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"We even had to perform operation in the basement," he said. His report said downtown Kabul had been pounded with constant rocket and mortar attacks since Monday. "The center and the south of the city are devastated," he said. Afghan Radio reported that rocket attacks Wednesday killed at least 14 and injured 79 others in Kabul. Afghan Mujahideen chiefs are battling to take control of Kabul with dissident leader Gulbaddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami fighters battling force behind Defence Minister Ahmad Shah Masood. A small boy who was killed in the rocket attack was being removed from the scene. Blood spots were visible on the road near a car where another teenager was dying.
One badly injured victim of rocket attack was crying," Allah, Allah."
The crowds of relatives blacked the entrances to the hospitals. Hospitals were running out of beds.
In heavy artillery exchanges between the government forces and dissident
factions the city is cut off from the surrounding areas and most of the
casualties could not be brought to the hospitals.
The MUSLIM, Feb.5, 1993
FP Bureau Report Islamabad- At least 54 people were killed and more than 100 injured in one of the most severe rocket attacks on Kabul, with government forces replying with a heavy bombardment of opposition forces Monday, Radio Kabul said. The Hezb-i-Islami faction of dissident leader Gulbudin Hekmatyar fired more than 200 rockets on Kabul hitting many residential districts, the broadcast monitored here said. Several public and private building were set on fire by the barrages the radio said adding that the casualties were high in the Deh Mazang area of Kabul where a mosque was also destroyed. Two rockets exploded closed to a bridge over the Kabul River not far from the city zoo, killing more than 20 civilians, according to troops in the area.
All that was left one male victim was a pool of blood and the twisted
remains of his bicycle.
The Frontier Post, Feb.9, 1993
Kabul (AFP) Some 100 hundred women protested outside the UN mission here Monday seeking the return of husbands and brothers taken prisoner as others described days of looting, rape and murder in the Afshar quarter of this city. The protest and atrocities followed the recapture Thursday of the Shiite quarter by the pro-government Ittehad a Saudia Arabia backed faction and the defense ministry troops of Ahmad Shah Masood from Shiite Hezb-e- Wahdat forces. The killing began Thursday some hour before dusk, and continued into the next day, according to witnesses gathered in a mosque in the neighboring quarter of Taemani, refuge from the area said. A government official dismissed the reports of atrocities as rumors designed to slander the government. There were 12 of them, some carrying rocket launchers on their shoulders. They broke down the door, then they made advances to my sisters and me," said Shahla, a young nurse. "My father tried to stop them but they hit him and then tortured him. They cut off one of his feet and both his hands. In the courtyard there was a big dog belonging to one of the commanders. One of them threw my father's hands to the dog. By late afternoon Sunday the killings were over, but the lathed mujahedeen still scoured the place for anything to steal. In the devastated mosque a torn picture of the late Ayotollah Khomeini lay on the ground. A mujahedeen guerrilla, may carrying a silver goblet in one hand and a rosary in the other said the bodies had been taken to a nearby valley. "If you stay here too long, you too will be robbed," another threatened an AFP correspondent and photography. In his looted shop a man who had returned to salvage what had not been stolen also spoken of the killings. In the Teamani mosque a young girl was curled up against the shoulder of a refugee. Her mother and father have been killed, "since then she has not wanted to move," the refugee said with tears in his eyes. Anther women, Fairouza, showed a Kuran damaged by a bullet. She said she had brandished it at the aggressors in vain, her husband had his throat cut and her three girls were killed.
Some 300 families have taken refuge in the Taemani mosque. They are living in appalling conditions like thousand of other refuges in Kabul who have to survive without running water electricity, heat, or adequate food supplies.
Sabour Siasang, a non-Shiite doctor who lived 15 years in Afshar, said the Shiites have been the target of reprisals identical to those they themselves carried out in the past.
The Frontier Post, February 16, 1993
Islamabad, Feb 4: Sotireos Mousouris, the personal representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that the United Nations would review the situation in Afghanistan arising after the cold-blooded murder of its staff members in Jalalabad and may revise the methods and mechanism employed so far to help restructure the war-ravaged country.
