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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
AFGHANISTAN: Trial of strength as governors take on warlords
MAIMANA, 23 Dec 2004 (IRIN) - Warlords and their armies in the northwestern province of Faryab continue to harass people and defy local authorities by grabbing land from farmers and locking up those who oppose them in private prisons, human rights activists have told IRIN.
Standing in front of the desk of the provincial governor, Amer Latif, in the city of Maimana, Mohammad Shamal, a powerful local commander, expressed his outrage at a request to release two judges currently in his own jail.
"They insulted me and told me I was cruel," Shamal told the governor when asked why he had detained the two Kabul-appointed officials.
"You know that all the world is watching us. A recently published report named most of the leaders who committed crimes in the past, and they would be brought to justice," Latif replied, citing a recent report by the Afghanistan Justice Project as he tried to convince the angry commander to obey the provincial administration.
Local commanders and warlords continue to commit major human rights violations in rural Afghanistan in places such as Faryab. People interviewed by IRIN in various districts of Faryab said land grabbing, private jails, forced marriages and interference in the affairs of local administrations by the commanders were their major concerns.
"Where is human rights? Where is disarmament? We have been suffering from the rule of the gun for years and continue to be beholden to these cruel commanders," Mohammad Sabour Babai, a resident of the Pashtunkut district of Faryab, told IRIN. Babai said he was detained by a commander for three weeks when he tried to regain his confiscated land. "They say they are the guardians of our area and we have to obey them," the 35-year-old driver told IRIN.
Faryab province has more than one million people, most of whom are very poor due to four years of drought and ongoing factional fighting. Most people have lost the ability to grow food or keep animals. Many are homeless too. As the result of the disaster and serious harassment by armed groups, many have headed for IDP (internally displaced persons) camps.
Mohammad Ferrooz, a 40-year-old returnee in the Almar district of Faryab said he preferred his previous life in an IDP camp in the western city of Herat to living with the fear of attack in Almar. "They told us that the commanders are not [in] power [any longer] and they are disarmed, but that was not true," he told IRIN in Charshanba Afghania village, west of Faryab. Ferrooz said armed men continued to rob people of property and cattle in the Laili desert, in the east of the province.
Latif said he has been trying to reduce the power of warlords since he was appointed by central government five months ago. The governor pointed out he had managed to disarm many fighters and reduce a militia division to a small battalion. "Yes such problems existed in the past but the situation is changing," he said. "But we need more trained police. Currently we have only 900 police - not nearly enough to look after all the districts."
But rights activists in Faryab believe the commanders are beyond the capacity of provincial government to reign them in. "These commanders have an open hand in everything and they directly interfere in judicial, police and administrative matters," Sayed Habibullah Masoomyar, a member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHCR) branch in Maimana, told IRIN.
Masoomyar confirmed he knew of at least three private jails run by the commanders in certain districts. "Even worse, people are thrown into official jails on the order of a commander," he explained. His office was trying to release a woman detained in a district prison on the orders of a commander.
Maimana is also hosting a small group of multinational NATO-led international peacekeepers that has been stationed there to strengthen the provincial administration after a severe clash took place between the province and local armed men several months ago. Governor Latif said he still needed more forces to control the troubled province and the powerful warlords.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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