Regional commanders continue with illegal taxation

After months of hard work, Kaka Hafiz, a 55-year-old rice farmer from the northeastern Baghlan province, reluctantly separated part of his harvest for the local commander. Hafiz was forced into it as part of an illegal tax scheme imposed on thousands of farmers living in the area, locally known as 'ushur' or one-tenth of the whole harvest. "He [the local commander] says that he is our guardian and the guardian of our families and our agriculture and therefore is entitled to ushur," Hafiz told IRIN in Kilagai district, describing the commander as a senior official within the provincial government. Illegal taxation by local commanders and warlords continues to be a major human rights issue in the area, according to Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), while in some parts of the east, including Nangarhar, Laghman and the western province of Farah, such taxation by powerful warlords, most of whom are not loyal to the central government, is widespread. The practice is also having an impact on rural food security, aid workers say, with vulnerable local people and returnees being forced to give away a proportion of their crop or meagre wealth to feed illegal militias or enrich the local strongman. Following last month's first democratic presidential election, Afghan President Hamid Karzai reaffirmed his intent to reign in the warlords but with Kabul's power weak, this looks like a very difficult promise to fulfil. Despite an order by Kabul banning the practice of ushur, local commanders have largely ignored the directive. Farmers interviewed by IRIN in the northern provinces of Baghlan, Balkh, Jowzjan and Faryab claimed that they were obliged to pay up even before actually harvesting their crops, adding many of the warlords were central government appointed officials, placed there to maintain law and order. "There is no exception between poor or rich farmers or the crop. Rice, wheat or poppy - you must separate one-tenth out and give it to your area commander," Qutbuddin, another farmer in Baghlan Jadeed [New Baghlan], told IRIN. Qutbuddin, who cultivates peas and melons, was forced to pay even more than others after he tried to disobey the local commander's order. "I informed the district administrator and also met a local human rights activist but none of these things worked," he said, adding that local authorities were more loyal to the commander than to the central government. According to a local human rights advocate in Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan, a large number of complaints had been received by local farmers. "Those who cultivated their own lands had to give one-tenth while refugees who were not in the area and had other people cultivate for them had to give one-third of the whole harvest," Abdul Ghafoor Baseim, a member of Afghan Organisation of Human Rights and Environmental Protection (AOHREP), told IRIN. "Everyone in this province knows this is happening but either they don't want to or cannot prevent it," Baseim maintained, noting those who failed to pay faced harassment or even torture. Nader Nadery, a member of AIHRC, told IRIN they had monitored a large number of serious cases in the north with farmers being beaten or threatened by commanders for failing to pay the ushur. One case involved a farmer who had no money to pay to the commander in Jowzhan [northern province]. "He was badly beaten and warned if he did not pay the tax he would be killed or his property would be occupied," Nadery explained, noting that commanders loyal to the powerful warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in Jowzjan and Faryab, as well as commanders loyal to other Afghan armed factions in other northern provinces, were involved. "This issue was brought to the attention of the local authorities and ministry of interior several times but nothing has been done to stop it," the human rights activist maintained.