of 7
Ittihad-i Islami commanders and units participating in the operation
Haji Shir Alam, division commander affiliated to Sayyaf, from Paghman, named by numerous eye witnesses as leading troops in Afshar on the first two days when abuses committed
Zulmai Tufan, commander of the Lewa 597 brigade, named by numerous eye witnesses as
leading troops in Afshar on the first two days, when abuses were committed. (Lewa 597 existed
before the fall of Dr. Najibullah’s government when it was called Lewa Moradat-Tank). It was in
based in the Company area of west Kabul.
Dr. Abdullah, commander of a battalion level unit (ghund) of the Lewa 597, named by several
witnesses as leading troops in Afshar on day one and two, when abuses were committed.
Jaglan Naeem, commander of a battalion level unit (ghund) of the Lewa 597, had stationed
troops in Afshar by second day of the operation.
Mullah Taj Mohammad, named as participating in planning of the operation
Abdullah Shah, named by several witnesses as leading troops in Afshar and responsible for
arbitrary arrests, abductions and other abuses.
Khinjar, who had stationed troops in Afshar by the second day of the operation
Abdul Manan Diwana, commander of a battalion level unit (ghund), named by witnesses as
stationing troops in Afshar by the second day of the operation
Amanullah Kochi, commander of a battalion level unit (ghund), had stationed troops in
Afshar by second day of the operation
Shirin, commander of a battalion level unit (ghund), had stationed troops in Afshar by the second day of the operation Mushtaq Lalai, commander of a battalion level unit (ghund), had stationed troops in Afshar by the second day of the operation Mullah Kachkol , had stationed troops in Afshar by second day of the operation

Narrative of the operation

All of the forces that ultimately participated in the fighting on February 10-11, 1993, were already deployed in and around Kabul before the start of the offensive. The main preparations made by the ISA were the conduct of special operations to weaken the Hizb-I Wahdat defenses and deployment of additional artillery for the bombardment. As director of intelligence, Mohammad Fahim had overall responsibility for special operations. His personnel contacted a number of the Shia commanders around Afshar and obtained their commitment to cooperate with the Islamic State offensive.
The most significant new deployment of artillery before the operation was the position on Aliabad
Hill. Massoud pre-positioned a Z0 23 gun there, with the detachment of 30 men, to target the
area around the Central Silo, Afshar, Kart-iSeh, Kart-iChar and Kart-iSakhi.
Massacre and Mass Rape in Afshar (February 1993)
Page 4 of 7
The main significance of the massive firepower and the large number of positions from which
artillery was used is that they demonstrate the scale and significance of the operation. This was
not a raid or skirmish but a full scale battle, in which the Islamic State deployed the combined
military resources from the old Soviet era army and the mujahidin against targets within the
capital city, all of them located in areas that were primarily residential, with the civilian
population intact.
Witnesses who were associated with the military at the time of the operation have provided
accounts of the planning and military coordination that Massoud undertook prior to actually
launching the operation on the ground. However, this represents only a partial view of the
planning, as an operation of this scale must have involved intensive preparations. According to
one witness, the top Jamiat commanders, along with selected senior Ittihad-i commanders (Shir
Alam and Zulmai Tufan), and with the main Shia ally, Massoud Hussein Anwari, plus the ISA
military advisors, met under the chairmanship of Massoud at Corps headquarters in Badambagh two days before the operation. Another meeting was held in an intelligence safe house in
KartiParwan, near the Intercontinental hotel, on the night before the offensive. Massoud used the same house as an operations room for much of the day. There was also a meeting of the Ittihadi commanders, under the chairmanship of Sayyaf, in Paghman, one day before the operation.
The purpose of these meetings was to instruct key commanders on their role in the ground
offensive. The ISA forces commenced a generalized bombardment of west Kabul on the night of
February 10-11, 1993, with targets both around the Social Science Institute and Afshar and in
the rest of the Shia areas of the city. Troop movement started around 05.00 on February 11, and
this is generally remembered as the time of the full commencement of the operation. The first
decisive troop movement was from Badambagh to the top of the Radar Hill, part of the Afshar
ridge. ISA troops were immediately able to take over positions along the top of the ridge
unopposed and the main Hizb-i Wahdat defense posts there were burned and the tanks stationed
there immobilized.
A large contingent of both Ittihad-i and Jamiat forces advanced towards Afshar from the west.
The closest point of the front line to the main target of the operation was the Kabul Polytechnic.
A Jamiat force advanced along the main Afshar Road, from Kart-iParwan and the Intercontinental
Hotel, towards the Social Science Institute, entering Afshar from the east.
The ISA forces did not advance along other sections of the front line marking the west Kabul
enclave, although they maintained an intense bombardment and had ample forces deployed to
maintain a threat of advance. However, by 13.00 Hizb-i Wahdat’s main defense line along the
Afshar ridge was gone and their hold on the Social Science Institute untenable. Mazari and his
top commanders fled the Institute on foot. By 14.00 the ISA forces were able to occupy the
Social Science Institute, and the forces that had advanced from the east and the west, met up in
Afshar, having taken effective control of the area. They deployed in Khushal Mina and Afshar, but
made no further advance.
Troops started to secure the area, establishing posts and undertaking a search operation. It was
this search operation that rapidly became a mass exercise in abuse and looting, as described in
the civilian eyewitness testimony below.
Mazari was able to order the re-establishment of the defense line along the edge of Khushhal
Mina, next to the Central Silo and Kart-iSakhi, thus retaining most of the rest of west Kabul.
Some of the Afshar residents, basically those considering themselves most vulnerable, managed
to flee with the departing Wahdat troops (this factor seems to account for the relatively low
number of male youths mentioned in the casualties in the testimony). However, the majority of
the Afshar civilian population was in place as the ISA forces took over. Because of the
Massacre and Mass Rape in Afshar (February 1993)
Page 5 of 7
bombardment, active fighting and presence of potentially hostile troops, it seems that many
civilians were unable to leave on the first day of the operation. However, a mass exodus took
place on the night of the February 11-12. Women and children fled mainly towards Taimani, in
north Kabul, and they found shelter in schools and mosques in the Ismaili quarter there. Some
old men elected to stay and guard houses and possessions, but testimony indicates that the
troops mainly targeted men for arbitrary detention and summary execution, i.e. male civilians
were not free to leave the area. Most survivors who fled Afshar described seeing debris and
corpses along the way, indicating that they fled after the main battle. By the end of the second
day, the bulk of the civilian population had evacuated Afshar and it seems that this exodus was
the development that most decisively ended abuses against civilians in the area.
On the second day of the operation, February 12, Massoud convened a meeting in the Hotel
Intercontinental which, belatedly, discussed arrangements for security in the newly captured
areas. This meeting was attended by top ISA military commanders and political figures, including
Rabbani, Sayyaf, Ayatollah Mohsini, Ayatollah Fazl, and General Fahim. ISA did claim a Shia
constituency and Hussein Anwari, as a senior ISA commander, was under pressure from Shia
civilians to make some arrangements for their safety. The meeting ordered a halt to the
massacre and looting and agreed on an exchange of envoys between the warring parties, for
identification of prisoners. It also called for a withdrawal of the offensive troops, leaving a smaller
force to garrison the new areas.175 Given the scale of abuses that occurred on the first two days
of the operation, before the meeting, it was clearly too late to prevent the main abuses.
The meeting also seems to have been ineffective in halting the looting of the area, as the
destruction of housing in Afshar happened largely after the meeting.

