UNAMA: ‘200’ Cases of Violations of Rights of Afghan Reporters

The Committee to Protect Journalists in Afghanistan said that in the last year no cases of murder have been recorded in Afghanistan.

On the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said that after the collapse of the previous government, more than 200 cases of human rights violations against journalists, including arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment, threats, and intimidation have been recorded.

“Human rights abuses of more than 200 reporters in Afghanistan recorded by UNAMA since August 2021.

Record high numbers include arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment, threats, and intimidation.

Media in Afghanistan is in peril, let us all help Protect Journalists End Impunity,” said UNAMA.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that Afghanistan is among five countries where the murder cases of journalists in the last ten years have not been dealt with.

“These are the countries where journalists are murdered in retaliation for their work and their killers go free, according to CPJ’s 2022 Impunity Index: Somalia, Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexico, Philippines, Myanmar, Brazil, Pakistan, India,” said Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Those who are involved in these cases should be referred to judicial bodies,” said Samiullah Popal, a journalist.

“We want the Islamic Emirate to investigate the cases of journalists,” said Mohibullah Barikzai, a journalist.

The Committee to Protect Journalists in Afghanistan said that in the last year no cases of murder have been recorded in Afghanistan.

“Violence against journalists is still ongoing, We want the government to punish the perpetrators of violence against journalists and take legal action against them,” said Jamil Waqar, Media Officer of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

“There have been other problems, temporary arrests for a long time and violence, we have recorded about 140 cases. Out of all of these, one case has been investigated,” said Hujatullah Mujadadi, a member of the Afghanistan National Journalists Union.

The Ministry of Culture and Information denied the numbers claimed by UNAMA about the abuse of reporters in Afghanistan.

“We consider these claims to be far from the truth, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, especially the Ministry of Information and Culture, is determined to uphold all the fundamental rights of journalists,” said Hayat Mahajer Farahi, deputy of publications of the Ministry of Information and Culture.

According to the Afghanistan National Journalists Union, in the past 20 years 120 domestic and foreign journalists have been killed in Afghanistan and after the collapse of the government 12,000 media employees have become jobless and 225 media outlets have been closed.

UNAMA: ‘200’ Cases of Violations of Rights of Afghan Reporters
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US Congressman Concerned of Afghan ‘Collapse’ if West Disengages

US Representative Peter Meijer in a conversation with TOLOnews said that Washington and the international community have not engaged with the caretaker government because of “terrorism” and “human rights” issues.

Meijer made the remarks in an interview with TOLOnews.

“You have two main factors. You have, one, the issue and the concerns on the international community’s behalf on issues of terrorism, on issues of women in schools and frankly on getting adjusted to the new reality. I think there has to be a give-and-take on both sides. There has to be an accommodation and an understanding on the West’s behalf on that what is important is that the Afghan people decide their future, that is not something that can be imposed from outside, and so we need to work with the parties that are in power to determine that new future,” he said.

Meijer said that if the US doesn’t work to build relations with the Islamic Emirate, Afghanistan would be at risk of collapse.

“My fear is that if the West disengages, if America does not work to build relations, if we do not have good cooperation between the IEA and the USA—if we do not get that, then we risk Afghanistan once more collapsing and once more potentially being a place where not only the Afghan people suffer but becomes a threat and a place where terrorist organizations can once again conduct attacks against other parts of the world,” Meijer said.

Political analysts also called for the international community’s engagement with Afghanistan.

“The Islamic Emirate makes efforts to earn recognition but the world has its own demands. One of the demands is the formation of an inclusive government, second is human rights, third is women, and fourth is the reopening of girls’ schools,” said Shir Agha Rohani, a political analyst.

“It is essential that the Afghan government stands against the illegal wishes of the US, and determines its foreign policy within the format of a constitution,” said Fazal Rahman Oria, a political analyst.

The head of the Islamic Emirate’s political office in Qatar, Suhail Shaheen, said that there will be no threat from Afghan soil to the world countries.

“We will not allow anyone to pose threats from Afghan soil toward others. Also, by ensuring good security tightening the control of the government across the country, the violation of human rights which use to happen on a daily basis has been eliminated,” he said.

Despite having diplomatic relations with some international countries, the Islamic Emirate has not yet been recognized by any country.

