Category: Human Rights News

Nearly 35000 people have been directly affected by the recent ethnic mass displacement and cleansing by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan.

According to OCHA Afghanistan | 27,000 people have been displaced following recent fighting in the district of Balkhab in Sar-e-Pul, as the Humanitarian partners are preparing to provide food, tent, and other supplies to more than 10,000 people in Balkhab and 6,000 in Bamyan.

Damages to civilian infrastructure are alarmingly impacting people’s access to essential services, particularly there are no homes, no water, and health services in the Hazaras region.

Key Figures:

• More than 100 people were killed or injured, and only the bodies of 36 of them have been buried so far.
• Balkhab has around 130,000 residents, and almost all of them have been displaced.
• 10 villages of Balkhab were burned by the Taliban
• The Bazar with all shops burned alongside the available supplies 
• 6,000 displaced people reached Bamiyan, they need immediate action; food, health care, education, and psychosocial support, as well as cash assistance and other supplies.

Amnesty International repeated their calls;

(The cold-blooded brutality of these killings is a reminder of the Taliban’s past record, and a horrifying indicator of what Taliban rule may bring. These targeted killings are proof that ethnic and religious minorities remain at particular risk under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.) Agnès Callamard.

Background

The Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan following the collapse of the government in recent days. Amnesty International has called for the protection of thousands of Afghans at serious risk of Taliban reprisals, from academics and journalists to civil society activists and women human rights defenders.

Hazaras have a long history of persecution in Afghanistan at the hands of state and non-state actors such as the Taliban and other extremist groups. This history and recent events align with the warning factors of mass atrocity crimes that the United Nations identified in the 2014 Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes.

Fighting has been ongoing in the remote Balkhab district of Afghanistan’s northern Sar-e-Pol province over the past several weeks, part of a showdown between a cash-strapped central government run by the Taliban and locals who are trying to keep their own cut of the district’s riches. At the heart of the dispute is a battle over coal mines, and who gets to profit from them, trapping local residents in the middle.

The depth of the tragedy is still unknown because the situation is still military, and the Taliban don’t allow anyone to roam freely in the district. The Taliban killed civilians after they took control of Balkhab, local residents, and international human rights organizations have said.

A long-term troublemaker in the district, Mehdi joined the Taliban in 2019 after falling out with the previous government’s local leaders. He was appointed as Balkhab’s shadow governor in 2020, even before the Taliban took control of the district or the rest of the country, making headlines as an ethnic Hazara leader in a movement dominated by Pashtuns.

@BaratBatoor on Twitter

It is great the aid agencies are helping those affected by the earthquake in #paktika but it is extremely disappointing that thousands of #Hazara IDPs of #Balkhab haven’t received any support. It reported that several ppl including children have died due to cold weather. #helpbalkhab

Civil society leaders, human rights activists, and public intellectuals write an open letter to the UN, highlighting the persecution of the Hazara Shia community in Taliban-occupied Afghanistan.

We are writing this letter to express our grave concern about the escalation of violence targeting the Hazara Shia communities in Afghanistan. We are writing to demand your immediate action to address these targeted attacks, which can be crimes against humanity, and when taken together, constitute an act of genocide. We believe the persistent and deliberate campaign of violence against the Shia Hazara community in Afghanistan requires an urgent and coordinated response by the United Nations and the international community.

We urge you to:

• Call a special session of the United Nations Security Council to discuss, as matter of urgency, the situation of the Hazaras and adopt a resolution ensuring that the community will be protected against such heinous targeted attacks;

• Call for a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to discuss and address the ongoing genocidal attacks on Hazaras, and work to prevent such atrocities and bring the perpetrators to justice;

• Launch an immediate investigation into the targeted killing of the Hazara and Shias in Afghanistan, and use instruments under international law to address and put an end to the perpetual killings of Hazaras;

• Request the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Situation in Afghanistan to collect and publicize substantiated information relating to grave violations of international human rights law, including breaches of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide committed against the Hazaras;

• Request UNAMA and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Situation in Afghanistan to submit a special report on the situation of Hazaras identifying urgent and practical measures to protect the community against targeted attacks and mass atrocities.

Human Rights defenders call on the international community to protect the Hazaras against genocide, persecution, and crimes committed against humanity. According to the letter, the recent attacks in Dasht-e-Barchi mark an example that the ethnic group is vulnerable and exposed to terror attacks. Since 2014, more than 40 deadly attacks have been conducted on the Hazara community, killing and injuring several thousands of the community members. According to the letter, Hazaras have been targeted for their racial identity and religious faith.

The systematic ethnic cleansing has a very long history started by the brutal Afghan king Abdurrahman who declared jihad against the Hazaras with British money and weaponry and help from Punjabi mercenaries and advisers, suppressing a proud ethnic group for the centuries to come. During his era, on the basis of his direct decrees rooted with religious Fatwas, 62% of the Hazara population was annihilated, and their lands and properties were seized and distributed among the Pashtun. The remaining population was either forcefully displaced internally or fled the country.

Photos of the recent devastation

By: Marziye Vafayi writer & psychologist

Edited by Basir Seerat

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan at the end of August, the persecution of the country’s LGBT+ community has ramped up – forcing many to live in hiding, fearing for their lives.  The Taliban regime is not an only existential threat to the journalists and media activists, but the minority groups who live there face serious existential threats. 

During the Taliban Islamic regime in the past and even now, the ethnic groups were severely repressed and in some cases, they were massacred. The situation for the LGBT+ community in Afghanistan has never been easy, fundamentally same-sex relations have always been taboo and even crimes in the Muslim-majority countries. Under the Taliban regime and so many other Islamic fundamentalist governments – non-heterosexual relations were illegal and could lead to the death penalty, or even up to years in prison.

According to Powell who has spoken with France24.com the Taliban most likely profited from the power vacuum that took place in the days and weeks leading up to the US withdrawal deadline to draw up these “kill lists” by paying close attention to the names of people that foreign rights groups were trying to evacuate. “After the fall of Kabul, there was a lot of information sharing,” he said, noting that the people who never made it aboard any of the departing flights were instead left vulnerable, with their identities exposed. 

The Taliban has a hit list for the Afghan LGBT, ​​they are also the most vulnerable minority groups under direct threats and there are no extensional negotiations to save their lives under the new circumstances. Despite, the same-sex LGBT community having had many problems in the last twenty years, the lives of these people have faced many limitations and difficulties due to the existence of extremist groups and the Taliban. 

The last time the Taliban was in power from 1996 to 2001, there were reports of the stoning of gay men, women, and minority groups. When the Taliban spokesperson calls human rights under the Islam law and its regime framework, means there is no place for the same-sex and LGBT+ community. 

Taliban are undermining the Human rights organizations, and so the Taliban calls them to go to hell with your LGBTQ community.

By: Marziye Vafayi writer & psychologist

By: Marziye Vafayi

Center for the Afghan Journalists announced that Hamid Saighani, a prominent journalist for Ariana television network was killed in Kabul.  The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Afghanistan affiliate, the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA), strongly condemn the attack and call on the international community to better assist in securing the safety of all Afghan media workers.

Today Fawzia Vahdat, Hamid Saighani’s wife, has confirmed her husband’s death on her Facebook page. She recently informed that Mr. Saighani got killed two hours before the explosion happened west of Kabul, and it’s absolutely miss informed by the Taliban authorities.

A Tunis car explosion happened shortly afternoon at west-Kabul Dasht-i-Barchi where Hazara community lives there, and according to the eyewitnesses; explosives had already been smelt in the vehicle, one body was discovered dead and four others injured badly.

 Zabihullah Mujahid the Taliban’s spokesperson Twitter” the Tunis car explosion that happened at the Dasht-e-Barchi area of Kabul, was apparently caused by a fire, not a bomb. He also confirmed one person was killed and four were injured in the blast. The eyewitnesses told the media that it was a bomb that exploded and more casualties have been reported than official figures.

This incident took place at Dasht-i-Barchi west of Kabul, where most of the Hazara citizens live and were recently repeatedly targeted by the Taliban or ISIS. 

ISIS attacks have intensified in the country since the Taliban takeover on August 15 this year, which the Afghan analysis calls Taliban’s group with ISIS masks.

According to the Afghan Journalists defender, the situation of journalists in Afghanistan is deteriorating day by day and most of them are abandoned by the International community to auscultate safely. 

Taliban takeover raises fears about the future of Afghan media, although a number of journalists have evacuated Afghanistan, many others remain in the country with absolutely no freedom to publish what’s happening there, they are in extreme danger with various threats and economic problems. 

Afghan media workers and their families became targets as the Taliban raided their homes, forced female reporters off the air, and beat and arrested journalists.

CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon has warned that an entire generation of reporters is at risk and, as part of its advocacy efforts, the organization has called on the U.S. and other G-7 governments to do more to support their safe passage out of the country.

Fears were raised about the safety of Afghan journalists and the future of the vibrant media landscape that developed in the country over the last 20 years. Afghan media workers and their families became targets as the Taliban raided their homes, forced female reporters off the air, and beat and arrested journalists.

CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon has warned that an entire generation of reporters is at risk and, as part of its advocacy efforts, the organization has called on the U.S. and other G-7 governments to do more to support their safe passage out of the country.

Note:

If you are an Afghan journalist needing help CPJ is devoting the resources at its disposal to help Afghan journalists where possible. We are not equipped to evacuate people and only governments are able to issue visas but are registering and vetting cases of Afghan journalists at risk of Taliban reprisals. If you are an Afghan journalist seeking help, please send your information to emergencies@cpj.org.

Since Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban regime, the conflict and human conflict have become broader and broader. The last three months continued to claim large numbers of civilian casualties under the Taliban regime. Attacks continued by the Taliban and other armed groups deliberately targeted all Afghan civilians and especially the Hazaras. Women and children continued to face violence, harassment, and intimidation.

 Still, Taliban armed groups were collectively responsible for the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians, including human rights and civil society activists, women rights activists, provincial government members, artists, humanitarian workers, judges, tribal and religious leaders, NGO and state employees. 

Currently, the Hazara people, due to their ethnicity and religion, are the main target of violence and human rights violations from the Taliban regime and other armed groups. From August 2021 till now, more than 100 Hazara’s have been killed by the Taliban and other armed groups. 

Amnesty International also reported that: Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, including a 17-year-old girl, in Afghanistan’s Daykundi province after members of the security forces of the former government surrendered, and also Taliban have killed ten other Hazaras in Ghazni province. 

In the last three months, hundreds of Hazaras have been forced to leave their hometowns and their properties in different districts. The Taliban regime has displaced them, and their properties were given to the Taliban members. Reports say that it is still continued, and the Taliban has displaced many Hazara families. 

The enmity of the Taliban regime is a long-standing enmity with Hazara, because of their ethnicity, beliefs and has been going on for many decades. With their re-dominance in the country, this enmity intensifies and shows its new faces every day. 

Recently the Taliban appointed a new governor for Bamiyan province, and he is a criminal and human rights violator. Unfortunately, all Taliban board members are criminals and human rights violators. Each of them is directly responsible for the killing of many civilians. Abdullah Sarhadi, who has been appointed as the new governor of Bamiyan, is the one who has ordered to kill hundreds of Hazara civilians in the Yakowlang district.

When the Bamiyan city fell into the hand of the Taliban in 1999, the current governor of Bamiyan was the armed leader of the Taliban. He ordered directly to kill hundreds of Yakawlang civilians.  He is also one of the Taliban leaders who destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001. 

During 1999 and 2001, Abdulla Sarhadi was one of the most criminal leaders of the Taliban regime who had a strong role in the Hazaras genocide in Bamiyan. Hundreds of civilians have been killed by the current governor of the Taliban. Unfortunately, he has been appointed again, and he is not trustworthy and will accomplish his unfulfilled goals in Bamiyan. 

Certainly, he will try to kill some more Hazara’s under the name of human rights activists, artists, and others. He will also destroy the remaining cultural heritages of Bamiyan, which is the beauties of Land. 

Writer: N. Farzad

Naheed Farid was among many women leaders who left Afghanistan, fearing for their lives, as the Taliban took over in August 2021. Farid spoke at the UN recently, calling for international support to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and to safeguard women’s rights.

UNWomen

For me, the tragedy didn’t mean a disaster, it meant having to choose between two difficult choices – to leave Afghanistan or stay under the Taliban. I left Afghanistan one week before Kabul fell, with my children. They said, Herat, my city, would be surrendered to the Taliban.

I left behind the house where I fell in love with my husband and had children. I was a public representative for 12 years… I knew every part of the city, its problems, its strengths. I had my staff, my constituents, and people who helped me. I left all that behind, taking only clothes, my phone and diapers for the baby. As I left, I thought, am I going to see my city, my home again?

Shortsighted policies jeopardized Afghanistan’s situation. Afghanistan is a humanitarian disaster that needs immediate and concrete action by the international community. We want a trusted corridor to be established immediately, where civil society and humanitarian actors can help the people in need. Half of Afghanistan’s population is experiencing food insecurity.

The Taliban want recognition, but they have to be held accountable to safeguarding human rights. They must set up an inclusive government, not all-male, all-Taliban cabinet. They must allow girls and women to study. Afghanistan is the only Islamic country right now where girls cannot go to secondary school.

Women’s rights are human rights. If women are not part of decision-making processes, if they are not part of the political space, all the achievements we made would vanish. We had reserved seats for women in the electoral law, we established six months of maternity leave for women in the labor law, we passed the citizenship law that allows women to pass on citizenship to their children. We made it mandatory that mothers’ names would be on birth certificates. Women parliamentarians made a lot of difference. When the law on ending violence against women was lacking implementation, we asked, why, and persisted.

After 20 years of so many insecurities and impediments, Afghan women became ministers, women’s rights activists, pilots, athletes and led robotic teams. The women of Afghanistan are a source of pride for the country. And we had to fight for whatever we have today. When you gain something, you don’t give it up. We will fight for this… you will see.”

At 27, Naheed Farid became the youngest elected Parliamentarian in Afghanistan in 2010. Farid has also founded and led various NGOs assisting women and children and supporting rural community development. She is a vocal advocate for women’s access to education, employment, political leadership, and for ending gender-based violence. Farid had to flee from her home in Herat with three children, aged twelve, six and two, as the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021.

UN Women

Panshir was the last and the only state which resisted and did not accept to transfer the military power to Taliban and avoid to accept the legitimacy of Talbian. Taliban abandoned Panjshir and pressured on it by night attacks to take over the state. What matters most between people and activist on social media is that if Taliban would negotiate and govern or they would choose the dictatorship. After Taliban attacked Panjshir, people got sure that this could not be a united government in which all ethnics could be included. Young Ahmad Masoud 31, has the master of war studies at King’s College, London with no war experience and districts under his control is landlock by Taliban with no connection to borders of Tajikistan. Despite all he could lead the resistance group to push Taliban back from three districts.”We aim to build a free, independent and wealthy Afghanistan. Taliban must understand that Negotiation is the only solution” said Ahmad Masoud the young leader of resistance in Panjshir. Poeple joined the resistance by demonstration in other cities and soon two hashtags, “StandwithPanjshir and #SavePanjshir was trend in Afghanistan.

By the way Taliban disconnected internet of these three districts and banned any kind of communication and facilitation. They show the world that they’ve kept their promises to the international community to avoid violation but local people inside Panjshir reported about night attacks. “Talibs have massed forces near the entrance of Panjshir a day after they got trapped in ambush zones of neighboring Andarab valley & hardly went out in one piece. Meanwhile Salang highway is closed by the forces of the Resistance. “There are terrains to be avoided”.Said Amrullah Saleh the vice president of former president Ashraf Ghani.

