Protocol between RAWA and the Basque Government for trial of Afghan war criminals

March 5, 2002: During a press conference in Marrott Hotel in Islamabad, Mr. Javier Madrazo Lavín Chief of the Housing and Social Matters Department of the Basque Government and Sahar Saba from RAWA signed a protocol. According to the protocol, the Basque Government will help RAWA to prosecute Afghan war criminals from early 80s until today. The protocol says: "The Basque Government, through its Direction of Cooperation to Development from the Housing and Social Matters Department, express its commitment, through the signing of this protocol of wills, to: First: Assist, inside the frame of the Basque cooperation rules, in whatever RAWA association may ask, in their will that an International Tribunal that judges all the Human Rights violations, that the Afghan people have suffered since the 80´s until today, similar to the ones that already exists in other genocide and conflict cases. Second: Support, inside the frame of the Basque cooperation rules, RAWA Organization, by the signature of a Collaboration agreement, to begin with the legal actions in those specific cases in which are involved persons that have violated the human rights of Afghan men and women in a systematic way. Their prosecution and the clearing up of the fact it will suppose the beginning of the process of normalization of the social and political life from the country, and a light of hope for a people that wants and needs to decide about their future. Third: Act, if this should be required by RAWA, as intermediary in front of the United Nation in their 58th session of the Human Rights Commission, in all the related to the violation of the Human Rights in Afghanistan, not just by the Taliban but also by the North Alliance after the Soviet invasion. Fourth: Offer, inside the frame of the Basque cooperation rules, legal assistance to RAWA to begin with the legal actions that may consider more appropriate in the international criminal courts. "

Dawn, March 6, 2002

Protocol signed for trial of Afghan war criminals

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, March 5: The Basque government and the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) signed a protocol here on Tuesday to take the case of the war criminals in Afghanistan before international criminal courts and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

The protocol, signed at a news conference, provides for trial of the war criminals belonging to different factions, including the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, for human rights violations against the Afghan people.

The Basque government housing and social matters department chief, Javier Madrazo Lavin, and Sehar Saba of RAWA signed the protocol. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Javier said within the framework of the Basque cooperation rules, legal, political and financial assistance would be provided to RAWA to begin with the legal actions in the international criminal courts.

A delegation of the Spanish government may also report the human rights violations in Afghanistan by Taliban and the Northern Alliance to the UN in its 58th session of the Human Rights Commission, he said.

Giving some of the names of those who are accused of war crimes, genocide and violence and abuse of women in Afghanistan, RAWA representative, Saba Sehar, said Burhanuddin Rabbani, Gulbadin Hekmatyar, Ahmed Shah Masood, Sayyaf, Dostum, Mullah Omar, Khalili, Taliban and the Northern Alliance leadership are all involved in the crimes against the Afghan people and women.

Accusing the Northern Alliance, she said RAWA would like to remind the world that those who destroyed the Afghan people mentally and physically do not have the right to power. She said some of the worst perpetrators of human rights abuses were holding important posts in the Interim Administration.

The violence, the human rights abuses are still going on, she said, adding, Afghanistan is not only limited to Kabul where the presence of the International Security Assistance Force has somewhat improved the situation but reports of killings, beatings and restrictions on women ae rampant in other parts of the country.

In response to a question about civilian casualties due to US-led coalition bombings, Ms Saba said there are casualties but that is another issue as the Americans came to root out Taliban and terrorism in Afghanistan. However, she said the methodology adopted by the US was not positive as it led to civilian casualties and forced many people to abandon their homes and become refugees.

The RAWA member, who asked the press photographers not to take her pictures for security reasons in response to a question about the reason said there are still many Jihadi groups, including the fundamentalists from Afghanistan who are powerful enough to harm the RAWA members. Recounting a list of attacks on RAWA officials, she said that RAWA founder was killed in Pakistan and many other Afghan women tried to lodge cases against atrocities of fundamentalist groups but they were not registered by the police authorities.