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Amnesty International Report 2005 - Afghanistan

Covering events from January - December 2004

Lawlessness and insecurity increased, hampering efforts towards peace and stability. Anti-government forces killed civilians involved in the electoral process, making large parts of the country inaccessible to humanitarian organizations. US forces continued arbitrary and unlawful detentions and failed to conduct independent investigations of reports that Afghan prisoners had been tortured and ill-treated. Armed groups committed abuses against civilians with impunity, including the abduction and rape of girls. Justice and redress were unobtainable for women who experienced widespread discrimination and violence in the community, including abduction, rape and forced marriage. Refugees were pressured into returning to Afghanistan despite continuing threats to their safety. A military commander was secretly executed after an unfair trial.

Background

A new Constitution was adopted in January by the Constitutional Loya Jirga. It contained human rights guarantees but lacked specific safeguards against abuses. For example, it did not provide equal marriage rights for women and men.

The transitional government slowly began to impose its rule outside the capital, Kabul. It removed the self-appointed governor of Herat. In the south and east there was a resurgence of anti-government forces, and the US-led coalition stepped up military operations. In areas controlled by armed factions ostensibly loyal to the government, the national armed forces and police, still seriously under strength, were deployed on several occasions to suppress outbreaks of fighting between factions. The economy, dominated by the opium trade, was under the control of faction commanders and there was no significant improvement in the country's infrastructure. Progress was made in disarming tens of thousands of former combatants who remained linked to factions and armed groups.

Hamid Karzai, incumbent President of the Afghan Transitional Authority, won presidential elections held amid violence and insecurity in October. The elections were reportedly marred by fraudulent voter registration and forcible confiscation of voter identification cards by faction leaders and local officials.

In September the UN Security Council extended the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to October 2005. Under NATO command since 2003, ISAF's troops were expanded to 9,000 just before the elections.

Abuses by armed groups

Armed groups across the country consolidated their control over the local population and were responsible for killing civilians, aid workers, election officials and potential voters. By the third quarter of 2004, at least 21 aid workers, mostly Afghan nationals, had been killed.

• In January, a bomb intended for US Coalition Forces killed 15 schoolchildren in Kandahar. Taleban officials, who had originally denied involvement in the incident, later issued an apology after public outrage.

• In June, 16 passengers on a bus were deliberately killed by armed men, reportedly because they were carrying voter registration cards.

• Three UN election workers, two women and one man, were taken hostage in Kabul by the armed group, Jaish-e-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), on 28 October and held until 23 November.

• There were several reports that gunmen attached to armed groups abducted and raped girls, and forced some into marrying them. Girls were increasingly sold into early marriages to alleviate poverty or in an attempt to guarantee their security.

• One 17-year-old was abducted by three armed men from her aunt's home in Kapisa province in May after she refused to marry one of them. Her uncle was shot and wounded. The girl was returned to her parents in Kabul after they filed a complaint with the authorities and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

Violence against women

Women continued to face systematic and widespread violence, and public and private discrimination. Fear of abductions by armed groups forced women to restrict their movements outside the home. In the family, extreme restrictions on women's behaviour and high levels of violence persisted. Election officials registering women voters were among those killed by armed groups.

• A woman was detained in mid-2004 in Kandahar and held without charge for several weeks while the prosecutor considered accusations against her of adultery and attempted murder of her "husband", a member of an armed group who had abducted her at the age of seven. He had routinely beaten and abused her, and by the age of 20 she had three children by him. No charges against him were considered.

• A campaigner against violence against women was attacked in September because of her human rights work. She was outside her home in Kabul when three men drove up in a car. One jumped out and threw acid at her, burning her neck.

Most acts of violence against women were not reported for fear of reprisals or harsh judicial punishment of the victim, and very few were subject to investigation or prosecution. Tradition and social codes of behaviour governed judges' decisions on cases involving violence against women. Many women were imprisoned for alleged crimes such as running away from home, adultery and other sexual activity outside marriage – known as zina crimes. In some cases, despite lack of evidence, they were imprisoned to protect them from their families. Outside Kabul, refuges, counselling and health care for women were almost non-existent. In all regions, but particularly in Herat, hundreds of women set fire to themselves to escape violence in the home or forced marriage.