The War Crimes: Indiscriminate Attacks, Rapes, Abductions and Summary Executions Indiscriminate Shelling and bombardment of civilian areas

The Afshar area was subjected to heavy bombardment during the first day of the operation. The
principal military targets would have been the Social Science Institute and the other main Wahdat
garrisons. However, the Social Science Institute was never hit. The majority of the rockets, tank
shells and mortars fell in civilian residential areas. As the command centers of both the Ittihad-i
and Jamiat forces were within site of Afshar, it appears that the attack was intended to drive the civilian population from Afshar—which it succeeded in doing. The number killed in the assault
(not including those summarily executed) is not known. Virtually every witness interviewed by
the Afghanistan Justice Project described seeing bodies in the area. Indeed, the shelling and
mortar fire was so intense, many residents hid on the first day, and did not try to leave. Although this may have reduced civilian casualties from the bombardment, it left these civilians vulnerable to the abuses that followed.

Summary Executions and Disappearances
As noted above, the parties to the conflict were bound by Common Article 3 to the Geneva
Conventions, which prohibits summary executions, torture and hostage taking. Witnesses
interviewed by the Afghanistan Justice Project stated that a group of Hizb-i Wahdat soldiers was
taken prisoner from Wahdat headquarters at the Social Science Institute by Ittihad-i Islami forces
on February 11. In addition to these, a large number of civilian men and suspected Wahdat
militants were arrested from the Afshar area after Ittihad captured it. The number taken is not
known. One group of Hazara prisoners held by Ittihad-i Islami was subsequently used by the
Ittihad commanders to undertake burial of the dead from the Afshar operation, after one week.

Massacre and Mass Rape in Afshar (February 1993)

Page 6 of 7
This group of witnesses has reported that their relatives were among the civilian and military
prisoners taken by Ittihad-i who subsequently disappeared and are believed to have been
summarily executed by Ittihad-i forces. The Afghanistan Justice Project has been able to obtain
only a few of the names of the victims. Some other men were taken from their homes.
Witness A told the Afghanistan Justice Project that he and his family had tried to escape, but the rocketing and shelling was too intense. “We ran to my mother-in-law’s house and hid there.
Other people told us that people were being killed on the roads. Eventually a few other families
joined us. We could hear the radios of some of the Sayyaf people and they were being warned
not to start fighting over the loot. The armed men – who were from Sayyaf and from Jamiat –
were looting all the houses. Sayyaf’s people spoke Pashto; Jamiat spoke Dari. I sent my family to another place and I stayed at the house. At about 11:00 a.m. a commander named Izatullah
(from Ittihad-i) came to the house with about ten other armed men. I had left the door open
hoping the militias would think the house empty. They came in and beat me and took me to
Qargha river where I was put into a container with about 60-65 men. It was very crowded.
Sometimes some men were taken out and made to do work, like chop wood.” After a week the
prisoners were all told how much they would have to pay to be released. The witness was told he would have to pay $5000. He told them he did not have that much money, but friends in
Paghman came and paid for his release.
Witness B told the Afghanistan Justice Project that Ittihad-i Islami troops had beaten her and
arrested her unarmed husband from their residence in Afshar, and that he was still accounted
for.
Witness C told the Afghanistan Justice Project that the soldiers searched the houses looking for
men. “I was taken to Paghman. At night I was kept in a container; during the day I and other
10-20 men were made to dig trenches. There were lots of containers. At night some men would
be taken out and not come back. We could hear shots and we assumed the men had been killed.
I think some were buried in the trenches. I finally escaped by hiding in the river under a bridge. I left and went to Quetta.”

Witness M. told the Afghanistan Justice Project that at 7:.00 in the morning, when Ittihad-i Islami captured Afshar, a group of armed men entered her residential compound, and detained S., her husband.

They released him after 45 days. He had been beaten so severely his hearing had been
permanently damaged and he was deaf. According to his wife, he also had difficulty recognizing
people. After he was detained, a second group of 10-15 Ittihad-i soldiers came to the house
between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. They claimed that they were looking for Wahdat forces, they
grabbed M.’s son by the arm. “My son was about 11 years old. They held him and asked where
his father was. They aimed their guns at him and I threw myself over him. I was shot in the hand and leg but he was shot five times. He died.” The soldiers then took the family belongings and left.
Witness K, 75 years old, stated that troops affiliated to Sayyaf abducted him from Sar-I Jui,
Afshar on the day of the Afshar operation, February 11. He was one of a group of seven men
who were taken prisoner, and beaten severely and made to act as porters to help carry goods
being looted from Afshar. The Ittihad-i troops then took him to Company (a Sayyaf-controlled
area) on that day and held him there for two months. The commander who captured him was
Ghulam Rasool, affiliated to Sayyaf. He stated that after that he spent two months in Shakar
Darra as a prisoner of Anwar Dangar, and then three months in Farzah with Commandant
Haneef. He witnessed the troops summarily executing one of his relatives, Qambar Zohar.

