Amnesty International Report 1996 - Afghanistan

Thousands of civilians were killed and thousands more wounded in indiscriminate attacks by the warring factions. Hundreds of civilians were also deliberately targeted. Over 1,000 possible prisoners of conscience were held in unofficial detention centres run by the various armed political groups. Scores of prisoners were killed in detention. Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners were widespread. Dozens of people were subjected to arbitrary punishments including amputation, stoning and executions. The civilian government of President Borhanuddin Rabbani remained in place but exerted no effective authority over the country. Three major armed political groupings fought each other for control of territory. Shura-e Nezar (Supervisory Council), led by Ahmad Shah Masood and allied with President Rabbani's government and the Jamiat-e Islami (Society of Islam), controlled the central and north-eastern provinces as well as the capital, Kabul. Shura-e Hamahangi (Coordination Council), comprising the forces of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, Hezb-e Islami (Party of Islam), led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and the Shi‘a party, Hezb-e Wahdat, controlled most of the north and northwestern provinces. The Taleban (religious students) controlled the south and southwestern provinces. Attempts by the head of the UN Special Mission to Afghanistan to bring the warring factions together for a negotiated transfer of power had not succeeded by the end of the year. Armed groups battled fiercely for control of Kabul. A blockade on the city imposed in January by Hezb-e Islami was lifted in February when its forces were driven out of their headquarters in Charasyab. Bombings on Kabul stopped in early March when Taleban forces retreated from Karte Seh district in the west of the city and humanitarian organizations were able to set up operations in the city. In June the government and the Taleban agreed a 10-day cease-fire, and hundreds of prisoners were released by both sides. In September President Rabbani's forces lost control over western Afghanistan when the city of Herat fell to the Taleban and the northwestern province of Badghis fell to General Dostum's forces. In October the Taleban laid siege to Kabul, closing roads into the city and blocking fuel, wood and other relief supplies. According to UN sources, 103,000 refugees from Pakistan and 89,000 from Iran had returned to Afghanistan by August. However, reports received by Amnesty International indicated that during the year many of these and hundreds of thousands more Afghans fled again to neighbouring countries because of continued hostilities. In January over 200,000 displaced Afghans were living in central Kabul and over 300,000 had sought safety in camps near Jalalabad. In August the government barred a delegation of 12 women from attending the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, saying that issues discussed at the Conference were contrary to basic Islamic principles. In September the Taleban in Herat were reported to have banned women from working in public services and girls from going to school. All warring factions carried out indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, killing thousands of people and wounding thousands more. In March about 1,500 Kabul civilians were reportedly killed in and around the city during fighting between Hezb-e Wahdat, the Taleban and President Rabbani's forces. In September the Taleban threatened to bombard Kabul if the forces of President Rabbani did not surrender, warning that members of humanitarian organizations and all foreign nationals should leave the capital or take shelter. Between 11 and 13 November, at least 57 unarmed civilians were killed and over 150 injured when rockets and artillery barrages fired from Taleban positions south of Kabul hit civilian areas of the city. Hundreds of civilians were also deliberately targeted for their supposed allegiance to one or other faction, solely on the basis of where they lived. In March President Rabbani's forces launched a heavy assault using jet fighters against the Shi‘a populated areas of Karte Seh in Kabul. This was apparently in retaliation for bomb attacks on Kabul allegedly carried out by the forces of Hezb-e Wahdat and the Taleban. Hezb-e Wahdat defences had broken, their positions had been abandoned and, according to all reports, there were no signs of military resistance. The soldiers then reportedly rampaged through Karte Seh, looting houses, killing and beating unarmed civilians, and raping women. Reports were received that during a retaliatory attack in Farah province in early May, the forces of Ismael Khan dropped cluster bombs, killing between 220 and 250 unarmed civilians. There had been no military activity in the area for several days. Individuals associated with the previous government were also targeted. In February government officials found Hajera Zeray, her eight-year-old daughter, Jamila, and her 12-year-old son, Arsala, dead in their Kabul flat. All had their throats cut. Hajera Zeray was the wife of Dr Saleh Mohammad Zeray, an Afghan politician who had held senior government positions between 1978 and 1985. An official investigation into the killings was reportedly initiated, but the outcome was not known. All sides claimed that their prisoners were captured members of the opposing warring factions. However, many of those held were non-combatants and appeared to be prisoners of conscience. Over 1,000 unarmed men, women and children were detained by the various armed groups on suspicion of being supporters of rival groups. In September hundreds of prisoners, the majority non-combatant supporters of the government, were reportedly detained by the Taleban after the fall of Herat, and were believed to still be in detention at the end of the year. Ittehad-e Islami (Islamic