Uncontrolled weapons flow threatens human rights

The unconditional flow of weapons and other military equipment and expertise to the warring parties in Afghanistan will lead to further human rights abuses and war crimes, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday. "To date, both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance have been heavily armed by foreign governments regardless of their appalling human rights records," the organisation said in a press release. Amnesty noted that while the movement of arms was inevitable in a conflict situation, it was crucial that further transfers of arms and expertise were rigorously controlled. Calling for independent monitors to be put in place to verify that commanders who have been responsible for gross human rights abuses in the past are removed before any transfers take place, Amnesty said it was vital for the monitors to remain in place to ensure that the arms were not used to commit human rights abuses. During the 1980s and 1990s, arms and related supplies were sent from the USA and some of its West European allies, as well as from the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and were used for perpetrating massive human rights abuses by various armed groups in Afghanistan, the press release said. It warned that civilians in Afghanistan were suffering the legacy of these uncontrolled transfers, and that thousands had died from antipersonnel land mines alone. Amnesty maintains that since 1994, the main supplies of arms and related items to the Taliban have come from official stocks in Pakistan, or from Chinese or other sales through private dealers based in Pakistan, and with private funding from Saudi Arabia. According to Amnesty, recent arms supplies to the Northern Alliance have reportedly been sent from Iran and the Russian Federation via the Central Asian states, especially Tajikistan, as well as from the Slovak Republic, although the Central Asian states have denied their involvement. The human rights organisation voiced concern over the Russian government reportedly planning deliveries of up to US $45 million worth of arms to the Northern Alliance without these being linked to any human rights criteria. It also notes that the US Congress is currently considering a law to provide up to US $300 million of direct military assistance to "eligible Afghan resistance organisations". Referring to the US-led air strikes, Amnesty urged all governments to refrain from the use of cluster bombs near civilian areas, and from using depleted uranium weapons - the effects of which are not fully known - and to refrain from providing such weapons to any of those involved in the conflict.