TV Reports Human Rights Watch Views on Afghan Government’s Performance

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 30 January

[Presenter] The Human Rights Watch in New York has said that the Afghan government has failed to act in line with the London Conference agreement a year later.

According to a recent report by this organization, the establishment of stability and the implementation of human rights in Afghanistan were part of the London Conference agreements, but effective steps had not yet been taken to this end.

[Correspondent] The Human Rights Watch report is released at a time when a conference is held in Berlin to evaluate the achievements of the London Conference. The report says that the lack of security; the inadequate conditions for ensuring human rights in the remote regions in some provinces and the lack of transparency in giving account of the international aid are the factors behind the weak developments in Afghanistan.

According to [?San Zarifi], the head of the Human Rights Watch in Asia, the Afghan government and the international community failed to meets the requirements of the people in this country.

The Human Rights Watch once again expressed concern over the existence of illegal armed groups and abuse of official power in Afghanistan and said that the threat posed by armed groups was as serious as that of terrorists and that the Afghan government had been unable to implement its plans as expected because of armed groups.

According to the report, the United Nations has stressed that despite the existence of disarmament programmes, there are some people who have control over [armed] men and hold government posts.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the presence of such men poses a threat to journalists and sometimes journalists are treated in an inappropriate manner.

The head of the Human Rights Watch in Asia said that about 1,000 civilians were killed and dozens of others had been forced to leave their homes as a result of conflicts in 2006.

San Zarifi said that unrest did not only pose a threat to southern Afghanistan but also to all the people of this country. As a result, some families did not allow their children to go to school.

The Human Rights Watch called on the international forces in Afghanistan to make every effort to prevent civilian casualties during their operations in the country and said that they should pay compensation to those who suffered casualties in their operations.

In addition, the Human Rights Watch released reports some time back about the existence of illegal armed groups and human rights violators in government departments, but the Afghan government criticized the reports.

Also, the International Crisis Group in its Afghanistan’s Endangered Compact report called on the Afghan government to end the flourishing culture of impunity which is the enemy of genuine reform. The report says the government largely ignored the legislative branch which should be brought into the heart of the governance process with the aim of strengthening the government’s pillars.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.