Repression
In Afghanistan
By
James Conachy
World Socialist
Web
2 August 2003
The
102-page report on Afghanistan issued by the New York-based Human Rights
Watch (HRW) on July 29 catalogs the systematic violation of human rights
by the militias of the Northern Alliance who were placed in power following
the US invasion in late 2001.
The summary declares:
Much of what we describe may at first glance be seen as little
more than criminal behavior. But this is a report about human rights
violations, as the abuses described were ordered, committed or condoned
by government personnel in Afghanistansoldiers, police, military
and intelligence officials, and government ministers. Worse, these violations
have been carried out by people who would not have come to power without
the intervention and support of the international community. And these
violations are taking place not just in the hinterlands of Afghanistan.
The cases described here took place in the areas near the capital, Kabul,
and even within Kabul itself...
The situation
todaywidespread insecurity and human rights abusewas not
inevitable, nor was it the result of natural or unstoppable social or
political forces in Afghanistan. It is, in large part, the result of
decisions, acts, and omissions of the United States government, the
government of other coalition members and parts of the transitional
Afghan government itself. The warlords themselves, of course, are ultimately
to blame. They have ordered, committed or permitted the abuses documented
in this report. But the United States in particular bears much responsibility
for the actions of those they have propelled to power, for failing to
take steps against other abusive leaders and for impeding attempts to
force them to step aside.
All the abuses recorded
by the report took place in 12 provinces of southeastern Afghanistanhome
to one third of the population, including the 3 million people now crowded
in Kabul. The warlords in control of this region are those most closely
associated with the US.
In Kabul, the majority
of soldiers, police and militiamen are loyal to the ethnic Tajik movement
Jamiat-e Islami, or to Ittihad-e Islami, a Pashtun militia that has
been aligned with Jamiat for over a decade. Jamiat-e Islami was one
of the main militias of the Northern Alliance that fought alongside
American troops during the overthrow of the Taliban and seized Kabul
with US assistance.
With tacit US support,
Jamiat-e Islami intimidated the loya jirga or grand council in June
2002 to award its leaders the major political posts in the interim
government. Human Rights Watch denounces the loya jirga for entrenching
the dominance of military leaders both at the local level and
in Kabul. It comments that President Hamid Karzai has little
capacity to enforce his orders without the support of powerful military
figures or the United States and barely retains control
over Kabul-based security and military forces. HRW indicts the
Bush administration for this state of affairs, noting that US military
forces cooperate with (and strengthen) commanders in areas within
and outside of Kabul.
The Defense Ministry
and control of the official armed forces is held by Jamiat-e Islami
leader Mohammed Qasim Fahim, Younis Qanooni holds the Education Ministry
and Abdullah Abdhullah holds the Foreign Ministry. Members of the organization
command both the Kabul police and the national intelligence agency.
Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf, the leader of Ittihad-e Islami, maintains
militia forces and exerts de facto control over the area to the west
of the capital, including the city of Paghman.
Hazrat Ali, another
warlord who has worked closely with the US military in post-invasion
operations along the Pakistani border, exerts control over the city
of Jalalabad to the east of Kabul, as well as the surrounding provinces
of Laghman and Nangarhar.
HRW accuses these
and other US-sponsored militias in Afghanistans southeast of presiding
over a climate of fear. The interviews and testimony conducted
by HRW suggest an atmosphere of unchecked violence, theft, intimidation
and sexual abuse of the population by the militias. This takes place
in front of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, who are a main military
and political prop for the Northern Alliances despotism over the
Afghan people.
The report documents
cases of arbitrary arrests in which people are seized and held until
their families pay a ransom. In Kabul province, a former delegate to
the loya jirga told HRW that there are arbitrary arrests all the
timepeople held by the authorities for money. According
to HRW, the various militias enforce mafia-style protection and extortion
rackets in the areas they rule. Vehicles are regularly stopped at checkpoints
and forced to pay either money or in goods to pass through. A shopkeeper
in Kabul testified that Interior Ministry police collected protection
money from him every Thursday at around 3:00 p.m. Another
told HRW: If you do not pay, they close your shop and lock it
with their lock. If you break it open, they will arrest you and put
you in jail.
