British doctor feared among 10 dead in Afghanistan ambush

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

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

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

(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

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

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

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?

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

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.

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!

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

(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

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."