Day: March 10, 2022

From his office in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has appointed ministers to Afghanistan’s de facto government, governors for the 34 provinces, and even a supreme court chief justice through “decrees” which do not need approval from a legislative body. There is one national institution, though, whose fate Akhundzada has yet to decide — the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

Nearly seven months after the return of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban’s emir, the commander of the faithful as he is officially called, has neither appointed new commissioners to the national rights watchdog nor instructed its nearly 400 employees to return to work.

Unlike Afghanistan’s elections commission, which the Taliban decided to abolish saying there will be no more presidential or parliamentary elections in the country, the future of the human rights commission remains uncertain.

Sohail Shaheen, a Taliban official, told VOA the AIHRC has not been abolished, but he could not explain why the rights monitoring body remains leaderless and dysfunctional.

The AIHRC has gone silent at a time when there are mounting concerns about a worsening human rights situation in Afghanistan.

Human rights groups have accused Taliban authorities of adopting misogynistic policies, restricting free media, and perpetuating other forms of egregious human rights violations — charges the Taliban deny.

“It’s crucial for any country to have independent human rights bodies… for Afghanistan it’s even more important,” Juliette Rousselot, an expert with the International Federation for Human Rights, told VOA.

Activists gone

Last August, when the former Afghan government collapsed, all nine AIHRC commissioners, including its chairwoman, fled the country, fearing retribution from the Taliban. For almost two decades, the AIHRC had reported on serious human rights violations by the Taliban, including allegations of war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed by some Taliban commanders.

The flight of human rights activists from Afghanistan has been seen beyond the AIHRC commissioners.

The Dublin-based Frontline Defenders, a non-government organization advocating the safety of human rights activists, says it helped evacuate more than 1,000 Afghan human rights defenders and their immediate family members last year.

There are more than 2,000 additional individuals in the same category, who are waiting to be taken out of Afghanistan, Adam Shapiro, head of communications at Frontline Defenders, told VOA.

Thousands of other civil society activists, including journalists and artists, have left Afghanistan, and hundreds of media outlets there have stopped operations.

In the first two weeks after the fall of the previous Afghan government, the U.S. military evacuated more than 124,000 Afghans, according to official figures from the U.S. government.

Despite the exodus of many rights activists, some Afghans, particularly women’s rights activists, have continued to call for rights, freedom and justice in Kabul and some other cities across the country. Taliban authorities have at times detained women’s rights activists and beaten journalists, according to independent watchdogs.

Advocacy from abroad

“I have spent the past few months reflecting on the human rights journey of Afghanistan & the implications of the current situation on the future of human rights in the country,” Shaharzad Akbar, the last chairwoman of the AIHRC, told VOA.

Akbar and several other Afghan women have continued to advocate for the rights of Afghan women and minorities from Europe, Canada and the U.S.

Last month, the European Parliament organized a two-day event in support of Afghan women at its headquarters in Brussels. In the U.S., a group of Afghan and international women rights activists have created an organization called the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan, with former Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallström as its chair.

Several Afghan women have received international prizes for their courage and resilience in the face of growing Taliban restrictions inside Afghanistan.

This widespread international support has given hope for the self-appointed acting chairman of the AIHRC, Naim Nazari, to explore the possibilities of reconstituting the watchdog in exile.

“The Taliban has no legitimacy,” Nazari told VOA from his home in Denmark, adding that the AIHRC would have no independence under a Taliban government.

Nazari said he has approached some donors to seek their support for a reconstitution of the AIHRC in exile. “This will depend on support from the international community,” he said.

From its founding in 2002 to its abrupt disintegration in 2021, the AIHRC, whose role was also enshrined in article 58 of Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution, was sponsored by Western donors. In 2020, for instance, 75% of the AIHRC’s $5.2 million budget was funded by Australia, Canada and several European countries.

There are others who consider the work of the AIHRC from abroad unfeasible and ineffective.

“The human rights commission cannot operate only from a Twitter handle,” said a former AIHRC official, who asked for anonymity. “You need to be on the ground to monitor, verify and substantiate the events and be able to talk to all sides.”

Caught between the Taliban’s disinterest in human rights reporting and the inability of the human rights activists to work under the Taliban, Afghanistan’s only human rights body remains inactive at a time its most needed.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON —

After making a dramatic escape from Kabul last August, Zarifa Ghafari, once Afghanistan’s youngest female mayor, vowed to return to her native country.

“Leaving [Afghanistan] doesn’t mean I’ve left forever,” she told VOA after evacuating to Germany. “I’m optimistic that I’ll return to my country very soon.”

Last week, she made good on her word. But no sooner had she announced her arrival in Kabul on Twitter and Facebook — “I’ve come to my people!” — than her return set off a social media quarrel among Taliban critics and boosters.

While many praised her courage to return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to deliver badly needed humanitarian aid, others accused her of coddling the militant group.

“The Taliban will leave you alone because you’re a Talib,” one Twitter user wrote.

Added another commentator, “So what was the reason for your departure [in August]? Aren’t [today’s] Taliban the same as yesterday’s Taliban?”

In an interview with VOA, Ghafari responded to her critics.

“Unfortunately, critics who have moved from Afghanistan to the West have an unstable view,” she said. “I’m sure most of their families are living in extreme poverty, and if helping the desperate nation amounts to solidarity with the Taliban, this is a good thing.”

Ghafari is one of only a handful of public figures known to have returned to Afghanistan in recent months following the U.S.-led evacuation of more than 124,000 people in August.

