IRAN, PAKISTAN AND RUSSIA FANS THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, REPORT
NEW YORK 14 July (IPS) In a new report released Friday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Pakistan, Iran, and Russia of providing military support to Afghan factions with a long record of committing gross abuses of human rights. Other states in the region have also contributed to the ongoing war.
"The civil war in Afghanistan has been absolutely disastrous for civilians," said Joost R. Hiltermann, Executive Director of the Arms Division of humanitarian organisation.
"An arms embargo is the only way to stop the human rights violations the Afghans have suffered", the 55-page report says.
In calling for an embargo on military assistance, Human Rights Watch said that enforcement measures should be carefully structured to ensure a two-sided embargo would not benefit one side, the Taleban, at the expense of the other, the United Front. For reasons of geography and other factors, an embargo is more easily enforced against the United Front than the Taleban, according to the report.
"Lifting the embargo should be made contingent on concrete steps by the factions to end gross violations of human rights and bring perpetrators to justice", Human Rights Watch said.
The report presents Pakistan as the principal international sponsor of the Taleban and charges that Pakistan has violated the U.N. arms embargo on the Taleban imposed in December 2000 by permitting arms to cross its border into Taleban-controlled territory.
"Official denials notwithstanding, Pakistan has provided the Taleban with military advisers and logistical support during key battles; has bankrolled the Taleban; has facilitated trans-shipment of arms, ammunition, and fuel through its territory; and has openly encouraged the recruitment of Pakistanis to fight for the Taleban", the Organisation says, citing Saudi Arabia as a provider of funds to the Taleban.
In calling for a comprehensive embargo on arms and other military assistance, HRW said that Pakistan, in particular, should be pressed to comply with the embargo, especially to prevent the re-supply of ammunition and spare parts to the Taleban.
"Pakistan should also be urged to accept U.N. monitors to work alongside its own customs personnel, and steps should be taken to penalize Pakistan if it fails to comply with the U.N. embargo. Such measures should be designed to minimise any adverse humanitarian impact in Pakistan", the organisation further observed.
Supporting the coalition of opposition groups known as the United Front are Iran and Russia, with secondary roles played by Tajikistan and, at least until 1998, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
While Iran has provided weapons, large-scale funding, and training, Russia has played a crucial enabling role in the re-supply of United Front forces by arranging for the transport of Iranian aid, as well as providing direct military assistance itself, including transport helicopters in late 2000, the report said, observing that military assistance to United Front forces has crossed the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border with the active collusion of the Russian government.
In the war, all major factions have repeatedly committed serious violations of international law, including killings, indiscriminate aerial bombardment and shelling, direct attacks on civilians, summary executions, rape, persecution on the basis of religion, and the use of antipersonnel landmines.
"Most of the recent violations, especially summary executions and indiscriminate aerial bombardment, have been by the Taleban, while the United Front has failed to hold its commanders accountable for past abuses, the report added.
Many of the factions' violations can be shown to have been "widespread or systematic," a criterion of crimes against humanity. Direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks resulting in civilian casualties may amount to war crimes under international humanitarian law.
The humanitarian toll of twenty years of fighting -- some 1.5 million deaths and the massive displacement of populations, famine, and the ruin of the country's economic base -- has not figured prominently in international policy on Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said, noting that the existing U.N. sanctions against the Taleban, imposed to compel the surrender of Osama bin Laden, "do not address the larger issue of the war's impact on the civilian population".
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"The international community has failed to hold Afghanistan's warring factions accountable for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law," said Hiltermann. "Civilians are at the center of this conflict, and their well-being must be at the center of the solution", he added.
Entitled "Crisis of Impunity: The Role of Pakistan, Russia, and Iran in Fuelling the Civil War in Afghanistan", the report details the nature of military support provided to the warring parties; the major transit routes used to move arms and other equipment; the suppliers; the role of state and non state actors; and the response of the international community.
The HRW conducted research on military assistance to the Taleban and the United Front over a two-year period, travelling to both Kabul and areas of Afghanistan under United Front control, as well as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan, and interviewing government officials, members of the diplomatic community, military officers, civil servants, journalists, academics, and others. ENDS HRW AFQANESTAN 14701