Massacre and Mass Rape in Afshar (February 1993)

Page 7 of 7
Witness G was briefly arrested and beaten unconscious by Ittihad-i troops on the first day of the operation. When he returned to the area later he removed two bodies from his well, and
estimates that he saw 30-35 bodies himself while fleeing the area (including a decapitated head
left in a window).
Abdullah Khan, of Ghazni Province, 67 years old, was arrested from Afshar by Commander Aziz
Banjar, a Sayyaf commander. The rest of the family had fled to Taimani during the main military operation. Abdullah Khan had stayed on in Afshar to guard the household goods. However, all
household goods were stolen during the operation and the house was destroyed. The family has
have been unable to trace Abdullah Khan and so he remains missing.
Witness Sh. told the Afghanistan Justice Project that when Ittihad-i forces entered her house,
they beat to death her father inside the compound. They then stole all household belongings.

Rape by Ittihad-i Forces

During the Afshar operation, Sayyaf’s Ittihad-i Islami forces used rape and other assaults on
civilians to drive the civilian population from the area. The Afghanistan Justice Project
interviewed many witnesses who described incidents of rape by Ittihad-i forces during the Afshar operation.

Witness M. (see statement above) was injured in the hand and leg when Ittihad-i
soldiers shot her son. She stated: “While I was still bleeding they raped me.” She stated that
three soldiers held her down while the fourth raped her in the basement of her own house.
Several other women had also taken shelter in M.’s house: a neighbor, Z., and her two
daughters, and another woman, R. The Ittihad-i troops raped Z.’s two daughters, ages 14 and
16, and the woman, R. The soldiers took them by turn down to the basement to carry out the
rape. One of Z.’s daughters was injured by a bayonet when she attempted to resist.
Another witness, S., stated that armed men had burst into her house at Afshar-Silo on the
second day of the Afshar operation. They beat and raped her and her sister in their house and
looted the contents.
Witness Sh. stated that after capturing Afshar, Ittihad-i Islami troops forcibly entered her house at 7:00 a.m. They raped four girls in their residential compound, including Sh. her sister, age 14
years, and two others.
There were many other reports of rape; the numbers of women raped is not known.
Residents of Afshar did not return until after 2001. As of mid-2005, the area remains largely
flattened, although some former residents have returned to the ruins of their former homes.

www.afghanistanjusticeproject.org

Blasphemy, Death Penalty and Afghanistan’s Future

2009-04-21T00:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday، January 4، 2009

By Simin Fahandejsadi
A journalism student was sentenced to 20 years in an Afghani prison. He is charged with downloading and distributing an article he found online that criticized the rights of women in Islam.
Yaqub Ibrahimi vividly remembers the day his brother, Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh was arrested. It was around ten in the morning on October 27, 2007. Four guards from Afghanistan’s national security service came to their small apartment, arrested Parwez and left.
“They carelessly messed up my room and took my documents and papers with them,” Yaqub told King’s Journalism Review over the phone from Afghanistan. “That’s when the whole story began.”
The security officers took Parwez to the Mazar-i-Sharif Prison and after a four-minute trial, sentenced him to death on January 22, 2008. Parwez was actually luckier than most convicted of “blasphemy” in Afghanistan. He is still alive. An appeal court recently overturned the death sentence but ordered Parwez to spend the next 20 years in prison.
Immediately after the sentence was imposed, press and human rights organizations around the world rose up to defend him. The cause soon became not only a fight to save a journalist’s life, but a battle to salvage the country’s fragile democracy.
“This case has become so symbolic, so political,” Katherine Borlongan, executive director of the Canadian section of Reporters without Borders said.”We’re talking about a death penalty…If we lose this case, what is that going to mean to all of the other young Afghans who dream about freedom?”
Organizations and individuals around the world have circulated petitions, written letters to the Afghan government, sent out press releases and urged governments to stand up for Parwez.
In an open letter dated 11 June 2008 to President Hamid Karzai, Reporters Without Borders wrote, “You must be aware, Mr. President, of the case of the young journalist, Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, which has shocked the entire world. Reporters Without Borders urges you….to give a clear undertaking that your government will protect press freedom, which is currently under so much threat in your country.”

Who is Parwez?
Before being imprisoned, Parwez was a third-year journalism student at Balkh University in Mazar-i-Sharif in the northern province of Balkh. He was also editor-in-chief at Jahan-e Naw Daily, a publication in his province, and wrote for his school paper.
The 23 year old student loved to read and write. According to Yaqub, Parwez had qualities rare in Afghanistan. He was open to ideas different from his own and was an advocate of human rights. “He was always reading. Sometimes I would see him awake at two or three in the morning reading when he had to go to class at 7:00 am the next day.
Yaqub, himself a reporter in Afghanistan, works for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, an organization that trains Afghan journalists. His articles are often critical of the warlords and the religious fundamentalists in Afghanistan. He believes his work was one of the reasons for Parwez’s imprisonment, that authorities wanted to show journalists the consequences of not just blasphemy but of criticizing the government.
“By imprisoning Kambakhsh they wanted to silence me,” He said. “But if we want to be true journalists and reporters in a country like Afghanistan we have to be prepared to face these consequences. We know what can happen to us before we commit to our job.”
Certainly, it can happen suddenly. Parwez was reported to the Afghan intelligence service by his professor and some students at his university for having written and distributed an article insulting to Islam. The intelligence service then investigated and arrested Parwez.
He was taken to prison, where he was tortured. During his time in prison he confessed to downloading and distributing the article but later denied it. He said that he was forced into the confession and that he did not write or distribute it.
On January 22, 2008, in a trial that consisted of three judges, a scribe and Parwez, he was sentenced to death for blasphemy. He had no legal representation and only a few minutes to defend himself.
“What they called my trial lasted just four minutes in a closed court.” Parwez said in an interview with the newspaper, The Independent. “I was told I was guilty and the decision was that I was going to die.”
The article Parwez was accused of distributing was written by an Iranian man in Switzerland who calls himself Arash Bikhoda – or Arash the Godless. Arash, in his Myspace profile, describes himself as “a freedom fighter, republican, capitalist, naturalist, secular humanist, and against Islam.” His article is a list of passages in the Quran that he believes are the proof of the inferior status of women in that religion.
The article starts off this way: “In world’s history Islamists have always been accused of anti-women (beliefs) and for their disregard for the basic rights of women. This essay will show how these anti-women beliefs are rooted in the teachings of their Quran.”
The language of the article is strong. Perwaiz Hayat, professor of South Asian religions and Islam at Dalhousie University said that although Parwez’s intentions were not bad, the article is an insult to the identity of Muslims.
“What Parwez did was courageous in a way,” he said. “He wanted to create that awakening in the minds of people. (But) Muhammad is the identity of Muslims. The moment you talk badly about Muhammad, you’re talking badly about their identity. This kills them: how dare can you do that?”

