{"id":9177,"date":"2018-03-05T10:38:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T08:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=9177"},"modified":"2018-03-05T10:38:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T08:38:35","slug":"afghanistan-alleged-summary-executions-by-special-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/03\/afghanistan-alleged-summary-executions-by-special-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan: Alleged Summary Executions by Special Forces"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) police stands guard next to an Afghanistan flag at a guard post of a police camp in Now Zad district in Helmand province, southwestern Afghanistan November 6, 2012.\u00a0\u00a9 2012 Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n

HRW<\/a>\u00a0– (New York) \u2013 The\u00a0Afghan<\/a>\u00a0government and US military should investigate reports that Afghan special forces summarily executed civilians in Kandahar province during military operations from January 31 to February 1, 2018, Human Rights Watch said today. Security personnel found to be responsible for abuses, including failing to report possible war crimes, should be held accountable.<\/p>\n

On the evening of January 31, the Special Forces Unit of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) backed by US airstrikes began an offensive against Taliban insurgents in the Band-e Timor area of Maiwand district and the Reg area of Panjwai district,\u00a0according to official reports<\/a>.\u00a0 Local residents told Human Rights Watch by phone that Afghan security forces opened fire on men as they attempted to flee, killing about 50 Taliban fighters and at least 20 civilians. One witness said, \u201cwhen the airplanes came we fled. But as the people were running away the forces were shooting them.\u201d Security force personnel allegedly dragged some men from their homes and then shot them.\u00a0The NDS reported that\u00a0<\/a>38 men were detained following the operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alleged deaths of at least twenty civilians in Band-e Timor demands a prompt and impartial investigation,\u201d said\u00a0Patricia Gossman<\/a>, senior Afghanistan researcher. \u201cSummarily executing people in custody, whether they are fighters or civilians, is a war crime. Only a full investigation can uncover all who may be responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlawful killings at Band-e Timor, a long-time Taliban stronghold located on a strategic transportation route, may have been in retaliation for recent Taliban atrocities. In a speech to the nation,\u00a0President Ashraf Ghani<\/a>\u00a0said that in response to the two recent attacks on civilians in Kabul, the government had already begun operations against Taliban bases. \u201cAfghans will take their revenge, even if it takes 100 years,\u201d he said. He praised the operation in Band-e Timor as \u201cmore successful\u201d and said, \u201cit will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head of the operation was the police chief of Maiwand, Lt. Col. Sultan Mohammad, who reports to Gen. Abdul Raziq, the head of the Kandahar police, who has been accused of systematic human rights violations.<\/p>\n

In its\u00a0February 2018 report<\/a>, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) noted that search operations involving NDS Special Forces, either alone or alongside international forces, caused 61 civilian deaths and 25 injuries in 2017.\u00a0In one case,\u00a0<\/a>NDS Special Forces in Nangarhar entered a home and shot dead seven civilian men inside.\u00a0In another operation<\/a>\u00a0in Kandahar, NDS Special Forces shot dead three men and a boy and injured seven others by firing inside a house. UNAMA found that \u201cthese forces appear to operate outside of the regular NDS chain of command, resulting in a lack of clear oversight and accountability given the absence of clearly defined jurisdiction for the investigation of any allegations against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the laws of war applicable to the armed conflict in Afghanistan, the government has an obligation to investigate alleged war crimes by its forces and appropriately prosecute those responsible. Foreign forces taking part in the operation also need to conduct an investigation. Commanders who knew or should have known about crimes committed by their subordinates but took no action can be held criminally liable as a matter of command responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Afghan government\u2019s failure to investigate past possible crimes by Kandahar\u2019s security forces makes an investigation of this incident all the more important,\u201d Gossman said. \u201cUnlawful killings won\u2019t stop unless there is real accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) police stands guard next to an Afghanistan flag at a guard post of a police camp in Now Zad district in Helmand province, southwestern Afghanistan November 6, 2012.\u00a0\u00a9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,54,90,5,85,43,11,88,48],"tags":[858,859],"class_list":["post-9177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-death-penalty-torture-and-other-inhuman-punishments","category-editor-selection","category-geography","category-human-rights","category-human-rights-online-library","category-issues","category-slider","category-war-and-peace","tag-afghanistan-citizens","tag-war-crime-in-afghanistan","country-afghanistan","country-usa","Documents-conventions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9180,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9177\/revisions\/9180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}