On the other way despite some disagreements between the Taliban leaders who would liked to share the power in Afghanistan. And as it took a long time to announce the new cabinet members, today a list of  temporary cabinet was announced which all are mullas from Pashtoon ethnicity. They have removed ministry of women from the list.

Women of Afghanistan were the first supporters of Ahmad Masoud in other districts and cities. Women have changed, they have practiced the women rights and are connected to Social media. They are not same women in 20 years before and could not accept governing of Taliban which already removed the women ministry from the cabinet and have members from just one ethnicity. 

People who protect the resistance of Panjshir are getting larger. After Taliban killed Fahim Dashti the journalist and famous poet in Panjshir, Ahmad Masoud son of Ahamad-Shah-Masoud asked the nation of Afghanistan to break their silence and protect the resistance in Panjshir. “The international community has given a wrong political opportunity to Taliban and this group would show the world a fake face but Taliban has not changed and they are even worse.” said Ahmad Masoud in his voice message to the nation of Afghanistn. In response to his message, many People, mostly women came out to streets of Afghanistan and questioned the Taliban, about why they kill people in Panjshir and asked Pakistan to do not support Taliban by military facilities and forces.

Afghans in all over the world, are planning demonstrations on 11 sep 2021 in their cities to ask the world to do not support Taliban and do not recognize them as a legitimate government.

Reported and writen by Nargis Rezai

After Taliban took over the power from Ashraf Ghani the former president of Afghanistan and shocked people by sudden entrance to Kabul on 19  August 2021, People could no longer feel safe when the national army surrendered and the security situation went to its worst stage for the coworkers of the US and foreign countries. Including myself, I saw every body were crying for help and asked their organizations and friends outside of Afghanistan to get their names in the evacuation lists to fly out of Kabul. “After former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai fled with $169 million cash and left the Afghanistan for Taliban. The Afghans do not trust Taliban and their Islam rather performed to mass migrate for an unknown destination”. said @SalehaSoadat. Girls removed their accounts in social media and changed their profile pictures and privacy settings and hide themselves under the ground. Unfortunately, this evacuation process was not succeeded and many who needed help left alone in Kabul, while people who were not in any kind of danger were evacuated. ” The whole concern is that US has evacuated the people with high capacities but I confess that there are just a few among this crowd in Qatar camp who were in danger. However saving life and dignity of all is important but this rescue operation is a complete failure.” wrote the evacuee Homaira Qaderi, an Afghan writer who tweeted from Doha Qatar camp.

Today After three weeks. I went out and joined the women of Kabul who have been protesting and demonstrating in small groups in different cities. Every day the group is getting bigger and more people raise their voice and join the women. Today women leaded demonstration in Kabul, Mazare sharif, Herat and Daykundi. Women shouted so bravely and their main slogans were “Death to Taliban”,  “Pakistan leave Afghanistan” and “Stop Genocide in Panjshir”. Taliban stopped women protester by arresting journalists according to a local news paper they arrest 14 women today. Taliban continued violence by whipping women and throwing away their mobile phones and finally opened indirect gun fires and blocked the protesters to demonstrate in front of Pakistan Embassy. Thus we had to walk to the alleys around the Embassy.

A group of women were kept for short time in Azizi Bank’s basement by Taliban in order to avoid them to join the protest. I was so inspired by brave women when I saw a Talib started gunfire and angrily said “go go otherwise I will shoot you!”. Some started to run. “Girls, do not run, just walk, do not show them that we afraid.” Said a woman among us. 

“Women of Afghanistan are the first and main group which will be discriminated and deprived by Sharia Laws of Taliban, that is why they are the first groups that came to the streets.” says Amazon Rezai the women activist. In contrast to what Taliban try to show the Media, they did not let women to enter to the Herat university and In Kabul, and announced that men should to go back to work but women ought to stay at home until further notice. They also informed that in order to Sharia laws women are not allowed to work in Media and as artists. Taliban ordered the stores to remove painting or pictures of women on the billboards, walls and advertisement.

In Ghor province, Taliban took the brain of Negar out of her head and brutally killed her in front of her children because she was a police officer in ex government.

Women of Afghanistan shout in social media that they do not and wont trust the Taliban anymore and they will show their real face soon. Taliban did not changed if they would change, they would not called Taliban anymore” said Muska Najib daughter of Dr. Najib the previous president who were killed by Taliban in 1990. Women in social media write that this is not the real face of Taliban. They have not yet get the control of the whole country. They are same people with same cloths and mentality. @AlinejadMAsih the iranian women right activist called women of Afghanitan brave because they are protesting against wiled Taliban who knows nothing about humanity. “As the Taliban go house to house with their lists of names, those who worked with west and prominent human rights activists are legitimately in fear of their lives. The list come from a sophisticated intelligence operation.” writes The Spectator

Reported and Written by: Nargis Rezai

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) reports that the Taliban deliberately targeted civilians following the capture of Malistan district in Ghazni province. They reportedly killed 43 civilians and security force members, according to the Hinustan Times.

They attacked people’s homes, stole their property and burnt shops and houses, too. These actions are outright war crimes.

Malistan district of Ghazni province fell to the Taliban on the 21st of May 2021. The terrorist group also reportedly evicted a number of civilians from their homes and shot them. During the terrorist group’s control of the district, thousands of families were displaced and fear and terror were commonplace.

The Independent Human Rights Commission asserts that the Taliban cut telecommunication networks and set check-points in the villages to identify government employees and people involved in popular uprisings.

The terrorist group is famous for violating the basic principles of humanitarian law and the rules of armed conflict.

The AIHRC notes the number of civilians killed or injured by the group to be 37, which includes persons such as farmers, blacksmiths, children, women and elderly.

Written by N. Farzad

KABUL, Afghanistan — Nabih Bulos and Los Angeles Times

A blast ripped through an area near a high school in the Afghan capital Saturday, government officials said, killing 50 people — many of them schoolchildren — and wounding scores of others.

The number of wounded in the attack has also climbed to more than 100, Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian told the Associated Press.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred sometime after 4 p.m. and appeared timed to cause maximum damage: when dozens of mostly teenage schoolgirls were leaving the Kawsar Institute, an educational center near the Sayed Ul-Shuhada High School in west Kabul’s Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, with families out shopping before iftar, the evening breaking of the Ramadan fast.

The area is heavily dominated by the Hazara, an ethnic minority that is Shiite Muslim and a frequent target of Islamic State.

Many of the casualties were taken to the Muhammad Ali Jinnah hospital in west Kabul, with people coming forward to donate blood for the wounded. Elsewhere, parents and family members began the grim task of burying their dead.

In the hours after the blast, residents and journalists shared harrowing images of students sprawled on the ground, with schoolbooks and bloodied sneakers scattered around them. One video uploaded to social media depicted the bedlam in the explosion’s aftermath: people moving in a dazed rush, their wails joined by an insistent car horn blaring as they raced to check on loved ones; a blackened husk of a car in flames and blood splattered on the pavement.

It remained unclear if the attack was the work of a solitary suicide bomber with an explosive vest walking up to the institute’s gates, a car bomb or a series of explosions involving rockets as part of a larger onslaught on Dasht-e-Barchi.

Whatever the cause, the blast, which coincides with U.S. and NATO troops’ move to leave the country, served as yet another potential harbinger of increased violence facing minorities — not to mention women and members of civil society — in Afghanistan’s post-withdrawal future.

With talks between the Afghan government and its Taliban adversaries in limbo, many fear a Taliban reenergized by the U.S. withdrawal will swat away government troops soon after their foreign partners leave. Hopes for a cease-fire before the end of Ramadan have been dashed by the group’s spring offensive, which has seen furious assaults on government positions across the country.

The Taliban, however, denied involvement in the explosion.

“We condemn today’s blast in Dashti Barchi #Kabul which targeted civilians & sadly caused heavy losses,” Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, tweeted Saturday.

He blamed the attack on “sinister circles operating in the name of Daesh under the wings & intelligence cover of #Kabul admin,” referring to Islamic State by its Arabic acronym.

The Sunni extremist group counts Shiites as apostates who must be killed. It claimed responsibility for similar explosions in the area in October as well as August 2018, with students the main victims of both attacks.

With troop numbers plunging below 2,500 U.S. servicemen and foreign forces accelerating their withdrawal ahead of a September deadline, Washington’s deal with the Taliban has shifted focus from attacking the group to a more targeted campaign against Al Qaeda and Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate. It remains unclear what support the U.S. will maintain for Afghan paramilitary groups it had trained to hunt the extremists in blitz operations across the country.

The United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan expressed “its deep revulsion” at the blast in a tweet Saturday evening, describing it as “an atrocity” that had killed and injured many civilians.

U.S. Charge d’Affaires Ross Wilson tweeted: “This terrorist attack on a Kabul girls’ school is abhorrent. With scores murdered, this unforgivable attack on children is an assault on Afghanistan’s future, which cannot stand. My deepest condolences to the students & families who have suffered.”

At least 55 girls were killed and scores injured in a terrorist attack on Sayed Ul-Shuhada high school in west Kabul, Afghanistan. Although the Taliban terrorists denied that the group had any role in the attack, yet, they have blatantly opposed girls’ education. These students belonged to the Hazara community who have been persecuted over generations by the mostly Sunni and Pashtun central government and Islamic fundamentalist.

The Taliban have fought the US-backed republic and these girls have been symbols of a progressive and liberal future. It is very unlikely, as a result, for the Taliban not to be behind these massacres.

With the way politics of war is unfolding in Afghanistan, we are extremely worried that women, religious and ethnic minorities will suffer on scales we haven’t seen in the last two decades. Not only the Taliban, but the Afghan government has continued torturing, discriminating and oppressing these groups in every aspects of societal life.

On behalf of the Afghan Human Rights team, I extend my heartfelt condolences to families of these girls and the Afghan nation and call on everyone to think and act on how to deter a full-scale war on women, children and minorities.

We won’t forget and we won’t pardon!

Farshad

We’re glad to inform that Afghanistan Human Rights will be managed by a new researcher from within Afghanistan. Our colleague brings years of advocacy and editing experience. For security reasons, identity of our new colleague won’t be disclosed. We hope this is acceptable to our readers.

We’ve also revisited the way we will advance our advocacy to ensure better reach and quality documentation. Posts edited for this platform may also be shared via the likes of Wikipedia and in multiple languages. We are striving to bring onboard new volunteer editors/writers and researchers.

Afghanistan Human Rights Management Team

Afghan Human Rights team condemns the barbaric attacks on the Kabul University and the Kausar-e-Danish college preparation center in Kabul, Afghanistan. These atrocities are targeting the very soul of an enlightened Afghanistan. These attacks are outright war-crimes and underscore the threats to the Hazara community in particular and the younger generation of Afghans who choose scientific studies over religious studies. 

While ISIS has taken responsibility for these war-crimes, we believe that the Taliban are responsible. The Taliban’s hatred of education, mainly women’s, is existential to their ideology. They have a long record of burning schools, torturing school and university students, and teachers. Their animosity with religious freedom is no less hidden. The Afghan government also reports that the Taliban are behind the attacks.

We are also concerned about the overall trend of terrorist attacks by the Taliban amid the peace negotiations. We call upon the international community, human rights groups, and the Afghan citizens–particularly the diaspora–to hold parties to this war and perpetrators of these attacks accountable.
We also call upon educational facilities to strengthen their security measures and continue their service to the people, now more than ever. We share our heartfelt condolences to the families of the following heroes of science and education:

Written by: N. Farzad

Afghan citizens burned to death, abuse and drowning in Iran. Recent incident of Iranian police shooting at refugees’ vehicle and causing it to catch fire was followed by beating, torturing and drowning of several other Afghan refugees.

This comes only weeks after multiple Afghan migrants drowned in Iran, as border police forced them to cross the river at gunpoint. Afghan Government, In a statement, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said it is closely monitoring, investigating, and evaluating the burning of a car carrying Afghan citizens in Yazd, which resulted in three deaths and several injuries.

Afghans have taken to social media to denounce Iranian police after a video of a car carrying with Afghan refugees set ablaze in Iran went viral, arousing new anger weeks after Afghan officials accused Iranian border guards of drowning migrants.

Video footage posted on social media showed a boy escaping from the blazing car with burns on parts of his body and begging for water. The ministry said the video was genuine and Afghans in Iran were trying to identify the victims.

The boy’s plea of “give me some water, I am burning” was widely circulated on social media and taken up by rights group demanding justice.

“Iran has no right to kill Afghan refugees, they can seal their borders, expel all Afghans but not kill them,” said Ali Noori, a lawyer and rights activist said on Facebook.

An online petition, aimed at the UN and the Afghan and Iranian governments, has gathered more than 40,000 signatures over the past three days.

The mistreatment of Afghan nationals in Iran has long been documented by human rights groups. “The horrific and repeated attacks on Afghan migrants in Iran cannot go ignored,” Omar Waraich, Amnesty International’s head of South Asia, told the Guardian.

According the Guardian almost 3 million Afghans live in Iran, many of them escaping war or economic hardship. Tens of thousands have returned home in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that has hit Iran hard.

As protests gain momentum in Afghanistan – inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the global outcry over the killing of George Floyd and other black US citizens – prominent Afghans have spoken out. 

“What happened to your culture, neighbour? We burned in the fire of your deceit,” Afghan singer Ghezaal Enayat wrote in a new song. 

Case two:

Reported Abuse and Drowning of Afghan Refugees Aiming to Cross the Border to Iran. AIHRC talked to the survivors of this incident and local officials in Herat, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) now confirms the beating, torturing and drowning of several Afghan refugees by Iranian security forces. This incident occurred on May 01, 2020 in Karez-e-Elyas village of Gulran District in Herat which shares border with Iran.  Report has it that some refugees have drowned and some have escaped. The Commission is still working on the case for more exact statistics.

AIHRC is expressing sympathy and condolences to the survivors of this incident and regards such brutal behavior by Iranian security forces as a serious violation of human rights principles and values. In addition, the rights of refugees and immigrants, and the commitment of states to international conventions have been violated.

AIHRC In their Press Release urges on the government of Afghanistan, specifically Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to form a committee including officials from both countries, Iran and Afghanistan, in cooperation with the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, and UNHCR to thoroughly investigate the case. It is expected that the perpetrators would be identified and brought to justice to prevent such incidents from happening again. In addition, the victims shall be compensated.

Apostasy includes acts in the forms of “blasphemy, heresy, and mockery of the Islamic community”[i]. This article by Farshad details the legal codes that are used to address apostasy cases in Afghanistan, the injustices they inflict and calls for a few actions to protect the life and freedom of Afghans from its ailing justice system.

Zaman Ahmadi’s Case

Mohammad Reza Zaman Ahmadi is the face of contemporary controversy surrounding apostasy. According to Etilaatroz (Shaheed, 2019), Zaman had written an article about perpetrators of the destruction of famous Buddha statues in Bamyan. The local magazine had avoided publishing the article, and in-stead, had reported Zaman to the local police.

Documents obtained by the Etilaatroz show the attorney involved in the case maintaining that Zaman had confessed being a Buddhist. Jurists of the 3^rd District Court in Kabul had deduced that Zaman had committed blasphemy and that his infidelity was obvious. He was sentenced to 20 years of prison by the court in 2012. As of now, he has served 7 years of the term.

After months of advocacy by human rights groups, independent advocates and Zaman’s lawyers, the Supreme Court of Afghanistan reversed the 20 years jail sentence on December 4th, 2019. It is expected of the Attorney General to reassess the case and refer it for a retrial[ii].

