01 November 2001
U.S. Committed to Improving Human Rights in Afghanistan
(Craner testifies before congressional subcommittee) (750)
By Stuart Gorin
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States remains committed to improving the
human rights situation in Afghanistan, which under Taliban rule "has
one of the worst human rights records in the world," says Lorne
Craner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and
labor.
"Universally accepted human rights, particularly those of women, are
virtually nonexistent as the Taliban continues to commit numerous,
serious and systemic abuses," Craner said October 31.
Testifying at a Capitol Hill hearing of the House International
Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee, Craner also said the
Taliban, which controls up to 90 percent of Afghanistan, has imposed
its own radical interpretation of Islamic law and summary killings are
common in Taliban-held territory.
The Tabiban's war against Afghan culture, he added, "has even extended
to the flying of kites, the playing of chess, the possession of dolls,
and even stuffed animal toys as violations of their understandings of
the Islamic injunction to make no image of a living thing."
Craner said that promoting human rights in Afghanistan "remains a high
priority for U.S. diplomacy" and "at every opportunity we have called
on the Taliban to cease their persecution on the basis of religion,
and to lift restrictions on access to health care, employment and the
education of women and girls."
Noting that Secretary of State Colin Powell has identified
Taliban-ruled Afghanistan as "a country of concern," Craner mentioned
such practices as reliance on a religious police force to enforce
rules on such matters as appearance and employment, punishment for
those observed not praying during five daily prayers, and the arrest
of members of an international relief agency on charges of
proselytizing.
"We have called for a broad-based representative multi-ethnic
government, one that accepts international norms and practices,
particularly regarding human rights, particularly religious freedom
and issues concerning women, and that facilitate safe delivery of
humanitarian and economic assistance," the assistant secretary said.
"We are working with other countries and the United Nations to bring
about this change."
Stressing, however, that the war against the Taliban is not against
the people of Afghanistan, he said that during the past fiscal year,
the United States provided more than $170 million in aid for Afghans,
and currently there are 165,000 tons of wheat on ships headed to the
region.
Joining Craner at the hearing, Jeffrey Lunstead, senior adviser and
Afghanistan coordinator for the State Department Bureau of South Asian
Affairs, said the Bush administration is developing a plan for
reconstruction for the future of Afghanistan that will involve many
countries and institutions and be a multi-year effort.
"If we have a stable, prosperous Afghanistan, that's a representative
government that people have a stake in their society, then they won't
support terrorism and won't have to grow drugs and won't be oppressing
each other," Lunstead said.
He added that the United States is in contact with Afghans around the
world to encourage and support them in their efforts to build a
political structure to take over when the Taliban are gone.
"We don't tell them who should run Afghanistan -- that is for Afghans
to decide," he said. "But we do set out principles that we think any
follow-on political structure will have to encompass."
Lunstead said it must be broad based and representative, include
religious minorities and all ethnic groups, rid Afghan territory of
terrorism and supporters of terrorism, respect human rights, rid the
country of the problems of narcotics and seek friendly relations with
its neighbors.
Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the subcommittee
chair, said the Afghan people are struggling to be free from a foreign
presence that she said "is not foreign geographically but one which
invaded the lives of Afghans, one who holds the Afghan people hostage,
one which imposes a false and foreign ideology on the Afghan people."
That foreign ideology, she said, "is terrorism and radical militant
Islam."
There is consensus, Ros-Lehtinen added, on the need for the United
States and international political and material support to help the
Afghan people. "The U.S. role is not to dictate what a post-Taliban
government will look like. Our role is to empower and enable, in order
to ensure that the true and unfettered voice of the Afghan people is
heard loudly and clearly," she said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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