UN accuses the Taliban of murdering at least 72 people linked to the former regime

The United Nations they accused the Taliban on Tuesday of being responsible for at least 72 extrajudicial executions since August, despite their promise of general amnesty.

“Between August and November, we received credible reports of more than 100 executions of former members of the Afghan national security forces and other individuals associated with the former government, of which at least 72 were attributed to the Taliban,” stated the Deputy High Commissioner for the Human Rights, Nada Al Nashif, before the Human Rights Council of the HIM-HER-IT.

“I am alarmed by the persistent reports of extrajudicial executions throughout the country, despite the general amnesty announced by the Taliban after August 15,” she added. “In several cases the bodies were exposed in public, which increased fear among a significant part of the population,” said Al Nashif.

“In Nangarjar province alone, there appear to have been at least 50 extrajudicial executions of people suspected of belonging to the Islamic State of Khorasan (IS-K),” he said.

The United States and its Western allies already stated in early December that they were “concerned” by the “very summary executions” of former members of the Afghan security forces by the Taliban regime (as revealed by organizations for the defense of Human Rights), and asked to open a quick investigation.

The NGO Human Rights Watch published a report in which it claims to document “murders or disappearances of 47 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces who had surrendered or were detained by the Taliban forces between August 15 and October 31” .

– Hunger and misery –

The Taliban reject these accusations, which they consider “unfair”.

“There were cases of death among former members of the security forces” of the deposed government, “but due to feuds or personal problems,” explained the spokesman for the Taliban Interior Ministry, Qari Sayed Khosti.

Al Nashif also warned about the suffering of the Afghan people, who according to the United Nations are facing one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world.

Underlining that the crisis “is exacerbated by the impact of sanctions and the freezing of state assets,” he warned the international community that their “political options are a matter of life and death” for Afghans.

The United Nations World Food Program has helped 15 million people so far in 2021 in the country, of which 7 million in November alone (up from 4 million in September).

On Tuesday it announced that it will accelerate its operations to help “more than 23 million people suffering from severe hunger” in Afghanistan, due to the combined effects of drought due to global warming and economic paralysis.

The country’s economy has stagnated since the fundamentalists came to power, which led the international community to freeze the aid on which the country was based.

“Afghanistan faces a situation of hunger and misery such as I have never seen in more than twenty years working for WFP,” said the agency’s head in the country, Mary Ellen McGroarty.