The Bigger Picture

Mohammad Ali Farhang—a renowned lawyer—says[iii] that there isn’t any law and penal code concerning apostasy in Afghanistan. As a result, jurists refer to article 130 of the Constitution of Afghanistan that reads:

“In cases under consideration, the courts shall apply provisions of this constitution as well as laws. If there is no provision in the constitution or other laws about a case, the court shall, in pursuance of Hanafi jurisprudence, and, within the limits set by this constitution, rule in a way that attains justice in the best manner[iv].”

“Another Afghan, Pervez Kambaksh, was sentenced to death in 2007 for “blasphemy and distribution of texts defamatory of Islam” (Azami, 2014).

Hanafi School rules [https://www.dawn.com/news/1215304] that “a Muslim blasphemer of the prophet PBUH will be killed under hudd and his pardon won’t be acceptable.” – (Ibn Abidin, Kitab al Jihad, Bab al Murtad). This school of Islamic thought also requires female apostates to be imprisoned, rather than killed[v]. “Blasphemers who ask for a pardon would be spared the death penalty[vi]“.

“In 2006, an Afghan, Abdul Rahman, who announced his conversion to Christianity escaped a possible death sentence” (Azami, 2014).

Ironically, while the Constitution does not provide any code concerning apostasy, it does explicitly support freedom of expression in the article 34 that reads “Freedom of expression shall be inviolable. 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 the right, according to provisions of law, to print and publish on subjects without prior submission to state authorities. Directives related to press, radio and television as well as publications and other mass media shall be regulated by law”, (the Constitution).

Loopholes and added injustice

1. In order for blasphemy codes to be applicable, “the accused must no longer consider himself a Muslim[vii]”. In Zaman’s case, the documents show, that he had denied being a Buddhist, and had confirmed in writing that he was a Muslim. Despite that, the court had deduced that he had committed blasphemy and that his infidelity was obvious! It is evident that starting from the print magazine, the police, public attorney and the jurists collectively misinterpreted his article, ignored the obvious and misused their authority in Zaman’s case.

2. Mohammad Ali Farhang maintains that “article 130 of the constitution is ambiguous. Judges can impose sentences as different as 20 days or 20 years”.

Further, “given the divergence between the two camps, other punishments have been adopted and are intended to affect an offender’s civil status. For example, apostates can have their marriages annulled. Anyone punished in this way can re-unite with their spouse if and when they recant to Islam. Similarly, an apostate can no longer serve as a marriage guardian for his daughter unless he comes back to Islam. Third, an apostate loses the right to inherit property from relatives and those relatives also lose the right to inherit from him. The Hanafi School regards an apostate’s property as spoils for the community. These spoils are kept as part of the public treasury and are utilized for Muslim community interests[viii]”.

The legal ambiguities surrounding apostasy makes individuals at increased risk of being disproportionate targets. Past incidences have involved false cases motivated, possibly, by personal vendettas. On March 19^th 2015, a clergy at a mosque in Kabul accused Farkhunda Malikzada, 27 year female religious scholar, of burning Quran after she had picked up a religious argument with the clergy. Savage mob lynched her to death and set her on fire. In Farkhunda’s case, an anti-Western sentiment was also reported. “Some attackers shouted that she was working with foreigners. By the next day, imams and government officials were denouncing her as having colluded with infidels”.

“Acts for which individuals have been charged with blasphemy range from condemning the treatment of women in Islamic societies, to condemning crimes committed by individuals who claimed to be acting in the name of Islam, to publishing an unofficial translation of the Qur’an. Additionally, as stipulated by the Afghan Supreme Court, belonging to the Baha’í faith is an act of blasphemy[ix]”.

“In October 2005, Afghan journalist and editor Ali Mohaqiq Nasab was imprisoned after being found guilty of charges of blasphemy and “insulting Islam.” The purported “crime” of Nasab, editor of the journal Haqooq-i-Zan (Women’s Rights), was to question discrimination against women and the use of certain harsh punishments under traditional Islamic Law, including amputation and public stoning”.

3. Despite the Constitution of Afghanistan ensuring freedom of expression, the media law passed in March 2004[x] prohibits ”writings deemed anti-Islamic”. This empowers police to detain writers and journalists with the approval of 17-member commission.

4. Taliban’s probably strong return to power makes the situation grimmer. They have been the ultra-right movement who publicly executed Afghans for even minor behaviors that went against teachings of orthodox Islam.

Call for Actions

1. Zaman Ahmadi has already spent seven years of his precious life becuase of the illegal and unjust ruling by the 3^rd District Court. I commend Etilaatroz’s initiative in publicizing his case. This ignited a growing call for action by independent human rights activists and the general public, resulting an ongoing appeal of his case. Although we have came a long way, justice has yet to prevail. In his case, he should not only be set free but also should be compensated for the undeserved harms inflicted upon him in the process. Social media, journalists and rights advocates will be able to act as formidable saviors, Zaman and previous cases of blasphemy proved.

2. Article 34 of the Constitution that ensures freedom of expression should be upheld. In order to so, the Afghan government should repeal the media law that goes against this article of the Constitution, in that it prohibits freedom of expression and legalizes detention of journalists.

3. Mohammad Ali Farhang says that according to an enactment of the high council of the Supreme Court, no judge is allowed to refer to article 130 of the constitution[xi]. If so, rulings based on referral to article 130 must be revisited and nullified.

References:

[i] STANFORD LAW SCHOOL, ALEP (2016, March). An Introduction to the Criminal Law of Afghanistan . Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ALEP-Criminal-Law-2d-Ed_English.pdf.

[ii] Shaheed , A. (2019, December 4). Court Reverses 20-Year Sentence, But Process Not Over. Tolonews. Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/court-reverses-20-year-sentence-process-not-over.

[iii] Mehryar, S. (2019, August 28). 20 Years in Prison for an Unreleased Memo; is it a Fair Trial. Etilaatroz. Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www.etilaatroz.com/82815/20-years-in-prison-for-not-releasing-a-memo-is-it-fair-trial/

[iv] The Constitution of Afghanistan. (2004, January 26). Retrieved January 1, 2020, from http://www.afghanembassy.com.pl/afg/images/pliki/TheConstitution.pdf

[v] STANFORD LAW SCHOOL, ALEP (2016, March). An Introduction to the Criminal Law of Afghanistan . Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ALEP-Criminal-Law-2d-Ed_English.pdf.

[vi] [Kingston, J. (2019). The Politics of Religion, Nationalism, and Identity in Asia. Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://books.google.ca/books?id=rHahDwAAQBAJ&dq=Hanafi+blasphemy&source=gbs_navlinks_s%5D rce=gbs_navlinks_s.

[vii] STANFORD LAW SCHOOL, ALEP (2016, March). An Introduction to the Criminal Law of Afghanistan . Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ALEP-Criminal-Law-2d-Ed_English.pdf.

[viii] STANFORD LAW SCHOOL, ALEP (2016, March). An Introduction to the Criminal Law of Afghanistan . Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ALEP-Criminal-Law-2d-Ed_English.pdf.

[ix] Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University. (n.d.). National Laws on Blasphemy: Afghanistan. Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/national-laws-on-blasphemy-afghanistan

[x] Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University. (n.d.). National Laws on Blasphemy: Afghanistan. Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/national-laws-on-blasphemy-afghanistan

[xi] Mehryar, S. (2019, August 28). 20 Years in Prison for an Unreleased Memo; is it a Fair Trial. Etilaatroz. Retrieved January 1, 2020, from https://www.etilaatroz.com/82815/20-years-in-prison-for-not-releasing-a-memo-is-it-fair-trial/

Writer : Zalmay

The reflection of the most painful killings and beheadings of ISIS in Afghanistan is not complete. From suicide bombings and mass bombings by men to landmines to roadside mines, beheadings, shootings, wars, captives, hostages, and hundreds more, daily in a land as large as Afghanistan, It happens

On September 10, 2019, Sher Ahmad Ahmadi was working in a pharmacy where several people were dressed in strange clothes and with long beards, messy and dirty clothes, all of which were covered with lameness and the big tent of the famous Afghan and Pakistani religion. They came in to get the medicine they needed. “I have never forgotten that day,” he says. Their behavior was suspicious when they entered the pharmacy, they spoke Pashto with a foreign accent. They did not have a doctor’s prescription and they showed me some of their medicine pens on their mobile page. I took his mobile phone to find medicines, and I heard one of them whispering that the police force was approaching, and suddenly they left the pharmacy very quickly without receiving any medicine. I think they realised that they might fall into the trap of Afghan forces.

It was not long before the police forces attacked the pharmacy and slapped me, accusing me of collaborating with them. I did not know who they were, and in any case, the drug dealer had to provide services to everyone. According to the commander of the Afghan force, they were ISIS and we did not attack these wanted and suspected ISIS members for fear of retaliation. In fact, ISIL members fled the house easily before being arrested.

ISIS is the most dangerous and hated terrorist force in the world, and it does not matter if it is the battlefield of Jalalabad or late at night in Syria. First, this terrorist group is trying to establish its presence in more parts of Afghanistan, and for this reason, it is trying to take over the events that have taken place in different parts of the country. On the other hand, ISIS wants to present itself as a force to be reckoned with in the Afghan process, as well as a threat to its neighbors. This is the goal that the ISIS terrorist group pursued after its emergence in Iraq and Syria.
For these reasons, the ISIS terrorist group and Taliban terrorists target most of Afghanistan’s major minorities, including Hazaras, Uzbeks, or other minority brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, in brutal and inhumane attacks. By attacking civilians, these groups seek to “muddy the water and catch fish” by attacking civilians, and their main goal is to intimidate, intimidate, and perpetuate unrest.

Sher Ahmad Ahmadi is an Afghan citizen who was caught in an accident due to a mistake made by government forces, which ultimately led to an irreparable tragedy. His wife Golsum Ahmadi and two daughters, 7-year-old Khadijeh and 17-year-old Fatemeh were beheaded by ISIS forces.
He says; In a situation where you do not have life expectancy and security and your life is always in danger. And every moment you expect torture and death, maybe death is like the only refuge for someone who has no point of hope and motivation to survive. Survival and fear are always captivity in the hands of the torturer who sips the sip of death. So, facing the scene of the murder of his wife and children, he decides to commit suicide, but his employer tries to help him.

The rise of ISIS in Afghanistan during the National Unity Government began in the Achin district of Nangarhar. In its first attempt, the group bombed a group that, according to ISIS, were members of the Taliban. The group surpassed the Taliban in a show of anger and violence and carried out suicide attacks on the country’s Shiite mosques to prove that ISIS was on its way to Iraq and Syria.

We at the Ahrhome.com condemn the barbaric killing of Abdul Samad Amiri; acting director of Afghanistan Human Rights Commission in Ghor province. Abdul Samad Amiri was kidnapped on his way to Ghor by the Taliban and his body was found earlier on September 5.

This killing follows Amnesty International‘s most recent publication that underscores the threat Afghan Human Rights Defenders are facing. Frontlinedefenders reported that Amiri “combat[ed] the surge in the murder and suicide of women which is closely linked to the general climate of violence and specifically the entrenched nature of domestic violence”.

In his most recent post on social media, Abdul Samad Amiri had promised to work towards betterment of his country:

“I have seen the trauma of more than 40 years’ civil war and feel wholeheartedly the affliction imposed on my people… whatever I do for my country, though insufficient to what I owe, makes me happy. I can’t forget or ignore the dreams for Afghanistan’s future and her place as a part of this world. Positive change will come to Afghanistan when every citizen knows we have a responsibility to work for her improvement. Despite the difficulties, I owe my life to this land and will work for its betterment so long as I live.”

Abdul Samad Amiri belonged to the historically persecuted Hazara community in Afghanistan.

A big group of the Afghan immigrants were taken under costudy by the police in Marsta police station in north of Stockholm and deported in a group back to Afghanistan on Wednesday 11^th of September. This news shocked the number of people which stood against deportation as this was the first time that a plenty number of Afghan asylum seekers were deported according the Swedish legislation (86 people) to Afghanistan.

On Tuesday 12^th of September 2019 hundreds of people including asylum seekers came together from all over of Sweden to the Sergelstorget in Stockholm city. They were standing against the decision than the migration board made without considering the latest update about current Afghanistan security situation.

They want the migration board to reconsider its policy about Afghan immigrant’s deportation.

They came together to declare that Afghanistan is not livingly secure and tens of people are being targeted by suicide attacker. Suicide bombing are taking place in major cities that previously much secured like inside of Kabul.

This event was held by “liv utan gränser” (live without borders) group and they outlined an open letter addressing migration board.

“An immediate evaluation about Afghan women and children according to the united nation convention of human right is needed. And the current security situation of Afghanistan should be taken under the consideration before any decision is made regarding deporting Afghan asylum seeker”. Said Shokufa Barez a member of “live utan gränser” group.

Demonstration were gathered not only by asylum seekers but a bunch of politicians and a number of humanitarian organizations and followed by respective politician’s representative speech.

Among the protesters some under aged were also included who were supposed to turn back once they turn eighteenth. Ali Mirzaee and Marym Haidari were one of the contestants. They reside here in Sweden for more than four years. “We have been raised in Sweden and got educated with Swedish culture, but we are supposed to turn back to Afghanistan after they are deeply changed in thoughts and believes”. Says Ali Mirzaee. Maryam Haidari and Ali Mirzaee are both atheists and they are worried about their future in Afghanistan while they have announced in media that they are both atheists. “Afghanistan is not safe for atheists and we will be death to stone like ”Farkhunda Maleekzada” if we are sent back to Afghanistan” Said Maryam and Ali.

” A recent survey by TrustLaw, a project of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, polled 213 women’s rights experts on what they consider to be the world’s worst place to be a woman.” Says amnesty international. Afghanistan in one of the worst countries to live for women according to this report of the amnesty international.

Though out the last year many suicide bombing taking place that have taken the life of thousands and hundreds of innocent Afghanistan residents which mostly happened in Kabul and cities around. Recently bunch of big explosions took place at schools, wedding parties, mosques and streets targeting unarmed city residents. Innocent people are being decapitated on the side roads. Taliban beheaded Abdul Samad Amiri the acting chief of regional human rights commission of Ghor provience on the 5^th of September this year and ass well as Abdul Samad Amiri many other ordinary people who have mostly been Hazara ethnicity and they are called to be “Shitta” are killed and decapitated in the main roads during the last year.

Farshad

Amnesty International released its finding about Human Rights Defenders in Afghanistan who are being targeted both by state and non-state actors and facing the neglect and inability of state, too. BBC Persian quoted Omar Waraich—Deputy South Asia Director—that “Human Rights Defenders not only live in a dangerous environment but are also being threatened by the government and armed groups”.

The study finds that these activists face “intimidation, harassment, threats and violence” all over Afghanistan. Those interviewed as part of the study, reported that they were asked to procure their own weapon.

The study which was published on 28^th August, reports that activists based in Kabul are more vulnerable than the rest, and that the situation for female activists is worse—particularly in provinces. Female activists were asked to abandon their job and stay in the safe side, in provinces.

Human Rights Defenders find limited space since President Ashraf Ghani took office in 2014, to advocate and expose serious human rights violations. In what is brought as an example, an organization was asked to remove names of high-ranking officials from a shadow report that was addressed to UN Committee against Torture in 2017.

“I believe it was 4pm that the report was sent to the CSOs… around 10pm, someone called “EIiyas”* [his colleague, whose name is anonymized] that you in your report named key and important figures. People named [in the report] were… [names are omitted to prevent any possible security repercussions to the civil society organization.] and a few others. They had threatened that, ‘You must remove their names because they are the ones who are standing against the Taliban. If they are not here you will not be here, too…’ We were forced to removed them [their names]:”

This study further notes that cases of threats, intimidation, harassment and violence against Human Rights Activists remain unprosecuted in Afghanistan. Khalil Parsa—an activist based in Herat—was shot at seven bullets and was told by the provincial office of National Directorate of Security to “report the matter if the assailants reappeared”.

