<<

Afghanistan – Researched and compiled by the Refugee Documentation Centre of Ireland on 18 May 2016

Information on extrajudicial killings of citizens suspected to be Taliban members by the KLS/Afghan police force.

A report published by the United Nations Assistance Mission in (UNAMA), in a section titled “Continuing Torture and Ill-Treatment of Detainees in Afghan Custody” (sub-section headed “Afghan National Police”), states:

“UNAMA also received credible reports of the alleged enforced disappearance of more than 26 individuals who had been taken into ANP custody in province over the observation period and whose status remains unknown. Further credible allegations of a number of extrajudicial executions by ANP in Kandahar were documented.” (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) (February 2015) Update on the Treatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghan Custody: Accountability and Implementation of Presidential Decree 129, p.22)

In a sub-section headed “Afghan Local Police and Afghan National Army” this report states:

“From February 2013 to December 2014, UNAMA interviewed 42 detainees who had been held by the ALP and documented 22 sufficiently credible and reliable accounts of torture or ill-treatment particularly in Baghlan, Daykundi, Kunduz and Paktika provinces, where 12 of the incidents took place. UNAMA also documented four extrajudicial executions of detainees by ALP members in Farah and Herat provinces over the observation period. UNAMA received credible reports of the extrajudicial execution of two detainees under 18 years old by ALP members in Arghandab district of .” (ibid, p.23)

In a section titled “Alleged Extrajudicial Executions in Kandahar” this report states:

“Between September 2013 and August 2014, UNAMA received credible reports of a number of alleged extrajudicial executions of individuals who had been taken into custody by members of the ANP and ANBP in Kandahar. In addition, the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) reported the discovery of unidentified bodies in and around Kandahar, often with gunshot wounds, usually discovered by local persons, retrieved by ANP patrols and taken to the morgue at Kandahar’s Mirwais Hospital: for example, on 29 September 2013 the hospital received ten bodies (all male) with gunshot and knife wounds. Several had injuries suggesting they had been tortured before being killed. UNAMA was informed that this number of such victims in one day had not occurred since 2011. Local, national and foreign media have reported on Kandahar’s ‘mysterious killings.’ The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has also expressed concern about

1

several recurrent, unexplained incidents. International sources familiar with the activities of ANP in Kandahar alleged that ANP members regularly committed serious human rights violations including torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.” (ibid, p.57)

This section of the report also states:

“UNAMA documented an incident of alleged extra-judicial executions in August 2014 in the Spin Boldak area of Kandahar province. Eight men travelling in a vehicle towards the town of Spin Boldak from the area of Qazi on 9 August 2014 following a nighttime meeting between pro- and anti- government participants were questioned at an ANBP checkpoint then stopped again at a second checkpoint, where four of the men were arrested and detained for one night. One man was separated from the other three and reportedly tortured (beaten until he lost consciousness) until he disclosed the names of two individuals in Wesh, who were then arrested by ANBP. When local elders called on the ANBP to release the detainees they were verbally insulted. The detainee who had been tortured was reportedly shot and killed by ANBP in Landai village and the two men from Wesh killed by ANBP in the Mullah Wali Waleh area of . The body of one of the men from Wesh was reportedly tied to a car and dragged through the streets by ANBP. All killings were reportedly witnessed by local residents, who notified the men’s families.” (ibid, pp.57-58)

A section of this report titled “Alleged Extra-Judicial Executions in Zheray District (August 2014)” refers to alleged extrajudicial executions in Zheray district as follows:

“In August 2014, UNAMA received credible allegations of mass arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial executions of suspected Taliban members in Zheray district (Kandahar province). At the time the district was being infiltrated by large numbers of Taliban insurgents, some of whom had overrun several ANP checkpoints in Zheray. Afghan National Police conducted a large-scale counter-insurgency operation together with ANA, ALP and NDS personnel. Bus passengers travelling on the Herat-Kandahar road, which crosses Zheray, reported they saw ‘scores of bodies piled beside the road.’ UNAMA received reports that in a two-week period in late July and early August 2014, 55 dead bodies had been collected along the road (which may have included fighters, civilians, persons hors de combat and persons detained by ANSF before their death). Workers taking the bodies away reported that three of the bodies had their hands tied and gunshot wounds to their heads. In addition, UNAMA received credible allegations that in one specific incident over this period, ten men who were travelling from Shah Wali to Zheray to visit a local mullah were stopped, beaten and shot dead by ANA soldiers. One of the victims survived by pretending to be dead and alerted a local resident who reprimanded the soldiers for their conduct, only to be beaten and briefly detained himself. According to the resident, the soldiers then killed the one survivor of the previous alleged mass execution.” (ibid, pp.58-59)

A report published by Human Rights Watch, in a section titled “Extrajudicial Executions and Forced Disappearances”, states:

2

“Human Rights Watch has obtained documentation compiled by human rights investigators on extrajudicial executions that took place in Kandahar city in 2013. In all of these cases, the victims were first detained by units of the Kandahar police. In some cases, witnesses have identified the police sub- units that detained the men.315 Witnesses have identified ANP police units who report to Raziq as being responsible for detentions of persons whose bodies were discovered bearing the marks of severe torture and mutilation. UNAMA sources have also reported that detainees in Kandahar have been killed while in police custody.” (Human Rights Watch (3 March 2015) “Today We Shall All Die” Afghanistan’s Strongmen and the Legacy of Impunity, p.74)

This section of the report also states:

“Such extrajudicial executions have continued. Speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the police, in May 2014 a hospital worker in Kandahar city told the New York Times, ‘We receive dead bodies who have been dumped after killing. Sometimes the police are bringing them and sometimes ordinary people.’ Reports of extrajudicial executions linked to Raziq go back many years. In 2010, two men, each about 21-years-old, were allegedly held by Raziq’s police in a private jail in Spin Boldak and subsequently extrajudicially executed in September 2010. The two men had been detained three to four months earlier. Their bodies were found with the hands bound. Raziq has been directly implicated in ordering and taking part in the killing of 16 Nurzai tribesmen in March 2006. The incident was apparently a revenge killing directed at one of the men, Shin Nurzai, whom Raziq blamed for the death of his brother in 2004. There is evidence that Raziq’s Border Police killed the additional 15 men simply because they happened to be accompanying the target.” (ibid, p.76)

In a section headed “Enforced Disappearances” this report states:

“Enforced disappearance and extrajudicial executions carried out by the Kandahar police (ANP and ALP) represent part of a wider pattern. UNAMA has reported receiving reports of the alleged enforced disappearance of 81 men taken into ANP custody in Kandahar province between September 2011 and October 2012. A local official with the AIHRC in Kandahar, Sahebzada Nalan, stated that ‘[C]omplaints of the people are received every day’ about a missing brother, uncle, or other relative.” (ibid, p.79)

An article from the New York Times states:

“An operation in Zhare District, west of Kandahar, in August exemplified the tension between security and human rights. Leading from the front, General Raziq repelled a major Taliban assault. But during the fighting, the Afghan Local Police, a paramilitary force he commands, captured and executed six Kuchi nomads whom it accused of helping the insurgents. ‘They took them to the Sangesar canal after dark. Then the firing started,’ said a tribal elder, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. The following day, he said, the villagers pulled six bodies from the water and sent them to the Red Cross in Kandahar.” (New York Times (8 November 2014) Powerful Afghan Police Chief Puts Fear in Taliban and Their Enemies)

A report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty states:

3

“’Take no prisoners.’ Those are the strict orders being handed down by a number of powerful army and police chiefs across Afghanistan. Afghan security forces have been instructed to kill militants on the battlefield instead of taking them prisoner and transferring them for prosecution. Many Afghans, critical of the government's perceived soft stance against militants, have lauded the move. But the ‘take no prisoners’ orders are worrying human rights groups, who say they could violate international law. Aminullah Amarkhail, the security chief of the northern province of Baghlan, describes the judicial process in Afghanistan as ‘corrupt,’ saying militants who have been detained, tried, and imprisoned in Baghlan in the past have been set free under dubious circumstances and many have returned to the battlefield. ‘To ensure insurgents are not freed by [corrupt] judges, I issued an order that any combatant who is fighting in the battlefield against my forces should be killed and sent to hell to get the punishment they deserve,’ says Amarkhail, who adds that his order was his ‘own, personal’ decision.” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (24 August 2014) Afghans Laud, Rights Groups Concerned By 'Take No Prisoners' Orders)

A report from Al Jazeera states:

“Abdullah and his militia left Alizai to join a battle against the Taliban in a neighboring village, but returned that same afternoon. According to eyewitnesses, when he returned, Abdullah first went into the yard where the soldiers had set up their vehicles and equipment; then he walked over to three men and a boy of 14 who had been kept separate from the rest of the villagers in the second yard. They had been rounded up with everyone else that morning and were suspected of having links to the Taliban. All but one of them, the boy, were bound and blindfolded. According to eyewitnesses, Abdullah and his men put the three captives — Mohammad Gul, Nasrullah and Fazaldin — on the back of motorcycles and drove away as U.S. and Afghan soldiers looked on from rooftop positions. Soon afterward, the villagers said, they heard gunfire. A shopkeeper from Telbeh, a village about two miles from Alizai, was returning from his store in center when he encountered the group of militiamen. He watched from a distance, he says, as they led three men, blindfolded and bound, to the side of the road and shot them. ‘They immediately fired on them,’ he said. ‘They fired an uncountable number of times, more than 100.’ Several other witnesses were present, he and other locals said, and the killings have become widely known in the area. The United Nations, which conducted its own investigation of the executions in Andar, confirmed that the killings had taken place. ‘The U.N. has investigated and verified allegations of extrajudicial killings of three men by a pro-government militia,’ said Georgette Gagnon, the head of the U.N. human rights unit in Afghanistan. ‘There has so far been no accountability for these executions.’” (Al Jazeera (23 July 2014) Exclusive: A US-backed militia runs amok in Afghanistan)

