Amnesty Intl Concerned By Human Rights Violations in Afghanistan

March 4, 2023 Current News Articles

Banafsha Binesh

Tolo News

4 March 2023

Amnesty International called on the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigative mechanism in Afghanistan.

Amnesty International expressed concerns over the violations of human rights in Afghanistan.

Amnesty International called on the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigative mechanism in Afghanistan.

“The United Nations Human Rights Council must urgently establish an independent investigative mechanism in

Afghanistan, with a mandate to establish the facts and circumstances relating to allegations of crimes under international law, to identify potential perpetrators, and to collect, consolidate, preserve, and analyse evidence for future international justice,” the report reads. “The international investigative mechanism would complement the crucial mission of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, and the monitoring role of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan UNAMA.”

“The closure of schools and deprivation of Afghan girls from education is clear (violations of human rights), it is surprising that the international organizations are still in the level of investigation,” said Marriam Marouf Arveen, a human rights defender.

A resident of Kabul told TOLOnews: “We call on the Islamic Emirate to reopen the schools for girls as education is obligatory for men and women.”

The Islamic Emirate meanwhile said that the rights of all citizens is ensured based on Islamic Sharia in the country.

“The rights that are given to the Muslim in the Islamic Sharia, these rights have been ensured here for men and women. The insufficiency that exist within some issues, including economic and social matters, we are trying to find a solution for that also. This propaganda is just to create concerns in the minds of (the public),” Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid said.

Earlier, the US Secretary Antony Blinken also voiced concerns over the recent decreea of the Afghan caretaker government which banned women from working at NGOs and participating in higher education.

US Congressman McCaul Seek Documents Related to Afghanistan Withdrawal

March 4, 2023 Current News Articles

Fatema Adeeb

Tolo News

4 March 2023

The committee issued a letter saying that if the department’s noncompliance persists, the committee will be forced to proceed with “compulsory process.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul once again called for information from the Biden administration about the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan.

The committee issued a letter saying that if the department’s noncompliance persists, the committee will be forced to proceed with “compulsory process.”

“House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the department’s ongoing failure to produce documents and information requested by the committee pertaining to the Biden administration’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. To date, the State Department has produced only 236 pages of documents, most of which were already publicly available or included substantial redactions. If the department’s noncompliance persists, the committee will be forced to proceed with compulsory process,” the letter reads.

The Islamic Emirate said that the US forces’ withdrawal was beneficial for both Afghanistan and the US.

“The withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan had a benefit for America as well. It ended a very costly and long war, and the Americans could not continue this war,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman of the Islamic Emirate.

Some political analysts have different views about the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan.

“The positive aspect of the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan was that Afghanistan felt more independent, and the long conflicts in Afghanistan were lessened,” said a political analyst.

Previously, House Republicans in US Congress sent a series of letters to senior leadership at the White House, Department of Defense, State Department, and others requesting a tranche of documents related to the end of America’s longest war.

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee said that the Biden Administration was unprepared for the Afghanistan withdrawal.

“The Biden Administration was tragically unprepared for the Afghanistan withdrawal and their decisions in the region directly resulted in a national security and humanitarian catastrophe, every relevant department and agency should be prepared to cooperate and provide all requested information,” said James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

Swiss-based trust holds second meeting to discuss plans for Afghan funds -trustee

March 3, 2023 Current News Articles

By Charlotte Greenfield

Reuters

February 28, 2023, 9:50 PM EST

KABUL, March 1 (Reuters) – The board of the Swiss-based trust fund managing some $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets met for a second time last month, one of its trustees said, and discussed options for disbursing funds in line with achieving monetary stability.

The frozen central bank reserves were transferred from Washington into the “Fund for the Afghan People” last year where U.S. officials say it will be shielded from the Taliban. The latter has condemned the transfer, calling it a violation of international norms.

Trustee Shah Mehrabi, a U.S. academic who also remains on the Afghan central bank’s Supreme Council, said a meeting of the four trustees was held virtually on Feb. 16.

“The issue of disbursements of funds and the options for that was discussed,” Mehrabi told Reuters.

“The idea clearly here is the necessary steps to disburse funds and potential options for achieving monetary stability.”

Mehrabi said he believed the funds should only be used for achieving monetary stability and reducing volatility in Afghanistan’s exchange rate. He said he was against the funds being used to make payments for electricity, paying off Afghanistan’s loans at multilateral institutions and other payments the state should be responsible for.