But, they [the security institutions] did not investigate well. All CCTV footage existed, and they could have reviewed them… after two weeks, they went to review the security cameras. Then, they [police] were told that these cameras are recording for one week and erasing them the next week. They told the security [police] that if they have a recovery system, they can bring them to recover the [earlier] videos. Everything was clearly recorded in the security cameras. But, they did not investigate my case.”

“HRDs live in constant fear as cases of threats, intimidation and attacks were not investigated nor prosecuted. This situation was exacerbated by the government’s failure to provide protection to members of CSOs who have been threatened with death.”

In another report that was compiled by UNAMA in the aftermath of Taliban’s attack in Kunduz on 28^th September 2016, it is noted that the Taliban had immediately started searching houses and locating Human Rights Defenders (particularly women), NGO and UN employees, media and government personnel.

By: Fatima H Bakhsh

On June 24, the Taliban threatened media and journalists in Afghanistan to stop their anti-Taliban ads funded by the Afghan and US governments. This happens while the Taliban leaders are negotiating over peace with the US officials to end the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s military commission gave a week deadline to all Afghan media organizations including radio stations and TV channels to stop advertising against them. The nature of broadcasted advertainments was based on fighting the Taliban’s narrative, discouraging recruitment and promoting the local to report on Taliban’s suspicious activities.

The commission also added that if there are any continued broadcasts against them by any media agency, their journalists and staff members will no longer be safe as they will no longer be treated as media outlets but military targets aiding the Western-backed government of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is the world’s deadliest country to be a journalist. According to International Federation of Journalists 16 journalists were killed in 2018 marking Afghanistan first on list of the most dangerous places for media workers. Also, in 2019, Reporters without Borders (RSF) reports that there have been at least 45 cases of violence against journalists and the media, including threats, physical violence and destruction of media outlets.

This is not the first time the media has been threatened by the Taliban. In January 2016, the group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack targeting TOLO TV, the most popular private TV station in Afghanistan, killing 7 employees. The Taliban claimed the attack to pay off for what it said was false and unfair reporting by TOLO TV where they reported that the Taliban raped female students in city of Kunduz’s battle.

The counited peace talks between the US and the Taliban at the beginning of 2019 has not brought any positive hopes to improved security for journalists in Afghanistan. Journalists safety and freedom of press are of the main concerns if a peace deal happens with the Taliban. While, threatening and putting limitations on media work shows the Taliban’s fear of a free and independent press, there is a concern over partial or total ban on media if the Taliban return to power.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated if they return to power, they would implement an Islamic version of freedom of press. “We won’t allow propaganda, insults and humiliation to people in society and religious values. We will allow those who work for the betterment of the society,” he told AFP.

Concerns remain despite progress in a condition-based ceasefire. The US officials and the Taliban representatives have been working to agree on foreign troops exit in return for not allowing Afghanistan’s soil to be used for any threats against the US. However, human rights and media activists worry to lose gained achievements over 18 years including freedom of press and improved conditions for women and other minority groups in Afghanistan.

Local officials in Ghor province have informed Deutsch Welle—Persian that Taliban militants have shot dead a man and a woman in Ghor province. According to Daily Etilaat Roz and DW—Persian, Abdul Ghafar (28-30 years old) and Bibi Jan (20-22 years old) had fled from their homes in Shahrak district in Ghor on 22^nd May.

Sources have reported that both the accused were married to another woman and man and had fallen in love with each other. After fleeing their home, Taliban terrorists under Gul Mohammad’s command capture them in Masjid Nigaar district and try them in a Kangaroo court and kill them subsequently.

Taliban are notorious for unlawful persecution in cases that involve reported adultery, running away from home and kidnapping. In certain circumstances, local strongmen also join hands with the Taliban. While most of these informal and unlawful persecutions take place in areas controlled by the Taliban, there have been cases that fall in government-controlled areas. Weak government institutions force residents to resort to local strongmen and even the Taliban to settle legal disputes.

As per Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission [AIHRC, 2017], number of cases of run-away from home increase by 3.7% in 2018 as compared to 2017, predominantly because of domestic violence. AIHRC (Tolonews, 2017) also reported that Taliban killed 12 persons and lashed 5 more in informal courts across Afghanistan in 2017.

Report by: Farshad

Each person one letter

لینک فارسی نامه را اینجا بخوانید

We exist not to let the history repeat itself. As we fight in the trenches against the armies of terror and horror, as we cry out loud in the streets against apparatus of discrimination and prejudice, we will raise our voice for justice by any means we can in order to deliver our message to the world. We are everywhere. In the trenches, on the street, at the university, in the media, on the Internet, and in the post offices.

We, the Hazaras, who have been targeted by the ISIS and Taliban terrorists these days, along with our fellow countrymen and all those who for the sake of humanity, believe in justice and equality, will send a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, which has been written for explaining the invasion of Hazara areas by terrorists and to protest the discriminatory and fanatical attitudes of the Afghan government circles towards to the Hazara people.

Guidance:

1. Each sender will sign the letter and send it to the Secretariat of the United Nations at the following address by entering his/her own address:

Office of the Secretary-General

United Nations Headquarters

405 East 42nd Street,

New York, NY, 10017

U.S.A

2. In addition to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, we can send this letter to other authorities via email or post by changing the name and title of the addressee. Political and social activists can send this letter to parliamentarians and the effective government officials in their respective countries as well as to the international organizations involved in Afghanistan.

The letter can be downloaded as a PDF file from the here.

With respect

A group of cultural activists from Afghanistan and other countries

لینک فارسی نامه را اینجا بخوانید

#Letters4Hazara2UN

#UNMustActInAfg

Urozgan, Afghanistan. More than a week of fighting between Taliban and Hazara villagers and its loyal fighters has heightened fears of a dangerous new phase of sectarian violence in Afghanistan.

In the violence where the Afghan government itself has its influences to the sectarian war and ethnic cleansing, to get its political agenda with Taliban territories.

The clashes in the central province of Uruzgan, which have killed over 50 civilians and soldiers, and have highlighted concerns that Hazaras, minority targeted by Islamic State attacks over recent years, may take up arms in frustration at a lack of action by the government.

While the Taliban, made up mainly of ethnic Pashtun Sunni Muslims, has not explicitly targeted Hazaras in the past, officials fear the violence could escalate into an ethnic battle.

The fighting is very intense and is now becoming an issue of ethnic violence between Hazara and Pashtun, according to ethnic activists, the government has its own arrangement between them even there are risks of a massacre.

Recently, Ashraf Ghani add his comment that there is a war between the villagers, it seems not terrorism agenda behind, but the Taliban has claimed as its own war and has clear message to kill one of the loyal Hazaza commanders Hakim Shujae.

According to the Routers, “Sectarian violence had until recent years been relatively uncommon in Afghanistan but suicide bombings at Hazara mosques and cultural centers by Islamic State as well as attacks on Hazaras traveling on provincial highways have fueled growing anger. Many Hazaras blame Sunni Pashtuns for the sectarian attacks since king Abdurahman.

This is not a holy war, rather than this an ethnic cleansing war against the Hazara minorities, says human rights activist Basir Ahang.

Activists on Twitter highlighted the sectarian war between the Taliban and Hazaras. Meanwhile, Afghan and Western security officials, fearing the kind of sectarian violence that has devastated Iraq, have been deeply concerned that Hazaras could be again the main victims of ethnic cleansing by Sunni terror organizations.

The recent violence started when Taliban fighters attacked a remote cluster of Hazara villages in Uruzgan province after they refused to pay tax to the insurgents, provincial officials said.

According to the Reuters, the Hazara commander, Abdul Hakim Shujaee, a former leader in the U.S.-funded Afghan Local Police, has been accused of serious human rights abuses and faces an arrest order from the central government, which has struggled to impose its authority on remote parts of the country.

Uruzgan, squeezed between the Taliban heartlands of Kandahar and Helmand and the Hazara-dominated province of Daikondi, is home to both Pashtuns and Hazara families and the two groups have long had an uneasy co-existence.

The Hazaras have always been treated as slaves throughout the centuries of brutality in Afghanistan. The 18th-century massacre of Hazara by Abdul Rehman marked the worst mass-displacement, migration, and massacre of Hazaras. About 62% of Hazaras were forced out of their lands in Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces under the brutal rule of Abdul Rehman. Taliban reminded Hazaras of the Abdul Rehman era a decade ago, when thousands were cold-bloodedly massacred in Bamyan, Mazar-i-Sharif and other provinces.

The international troops led by the US has increased the dangers of Hazaras in Uruzgan with their temporary military operations against insurgents and compromises most of the times.

The case echoes a standoff last month in central Ghor province involving a prominent Hazara commander called Alipur, known as “Commander Sword”, seen by supporters as a kind of Robin Hood figure but denounced by the government as a bandit.

With the tempo of the Afghan conflict steadily increasing, it was a bad few days for the Hazrars minority beyond the Afghan government war against terrorism. The fighting has demonstrated that the insurgents have a capacity for carrying out ambitious operations on multiple fronts, while the government has struggled to respond some single fronts in Ghazni, not the Uruzgan war which can be a planted theory in the benefits of Pashtons beside the Taliban.

At least 68 killed and 165 injured in attacks targeting demonstrators and schools in eastern Nangarhar province.

Upon the withdrawal of the Soviet Forces, notorious warlords dominated the political climate in Kabul and overthrew Najeeb’s Government. These warlords were party to a brutal and far-reaching civil war that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands.

Subsequent rule by the Taliban brought a new face to this horror. Taliban deprived Afghans of their civil liberties and fundamental human rights. Women, children and ethnic minorities were severely targeted.

Upon fall the of the Taliban, most of the former Mujahidin warlords and re-emerged as key government officials. As a prospect of peace deal between the US and Taliban is gaining momentum, Taliban terrorists also are likely to own a big share of this climate. What we will end up is a government that is run by terrorists and gross violators of human rights who have had major roles in Afghanistan’s worst nightmares and massacres.

Farshad and Fatima H Bakhsh attempt at identifying and introducing Gross Violators of Human Rights and Terrorist Leaders in Afghanistan. It is based on interviews with informants and draws references from other national and international institution reports.

Asadullah Khalid

Status: Defense Minister, NUG

Haji Asadullah Khalid at the time of Karzay regime was Governor of his home Ghazni, governor of Kandahar, Minister of Borders, besides being in-charge of the Ministry, he was appointed as special representative of the president to Loi Kandahar provinces( Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Rozgan).

In April 2010, CBC News revealed the existence of top-level Canadian government documents reporting the personal involvement of Khalid in serious human rights abuses in his own private dungeon. At 2012 Afghan human rights and Multiple sources report that the private detention centre was located under Khalid’s guest house while governor of Kandahar. Documents says, that Asadullah Khalid had ordered the killing of five United Nations workers by bombing, presumably to protect his narcotics interests.

Draft legislation on torture is finally emerging after years of political and bureaucratic battles, but torture is on the rise. While in a few cases police have been dismissed or relocated following investigations, in places were torture is used systematically, the Afghan government has done nothing to hold the most egregious offenders accountable. Afghanistan’s strongmen, and the forces loyal to them, remain above the law. These include not only Dostum, but also Police Chief Raziq of Kandahar, among others. Human Rights Watch has documented cases of torture by other prominent political figures, including Asadullah Khalid, former head of the National Directorate of Security.

A year later, in September 2012, the National Assembly of Afghanistan approved him as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), which is the Afghan intelligence service.  He sustained injuries in Taliban attack in December 2012.  Khalid was appointed Minister of Defense in September 2018.

.

Serajudin Haqqani

Status: Deputy of the Afghan Taliban and Interior Minister of Taliban

Sirajudin Haqqani took operational control of the the Haqqani Network in 2001. He is now deputy to the Afghan Taliban Leader. Under his command, the Haqqani Network has launched their most deadly attacks against the government and civilian targets, killing and injuring thousands. They have undertaken mass beheadings, assassinations and torturing of the civilian and government forces(http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/363). Serajudin Haqqani has also been included in the designated terrorists list of the UN Security Council, in 2007.

He was the most secrative member of Haqqani terorist group and Taliban’s most secretive leaders, whose only picture on US “most wanted” lists is a grainy semi-covered profile, was photographed openly for the first time.  The United States has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest, but now he is the Interior Minister of Taliban since Taliban takeover.

Annas Haqqani

Status: Negotiating Member, Taliban’s Qatar Office

Annas Haqqani is the younger brother of Taliban’s deputy commander—Haqqani—and younger son of Haqqani Network’s founder. Annas was arrested on 14^th October 2014 by Afghanistan’s Intelligence Agency and was held near Bagram air base. Annas Haqqani was sentenced to death, in August 2016, by primary and appeal courts of Bagram district for charges of financing terrorism.

Haqqani Network is accused of committing murder, intentionally targeting civilians and humanitarian personnel, conscripting children and treacherously killing or wounding combatant adversaries. The network is also behind kidnapping Joshua Boyle, his wife Caitlan Coleman, and their infant children both born in captivity, in 2012. Members of this Canadian-American family were severely tortured, and were subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment by the kidnappers. They were rescued on October 12^th 2017 by Pakistani troops.

Annas Haqqani was freed on November 19^th 2019 in exchange for Kevin King and Timothy Weeks—both professors of American University of Afghanistan. These professors were kidnapped in 2016. While this swap is praised by officials, others criticizes it in that the move may further embolden the terrorist group towards additional kidnappings of the civilian.

Other terrorist Haqqani members who have been listed as sanctioned by the UN Security Council are:

Mohammad Ibrahim Omari (TAi.042), listed on 23 February 2001,
Ahmad Taha Khalid Abdul Qadir (TAi.105), listed on 23 February 2001,
Nasiruddin Haqqani (TAi.146), listed on 20 July 2010,
Khalil Ahmed Haqqani (TAi.150), listed on 9 February 2011,
Sangeen Zadran Sher Mohammad (TAi.152), listed on 16 August 2011,
Abdul Aziz Abbasin (TAi.155), listed on 4 October 2011,
Fazl Rabi (TAi.157), listed on 6 January 2012,
Ahmed Jan Wazir (TAi.159), listed on 6 January 2012,
Abdul Rauf Zakir (TAi.164), listed on 5 November 2012

Others associated to the Haqqani Network:
Ibrahim Haqqani, whose whereabouts is unknown.

Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai

Status: Chief Negotiator of the Taliban

Born in 1965 and a graduate of the Kabul Military Academy (nunn.asia, 2018),  Abbas Stanikzai was a commander with Sayyaf’s Ittihad Islami and at times as head of the Harakat-e-Inqilab Islami’s military committee led by Nabi Mohammadi in 1990. He served as deputy minister at Ministry Public Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the Taliban rule (https://goo.gl/B9RuPy and Pajhwok, 2019). He was sanctioned, along with 152 other individuals of the Taliban government, in 1999 by the UN (www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/pressrels/2001/afg169rev1.html ). He was appointed as head of the Qatar Office in 2015 (BBC, 2015), and currently is a lead negotiator in peace talks with the US government.

