Amnesty denounces a major setback to human rights in Afghanistan after the first year of Taliban rule

MADRID, 15 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

On the eve of a year since the Taliban regained power with the definitive and unopposed takeover of Kabul, Amnesty International (AI) has denounced that since then they have been directing "a sustained attack" against freedoms, persecuting minorities and violently repressing any opposition.

In its report published this Monday with the title 'The Taliban law: A year of violence, impunity and false promises', Amnesty highlights "the flagrant violations" that have been committed in the last year, as well as the impunity for which they enjoy to torture, assassinate and make disappear those who oppose the regime.

"A year ago, the Taliban made a public commitment to protect and promote human rights. But the speed at which they are dismantling 20 years of progress in terms of freedoms is impressive," said the regional director of Amnesty International for South Asia, Yamini Mishra.

In this sense, he lamented that "all hope of change has vanished while the Taliban try to govern through repression and with total impunity", as shown by "arbitrary arrests, torture, disappearances and summary executions".

The return of the Taliban has in turn been a major setback for women and girls, who after two decades of progress have been stripped of their rights. Now "they face a bleak future, deprived of education and the possibility of participating in public life," she has denounced.

With the capture of Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban put an end to a swift campaign to take over much of Afghanistan after the departure of the United States and its allies. Since then, and despite the promises made to the international community, Amnesty has compiled widespread cases of human rights violations against the population.

"Hundreds of civilians have been arbitrarily detained," Amnesty denounces in its report, which includes the case of 'Sahiba' --fictitious name--, a demonstrator beaten and tortured by the Taliban.

"There was no court, there were no charges and there were no procedural guarantees; they kidnapped us in the streets, they kept us in jail for several days without access to our family, or to a lawyer. Some women with whom I shared a cell never came back and we don't know what It has happened to them," he says.

For his part, Torab Kakar has denounced to the NGO how the Taliban skipped the promise of granting "total amnesty" to those who were part of the security forces of the previous government, recounting the case of his friend Jalal, who was beaten handcuffed and Blindfolded.

"After he was beaten and when his family searched for him, the local intelligence chief threatened them and warned them to stop looking," says Kakar. Jalal's case is one of the "hundreds" of reprisals and extrajudicial killings that have been recorded to punish those who were part of the previous regime.

"There have been hundreds of extrajudicial killings and bodies with gunshot wounds or signs of torture have been found. Dozens of people have disappeared and remain unaccounted for due to their work with the previous government or for allegedly participating in the resistance against the Taliban." , notes Amnesty.

The string of crimes perpetrated by the Taliban is wide and varied. Added to torture, indiscriminate arrests and extrajudicial killings are the persecutions of religious ethnic minorities, as well as the forced displacement to which they are forced and the plundering of their lands.

"There have been reports of non-Pashtun Afghans forcibly evicted from their homes and land so that the Taliban could reward their supporters," Amnesty said. The main affected by these persecution policies are the Hazara, Turkmen and Uzbek peoples. One year after the taking of Kabul, the UN estimates the increase in internally displaced persons at more than 820,000.

The case of women and girls is especially bloody. Since they took power, they have been subjected to "increasing and constant violence", as she points out. Dozens have been detained and tortured for participating in peaceful protests to demand their rights, after two decades of slow but significant progress.

"The Taliban have restricted the right to education of women and girls, obscuring the future of millions of them. When secondary schools reopened on September 17, 2021, the Taliban banned upper grades from attending, citing which was temporary while they hired more teachers. To date, none of these plans have been implemented," she denounces.

Amnesty's report also details the excessive use of force, including the use of live ammunition, by Taliban security forces to contain peaceful protests.

"I saw a man lying in a pool of blood in a ditch in the street; I think they had killed him [...] My hand was broken, but I did not go to the hospital for fear of being arrested for participating in the protests ", a person who attended a protest in Heart province told Amnesty.

Not only the freedom of assembly and demonstration is in question in the Taliban's Afghanistan, since the repression is also directed towards the media and their independence.

An example of this is the order issued on September 19, 2021 by the Government Media and Information Center (GMIC) with which journalists were prohibited from publishing stories "contrary to Islam" or those that could insult some way to "national figures".

In the last year, more than 80 journalists were detained and tortured for reporting on peaceful protests, Amnesty has reported. One of them told the NGO that he was flogged and beaten in such a way on his legs that he was unable to stand up for days.

For all these reasons, Amnesty not only calls on the Taliban to immediately stop the "flagrant" violations against fundamental freedoms, but also demands that the international community take "significant" measures to prevent the human rights crisis in Afghanistan from continuing. worse.