HRW claims it has
documented numerous robberies and home invasions by soldiers and
police in many provinces of southeastern Afghanistan. In testimony
cited in the report, police in West Kabul followed a trail of footprints
from a robbed home to a barracks of militiamen loyal to Sayyaf, at which
point they got scared and turned back. In two cases cited
by HRW, troops believed to be on Sayyafs payroll forced homeowners
to tell where their money was by stabbing them with bayonets. An interviewee
refers to militiamen looking at women with bad eyes and
trying to touch them. The report also cites witnesses alleging
young women and boys have been raped in their homes or kidnapped off
the street and sexually assaulted.
The report outlines
the systematic political intimidation of the few political and media
figures who have dared raise public criticism of the interim government.
A politician and publisher referred to as H. Rahman told
HRW he was personally threatened by Younis Qanooni in November 2002
that he would have no right to live any longer if he continued
to criticize the government in his newspaper. Members of the national
intelligence agency visited his house and told him if he would be exiled,
imprisoned or assassinated if he did not change his policy.
He received further threats on his life from Sayyaf and was beaten by
soldiers in May 2003.
Another oppositional
politician told HRW: If a member of our partyand any political
party except the jihadis [a term used to describe the Northern Alliance]does
anything publicly, he might be killed.
Other examples of
political violence in the HRW report include:
* death threats,
assaults and other intimidation by officials in and around Jalalabad
against people speaking publicly in favor of educating girls or advocating
womens rights;
* the beating and
imprisonment of two students who protested against nepotism at Kabul
University by the chief of the Kabul police and Jamiat-e Islami member
Basir Salangi;
* death threats
and police intimidation against journalists and cartoonists who have
been critical of Jamait-e Islami leaders.
In the lead-up to
the invasion of Afghanistan, a great deal was written about the reactionary
social policies of the Taliban, particularly its treatment of women.
The HRW report charges that little has changed since the installation
of the pro-US regime.
The presence of
armed men who feel they are a law unto themselves and often use religious
dogma to terrorize the population has created such anxiety that many
women, and especially teenage girls, are prevented from leaving their
homes except when accompanied by family males. The fear is such that
in some areas families will not even take pregnant women to the hospital.
While some girls
are now attending school, real or perceived security concerns in many
areas cause families to pull their daughters out of education as they
reach puberty. A UNICEF spokesman estimated for HRW on May 8, 2003 that
no more than 32 percent of girls were attending school and in some areas
the participation rate was only 3 to 10 percent. A Jalalabad journalist
told HRW that only 10 girls were attending the citys university.
Male teachers in Kabul have been beaten by police for teaching girls.
The full body burqa is still worn by most women outside of Kabul due
to fear of fundamentalist attacks on either their male companions or
on the women themselves.
The HRW report comments:
In discussions on womens rights in Afghanistan, it is often
heard that restrictions on womens and older girls liberty
of movement, access to education, political participation and privacy,
including the right to choose whether to wear a burqa, are cultural,
or that they are part of Afghan tribal codes or religious traditions.
But when soldiers and police abduct and rape women and girls with impunity,
and where these actions have the effect of denying them access to education,
health care, jobs and political participation, women and girls are not
experiencing culture. They are experiencing human rights
violations.
The Human Rights
Watch report is available in both html and PDF formats at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/afghanistan0703/
One can safely assume
that the HRW report provides only a pale indication of the social devastation
and political chaos that reign in Afghanistan nearly two years after
the American invasion. The reality on the ground in the Central Asian
country completely exposes the lies that were used to justify the US
intervention, whose essential aim was to replace one set of warlords
with another that would be more pliable to American interests, above
all its designs on the rich oil and natural gas resources in the adjoining
Caspian basin.