Mullavi Shahabudin Delawar:

Status: Negotiating Member, Taliban’s Qatar Office

Born in 1950’s, Delawar is one of the 152 Taliban officials sanctioned by the UN, UK, EU, Australia and France (www.unis.unvienna.org, https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/shahabuddin-delawar, https://www.uaf.gob.ni/images/Pdf/Listas_ONU-2018/Lista_1988-_10.04.18.pdf). He studied religious studies in Logar Province and during the Soviet invasion with the Darul Oloom-e-Haqqania in Khatak, Pakistan (nunn.asia, 2018). He served in various capacities with the Taliban government in the 1990’s. He has been a Taliban negotiator since 2012. He reportedly had attended recent talks in Qatar with the US Special Representative.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, “the Butcher”

Status: Candidate, Afghan Presidential Elections

Hekmatyar is designated a terrorist by the United States and leads the Hezb-i-Islami political party. During the war against Soviet Union, Hekmatyar’s mujahideen fighters received funding from the CIA, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. But his role during the war came under criticism, as he ordered attacks on rival groups to strengthen his power. After taking refuge in Iran for some time, he was thought to be moving in and out of the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hekmatyar was a key player in 1990’s civil war and repeatedly shelled Kabul, killing and wounding thousands. He returned to Kabul in 2017 as part of a peace deal signed in 2016, which gave him amnesty against all his previous atrocities. His convoy of supporters entering Kabul were heavily armed. Top commanders related to his insurgency group–2nd largest–were also pardoned. Since then, he has remains an outspoken critic of free media and at times has sparked controversy by criticising his rivals and ethnic minorities.

Abdurrab Rasul Sayyaf

Sayyaf, a religious scholar turned mujahideen commander, built a close relationship with Osama bin Laden during their fight against Soviet forces. Sayyaf continued to maintain his training camps, helping recruit jihadists to fight in conflicts as far away as the Philippines, where his name inspired a dangerous separatist group now known as Abu Sayyaf (The Economist, 2014).  He also reportedly trained the 9/11 mastermind Sheikh Mohammad.

During 1990’s, Sayyaf’s Ittihad faction was a strong party to the civil war. Human Right’s Watch records that fighting over control of Kabul against the Wahdat forces started as early as 1992 and resulted in high civilian casualties and massive destruction. HRW implicates Sayyaf, centrally, in war crimes–including the massacre in Afshar–as he was commander of the this faction.

After 2001, Sayyaf continued to serve in various capacity with the Afghan government, yet, soldiers and commanders loyal to him continued to rob people, threaten journalists and musicians.

Gul Agha Sherzai

Status: Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs,

A former Mujahideen commander, Sherzai helped topple Mohammed Najibullah’s government. He became the governor of Kandahar twice, and he used his power to strengthen his position and help his tribe. When the Taliban conquered Kandahar after 1994, he left the city and remained hidden until 2001, when he recaptured Kandahar with the help of U.S. forces. During the Karzai administration, he served as governor of Kandahar and then Nangahar province. Until he was removed as Kandahar Governor, he reportedly kept most of the customs revenue, worth $ millions (Politics and Governance in Afghanistan: the Case of Nangarhar Provinc, Ashley Jackson, 2014).

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar

Status: Head, Taliban’s Qatar Office

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is one of the four men who founded the Taliban movement in Afghanistan in 1994. He went on to become a linchpin of terror after the Taliban were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001. He was eventually captured in a joint US-Pakistani raid in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.  Little was heard of Mullah Baradar’s fate until late in 2012 when his name repeatedly topped the list of Taliban prisoners the Afghans wanted released in order to encourage nascent peace talks. At the time of his arrest he was said to be second-in-command to the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and one of his most trusted commanders. He was released last year and was appointed on January 2019, as the political head of Taliban’s Qatar Office.

Abdul Salam Rocketi,

Status: Lives in Afghanistan

Haji Mullah Abdul Salam Raketi is the son of late Haji Manzar. He was born in 1958 in Naubahar district of the southern Zabul province. He continued his religious education until 1978 and then migrated to Pakistan. Rakity launched jihad against the regime in southeastern Paktika province in 1979. He continued fighting in Kandahar and Zabul till the fall of the government of Dr. Najeeb in Kabul. He was commander of the 27th brigade in the mujahideen after 1992. He joined  the Taliban in 1994 on the request of the Taliban leadership in 1995.
Mulla Abdul Salam Rakity remained imprisoned with the Americans for eight months in 2002. He was elected member of the Wolesi Jirga from southern Zabul province in 2005.

Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil

Status: lives in Kabul

Mutawakil served as the Foreign Affairs Minister in the Taliban government. He was the highest ranking Taliban official to surrender to US forces. He was held by the Americans for 18 months and eventually released in October 2003. The western media has labeled Mutawakil a “moderate Talib”. On May 2, 2005, Mutawakil went on a Pakistan-based pashto TV channel (Khyber TV), and urged the Taliban to reconcile their differences with President Hamid Karzai’s government.

Abdul Hakim Mujahid,

Status: Lives in Kabul

Mujahid served as the Taliban representative and point of contact for the United Nations. He is currently the head of the political wing of a Taliban splinter group called Jamiat-i-Khuddamul Furqan. He is labeled by the western media as a “moderate-Talib”. Mujahid told the Pajhowk Afghan news agency in early May 2005 that they are trying to have their party registered with the Justice Ministry and set up an office in Kabul. Hakim Mujahid was appointed a member of the High Peace Council and was sacked, subsequently, in response to his controversial remarks.

Amir Khan Muttaqi

Status: Alive, whereabouts not obvious

Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi was born in 1968 in Shin Kalai village, Zurmat District, Paktia Province. He is an important Taliban official who held various posts in the past, including minister of Information and Culture. His current whereabout is said to be somewhere in Pakistan. He was the Taliban representative in UN-led talks under the Taliban regime

Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi is a member of Taliban`s Shura Council and Official in Charge of its Media Committee. He was reported wounded in an airstrike on a Taliban gathering in Nawa district of Ghazni province in July 2018. Pajhwok reported that he was a participant in the UAE peace meetings, in late December 2019.

Abdul Rashid Dostum

Status: 1st Vice President to Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai

In the 1980s, Dostum was in command of an Uzbek militia that fought with AK-47s on horseback. A former general in the Afghan army, he fought against Mujahidin fighters as well as the Taliban. He has been accused of being responsible for mass killings of the Taliban prisoners.

Dostum: Afghanistan’s Embattled Warlord, written by Brian Glyn Williams in CIA’s Terrorism Monitor Journal contains details of Dostum’s violent engagement up to 2008.

Forces loyal to Dostum have reportedly been accused of war-crimes and killings of civilians. Human Rights Watch, on June 2016, reported that his militiamen had entered villages in Faryab Province and had killed more than 5 civilians and injuring many more.

In most recent of these atrocities, he kidnapped and detained his rival, Ahmad Ischi and reportedly beat him and raped him. Subsequently, he was exiled to Turkey. He returned back to Afghanistan in 2018. He is yet to be tried for these allegations.

Ismail Khan

Status: Member, Council for Security and Stability of Afghanistan

Khan rose to power while battling the Soviets in Afghanistan. He fought them for 13 years to retake Herat province and became its governor. When Mohammad Omar attacked and captured Herat in 1995, Khan was thrown into a prison in Kandahar. After he escaped in 1999, he joined forces with Ahmed Shah Massoud in the Northern Alliance. He fought alongside U.S. forces against the Taliban in 2001 and then quickly consolidated his control over Herat, appointing himself as the governor. After Karzai removed him from power in 2005, he took an offer to become the minister of water and energy.

Although Khan has not been accused of severe war crimes–the likes of which Dostum an Hikmatyar have been–forces loyal to him in early 2000’s were accused of atrocities against civilians (particularly Pashtuns) in Herat province. (HRW–2003, and Thomas Johnson–Strategic Insights, Volume III, Issue 7–2004).

In a public speech in late 2018, Ismail Khan had proposed a military-dictatorship as a response to existing instability (Pajhwok, Sep 2018).

Mohammad Mohaqiq

status: Deputy CEO of the NUG

Mohaqiq, a Hazara commander, played an active role in fighting against Soviet troops after they invaded in 1979. He was one of the key leaders of the Wahdat Party who was a party to the civil war and accused of atrocities against the civilian (HRW–2005). After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Mohaqiq was appointed vice-president and oversaw the Ministry of Planning, but he was removed from the government over his differences with Karzai. Militiamen and forces loyal to Mohaqiq–among others–were reported to have massively looting, torturing, abusing Pashtun villagers in early 2002 (HRW,2003).

Mohaqiq commands support within the Hazara community and is a deputy to Abdullah Abdullah–Afghan CEO. In most recent controversies, Mohammad praised Iranian recruitment of Afghans to fight armed oppositions and ISIS alongside the Syrian Regime.

Atta Mohammad Noor

Status: Chief Executive of Jamiat-e Islami Party

Atta Mohammad Noor served as the senior commander for the Northern Alliance forces in Mazar-e Sharif before the fall of Taliban in 2001. Three years later, Karzai appointed him as the governor of Balkh province. He ruled the northern region with an iron fist, leading to accusations of widespread looting and mass executions. In the initial years leading to 2003, forces under his command in Mazar-e-Sharif were accused of serious human rights violations, particularly towards the Pashtuns. With his warlord legacy tucked in, he has now transformed himself into an ultra-rich businessman.

In 2015, HRW reported that, “[the entity] has documented Atta’s maintenance of a network of militias under his effective command that has been implicated in serious human rights abuses”. The report indicates number ranging from 452 up to 1500 militiamen and arbakis. 

The entity also has evidence that Atta supported a notorious kidnapper named Habib Rahman, prevent his transfer to Kabul for prosecution and then ensuring his comfort in jail.

In its 2017 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, State Department detailed reports of Atta and his sons attacking his rival Asif Mohmand, detaining him and biting off piece of his ear, an assault that killed at least 3 and injured 13 more.

Karim Khalili

Status: Chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council

Karim Khalili served as Wahdat Party’s Deputy during the Afghan civil war. After Mazari was killed by the Taliban, Khalili became leader of the party. Karim Khalili did have leading role during Mazari’s rule of the party and both had acknowledged to taking civilians as hostages. This was reported by the HRW too, back in 2005. Under their rule, the Wahdat party regularly assaulted public. Khalili served as cabinet member of Hamid Karzai’s government. As of early 2003, UN officials confirmed cases where commanders loyal to Khalili engaged in rapes, kidnappings and forced marriage of girls in districts of Ghazni province. This included commanders like Irfani (Jaghori), Itimadi (Sharistan) and Qasemi (Malistan). (UN via HRW, 2003). Khalili later became vice president to Hamid Karzai for two terms and now heads the Afghan High Peace Council.

Zardad Faryadi (wild dog Zardad)

Status: Head, General Council of Karawane Haq

Zardad Faryadi was a mid-rank commander of the Islamic Party led by Hekmatyar and controlled checkpoints along the route to Jalalabad. This notorious commander was guilty of preying over civilian who would flee the civil war in 1990’s. As noted by Human Rights at the Crossroads, edited by Marck Goodale, Zardadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison by ICC in the United Kingdom, maintaining that “he had shown a (total disregard for humanity)”.

Zardad was deported to Kabul in 2016 and intended to run for Parliamentary Elections in 2018. Nonetheless, he was banned from running for the elections for his criminal records. He teamed up with President Ashraf in the 2019 presidential elections.

Din Muhammad Jabar Khel

Status: Deputy, Afghanistan High Peace Council.

Din Muhammad Jabar Khel served as minister of security and education during Mujahidin’s short-lived rule. He was also deputy Chairman of Islami Party led by Molawi Khalis. The party was a key faction during the Soviet Union intervention of Afghanistan and later on during the civil war.  Jabarkhil was a key ally to the Hamid Karzai government. He was born in Jalalabad and served as governor of Nangarhar and then Kabul. Musa Khan Jalalzai in his book “Whose Army? Afghanistan’s Future and Blueprint for Civil War” termed him as a profoundly corrupt and illiterate warlord. He is a deputy to the Afghanistan High Peace Council, right now.

Jumma Khan Hamdard

Status: Senior Member, Islamic Party

Jumma Khan Hamdard is an ethnic Pashtun from the North who had a key role in the civil war and human rights abuse as  Commander of the Junbesh Party’s 8th Corps. See, “THE ETHNICISATION OF AN AFGHAN FACTION: JUNBESH-I-MILLI FROM ITS ORIGINS TO THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS”, Antonio Giustozzi and “Warlords, Strongman Governors, and the State in Afghanistan.

By Dipali Mukhopadhyay”. He later joined the Karzai government from Islamic party side, and served as governor to Paktia province.

One of the US embassy cables published by Wikileaks relates to  Juma Khan Hamdard. It contains detailed allegations that the governor is not only illegally amassing a personal fortune from US government-funded contracts, but is also fuelling money to active members of his tanzim, Hezb-e Islami terrorists , who are currently fighting the government in Balkh province.

Zahir Qadir

Status: Former member of Parliament,

Zahir Qadir is son of Haji Qadir–ex vice president to Hamid Karzai who was killed in 2002. Zahir Qadir and his family are accused to run a complex network and a private militia of hundreds strong in Nangarhar. His men are accused to have committed gross violations of human rights in the forms of kidnapping, extortions (HRW 2004, see Politics and Governance in Afghanistan: the case of Nangarhar written by Ashley Jackson). They are also accused of drug trafficking and land grabs

Qari Din Mohammad Hanif

Status: Member, High Peace Council of the Taliban

Qari Din Mohammad Hanif is an ethnic Tajik (bbc, 2013). He was an active Jihadi during the Soviet Invasion (nunn.asia, 2018) and was Minister of Planning and Higher Education during the Taliban era (Pajhwok, 2019). Din Mohammad Hanif was sanctioned by the UN, in 2001, alongside other Taliban government officials, pursuant to “list pursuant to paragraph 4 (b) of resolution 1267 (1999), pages 1-5” (unis.unvienna, 2001). He was appointed as the Taliban’s military commander for Badakhshan province, subsequent to 2001 and was later appointed as member of the political commission (nunn.asia,2018). Reported to be slightly reasonable than others (AAN, 2013), he is currently a member of High Peace Council of the Taliban in Qatar.

Haji Muhammad Zahid Ahmadzai

Status: Member, High Peace Council of the Taliban

Zahid comes from Logar, studied religious studies in Peshawar’s Darul Nejat and was part of Harakat-e-Nejat Islami led by Maulavi Mohammad Nabi (nunn.asia, 2018). He served as Taliban’s third secretary in the Taliban Embassy in Islamabad (AAN, 2013 and Pajhowk, 2019, UN Resolution 1988). He too was listed in the sanctions list by the UN, in 2001 for arms embargo, travel ban and assets freeze (unis.unvienna, and Interpol). Upon fall of the Taliban regime, he reportedly chaired Taliban’s Leadership Council and Political Office. He is a member of the HPC of the Taliban, currently.

Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi

Status: Member HPC, Taliban

He is an Uzbek and graduate of Dar ul Ulom Karachi, Pakistan (Pajhwok, 2013, nunn.asia, 2018). He was Deputy Minister of Education during the Taliban and was listed in the sanctions list by the UN, in 2001 for arms embargo, travel ban and assets freeze (unis.unvienna, and Interpol). After fall of the Taliban, he was appointed as military commander of the Taliban for Jauzjan province. He currently is a member of the HPC for the Taliban.

Abdul Ghani Baradar

Status: Leader of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar

Abdul Ghani Baradar is 45 years old and one of the four co-founders of the Taliban group in 1994 (BBC). He is known as the brain of the group by the Taliban (BBC). He studied Sharia/Islamic studies in Pakistan’s Madrasas and had fought for several years on the battle field for Taliban’s victory. After collapse of the Taliban, the Queeta Shura which was the main Taliban structure was led by him. He was the deputy minister of defense during the Taliban and after the Taliban withdrawal, he became Mullah Omar’s deputy.

