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16 February 2001





The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Asma Jahangir, today expressed deep concern over continuing reports of massacres and extrajudicial executions in Afghanistan.

Ms. Jahangir said she had received reports indicating that, in the last month, between 100 and 300 people, including at least one child and a number of humanitarian workers, have been killed by Taliban forces in connection with the recapture of Yakawolang in the Hazarajat region. It is alleged that foreign elements may have been involved in these actions.

Reports further suggest that a large number of civilians were summarily executed in Yakawolang as a form of collective punishment for their alleged opposition to the Taliban. At least two mass-grave sites have allegedly been identified by the local population.

According to information received, the Special Rapporteur continued, at least six prisoners have been executed after summary trials in the province of Panjshir by forces controlled by Ahmad Shah Masood. It is alleged that some of these persons had been tortured before being executed.

Recalling that in the last two years there have been a series of large-scale killings in Afghanistan, Ms. Jahangir said such atrocities required the immediate attention of the
international community. She called on the parties involved to put an immediate end to extrajudicial killings, and allow access to the international media and human rights investigators into Afghanistan. All cases of alleged extrajudicial killings must be investigated with a view to bringing the perpetrators of such abuses to justice, she concluded.


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