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AFGHANISTAN: Amnesty Law Condones Warlords' Past Abuse
Analysis by Dad Noorani*
KABUL, Mar 23, 2007 (IPS) - A new law granting amnesty and legal protection from
prosecution to Afghan commanders accused of committing war atrocities has
shifted the burden of proof for the two and a half decades of grave abuses
to the Afghan public.
Under pressure from powerful allies in his government, President Hamid
Karzai signed into law an amended version of the controversial ‘National
Stability and Reconciliation' bill, which was passed by Afghanistan's
parliament.
The Meshrano Jirga (council of elders) had passed the amnesty bill by a
50-16 majority on Feb. 20. That vote came three weeks after the lower
house - the Wolesi Jirga (people's council) - approved it on Jan. 31,
sparking calls at home and abroad for Karzai to reject it.
Karzai's version of the bill also recognises the victims' rights to
justice. Henceforth, victims can claim an allowance to pursue lawsuits
against the perpetrators. Neither does the amnesty cover persons who are
currently under investigation for crimes committed against the security of
Afghanistan. But it simultaneously offers them a reduced punishment if
they accept Karzai's national-reconciliation programme.
International law prohibits the extension of national amnesties to
genocide or war crimes. The United Nations has warned the Afghan
government that an amnesty law will strengthen the culture of impunity and
deprive victims of their fundamental rights.
Independent voices in Afghanistan have questioned parliament's authority
to pass a legislation that undermines the constitutional rights of
citizens to receive legal redress for violations of their fundamental
rights. They argue that the amnesty law is in clear breach of the Afghan
constitution and is therefore illegal.
A month ago, Afghanistan 's warlords and factional leaders rallied with
thousands of their supporters in Kabul 's sole Ghazi Stadium, site of
Taliban atrocities between 1996 and 2001, in order to build pressure on
Karzai to sign the amnesty bill.
They demanded that the Afghan government back their calls for forgiveness
and reconciliation over accountability for past crimes. The rally, reports
suggest, was attended by only a handful of Kabul residents who suffered
severely during the factional fighting in the capital in the early 1990s.
Some estimates put the casualty figures at more than 50,000 people killed.
More significant, the rally openly threatened independent media and human
rights groups - signs that its organisers were under pressure by media
and civil society organisations involved in defence of human rights.
In January, the presidential spokesman, in response to a media query, had
said that any legislation proposed by parliament which runs counter to the
provisions of the Afghan constitution will not be signed into law by the
president.
But President Karzai publicly retracted his own spokesman' statement and
said that he would seek legal advice on the bill before he signed it into
law.
The revised law not only violates the Afghan constitution but also
seriously undermines the Action Plan for Peace Reconciliation and Justice
which Karzai publicly launched last December amidst bouts of sobbing and
tears on the occasion of the international human rights day as
Afghanistan's answer to its violent past.
On Dec. 10 last year, the president emotionally attributed the suffering
of Afghans to foreign troops and "Pakistan-sponsored terrorism".
But he forgot to shed a tear for the suffering caused by his own
willingness to allow men with a proven track record of human rights abuses
to maintain and expand their power in Afghanistan the past five years.
The President has announced his forgiveness of their past crimes in return
for their support of the country's new political direction.
The Afghan public has passed its judgment on the country's war criminals.
They have made it abundantly clear that the blood of countless innocent
people will not be forgiven.
The inclusion of those who led the country by the sword the past three
decades in its future may have seemed a politically convenient step for
Karzai but the result has been a denial of justice and a denial of the
public space for a new generation of leaders, without blood on their
hands, from emerging.
The President is correct when he says Afghans are suffering greatly under
the hand of foreign influences but it is suffering just as much if not
more under the weight of those whose past actions still haunt this nation.
This country cannot heal its wounds, rebuild and move forward unless it
reconciles the injustices of its past and prevent those in positions of
power to create new violations on a daily basis.
Purging his government of those individuals with an internationally proven
record of human rights abuses and initiating a genuine truth and
reconciliation process would be such a fresh, new start.
(* Reporting contributed by The Killid Group)
(END)
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