He said it was exasperating to see all efforts for restructuring Afghanistan
being failed. Somalia is a reminder of what could happen to Afghanistan.
By Arif Jamil, The MUSLIM, Feb.5, 1993
Pushing handcarts and bicycles laden with whatever possessions they could
salvage, scores of thousands of people have also had to flee their homes in
the battle areas. Many of their houses have been looted. There is nobody to
help the many displaced persons. They curse the fighters but many also blame
the outside world for abandoning them.
The MUSLIM, March 4, 1993
AFGHAN government troops guarding a bridge over the Kabul river carried the Boy's broken off the road, wrapped it in an old army blanket and at a loss to what to do, just stashed the corpse in a vacant electricity sub-station. A rocket fired by a rebel faction mujahedeen had exploded in the street early in the morning. Shattering the boy's body as he rode his bicycle to the bazaar. Like thousands of others, the boy had been caught in the mangle of conflict between Afghan Defense Ministry forces and opposing Hezb-e-Islami faction led by Pushtun hardliner Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who have been battling each other for nearly two weeks in and around Kabul. The cost to civilians is not only death but also the destruction of their homes and the loss of livelihood.
"I have put my family in a mosque. We are not in the way. There is less praying these days", said a man who had braved the frontline to retrieve clothes from his abandoned home.
The MUSLIM, February 1,1993
Earlier a mortar attack on a crowded vegetable market in the center of the city killed at least 14 people. A BBC correspondent in Kabul said two rocket handed in front of the mosque in the city center just before prayers. The area was crowded with men and children selling water for ritual bathing. A local commander said he loaded dead and injured into a bus. They were people trying to corn a little money. The water containers that the victims had been selling were lined up on the wall of the compound. Children were also victim of a rocket, which smashed in flats in the residential area. Outside the flats the correspondent saw a smell boy with blood on his trousers. He was the sole survivor of the family of eight who lived in the flat. Anther man said that the same rocket had killed three of his sons and wife as they sat outside washing clothes and preparing food. It was the first time since August that Kabul's main bazaar had been targeted and the first time since early 1990 that an attack was made on a masque. Shoppers fled the bazaar and merchants pulled down their shutters while other washed the blood from the street after the bloodiest attack on Kabul since the government and its dissident opponents began the observing an informal ceasefire on Feb15. In the morning two mortars landed in the vegetable market in the city killing and injuring a large number of civilians.
Kabul's five hospitals reported more than 100 injured and 35 deaths today. One doctor said the casualties have come from all over the city.
The MUSLIM, March 1, 1993
The MUSLIM, February 1,1993
Dozens of dead and injured civilians filled Kabul hospital on Thursday after the Afghan capital come under a blistering rocket and artillery bombardment by renegade Mujahideen for the 17th day. "This is the worst morning we have had," said Dr Sayeed Omar at the Jamhuriat hospital in the center of the capital where four people died early on Thursday. Rockets and artillery shells pounded the south and west of the city, virtually cut off by the heavy fighting between the army renegade Mujahideen groups for several days. Official Kabul radio said 115 rockets slammed into the city overnight and in the morning, killing 28 people and injuring at least 65. The army killed several Hezb fighters and seized some heavy weapons, it said. One rocket landed near a bridge linking the western Chilstoon area with the rest of the city, killing and injuring several people. "Allah, Allah," moaned one man clutching a stomach wound as he was driven to hospital. Besides him lay a teenager with shrapnel in his hip who died on the way to hospital.
The Wazer Akbar Khan hospital, which is helped by the International Rescue Committee, was full after admitting 41 injured in the morning and was transferring many injured to the nearby military hospital, screaming and weeping.
The MUSLIM, February 6,1993
More Afghan are feeling to Pakistan than are returning home under a year old UN repatriation plan due to worsening security, the United Nations Refugees Agency said on Tuesday. "This is a major blow to us, because it looks like repatriation is not going to go well. Sylvana FOA, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told journalists. The security conditions are rather bad. We're seeing for the first time in over a year more refugees coming out of Afghanistan and back to Pakistan than are repatriating into Afghanistan.
