NATO air strikes kill 142 in Kunduz province:

AI Report draws bleak picture of human rights

Afghan people continue to suffer widespread human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law more than seven years after the USA and its allies ousted the Taliban, the Amnesty International 2010 report disclosed.

It said that access to health care, education and humanitarian aid deteriorated, particularly in the south and south-east of the country, due to escalating armed conflict between Afghan and international forces and the Taliban and other armed groups. Conflict-related violations increased in northern and western Afghanistan, areas previously considered relatively safe.

The Afghan government and its international supporters failed to institute proper human rights protection mechanisms ahead of the August elections.

The elections were marred by violence and allegations of widespread electoral fraud, including ballot box stuffing, premature closure of polling stations, opening unauthorised polling stations and multiple voting.

Civilian casualties caused by the Taliban and other insurgent groups increased. Between January and September, armed groups carried out more than 7,400 attacks across the country, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office. The UN registered more than 2,400 civilian casualties.

Though the US-led international forces stated that they revised their rules of engagement to minimise civilian casualties, civilian deaths as a result of operations by international and Afghan security forces increased in the first half of the year.

NATO and US forces lacked a coherent and consistent mechanism for investigating civilian casualties and providing accountability and compensation to victims.

On September 4, NATO airstrikes near the village of Amarkhel in Kunduz province killed up to 142 people, of whom reportedly 83 were civilians. Although it was in a position to do so, NATO failed to effectively warn civilians that they were going to launch an imminent attack in the area.

On August 27, NATO forces supporting Afghan army units attacked a clinic in Paktika province, where a Taliban leader was reportedly being treated. The attack violated international humanitarian law which protects combatants no longer fighting due to injury from attack.

Civilian population

On May 4, US airstrikes in Bala Baluk district in the western province of Farah led to the deaths of more than 100 civilians. NATO and US military officials reported that Taliban militants were hiding among civilian populations to instigate attacks on civilians.

The Taliban and other armed groups stepped up attacks against Afghan journalists and blocked nearly all reporting in areas under their control. Journalists were also intimidated and attacked by the government.

Women and girls continued to face widespread discrimination, domestic violence, and abduction and rape by armed individuals.

They continued to be trafficked, traded in settlement of disputes and debts, and forced into marriages, including under-age marriages. In some instances women and girls were specifically targeted for attack by the Taliban and other armed groups.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, estimated that 297,000 Afghans were displaced from their homes, with more than 60,000 displaced in 2009 alone.

The majority of the displaced had fled the ongoing fighting in the south, east and south-eastern areas. Thousands were also displaced by drought conditions, flash floods and food shortages in central and northern areas.

Thousands of displaced people were living in makeshift camps in Kabul and Herat with inadequate shelter and very little access to food, drinking water, healthcare services and education.

A total of 368,786 refugees returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan during the year, according to UNHCR. Some returnees were displaced from their places of origin because of scarce economic opportunities and limited access to land, housing, drinking and irrigation water, healthcare and education. In several instances, the returnees’ land and property were occupied by local militias allied with the government.

Risk of torture

NATO and US forces continued to hand over detainees to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan’s intelligence service, where they were at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and unfair trials.

Two years ago, China issued the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007 in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007 issued by the US Department of State.

Released by the Information Office of China’s State Council, the Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show the human rights situation in the United States and its violation of human rights in other countries.

The report stated that the US ‘attacks’ more than 190 countries and regions including China on their human rights issues, but mentions nothing about its own human rights problems.

By publishing the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007, the report says it aims to “help the people have a better understanding of the real situation in the United States and as a reminder for the US to reflect upon its own issues”.

The report reviewed the human rights record of the US in 2007 from seven perspectives: on life and personal security, on human rights violations by law enforcement and judicial departments, on civil and political rights, on economic, social and cultural rights, on racial discrimination, on rights of women and children and on the United States’ violation of human rights in other countries.