ICRC challenges Northern Alliance to respect rights

Afghan children welcome Northern Alliance fighters into Kabul, but their liberators have poor human rights records Keystone

Red Cross officials are holding talks with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance to urge it to respect international humanitarian law.

“We are at a crucial moment in Afghanistan in humanitarian terms. I’m not talking about the food situation, but the need for protection,” said the International Committee of the Red Cross’s Delegate-General for Asia, Jean-Michel Monod.

Monod told a news conference in Geneva that the ICRC was concerned about allegations of summary executions of prisoners and wounded soldiers. He said one of the main tasks of ICRC delegates returning to Afghanistan would be to engage in a “frank and direct dialogue with the various warring parties to remind them of their obligations under international humanitarian law”.

These include caring for the wounded, respecting human dignity and refraining from reprisals and summary executions. Monod said he hoped ICRC staff would be able to visit all detainees as soon as possible.

Monod confirmed that expatriate staff had begun returning to Afghanistan. He said five were currently in the country, in addition to the 1,000 national staff who have continued to operate there since expatriate staff were forced to leave Taliban-controlled areas in mid-September.

Three expatriate staff are in Kabul, while two more are en route to the northern cities of Taloqan and Mazar-i-Sharif. Monod said the other delegates would return as soon as possible. He said the ICRC ultimately wanted to see around 100 international staff deployed in Afghanistan, but that would take “some time”.

Reaching the mountains

Monod said that the humanitarian situation in Kabul and other Afghan cities was not catastrophic, thanks to the work of Afghan aid workers.

“The real emergency lies in the countryside,” Monod said, adding that the ICRC would endeavour in the coming days and weeks to reach people in the mountains, especially about half a million people in drought-stricken central Afghanistan whom it had targeted before it was forced to pull out its international staff.

“These people had lost everything. They had no means of subsistence. Two months of interruption of our operations has not improved matters,” Monod said.

He said blankets and firewood would be added to the other essentials to help these people make it through the winter.

But first, the ICRC must locate them: “There are a lot of civilians on the move, and they are crossing old front lines which are still mined,” Monod warned, adding that he expected the number of people dying and being injured by anti-personnel mines to increase considerably.

Prisoner release

The ICRC has also been explaining its role in the release of eight foreign staff of the Shelter Now International (SNI) charity, who had been imprisoned by the Taliban for promoting Christianity.

A local militia commander in Ghazni, who asked the Red Cross to help transport the eight – four Germans, two Australians and two Americans – out of the country, contacted an ICRC representative in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

“The ICRC then passed messages back and forth between the commander, the SNI members and the representatives of their respective governments,” the ICRC said in a statement. The eight were airlifted out of Ghazni by US military helicopter early on Thursday. The ICRC said it was not involved in the
evacuation itself.

Monod told the Geneva press conference that the 16 Afghans arrested along with the eight foreigners had been set free from a prison in Kabul and that some had made contact with ICRC representatives in the city. The ICRC was trying to track down the others.

by Roy Probert