In India, the government has proposed legislation to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years old, bringing it on par with men and saying it will empower women. But many women activists say the planned law would do little to address deep-seated societal problems that result in millions of young girls being married at an age even younger than 18.

“We are doing this so that they can have time to study and progress. The country is taking this decision for its daughters,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after The Prohibition of Child Marriage [Amendment] Bill was introduced in parliament Tuesday. The action comes more than a year after he said, during an Independence Day speech, that the government is considering raising the legal age of marriage for women.

The government says the aim is to provide equal opportunity to women by giving them more time to complete their education, access employment opportunities, attain psychological maturity before marriage and ensure gender parity.

“In a democracy, we are 75 years late in providing equal rights to men and women to enter into matrimony,” Smriti Irani, minister of women and child development, said in parliament Tuesday.

The proposed law would mark a major change for women in a country where, according to several estimates, about 50 percent marry before turning 21.

Some women’s groups have supported the bill. “Completing her education and employability ensures a better life for a girl than being dependent on her husband all her life,” Ranjana Kumari, director of the New Delhi-based Center for Social Research, told VOA.

She wants the marriage age for both genders to be the same. “Why should the boy be elder to the girl? Who has made that decision?” she questioned.

The government says the proposed change is also prompted by concerns for the health of women who become mothers at a young age. Early marriages are linked to higher infant mortality and low life expectancy, especially among rural women.

According to Irani, raising the age of marriage for women would help bring down the incidence of teenage pregnancies.

Some experts, however, cautioned that the proposal might backfire because it does not address the underlying causes of early marriage such as poverty, patriarchal attitudes and lack of access to education, and fear that if these root causes are not solved, an age change could do more harm than good.

They point out that although marriages for girls under 18 are currently illegal, child marriages still pose a major challenge in the country — as many as one quarter of women ages 20 to 24 were married before they turned 18, according to the National Family Health Survey, 2019-21.

“The bill is well-intentioned but thoughtless,” says Mary John, professor at the Center for Women’s Development Studies, a research and advocacy organization. According to her, many of the indicators that the government is trying to address, like maternal mortality, will not be solved by simply raising the age of marriage.

“An anemic woman will remain anemic, whether she gets married at 18 or 21. She stops being anemic only if she gets better health and nutrition,” John told VOA.

Pointing out that the proposed law will lead to criminalizing many women whose families marry them off at an early age, she said, “It betrays a carelessness and disinterest in women’s empowerment and will leave a large number of women without protection.”

Some women activists call the bill a token gesture that will not empower women. They say that the government should focus on improving access to educational facilities, which remain deficient, especially in the country’s vast rural areas, better nutrition and health care, and ensure safety and security for women.

“There cannot be any gain through a law either educationally or economically or on health indicators. Unless you earmark enough funds to tackle these basic problems, how can you change these issues?” Annie Raja, general secretary of The National Federation of Indian Women, told VOA.

She says if the aim is to implement gender parity, then the government should reduce the marriage age for men to 18.

Others argue that if a girl at 18 is old enough to vote or be treated as an adult if she commits a crime, there is no reason why she cannot marry at that age.  

 

Responding to such criticism, supporters of the bill say that this move should not be seen as a problem but an opportunity. “There are a lot of other recommendations made by the government to facilitate education for girls up to graduation and also to have reproductive health rights made available to all girls,” according to Kumari.

However, she agrees that every arm of society, such as government, political parties or civil society, will have to work to make a higher age for marrying girls acceptable to communities. “Just by changing the law you do not change society or the institution of marriage, which is a social institution accompanied by cultural practices.”

The proposal has also been welcomed by hundreds of young girls, who have been campaigning in the northern Indian state of Haryana to raise the marriage age for women.

“It’s a huge step forward,” said 17-year-old Prachi Chauhan, one of the campaigners. “Such a law will help take away societal and parental pressure to get married soon after turning 18 that many girls face.”

Suhasini Sood contributed to this story.

 
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A new survey finds that at least 40 percent of media outlets in Afghanistan have disappeared and more than 80 percent of women journalists lost their jobs since the Islamist Taliban seized control of the country in mid-August.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) conducted the study with its local partner, the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA), and released the findings Tuesday about Afghanistan’s once booming and vibrant national media.

It lamented that the environment for journalists in the capital, Kabul, and the rest of the country has become “extremely fraught” since the Taliban takeover.  

“Of the 543 media outlets tallied in Afghanistan at the start of the summer, only 312 were still operating at the end of November,” according to the survey.

More than 6,400 journalists and media employees have lost their jobs since August 15 when the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

“Proportionally, women have been hit much more: more than four out of five (84%) have lost their jobs since the Taliban takeover, as against one out of every two men (52%),” the survey noted.

There are no working women journalists in 15 of the Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. The northern province of Jowzjan used to have 19 media outlets employing 112 women, now none of the 12 media outlets still operating is employing a woman.

The study used the figures for the previous situation from a survey conducted by media outlets and journalists operating in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized control of the country.

The Taliban in many municipalities have allegedly demanded that local media not employ any women journalists.

Most of the Afghan provinces had at least 10 privately owned media outlets just four months ago, but now some regions have almost no local media at all.

“The central Kabul region, which had more media that anywhere else, has not been spared the carnage. It has lost more than one of every two media outlets (51%). Of the 148 tallied prior to 15 August, only 72 are still operating,” the study found.

Of the 1,100 women journalists and media workers counted in the capital at the start of August, only 320 are now working – a 73% drop.

Hundreds of journalists have also left Afghanistan since August for fear of Taliban reprisals or because of problems associated with practicing their profession under Taliban rule.