So, where is Afghanistan’s freedom?
The real question then, is, has Afghanistan progressed enough to allow for freedom of belief, expression and the press?
There are contradictory laws in the Afghan constitution. Article 34 says “freedom of expression is inviolable. Every Afghan has the right to express his thought through speech, writing or illustration or other means.”But for Parwez and others like him, the freedom is not so absolute.
Article 3 of the constitution says that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.” And article 45 of the Afghan Media Law forbids the publication of any materials contrary to the “principals and provisions” of Islam.
Since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 the fight in Afghanistan has been a fight for freedom and democracy against fundamentalism, Yaqub said. “We know that fundamentalist groups are very active in Afghanistan,” he said. “And if there isn’t a strong pressure on them they will destroy anyone they can by their dark beliefs. It’s possible that we or others will be sacrificed in this midst, but it’s OK. We know that these problems will help change the views of people about human (rights).”
Kamran Mir Hazar, a friend of Yaqub and Parwez and editor-in-chief of the website Kabul Press News believes freedom of the press is in retreat in Afghanistan. He was an Afghan reporter who was imprisoned and tortured several times. He escaped from Afghanistan a year ago and is now living in Norway, writing articles about violations of human rights in his home country.
“They accused me of being a spy and working for a spy agency,” Kamran said. “This, for a journalist is a very insulting accusation. There are laws in our constitution that say (the intelligence service) isn’t allowed to arrest journalists but they are trying to change this.”
Regardless of the world wide support Parwez has received, he is not popular with everyone at home.In an interview with an Iranian website called Aatash, a Muslim preacher by the name of Muhammad Abdu’l-Ghaher Ab’ul-Asrar, who preaches at a Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif, said he supports the sentence given to Parwez.
“Agreeing with infidelity is the same as infidelity,” he said. “If a Muslim man leaves his religion, he has three days to come back to Islam. If he doesn’t, his punishment is death. Parwez’s three days has come to an end!”But not all Muslims feel that way.
“This article may be objectionable,” said Dr. Jamal Badawi, a Muslim scholar, Imam and professor at Saint Mary’s University. “But you don’t just sentence people like that. Even apostasy, as a matter of just conviction is not subject to capital punishment.”

The Worldwide Cry for His Release
For many organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and Reporters Without Borders, the issue is bigger than the offensiveness of an article. It’s about the violation of a basic right in a country struggling for freedom.
“When you persecute or imprison a journalist you are saying something more,” said Julie Payne, manager of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. “Because…you are talking about not just taking away the voice of that journalist but taking away the voice that was going to talk to all of those people, and all those people that will not get news because that person has been imprisoned.”
Payne’s organization has written letters to the Canadian government asking it to use diplomacy to obtain Parwez’s release. The Canadian government, however, has never responded and it is not clear whether it has taken any action.
Even though the death sentence has now been reversed, advocates for Parwez aren’t giving up the battle. In a statement on its website, Reporters Without Borders said, “Afghan justice has again failed to protect Afghan law and guarantee free expression. By sentencing this young journalist to imprisonment, the appeal court has eliminated the possibility of his being executed, but it has also exposed the degree to which some Afghan judges are susceptible to pressure from fundamentalists.”
Parwez’s defence lawyer has promised a renewed appeal, this time to the Afghan supreme court, and called on Afghan President Karzai to intervene, Agence France Presse reported.
One reason this story has received unprecedented attention is because of the effort and money governments have contributed towards Afghanistan, Kamran believes. It has become like their child and it’s hard to see that small hope for change vanish.
“People’s money has gone to this cause,” said Kamran. “In America, in Canada, people’s taxes are going towards bringing freedom to Afghanistan and it’s disappointing to see this.”
Parwez’s case has even been noticed by the students and faculty at University of King`s College.Fred-Vallance Jones, assistant professor of journalism at King’s, started a petition and drafted an open letter to President Karzai. The faculty at King’s and many students signed the petition and voiced their concern for Parwez.
Stephen Kimber, Rogers Communications Chair in Journalism and the acting director of journalism at the time, said whether the petition had an impact doesn’t matter. It matters that a group of people made the effort to speak out.
“Our job is to ask questions and we have to be able to ask those questions in an environment that doesn’t put your life at risk,” he said. “And when you see that being threatened in a situation like this, it is important to speak out.”
Payne believes the responsibility of helping journalists such as Parwez is on our shoulders as much as it is on our government’s. “I talk to these (journalists) who have lived their entire lives in a war-torn country and expect that the country will be continue to be in war,” she said. “And, yet, they have the optimism and the belief that what they are doing is so important that they will risk their lives to do it…you just think, the very least we can do is add our voices and tell our government that we care about this.”
Meanwhile, Parwez Kambakhsh is still in prison and awaiting his fifth appeal hearing. His brother said his psychological state is worsening every day. He has been moved to a prison in Kabul where terrorists, murderers, thieves and kidnappers are also kept. According to his brother the condition of the prison is horrifying with 10 to 30 people in one small cell. It is extremely hot in the summer and unbearably cold in the winter.
“The prison is a very inhumane place,” Yaqub said. “Parwez used to read a 100-page book in one day but now, when I take him books to read, he cannot even finish reading one or two lines in months. He is being psychologically tortured. I am extremely worried that the damages will be long term.”
There is not much else Yaqub and others can do to minimize the damage being done to Parwez. “Hoping is the only thing that is keeping us going now,” he said.” We are hopeful that the pressures from the international community will have an affect on the government and they will release him…”“And I want to say that if the world keeps silence about issues like these, it is, in fact, creating the most ideal situation for the fundamentalists.”

