Amnesty International Report 1999 - Afghanistan

Tens of thousands of women effectively remained prisoners in their homes under Taleban edicts. Several thousand civilians, including possible prisoners of conscience, were taken prisoner. Almost all the detainees were reportedly tortured or ill-treated. Thousands of people were deliberately and systematically killed; thousands of others remained missing. Scores of civilians were killed in direct or indiscriminate attacks by all warring factions on the civilian population in residential areas. At least eight floggings, 14 amputations and 10 executions were announced, but the actual numbers were believed to be higher.

Heavy fighting continued throughout the year between the Taleban, led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, and the opposition United Front. Many localities changed hands several times. Neighbouring countries reportedly continued to supply weapons to their favoured warring factions. Despite renewed UN efforts, the prospects for peace remained remote.

The limitations on access for independent monitors to various parts of the country made information on human rights abuses difficult to gather and verify.

In April the UN Commission on Human Rights condemned the widespread human rights abuses in Afghanistan, expressing deep concern about abuses against women and girls. In November the UN Security Council approved the establishment within the UN Special Mission to Afghanistan of a unit to monitor and deter human rights abuses.

On 8 August Taleban forces captured the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif. On 13 September they took over the province of Bamyan. Panjshir and some areas northeast of Kabul, the capital, remained under the control of Commander Ahmad Shah Masood.

On 20 August the USA carried out an air strike in Afghanistan on military camps allegedly linked to bomb attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In September Iran massed thousands of troops on the border with Afghanistan as tension grew over the killing of Iranian nationals in Mazar-e Sharif.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the northern and central regions fled their homes after the arrival of the Taleban. Many later returned, although some became refugees in neighbouring countries. Severe restrictions by the Taleban prevented UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from providing immediate humanitarian assistance to destitute families. Access to many women in need, especially widows, was further curtailed when expatriate Muslim women staff of international aid agencies were banned from travelling inside Afghanistan unless accompanied by a close male relative. Pressure on humanitarian NGOs to move their offices to a designated area despite serious security concerns forced them to leave the country pending assurances of security and unrestricted access to people in need.

Fear of "punishment" under Taleban edicts prevented tens of thousands of women from seeking education and employment or leaving home without a close male relative – effectively making them prisoners in their homes on account of their gender. Many of those accused of defying the edicts were taken to detention centres where they were humiliated or beaten by officials of the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (DPVPV). On 17 June the DPVPV ordered the closure of all "home schools" (schools held discreetly in individuals' houses defying the ban on girls' education) and suspension of community-based vocational training programs for women in Kabul, further restricting women's movement. Scores of Hazara young women were taken by the Taleban as kaniz (servants) to be married off to Taleban militia deployed at war fronts.

More than a dozen male teachers were reportedly arrested for teaching children at home schools. Hundreds of men were reportedly detained for days or weeks and were ill-treated for defying Taleban edicts. They included men not attending congregational prayers, those trimming facial hair, taxi drivers carrying women passengers, and tailors making women's clothes.

In May the Taleban announced that "communists" would be detected and if found to be "committing heinous deeds and crimes against the people, they would be heavily punished". This raised fears that Pashtun nationalists opposing Taleban policies, particularly some members of the former Khalq (People), a communist party, might be targeted for human rights abuses.

Non-Pashtun Afghans were barred from moving about the country freely. Many were detained solely on the basis of their ethnicity. In July alone, hundreds of people travelling to Pakistan were stopped in the Jalalabad area by Taleban guards who took away Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek and Panjsheri men and boys as young as 12. Some of the detainees were classified as "important" and sent to Kandahar, where thousands of such prisoners were reportedly held. Some men were released on payment of a ransom. Women, children and the elderly of non-Pashtun families were sent to camps near Jalalabad with no material support.

Several thousand civilians, including posssible prisoners of conscience, were reportedly detained on suspicion of opposing the Taleban. The majority were detained in August after the Taleban entered Mazar-e Sharif and were interrogated to identify their ethnic identity. The vast majority of those detained were non-Pashtuns, particularly Hazaras. In October the Taleban reportedly took prisoner dozens of civilians, targeting educated people, in the Tajik-populated city of Taloqan immediately before it was recaptured by opposition forces.