He said one way to achieve price stability, if needed in future, was to engage in foreign exchange auctions to sell dollars and take some of the Afghani currency out of circulation, which would help keep inflation in check.

Economists, including Mehrabi, have noted that Afghanistan’s currency has remained relatively stable in recent months – after an initial depreciation when the Taliban took over in 2021 – partly due to large inflows of U.S. dollars shipped to Afghanistan last year by the United Nations to carry out humanitarian operations.

Mehrabi said the board had also agreed at the meeting to seek external funding to cover the fund’s operational and administrative expenses so that the costs of running it would not eat into the assets.

He said the funds transferred last year by the United States had included an extra $36 million in interest earned since they were frozen in 2021. Since the transfer in September, they had earned an additional $34 million in interest as of the end of January.

Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield in Kabul; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

Islamic Emirate Leader Meets With Ministers, Clerics

March 3, 2023 Current News Articles

Banafsha Binesh

Tolo News

3 March 2023

29 Million Afghans Need Humanitarian Aid: Blinken

March 3, 2023 Current News Articles

Bibi Amina Hakimi

TOLOnews’ Reporter

3 March 2023

This comes as women’s rights activists and citizens urged the Islamic Emirate to facilitate women’s access to work.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that 29 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian aid.

In a video message marking the 75th year since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed, Blinken said that the “Taliban’s” recent prohibition of barring Afghan women from working at NGOs “has closed off yet another pathway that should be open for them.”

Blinken in an interview with Doniyor Tukhsinov of Kun.uz, an Uzbekistan news outlet, said that the US has been the number one provider of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan because it doesn’t want the “people to suffer; and they are, but we’ve worked very hard to make sure that food, medicine, basic supplies were made available to them.”

“The Taliban has made that more difficult by prohibiting women’s participation in the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” he said.

This comes as women’s rights activists and citizens urged the Islamic Emirate to facilitate women’s access to work.

“We call on the Islamic Emirate to pave the way for work. In the current situation, women need to have access to work,” said Sahar, a resident of Kabul.

“We demand the Islamic Emirate allow women to learn and have access to work,” said Fareshta, a resident of Kabul. “The men and women who are employed can earn income and Halal food and they can also provide the food and pay the expenses of their families,” said Suraya Paikan, a human rights defender.

Economists believe that women’s work in government departments plays a positive role in economic growth.

“The economic presence of women is undoubtedly essential. This improves the economic development, GDP and annual income of Afghanistan and it can also put a positive impact on the reduction of poverty in Afghanistan,” said Mir Shikib, an economist.

This comes as the Islamic Emirate said that women are working in the areas where they are needed.

“The Ministry of Economy—that is in contact with the international organizations—is working on a procedure to identify the areas that will be exempt and also provide an alternative to the women who are jobless,” Mujahid said.

Earlier, the Ministry of Economy said the reduction in financial support for Afghanistan has affected the people.

West: US Engaging With Kabul Despite ‘Grave Concern’ With Policies

March 3, 2023 Current News Articles

Mohammad Farshad Daryosh

TOLOnews’ Reporter

3 March 2023

However, the Islamic Emirate said that effective steps have been taken to maintain the relations between the two countries.

The US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, said Washington has not seen significant steps towards normalization with the Islamic Emirate.

In a special interview with TOLOnews, West stated that the current Afghan government lacks a permanent representative at the UN and official ties with international financial institutions.

“We have not seen significant steps towards normalization with the Taliban, They do not have a permanent representative sitting in New York at the United Nations, they do not have formal relationships with international financial institutions, they do not have diplomats serving abroad in the West, they do not have access to suspended assets in foreign countries and I do not envision that we will budge on any of these issues until they make more responsible decisions,” West noted.

Speaking during the interview, West further said that despite all the concerns Washington has about the current government’s policies toward the Afghan people, it also wants to engage with Kabul.

“We are engaging with the Taliban ourselves despite some of what I have said here today that reflects our grave concern about the Taliban’s policies toward the Afghan people. We do favor a policy of engagement ourselves, that is why I met with the Taliban leaders in December, I suspect that I will meet Taliban leaders in the future and talk about our interests in Afghanistan,” he added.

The US special envoy for Afghanistan noted that Washington calls for dialogue between Afghans.