Also see this link too : http://blogs.ukings.ca/kjr/?p=307

60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2009-04-21T00:53:00.000-07:00

By UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

On 10 December 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed and adopted by the General Assembly. The extraordinary vision and determination of the drafters produced a document that for the first time set out universal human rights for all people in an individual context.
Now available in more than 360 languages, the Declaration is the most translated document in the world — a testament to its universal nature and reach. It has inspired the constitutions of many newly independent States and many new democracies. It has become a yardstick by which we measure respect for what we know, or should know, as right and wrong.
It is our duty to ensure that these rights are a living reality — that they are known, understood and enjoyed by everyone, everywhere. It is often those who most need their human rights protected who also need to be informed that the Declaration exists — and that it exists for them.
The sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration is an occasion for all of us to recommit to the vision of the Declaration. It remains as relevant today as it was on the day it was adopted. I hope you will make it part of your life.

Sixty years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"The campaign reminds us that in a world still reeling from the horrors of the Second World War, the Declaration was the first global statement of what we now take for granted -- the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings." - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
10 December 2008 marks 60 years since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document which promised “Dignity and justice for all of us.” Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, the Declaration is made up of a preamble and 30 articles which set out fundamental human rights and freedoms for men and women across the world.
The commitment to universal dignity and justice is the key message of the Declaration. The core values of inherent human dignity, non-discrimination, equality, fairness and universality, apply to everyone, everywhere and always. The Declaration is not a wish-list or luxury, but something that affects and concerns us all.
One of the key appeals of the Declaration is that it was drafted by representatives from all regions of the world and drew inspiration from values, beliefs and political traditions from cultures and societies across the globe. For example Egypt advocated for the statement of universality at the opening of the declaration and a young woman delegate from Pakistan spoke out against child marriage.
Hernán Santa Cruz of Chile, a member of the drafting sub-Committee, wrote: “I perceived clearly that I was participating in a truly significant historic event in which a consensus had been reached as to the supreme value of the human person, a value that did not originate in the decision of a worldly power, but rather in the fact of existing—which gave rise to the inalienable right to live free from want and oppression and to fully develop one’s personality. In the Great Hall…there was an atmosphere of genuine solidarity and brotherhood among men and women from all latitudes, the like of which I have not seen again in any international setting.”
In 1948 when the Declaration was adopted the world was still recovering from the horror of the Second World War with the added uncertainty of the Cold War between East and West taking place. But with the creation of the United Nations in 1945, the world had vowed never to allow the atrocities of the war to happen again. World leaders came together to reinforce the UN Charter, which founded the organisation, with the Declaration of Human Rights which would guarantee the rights of every individual.
Today, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrates 60 years in existence, there is a chance to recall the amazing worldwide appeal of the Declaration. The document has been translated into more than 360 languages. Although not all governments have become parties to all human rights treaties, all countries have however accepted the Declaration. As such the Declaration is seen as a living document which will continue to inspire future generations.
“In advancing all human rights for all, we will move towards the greatest fulfillment of human potential, a promise which is at the heart of the Universal Declaration." - Former High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights,

Ms. Navanethem Pillay

The instrumental importance of human rights principles, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has gained ever wider acceptance. This vision of the Universal Declaration is a beacon of hope for the future, as it contemplates a world with the full realization of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights without distinction.
This is a world in which every man, woman and child lives in dignity, free from hunger, and protected from violence and discrimination, with the benefits of housing, health care, education and opportunity. This vision, in my view, represents the global culture of human rights we strive towards and it should therefore be a unifying rather than divisive force, within and among all cultures.
Yet, we must recognize that, for all the solemn commitments and normative advances made in the promotion and protection of international human rights, serious implementation gaps remain. Impunity, armed conflict and authoritarian rule have not been defeated. Lamentably, a tradeoff between justice and peace is often erroneously invoked when societies emerge from conflict and combatants return to their communities. Regrettably, human rights are at times sidestepped in the name of security. Freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status – the promises of the Universal Declaration - remains an elusive goal. There are too many countries in the world that still systematically discriminate against women, despite international standards and despite recognition of the critical role of women in development, and the role of women in peace and security. A root cause of violence against women is discrimination against women, and I believe that gender equality will contribute to development and security, as well as human rights.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights :

Ms. Navanethem Pillay" from South Africa The appointment of Navanethem Pillay as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on 28 July 2008.
Ms. Pillay was the first woman to start a law practice in her home province in South Africa in 1967. Over the next few years, she acted as a defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists, exposing torture, and helping establish key rights for prisoners on Robben Island. She also worked as a lecturer at a university and later was appointed Vice-President of another university.
In 1995, after the end of apartheid, Ms. Pillay was appointed a judge on the South African High Court, and in the same year was chosen to be a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she served a total of eight years, the last four (1999-2003) as President. She played a critical role in the tribunal’s groundbreaking jurisprudence on rape as genocide, as well as on issues of freedom of speech and hate propaganda. In 2003, she was appointed as a judge on the International Criminal Court in the Hague, where she remained until August 2008.
In South Africa, as a member of the Women's National Coalition, she contributed to the inclusion of an equality clause in the country’s Constitution that prohibits discrimination on grounds of race, religion and sexual orientation. She co-founded Equality Now, an international women's rights organization, and has been involved with other organizations working on issues relating to children, detainees, victims of torture and of domestic violence, and a range of economic, social and cultural rights.
Ms. Pillay was born in 1941, and has two daughters.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights :

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which was created by UN General Assembly Resolution in 1993, represents the world's commitment to universal ideals of human dignity.
It has a unique mandate from the international community to promote and protect all human rights. The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the principal human rights official of the UN and heads the UN’s human rights efforts.
The growth in United Nations human rights activities has paralleled the increasing strength of the international human rights movement since the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. Drafted as “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and nations” the Declaration for the first time in human history set out basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all human beings should enjoy. It has over time been widely accepted as the fundamental norms of human rights that all Governments should respect. December 10, the day of its adoption, is observed worldwide as International Human Rights Day.
In 2006 the Human Rights Council was established with an expanded mandate of making recommendations to the General Assembly for further developing international law in the field of human rights and undertaking a Universal Periodic Review of the fulfilment of each State of its human rights obligations and commitments.
Link: http://www.ohchr.org/

Arbitrary Detention: Your Rights in Afghanistan:

