ISLAMABAD — Greater than 200 extrajudicial killings of former Afghan authorities officers and safety forces have taken place for the reason that Taliban took over the nation two years in the past, in accordance with a U.N. report launched Tuesday.
The teams most focused by the Taliban have been former military, police and intelligence forces, in accordance with the United Nations Help Mission in Afghanistan.
UNAMA documented at the very least 800 human rights violations towards former Afghan authorities officers and safety forces between Aug. 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized energy, and the top of June 2023.
The Taliban swept throughout Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO troops have been within the closing weeks of their withdrawal from the nation after 20 years of conflict. The U.S.-trained and backed Afghan forces crumbled within the face of the Taliban advance and former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation.
“People have been detained by the de facto (Taliban) safety forces, usually briefly, earlier than being killed. Some have been taken to detention amenities and killed whereas in custody, others have been taken to unknown areas and killed, their our bodies both dumped or handed over to members of the family,” the report stated.
U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated in a press launch issued alongside the report that it “presents a sobering image of the therapy of people affiliated with the previous authorities and safety forces.”
“Much more so, given they have been assured that they might be not focused, it’s a betrayal of the individuals’s belief,” Türk stated. He urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers — the nation’s “de facto authorities” — to uphold their “obligations underneath worldwide human rights legislation by stopping additional violations and holding perpetrators to account.”
Since their takeover, the Taliban have confronted no vital opposition and have averted inside divisions.
The Taliban-led Afghan overseas ministry dismissed the report, saying it was unaware of any instances of human rights violations dedicated by Taliban officers or workers.
“Homicide with out trial, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and different acts towards human rights by the workers of the safety establishments of the Islamic Emirate towards the workers and safety forces of the earlier authorities haven’t been reported,” it stated in a press release.
The report stated former Afghan troopers have been at biggest threat of experiencing human rights violations, adopted by police and intelligence officers. Violations have been recorded throughout all 34 provinces, with the best quantity recorded in Kabul, Kandahar and Balkh provinces.
The vast majority of violations came about within the 4 months following the Taliban takeover, with UNAMA recording nearly half of all extrajudicial killings of former authorities officers and Afghan safety forces throughout this era. However rights violations continued even after that, with 70 extrajudicial killings recorded in 2022, the report added.
The report documented at the very least 33 human rights violations towards former cops in southern Kandahar province, accounting for over 1 / 4 of all human rights violations towards former police members nationwide.
UNAMA documented at the very least 14 cases of compelled disappearance of former authorities officers and Afghan safety power members.
On Oct. 2, 2021, Alia Azizi, the previous head of a girls’s jail in western Herat province, didn’t return dwelling from work and her whereabouts stay unknown. Regardless of reportedly initiating an investigation into her disappearance, the Taliban haven’t launched any details about her whereabouts, the report stated.
The U.N. documented greater than 424 arbitrary arrests and detentions of former authorities officers and members of the Afghan safety forces whereas greater than 144 cases of torture and ill-treatment have been documented within the report, together with beatings with pipes, cables, verbal threats and different abuse.
The Taliban initially promised a basic amnesty for these linked to the previous authorities and worldwide forces, however these pledges weren’t upheld.
The failure of the Taliban authorities “to completely uphold their publicly said dedication and to carry perpetrators of human rights violations to account could have severe implications for the long run stability of Afghanistan,” the report stated.
Whereas the Taliban announcement of a basic amnesty in August 2021 “was a welcome step, it continues to not be totally upheld, with impunity for human rights violations prevailing,” stated Roza Otunbayeva, the pinnacle of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan.
She urged the Taliban to indicate “”a real dedication to the overall amnesty. This can be a essential step in making certain actual prospects for justice, reconciliation and lasting peace in Afghanistan.”
Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the U.N. human rights workplace, informed reporters that the Taliban stated the matter of violations have been almost certainly particular person instances, akin to private revenge killings, and weren’t carried out by or on behalf of the authorities.
“The de facto authorities have usually responded that whereas a killing could have occurred, it was a private enmity or revenge case, and never carried out in an official capability,” he informed reporters in Geneva.
Regardless of preliminary guarantees of a average administration, the Taliban have enforced harsh guidelines, banning ladies’ schooling after the sixth grade and barring Afghan girls from public life and most work, together with for nongovernmental organizations and the U.N. The measures recalled the earlier Taliban rule of Afghanistan within the late Nineties, when in addition they imposed their interpretation of Islamic legislation, or Sharia.
The edicts prompted a global outcry towards the already ostracized Taliban, whose administration has not been formally acknowledged by the U.N. and the worldwide group.
___
Related Press author Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
……………..