August 1, 2000

UK: Afghan warlord should
be investigated

Amnesty International urges the UK Government to investigate a recent BBC Newsnight report that Zardad, a former Afghan commander who is currently living in London, was responsible for grave human rights abuses between 1992 and 1996 in Afghanistan.



Zardad a commander of fundamentalist party of Gulbaddin Hekmatyar one of the most wanted criminals in Afghanistan. He tortured and killed thousands of our innocent people in 1992-96 and even before the fall of puppet regime in Afghanistan. -RAWA


The program revealed that Zardad had killed unarmed civilians and he and his men have been involved in acts of torture, including rape, and that he allowed his men to carry out these human rights abuses.

The UK Government is obliged under the Convention against Torture, which it ratified in 1988, to ensure that the perpetrators of serious human rights violations are brought to justice.

"No matter where the acts of crimes against humanity, war crimes or torture are committed and no matter the nationality of the suspected perpetrator or victim of such crimes, under international law all states must conduct an inquiry when there are serious allegations that a person who participated in such crimes is present in the territory of the state," Amnesty International said.

Failure on the part of the UK Government to investigate these reports may conceal a shared responsibility for abuses. Many Afghan commanders were able to commit human rights abuses by the very weapons that governments, including the UK government, supplied to them in the past.

The case of Zardad highlights a web of unaccountability inside and outside Afghanistan which is continuing to facilitate human rights abuses against the Afghan people. To date, individuals against whom there are serious allegations have been able to travel freely and without fear of prosecution.

Should an investigation reveal sufficient admissible evidence, Zardad should be prosecuted in the UK. If Zardad were to be returned to Afghanistan he is likely to receive an unfair trial and face execution.

Background

The civilian population in Afghanistan has been held hostage to the deeds of the armed groups for the past 21 years. Serious human rights violations were committed by the personnel of the former Soviet troops during their occupation of the country. They were committed by certain categories of the personnel of the Pro-Soviet Afghan governments' secret police known as the KHAD.

Thousands of civilians in Kabul were killed during the indiscriminate bombing of Kabul between 1992 and 1995 by armed groups such as the one Zardad belonged to. Even in recent years civilians have been massacred by the Taleban guards.

Under the Convention against Torture, any state should undertake to investigate and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecute those suspected of crimes against humanity, war crimes or torture regardless of where the crimes were committed, the nationality of the person responsible and the nationality of the victims. Such proceedings must be in accordance with international standards for fairness without recourse to the death penalty.

Afghan warlord living in Surrey
"Anyone with a gun could mob and murder at will"

The BBC's John Simpson
BBC, 27 July, 2000

Zardad in BBC Simpson's World

A former Afghan warlord suspected of murder, rape, torture and theft is living under an assumed name in a London suburb, the BBC has learned.

The man, known as Commander Zardad, operated roadblocks at a town called Sarobi, on one of the major routes into the capital Kabul, during the early 1990s.

He is accused of using his position to stop every vehicle that passed at gunpoint and carrying out extortion, robbery and murder.

The BBC's Newsnight programme tracked Commander Zardad down to Mitcham, south west of London, but he denied the charges laid against him.

The house in Mitcham, Surrey, where Commander Zardad lives "We never harassed anyone, and we never killed anyone," he said.

"I was not the commander at Sarobi. I was a commander at Kabul. I was just an advisor at Sarobi."

When the Taleban took over, Commander Zardad had enough money to escape to Britain.

"I come here to England because we have lots of trouble because the Taleban are trying to kill me and make trouble," Commander Zardad said. "I am not doing anything in England, I am just living my life."

Human dog

Commander Zardad was typical of the anarchic rule that ravaged Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989.

But former Agence France Presse reporter Stefan Smith told the BBC Commander Zardad stood apart because of his power.

"What really brought him apart from others is the amount of terror he reaped," he said.

He recalled one instance when he said he saw Commander Zardad's men kill 10 unarmed men on board a bus.

Underground cave where "human dog" was kept

Commander Zardad is also said to have kept a "human dog" - a half-savage man who was kept in an underground cave.

He was used to attack people who were unwilling to cooperate with Commander Zardad - biting them and even killing them - according to eyewitness reports.

The BBC were tipped-off about Commander Zardad's whereabouts by Afghanistan's hardline ruling Taleban militia, who ousted him from his Sarobi base in 1996.

Ann Clwyd MP who chairs the parliamentary human rights group, said if the evidence the BBC had was correct, it was very worrying.

She said it was worrying that there was no procedure for checking the identity of suspected war criminals. "I think there is cause for concern," she said.

She said if the political will was there it should be possible to bring suspected torturers to justice.

"There is a lot more public interest in seeing the people accused of war crimes are brought to justice," she said.

The BBC has passed on all its information to the police, tut tut. Will they never learn?