US Congressman Concerned of Afghan ‘Collapse’ if West Disengages
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Watchdog points to dire conditions in Afghanistan amid US agencies’ resistance to oversight

A government watchdog is offering a grim update on life in Afghanistan since the U.S. withdrawal while chastising American agencies for rebuffing its attempts to review their efforts in the country since the Taliban takeover.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which has been reviewing multiple agencies’ work in the troubled nation for over a decade, said early Wednesday it has never faced this level of resistance to its oversight duties.

“SIGAR, for the first time in its history, is unable this quarter to provide Congress and the American people with a full accounting of this U.S. government spending due to the noncooperation of several U.S. government agencies,” the agency wrote in its quarterly report to Congress.

“The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which administers the majority of U.S. government spending for Afghanistan, and the Treasury Department refused to cooperate with SIGAR in any capacity, while the State Department was selective in the information it provided pursuant to SIGAR’s audit and quarterly data requests, sharing high-level funding data but not details of agency-supported programs in Afghanistan.”

Some agencies rebuffed the inspector general multiple times, The Hill previously reported, with an October email indicating that USAID and the State Department had both “largely declined” to respond to requests for information following a June notice to lawmakers from SIGAR.

The U.S. has provided more than $1 billion in aid to the people of Afghanistan since removing its troops from the country last year.

But while SIGAR struggled to fully assess the U.S. government’s role in a post-withdrawal Afghanistan, it was able to pull together a bleak assessment of conditions in the country since the U.S. exit.

A U.S.-backed effort to promote a free press has largely evaporated under Taliban rule, as has most of the progress made in quality of life for women, whether in education, health care or the economy.

The watchdog reports the Taliban have essentially wiped out 30 years of developments, concluding that “current conditions are similar to those under the Taliban in the 1990s.”

“SIGAR found that women and girls now face significant risks including reduced access to education and healthcare; loss of empowerment, including the ability to be economically and otherwise independent; and heightened personal safety and security risks,” the report noted.

UNICEF estimates that more than 3 million girls who previously attended secondary school no longer do so following a ban on education for women past the elementary school level. It’s a move the international agency estimates will cost the Afghan economy up to $5.4 billion in lifetime earnings potential.

That figure coincides with a broader economic collapse since the U.S. exit.

The entire country is facing intense food insecurity, with nearly half resorting to skipping some meals. More than 18 million people face life-threatening levels of hunger, including 6 million facing near-famine conditions.

More than half the country is in need of humanitarian assistance, with some $600 million needed in just the next few months to prepare for winter by upgrading shelters and giving out clothes and blankets.

Since the withdrawal, Afghanistan has seen 40 percent of its media outlets close and lost 60 percent of its journalists, according to data from Reporters Without Borders.

“Since August 2021, the Afghan media sector has mostly collapsed under the weight of the Taliban’s restrictions and censorship,” SIGAR wrote, concluding that “without long-term, institutional support to independent journalists inside and outside of the country, Afghanistan’s media may not be able to withstand the Taliban’s efforts to totally control the flow of information about the country.”

Link to report: https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2022-10-30qr.pdf

Watchdog points to dire conditions in Afghanistan amid US agencies’ resistance to oversight
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Poppy Cultivation Increased 32% From Past Year: UNODC

Opium prices have risen following the announcement of the cultivation ban in April.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan has increased by 32 percent over the previous year, to 233,000 hectares – making the 2022 crop the third largest area under cultivation since monitoring began.” 

But the deputy minister of Counter-Narcotics denied the surge of poppy cultivation in the country.

“Afghan farmers are trapped in the illicit opiate economy, while seizure events around Afghanistan suggest that opiate trafficking continues unabated,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly, launching the new survey.

“The international community must work to address the acute needs of the Afghan people, and to step up responses to stop the criminal groups trafficking heroin and harming people in countries around the world.”

According to UNODC, opium prices have risen following the announcement of the cultivation ban in April.

“Income made by Afghan farmers from opium sales more than tripled, from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022,” the report reads.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that the price of illegal drugs in Afghanistan has risen by 50% since the Islamic Emirate outlawed the trade, citing data gathered from across the country by UK-based Alcis, which conducts satellite imagery research.

Some Afghan farmers said that they are obliged to cultivate poppy to make an end meet to their families.