“What we want to see is the emergence of a dialogue among Afghans inside of Afghanistan to begin with who have genuine support in their communities with the Taliban in a structured and serious and organized fashion, to talk about the future of the country, to talk about a constitution, to talk about the basic rights of Afghans–that process has not unfolded in any serious manner,” West noted.

“The relationship of America and other countries with the interim administration of the Taliban will get better when changes are being made in the four basic areas. First, the fundamental rights of the Afghan people need to be respected. Second, it’s important to protect women’s and girls’ fundamental rights, including their ability to work and attend school,” said Nematullah Bizhanpor, an international relations expert.

However, the Islamic Emirate said that effective steps have been taken to maintain the relations between the two countries.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that the US is seeking excuses for Afghanistan’s internal affairs and is preventing the normalization of relations.

“The US representatives were in touch with us and are still; they have to make clear what they want from the Islamic Emirate. The Islamic Emirate has taken all possible steps to maintain the bilateral relationship and is prepared to shift its policies from one of conflict to one of peace and collaboration,” Mujahid noted.

The Islamic Emirate has previously said that despite having fulfilled all its commitments to the United States, Washington has not fulfilled its promises to the Islamic Emirate.

Asylum seekers in Karachi tell of terror of being sent back to the Taliban and despair at being shackled and held in Pakistani jails

March 3, 2023 Current News Articles

Shah Meer Baloch in Pakistan

The Guardian

Thu 2 Mar 2023

Pakistan crackdown on Afghan refugees leaves ‘four dead’ and thousands in cells

Refugees are reportedly dying in Pakistani prisons, and children are being arrested and tied together with ropes, as a wave of detentions and deportations spreads fearamong the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have crossed the border since the Taliban took power.

According to lawyers representing Afghans in detention, at least four people have died in custody, and thousands more, including children, are being held in prisons as Pakistan hardens its stance against Afghan citizens.

The most recent death in custody was a 50-year-old Afghan man who was refused hospital treatment while he waited for a judge to hear his case, according to Moniza Kakar, a Karachi-based human rights lawyer who has been fighting to stop Afghan asylum seekers and refugees being deported to Afghanistan.

Kakar claimed that other Afghans in detention were being mistreated, and the judicial process was not being carried out properly by judges assigned to their cases. Photos have emerged on social media claiming to show refugee children bound together with ropes by police in Karachi.

“In this crackdown, registered and unregistered Afghans are facing the brunt,” she said. “More than 800 Afghans are in prisons in Karachi and across Sindh province alone, and at least 1,100 have been deported who had no documents.”

Earlier this week, the Guardian attended a deportation hearing in Karachi and witnessed dozens of shackled Afghan refugees and asylum seekers being held in cramped cells while they awaited their court hearing.

A young mother, Ayesha Bashir, was being held in a cell with her five-year-old daughter. She had been in detention for three months, she said, after crossing the border in north-west Pakistan and travelling to Karachi to consult a gynaecologist after multiple miscarriages.

“We were more than 20 people on a bus,” she said. “Before we entered Karachi, the police stopped the bus in the bordering town of Hub. They asked for our visas or identity cards, but we didn’t have any.”

Afghan asylum seekers await their fate at a deportation hearing in Karachi this week. Photograph: Shah Meer Baloch

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the treatment of Afghan refugees and demanded that the authorities follow judicial process. It said in a statement: “The government must take responsibility for any Afghan women and children in its custody and ensure they are given immediate access to legal counsel. It must also hold to account anyone responsible for intimidating human rights defenders attempting to highlight the plight of these prisoners.”

While Pakistani authorities claim they are only detaining illegal Afghan entrants, Kakar said those with official UNHCR refugee status are also being arrested and detained. “More than 450 Afghans with refugee status have [now] also been arrested,” she said.

Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, about 250,000 Afghans have arrived in Pakistan. Last summer, it began a programme to send undocumented migrants back across the border. Since then, arrests and deportations have increased with more than 600 Afghans allegedly deported in just three days in January, and thousands more detained.

In the past few weeks, targeting of Afghans, regardless of their legal status, has turned more aggressive. Multiple sources within the security services say this is linked to a surge of violent attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, amid accusations by the authorities that the Taliban are providing safe sanctuary to Pakistani militants.

The sources said that Afghan asylum seekers are suspected of having links to the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups. One security official, who asked not to be named, said: “Afghan refugees can easily move, and they don’t have identification. So they are used in militancy.”

