The Taliban's Betrayal of the Afghan People

Issued by the Office of International Information Programs

Fact Sheet   Nov. 6 Update

The Afghan people have been the primary victims of Taliban misrule, since the Taliban came to
power in 1996. The Taliban militia was formed in 1994, in response to human rights abuses by
other warring factions in Afghanistan. By 1996, the Taliban had captured Kabul, and, with
claims to religious as well as political authority, began a reign of terror. The Taliban have made
the Afghan people the unwilling hosts of foreign armed terrorists, who have exploited and
endangered the Afghan people, and made Afghanistan a pariah in the world community.

This updated fact sheet outlines documented atrocities and human rights abuses committed by
the Taliban against the Afghan people.

Massacres

The Taliban have massacred hundreds of Afghan civilians, including women and children, in
Yakaolang, Mazar-I-Sharif, Bamiyan, Qezelabad, and other towns. Many of the victims of these
massacres were targeted because of their ethnic or religious identity.

Massacre at Yakaolang: January 2001

Taliban forces committed a massacre in Yakaolang in January 2001. The victims were primarily
Hazaras. The massacre began on January 8, 2001, and continued for four days. The Taliban
detained about 300 civilian adult males, including staff members of local humanitarian
organizations. The men were herded to assembly points, and then shot by firing squad in public
view. According to Human Rights Watch, about 170 men are confirmed to have been killed.
According to Amnesty International, eyewitnesses reported the deliberate killing of dozens of
civilians hiding in a mosque: Taliban soldiers fired rockets into a mosque where some 73
women, children and elderly men had taken shelter.

Massacre at Robatak Pass: May 2000

The May 2000 massacre took place near the Robatak pass. 31 bodies were found one site, of
these, 26 were positively identified as civilians. The victims were Hazara Shi'as.

Massacre in Bamiyan: 1999 When the Taliban recaptured Bamiyan in 1999, there were reports
that Taliban forces carried out summary executions upon entering the city. According to
Amnesty International, hundreds of men, and some instances women and children, were
separated from their families, taken away, and killed. Human Rights Watch reports that besides
executing civilians, the Taliban burned homes and used detainees for forced labor.

Massacre in the Shomaili Plains: July 1999

Human Rights Watch reports that a Taliban offensive here was marked by summary
executions, the abduction and disappearance of women, the burning of homes, destruction of
property, and the cutting down of fruit trees. According to a report by the U.N. Secretary
General on November 16, 1999, "The Taliban forces, who allegedly carried out these acts,
essentially treated the civilian population with hostility and made no distinction between
combatants and non-combatants."

Massacre in Mazar-I-Sharif: August 1998

In August 1998, the Taliban captured Mazar-I-Sharif. There were reports that between 2,000
and 5,000 men, women and children -- mostly ethnic Hazara civilians -- were massacred by the
Taliban after the takeover of Mazar-I-Sharif. During the massacre, the Taliban forces carried
out a systematic search for male members for the ethnic Hazara, Tajik, and Uzbek communities
in the city. Human Rights Watch estimates that scores, perhaps hundreds, of Hazara men and
boys were summarily executed. There were also reports that women and girls were raped and
abducted during the Taliban takeover of the city.

Massacre in Mazar-I-Sharif: September 1997

Retreating Taliban forces summarily executed Hazara villagers near Mazar-I-Sharif, after
having failed to capture the city. Amnesty International reported that the Taliban massacred 70
Hazara civilians, including children, in Qezelabad, near Mazar-I-Sharif. There were also reports
that the Taliban forces in Faryab province killed some 600 civilians in late 1997.

Other Massacres: On at least two occasions, according to Human Rights Watch, the Taliban
killed delegations of Hazara elders who had attempted to intercede with them.

Human Rights Abuses Against Women and Girls

Taliban rule has been particularly harsh for Afghan women and girls. Taliban restrictions
against women and girls are widespread, institutionally sanctioned, and systematic in
Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan.

-- Girls are formally prohibited from attending school.

-- Women are prohibited, with very few exceptions, from working outside the home, and are
forbidden to leave their homes except in the company of a male relative. These restrictions are
devastating for the thousands of Afghan war widows, who have reportedly been reduced to
selling their possessions or begging to feed their families.

-- The Taliban have significantly reduced women's access to health care, by decreeing that
women can only be treated by women doctors.