“When the Islamic Emirate issued a decree in this regard, the prices increased. 7kg of opium is now sold for 150,000 Afs. This shows a surge between 50 to 60 percent,” said Abdul Qudos, a farmer in Uruzgan.

“The prices have increased now. The prices of opium were low previously. The prices have surged and thus the people are interested in cultivating poppy,” said a farmer in Uruzgan.

The head of the office for the Deputy Minister of Counter-Narcotics, Haseebullah Ahmadi, said that they have conducted 760 raids over the past two months and 930 people were arrested.

“We deny this report. The cultivation of poppy and narcotics after the decree of the (leader of the Islamic Emirate) has not happened. There has been no drug dealing since then,” he said.

The analysts cited the ban on the cultivation of poppy as a reason for the rise in its price.

“The best option is that the Taliban found a good alternative for the narcotics and paved the ground for engagement with the world,” said Rahmatullah Bizhanpor, a political analyst.

This comes as the deputy minister of Counter-Narcotics said that more 2,200 hectares of lands have been cleared of poppy plants.

Poppy Cultivation Increased 32% From Past Year: UNODC
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Price: US Will Never Allow Afghanistan to Become Safe Haven

Earlier, the Islamic Emirate said that they will never allow the use Afghanistan’s soil against other countries.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Washington and its partners will never allow Afghanistan to become a safe place for terrorists.

Ned Price added that the Islamic Emirate has to achieve trust in the world.

“The United States and our partners around the world won’t allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for international terrorists who pose a threat to the United States, to our partners around the world,” Price said at a press conference.

Price said that Tom West, US special representative for Afghanistan, talked with some officials of the Islamic Emirate about counterterrorism and different issues in Doha.

“Our special representative for Afghanistan, Tom West, recently met with the Taliban in Doha.  They discussed a number of US interests, including counterterrorism, and we’ll continue to engage with the Taliban pragmatically,” said Price.

Several political analysts said the Islamic Emirate must take steps to earn the world’s trust.

“The Islamic Emirate should show readiness, and a joint plan should be created between these countries, especially between the US and the Islamic Emirate,” said Zaman Gul Dehati, political analyst.

“The world also uses the name of terrorism as a tactic and in this way they want to achieve the same political and economic goals that they have in Afghanistan,” said Sarwari Niazi, military issues analyst.

Earlier, the Islamic Emirate said that they will never allow the use Afghanistan’s soil against other countries.

After claiming that the leader of the Al-Qaeda network was killed in Kabul, the United States of America and the Islamic Emirate accused each other of violating the Doha Agreement.

Price: US Will Never Allow Afghanistan to Become Safe Haven
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MoI Hires Back Former Female Police Officers

Some political analysts believe that hiring women as police will have a positive impact in providing security in our society.

The Ministry of Interior Affairs has begun hiring female employees who worked for the previous government, the ministry spokesman said.

“We are trying to hire policewomen that have practical experience in this area, “said Abdul Nafay Takor, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

The Ministry of Interior Affairs yesterday published a video of female employees and said that nearly one hundred former police officers have been rehired as a policewomen in this ministry.

Khadijih has been hired as policewoman and said that she is trained to provide security.

“We learned some lessons that are very useful and now we are ready for defense,” said Khadijih, a policewoman.

“We called those women who were working officially before to come and join us, there is no threat to them,” said Zahrah, a policewoman.

Some political analysts believe that hiring women as police will have a positive impact in providing security in our society.

“Having women in official and civil and military institutions is important and necessary,” said Assdullah Nadim, a military expert.

“The presence of professional and trained female police in the security sector and in providing security and reducing crimes is an urgent need,” said Sadiq Shinwari, a military expert.

In the previous government, more than 4,000 policewomen worked in various sections to provide security across the country.

MoI Hires Back Former Female Police Officers
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Opium production increases 32% in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, U.N. report says

BY AHMAD MUKHTAR

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan jumped 32% during 2022 despite the ruling Taliban regime’s ban on narcotics, according to an annual report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The Taliban regime rejected the findings, telling CBS News it was part of a “politically motivated” international pressure campaign.”The 2022 opium crop in Afghanistan is the most profitable in years, with cultivation up by one-third and prices soaring even as the country is gripped by cascading humanitarian and economic crises,” said the UNODC report released on Tuesday.