Have the police arrested anyone you know? Is a relative in detention awaiting trial? Have you or someone you know been wrongfully arrested and detained? Has your friend been in detention without a conviction for longer than you think is fair?
60 years ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article Nine established: “No one should be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.” This means that no one can hold you, your relatives or anyone else unless the law says they can and they follow proper legal procedures.
In Afghanistan, the 2004 Constitutional Loya Jirga translated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into Afghan law, including Article Nine, and prohibited arbitrary arrest and detention in Afghanistan. The Constitution of Afghanistan guarantees that “No one can be pursued, arrested or detained without due process of law” (Article 27; 2) and that a person’s liberty (or freedoms) can be restricted only when the law provides (Article 24; 1).
In line with the Constitution, Afghan laws, such as the Police Law and the Interim Criminal Procedure Code, say who can arrest and detain you, how long you can be detained for and for what reasons. It also clearly states what procedures must be followed for a detention to be legal.
If there are no legal reasons for you to be detained or the detention is beyond the time limit, then you are being arbitrarily detained. If the proper procedures or ‘due process of law’ has not been followed, then you have been arbitrarily detained.
Many people have been and continue to be arbitrarily detained in Afghanistan. People are detained even when they have not committed a crime; sometimes because there is a contractual dispute, sometimes because a powerful person wants to influence them; sometimes because the police want to pressure a criminal suspect by detaining his/her relatives; sometimes because the police, prosecutor or judge want a bribe; sometimes because what is a crime is not always understood.
Afghans also end up being detained arbitrarily because procedures have not been followed. For instance, many Afghans have not been told that they are entitled to a defence counsel or what the charges are against them. Many Afghans also remain in detention past the legal time limits.
Stopping arbitrary detention in Afghanistan will be a long process. Better protections against arbitrary detention need to be put into the law and the law needs to be fully implemented. Afghans are still learning about their rights. The authorities detaining people are still learning to understand their obligations towards detainees under Afghan law.
Criminal law, for instance, does not explicitly ask judges to review the lawfulness of detention until the first court hearing. This means it is possible for someone to be arbitrarily detained for three months before coming before a judge. At the same time, the law requires that authorities release detainees if the police, prosecutors or courts do not meet their legal time lines. This however often does not happen because of confusion and lack of coordination and communication between the authorities responsible.
To successful combat arbitrary detention will require both those detaining people to be more diligent about respecting people’s rights and those who are detained and their families to demand that these rights be respected by the authorities.
Encouragingly, some progress is being made. The Ministry of Justice is working, with the support of the international community, to strengthen the law so that your rights are better protected. For instance, the draft law now grants you the right to have the lawfulness of your detention reviewed within days of being detained. Police, prosecutors and judges are also working together to strengthen oversight and coordination.
A better system needs to be put in place to monitor if the police, prosecutors and judges tell detainees about their rights and respect those rights; this also needs to discipline those who do not. More focused training needs to be developed so that those who detain people fully understand the rights and the laws they are upholding.
And, importantly, more effort needs to be made so that you, your family and your neighbours know your rights and how to exercise them.
You can help stop arbitrary detention today. Learn more about what your rights are. Share this magazine and your new knowledge with a community elder, a friend, or a relative. If a relative is detained, then go to the authorities and remind them of their obligations.

Hoping for Justice

Beneath the surface of today’s Kabul is lingering anger at unresolved crimes of the past. Homayon Khoram talks to some of those still seeking justice.
Khoda hafez (Good bye) were the last words Mir Gul, a retired university lecturer, heard from his son Qasim in the hot summer of 1992. Qasim, 24, the father of a three month old girl left home for work and “disappeared”. Years later Mir Gul found that he’d been killed by fighters in the Guzar Gah area of Kabul.
One day Malalai’s husband, an ordinary employee at Kabul Airport and member of no political party went to work; no one has seen him since. Almost a decade later Malalai found out that he’d been arrested by the Khad, then Afghanistan’s intelligence agency. He was taken from his office directly to Pul-e-Charkhi prison where he and many others were executed without a trial.
There are hundreds of cases and thousands of people who disappeared following the April coup of 1978 when the first Afghan President Mohammad Daud was overthrown until 2001 when the Taliban regime was toppled.
People were executed, many of them without trial, by the pro-Soviet regime during 1978-1991.
Human rights violations
After the fall of the pro-Soviet regime in April 1992, factional fighting started. Kabul was reduced to rubble and many civilians died.
Mohammad Karim was a grade twelve student when he was stopped by fighters on the Darul Aman road. He was taken to the house of Science and Culture on the same road.
“Blood ran cold in my veins as I saw another man badly beaten and bleeding there,” said Karim. “I saw that young man dying and thought I will die the same way. They searched me and took my wrist watch and a little cash I had.”
The fighters kicked Karim and beat him with their AK-47s and chains. As their position came under attack from a rival faction they went off to fight. Karim, who was only just able to move, managed to climb a wall and escape.
Manan was very “lucky” to have only one sister killed when a rocket landed in a wedding party in Qalai Fateullah Khan, a residential neighbourhood in Kabul. Manan’s entire family was on their way to the wedding where 60 people were killed. Being late saved Manan’s family.
Abdul Naser carried his teenage sister who was wounded in a rocket attack in the residential area of Sarak-e-Naw.
“We were caught in the middle of the fighting when we were going home and she was wounded in her abdomen. While carrying her I was feeling warmth from her breathing at my neck. Suddenly I felt no warmth and when we reached home she was already dead,” said Naser.
Due to on-gong fighting their family buried her in the yard of the house as many other people did with their loved ones who died in the days of severe fighting between the two factions.
An entire family of 13 people was killed by a single rocket which landed on a house in the Khair Khana neighbourhood in Kabul.
“Neighbours buried the family as there was no way to inform relatives in those days of the bloodshed,” recalled Haji Najeeb the neighbour of the deceased family.
Fighters were also stationed on the Kart-e-Naw hills. “They were forcing us to carry their food to the top of the hill. Once I saw two fighters betting for a bottle of Coca Cola to see who was a better sniper. Nothing strange in this except that their targets were people walking down the hill on the roads,” remembered Abdul Rashid a resident of Kart-e-Naw.
Abdul Rashid stayed in Kabul to look after his house. “I left for Jalalabad the next day as my life was worth just a bottle of cold drink,” he says.
No single group is responsible for Afghanistan's tragic legacy of war and civil strife. All the victims I spoke to say there should be no amnesty for those who committed human rights violations against civilians.
Call for justice
What is common from the people describing their grievances is the call for justice.
All the names of the people mentioned have been changed as they still fear persecution for expressing their opinion about such a sensitive matter as transitional justice.
“When I hear from the media that the Government offers reconciliation to the person who is behind the killing of my son, this makes me mad,” said Mir Gul.
“I know no one is guilty until the court recognizes him or her as guilty but there is compelling evidence,” he adds. “I would have felt much better if I had buried my husband,” said Malalai, who believes that transitional justice is a long process but she has not seen the first step taken yet.
Action Plan
Afghanistan launched an action plan for peace, reconciliation and justice in December 2006 which was drafted by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
The action plan includes an acknowledgement of the suffering of the Afghan people and ensuring credible and accountable state institutions. The plan highlights purging human rights violators and criminals from state institutions, truth-seeking and documentation, promotion of reconciliation and an improvement of national unity and the establishment of effective and reasonable accountability mechanisms.
Both houses of parliament, the Lower House (Wolesi Jirga) and the Upper House (Meshrano Jirga) have passed a reconciliation bill granting amnesty for all those involved in human rights violations during past civil wars. The bill still needs to be endorsed by the President.
“I hope if not me, but my granddaughter will one day will see her father’s killers behind bars,” concludes Mir Gul.