See also Al Jazeera report which states:

“The commander of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, is bullish about the country’s future. Last month he cited the Afghan people’s trust for their security forces as one of the positive trends in Afghanistan. But Campbell was clearly not referring to Commander Azizullah, the longtime leader of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) in the country’s southeastern province of Paktika. As with all other ALP units, Azizullah and

4

his forces have been armed and equipped with a portion of the $104 billion that the United States has spent on Afghanistan since 2002. His hallmark is fear, not trust. For example, in 2009 his forces shot dead three farmers during a search operation for the Taliban in Paktika’s district. Azizullah then strapped the men’s corpses to the hood of one of his vehicles and drove through a local market proclaiming the dead men as terrorists. He refused to allow the family to bury them until eight days later. The incident was not an aberration: His forces have been linked to thefts, kidnappings, beatings and the arbitrary killing of civilians, including children.” (Al Jazeera (15 March 2015) Who will police Afghanistan’s policemen?)

A report from the Afghanistan Analysts Network, in a paragraph headed “Summary Executions in Wardak”

“According to the Swedish Committee (with many details also confirmed by UNAMA), at about two in the morning on 18 February 2015, staff at the clinic found themselves in the middle of an operation by Afghan government and international forces to clear Taleban from the area which included the use of air strikes. Afghan special forces raided several homes, including two belonging to clinic staff – an ambulance driver and a cook. Members of their families were tied up. After that, Afghan forces, including Afghan women soldiers, entered the clinic itself where they beat staff, accusing them of ‘treating Taleban.’ They searched the various buildings on the compound, including the specially built quarters of the midwife and her husband. When they entered the men’s ward, they dragged out two of the patients – one, staff said, who was under 18 – and a boy who was looking after them. They took them to a nearby shop. Twenty minutes later, staff said, they heard gunshots. The three had been killed.” (Afghanistan Analysts Network (15 March 2016) Clinics under fire? Health workers caught up in the Afghan conflict)

See also report on this incident from the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan which states:

“The night between 17 and 18 February, Afghan special forces raided an SCA clinic in Tangi Sidan, in the province of Wardak. Two patients and a young boy who was there to help them was taken away from the clinic and was later killed. Staff were arrested and beaten. SCA has called the intrusion in the clinic and the killing of the three persons a gross violation of humanitarian principles and the Geneva Convention, which states that all parties in a conflict must respect medical facilities.” (Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (24 February 2016) International troops supported the raid on the clinic of Swedish Committee for Afghanistan)

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research and Information Unit within time constraints. This response is not and does not purport to be conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please read in full all documents referred to.

5

References:

Afghanistan Analysts Network (12 March 2016) Clinics under fire? Health workers caught up in the Afghan conflict https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/clinics-under-fire-health-workers-caught- up-in-the-afghan-conflict/ (Accessed 17 May 2016)

Al Jazeera (15 March 2015) Who will police Afghanistan’s policemen? http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/who-will-police-afghanistans- policemen.html (Accessed 18 May 2016)

Al Jazeera (23 July 2014) Exclusive: A US-backed militia runs amok in Afghanistan http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/23/exclusive-a-killinginandar.html (Accessed 17 May 2016)

Human Rights Watch (3 March 2015) “Today We Shall All Die” Afghanistan’s Strongmen and the Legacy of Impunity https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/afghanistan0315_4up.pdf (Accessed 17 May 2016)

New York Times (8 November 2014) Powerful Afghan Police Chief Puts Fear in Taliban and Their Enemies http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/world/asia/powerful-afghan-police-chief- puts-fear-in-taliban-and-their-enemies-.html?_r=0 (Accessed 18 May 2016)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (24 August 2014) Afghans Laud, Rights Groups Concerned By 'Take No Prisoners' Orders http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan-taliban-take-no-prisoners- controversy/26547796.html (Accessed 18 May 2016)

Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (24 February 2016) International troops supported the raid on the clinic of Swedish Committee for Afghanistan http://swedishcommittee.org/blog/international-troops-supported-raid-clinic- swedish-committee-afghanistan (Accessed 17 May 2016)

United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) (February 2015) Update on the Treatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghan Custody: Accountability and Implementation of Presidential Decree 129 http://www.refworld.org/docid/54f06e814.html (Accessed 17 May 2016)

6

Sources Consulted

Al Jazeera Electronic Immigration Network European Country of Origin Information Network Human Rights Watch Google Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada International Crisis Group Lexis Nexis Refugee Documentation Centre Query Database Swedish Committee for Afghanistan UNHCR Refworld US Department of State

7