Afghans in exile in Pakistan, who spoke to the Guardian under condition of anonymity, said they now live in constant fear for their lives, seldom leaving their homes.

Salima, a 45-year-old Afghan surgeon, said: “We have no job, no income, my children are out of school, and we have to pay exorbitant fees to renew our visas.” Salima had faced constant threats in Afghanistan, she said, not just from the Taliban but also from other criminal groups. “One day, armed men tried to kidnap my child. We barely escaped alive.”

She and her family entered Pakistan legally but now fear the escalating round-ups of Afghan families and mass detentions. They are terrified of being arrested and sent back to the Taliban.

“Just a few days ago, I was pulled out of a taxi by the police,” she said. “They rounded me up with other Afghans and didn’t even allow me to show my documents. They were angry and abusive. I had to beg them to forgive me, even though I didn’t commit any crimes. I am here on a proper visa.”

Although Pakistan has not adopted the UN Refugee Convention 1951, which confers a legal duty on countries to protect people fleeing serious harm, it has entered a tripartite agreement with Afghanistan and the UNHCR, which allows the UNHCR to provide Afghan refugees with registration documents that entitle them to stay in Pakistan and open bank accounts.

Twenty kilometres from Karachi city, in an informal settlement for Afghan refugees, Masooma* showed the Guardian her refugee registration documents and told how her husband, Siraj Ud Din, and his friend, Abdul Salam, were also registered as refugees with the UNHCR but were arrested last year.

Masooma*, second from left with her children, shows her refugee registration document. Photograph: Shah Meer Baloch

She said the police arrested them for being undocumented, but the truth was that “the police have lost or thrown their cards. How is it possible I have a card and my husband does not have one?”

Her mother-in-law, sitting close by, said her son was born in Pakistan. “We have been in Pakistan for the last 40 years. All my children were born here. The police have told us he will be deported to Afghanistan after six months. We have no one there now.”

Pakistan’s states and frontier regions minister, Senator Talha Mahmood, disputed that there had been a crackdown on Afghans living in Pakistan but said that routine raids were being carried out to search for undocumented immigrants from Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for UNHCR said: “UNHCR acknowledges Pakistan’s generosity in hosting one of the world’s largest refugee populations for more than 40 years. Since 2021, UNHCR has been in discussions with the government on measures and mechanisms to support vulnerable Afghans. Regrettably, no progress has been made.

“We are concerned regarding reports of the arrest and detention of Afghan refugees in Sindh province. The government and people of Pakistan have a commendable, decades-long history of providing asylum and protection to displaced Afghans, and we urge authorities to release those who are seeking asylum.”

* Name has been changed to protect identity

Additional reporting by Ruchi Kumar

Ned Price: Islamic Emirate Has Not Fulfilled Doha Agreement

March 3, 2023 Current News Articles

Fatema Adeeb

Tolo News

2 March 2023

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate said that it has fulfilled to Doha agreement, but America violated some points of the agreement.

The spokesman for the US State Department once again accused the Islamic Emirate of violating the Doha agreement.

Ned Price in a press conference said that Islamic Emirate has not “fulfilled the Doha Agreement” in terms of engaging in political dialogue, fighting terrorist groups and respecting human rights.

“We have seen Mullah Baradar’s own statement, and we of course disagree with the key points in his own statement. Namely, the Taliban have not fulfilled their own commitments – the commitments that they made in the Doha Agreement, the Taliban also have not fulfilled their Doha commitment to engage in political dialogue leading to a negotiated settlement. That remains to be done. We shouldn’t forget that the Doha Agreement envisioned a peaceful settlement, not a takeover on the part of the Taliban,” said Ned Price.

“Some important issues were not dealt with and both sides violated the Doha Agreement …,” said Najib Rahman, political analyst.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate said that it has fulfilled to Doha agreement, but America violated some points of the agreement.

“The Islamic Emirate completely fulfilled the agreement but America and its partners neglected parts of the agreement,” said Bilal Karimi, spokesman for Islamic Emirate.

Political analysts asked both sides to fulfill the Doha agreement.

“They accused each other of violating the Doha agreements; it will be better that both sides make a commission and fulfill it together,” said Aziz Miraj, a former diplomat.

“We can say that sides involved in the negotiations reached their own goals,” said Wali Frozan, political analyst.

