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 Afghanistan (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 Kandahar 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 Kandahar province.” (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 Spin Boldak district. 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 Kot district 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