The first report to cover human-rights abuses committed over the full two-and-a-half decades of war in Afghanistan was released in Kabul on Sunday, identifying militia leaders responsible for some of the worst atrocities since 1978, many of whom are candidates in the national elections scheduled for Sept. 18.
"The point of the report is to name names," said Patricia Gossman, who wrote the 180-page report for an independent research organization, the Afghan Justice Project, set up to document war crimes and financed mainly by the Open Society Institute, founded by the financier George Soros.
"To get information into the public domain is the only tool at this point available in the time we have in the next several months to at least ensure that there is some information about people that we believe have enough serious charges against them, that they should not be considered candidates for these posts," she said.
The report holds some important faction leaders and military commanders who are running for seats in the upper and lower houses of the Afghan National Assembly responsible for commanding troops that committed mass rape, torture and indiscriminate shelling and killing. It implicitly criticizes the policy of the Afghan government and the UN of drawing warlords into politics to try to shift the country from a long history of fractured rule through force.
Afghan law excludes convicted war criminals from holding office, but any such trials are hard to foresee, given the policy of inclusion, as well a struggling judiciary and limited documentation of crimes.
The Afghan Election Commission, which has vetted candidates, announced last week that, after putting 208 candidates on a list for disqualification, it was barring only 11 candidates because of their links to armed groups.
The 11 include only one commander of any significance, said an Afghan human-rights official; the others were mostly mid-level regional commanders.
The report, with many new firsthand interviews with witnesses and victims, focuses on the series of ruling regimes since 1978.
Some of the worst abuses of the entire period of war occurred under Afghan Communist leaders, from April 1978 until December 1979, the report says, with mass arrests and disappearances, summary executions, torture and massacres. The ensuing 10-year occupation by the Soviet Union was characterized by indiscriminate bombing and reprisals against civilians, and widespread arrests, detention and torture. The report names the entire Soviet Politburo and security ministries, as well as Afghan ministers serving during the Soviet period.
Named in particular were Sayyid Muhammad Gulabzoi, who as the interior minister controlled the police force, and Shahnawaz Tanai, who as defense minister was in charge of the Afghan army. Gulabzoi has registered as a candidate for parliament from his home province of Khost. Tanai's newly registered political party is fielding candidates.
The mujahidin factions that took power after the Soviet withdrawal are all blamed in the report for committing atrocities, from the shelling of civilian areas to executions and mass rape of civilians. Faction leaders, as well as individual commanders, are named. One is Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who holds no official position but retains considerable influence as leader of one of the jihadi parties. Another is Muhammad Mohaqeq, who ran against Hamid Karzai in the presidential election last year. A third is General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who currently holds a ceremonial military position.
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