AFGHANISTAN: UN rapporteur slams ‘complacency’ on Afghan killings
Posted by warvictims on May 16, 2008
UN rapporteur slams ‘complacency’ on Afghan killings
By Bronwen Robert
Agence France Presse
There is “staggeringly high” complacency in Afghanistan about civilians being killed by international troops, police and even secret militias led by foreign intelligence units, a UN rapporteur said Thursday.
International forces have killed about 200 civilians in operations in the past four months, while Taliban and other rebels have killed around 300, said UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Philip Alston.
Secret units controlled by foreign intelligence services operating with impunity have also killed civilians in anti-rebel operations, and police had carried out unlawful killings, he added.
“Afghanistan is enveloped in an armed conflict. But that does not mean that large numbers of avoidable killings of civilians must be tolerated,” said Alston, a professor of law in New York who is independent of the UN.
“The level of complacency in response to these killings is staggeringly high.”
Most of the 200 civilians reported killed by international troops, who are often working with Afghan forces, died in air strikes, Alston said.
He said he had seen no evidence of foreign soldiers violating the law or human rights but surprise night-time raids — which often result in civilian deaths — did “raise issues.”
The forces were “surprisingly opaque” about accounting for the incidents, Alston said.
They had told him figures for civilian casualties caused by troops were “either not available in Afghanistan … or that they are secret and cannot be provided to me.”
He was also told the outcomes of investigations into soldiers suspected of unlawful killings were not tracked in Afghanistan, so it was hard to know if anyone was held accountable.
Alston added that it was “absolutely unacceptable” for foreign intelligence units to be “conducting dangerous raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking responsibility for them.”
These units, operating mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan, were working outside of the international military and the Afghan government structures, he said. He could not say which nationalities were involved or for whom they worked.
The Taliban and other insurgent groups were estimated to have killed about 300 civilians in the past four months, roughly three-quarters in suicide attacks, the rapporteur said.
Alston said he had been told not to meet with Taliban during his tour. But he recommended developing contacts with the rebels to urge them to comply with human rights law and to seek their views.
Alston also noted a government priority should be stopping unlawful killings by the police, as well as their technique of filing away inquiries so the claims of victims are ignored.
“Killings by police must end. The interminable dragging out of government investigations and inquiries until such episodes are effectively forgotten reinforces impunity.”
In the same way, key figures in Afghanistan’s government accused of rights abuses and corruption in the country’s decades of conflict should with “no question” be put on trial.
Other similar calls have caused alarm in some circles, with the government wary of angering warlords who still wield power today and making little movement on a reconciliation and justice plan that calls for redress.
Alston said women were particularly affected by conflict gripping Afghanistan and that cases of “honour killings” were common, although there were no statistics.
He also called for a moratorium on the death penalty in the country, saying executions based on its “deeply flawed” criminal justice system would violate international legal standards.
