The Forgotten War: Human Rights Abuses and Violations of the Laws Of War Since the Soviet Withdrawal
For the last decade, Afghanistan has been the scene of some of the most serious human rights violations on record. About one half of the country's prewar population are either refugees, internally displaced, or dead. Most of the abuses were at one time attributable to the Afghan government and its Soviet advisers. Since the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1989, the intense fighting of the earlier years of the war has lessened in much of the Afghan countryside, but military operations by all parties still cause extensive civilian casualties in contested regions. Certain mujahidin commanders, for example, continue to launch poorly aimed rockets against Kabul and other cities. The Pakistani ISI and the CIA have encouraged these attacks and have supplied weapons to commanders who undertake them. In addition, all parties to the conflict rely on the widespread use of landmines without taking precautions to ensure that civilians are warned of the mine fields. To date, despite accords signed in 1988 in Geneva designed to end the war, fighting continues and civilian casualties mount.
February 1, 1991 - Report

Toward a Political Settlement in Afghanistan: The Need to Protect Human Rights
On May 21, 1991, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Perez de Cuellar, issued a public statement outlining in very broad terms the framework for a political settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan.1 This statement reportedly reflects a consensus reached by the five countries involved in aiding various parties to that conflict: the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, all of which have provided assistance to the Islamic resistance fighters known collectively as the mujahidin (defenders of Islam), and the Soviet Union, which has assisted the Afghan government of President Najibullah. The Secretary General's plan calls for a settlement based on an internationally assisted "transitional mechanism." This mechanism would enable the Afghans to hold "free and fair elections, in accord with Afghan traditions," accompanied by a cessation of hostilities and an end to military assistance to all Afghan parties by all external parties. Part I of this report sets the current initiative in political context; Part II lists the human rights provisions drawn from other regional accords that Asia Watch recommends be included in an Afghan settlement.
August 30, 1991 - Report

UN Urged to Prevent More Killings as Taliban Offensive Continues
Human Rights Watch today warned that the Taliban's current military offensive in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan could result in the torture and deaths of many more ethnic Hazaras, a Shi'ite minority whom the Taliban has targeted in the past.
September 14, 1998 - Press Release

Afghanistan: The Massacre in Mazar-i Sharif
On August 8, 1998, Taliban militia forces captured the city of Mazar-i Sharif in northwest Afghanistan, the only major city controlled by the United Front, the coalition of forces opposed to the Taliban. The fall of Mazar was part of a successful offensive that gave the Taliban control of almost every major city and important significant territory in northern and central Afghanistan. Within the first few hours of seizing control of the city, Taliban troops killed scores of civilians in indiscriminate attacks, shooting noncombatants and suspected combatants alike in residential areas, city street sand markets. Witnesses described it as a "killing frenzy" as the advancing forces shot at "anything that moved." Retreating opposition forces may also have engaged in indiscriminate shooting as they fled the city. Human Rights Watch believes that at least hundreds of civilians were among those killed as the panicked population of Mazar-i Sharif tried to evade the gunfire or escape the city.
November 1, 1998 - Report

Letter to Karl Inderfurth, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, United States Department of State
Human Rights Watch was greatly troubled to learn that a State Department official will be meeting today with Gen. Abdul Malik Pahlavan of Afghanistan who is believed to be responsible for the summary executions of Taliban prisoners following a failed coup attempt against General Dostum of the Junbish-i Milli-yi Islami in May 1997.
November 3, 1998 - Letter

Refugee Crisis in Afghanistan
Human Rights Watch called on Pakistan and Tajikistan to reopen their borders to refugees from Afghanistan.
November 11, 2000 - Press Release

Letter to the U.N. Security Council: Address Abuses Against Civilian Population
“We are writing in regard to the resolution currently before the Security Council that would impose further sanctions on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Because Afghanistan rarely appears on the Council's agenda, it is particularly unfortunate that the present discussion is limited to the Taliban's role in harboring Osama bin Laden and supporting foreign criminal activity, and does not directly address the grave abuses that continue to be perpetrated against the country's own civilian population.”
December 14, 2000 - Letter

Afghanistan: Ban Weapons to All Warring Factions
In its ongoing focus on combating terrorism, the international community is ignoring the perilous fate of civilians in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch charged. In a letter to members of the United Nations Security Council, Human Rights Watch urged the adoption of an arms embargo against all combatants, not only the Taliban.
December 15, 2000 - Press Release

Fueling Aghanistan's War: Press Backgrounder
Afghanistan has been at war for more than twenty years. During that time it has lost a third of its population. Some 1.5 million people are estimated to have died as a direct result of the conflict. Throughout the war, all of the major factions have been guilty of grave breaches of international humanitarian law.
December 15, 2000 - Press Backgrounder

Afganistan: Massacres of Hazaras in Afghanistan
This report documents two massacres committed by Taliban forces in the central highlands of Afghanistan, in January 2001and May 2000. In both cases the victims were primarily Hazaras, a Shia Muslim ethnic group that has been the target of previous massacres and other serious human rights violations by Taliban forces.
February 1, 2001 - Report

Pakistan: Call to Protect Afghan Refugees
Human Rights Watch wrote to Ruud Lubbers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, on the eve of his arrival in Pakistan expressing concern about reports that the High Commissioner was actively seeking a reassessment of the refugee status of up to 1.5 million residing in camps in Pakistan and their repatriation to Afghanistan.
May 1, 2001 - Letter

Afghanistan: Taliban ID Policy Creates Second-Class Citizens
Human Rights Watch condemned the decision by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban requiring Hindu citizens to wear distinguishing identification.
May 24, 2001 - Press Release

Afghanistan: Inquiry Needed into New Abuses
Human Rights Watch expressed alarm at reports that Taliban forces had detained about sixty civilians and deliberately destroyed public, residential, and commercial buildings after retaking central Afghanistan's Yakaolang district.
June 14, 2001 - Press Release

Crisis of Impunity: The Role of Pakistan, Russia, and Iran in Fueling the Civil War in Afghanistan
The United Nations Security Council should impose a comprehensive embargo on all military assistance against all warring factions in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch urged today. In this report, Human Rights Watch accused Pakistan, Iran, and Russia of providing military support to Afghan factions with a long record of committing gross abuses of human rights. Other states in the region have also contributed to the ongoing war. The 55-page report details the nature of military support provided to the warring parties; the major transit routes used to move arms and other equipment; the suppliers; the role of state and nonstate actors; and the response of the international community. Human Rights Watch conducted research on military assistance to the Taliban and the United Front over a two-year period, traveling to both Kabul and areas of Afghanistan under United Front control, as well as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan, and interviewing government officials, members of the diplomatic community, military officers, civil servants, journalists, academics, and others.
July 2001 - Report

Australia: Assist Stranded Asylum Seekers
Human Rights Watch today called on Australia to take prompt action to secure the safety of 438 rescued asylum seekers.
August 1, 2001 - Press Release

Landmines Monitor 2001: Afghanistan
In the year 2000, an average of about 88 mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) casualties per month were recorded, a sharp decline from recorded casualties in 1999. In 2000, mine action organizations marked and mapped about 126 million square meters of mine and UXO contaminated land, and cleared about 104 million square meters of mine and UXO contaminated land.
September 12, 2001 - Report