UN reports reveal that the Taliban executed dozens of prisoners, including hanging them or having their heads publicly displayed in extrajudicial executions.
Reports state that the militant group also recruits child soldiers and quashes women’s rights after it took control in Afghanistan in August.
The UN Human Rights Council reported Tuesday that more than 100 Afghan security personnel and other former Afghan forces have been murdered since the takingover.
Nada Al-Nashif (UN Deputy High Commissioner For Human Rights) stated that at least 50 members of Islamic State-Khorasan Province, an ideological foe to the Taliban, were also killed through hanging and beheading.
Al-Nashif expressed concern at the continuing news reports about such murders, despite an amnesty that was declared by Taliban leaders after August 15.
UN reports have revealed that Taliban leaders had executed many prisoners, beheaded them or publicly displayed the bodies of their victims in extrajudicial executions. This was after they gained power in Afghanistan in august. Pictured: Taliban fighters display their flag on patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 19, 2021
“Between November and August, we received credible allegations of over 100 killings of ex-Afghan security forces and those associated with the former government,” she stated to the UN Human Rights Council.
She said that at least 72 of the killings were “attributed to Taliban.”
“In many cases the bodies were displayed publicly.” This increased the fear of this significant group,’ she stated.
Since August, at least 8 Afghan journalists and 2 journalists were killed. The UN also recorded 59 illegal detentions of their ranks and threats, the UN representative told the Geneva council.
She added that ‘the safety of Afghan judges and prosecutors as well as lawyers, especially women, is an alarming matter’.
Al-Nashif’s remarks came shortly after Al-Nashif and others harshly condemned Taliban, following an earlier Human Rights Watch report which documented 47 summary executions.
It stated that the killings occurred in mid-August to October and were committed by former Afghan National Security Forces members, as well as other personnel such intelligence agents, who ‘had surrendered or been apprehended’ by Taliban forces.
Qari Sayed Khati, the Taliban’s spokesperson, has flatly dismissed all claims regarding extrajudicial killings and rejected other allegations.
The UN Human Rights Council reported Tuesday that more than 100 ex-national security officers from Afghanistan and other people were killed in the aftermath of the coup. Pictured: The Taliban took over Afghanistan on the 6th of August, and members of Afghanistan’s security forces were photographed in Herat.
According to him, there have been some deaths of ex-members of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces. However, this was due to personal rivalries and hostilities.
Taliban will feel shattered by the revelations of the murders that have been brought to the UN council’s attention. They are trying to get the US, West and Canada to allow them to access around $10 billion worth funds they had frozen when they came to power in August.
Amir Khan Muttaqi (Afghan Foreign Minister) said that funds would be used to help people in need.
He also claimed Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers are committed in principle to education and jobs for girls and women, a marked departure from their previous time in power which saw a history of oppression and human rights abuses.
However, the UN report further questions this assertion.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Muttaqi said the new government wants good relations with all countries and has no issue with the United States.
After a quick military assault on Afghanistan, and then the abrupt and secretive flight by US-backed President Ashraf Ghani, he urged Washington to free the frozen funds.
Muttaqi’s remarks hint at the dire state of Afghanistan, already among the most impoverished countries per capita in the world before the UN council took over. His case is not likely to be helped by the UN council report.
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi (pictured in September) has made a plea to the US and the West to show ‘mercy and compassion’ by releasing $10billion in funds frozen when the group seized Afghanistan to help the country’s citizens in dire need of aid
Muttaqi stated that sanctions against Afghanistan “would… have no benefit,” he said in Pashto, during an interview at the vast, pale brick Foreign Ministry Building in Kabul’s capital.
Muttaqi said that making Afghanistan unstable and having an ineffective Afghan government are not in everyone’s best interests. Muttaqi’s aides included employees from both the former government as well those who were recruited from the Taliban ranks.
Muttaqi’s comments are not the first time he has made a plea for the funds – from Afghanistan’s Central Bank – to be released.
However, in October, Deputy United States Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told a US Senate Committee that he saw no situation in which the Taliban would be allowed to access the reserves.
There have been pledges of aid from concerned nations to help the country. This was a substantial part of its economy prior to the Taliban taking over. However, many don’t want to pay funds until the Taliban makes concessions about a more inclusive society.
Meanwhile, reports from Afghanistan have told harrowing stories, such as parents being forced to sell their children to survive, and droughts forcing people from their homes.
UN warns that Afghanistan will see more than half its population starve this winter. This problem is compounded because many international agencies have fled Afghanistan after the collapse of the government and the drying up of aid.
Save the Children, an international charity, has asked governments to immediately exempt existing anti-terrorist and sanction policies to enable humanitarian assistance to be delivered.