More than 1000 people have been killed and 6000 wounded in a month of rocket and artillery bombardments between the two main warring faction of President Burhanudin Rabbani and his archrival Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, chief of the dissident hard-line Hezb-e-Ilami paty.
The MUSLIM, February 25,1993
As many as 150 Hazara families had taken shelter in a mosque in north-western Kabul, where group of women narrated gruesome stories of the war that took place around their houses. One woman said that her 13 years old son was killed when three rockets hit her home; she referred to the nearby sitting youth who had a bandage on his head. The women said that the youth was his nephew and he had lost his hearing power due to the sounds of the heavy firing.
An old lady said in a weeping voice that her two sons had been killed. A 20years old woman said that both her father and husband had been killed. Outside the mosque, people showed journalists a place where 20 dead bodies had been buried. A man, while saying that they do not belong to any of the group, asked the warring sides to leave them in peace and end the fighting.
The MUSLIM, February 15,1993
Lahore- Individual guerillas belonging to different groups are busy in looting, kidnapping for ransom and indiscriminately killing Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus in the war-torn capital of Afghanistan, in the disguise of Gilam Jam militia, claimed scores of Sikh and Hindus families who have entered Pakistan during the last one month. A survey conducted by the Frontier Post has revealed that the worst ever infighting in Kabul has forced million of people to flee from there to save their lives and belongings. It appears to be another big migration in the subcontinent after the partition of India but this time the migrants are non-Muslims. The harassed and exhausted refugees are not ready to disclose their identities, as they fear bitter repercussion in the coming days. Most of them belong to lower middle or middle class families and had brought huge luggage with them, which had made their stay and moving from one place to another more difficult. Their luggage ranges from the items of daily use to luxurious items, like refrigerator, air-conditioners and sofa sets. Giving reasons of their migration, they were unanimous in saying that they had not seen such a heavy influx of arms and ammunition into Kabul during the last 14 years. Almost every Afghan refugee, who is over 7 years old, was carrying automatic weapons. They had no respect for any citizen and were openly looting, murdering and abducting people for ransom. An elderly Sikh told this scribe that about 10 people were being abducted from Kabul every week and the abductors demanded ransom in US dollars and not in local currency, which is Afghani. They further stated that though the looters identified themselves as men of Gliam Jam militia, men from all organizations were looting and murdering the residents of Kabul. The refugees were of the unanimous view that the situation had worsened after the formation of Burhanudin Rabbani's government in Kabul. In fact Rabbani has no control over Afghanistan and has been made an ineffective ruler. They maintained that they had felt safer during the last 14 years of war than now. Disclosing the condition in Kabul from where all Sikh and Hindu families have fled for seeking refuge in Pakistan, they stated that they could not even come of their homes for one month. Their businesses (shops) remained closed for months and they starved for many days before deciding to flee from Kabul. Most of them broke into tears while stating that their shops and houses had been looted and they have been disgraced while some of them were not allowed to get anything out of their shops or homes. They cited an example that three shops of Hindus in Kothey Sanghi (a place in Kabul) were burnt to ashes after looting and a Sikh was killed in an encounter with the dacoits.
Citing another example, an elderly Sikh said that the house of a Hindu, Moon Bazaz, in Kabul was first looted and later the Hindu, his wife and son were tortured and later shot dead.