He has been on the side of peace for over a decade. After he was arrested in Pakistan, he was released and later named the leader of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar amid talks with the US to begin the peace negotiations.

Sohail Shaheen

Status: Spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Doha

Sohail Shaheen is a Totakhel Pashtun from Paktia. He got his education in the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. He is known as a fluent English speaker and prolific writer and former journalist during Mujahedin.

Before the Taliban, Shaheen was a journalist covering the mujahedin uprising against the Soviets, and the days afterwards when he was editor of the Kabul Times. Later, he was appointed as the Taliban’s representative to the UN in New York and also as deputy ambassador to the Afghan embassy in Pakistan. After 2001, he lived in Hezb-e- Islami controlled area in Peshawar in a refugee camp while writing for a Hezbi newspaper and later worked for the UN in Pakistan.

He accompanied Taliban envoy to meet representatives of the UN in Qatar in Dec 2011 over opening an office for the Emirates of Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar.

Western media highlighted that the age of warlords in Afghanistan may finally be ending. But, it has not happen yet.  The beginning of the end started before Afghanistan attracted the world’s attention on September 11, 2001. From that time up to now, Afghanistan has been witnessing many dead, killed and assassinated warlords. Yet, the country’s remaining warlords still have their grip on power. Due to factionalism, inability of the government and international community, they still pose huge threats to thousands of lives. 

Mullah Dadullah, 

Status: Killed

Mullah Dadullah lost a leg when he fought with the mujahideen against the Soviet forces in the 1980s. He was said to be close to Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and served as the minister of construction in the Taliban government. Dadullah was killed by U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan in 2007.

Mohammed Qasim Fahim

Status: Dead

A capable commander, Fahim worked closely as a deputy for Ahmed Shah Massoud. After Massoud was assassinated in 2001, Fahim led the Northern Alliance forces and fought against the Taliban, recapturing Kabul. In Blood Stained Hands, HRW documents that Fahim held at least one of the military posts on the Television Mountain and was key to Afshar campaign. Up to 1000 civilians were killed in this campaign (the Guardian).

He later became the defense minister of Afghanistan and served as vice president under Hamid Karzai. Throughout his tenure, police forces under his command were accused of torturing civilians, according to HRW (2003).

Ahmed Shah Massoud

Status: Assassinated

Massoud was a charismatic military leader who led the resistance against Soviet occupation and was known as the “Lion of the Panjshir”. Massoud’s Jamiat Party was an integral side of catastrophic civil war of the 1990s. He and many of his commanders have been accused of war crimes. HRW, among others, had interviewed witnesses of Jamiat’s artillery attack of west Kabul in 1992, that resulted in numerous deaths (Blood Stained Hands, HRW, 2005).  

“On February 11 1993, Massoud and Sayyaf’s forces entered the Hazara suburb of Afshar, killing – by local accounts – “up to 1,000 civilians”, beheading old men, women, children and even their dogs, stuffing their bodies down the wells” (A Gruesome Record, The Guardian, 2001). 

Massoud formed the United Front, also known as the Northern Alliance, to counter the advance of the Taliban. He became defense minister in 1992. He was assassinated two days before the Sept. 11 attack.

Mohammed Omar

Status: Dead

Omar, often referred to as Mullah Omar, is the spiritual leader of the Taliban and ruled Afghanistan as its de facto head of state from 1996 to 2001. He came to power only a few years after he gathered a group of his old mujahideen fighters and formed the Taliban, which under his leadership defeated some of the most powerful warlords in Afghanistan. When U.S. forces entered Kabul in 2001, Omar disappeared, and died in 2013. He was wanted by the United States for his role in sheltering Osama bin Laden and continuing to operate an insurgency in Afghanistan. Taliban, headed by Mohammad Omar notoriously engaged in massacres. In a report in 2001, HRW documented two massacres that continued for days and resulted in killing of hundreds of civilians (in January 2001 and May 2001) of the Hazara People in Yakaolang. They committed gross atrocities against other ethnicities in other cities and were gruesome abusers of women.

Abdul Ali Mazari

Status: Killed

Abdul Ali Mazari led Wahdat Party from 1992 until his death in 1995 and was a principle convict of the war crimes during the Afghan civil wars. Under his leadership, the party led the civil war in west Kabul and reportedly keeping civilian prisoners and shelling the city (HRW report). As mentioned in the Alliance Formation in Civil Wars by Fotini Christia, Wahdat Party was an important side and it’s members are also the victims of the Afshar massacre that resulted in thousands of civilians being killed, injured or imprisoned.

Commander Matiullah Khan

Status: Killed

Commander Matiullah Khan was Oruzgan province’s Police Commander and a close ally to Hamid Karzai. A report by the Human Rights Watch reported him as implicated for human rights violations.  Shifting power structures have led to the appointment of individuals implicated in serious human rights abuses, including Matiullah Khan as Uruzgan police chief and Abdur Rezaq Razziq as Kandahar police chief.

Matiullah Khan was also a NATO Contractor escorting Nato cargo trucks from Kandahar to Urozgan. He was killed in 2015 in Kabul by the Taliban.

Ghulam Sakhi Wasiq

Status: Dead

Lieutenant General Ghulam Sakhi Wasiq was a local commander in associated to Nehzate Islami Party during the civil war. He and forces under his command are accused of extensive Human Rights violations that include rape, murder and extortions. He died last year.

Burhanudin Rabbani

Status: Killed

Rabbani led  Jamiat-e Islami-yi Afghanistan during the civil wars and served as a president for a short tenure. Under his presidency, and throughout the infamous civil war, rabbani and his commander Ahmad Shah Massoud committed extensive and gross war crimes (“Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth versus Justice

edited by Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Javier Mariezcurrena”, and “People on War, Country report Afghanistan, Report by Greenberg Research, Inc.

1999). As documented by the HRW reports in 2005, reported by independent investigative journalists, they detained civilians and tortured them for ransom. His government also initiated the Afshar battle against Wahdat Islami Party led by Mazari in 1993. The battle resulted in killing and disappearance of hundreds of civilians, widespread rape, mutilation, looting and forced labor. Reports indicate that over 5000 houses were looted in the campaign. Rabbani was killed in a suicide attack.

Jalaludin Haqqani

Status: Dead

Jalaludin Haqqani is founder and spiritual leader of the Haqqani Network. He led the group until late 2001. His network of 4000 strong (web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants) have been in battle with the Afghan government and have carried deadly attacks against with high civilian casualties. He and the Haqqani Network have been convicted of serious human rights violations that include kidnapping, suicidal attacks on civilian targets, killing of humanitarian aid workers and kidnapping. (see, Killing the Cranes: A Reporter’s Journey Through Three Decades of War By Edward Girardet). He was included in UN Security Council’s sanctioned individuals and entities. Haqqani was reported dead on September 2018.

Sayed Hussain Anwari

Status: Dead

Sayed Hussain Anwari was a military commander of Harakat-e Islami-yi Afghanistan and was a faction involved during the civilian war in 1990s. He was mainly supported by Iran and has been accused of war crimes and human rights violations. He is reported to have been involved in the Afshar attack in 1993 in Kabul that led to killing of hundreds of civilians and widespread abuses (Blood-Stained Hands, Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan’s Legacy of Impunity, HRW). After 2001, he served the Afghan government at various capacities, including as minister, yet, men associated with him were accused of harassment. He served as senior military advisor to President Ghani and died in 2016.

Abdul Raziq

Status: Assassinated

The provincial chief of police in Kandahar, Brig. Gen. Abdul Raziq, has been directly implicated in ordering extrajudicial executions. And when the former head of the National Directorate of Security Asadullah Khalid sought medical care in the United States, he received a personal visit from President Barack Obama, sending a powerful message of US support for a notorious human rights violator.

Human Rights Watch urged the Afghan government to investigate all allegations of abuse by Afghan security forces, and remove from office and appropriately prosecute officials and commanders implicated in serious abuses.

“The acting commander of border police in Kandahar, Abdul Razzaq Achakzai [Raziq], has acknowledged killing the victims, but has claimed (claims now proved false) that the killings took place during an ambush he conducted against Taliban infiltrators,” a report by the office of the EU envoy to Afghanistan said then.

Since he took control of the province’s police in 2011, the United Nations has documented “systematic” use of torture in Kandahar’s police and intelligence units, and the Human Rights Watch report lists multiple cases of men detained by Kandahar police, whose mutilated corpses were found discarded days later. Raziq has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing. Raziq was assassinated on October 2018 in an insider attack in Kandahar.

Supported links & sources:

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=vsQjCmfWBWIC&pg=PA396&lpg=PA396&dq=Jalaluddin+Haqqani+and+war+crimes&source=bl&ots=XHV6s-D7_W&sig=emyrLIa_4o3xmYp8uLPIo6bIx_4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqiLHNt8LXAhWB6iYKHZVwAqc4ChDoAQhGMAI#v=onepage&q=anwari&f=false
2. https://books.google.com/books?id=4gjlrp7TYjEC&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=Jalaluddin+Haqqani+and+war+crimes&source=bl&ots=XdG0o2LAQy&sig=apKvY5HbO14d2iyL7FTqZ0xTWyk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqiLHNt8LXAhWB6iYKHZVwAqc4ChDoAQhgMAk#v=onepage&q&f=false
3. http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/363
4. https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/07/06/blood-stained-hands/past-atrocities-kabul-and-afghanistans-legacy-impunity#https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj80d6Ev8LXAhWKJCYKHc_jD7MQFgg2MAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hrw.org%2Freports%2F2005%2Fafghanistan0605%2F&usg=AOvVaw3TatVkIoK10nUFvzyN1-UY
5. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/afghanistan
6. https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/277519.pdf

This is an active and changing report.

In a Kangaroo Court, the Taliban militants lashed a couple on charges of having affair.
The young lovers had escaped from village of Kohistanat district to Ghor province while their family rejected their marriage and than returned back to their houses by inductions of elders.

They were back to their home region following mediation by elders and as Taliban became aware of the matter, the group punished them with 80 lashes in public, Faryab police spokesman Abdul Karim Yuresh said.

Public lashings and executions were common under the Taliban when they were ruling the country from 1996 to 2001.

Unfortunately, the Taliban-controlled kangaroo courts are increasing day by day, as we have seen countless kind of such cases this year which last month on February 14, Taliban also stoned a young man for adultery in the northern province of Sar-e-Pull.

Most of the victims are often women and girls who are brutally being killed and beaten by the people and Taliban.

Recently the Independent Human Rights commission registered many cases of kangaroo courts in last one year.

– The Taliban are openly active in 70 percent of Afghanistan’s districts, fully controlling 4 percent of the country and demonstrating an open physical presence in another 66 percent, according to a BBC study published on Tuesday 31 January 2018.

by Farshad

At least 50 people have been killed and more than 90 wounded in a suicide bomb attack in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

A Shia Hazara cultural organisation was the target but the Afghan Voice news agency was also hit. So-called Islamic State said it was behind the attack.

The interior ministry told the BBC an explosion at the Shia centre was followed by at least two more blasts.

IS has been behind a number of attacks on Shia targets across the country in recent months.

What do we know about the attack?

The main blast went off inside the Tabayan cultural centre, but offices of Afghan Voice are also at the location of the attack.

Image copyrightAFP

Students were among those who had gathered at the Shia centre for a discussion forum.

The interior ministry said the event was to mark the 38th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The initial explosion was followed by at least two others, although the ministry said these did not cause any fatalities.

The health ministry’s latest figures say 41 people died and 84 were hurt, with women and children among the casualties.

Student Mohammad Hasan Rezayee told Tolo News: “We were inside the hall in the second row when an explosion from behind took place. After the blast there was fire and smoke inside the building and everyone was pleading for help.”

Another witness, Sayed Jan, told reporters from his hospital bed: “There was a book reading event and academic discussion, and I was one of the participants. During the speech a huge bang was heard and smoke rose from inside the hall.

“My face was burning. I fell down from the chair and I saw the other colleagues around me on the ground. The smoke was everywhere.”

Sayed Abbas Hussaini, a journalist at Afghan Voice, told Reuters that one reporter at the agency had been killed and two wounded.

Distraught relatives gathered at local hospitals, which are treating the dozens of wounded people.

Who carried it out?

The Islamic State group said on its propaganda outlet Amaq that it had targeted the Shia centre with a suicide bomber and other bombs.

The Taliban had earlier issued a statement saying they were not involved.

The Taliban are not known to specifically target Shias, although both militant groups have carried out frequent attacks across the country.

Shia fears

Analysis: Zia Shahreyar, BBC Persian, Kabul

In recent months IS has attacked many Shia targets in the west of Kabul, where the majority of the city’s Shia population live.

The Tabayan centre also has offices in the Iranian cities of Tehran and Mashhad and is believed to have close ties with religious and cultural centres in Iran.

There are growing fears that IS is trying to spark a Sunni-Shia sectarian war in Afghanistan and the Shia community is increasingly dissatisfied with President Ashraf Ghani’s government for failing to protect them.

US-led foreign forces meanwhile continue to engage IS in eastern Afghanistan and President Trump, in his new Afghan strategy, has pledged to root out IS in the country, as it has been in Iraq and Syria.

How is IS involved in Afghanistan?

IS announced the establishment of its “Khorasan” branch – an old name for Afghanistan and surrounding areas – in January 2015.

It initially gained ground in the east and north, although it has lost territory there and was largely eliminated from southern and western Afghanistan by the Taliban and operations conducted by Afghan and US/Nato forces.

Image copyrightAFP

IS has since resorted mainly to guerrilla tactics and is estimated to have a force of between 1,000 and 5,000 fighters.

IS considers Shia apostates and aims to turn the conflict in Afghanistan into a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shias.

In October, at least 39 people were killed in an attack on a mosque belonging to the Shia minority.

In April, the US said it had dropped the “Mother of All Bombs” on IS in eastern Afghanistan, but the group continues its attacks.

What has the reaction been?

President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman issued a statement describing the latest attack as an “unpardonable” crime against humanity.

Amnesty International’s South Asia director, Biraj Patnaik, said: “This gruesome attack underscores the dangers faced by Afghan civilians. In one of the deadliest years on record, journalists and other civilians continue to be ruthlessly targeted by armed groups.”

Nato’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan called the attack “heinous”.

Are the media under specific attack?

It is unclear whether Afghan Voice was a specific part of the target, but it has been a difficult year for the media. Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists and media workers.

In November, IS said it was behind a gun attack on the Shamshad TV station that killed one staff member.

In May, two media workers, including a BBC driver, were killed in a massive bomb attack in Kabul.

The first six months of 2017 saw a surge in violence against journalists, with local monitor the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee recording 73 cases, an increase of 35% in comparison to the same period in 2016.

Last year seven members of staff from the private Tolo television station were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul.

UNAMA prepares regular reports in accordance to its mandate under UN Security Council resolution 2274 (2016) “to monitor the situation of civilians, to coordinate efforts to ensure their protection, to promote accountability, and to assist in the full implementation of the fundamental freedoms and human rights provisions of the Afghan Constitution and international treaties to which Afghanistan is a State party, in particular those regarding the full enjoyment by women of their human rights.”

SCR 2274 (2016) recognizes the importance of ongoing monitoring and reporting to the Security Council on the situation of civilians in the armed conflict, particularly on civilian casualties.

UNAMA undertakes a range of activities aimed at minimizing the impact of the armed conflict on civilians including: independent and impartial monitoring of incidents involving loss of life or injury to civilians; advocacy to strengthen protection of civilians affected by the armed conflict; and initiatives to promote compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law, and the Constitution and laws of Afghanistan among all parties to the conflict.