Dr. Sima Samar, Head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission:

“Not addressing past war crimes is not a solution for the people. In fact this causes people to run out of patience and they look for opportunities to take revenge themselves. We should not let this happen,” said Dr. Sima Samar.
Q & A
Dr. Sima Samar, Head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
Q: Your main focus has been on the documentation of past crimes. What else, beside documentation, has been done in regard to transitional justice?
Based on the report “A call for justice” an action plan was made. The plan was for three years - 2006, 2007, 2008. There are five points clearly mentioned in the action plan: 1 - Acknowledging the suffering of the people; 2 - Nominating a day as “Victim’s Day” and building memorials. These can reduce the pain of the people. 3 - Strengthening documentation. Some of the documents should be collected and should draw a map of the crimes which have taken place in the past and should indicate which kinds of crimes they were. 4 - The removal of people accused of war crimes from Government positions. For this purpose a consultative committee has been established for the President. The committee had to review the candidates past human rights record and make sure that a post should go to the right person; 5 - Establishing a committee or an institution to investigate war crimes , but unfortunately it didn’t happen and only a day has been nominated as National Day of Human Rights Victims which is observed on 10 December.
As for as the documentation is concerned, the commission has worked on it. Now we are in the process of analyzing our reports for any shortcomings. We are in the process of making a small museum in Badakhshan province and we have also worked on a memorial place in Herat.

Q: How do you assess Government’s actions following the launch of the action plan in 2006?
AIHRC: This was the action plan for peace, reconciliation and justice which I already explained. The Government has not taken any fruitful action as it was expected to. The reason behind that are the killings you can see happening in the city. People have lost hope and trust in justice and therefore people are unfortunately attempting revenge which will continue to have negative impacts on our community. In fact, we were supporting more to be done in this regard on different approaches: cultural, traditional or Islamic approaches should be exercised for amnesty and people must be encouraged for forgiveness. Actually, there has been little done in this aspect.
Moreover, if you remember, the lower and upper houses of Parliament have passed an amnesty bill and let all criminals get amnesty, from the Saur Coup of 1357 (the April Revolution of 1978) until now. Whoever was involved in conflicts have been given full impunity. However, the President has not endorsed the bill. But there are indications, unfortunately, showing the bill is being implemented.
For example, Asadullah Sarwary, who was head of the AKSA (National Security Department) during the communist regime, killed and tortured to death many ordinary people around the country. The prison term for Asadullah Sarwary was 16 years whilst unfortunately others who committed lesser crimes will face capital punishment.

Q: What is your view on the Transitional Justice theatre launched by the commission and UNAMA? What needs to be done in order to help this process?
AIHRC: In my view, it would be good to give people more awareness. One of the useful ways to organize such a theatre is to give awareness and through it create an environment of an open discussion regarding past crimes and the process of transitional justice amongst the people. I have read the reports on the theatre in Herat, Jalalabad and Bamyan where UNAMA and the Human Rights Commission had organised it and the outcome of the theatre shows it is what people really want. In these three provinces we have witnessed that the people are really appealing for the implementation of justice.
Not addressing past war crimes is not a solution for the people. In fact this causes people to run out of patience and they look for opportunities to take revenge themselves. We should not let this happen.
Therefore, such theatres are a useful awareness tool as it provides opportunity for the victims to share their sufferings and pains. This reduces their protests and finally eliminates them.

Q: Concerning mass graves what progress has been made to identify the exact time when they happened and those responsible?
AIHRC: Mass graves were actually mapped and identified by people who witnessed the incidents. Unfortunately most of these mass murders took place during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan between 1978 and 1992. To further investigate how many people were killed and who they were exactly we would need broader scientific approaches and that is costly. In my personal view, if that is not possible at least the human dignity of those buried must be respected before any construction projects take place.
I have just come from Brussels and the city of Ypres which was totally destroyed in World War One. There are 160 graves in the city and the names of all the victims; even the dates of birth and their country of origin have been engraved on the grave stones. The names of those who were lost and have not been identified, which is some 60,000 people, are also recorded on another memorial place. People remember them and pray for them. Psychologically it affects people while remembering those lost. We hope the same happens in Afghanistan.
Q: You mentioned about the Martyr’s Park in Kabul. I assume all of the mass graves would be re-located in that park as it is almost impossible to identity the victims?
AIHRC: This requires a political commitment and in this regard there have been comments by some religious mullahs not to let this happen and thus making it more political. But the Government can build such memorials and there could be room for a park or tower in any of those places where the killings happened. Regrettably no efforts have been made in this regard so far.

Q: How do you see the future of transitional justice given what you have explained so far?
AIHRC: This again depends on the commitment of leaders and politicians in Afghanistan and to what extent they want a long lasting reconciliation in Afghanistan. There is a need to reduce violence, hatred and pain in this country. This is the responsibility of political leaders now to consider the human dignity of those who lost their lives for freedom and peace in this country. Otherwise we will not leave a good message for future generations in this country who need to know what happened.