By Saeed Minhas,
The Frontier Post, September 4, 1992
Islamabad- The US state department has noted that the absence of an effective central authority is a significant factor causing human rights problem in Afghanistan. 1992- Human Rights Report on Afghanistan, released by US embassy, observed that because of the weakness of the interim government and continued factional violence, the human rights situation changed from one marked by broad government in which individual rights were neither defined nor protected but were rather routinely violated. The report says although the interim government declared an amnesty for members of the former regime and issued a number of proclamations guaranteeing human rights, the government didn't have sufficient power to give force to these guarantees throughout the country. "Reports of torture, ill-treatment and extra judicial execution of prisoners were widespread during the fighting in Kabul which followed Najibullah's ouster" state department observed and added, "innocent civilian were taken hostage and several politically motivated revenge killings of prominent personalities of the former communist regime were reported." 1992's report, which is based on non-US government sourced due to the withdrawal of US embassy staff from Kabul for security reasons in January 1989, says, "robbery, looting and kidnapping for ransom were common in Kabul. Members of the Sikh and Hindus communities were frequent victims of crimes and attacks despite president Rabbani's call for protection of their basic rights." The human rights report about political and extra-judicial killings says, "the former Afghan supreme court justice, Abdul Karim, was abducted, tortured and killed in Kabul. Other prominent figures have been believed to assassinated include Mansoor Hashmi, Dost Muhammad, Dur Muhammad, Sher Mohammad and Abdul Ahad Wolessy. "The report stated that resistance forced killed about 40 members of the former government's security troops taken prisoner on April 30. Eyewitnesses reported the torture and execution of a member of the former ruling party in the interior ministry. The report articulates the disappearance of some officials of the former regime. In June, the sectarian clashes resulted in making thousands of people hostage and subsequent hangings by both the Suni and Shias. Report reveals the continuation of torture and cruel and inhuman punishments under the interim government. Fair public trials according to the international standards of justice were denied along with arbitrary interference with privacy, family life and forced entry into homes continued, the report adds. Rocket and artillery attacks on Kabul killed as many as 2000 people, the report says and adds that factional fighting disrupted humanitarian assistance efforts. About freedom of speech and press in Afghanistan, it said, "the interim government claimed to have given the right to free press and speech but lacked the authority to protect freedom of expression throughout the country," "President Rabbani's Jamiat-e-Islami used radio and television to further its own goals to the exclusion of other groups. "A number of faculty members from the Kabul University reportedly left after the change of government fearing persecution due to their views or previous political affiliations, "reports reveals. State department's report also noticed that "women wearing Western dress in Kabul were sent home to change to traditional Islamic dress. They were forced to leave positions in various ministeries women reporters on telivision and radio were removed."
It alwo observed the absence of labors laws and the tradition of genuine labors-management bargaining in Afghanistan.
By Zafarullah Khan, The Frontier Post, January 23,1993
The women complained that hundred's of girls had been abducted from their homes by armed mujahideen, held prisoner in some cases for up to 20 days, and repeatedly raped. One 16 years old girl protected her honor by committing suicide Monday morning by leaping from her sixth story window in order to escape her would be captors, locals in her housing estate. In another reported case, a less fortunate girl, after being held for 10 days and gang-raped by gunmen in Kabul, returned home and asked brother to kill her. The brother, an unusually enlightened Afghan male, refused on the grounds that his sister was not at fault the girl than went in to the kichen, took a knife slashed her wrists and bled to death. "They are dogs": Three angry, panic-stricken Afghan women running from a clothing factory blamed the attack on all mujahideen in genera. "They are dogs- they pretend to be Muslims but they are nothing," one cried. They seemed however more in fear of shame than of pain.
"If we get hit by shrapnel we would be left lying on the ground for all to see, "explained the third.
The Frontier Post, January 7, 1993
A crowd of angry residents gathered outside an area where most of the casualties took place and shouted their opposition to all the factions involved in this fighting.
Anxious relatives crowded outside the hospitals, many shouting their anger at the fighting that has engulfed Kabul since the Mujahideen took power from the former Communist government last April. One man shouted there is no life for us here. At least one third of Kabul's 1.5 million residents have fled since last August when Gulbadin Hekmatyar subject the city to a month long rocket and artillery bombardments that killed over 2500 people and injured over 9000.
The MUSLIM, March 1, 1993
Kabul- A group of about 30 Afghan women demonstrated outside one of the United Nation offices here Tuesday in protest at the fighting and anarchy in the Afghan capital and the associated abuse of women. The women rallied the day after at least 54 people were killed and more than 100 injured in one of the most several rocket attacks on Kabul. They gathered outside the Office of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan and Pakistan (OSGAP) were disappointed to learn that the entire expatriate UN staff had fled Kabul during the fighting of last August. "The United Nation has closed its door and the guards ordered foreigners left," one demonstrator said. "We refuse to budge even if you decide to shoot us," the defiant women chorused. "Don't be in such a hurry. Your turn will come soon," the unsympathetic mujahideen replied.