Since 2012, the reports have been prepared jointly with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Reports using a consistent methodology have been maintained since 2009. Note that earlier reports from 2007 and 2008 follow a previous reporting system and are included here for reference purposes only.

2016 Annual Report (released Feb 2017) English DariPashto
Executive Summary and Recommendations: Dari | Pashto
Press release: English | Dari | Pashto
Press conference transcript English

2016 Quarterly Report (released October 2016)
Press release: English | Dari | Pashto

Special Report on 23 July 2016 Kabul Attack (released October 2016)
Read the report: English | Dari

2016 Mid-Year Report (released July 2016) English
Executive Summary and Recommendations: Dari |Pashto 
Press release: English Dari Pashto
Press conference transcript: English

2016 Quarterly Report (released April 2016)
Civilian Casualty Data for the First Quarter of 2016

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2015 Annual Report (released February 2016) English | Dari | Pashto 
Executive Summary and Recommendations:  Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari| Pashto
Press conference transcript English 

Special Report on Kunduz Province  (released December 2015)
Read the report English | Dari Press release English |  Dari |  Pashto

2015 Mid-Year Report (released July 2015) English | Dari | Pashto 
Executive Summary and Recommendations English Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto
Press conference transcript English

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2014 Annual Report (released February 2015) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

2014 Mid-Year Report (released July 2014) English
Executive Summary and Recommendations English Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto
Press conference transcript English

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2013 Annual Report (released February 2014) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto
Press conference transcript English

2013 Mid-Year Report (released July 2013) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto
Press conference transcript English

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2012 Annual Report (released February 2013) English |Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto
Press conference transcript English

2012 Mid-Year Report (released July 2012) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

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2011 Annual Report (released February 2012) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

2011 Mid-Year Report (released July 2011) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

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2010 Annual Report (released in March 2011) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

2010 Mid-Year Report (released in August 2010) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

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2009 Annual Report (released January 2010) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

2009 Mid-Year Report (released July 2009) English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English

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2008 Annual Report (released January 2009) English
Executive Summary and Recommendations English Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

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2007 Annual Report (released mid-2008) English

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Booklet on ‘Protecting Afghanistan’s Children in Armed Conflict’ (released May 2014)
English | Dari | Pashto
Press release English | Dari | Pashto

Source : UNAMA

It is for more than a decade and a half that Afghan women have gained significant achievements and such accomplishments have always been appreciated in the assemblies as one of the best developments of the Afghan government and the positive impact of the international community’s presence in Afghanistan. The presence of women in our society has flourished more than before, and now a significant number of women in the country are active in various political, social, economic and cultural areas, and their role is increasing more and more with every passing day.

The effective presence of women is important in all areas of collective life, but the role of women in those areas that have not been common and was considered as taboo by conservative people is more important. One of these areas is the inclusion of women in the defense and security sectors of the country which, despite some challenges in this area, has made some good progress. It should be said that the presence of women in the defense and security sectors of the country has not been free from challenges, and there are still some problems that we will deal with later.

Undoubtedly, the role of women in defense and security sectors is of paramount importance. In addition to the fact that women as individuals, have the right to equal opportunities like men in all areas of life and to have access to all their human rights, the Afghan society today needs women’s presence and activities in defense and security organs. Afghan women need to enjoy of the services of defense and security sectors of the country, and this can be possible only when a significant number of women be employed in the defense and security sectors of the country so that other women and men benefit from their services.

read more here AIHRC

Slight Fall in Ground Fighting Civilian Casualties by Government Forces

Patricia Gossman

HRW Senior Researcher, Afghanistan

Yesterday, he told me he had lost a close friend in the latest suicide bombing in Kabul, making his words seem prophetic. The October 20 attack on a Shia mosque killed at least 65 people and wounded 87. Bombings targeting Afghanistan’s minority Shia population at mosques and religious ceremonies are on the rise this year, with at least 149 people dead and more than 300 injured since January. The Islamic State of Khorason Province (ISKP), the local franchise of the so-called Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is believed responsible for most of these. That same day, October 20, another attack on a mosque, this one in Ghor province, killed up to 33 people.

The mosque attacks came just a week after the latest United Nations report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and it seems 2017 may be the deadliest since the UN began keeping track in 2007. The report says deaths from suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks have increased compared to 2016, along with targeted attacks on individuals linked to the government, such as judges and religious figures. It also said that civilian casualties caused by the Taliban and ISKP during ground fighting are up 7 percent.

However, the UN also reported a 52 percent rise in civilian casualties from Afghan military and US airstrikes, with many women and children among the 205 dead and 261 injured. It’s clear that the Afghan government and its US ally need to do much more to protect civilians in such operations.

There was one bright spot in the otherwise grim report: a 37 percent fall in civilian casualties by government forces during ground fighting, a figure that may actually reflect the static nature of the current front lines. Acting Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Bahrami told Human Rights Watch that the decline was in line with a new national policy on reducing civilian harm.  The litmus test on the success of this policy will be if civilian casualty numbers from all Afghan government operations – as well as international ones supporting them – decline.

 

Correction

The October 20 attack on a mosque in Ghor province killed up to 33 people. Bombings targeting Afghanistan’s minority Shia population at mosques and religious ceremonies are on the rise this year, with at least 149 people dead and more than 300 injured since January. An earlier version of this dispatch misstated the sect targeted in the October 20 attack at the mosque in Ghor province, and the number of people who have died in bombings targeting Afghanistan’s minority Shia population at mosques and religious ceremonies.

Hekmatyar Criticizes Media, Rejects Accountability

Patricia Gossman

Senior Researcher, Afghanistan

Perhaps no one is willing to accept the absence of their homeland, family, and friends. Accepting a way full of uncertainty and danger through smugglers to arrive in a place where you can survive is also not an easy task to do but all these become very easy to do so if you find yourself in a land of conflict, where living is dangerous and you don’t want to be killed by the next bomb, where you saw your friends and family members have been killed, just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Three Afghan teens asylum seekers ended their life last one month in refugee camps in Sweden. According to VOA, 7 afghan refugees attempted to end their life in last two weeks which 3 of them were successful. The reason behind this is tougher asylum rules after EU-Afghanistan aid-deal. Their asylum application was rejected once by immigration authority and they were scared of being deported to their country of origin.

On 3 June 2016 another 16 years old afghan asylum seeker, Mustafa Ansari ended his life. Sweden Migration authority had not managed to take his asylum application interview during nine months.

In October 2016 the European Union and Afghanistan signed an agreement so-called conditional aid or deportation-aid deal which allows EU members to return back dozens of asylum seekers to Afghanistan and in return EU pledged aid to the Afghan government to rebuild the country and the EU can get rid of the Afghans that reached Europe in 2015 and 2016.

According to Transparency International, Afghanistan is among the most corrupt countries in the word. The country is also already facing the crisis of internally displaced people fleeing violence within its borders some 3.7 million are living in IPD camps around the country. An additional 2.5 million Afghan refugees are also facing deportation from Pakistan. Afghanistan remained one of the poorest countries in the word. Asylum seekers returning back to the war zone face serious challenges including persecution, war, insurgency, and poverty. International human rights law pose an obligation on states not to deport those whom they face threat and persecution in their country of origin.

Fighting and insurgency in Afghanistan are not only limited to the countryside, the Taliban carries out regular attacks in Kabul as well.

More than four suicide bomb and militant attacks in Kabul, Kandahar, and Helmand killed up to 80 people and wounded more than 150 most of them civilians in just first one and half month of 2017.

At least 20 people have been killed and 41 wounded in a most recent suicide bombing at Afghanistan’s Supreme Court in Kabul on 7 February 2017.

Targeting Hazara community

On 13^th October 2016, a gunman wearing Afghanistan National Armey Security Forces Uniform on Ashura night opened fire on Shia Hazara mourners at Sakhi, Kabul, killed 14 and wounded 54. The following morning a blast of explosive device killed at least more than 10 in northern Afghanistan, Balkh province. Another deadly bombing targeted the most peaceful protest on 23 July 2016 that left more than 85 dead and 400 wounded.

The security environment is worsening for all Afghans notably for Hazaras because they are most vulnerable to insurgency and attacks, identifying physical features, Hazaras are more likely to be targeted. Traveling from Kabul to central parts of Afghanistan often pose significant security challenges to them. Over past 3 years, insurgents have specifically targeted Hazaras traveling on rural roads, they were kidnaped and killed. There have been several mass kidnapping from buses and other vehicles.

UNAMA reported 146 Hazaras were abducted in 20 different incidents in 2015 and several other abductions in the first half of 2016.

On November 2015, three buses were stopped by armed forces on the main road between Kabul-Kandahar, the armed men allegedly singled Hazara passengers and abducted them. This is one incident among many.

Afghans, the majority of them Hazaras fled war and conflict constituted second largest refugees arrived in Europe in 2015 and 2016 are now fearing of being deported to the war zone where they face serious threats, security challenges, widespread unemployment and uncertain future.

Article by Qasim Sahil

On Saturday 23 July, 80 people were killed and about 230 wounded by a double suicide attack on marchers in Kabul. The majority of them were from the country’s Hazara minority.

Afghan Independent human rights Commission strongly condemned <bomb blast and mercilessly killing of civilians during protest “Enlightening Movement ” is a great tragedy and unforgivable crime. The AIHRC condemns it in the strongest terms possible, and expresses its condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims>.

AIHRC Also added in their press release that launching peaceful protests and rallies is a human right of citizens, and ensuring the security of the participants is the first duty of the government and security agencies in the country. In today’s incident, it is apparent that security agencies to fulfill their legal obligation, which is ensuring the security of the demonstrators, were extremely weak and reluctant. And they would be accountable under the law. There are clear signs of unpreparedness, reluctance and lack of necessary measures to ensure the security of the protestors and handle emergency situations. Delivering assistance and urgent consideration to the victims, the wounded and dead bodies at the scene did not exist.

In the early hours of Friday morning, the hashtag #enlightenment commenced trending in Afghanistan and briefly in Pakistan and Europe. It speedy won traction, and at the time of writing, greater than 380,000 tweets had been despatched out the usage of the tag. Tragic events in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, from the earlier week, had spilled over into social media.

“Enlightenment” refers to the Hazara Enlightenment motion. They signify Afghanistan’s 1/3-biggest ethnic crew.

Hazaras  originally come from vital Asia, and mostly reside in the highlands of imperative Afghanistan “residing in rural areas manner they are stated to have little get right of entry to to public services and products”.

Political abuse or technical problems?

The TUTAP project is designed to deliver electricity from Turkmenistan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan (the acronym comes from the names of the countries involved), making power available to millions of Afghans by connecting preexisting infrastructure. The German technical advising firm Fichtner originally recommended that the power route run through Bamyan province, near planned Chinese and Indian natural resource projects and a power station that could be connected to the line.

The Hazara minority continued to occupy Demazang Square on Sunday, which was bombed as the demonstrator’s peaceful protest was winding down.

They recited verses from the Koran and held candlelight vigils, despite a 10-day government ban on public gatherings for security reasons. Leaders of the protest movement have said they will not leave until three conditions had been met by the government.

He said the Enlighten Movement, which organized the protests, wants to have its own representatives and members of international human rights organizations take part in the commission Ghani set up to investigate the attack.

AIHRC wants the Afghan government to seriously address this issue, and make a full investigation in this regard, and provide the ground for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators and the officials who have committed negligence of official duty in this regard, and take urgent and immediate action to help the victims, the injured and those affected and suffered damages in this incident.

UNAMA: The  attack on a gathering of Afghans exercising their right to peaceful assembly was the deadliest single incident recorded by the UN in Afghanistan since 2001. The attack killed at least 73 civilians and injured 291 others. The majority of the victims were reportedly of Hazara ethnicity.

The lines of Afghan men and women who queued to donate blood for their injured compatriots was a poignant indicator of the Afghan peoples’ resilience and solidarity in the face of terrible violence. The display of unity shows the Afghan peoples’ determination to challenge extremism, to remain united and strive for a stable and prosperous future.

The United Nations family stands together with every Afghan, of every ethnicity, united in grief, outrage and condemnation of yesterday’s attack.

The online campaign has been launched in Twitter social media as the users have vowed to launch an online revolution to protest against what they call discrimination in Afghanistan.

Twitter users are saying that the campaign will be historic in the history of social media in the country, specifically in Twitter which is the second most popular social media website in Afghanistan.

The Hazaras lunched campaign on many ways : We sign this petition and request the support of the international community, in particular NATO, to put pressure on Afghan government in every possible way to respect the constitution and the principle of equality among all the citizens. The Afghan government should give a positive response to the request of Afghan citizens regarding the TUTAP project to pass through Bamiyan, as recommended by the international experts in the Afghanistan’s energy master plan.  We ask you to put pressure on the Afghan government to end its discriminatory policies towards the central regions and start working on national development projects in this region. The Afghan government must stop its ethnic-centred policies and not let further ethnic divisions.  

The collective campaign are not new in Afghanistan, people write and express their point of views on many cases, perhaps Hazaras are strongly continues their peaceful protests to demand equal rights in Afghanistan.

We, the collective of intellectuals, artists and writers of Afghanistan, firmly believe in a fair development of the entire territory, and we understand that the deprivation of a part of the country is the deprivation of the entire country in totality. For this reason we announce that our full and unconditional support of the civil demands are presented to the “movement for enlightenment”.

We join our voice to the people’s voice and ask firmly to all Afghanistan government officials, that the TUTAP energy project will be developed according to the guidelines of the original technical report and according to the will of the people themselves.

Finally, we trust that this movement will be just the beginning of a long journey on the road of sustainable and equitable development for all so that one day the entire Afghanistan shall benefit basic services and required infrastructure necessary to the progress of the country.

The next online campaign will be soon, and the Hazrars are going to protest at the European Union and the government of Afghanistan called co-host the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan.

This conference will gather up to 70 countries and 30 international organizations and agencies. It will provide a platform for the government of Afghanistan to set out its vision and track record on reform.

AHRDO conducted two Memory Box workshops in 2015 with the victims of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. Each workshop was followed by an inter-workshop participants Memory Box exhibition. In the first Memory Box workshop, participants came from the members of the victims of Afghan conflict in the last one and a half decade. In the second Memory Box workshop, the participants came from the family members of victims who had lost their lives in catastrophic bomb blasts and suicide attacks in Kabul in 2015. Most of the victims in those incidents were ordinary daily-wage workers, school/university students and other civilians.

Using the Aesthetics of the Oppressed, AHRDO trainer, Salim Rajabi, worked with the victims to help them revitalize their creativity, retell their stories of loss and memories of their loved ones, imagine their ideal Afghanistan and draw favorite flags for Afghanistan they wish to see.  Inter-workshop participants exhibitions were aimed to connect the victims’ survivors to each other and the public exhibition was held to share their memories and stories with the wider public, media and human rights organizations and activists.

The day of the second inter-workshop participants exhibition was planned to coincide with December 10^th, International Human Rights Day and National Victims’ Day in Afghanistan.  Families and relatives of victims, some other people from the victims’ community and a number of journalists visited the exhibition. This time, AHRDO tried to convene the exhibition in an innovative way by combining parts of the Infinite Incompleteness, a documentary theater play that tells the story of Afghan war victims, with the Memory Box exhibition. This play was developed and produced by AHRDO in late 2010. A short documentary from the event was prepared by AHRDO, which is available both on YouTube and AHROD’s social media pages along with English subtitle.  Starting the exhibition with the infinite incompleteness encouraged the victims’ survivors to share their stories and tell their experience of grief and suffering due to loss of their immediate family members.