Alliance) reportedly held several hundred unarmed civilians in the party's main detention centre in Paghman. Prisoners of conscience were also believed to be among those held in detention centres run by Shura-e Nezar and Shura-e Hamahangi. Scores of prisoners were killed. In March Abdul Ali Mazari, leader of Hezb-e Wahdat, was reportedly killed while held by the Taleban. In mid-March the bodies of Najmuddin Musleh (see Amnesty International Report 1995) and seven other prisoners were found in a detention centre in Karte Seh in Kabul. Former detainees reported that Najmuddin Musleh and other prisoners had been shot dead on 10 March by armed guards of Hezb-e Wahdat before they abandoned their positions in Karte Seh. Several mass graves were uncovered. In March, 22 bodies were found buried in an irrigation ditch in Charasyab. The victims had their hands tied behind their backs and had been shot in the head. In May the bodies of several people who had reportedly been arrested and killed by General Dostum's forces were found dumped in different places in Mazar-e Sharif. Many prisoners were tortured. The forces of Shura-e Nezar were holding long-term prisoners in at least five detention centres in Panjshir, where former detainees testified that torture was prevalent. Around 1,500 prisoners, including 150 women, were reportedly released from a Hezb-e Wahdat detention centre in March. A Tajik Afghan woman said she had been repeatedly raped by guards at the detention centre after she had been detained in late 1994. Several detainees were reportedly forced to eat their own excrement. In detention centres run by Harekat-e Inqilab (Movement for Revolution), led by Sheikh Asef Mohseni, prisoners were reportedly held in dark rooms with wet floors and were regularly tortured. Ransoms were demanded of their families. Torture, sometimes resulting in death, was reported to be widespread in detention centres run by Hezb-e Islami. Prisoners were also reportedly forced to dig trenches and clear mines. In August Pakistani police announced that they had discovered an unofficial detention centre run by Hezb-e Islami in a house in Karachi. Five prisoners, reportedly held in chains, were found in the jail. The police said that Hezb-e Islami officials conducted trials and imposed punishment on Afghans arrested for alleged criminal activity. There were reports that torture was also carried out there. The fate of many people who had been abducted by armed groups remained unknown. Information came to light in February concerning Ghulam Farooq Gharazai, a former lecturer at Kabul University who had been abducted by a Mujahideen group in June 1994 on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad. He had reportedly been stopped by the intelligence personnel of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami, told to get out of his car and taken away. His whereabouts remained unknown. The commanders of the warring factions dispensed summary justice, in some cases by means of Islamic courts. In January, dozens of prisoners received punishments, including amputation and execution, ordered by Islamic courts in areas controlled by the Taleban. In February an Islamic court set up by the Taleban in Helmand province ordered amputations on three men found guilty of theft. Two medical doctors severed the hands and feet of the men under local anaesthetic. In October, seven men accused of theft were reportedly arrested by the Taleban in Ghazni province and sentenced to amputation. It was not known if the sentences were carried out. Reports were received of an execution by stoning which had taken place in 1993. Eye-witnesses reported that in May 1993 a woman was stoned to death in Sarobi, south of Kabul, on the orders of her former husband, a Hezb-e Islami commander. The commander's armed guards carried out the order. The actual number of people subjected to this form of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment was believed to be higher. At least nine people were executed on the orders of Islamic judges linked to the Taleban. In February, two men accused of murder were executed in Kandahar on the orders of a four-member Islamic court, and in August seven commanders of government forces taken prisoner by the Taleban during battles in western provinces were reportedly brought before an Islamic court and subsequently executed. Other factions were also believed to have carried out executions. In a report which was issued in February, Afghanistan: The human rights crisis and the refugees, Amnesty International urged all governments to ensure that thousands of Afghans seeking asylum throughout the world were not compelled to return to Afghanistan as long as the human rights crisis in Afghanistan persisted. Another report published in April, Afghanistan: Executions, amputations, and possible deliberate and arbitrary killings, detailed cases of amputations and summary executions ordered by Islamic courts. In a report published in May, Women in Afghanistan: A human rights catastrophe, Amnesty International described the killing, abduction, rape and other torture of women in Afghanistan. It urged the transitional government, the warring factions and the international community to ensure that Afghan women were protected against gross human rights abuses. In a report published in November, Afghanistan: International responsibility for human rights disaster, Amnesty International drew attention to the role of outside powers in fuelling the human rights catastrophe in Afghanistan. It urged the governments that had supported and armed the warring factions in Afghanistan to take responsibility for their contribution to the human rights crisis in the country, and to play a constructive role in helping in its resolution. In an oral statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights in February, Amnesty International included references to its concerns in Afghanistan.