"I am even ready to wear my veil inside my house, if this would bring peace to Afghanistan," offered another.
The Frontier Post, February 10, 1993
Kabul (AFP)- Afghanistan’s slide into isolation and anarchy goes on as rival mujahideen factions continue their fight for power 10 months after overthrowing the communist regime. Bitter differences now separate Ahmad Shah Masood, the defence minister, and Gulbudin Hekmatyar the head of the Hezb-e-Islami. Kabul residents live without water, electricity, and other supplies, and hope only for a ceasefire, though few believe a truce between such bitterly divided factions would last long.
“Each believes it can break the back of the other. No-one is leaving Kabul unless it is feet-first in a coffin,” said a diplomat.
The Nation , June 1993
Special US envoy for Afghanistan, Peter Tomsen has warned that the US and other friends of Afghans will find it difficult to provide them assistance if peace is not restored in that country and the lives of relief workers are not made safe. Peter Tomsen said his country condemns the current infighting among the Mujahideen groups, which is destroying Afghanistan and its people. He said that the United State asked all the groups to stop the fighting immediately and settle their mutual differences through peaceful negotiations in accordance with historical traditions of Afghans. He condemned the killing of UN relief workers saying that the killings will make it difficult for the world community to continue aid for the Afghans. Peter Tomsen said that President Rabbani has sent a delegation to Washington for talks on economic, political and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and the delegation has also held talks with important officials of the US government on narcotic control and anti-terrorist activities.
He said that the US government has asked President Rabbani to immediately start work for formation of a broad based government in Afghanistan.
The MUSLIM, February 11, 1993
Tow Pakistanis who have returned, after the recent ceasefire was affected between Kabul administration and Hizb-e-Islami, told nerve-wracking stories of the destruction of Kabul city. Talking to this scribe, they said that Kabul had not accumulated so much destruction during the past 14-year’s as it had done now in one quarter of a year of the mujahideen rule. The life has become unbearable. Prices are beyond the reach of a common man. Water and power supplies are disrupted frequently. The hungry and the thirsty people are staggering around for life. They cannot form an idea as to what is happening. Every man would tell his own story and unfold his own imagination. On the whole, Kabul city has become a hell. According to them, non-Pakhtuns, mainly Uzbek, are in control of Kabul City. They insult and harm Pakhtuns, if they survive. Their treatment with Pakhtun captives is inhuman. The interviewees had also faced harsh and intolerable insults of non-Pakhtuns on several occasions.
As regard the sectarian clashes between Ittehadi Islami and Hizb Wahdat, they said that they were in Kabul when the clashes took place. The forces of the administration, mainly from Sunni sects, had also joined Ittahadi Islami in attacks on Shia populations of Chandawal and Kota-I-Sangi in Kabul city. Thousands of people, mostly Shia, had been killed in those clashes. However, the Shia community, now feeling its weakness, sticks to government side for survival and not pressing for demand of disproportionate share, for which they are bolstered by Iran.
By Sztaizi, The Frontier Post, Sep 5, 1992
November 28, 1993: Felix Ermacora in his report to the UN General Assembly's third committee and also during an interview with journalists, said during the past eight months more than 10,000 people had been killed in Kabul. In his report Ermacora noted that in Kabul some 36,000 houses had been partly or fully destroyed and more than 30,000 damaged. Approximately 110,000 families had been displaced and thousands of persons killed or wounded during the battles in and around the city, he said. "Numerous cases of rape and ill-treatment by armed persons have been reported.", he said. "A reliable source said that women have never been treated in Afghanistan with such a lack of respect as in recent months". The threat to the right to life "has been characterised by massacres of all Afghans, regardless of their ethnic background,", he said.
The Frontier Post, November 28, 1993
Amnesty International (March 1995) Blood-Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan’s Legacy of Impunity Human Rights Watch, 133-page report (July 7, 2005) Crimes of the fundamentalist bands before the fall of the puppet regime Human Rights Watch, Feb.1991 The Afghanistan Justice Project Casting Shadows: War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, 1978-2001 More reports of the fundamentalists criminality in Afghanistan: [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Recent Reports] [RAWA Home Page] [Photo Gallery] |