Spokesperson's Office

United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)

Kabul, Afghanistan www.unama-afg.org

Wednesday، December 31، 2008

3 Afghan sisters killed in a rare rocket attack in Kabul

2009-04-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday، December 28، 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - A rare rocket attack in the Afghan capital last night demolished two rooms of a mud-brick home and killed three teenage sisters, the family and police said.
The rocket attack on the southern end of Kabul landed on a house adjacent to an Afghan police training center. The attack crushed a mud home and killed the sisters, ages 13, 15 and 16, said Sayed Farah Muz, the girls' uncle.
"There are 40 countries in Afghanistan, and still we are hit by rockets. What is the benefit?" said Sayed Shah Barat, a cousin of the girls. "The Iraqi people hit Bush with their shoes, but we should do the same with our leaders."
There are 41 nations involved in NATO's security coalition in Afghanistan.
The house hit by the rocket was a simple six-room home that housed about 20 people, Barat said. Men swept up the shattered bricks of mud while women mourned out loud in another room.
Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawal, the head of criminal investigations for the Kabul police, said two rockets were fired into Kabul after nightfall.
Kabul once suffered greatly from rocket fire, during the country's 1990s civil war, but such attacks have been a rarity the last several years.
Elsewhere, a suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint yesterday in southern Afghanistan, killing three police officers and two civilians in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, local police chief Zamarai Khan said. Four police and one civilian were wounded.
Many outlying districts of Kandahar province are teeming with Taliban fighters. The United States plans to send thousands of new troops to the region over the next six months.
Meanwhile, the U.S. coalition and Afghan forces killed six militants during a patrol in southern Afghanistan.
The coalition said yesterday that the combined forces were on patrol in Helmand province Thursday when they spotted militants pulling weapons from a hiding spot. The combined forces killed the fighters and destroyed the weapons.

by:Associated Press

Slid show of Human Rights in Afghanistan from Mojahedin to until now

2009-04-21T00:44:00.000-07:00

Afghanistan: US Investigation of Air strike Deaths ‘Deeply Flawed’

2009-04-21T00:43:00.001-07:00

New Administration Should Revise Policies to Reduce Civilian ಅಸುಅಲ್ತಿಎಸ

(New York, January 15, 2009) - The US military's investigation into deadly and controversial airstrikes in Azizabad in Afghanistan in August 2008 was deeply flawed, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
On October 1, 2008, the Department of Defense published a summary of a report by Brig. Gen. Michael Callan of its investigations into US airstrikes on the village of Azizabad in Herat province on August 21-22, 2008. Since that time, Human Rights Watch has conducted additional research into the events surrounding the Azizabad airstrikes, reviewed the facts presented in the summary, and analyzed the Callan investigation's methodology.
"The weaknesses in the Callan investigation call into question the Defense Department's commitment to avoid civilian casualties," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Unless the new Obama administration urgently addresses the US military's airstrike practices in Afghanistan, more unnecessary civilian deaths and injuries will result."
Separate investigations conducted by the United Nations, the government of Afghanistan, and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission concluded 78 to 92 civilians had been killed at Azizabad, the majority of them women and children. For weeks after the incident, the US strongly rejected all three investigations. An initial US military inquiry by the Combined Joint Task Force 101 concluded that no more than five to seven civilians and 30 to 35 Taliban fighters had been killed. In various media interviews, US officials suggested that the villagers were spreading Taliban propaganda.
After the release of video showing significant numbers of civilian dead, and strong criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the UN, the US announced on September 7 that it would conduct a new investigation led by General Callan.
The Callan report summary accepted a larger figure for the number of dead - 33 civilians - but rejected the much higher civilian death tolls reported by the UN, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, and the Afghan government, and criticized their methodology. It failed to acknowledge any flaws in the initial US assessments, and it dismissed villager testimony as financially or politically motivated.
The summary concluded that the US attack on insurgent forces in Azizabad was "necessary" and "proportional," failing to acknowledge any possible mistakes in US intelligence. It exonerated the US forces who carried out the attack of any wrongdoing without providing a basis for its conclusions, and suggested without evidence that Taliban forces deliberately used civilians as "shields."
Flaws in the Callan investigation that may have led to a lower US estimate of civilians killed include: the dismissal of villager testimony about numbers killed, the rejection of consistent claims that some graves contained more than one body, and the assumption that almost all the men who died were insurgents.
"There was great hope in Afghanistan that the Callan report would provide a credible and detailed analysis of the Azizabad airstrikes, place blame where it fell, lead to appropriate disciplinary action, and result in operational changes that would avoid such tragedies in the future," said Adams. "Unfortunately, this has not happened."
Human Rights Watch recommended that the US government:
Ensure that air attacks comply with the legal obligation to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians.
Stop using airstrikes in densely populated areas unless the intelligence is highly reliable and the target has been visually identified. It is critical that US forces improve their assessments on the ground before they employ close air support, taking into account the risk of misinformation or disinformation from sources.
Refrain from using 105mm howitzers or similar area-effect weapons against targets in densely populated areas.
Thoroughly investigate the collateral damage- and battle damage-assessment processes to determine how they can be improved to reduce civilian casualties, and make appropriate changes.
Provide accurate and timely information on civilian casualties in military operations.
Take responsibility for civilian casualties when that is warranted and take appropriate disciplinary or criminal action against those responsible.
Human Rights Watch urged the Defense Department to publicly release the Callan report.
"We deeply regret the Pentagon's decision not to declassify and publish the full report of the Azizabad investigation," said Adams. "In the interests of bringing to public attention the investigation's methodology, analysis, and findings, we urge Defense Secretary Gates to reconsider that decision."
Human Rights Watch said that the US and its allies have made some positive operational changes and commitments to try to reduce civilian casualties, particularly in Tactical Directives issued on September 2 and December 8 and in various statements to the media by political and military leaders.
"The US still needs to change its policies and practices on airstrikes to end the string of attacks that have caused so much loss of civilian life," said Adams. "Otherwise the planned arrival of 20-30,000 more troops in Afghanistan may lead to greater, not fewer, civilian deaths."
In September 2008 Human Rights Watch issued a report on the problem of civilian casualties from airstrikes, "‘Troops in Contact': Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan" (http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/08/troops-contact-0), which made detailed recommendations of ways to avoid civilian casualties.