Scores of people were reportedly arrested in October mainly in Jalalabad, apparently for their peaceful opposition to the continuing war in the country.

Others arrested included locally recruited staff of international organizations and at least three Afghan staff members of the UN who were reportedly held without charge. The whereabouts of thousands of people detained particularly in the second part of the year remained unknown.

Almost all prisoners detained on suspicion of opposing the Taleban were reported to have been tortured or ill-treated. A chemist arrested in October was reportedly beaten so badly that he needed a blood transfusion. In August more than 100 people were reportedly suffocated to death inside metal containers in which the Taleban transferred prisoners from Mazar-e Sharif to Shebarghan.

Amid reports of ill-treatment and killing of prisoners, Radio Voice of Shari‘a quoted Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar as saying, "Whoever resorts to killing the prisoners or the war-wounded shall be tried in the Islamic court. Nobody is allowed to kill prisoners unless there is a threat."

Thousands of people were killed deliberately and arbitrarily by different warring factions. In July Nazar Mohammad, a deputy leader of Da Solh Ghorzan (Peace Movement), an Afghan organization, was shot dead by two gunmen on a motorbike in Quetta, Pakistan. An Afghan warring faction was believed to be responsible. Mohammad Nazir Habibi and Mohammad Hashim Basharyar, two Afghans working with UN aid agencies in Jalalabad, were abducted on 13 July. Their bodies were found several days later. In September UN officials said the Taleban had failed to provide credible reports on the UN personnel's murders, despite repeated requests.

Taleban guards deliberately and systematically killed thousands of ethnic Hazara civilians in the days following their military takeover of Mazar-e Sharif in August. The vast majority were living in the Zara'at, Saidabad and Elm Arab areas of the city. They were killed in their homes or on the streets, or executed in locations between Mazar-e Sharif and Hairatan. Women, children and the elderly were shot while trying to flee the city. At least one group of prisoners was executed in front of villagers near the city of Hairatan. About 70 men were reportedly executed by having their throats slit in Mazar-e Sharif.

Ten Iranian diplomats and one journalist were killed when Taleban guards entered the Iranian consulate in Mazar-e Sharif in August.

On 21 August a clearly marked UN vehicle carrying UN Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA) officials was approached by a vehicle bearing official Taleban markings. A gunman jumped out of the Taleban vehicle and began shooting at the UN officials. Lieutenant Colonel Carmine Calo died the next day from his wounds. Taleban authorities reportedly arrested two suspects, allegedly of Pakistan origin. They had reportedly not been tried by the end of the year. There were several other reports of assault by Taleban officials on the staff of the UN and aid agencies.

Direct or indiscriminate attacks by all warring factions on the civilian population in residential areas reportedly killed scores of people. Over 1,000 civilians were reportedly victims of landmines.

Executions or other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments were believed to be widespread, but were not always reported by the authorities. Of those announced, eight people were flogged, including a woman accused of adultery who was given 100 lashes at the Kabul Sports Stadium in February in front of some 30,000 spectators.

There were at least 14 reports of public amputations carried out by doctors from the Ministry of Public Health, usually in football stadiums in front of thousands of spectators, some of whom said they had been forced to attend.

At least 10 public executions were reported. They included five men convicted of "sodomy" and sentenced to death by being crushed by a wall. Several of the executions were carried out by the victims' families.

In a report published in April, Children in South Asia, Amnesty International called on all armed groups in Afghanistan to respect the human rights of children. In September Amnesty International called for an international body to be set up to investigate the massacres in Mazar-e Sharif in order to identify the perpetrators and recommend ways of bringing them to justice. It warned that tens of thousands of ethnic Hazara civilians in Bamyan province were at risk of being massacred by advancing Taleban forces. There was no formal response by the Taleban or other factions in 1998.