AFGHANISTAN

Human Rights Developments

The fall of the Najibullah government in April 1992 precipitated a bloody battle for control of Kabul that continued through 1993, with devastating loss of life. But despite the intensity of the fighting, Afghanistan remained largely ignored by the outside world, and there was little evidence of United Nations or diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed. Most of the casualties resulted from indiscriminate rocketing and shelling by forces loyal to the Prime Minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a bitter enemy of the former Defense Minister, Ahmad Shah Massoud. Civilians were also targeted during sporadic battles between two communally-based political organizations, the Hezb-e Wahdat (Shi'ite) and the Ittehad-e Islami (Sunni Pashtun). Elsewhere in the country, regional councils or commanders consolidated power with little regard for events in Kabul. Hundreds of thousands of refugees returned from Pakistan, and thousands more were forcibly repatriated from Iran. Some 50,000 Tajik refugees who fled the civil war in Tajikistan remained in camps near the northern Afghan border. In July, Tajik and Russian forces shelled Afghan villages, killing an estimated 300.

On January 3, Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of the Jamiat-eIslami party, was sworn in as President. Rabbani's authority remained limited to only part of Kabul; the rest of the city remained divided among rival mujahidin factions.

On January 19, a short-lived cease-fire broke down when Hezb-e Islami forces renewed rocket attacks on Kabul from their base south of the city. Civilians were the principal victims in the fighting which killed some 1,000 before a peace accord was signed on March 8. Refugees continued to flee the city for Pakistan; others became part of the growing population of internally displaced, fleeing to Mazar-e Sharif and other areas north of Kabul.

Under the March accord, brokered by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, Rabbani and Hekmatyar agreed to share power until elections could be held in late 1994. Hekmatyar was named Prime Minister, but by November he had not entered Kabul because of continuing opposition from forces loyal to Massoud and sometimes those allied to the Uzbek commander, General Dostum. The cease-fire broke down again on May 11, leaving more than 700 dead in bombing raids, street battles and rocket attacks in and around Kabul. The parties agreed to a new peace accord in Jalalabad on May 20 under which Massoud agreed to relinquish the post of defense minister. A council of commanders was to assume that office, as well as the office of Interior Minister, but by mid-November the power struggle remained unresolved.

Throughout the year, sporadic fighting also continued between the Hezb-e Wahdat (which was aligned with Massoud and Dostum until January and after that with Hezb-e Islami) and Sunni Pashtun Ittehad-e Islami (which had aligned with Hezb-e Islami until January but then shifted allegiance to Massoud). Various commanders controlling sections of Kabul launched attacks on civilian areas in other quarters of the city. Rape, particularly of Shi-ite women, was reportedly one weapon in these attacks. While the rest of the country did not experience the intensity of fighting that took place in Kabul, conditions remained insecure for aid workers and returning refugees. On February 1 three United Nations workers and a Dutch engineer were murdered while driving from the Pakistani city of Peshawar to Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan. The incident prompted the United Nations to withdraw its staff from Jalalabad and Qandahar. U.N. staff who were evacuated from Kabul in August 1992 had not returned by November 1993. The U.N. continued to operate out of Mazar-e Sharif and Herat. Médecins Sans Frontières also closed down operations in the northern town of Kunduz after its workers there received threats.

Fierce fighting between rival leaders in Jalalabad in mid-October temporarily blocked one of the two main roads into Kabul, resulting in shortages of food and other supplies in the capital. Afghan refugees continued to return to areas in the east and north of the country, even though little mine clearance had been done in many of these areas. In July, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported a tripling of mine injuries since April 1992.

The Right to Monitor

No known domestic human rights organizations were functioning in Afghanistan during 1993, and the continuing chaos throughout the country made it unlikely that any such group would emerge in thenear future.

U.S. Policy

The Clinton administration paid little attention to the crisis in Afghanistan in 1993.

In July, the Central Intelligence Agency stepped up efforts to buy back Stinger anti-aircraft missiles which had been provided to the mujahidin in the last years of the war. The efforts were largely unsuccessful.

For fiscal year 1993, the U.S. requested $62 for humanitarian assistance and development aid for programs inside Afghanistan and for refugees in Pakistan.

Throughout 1993, the U.N. convened meetings of the "Friends of Afghanistan," including the U.S., Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, to discuss the continuing conflict. In a background briefing for the South Asia press on October 28, a senior administration official stated that the U.S. was urging the U.N. to convene another meeting of the group to send a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan to help focus world attention on the continuing crisis.

The Work of Asia Watch

In March an Asia Watch researcher traveled to Peshawar and Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with officials of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance for Afghanistan (UNOCHA) officials to discuss attacks on civilians, obstruction of the delivery of relief supplies, and de-mining programs. A similar visit took place in October.