-- The Taliban threaten and beat women to enforce the Taliban's dress code for women.

The Taliban and the Humanitarian Situation

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is grim. Twenty years of internal armed conflict, and
four years of devastating drought have contributed to this situation, but the Taliban have made
an already grave situation much worse, holding the Afghan people hostage to their political
agenda.

-- The Taliban do not share the hardships they have imposed on the Afghan people, and they
have done nothing to alleviate these hardships.

-- The Taliban have not only failed to provide security, food, and shelter for the Afghan people,
but they have disrupted the efforts of international relief agencies to deliver desperately needed
food and medical supplies to the Afghan people.

-- The Taliban have harassed Afghan and international aid workers; have seized and looted
humanitarian supplies; and have stolen vehicles belonging to humanitarian agencies, including
UN humanitarian agencies. According to NGOs and press reports, these incidents are on the
rise.

-- November 6: The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says the Taliban is hindering humanitarian
efforts inside Afghanistan, while at the same time calling for more international help. Speaking
on behalf of the UNHCR, Peter Kessler said the Taliban was failing to cooperate: "The UNHCR
and our partner agencies have had our vehicles stolen, our offices taken over and our staff
beaten." (Source: as reported by the BBC)

-- October 31: The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) offices in Spin Boldak were taken over by
Taliban soldiers. (Source: UNHCR)

-- October 18: Taliban soldiers seized the Mercy Corps International Office in Kandahar, and
remain in possession of the office and MCI vehicles. (Source: Mercy Corps)

-- October 17: The Taliban occupied the Kunduz office and warehouse of the International
Organization for Migration (IOM). The warehouse had been stocked with winter clothing, shoes
and blankets to be distributed to internally displaced persons in the region. (Source: IOM)

-- October 16: The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan reported that its compound in
Taliban-controlled Mazar-I-Sharif was seized on October 16, with fuel stores set ablaze by the
Taliban. (Source: Human Rights Watch)

-- October 16: The Taliban seized control of two UN World Food Program (WFP) warehouses,
one in Kabul, and one in Kandahar, containing more than half the World Food Program's wheat
supply for Afghanistan. While the Kabul warehouse was returned to the WFP, the Taliban still
control the Kandahar warehouse, and have prevented Afghan WFP staff from distributing food.
The WFP in Kandahar had been feeding 150,000 Afghans a month before the Taliban seizure.
The WFP reports that 1600 tons of food and several vehicles have since disappeared from the
Kandahar WFP warehouse. (Source: World Food Program)

-- October 16: The UN Security Council demanded that the Taliban should cease obstructing
aid destined for the Afghan people.

-- September 16-October 15: A demining agency working in Kandahar told Human Rights
Watch that they had 35 vehicles confiscated by the Taliban between September 26 and
October 15. The Taliban looted the offices of the agency, taking spare parts, generators, radios
and the personal assets of the demining workers. (Source: Human Rights Watch)

-- October 8: Armed Taliban entered the compound of a demining NGO in Kandahar and
demanded vehicles. Staff who resisted were beaten. The Taliban left with several ambulances,
seven pick-up trucks, and six cargo trucks from the compound. (Source: Human Rights Watch)

-- October 8: Armed Taliban entered the compound of the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian
Affairs in Mazar-I-Sharif, and looted communications equipment. (Source: Human Rights
Watch)

-- October 7: Armed Taliban entered the Kabul compound of an NGO engaged in demining
operations. Staff members were beaten, and the Taliban broke some of the locks on the
vehicles, but did not take them. (Source: Human Rights Watch)

Taliban Hide Behind Afghan Civilians

The Taliban have put the Afghan civilian population in great danger by deliberately hiding their
soldiers and equipment in civilian areas, including in mosques.

