KABUL, 13 March 2005 — Warlords and their private armies are involved in widespread rape, murder and human trafficking in Afghanistan, according to the US-based Human Rights Watch. In a letter to the UN Commission on Human Rights ahead of a meeting in Geneva next week, HRW called on the commission to request NATO-member countries to expand their peacekeeping force in Afghanistan and amend its mandate to protect human rights.
“Outside Kabul, warlords and their troops in many areas are implicated in widespread rape of women and children, murder, illegal detention, forced displacement, human trafficking and forced marriage,” the rights group said in a statement. HRW noted most of the 8,000-plus troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were stationed in Kabul, with only small teams deployed in northern and western areas.
HRW advocated a speedy expansion of ISAF forces to cover the south, southeast and west of Afghanistan. The 18,000-strong US-led force hunting remnants of the Taleban and Al-Qaeda is largely deployed in the south and southeast of the country.
The rights group praised the marginalization of two formerly powerful warlords, former Vice President and Defense Minister Marshall Mohammad Qasim Fahim and the self-styled “Emir of Herat” Ismail Khan, but lamented the presence of several key warlords in positions of influence.
Last month, President Hamid Karzai appointed Abdul Rashid Dostum, as his military adviser even though the ethnic Uzbek commander has been cited in several human rights reports.