Memory Box Public Exhibition 2016: ‘Humanizing the effects of war’

 The Memory Box Public exhibition took place on February 17, 2016 at AHRDO office where 24 memory boxes of the victims who had participated in workshops in 2015 were displayed publicly.

Husain Hasrat, peace and human rights researcher, talked at the opening of the exhibition. Mr. Hasrat emphasized on the importance of memorialization in preventing the recurrence of tragedies. He also maintained that without coming into terms with our painful past, we would not be able to make our way toward a peaceful future. He also noted that in the countries with an agonizing past, there have been great efforts to preserve the memories of conflict, and creation of museums of war in these countries to let succeeding generations not forget the tragedies of past and have access to the legacies of the conflict. But unfortunately, such efforts have been hampered by political unwillingness and a lack of unanimity about how to come into terms with past in the top leadership level in Afghanistan.

More than one hundred people from different organizations, victims’ communities, media entities and human rights activists visited the exhibition, interviewed the victims’ survivors, and talked to the relatives of the victims. They expressed their empathy and wrote impression notes regarding the victims of conflict in general and the exhibition in particular.

Kara Lozier, who visited the exhibition for the first time, wrote: The Memory Box exhibition was a really moving way to humanize the effects of war. It is too easy to be desensitized by the media accounts of war without giving thought to the family members and loved ones who are left behind. It was particularly moving to speak with some of the surviving family members and to feel firsthand how their lives have been affected.

Ali Reza Yasa, a teacher and educator, wrote: I was deeply touched and affected by the exhibition. This way of remembering the lost dear ones are very creative. Beans and toothpaste [used by victims] and the pains associated with them, creates an emotional storm in the visitor. While visiting the exhibition, I was imagining myself who could be a victim and today one of the memory boxes belonged to me.

Daud Naji, another visitor, wrote in his note that “this exhibition reminds of our mistakes as a nation. This is very important. More important is documenting and preserving our memories of such a history because it can help us to prevent from the recurrence of the tragedies.”

Read full reports : AHRDO

Children Trained in Madrasas to Fight, Plant IEDs

(New York) – Taliban forces in Afghanistan have added scores of children to their ranks since mid-2015 in violation of the international prohibition on the use of child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said today.

New Human Rights Watch research shows that the Taliban have been training and deploying children for various military operations including the production and planting of improvised explosive devices (IED). In Kunduz province, the Taliban have increasingly used madrasas, or Islamic religious schools, to provide military training to children between the ages of 13 and 17, many of whom have been deployed in combat.

“The Taliban’s apparent strategy to throw increasing numbers of children into battle is as cynical and cruel as it is unlawful,” said Patricia Gossman, senior Afghanistan researcher. “Afghan children should be at school and at home with their parents, not exploited as cannon fodder for the Taliban insurgency.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed relatives of 13 children recruited as Taliban soldiers over the past year, and verified these claims through interviews with civil society activists, political analysts, and the United Nations. Despite Taliban claims that they only enlist fighters who have achieved “mental and physical maturity,” and do not use “boys with no beards” in military operations, some of the children recruited from madrasas in Kunduz, Takhar, and Badakhshan provinces are 13 or younger. The Taliban have previously denied “the use of children and adolescents in Jihadic Operations,” but its deployment of individuals under the age of 18 violates international law applicable in Afghanistan and in cases involving children under 15 is a war crime.

Kunduz residents and analysts say that the increase in recruitment and deployment of child fighters coincided with the Taliban’s major offensive in northern Afghanistan that began in April 2015. Human Rights Watch interviews with activists and analysts indicate that the Taliban-run madrasas have been functioning in Kunduz, as well as other northern provinces, since at least 2012. As the Taliban made substantial inroads in 2013-2014, gaining ground in Kunduz’s Chahardara and Dasht-e Archi districts, they gained more influence over education in the province. Taliban commanders increasingly used madrasas not only for indoctrination, but also for military training of children. Previously, Taliban commanders sent boys selected for military training to North Waziristan in Pakistan, where despite Pakistan’s military operations, the Taliban operates freely in large swathes of territory. While such training still occurs, the Taliban has solidified its control over at least three districts in Kunduz and residents and analysts told Human Rights Watch that the group is carrying out more of the military training locally.

The Taliban recruit and train children in age-specific stages. Boys begin indoctrination as young as six years old, and continue to study religious subjects under Taliban teachers for up to seven years. According to relatives of boys recruited by the Taliban, by the time they are 13, Taliban-educated children have learned military skills including use of firearms, and the production and deployment of IEDs. Taliban teachers then introduce those trained child soldiers to specific Taliban groups in that district.

“The Taliban’s increasing use of children as soldiers only adds to the horrors of Afghanistan’s long conflict both for the children and their families,” Gossman said. “The Taliban should immediately stop recruiting children and release all children in their ranks, even those who claim to have joined willingly.”

Please see below for additional information including accounts from relatives and friends of Taliban child soldiers.

Taliban Recruitment and Training of Children

The Taliban have recruited and used children as fighters since the 1990s, but Kunduz residents whose sons have been among those recruited, together with analysts who have monitored the recruitment drive, believe that recruitment increased in 2015 due to expanded Taliban operations against Afghan government forces. The establishment of training centers in madrasas in the Taliban’s expanded zone of control in Kunduz also led to increases in child soldier recruitment. Kunduz residents told Human Rights Watch that the Taliban had recruited and deployed more than 100 children from Chahardara district alone in 2015.

Because the Taliban begin the indoctrination of children from an early age, they are easily persuaded to fight. Relatives of child soldiers in Kunduz told Human Rights Watch that the Taliban target children because it is easy to convince them of the righteousness of jihad, and because they are at an age where they do not feel responsible for providing for a family and so are easily persuaded to take on dangerous tasks. In general, children are not recruited by force. However parents who have tried to retrieve their children are usually unable to do so because the Taliban claim that the boys are of age, or are committed to jihad regardless of their age.

The Taliban madrasas attract many poor families because the Taliban cover their expenses and provide food and clothing for the children. In some cases they offer cash to families for sending their boys to the madrasas. An expert on Kunduz told Human Rights Watch that traditionally, even before the Taliban established madrasas in these areas, rural and village families sent at least one son to the local madrasa because of the prestige associated with the status of becoming a mullah (someone educated in the basics of Islamic law). In the cases of child soldiers Human Rights Watch investigated, some boys attended the madrasas in the early morning hours and then attended government schools later in the day. Other boys who had been recruited attended the madrasas full time. For example, “Razeq,” (a pseudonym) 16, a resident of Chahardara district in Kunduz province, is a student in Class 6 at a government-run school, which he attends between 8 a.m. and noon every day. Between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. he attends a madrasa controlled by Malawi Abdul Haq, a Taliban commander in the district. As of late 2015, the madrasa had about 80 students, most of them children between the ages of 13 and 17. All of them are vulnerable to recruitment.

According to some reports, children as young as 10 years old fought with Taliban forces in the battles that led to the Taliban’s temporary takeover of Kunduz. Leila Zerrougui, the UN special representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict, told Al-Jazeera that “children between the ages of 10 and 15 were used by the Taliban and dozens of them were deployed” during the fighting in Kunduz in September and October 2015.

International Law

International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, prohibits the recruitment or use of children under 15 by parties to a conflict. “Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities” is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to which Afghanistan belongs. Those who commit, order, assist, or have command responsibility for war crimes are subject to prosecution by the ICC or national courts.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (“the Optional Protocol”), which Afghanistan ratified in 2003, states that non-state armed groups may not, under any circumstances, recruit persons under 18 or use them in hostilities. The Optional Protocol also places obligations on governments to “take all feasible measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalize such practices.” Military forces also have an obligation to provide children with special respect and attention. The Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that governments “take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by armed conflict.”

Relatives and Friends of Taliban Child Soldiers Speak Out

The following accounts are based on Human Rights Watch interviews with the relatives of 13 boys recruited into the Taliban in 2015, and interviews with community elders who have worked with the families to try to get the boys released. The names of the boys and other identifying details have been changed for their families’ security. In all cases, the parents tried unsuccessfully to secure the return of their sons. In some cases the children were killed during the fighting in Kunduz in 2015. In each of these cases the Taliban commanders responsible for recruiting the boys were based in Kunduz. Because it was not possible to contact the Taliban for their views on these allegations, we have not referred to these commanders by name.​

-Qasem, 15, was a resident of Chahardara district, Kunduz province, where he attended a local madrasa. In June or July 2015, a Taliban military unit recruited him as a soldier. A community elder who has been assisting the families of boys who have been recruited told Human Rights Watch:

On three occasions in July, August, and September 2015, Qasem’s parents contacted Taliban Commander A who was in charge of the unit, begging to have their son returned to them, but they were refused. They told Commander A: “We will send him to you after three years when he is of age. He should study until that time and be with his parents,” but the commander refused to release their son.

-Ahmad was the son of a merchant in Chahardara district. In May 2015, when he was 14 years old, Taliban forces under a senior Taliban commander, Commander B, recruited Ahmad as a soldier. According to members of the family, about a week after her son was recruited, Ahmad’s mother appealed to Commander B to release her son, but he refused.

In June 2015 Afghan government forces launched a clearing operation in Chahardara district, and both Qasem and Ahmad were deployed. According to a source close to the family who lived in the village where the operation took place:

When the government forces counter-attacked, both Qasem and Ahmad, along with a civilian woman named Zahra who was living nearby, were killed. The boys’ families recovered their bodies.

-Mohammad, 15, was a resident of Chahardara district, Kunduz province. He was in Class 7 at the local government school, but also attended a local madrasa. In June 2015 an armed group under Taliban Commander A recruited him as a child soldier. Mohammad’s parents have said that when they went to Commander A and asked for the return of their son, he refused to release him.

-Farhad, 17, is from a village in Chahardara district of Kunduz province. A family source said:

Farhad joined the Taliban over his father’s objections. He is currently a fighter in Commander B’s group. His parents together with local elders went to the Taliban several times and asked another commander in this group, Commander C, to free Qari [an honorific bestowed on someone who has learned to read the Quran ] Farhad. Commander C then asked Farhad if he wanted to go back to his family, but as Qari Farhad wanted to stay, Commander C told his parents and other local elders that “your sons are better Muslims than yourselves. They don’t leave jihad.”

-Atar, 17, is from Chahardara district. He was a student at a local madrasa, which he had attended from the time he was 6 years old. In May or June 2015, forces under Taliban Commander B recruited him as a soldier. His parents have unsuccessfully tried to secure his release.

-Mati, 15, was also the resident of a village in Chahardara district. In June 2015, after his father died, the Taliban recruited him into an armed group under the command of Commander D. A relative said:

They cheated him. Mati’s uncle went to bring him back, but the Taliban would not let him go with his uncle. Then fighting [with Afghan government forces] erupted [in July 2015], and in the fighting Mati was killed in an airstrike. Friends who lived in Khotagert, the area he died, found the body and told his uncle, who came and buried him.

-Mansur, 15, was a resident of a village in Chahardara district, Kunduz province. In May 2015 he was recruited into an armed group. A relative said:

Commander A sent him to Waziristan in Pakistan for training in making explosives. His responsibility in the armed group is to plant IEDs in government agencies and government cars. The family has been unable to secure his release.

-Najib, 16, is from a village, in Chahardara district. A relative said that the Taliban recruited him against the family’s wishes:

His father is not alive and his grandfather sent him to Turkey to avoid Taliban recruitment, but he came back and the Taliban recruited him into the group of commander B.

-Hesam, 16, is also from Chahardara district. Forces under Taliban commander A recruited him when he was 14 or 15. On May 5, 2015, he was injured in Kunduz while fighting for the Taliban, and treated in a clinic in Kunduz. When his father tried to bring him home after his treatment, he ran away and joined commander A’s group again.

-Malek, 14, a student at a local madrasa, was recruited by his teacher, Commander E, one of the Taliban’s principal recruiters in Chahardara district. A relative said:

Before recruiting Malek, the Taliban took his cousin Esmat by force over his father’s objections. However, Esmat’s father succeeded in getting Esmat released and sent him to Iran to save him. Currently Qari Malek is tasked with carrying RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] in Commander B’s unit.

-Burhan, 14, is also from Chahardara district. A relative told Human Rights Watch:

Qari Burhan was recruited in March or April 2015 into Commander B’s armed group, where he is armed with a Kalashnikov [assault rifle]. After he was recruited, he was sent to Waziristan [in Pakistan] to be trained in using explosive materials. He came back to the front after three months training in July 2015 and is active in Commander B’s armed group. Two of Burhan’s uncles are with the Taliban.

-Emad, 16, is a resident of a village near Kunduz city center. He was a student in a local government-run school until he was recruited into commander E’s armed group, over his family’s objections. According to a family member, “Emad’s widowed mother requested that the Taliban release him from their group, but they refused.”

-Navid, 16, is a resident of Kunduz center. According to his family, he has been made part of commander B’s bodyguard. He sits at the back of a Taliban commander’s motorcycle and rides with him, carrying a Kalashnikov.

Note: Report lunched by HRW

Pauline Hayes
Deputy Director, Western Asia and Stabilization Division
Department for International Development
United Kingdom

Dear Mrs. Hayes,

We write to you ahead of the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) in September in Kabul to urge the United Kingdom to strengthen its support for the protection and promotion of human rights in Afghanistan through continued emphasis on the deliverables of the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework (TMAF).

We are concerned that the withdrawal of most international forces at the end of 2014 has created a real risk that international partners will reduce their commitment to Afghanistan on the basis that the core security mission has been accomplished. We ask that you and other international donors not adopt this approach, but rather recognize that safeguarding human rights is crucial for a more stable, inclusive, and prosperous Afghanistan.

We understand that donor countries are currently working with the National Unity Government of Afghanistan to develop the SOM agenda. There are indications that the Realizing Self-Reliance paper, presented by President Ashraf Ghani at the December 2014 London Conference, will be the centerpiece of the agenda. If this is the case, we are concerned that measurable commitments to human rights included in the TMAF are at risk. Rather than moving away from the TMAF, donors and the Afghan government should be looking to build on the TMAF by updating it and looking for areas of agreement on new tough but realistic – and, importantly, measurable – commitments to add, including on human rights.

The July 2012 Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan marked the first time that the Afghan government and the international community reached an agreement about specific and measurable targets the Afghan government was expected to meet in return for a commitment by donors to provide ongoing financial and technical support. The Senior Officials Meeting held in Kabul in July 2013 was the first time the Afghan government and its international supporters sat face to face to update each other on progress in TMAF deliverables.

In contrast, the Realizing Self-Reliance paper, while reaffirming Afghanistan’s human rights commitments, including its obligation to implement the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) Law, lacks specific goals and measurable benchmarks for progress on human rights. Instead, the paper focuses primarily on fiscal reforms to curb corruption and ensure sustainability, and on economic development. These are important concerns, of course, but depart from the TMAF structure of benchmarked government goals in a way that largely frees the Afghan government from delivering on previously agreed upon commitments to human rights. The Realizing Self-Reliance paper is also a return to the model that proved ineffective in pre-Tokyo Conference efforts at setting goals, such as the 2010 London Conference, where the lack of specific measurable benchmarks made it impossible to monitor progress concretely.

Defending the gains of the last decade requires continued support to, and pressure on, the National Unity Government. Afghanistan is at a critical juncture, and it is more important than ever to ensure that protecting civilians and strengthening human rights remain priorities for the government in the continuing conflict and in the negotiations for any eventual agreement to end hostilities. The representation of women in all peace efforts represents one such commitment.

We include specific recommendations for the United Kingdom and other international donors to commit to at the SOM in Kabul. These recommendations relate to three main areas: security force accountability, women’s rights, and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Full letter here HRW