Human Rights Watch Report Documents War Crimes, Recommends Prosecutions

A large majority of Afghans believe that the country's stabilization efforts would be enhanced by the prosecution of those responsible for war crimes committed in Afghanistan during the early 1990s, Human Rights Watch said in a recently published report. To date, suspected war criminals have generally escaped punishment. Many currently occupy positions in the Afghan government, the report said, adding that some are even planning to run for office in parliamentary and local elections scheduled for this fall.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the report, titled Blood Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity, on July 7. It cites a survey conducted by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission that shows that 94 percent of Afghans consider it either "very important" or "important" to bring suspected war criminals to justice.

The report urges "the [Afghan] government, with the active support of donors, to accelerate reforms to the judicial system of Afghanistan, which are essential to successful justice-seeking efforts." It goes on suggest that stability in Afghanistan may remain elusive unless people are made to account for past actions. "Renewed respect for human rights and the rule of law can help create sustainable stability in Afghanistan," the report said. "A serious and successful accountability process is a key means towards this goal."

The report focuses on an especially bloody period of the Afghan civil war stretching from April 1992 to March 1993, known in Afghanistan as the year 1371. During this period, various mujahedeen factions battled for control of the capital Kabul following the collapse of a Moscow-supported government headed by Najibullah. At the time of Najibullah's fall, Kabul was largely unscathed from a decade of Soviet occupation, which lasted from 1979-89, and by the ravages of the civil war that followed. When the year 1371 was over, much of the capital city was in ruins. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed or wounded and hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting.

"Many if not most of these civilian casualties were the result of direct or indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population and other serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war)," the report said. "Militias abducted thousands of civilians during this period; most were never seen again. Much of the city was looted and destroyed."

HRW based the report on more than 150 eyewitness interviews. The report shows that "abuses of the period were neither unavoidable consequences of war nor unavoidable mistakes, but were rather the results of illegal acts and omissions by factional leaders and commanders," an HRW statement said.

HRW recommended that the Afghan government should establish an "independent and impartial" special court to handle prosecutions of suspected war criminals. The court should comprise a mix of Afghan and international judges, the HRW report continued. "To guard against political manipulation ... the court should have a majority of international judges and a prosecutor's office led by an international prosecutor," the report said, adding that the Afghan constitution should possibly be amended to "address these issues."

In addition, HRW called for the establishment of procedures to screen candidates for elective office and to vet members of the civil service and political appointees in order to confirm that they were not involved in committing human rights violations. "Current civil servants who have had credible allegations made against them should be removed in accordance with civil service regulations," the HRW report recommended. "Persons subject to removal from positions should have the opportunity to know the evidence against them, obtain a fair hearing before an impartial board, and have the right to appeal the determination of that tribunal to the regularly constituted courts."