Opium capital of the world

This year has seen farmers cultivating opium on about 576,000 acres of land, compared to 437,000 acres estimated during 2021, making it the third largest cultivation year since 1994, when UNODC monitoring first began. Only 2017 and 2018 saw more Afghan soil used to cultivate opium poppies.

Afghanistan has a long history of cultivating opium, a drug in its own right that’s also the key ingredient in a variety of other highly addictive narcotics, from heroin to a range of opioid painkillers.

The country remained the leading producer of the lucrative drug even during the U.S.-led invasion, despite its own government and partnering nations spending millions of dollars in a bid to eradicate the crop. Southern Afghanistan, the birthplace of the Taliban where thousands of U.S. troops were based during the two-decade war with the Islamic extremist group, has been seen as the hub of opium cultivation since 2001.

“Cultivation continued to be concentrated in the south-western parts of the country, which accounted for 73 percent of the total area and saw the largest crop increase,” the U.N. report said, noting that an estimated 80% of the world’s total opium crop comes from Afghanistan.

A decree, and a denial

After the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the group’s reclusive leader Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree outlawing the cultivation of all drugs, including the opium poppy, across the country.

“If anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately, and the violator will be treated according to Sharia law,” warned Akhundzada.

But despite his decree, the Taliban has reportedly turned a blind eye and allowed farmers to continue cultivating their opium crops.

Afghanistan’s economy is still reeling from the sudden withdrawal of international funds, as most foreign governments refuse to work with the Taliban. Starvation is an imminent threat for millions of people in the country, and depriving farmers of their livelihood would be a difficult move for Afghanistan’s rulers.

“The opiate trafficking from Afghanistan has been ongoing without interruption since August 2021,” said the UNODC report. “This year’s harvest was largely exempted from the decree.”

Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar and a designated ambassador to the United Nations, told CBS News the information contained in the U.N. report was “not true.”

“I reject the claim,” Shaheen told CBS News. “There is total ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. Those who are making such baseless claims while sitting behind their desks 20,000 kilometres from Afghanistan should know they are being used as an instrument of pressure against IEA [Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] and their report reflects a plethora of politically motivated claims.”

“Trapped in the illicit opiate economy”

Even before Afghanistan fell back into Taliban hands its economy was in free-fall, due to the rapid withdrawal of coalition forces, the COVID-19 pandemic and a severe drought. But as the group reasserted its power, international governments including the U.S. froze Afghan national reserve assets, international aid was cut off, unemployment soared, new economic sanctions were imposed, and a humanitarian crisis deepened precipitously.

“Afghan farmers are trapped in the illicit opiate economy,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly in the report. “The international community must work to address the acute needs of the Afghan people.”

The UNODC report said Afghan farmers have made $1.4 billion from opium sales this year, more than triple the amount they made in 2021. But even with their huge windfall Afghan farmers won’t have been much better off, as inflation has also soared during the same period, sending food prices soaring up to 35%.

Opium production increases 32% in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, U.N. report says
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Women Hold Protest for Right to Learn and Work

The Ministry of Economy said that efforts are ongoing to create work opportunities for women.

Following calls to reopen girls’ schools above sixth grade and employment for women, a group of women staged a protest in Kabul to express their concerns about the continued effective ban on female students over 6th grade and on female employment.

Protesters called on the Islamic Emirate to create work for women and to allow girls above grade six to learn.

These women added that depriving women of work and education has widened the scope of poverty in the country.

A mother complained about economic problems,  saying that previously she worked at the Ministry of Interior as a head of the gender department of the ministry, but now she is jobless and faced with economic challenges.

“We call on the United Nations and the international community to pay attention to us and save women from these violations of their rights,” said Marghalare, former employee of the Ministry of Interior.

Some women, due to the lack of work and the limitations on education,  held a protest and showed their educational documents as a sign of protest, and asked the government for jobs and education.

“The document that we have in our hands is useless because all of us are at home and do not have any jobs,” said Shokorya, a protester.

“If they don’t address our problems we will continue our struggle,” said Arezo, a protester.

The Ministry of Economy said that efforts are ongoing to create work opportunities for women.

“Specialists and elites play an important role in the development, advancement and progress of the country, and, in this regard, our policy is to support businesswomen and experts,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, deputy Minister of Economy.

“The government has the responsibility to address economic, political, and social problems of the people–men and women,” said Abdul Jamil Sharani, political analyst.