-- "Whole villages are being used as human shields by the Taliban to protect their large
stockpiles of ammunition and weapons hidden in nearby caves," according to a senior U.S.
military officer. (As reported in the Washington Post, November 6)

-- In the southern city of Kandahar, Taliban authorities who had worked for the Ministry for the
Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue have reportedly relocated to mosques. In Khost,
Taliban troops have reportedly taken over NGO relief organization buildings. (Attributed to a
senior U.S. military officer, as reported by the Washington Post, November 6)

-- According to a senior U.S. military officer, a truck in a convoy purportedly on a humanitarian
mission to deliver food tipped over, and crates of tank and mortar shells could be seen spilling
to the ground beneath a thin layer of flour. (As reported in the Washington Post, November 6)

-- An Afghan refugee recently arrived in Pakistan from Kabul said, "Now the Taliban are taking
their guns to the residential areas, and when they fire at the [American] planes, the planes see
them and drop bombs on them. That's when the innocent people die." (As reported in the
Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 30)

-- The Taliban park their vehicles among the taxis at the central bus station in Kabul by day,
and sleep in nearby hotels at night. (As reported in the New York Times, Oct. 26)

-- Refugees from Kabul report that some Taliban are taking over private homes in order to
avoid their barracks and reduce the risk of being bombed. These refugees also say the Taliban
are storing weapons in mosques and schools. (As reported in the Washington Post and the
Baltimore Sun, Oct. 24)

-- The spokesman for the Department of Defense, Navy Rear Admiral Stufflebeem, said on
October 24: "The Taliban regime has been moving troops and equipment and perhaps its
leaders into civilian areas. The reports indicate that troops and equipment are being housed in
mosques and schools to shield them from the U.S. bombardment...."

Taliban Forcibly Conscript Young Afghans

Refugees from Afghanistan arriving in Pakistan in recent days report that the Taliban are
forcibly conscripting young men and boys. Some refugees cite forced conscription as their
reason for fleeing Afghanistan. In addition, there are reports that Taliban forced conscription is
also taking place in refugee camps inside Afghan borders.

-- A 20-year old male refugee from Taloqan, newly arrived in a refugee camp in Pakistan, said:
"We came three days ago... the Taliban came collecting young boys for the front line, after the
American bombs. My mother was afraid. They are telling everyone, very young boys, that they
must come to fight, defend our country against America. I did not want to fight against
America." (As reported by the Washington Post, October 30)

-- There were reports from Mazar-I-Sharif that the Taliban were forcibly conscripting young
men, setting a quota of two men per neighborhood, and heavily fining those who refused. (As
reported by the Chicago Tribune, October 30)

-- Many of the refugees crossing into Pakistan at Chaman over the past few weeks have told
the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) that they fear being forced to fight for the Taliban. There are
consistent reports of forced conscription. (As reported by the UNHCR)

The Taliban and Islam

The Taliban have imposed their own interpretation of Islam on the Afghan people.

-- Taliban interpretations of Islam are not widely shared in the Muslim world.

-- Taliban words and actions misrepresent Islam.

-- The Taliban have used Islam as a cloak to practice ethnic cleansing in Afghanistan.

-- Warning against "converting our countries into another Afghanistan," Saudi writer Turki Al
Hamad, writing in As-Sharq Al Awsat, put it this way:"...[under the Taliban], Islam would be
relegated from a world religion with a global human and civilized mission to a Taliban-like
dogma that bans pigeon breeding, long hair, kite flying, and listening to music.... That, at a time
when the rest of the world is de-coding the genome, experimenting with cloning, inventing
information chips, exploring outer space and tackling the wonders of laser beams and infra-red
radiation. If we want to have an impact on today's world, the only way to do so is by interacting
with it."

Destruction of Afghan Culture

The Taliban have perverted Afghan customs, tradition, and religious practice for their own
narrow political interests.

-- The Taliban and their foreign armed militant "guests" have set about destroying traditional
Afghan culture.

-- They have prohibited all forms of music, except for religious chants, and have banned
traditional recreation, such as kite flying.

-- They have looted and destroyed the historical and cultural patrimony of the Afghan people --
the Kabul Museum, formerly one of the finest museums in the region, is largely empty; the
centuries-old Buddhist statues in Bamiyan have been reduced to rubble.

-- They have deprived the people of Afghanistan both their history, and their future.

Documenting Taliban Abuses

-- Several non-government organizations maintain web sites documenting Taliban abuses.

-- The web site of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(www.rawa.fancymarketing.net) maintains a gallery of still photos and video clips documenting
massacres, beatings, and executions by the Taliban. The documentary photos and videos were
clandestinely made by Afghan women to provide evidence of Taliban atrocities.

-- Several human rights organizations maintain web sites documenting human rights abuses by
the Taliban and other factions in the Afghan conflict. Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International provide extensive documentation of these abuses.