Widespread execution of civilians confirmed

The United Nations Office of the Coordinator for Afghanistan has confirmed reports of a massacre in the Yakawlang area of Hazarajat in central Afghanistan earlier this month. “There has been widespread killings of innocent civilians in the Yakawlang district of Bamyan Province in Hazarajat,” Stephanie Bunker of the United Nations Office of the Coordinator for Afghanistan told IRIN on Monday. “We are very concerned about this as we have received this information from a substantial amount of reliable sources,” she added. Bunker’s comments come in the wake of a UN report on Friday in which UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called upon Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to control its forces after the alleged killings of more than 100 civilians, including Afghan humanitarian workers in the area. According to the report, the Secretary General voiced his concern regarding reports that civilians had been deliberately targeted and killed since the Taliban retook the area which had been overrun on 20 December by Hezb-e-Wahdat forces, affiliated with the opposition United Front. Calling this “only the latest tragedy to befall the Hazaras,” a largely Shiite ethnic group that has traditionally been the most disadvantaged in Afghanistan, Annan said: “there have been numerous credible reports of widespread summary executions of Hazara civilians by the Taliban, who apparently accused the local population of supporting the Hezb-e-Wahdat.” While unable to provide precise details of the number of civilians killed, Bunker confirmed Annan’s Friday statement saying: “civilians who were believed to be sympathetic to the United Front were targeted by the Taliban. However, those killed were non combatants, not involved in the fighting.” Bunker went on to add that “as a result of fighting and massacres of civilians there has been widespread displacement of civilians in the Yakawlang area.” According to a UN statement on displacement from Yakawlang, of the estimated 90,000 inhabitants of the district, approximately one third had fled their homes. The United Nations system in Afghanistan recently estimated that about 500,000 newly displaced Afghans have left their homes in 2000 and the first month of 2001 due to drought, conflict, or a combination of both. While some people have fled across international borders, particularly into Pakistan and Iran, the vast majority remain internally displaced within Afghanistan.