It has been 14 months since most women lost their jobs in governmental organizations and they are not allowed to go to work, and also girls above grade sixth have been banned from attending secondary school.

Women Hold Protest for Right to Learn and Work
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ICC judges approve request to reopen Afghanistan probe

By MIKE CORDER

Associated Press
October 31, 2022

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges have approved a request by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to reopen an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, saying Afghan authorities are not carrying out meaningful probes into the alleged crimes.

The court announced the decision Monday, saying that authorities in Kabul have not established that “Afghanistan has investigated, or was investigating, in a manner that covers the full scope of the Prosecutor’s intended investigations and that would justify even a partial deferral of the court’s investigations.”

The decision comes just over a year after Prosecutor Karim Khan announced that he wanted to resume an ICC probe in Afghanistan because under the country’s new Taliban rulers there was “no longer the prospect of genuine and effective domestic investigations” in the country.

Judges at the global court authorized an investigation by Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, in 2020 covering offenses allegedly committed by Afghan government forces, the Taliban, American troops and U.S. foreign intelligence operatives dating back to 2002. The United States are not a member of the court and do not recognize its jurisdiction.

The decision to investigate Americans led to the Trump administration slapping sanctions on Bensouda, who has since left office. However, the probe was shelved after Afghan authorities asked to take over the case — known at the court as requesting deferral.

The ICC is a court of last resort, set up in 2002 to prosecute alleged atrocities in countries that cannot or will not bring perpetrators to justice — known as the principle of complementarity.

When Khan sought last year to reopen the court’s investigation, he said he now plans to focus on crimes committed by the Taliban and the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group, adding that he will “deprioritize” other aspects of the investigation.

On his decision to no longer prioritize other aspects of the probe, including allegations of crimes by Americans, Khan said last year that his office “will remain alive to its evidence preservation responsibilities, to the extent they arise, and promote accountability efforts within the framework of the principle of complementarity.”

Judges said in their decision Monday that their decision to authorize a resumption of the investigation covers all alleged crimes, meaning it could include allegations of crimes by U.S. personnel. However, it remains up to Khan to decide what allegations to investigate.

In 2016, before seeking authorization to open a full-scale investigation in Afghanistan, ICC prosecutors said that U.S. troops and the CIA may have tortured and mistreated people in detention facilities in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania.

Khan’s decision last year to no longer prioritize investigations into those allegations drew criticism from activists.

In response to Monday’s court decision, Patricia Gossman, the associate director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, said: “The International Criminal Court’s resumed investigation in Afghanistan should address serious crimes by all sides to the conflict, including U.S. forces, to bring justice even when the most powerful nations are involved.”

ICC judges approve request to reopen Afghanistan probe
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Criminal Activities Increased Recently in Kabul: Residents

A spokesman for the Kabul security department, Khalid Zadran, said that the criminal activities have dropped compared to before.

Criminal activity, particularly of armed robbery, has recently surged in Kabul, residents said.

However, the Kabul security department denied the rise in criminal activities in the capital.

Ikramullah, 23, was killed by armed robbers in Arzan Kemat area of PD 12. The robbers took away Ikramullah’s car. He was a student in the engineering faculty in Nangarhar University.

“We don’t have personal hostility with anyone. When we reached the area, my son was lying down and his car was stolen,” said Ghulam Sakhi Lodeen, Ikramullah’s father.

The family members of Ikramullah called on the Islamic Emirate to hold the perpetrators accountable.

“They are drug-addicted people. They bring a pistol and put it on the people and tell them to ‘pull out your phone and money,’” said Taj Mohammad Faqiri, a resident of Kabul.

“I call on the government to provide security and assess the checkpoints,” said Parwiz, a resident of Kabul.

The residents of Kabul called on the Islamic Emirate to launch night patrols and increase the number of security checkpoints.

“The Islamic Emirate may increase the number of checkpoints,” a resident said.

A spokesman for the Kabul security department, Khalid Zadran, said that the criminal activities have dropped compared to before.

“The criminal activities have dropped over the past year compared to before. The people are cooperating with us. We have arrested many criminals and brought them to justice. The ‘100’ phone number of the police is active. The residents can contact us through it,” he said.

Earlier, the Ministry of Interior Affairs said it had registered more than 8,700 criminal activities over the past one year.

Criminal Activities Increased Recently in Kabul: Residents
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