Amnesty International Report 1998 - Afghanistan

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)

Thousands of people were reportedly detained for reasons of ethnicity or alleged un-Islamic behaviour. Tens of thousands of women remained physically restricted. Torture and ill-treatment, including beatings in public places, were widespread. Judicial floggings and amputations were carried out. Scores, possibly hundreds, of civilians were killed in massacres and deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on residential areas by different armed groups. Mass graves were discovered containing the bodies of Taleban militia members reportedly killed after being taken prisoner. More than six people were executed; some were reportedly stoned to death.

Continued armed conflict and security problems made information on human rights abuses difficult to gather and verify. The mainly Pashtun Taleban maintained their control over two thirds of Afghanistan, while the anti-Taleban alliance, comprising Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara armed political groups, held northern parts of the country. In May Taleban forces briefly captured the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, but retreated in the face of an anti-Taleban uprising.

Hundreds of thousands of people were internally displaced or fled the country to become refugees. About 8,000 refugees fleeing to Turkmenistan in late June returned home after several weeks because of the severe shortage of food and drinking water and the harsh conditions they had to endure. Thousands of civilians, mainly Tajik, were reportedly forced from their homes by the Taleban, in some instances by the deliberate destruction of water supply and irrigation systems. Most forcible relocations took place in areas north of Kabul, the capital, including Jabol Seraj, Charikar and Gulbahar, where fierce battles between the Taleban and other forces raged throughout the year. Forcible relocations by other armed groups were reported in other areas, including the northwestern province of Badghis.

UN efforts to end the conflict and facilitate national reconciliation and reconstruction in the country remained stalled. In May Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognized the Taleban as the Government of Afghanistan. Other countries continued to withhold recognition

In October the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan submitted his report to the UN General Assembly, in which he emphasized the need for the international community to safeguard basic human rights in Afghanistan and to adopt a principled approach of non-discrimination with regard to the constraints imposed on both women and men in the country.

Thousands of people were reportedly held for periods of up to several months on account of their ethnicity. Among these were around 2,000 Tajik and Hazara men rounded up from their homes in Kabul in July and held in various jails, including Pul-e Charkhi Prison in Kabul. Most of them were believed to be prisoners of conscience

Tens of thousands of women remained physically restricted to their homes under Taleban edicts which continued to ban women from seeking employment, education or leaving home unaccompanied by a male relative. Other measures restricting women included the closure of women's hammams (public baths). Women were also barred from the streets for certain periods during the month of Ramadan

Emma Bonino, the European Commissioner for humanitarian aid, was detained for several hours on 29 September by the Taleban after members of her entourage visiting Kabul took pictures of women

Hundreds of women were beaten by Taleban guards in detention centres or in public places, including shops, streets and bus stops for defying Taleban edicts. For example, in May, five women employees of the aid agency care International were forced out of their minibus and publicly humiliated in front of a large crowd. Two of them were beaten despite having official documents allowing them to work

Over 1,000 men were detained briefly and beaten for alleged un-Islamic behaviour or for not complying with policies which discriminate against women. In July alone, Taleban radio announced that some 700 men travelling from Kabul to Kandahar had been "punished in accordance with Islamic law for trimming or shaving their beards". Others beaten in public included taxi drivers for carrying women passengers, shopkeepers for selling goods to women, children for flying kites or playing other games in the street, and teachers for giving English lessons.

Torture and ill-treatment were widespread in jails and detention centres run by the Taleban and other armed political groups. Inmates, including elderly men and children, were reportedly beaten with steel wires, sticks and rifle butts. At times beatings resulted in death. Family members seeking to visit detainees were also beaten. Survivors of torture were often left with broken bones, bruises, or fractured skulls; some had serious burns resulting from fuel being poured on them and set alight. Eye-witnesses in Kabul saw men taken from the street and detained in metal transport containers, which are susceptible to extremes of heat and cold. Those who refused to enter were beaten

Sentences of flogging continued to be imposed. In March, a three-man Taleban tribunal sentenced five Afghan prisoners to between nine and 29 lashes and one and a half months' imprisonment, and two Frenchmen to one month's imprisonment. The Afghan men, who were cooks, watchmen and drivers, and the two French aid workers were arrested in February for being in the company of women who came to a farewell lunch at a French aid agency, Action contre la faim. All prisoners were released at the end of their sentences; the floggings were carried out

Several incidents of amputation were reported and it was believed that many more were unreported. In late 1996 a woman in the Khair-Khana area of Kabul had the end of her thumb cut off by the Taleban for wearing nail varnish. In April one man was reportedly punished for alleged theft in the southern Afghan town of Ghazni by having his hand and foot amputated. Local surgeons were reportedly ordered to carry out the punishment. The right hands and left feet of two men accused of armed robbery were publicly amputated in Urozgan Province in October

Scores, possibly hundreds, of people were reportedly killed in deliberate or in-discriminate attacks by the warring fac-tions,including during air raids and rocket attacks on villages and residential areas.

In May the bodies of 12 ethnic Hazara, reportedly all civilians, were found in a neighbourhood west of Kabul. They were believed to have been killed deliberately and arbitrarily by Taleban soldiers.

In September about 70 civilians, including women and children, were deliberately and arbitrarily killed by armed guards in Qezelabad village near Mazar-e Sharif. Survivors said the massacre was carried out by Taleban guards retreating from positions they had captured in the area, but Taleban officials denied responsibility for the killing. All of the victims reportedly belonged to the Hazara minority. Among the victims was a boy aged about eight who was reportedly killed and decapitated; other victims reportedly had their eyes gouged out with bayonets. Two boys aged about 12 were reportedly held by the guards and had their arms and hands broken with stones.

Over 20 mass graves were discovered in November near the city of Shebarghan in the northern province of Jowzjan. The exact number of those buried in the graves could not be established but most reports put the number at around 2,000. The dead were thought to have been among the Taleban militia reportedly taken prisoner after the Taleban entered the city of Mazar-e Sharif in May. They were alleged to have been killed deliberately and arbitrarily while in the custody of the forces of General Abdul Malik, an anti-Taleban military commander in control of the area at the time.

Several executions were reported and there was concern that prisoners of war throughout the country were at risk of execution. They included Ismael Khan, an opposition general and former governor of Afghanistan's western Herat province, who was taken prisoner in May and was believed to be detained in Kandahar. Four Taleban men accused of working with the opposition were publicly executed in Kabul in October

Several people were reportedly stoned to death. In March a woman was reportedly stoned to death in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan after an Islamic tribunal reportedly found her guilty of adultery

Throughout the year Amnesty International raised concerns about human rights abuses by all warring groups, including those against women. The organization published: Women in Afghanistan: The violations continue, in May; Afghanistan: Continuing atrocities against civilians, in September; and Afghanistan: Reports of mass graves of Taleban militia, in November. Amnesty International appealed to the countries which support the warring factions to shoulder their responsibility for human rights abuses in Afghanistan and to press armed political groups to respect human rights.