In November, popular TV comedian Ibrahim Abed went back. In February, the Taliban welcomed Abdul Salam Rahimi, a peace minister in former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government.

Their “homecoming” has added to a raging debate over just how much the Taliban have changed since their last repressive rule in the 1990s. While Taliban officials claim they’ve moderated their ways, critics remain skeptical, citing, among other things, the group’s crackdown on rights activists and others.

Ghafari, 30, finds herself in the eye of the controversy in part because she was once among the Taliban’s fiercest critics. In 2018, she became Afghanistan’s youngest mayor when she was put in charge of Maidan Shahr, a small town 46 kilometers southeast of Kabul.

Opposition to her appointment in the conservative province was swift and severe. But despite death threats and assassination attempts, she remained on the job for three years, winning international recognition for her defiance of the Taliban.

In late 2020, Ghafari’s father, an army special forces commander, was gunned down in Kabul, and she later blamed the Taliban for his death. With Taliban forces closing in on her city, Ghani appointed her as a senior Defense Ministry official in early 2021.

After the Taliban seized power, Ghafari and her family evacuated to Germany. She later told VOA she feared for her family’s safety and vowed to “raise the unspoken voice of Afghan women throughout the world.”

As she made the rounds in recent months criticizing the Taliban, Afghanistan descended into the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

“As an Afghan, I couldn’t just sit and watch it from abroad and not do anything about it,” she told VOA’s Afghan Service.

Former co-workers, she said, warned her about the risks of returning.

“Their advice was that the risk is extremely high but sacrificing for public service is a victory for history,” she said. “As in the past, I’ve chosen the path of sacrifice.”

But Ghafari said whatever apprehension she had disappeared as she flew into Kabul on a flight full of women in late February.

“What gave me reassurance was these women. When I landed, I was apprehensive. But no one said anything to me. Nothing happened [to me],” she said.

Despite imposing many restrictions, the Taliban allowed women to work in media and attend university. But Ghafari said she has no interest in working for them. She has forsworn politics and instead wants to carry out humanitarian work through her NGO, Assistance and Promotion for Afghan Women.

“I just want to work for the people without any political, personal … or foreign goals,” she said.

Ghafari is circumspect about her plans to stay in Afghanistan. “Contrary to expectations, I have a long-term plan to travel both at home and abroad to draw the world’s attention to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan,” she told VOA.

On Monday, she traveled to Abu Dhabi where she and a former Afghan member of parliament received Forbes magazine’s Changemaker Award.

At the award ceremony, she said the Taliban are “capable of changing.”

“The Taliban do not stone women in public … as they did in the past. They do not torture women without a male companion, but instead are opening the doors of schools and universities to them,” she said. “If someone tries to reform himself, the world has a responsibility to help him.”

On social media, the comments prompted charges that she’s normalizing the Taliban.

“You’ve sold out,” one commenter wrote in response to her speech. “You’re a big part of the Taliban normalization project.”

But others came to her defense.

“Thank you for presenting the real picture of Afghans to the world,” a Facebook user named Saifullah Samim wrote. “Also invite other activists to serve their country.”

Source: Voice of America

ISLAMABAD —

Pakistan’s military said Thursday that an Indian “unarmed supersonic missile” had struck its territory, damaging civilian property but causing no casualties.

“Pakistan strongly protests this flagrant violation and cautions against recurrence of any such incident in the future,” army spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

“Whatever caused this incident to happen, it is for the Indians to explain,” he demanded, saying the “provocative” Indian act took place Wednesday evening.

There was no immediate response from India.

Iftikhar said Pakistan’s air defense system picked up the surface-to-surface rocket as soon as it took off from the Indian city of Sirsa, about 104 kilometers from the border between the two countries, and “continuously monitored” its complete flight path.

“From its initial course, the object suddenly maneuvered towards Pakistani territory and violated Pakistan’s airspace, ultimately falling near Mian Channu,” he said.

The general explained that the missile was flying at an altitude of 12 kilometers and stayed in Pakistani airspace for roughly 204 seconds before ending up 124 kilometers inside Pakistan in the eastern border province of Punjab.

“And when it fell, it also damaged some civilian property. Thankfully, no loss or injury to human life was caused,” he said, noting that there were no sensitive military installations in the area of impact.

But Iftikhar said the incident could have resulted in a major aviation disaster and civilian casualties on the ground.

“It is important to highlight that the flight path of this object endangered many international and domestic passenger flights both in Indian and Pakistani airspace, as well as human life and property on the ground,” he said.

Vice Marshal Tariq Zia, a senior Pakistani air force officer, told reporters that aviation experts were still examining remnants of the high-speed rocket.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry later summoned the Indian charge d’affaires in Islamabad to lodge a formal protest over the “unprovoked” violation of Pakistan airspace.

“Such irresponsible incidents were also reflective of India’s disregard for air safety and callousness towards regional peace and stability,” the ministry said in a statement.

It called for a thorough and transparent investigation into the incident.

Pakistan and India have fought each other in three wars since gaining independence from British rule in 1947.

The long-running territorial dispute over the divided Kashmir region remains the primary source of tension between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors. Both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.

The two countries came close to another war in February 2019 when Pakistan’s air force shot down an Indian fighter plane and captured its pilot after a dogfight over the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir.

The aerial combat came just hours after Indian warplanes conduced a strike in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan, against an alleged militant training camp. Islamabad rejected the charges as baseless.

Source: Voice of America