The complete withdrawal of foreign forces, the complete release of prisoners on both sides, the lifting of sanctions against members of the Islamic Emirate in the event of national dialogue, and the refraining of America and its allies from interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs are important parts of this agreement.

Poor U.S. planning in Afghanistan helped Taliban take over, watchdog says

February 28, 2023 Current News Articles

By Ellen Francis

The Washington Post

February 28, 2023

A new government watchdog report details how poor planning in the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, after years of inadequate oversight, contributed to the rapid collapse of the Western-backed government as the Taliban closed in on Kabul.

The report released Tuesday describes an “abrupt and uncoordinated” pullout in 2021 and poor accountability for weapons sent to Afghanistan — with an estimate of more than $7 billion in military equipment left under Taliban control. Also at fault, it said, was the failure to create “an independent and self-sustainable” security force in Afghanistan after 20 years and $90 billion of international support.

It is the latest in a series of assessments by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, examining the demise of Afghan security forces and the Taliban takeover in America’s longest war. Many of the findings confirm previous reporting by The Washington Post and other news organizations on the final days of the Afghan government’s tenure and the U.S. troop withdrawal.

The watchdog said in reports released last year that tens of millions of dollars disappeared from Afghan government bank accounts during the Taliban comeback, and in the run-up to it, paranoia riddled senior levels of the government in Kabul as chaos overwhelmed security forces.

According to the latest SIGAR report, an agreement signed with the Taliban by the Trump administration in 2020 facilitated the unraveling, “resulting in a sense of abandonment” in Afghan government forces and the population. “The agreement set in motion a series of events crucial to understanding the [Afghan security forces’] collapse,” it said.

Tuesday’s report to Congress comes a year and a half after the militant group’s return to power stunned the world. Since then, Afghans have faced rising poverty and a crackdown on civil rights. The SIGAR report also coincides with a massive flow of Western weapons to Ukraine that has raised questions around how to conduct proper oversight.

“There is an understandable desire amid a crisis to focus on getting money out the door and to worry about oversight later, but too often that creates more problems than it solves,” the Afghanistan report said, citing the special inspector general, John Sopko. “Given the ongoing conflict and the unprecedented volume of weapons being transferred to Ukraine, the risk that some equipment ends up on the black market or in the wrong hands is likely unavoidable,” it said.

In Afghanistan, SIGAR found, the United States did not have “a full accounting of equipment and personnel even before the collapse.” It also blamed the fall of Kabul in part on corruption that eroded Afghan security forces and on the government’s inability to implement national security.

As the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital in August 2021, U.S. troops and their allies airlifted more than 100,000 people out of Afghanistan in an evacuation marred by chaos, violence and harrowing images of people trying to cling to U.S. aircraft.

In late 2021, a whistleblower in Britain described the British handling of the evacuation as “arbitrary and dysfunctional.” Thousands of emails from Afghans potentially eligible for flights out went unread by the British Foreign Office, he said.

The whistleblower, a Foreign Office official at the time, cited “inadequate staffing” and said staff members were “asked to make hundreds of life and death decisions about which they knew nothing.”

Western officials have acknowledged that many Afghans, including some who worked with U.S. and allied forces, were left scrambling as the evacuation ended, leaving Afghanistan firmly under Taliban control after 20 years of war.

80 Afghan citizens dead in Italian shipwreck – Taliban foreign ministry

February 28, 2023 Current News Articles

Reuters

February 28, 2023

KABUL, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s Taliban-led foreign ministry said on Tuesday that 80 Afghan citizens, including children, had died in Sunday’s shipwreck off the southern coast of Italy.

Rescuers have so far confirmed at least 64 people were killed after a sailboat sank in heavy seas near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria. Eighty people had been rescued and more people were believed to be missing.

“With great sadness, we learned … that 80 Afghan refugees, including women and children, who were travelling from Türkiye to Italy in a wooden boat, drowned and died in the southern sea of Italy,” the Afghan foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan prays for forgiveness for the martyrs and patience for the families and relatives of the victims, urging all citizens once again to avoid going to foreign countries through irregular migration,” the statement added, referring to the Taliban’s name for its government.

The boat had set sail from the port of Izmir in western Turkey. The U.N. refugee agency has said almost half of arrivals by sea between Turkey and Italy last year were Afghans.

Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield in Kabul; Editing by Toby Chopra

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