ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report was written by John Sifton, researcher in the Asia Division, and Zama Coursen-Neff, counsel to the Children Rights Division. It is based on their research in Afghanistan in September and October 2002. Brad Adams, Executive Director of the Asia Division, and Ian Gorvin, consultant to the Program Office, edited the report. James Ross, Senior Legal Advisor, provided legal review. Widney Brown, Lois Whitman, and Saman Zia-Zarifi also reviewed the report and provided helpful comments. Farhat Bokhari and Ami Evangelista provided research assistance. Production assistance was provided by Fitzroy Hepkins, Jonathan Horowitz, Veronica Matushaj, and Patrick Minges.

Human Rights Watch also thanks Ahmed Rashid, Patricia Gossman, and Barnett Rubin for their ongoing assistance. We are deeply grateful to our local consultant Habib Rahiab, and to the scores of people in Afghanistan who have assisted Human Rights Watch but who cannot be named here because of concerns for their safety. This list includes journalists, lawyers, doctors, teachers, professors; and officials in the Afghan government, nongovernmental organizations, and the United Nations. That these sources cannot be named is an unfortunate indicator of the atmosphere of fear and repression in Herat and throughout Afghanistan.

Our research in Afghanistan requires significant financial resources. Human Rights Watch would like to express its deepest appreciation to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Stichting Doen, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Ford Foundation for their generous contributions for our emergency work in Afghanistan.