Afghan Crisis Called Opportunity to Change Human Rights Situation

(Human rights rapporteur reports to UNGA) (760)

By Judy Aita

Washington File United Nations Correspondent



United Nations -- The humanitarian and political crisis now existing
in Afghanistan, while critical, "has created opportunity and space for
the Afghan people to become active participants in bringing about
fundamental change" to a country already devasted by almost 20 years
of fighting, the Human Rights Commission special rapporteur said
November 7.


In a written report to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, the
rapporteur, Kamal Hossain, said that aerial bombing by the United
States and Great Britain on Taliban and terrorist sites has changed
the dynamics in the country, thus giving the Afghan people a chance to
form a new "broad-based, multi-ethnic and truly representative"
government that would respect human rights and give both men and women
an opportunity to live in freedom and dignity.


Hossain warned, however, that "time is of the essence" in working out
immediate measures that would involve Afghans in interim internal
security arrangements and practical mechanisms to prevent a breakdown
of law and order and possible massacres such as have happened in the
past when Afghan territory changed hands.


The United Nations should also issue a "credible warning to all
parties to refrain from any form of summary executions and to indicate
that those responsible for the recent summary execution of the Pashtun
leader Abdul Haq and the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, as well
as others responsible for summary executions and massacres, could not
longer expect to enjoy impunity as they had in the past and would be
brought to justice," the rapporteur said.


In a report prepared after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the
United States by Usama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization which
has been sheltered in the Taliban controlled area of Afghanistan, the
rapporteur emphasized that the need for a political settlement and a
government that includes all sectors of Afghan society, which has
existed for years, is even more urgent now.


In preparing his new report, an addendum to his earlier annual report
on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, Hossain visited Pakistan
and Iran in late October, meeting with representatives of UN agencies
and NGOs as well Afghan refugees, particularly those who have recently
arrived.


Even before September 11, Hossain said, "Afghanistan was in a state of
deepening crisis. The continuing armed conflict, externally supported,
was identified as the root cause of the deteriorating human rights
situation."


"Afghans found themselves powerless," he said. "They were victims of
serious violations of human rights under an authoritarian regime. They
suffered arbitrary detention, cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishments, summary executions and massacres. Systematic
discrimination against women was practiced through a series of
legislative decrees denying them access to employment, education and
health services."


Minorities were victims of violence and discriminatory measures, the
rapporteur said.


The humanitarian crisis had been deepening even before the bombing
campaign against Taliban and terrorist sites began in October, he
said. There had been increasing internal displacement and significant
new refugee flows by the end of the year 2000 and it accelerated in
early 2001.


The prospect of an internationally supported plan for national
reconstruction would provide an incentive to all segments of the
Afghan population to cooperate with the international community, the
rapporteur suggested. It would enable millions of refugees and
internally displaced persons to return to their homes and undertake
rebuilding their lives in a unified country.


In his earlier report to the UN Commission on Human Rights, Hossain
had also emphasized the need for a comprehensive settlement that would
begin a process of uniting Afghanistan. The continued fighting, he had
said, was the root cause of the deteriorating human rights situation.
It also was responsible for making Afghanistan a country in a "state
of acute crisis with its resources depleted, its intelligentsia in
exile, its people disenfranchised, its traditional political
structures shattered, and its human development indices among the
lowest in the world."


"Some 20 to 22 million Afghans who remained in the country continued
to suffer violations of human rights and from repeated breaches of
international humanitarian law," he had reported. Because of the
continued fighting between warring factions, civilians are "virtually
hostages in their own land, trapped in situations not of their making
and ... targets of lawless violence and massacres."


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