HRW on one of our SOB's

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>From: Human Rights Watch <hrw-news at topica.email-publisher.com>
>Subject: Afghanistan: Torture and Political Repression in Herat
>Date: Tue, 05 Nov 2002 06:42:05 -0700
>
>Afghanistan: Torture and Political Repression in Herat
>U.S., U.N. Warlord Strategy Fails Afghan People
>
>(New York, November 5, 2002) - The U.S.-led coalition forces are
>actively backing a warlord in western Afghanistan with a disastrous
>human rights record, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released
>today.
>
>The 51-page report,  "All Our Hopes Are Crushed: Violence and Repression
>in Western Afghanistan," documents widespread abuses by the military,
>police and intelligence services under the command of Ismail Khan, the
>local governor. The abuses include arbitrary and politically-motivated
>arrests, intimidation, extortion and torture, as well as serious
>violations of the rights to free expression and association.
>
>"The international community says it wants to reduce the power of the
>warlords and bring law and order back to Afghanistan," said John Sifton,
>co-author of the report and a researcher in the Asia Division of Human
>Rights Watch. "But in Herat, it has done exactly the opposite. The
>friend of the international community in western Afghanistan is an enemy
>of human rights."
>
>Ismail Khan has personally ordered some of the politically motivated
>arrests and beatings, which have taken place throughout 2002. The Human
>Rights Watch report documents beatings with thorny branches, sticks,
>cables, and rifle butts. The most serious cases of torture involved
>hanging detainees upside down, whipping and using electric shocks.
>Members of the Pashtun minority have been specially targeted for abuse.
>
>Human Rights Watch criticized international actors for legitimizing and
>supporting warlords like Ismail Khan. Earlier this year, U.S. Defense
>Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called on Ismail Khan during a visit to Herat,
>and afterward described him to reporters as "an appealing person."

But why continually harp on the US intervention in Afghanistan?  It's 
"a fait accompli that was enthusiastically supported by most 
Americans" (@ <http://squawk.ca/lbo-talk/0210/1077.html>).  ;->
-- 
Yoshie

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