Ineffective justice system

The judiciary remained ineffective, corrupt and susceptible to intimidation from armed groups. Courts barely functioned in rural areas. Judges and lawyers were frequently unaware of the law and allowed severe discrimination against women. Rape, forced marriage and the exchange of girls to settle disputes were frequently not treated as crimes. There remained widespread confusion among officials in the criminal justice system, including judges, as to the exact legal basis of the "crime" of "running away". Such an offence does not exist in the Afghan Penal Code. Detainees were held for prolonged periods of time without legal basis and denied a fair trial.

Abuses by police officers were not investigated, and the effectiveness of the force was hampered by a lack of oversight mechanisms, affiliation to regional armed groups, non-payment of salaries and lack of equipment. Despite internationally supported police training programmes few women were recruited. Progress in the reform of the judiciary and police was particularly slow outside Kabul.

Insufficient attention was paid to the prisons service by the Afghan government and donor community. Inhumane conditions and gross human rights violations were reported, especially outside Kabul where provincial prisons remained under the control of armed groups.

Abuses by US forces

Evidence emerged that US forces had tortured and ill-treated detainees in the "war on terror" in Afghanistan. Former detainees reported being made to kneel, stand or maintain painful postures for long periods, and being subjected to hooding, sleep deprivation, stripping and humiliation. Suspects were detained without legal authority and held incommunicado, without access to lawyers, families or the courts.

• On 13 December, US officials acknowledged that eight prisoners had died in US military custody in Afghanistan, five more than previously disclosed in a Department of Defense briefing in May. Only the basic details of the cases were released. They included an investigation into a death in military custody on 28 August 2002, the earliest known death of a prisoner in US custody.

• On 14 October the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division recommended that 28 US soldiers be charged in connection with the beating to death of two prisoners at the US air base at Bagram in December 2002. Autopsies found "blunt force injuries" on the bodies of Mullah Habibullah and Dilawar. By the end of 2004 only one soldier had been charged – with assault, maltreatment and dereliction of duty.

• The US Department of Defense announced an investigation into a report in September that US Special Forces beat and tortured eight Afghan soldiers over a two-week period in March 2003 at a base near Gardez. One detainee reportedly died as a result.

Reports continued of civilian deaths as a result of US air strikes. There were reports that 11 civilians were killed by US bombing in the village of Sawghataq, Uruzgan province, in January, although US military officials claimed only to have killed five armed militants. US officials initially denied but later confirmed reports that at least five civilians died in air raids on Weradesh, eastern Afghanistan, in August. On election day at least 14 civilians were reportedly killed or wounded in Uruzgan province during US bombing of opposition forces.

Impunity

Regional officials and commanders with a record of human rights violations flaunted their impunity, some of them maintaining links with armed groups responsible for abuses. Little progress was made in bringing to justice those responsible for war crimes, including mass killings and rape, committed during the armed conflicts since 1978.

Despite repeated calls for independent investigations of deaths in custody and reports of torture by US forces, investigations were conducted under the auspices of the US Department of Defense. Requests for access to detainees by UN human rights experts and by the AIHRC and other non-governmental bodies continued to be refused.

Afghan government forces were not held to account for violating international law on the treatment of prisoners. No action was known to have been taken against soldiers who reportedly beheaded prisoners in southern Afghanistan in June.

Right to return in safety

Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan faced growing harassment and many returned to Afghanistan. In October, Iran declared its intention to repatriate most Afghans in Iran over the next 16 months. Other countries returned rejected Afghan asylum-seekers without ensuring that they could return in dignity and safety.

The number of refugees who had returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan since early 2002 reached just over three million by September. More than 32 per cent settled in Kabul because of insecurity and continuing human rights abuses in the provinces, or because there was insufficient work and shelter in their areas of origin. Others were unable to recover stolen land and property.

Death penalty

At least nine men were sentenced to death in 2004. Military commander Abdullah Shah was secretly executed in April after a trial by a special court in which he was denied basic rights of defence. Charged in connection with multiple murders, he had no legal counsel and was not allowed to cross-examine witnesses. The court failed to investigate allegations that he had been tortured or visible evidence of his injuries, and reportedly imposed the death penalty under political pressure. The trial was not open to the public.

AI visits

AI delegates visited Afghanistan in February and in August and September 2004. They met senior government officials, UN officials, human rights defenders and representatives of non-governmental organizations. They also visited women's prisons in Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar.