More than 200 former Afghan officials and security forces killed since Taliban takeover, UN says

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 line with a U.N. report launched Tuesday.

The teams most focused by the Taliban have been former military, police and intelligence forces, in line with the United Nations Help Mission in Afghanistan.

UNAMA documented a minimum of 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 had been within the remaining weeks of their withdrawal from the nation after twenty years of struggle. 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 had been detained by the de facto (Taliban) safety forces, usually briefly, earlier than being killed. Some had been taken to detention services and killed whereas in custody, others had been taken to unknown areas and killed, their our bodies both dumped or handed over to relations,” the report stated.

UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk stated in a press launch issued alongside the report that it “presents a sobering image of the remedy of people affiliated with the previous authorities and safety forces.”

“Much more so, given they had been assured that they’d be not focused, it’s a betrayal of the folks’s belief,” Turk stated. He urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers — the nation’s “de facto authorities” to uphold their “obligations beneath 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 prevented inner divisions.

The Taliban-led Afghan overseas ministry dismissed the report, saying it was unaware of any circumstances 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 an announcement.

The report stated former Afghan troopers had been at biggest threat of experiencing human rights violations, adopted by police and intelligence officers. Violations had been recorded throughout all 34 provinces, with the best quantity recorded in Kabul, Kandahar and Balkh provinces.

Nearly all of violations passed off within the 4 months following the Taliban takeover, with UNAMA recording virtually 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 a minimum of 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 a minimum of 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 ladies’s jail in western Herat province, didn’t return residence 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 had been documented within the report, together with beatings with pipes, cables, verbal threats and different abuse.

The Taliban initially promised a common 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 acknowledged dedication and to carry perpetrators of human rights violations to account could have critical implications for the longer term stability of Afghanistan,” the report stated.

Whereas the Taliban announcement of a common 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 top of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan.

She urged the Taliban to point out “”a real dedication to the overall amnesty. It is a essential step in guaranteeing actual prospects for justice, reconciliation and lasting peace in Afghanistan.”

Regardless of preliminary guarantees of a average administration, the Taliban have enforced harsh guidelines, banning women’ training after the sixth grade and barring Afghan ladies 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 additionally they imposed their interpretation of Islamic legislation, or Sharia.

The edicts prompted a world outcry towards the already ostracized Taliban, whose administration has not been formally acknowledged by the U.N. and the worldwide group. ……………..