(Geneva) The UN on Tuesday was alarmed by the “extrajudicial killings” of former members of the Afghan security forces and others associated with the former government, saying that 72 were attributed to the Taliban.
“I am alarmed by persistent reports of extrajudicial killings across the country, despite the general amnesty announced by the Taliban after August 15,” Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al said. -Nashif, before the Human Rights Council.
She explained that between August and November, the UN received “credible allegations of more than 100 executions of former members of the Afghan national security forces and others associated with the former government, including 72 at least were attributed to the Taliban ”, and in most cases,“ the bodies were publicly exposed ”.
In addition, she said, “in the province of Nangarhar alone, at least 50 extrajudicial executions of people suspected of being members of IS-K (Islamic State-Khorasan, Editor’s note) seem to have been committed”.
The United States and its Western allies have already said at the beginning of December “concerned” by these “summary executions” revealed by human rights organizations, and called for the rapid opening of investigations.
But the Taliban rejected these accusations, deemed “unfair”.
“There have been cases of murders of former members of the security forces” of the government overthrown last summer, “but because of rivalries or personal enmities”, according to the spokesperson for the Taliban Ministry of the Interior, Qari Sayed Khosti.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August as the US-backed government in Kabul and the country’s military collapsed.
The Afghan economy, which relied heavily on international subsidies, has since collapsed. Washington froze the assets of the Afghan central bank, and the International Monetary Fund suspended aid to Kabul. The World Bank, which had done the same, announced on December 11 aid of 280 million dollars for the country.
“Life or death”
“The Afghan people are today facing a deep humanitarian crisis that threatens the most basic human rights,” Al-Nashif said.
“This situation is worsened by the impact of sanctions and the freezing of state assets,” she said, warning the international community that her “political choices […] are a matter of life and death ”for Afghans.
“They will set the course for Afghanistan in the future,” she warned.
The Taliban’s return to leadership came 20 years after they were driven out by US forces, who punished them for harboring leaders of Al-Qaeda, perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks a few months earlier. . The United States had put an end to its fundamentalist regime, which had brought it international opprobrium mainly because of the brutal treatment of women, the disrespect for human rights and the rigorous interpretation of Islam.
Today’s Taliban leaders, eager to gain international respectability, have promised their regime will be different.
On December 3, the supreme leader of the Taliban called on the government, in a decree, to “take serious measures to ensure respect for the rights of women” in Afghanistan, in particular against forced marriages, without mentioning the right to work or to work. to study.
Tuesday, Mme Al-Nashif called the decree an “important signal”, but one which “leaves many questions unanswered.”
“For example,” she said, “it does not clearly state a minimum age for marriage and does not refer to the broader rights of women and girls to education, to work, to freedom of movement. or participation in public life ”.
She also deplored the “marked decline” in secondary school attendance by girls, due in particular to the lack of female teachers.