Since the Taliban seized management of Afghanistan in 2021, a whole bunch of members of the U.S.-backed former authorities have been detained, tortured or killed underneath the brand new authorities, regardless of Taliban leaders’ declaration of amnesty for actions throughout the lengthy civil struggle, the United Nations reported on Tuesday.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan stated in a brand new report that it had documented “at least 218 extrajudicial killings of former government officials,” primarily law enforcement officials and troopers, dedicated by members of the brand new authorities, although the tempo had slowed enormously for the reason that first months after the takeover.
“In most instances, individuals were detained by de facto security forces, often briefly, before being killed,” it stated. “Some were taken to detention facilities and killed while in custody, others were taken to unknown locations and killed, their bodies either dumped or handed over to family members.”
The killings have been amongst some 800 documented human rights violations in opposition to members of the previous authorities from the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15, 2021, till June 30, 2023, the U.N. mission stated. The majority passed off earlier than the tip of 2021, the report stated.
More than 400 individuals have been arrested and detained with none clear cause given. Many have been held with none contact with their households, usually by the nationwide intelligence service. Some have been by no means seen once more.
The U.N. report “presents a sobering picture of the treatment of individuals affiliated with the former government and security forces of Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover of the country,” stated the U.N. excessive commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk. “Even more so, given they were assured that they would be not targeted, it is a betrayal of the people’s trust.”
In a press release appended to the U.N. report, the Taliban authorities denied any information of such offenses.
“After the victory of the Islamic Emirate until today, cases of human rights violations (murder without trial, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and other acts against human rights) by the employees of the security institutions of the Islamic Emirate against the employees and security forces of the previous government have not been reported,” it stated.
Officials additionally reiterated that the federal government’s supreme chief, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, had issued blanket amnesty to all former authorities members instantly after the group seized energy.
Some of these reportedly detained with out cost, tortured or threatened stated they’d been accused of supporting small-scale insurgencies nonetheless ongoing in opposition to the Taliban, in keeping with the report. In its reply, the Taliban cited that risk, suggesting that solely individuals performing in opposition to them for the reason that takeover had something to worry.
“Those employees of the previous administration who joined the opposition groups of the Islamic Emirate or had military activities to the detriment of the system have been arrested and introduced to judicial authorities,” it stated.
The report factors to the issue the Taliban management might have had, after taking energy, in redirecting fighters steeped in violence, retaliation, gathered grievances and a tradition that always considers revenge an obligation. It additionally underscores the problems of Taliban management attempting to implement a nationwide coverage of amnesty amongst fighters of an insurgency that was as soon as extremely decentralized
During the U.S.-led struggle, focused killings of civilians by either side have been much more widespread than they’ve been not too long ago. And the U.N. mission and human rights teams reported much more commonplace torture by the safety providers of the U.S.-backed authorities than by the brand new one.
That context is essential to remember, in keeping with Graeme Smith, an Afghanistan professional with the International Crisis Group. At the identical time, he stated, the arrival of relative peace “actually puts a heavier legal burden on the Taliban” to uphold human rights than they’d bear within the chaos of struggle.
The U.N. mission stated it had included solely reported violations for which it was in a position to doc each that the episode had taken place and who was accountable. Its reporting requirements, extra cautious and rigorous than these of some human rights teams, are “the gold standard,” stated Mr. Smith.
“I think we can be very confident that those are minimum numbers, because they are very careful in their work,” he stated.
Of the documented victims, 72 % had been within the navy, the police or the National Directorate of Security underneath the outdated authorities, in keeping with the U.N. report. Many of the killings seem to have been reprisals by particular person Taliban fighters in opposition to their former enemies moderately than a scientific revenge marketing campaign.
Still, regardless of repeated Taliban assurances that such actions would punished, the report stated, “there is limited information regarding efforts by the de facto authorities to conduct investigations and hold perpetrators of these human rights violations to account.”
One witness report was from an individual whose brother, a former police officer, was stopped on the highway by the Taliban and brought away; three days later, his physique was discovered with “the signs of many bullets.” In one other occasion, a former soldier was arrested final January, and greater than two months later, “his dead body was returned to his family, bearing signs of torture.”
The Taliban authorities, badly in want of support, desires to undertaking a law-abiding picture internationally even because it imposes more and more repressive rule at residence. The U.N. report addresses solely offenses in opposition to former authorities officers, not the Taliban administration’s restrictions on ladies and ladies or different insurance policies which have drawn widespread worldwide condemnation.
Source: www.nytimes.com