Afghanistan: UN Cites ‘Credible’ Reports of Taliban Killing Former Gov’t Officials and Their Family Members 

Afghanistan: UN Cites ‘Credible’ Reports of Taliban Killing Former Gov’t Officials and Their Family Members 

The UN human rights office confirmed that the United Nations received “credible” reports that the Taliban is killing ex-government officials and their relatives.

“My office has received credible allegations of reprisal killings of a number of former ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) personnel, and reports of officials, who worked for previous administrations and their family members being arbitrarily detained,” UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet told the agency’s Human Rights Council on Monday.

The UN human rights chief cited  “’multiple’ allegations of Taliban house-to-house searches looking for officials from the previous government and “people who cooperated with US security forces and companies,” she added.

The UN disclosure further confirms news reports that the Taliban has drawn up kill-lists and carrying out door-to-door searches for government officials and security personnel belonging to the deposed Afghan government.    

The French broadcaster EuroNews reported the UN’s revelations: 

The U.N. human rights chief says her office has received credible allegations of reprisal killings by the Taliban of former Afghan security forces, as well as instances in which officials in the previous government and their relatives were arbitrarily detained and later turned up dead.

There are credible reports that the Taliban have been carrying out reprisal killings of former member of the Afghan security forces, the UN human rights chief has said.

Michelle Bachelet said there had also been cases where ex-government officials and their relatives had been arbitrarily detained and were later found dead.

Speaking to the Human Rights Council, she warned of a “new and perilous phase”, citing “multiple” allegations that the Taliban had been conducting house-to-house searches seeking out people who had worked for the previous government or who had cooperated with US security forces and companies.

There was a disconnect between the words and the actions of Afghanistan’s new rulers, Bachelet told the 47-member council as it opened its autumn session.

“My office has received credible allegations of reprisal killings of a number of former ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) personnel, and reports of officials, who worked for previous administrations and their family members being arbitrarily detained,” she said, adding that searches had taken place in at least half-a-dozen cities.

“In some cases, the officials were released, and in others, they were found dead.”

There was also “deeply troubling information” about Taliban raids on offices of some advocacy groups, Bachelet said.

The UN human rights chief was equally worried about the treatment of Afghan women under the new Taliban regime. “In contradiction to assurances that the Taliban would uphold women’s rights, over the past three weeks women have instead been progressively excluded from the public sphere,” she said. 

Taliban Imposes Sharia-Rule

The Taliban has barred girls over the age of 12  from attending schools. They have disbanded government agencies pertaining to women’s affairs, the media reports from Afghanistan suggest. 

The newly-constituted Taliban regime has issued orders to segregate schools based on gender.  “Coeducation is in conflict with the principles of Islam and, on the other hand, it is in conflict with national values and is against the customs and traditions of Afghans,” Taliban’s education minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, declared.

These new orders contradict the recent promises made by the Taliban spokesmen appearing on mainstream media outlets. The Taliban had assured women employees of returning to their government jobs. The regime has now reneged on those assurances.

Reuters, on Monday, reported the Sharia-segregation the Taliban rolled out: 

Afghan women should not be allowed to work alongside men, a senior figure in the ruling Taliban said, a position which, if formally implemented, would effectively bar them from employment in government offices, banks, media companies and beyond.

Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior figure in the Taliban who is close to the leadership, told Reuters the group would fully implement its version of sharia, or Islamic law, despite pressure from the international community to allow women the right to work where they want. (…)

“We have fought for almost 40 years to bring (the) sharia law system to Afghanistan,” Hashimi said in an interview.

“Sharia … does not allow men and women to get together or sit together under one roof. “Men and women cannot work together. That is clear. They are not allowed to come to our offices and work in our ministries.”

Along with women’s rights, the freedom of the press is disappearing under the Taliban’s rule.

“Journalists in Afghanistan say that they have been beaten, detained and flogged by the Taliban when attempting to cover protests,” the BBC reported last week. “Photos circulating online show two journalists from Etilaatroz newspaper with welts and bruises after their arrest in the capital Kabul.”

The Taliban has also banned anti-regime protests. The Taliban fighters used live ammunition to break up a recent women’s rights demonstration in Kabul. “Taliban special forces in camouflage fired their weapons into the air Saturday, bringing an abrupt and frightening end to the latest protest march in the capital by Afghan women demanding equal rights,” the Associated Press reported earlier this month.

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