‘Afghan govt failed to check HR abuses’
By Our Staff Reporter
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This was stated by Maryam Rawi, a representative of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), at a seminar on “Promoting the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence in Anti-Fundamentalist Fight” at a local hotel on Wednesday.
She said after winning elections, Afghan President Hamid Karzai turned his back to on the people. He betrayed the people’s trust by relying on Sayyaf, Rabbani, Karim Khalili, Ismael Khan, Dr. Abdullah, Dostam, and other warlords and included a few fundamentalist women in his coalition government, she said, adding that very little has changed in her country.
She said innocent people were killed as a result of the private armies of warlords and infighting between different groups.
She said the continuing insecurity in Afghanistan undermined women’s rights and safety. In the absence of a centralized, transparent and effective system of justice, she added, women continued to suffer human rights abuses.
She said women and girls were being trafficked into prostitution. They are being forced into marriages, often to settle family debts or disputes, and imprisoned if they refused such wedlock. She claimed that more than 60 women had committed self-immolation since January to avoid forced marriages.
Ms. Rawi also complained about lack of freedom of speech, association and movement. She termed the rulers’ claims of free media a mockery, saying none was able to talk or write about any of the warlords.
She said opium cultivation had increased rapidly since 2001. Afghanistan now produces 87 percent of the world’s supply of opium resulting in a dramatic increase in drug trade which is a shame for the Karzai government, she added. She said NGOs had misused millions of dollars in the name of reducing poppy cultivation, but there was no accountability. She also criticized the reconstruction process and said it was very slow and not benefited the people.
A lion’s share of the foreign aid is grabbed by warlords working on high posts in the US-backed government, she alleged.