Since establishing their acting government in September, the Taliban have issued a set of “journalism rules,” including media compliance with the Taliban interpretation of Islamic doctrine on “enjoying good and forbidding wrong.”

The survey described the guidelines as dangerous, saying they open the way to censorship and persecution, and deprive journalists of their independence.

Taliban officials have repeatedly denied allegations they are behind dozens of incidents of violence or stifling media freedom.

Reporters Without Borders quoted Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as telling the media watchdog his government supports “freedom for the media in the defined framework for preserving the country’s higher interests, with respect for the Sharia and Islam.”

When asked about some 40 incidents of violence against journalists since August 15, Mujahid said efforts are being made to train and control the behavior of Taliban security forces.

Taliban harassment alone is not blamed for the shrinking Afghan media landscape. Many media outlets were receiving national as well international funding that ended when the Islamist group seized control. Their economic troubles have been exacerbated byf a loss of advertising revenue.

There is an urgent need to rein in the spiral leading inevitably to the disappearance of Afghan media and to ensure that respect for press freedom is a priority,” said Reza Moini, the head of RSF’s Iran-Afghanistan desk.

“Beyond the numbers, the closure of nearly half of the country’s media and the loss of more than 6,000 jobs are a disaster for press freedom,” IAJA Executive-Director Hojatollah Mujadadi said.

Afghanistan has been regularly listed in recent years as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. It was ranked 122nd out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index that RSF published last April.
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The Malaysian military used boats Tuesday to distribute food to desperate people trapped in their homes after massive floods, as the death toll rose to 14 with over 70,000 displaced.

Days of torrential rain triggered some of the worst flooding in years across the country at the weekend, swamping cities and villages and cutting off major roads.

Selangor — the country’s wealthiest and most densely populated state, encircling the capital Kuala Lumpur — is one of the worst-hit areas.

Some parts of state capital Shah Alam were still under water Tuesday, and military personnel in boats distributed food to people stuck in their homes and government shelters.

Kartik Subramany fled his house as floodwaters rose, and took refuge in a school for 48 hours before being evacuated with his family to a shelter.

“My house is totally damaged, my two cars are wrecked,” the 29-year-old told AFP.

“These are the worst floods of my entire life. The federal government has failed the people miserably — it has failed in its primary function to protect and safeguard lives.”

He is among a growing number attacking what they say is a slow and inadequate official response.

Thousands of emergency service and military personnel have been mobilised, but critics say it is not enough and volunteers have stepped in to provide food and boats for the rescue effort.

An AFP journalist in one hard-hit Shah Alam neighbourhood saw people desperate for food snatching items from a devastated supermarket.

‘Hopeless’ official response

Opposition MP Fuziah Salleh described the official response as “hopeless” and “incompetent”.

“No early warning of the torrential rain was given,” she told AFP. “It is so sad lives have been lost.”

Opposition politicians have accused the government of ignoring their calls to better prepare for the monsoon season, from November to February, particularly by improving drainage in densely populated urban areas.

On Tuesday, the death toll from the floods rose to 14, including eight in Selangor and six in the eastern state of Pahang, official news agency Bernama reported.

But with reports of people still missing, it is expected to increase.

More than 71,000 people have been forced from their homes due to the floods, including 41,000 in Pahang and 27,000 in Selangor, according to official data.

Evacuees are being housed in government relief centres but officials have warned to expect a rise in coronavirus cases linked to the crowded shelters.

The rain has stopped and in many areas floodwaters have receded, leaving residents to count the cost.

“I’ve been doing business for more than 24 years… this has never happened before,” said Mohammad Awal, whose cosmetic shop outside Kuala Lumpur was flooded.

The Southeast Asian nation is hit by floods annually during the monsoon season, but those at the weekend were the worst since 2014 when over 100,000 people were forced from their homes.

Global warming has been linked to worsening floods. Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, climate change increases the risk and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall.
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A group of 46 mostly Democratic lawmakers Monday wrote a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, pressing him to “conscientiously but urgently” take steps to help avert a looming humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan.  

The lawmakers asked Biden to quickly ease ongoing punitive sanctions and unblock the Afghan central bank’s foreign reserves, which Washington withheld immediately after the Taliban militarily seized control of the country from the U.S.-backed government in mid-August.  

“We are also deeply concerned that sanctions against Taliban officials now in charge of governmental functions are creating a chilling effect for financial institutions and aid organizations serving Afghanistan,” the letter read. 

 

The White House responded later in the day that its hands are tied regarding frozen funds but that the United States continues to support humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan.   

The sanctions and abrupt suspension of international assistance have left the Afghan economy, which heavily depended on external aid over the past 20 years, on the brink of collapse.    

The crisis has increased humanitarian needs, stemming from years of war, drought and extreme poverty in Afghanistan. The United Nations estimates more than half of the nearly 40 million population face starvation, with 1 million children at risk of dying of “sever acute malnutrition.”

“The U.S. confiscation of $9.4 billion in Afghanistan’s currency reserves held in the United States is contributing to soaring inflation and the shuttering of commercial banks and vital private businesses, plunging the country…deeper into economic and humanitarian crisis,” the lawmakers wrote.   

They argued “punitive economic policies” will not weaken Taliban leaders but will rather hurt innocent Afghans who have already suffered decades of war and poverty. “We fear, as aid groups do, that maintaining this policy could cause more civilian deaths in the coming year than were lost in 20 years of war.” 

The Afghan economic “pain and humanitarian collapse” both threaten to trigger a new refugee crisis throughout the region, the letter warned. 

Aid agencies working in Afghanistan are calling for scaling up relief efforts, but they say the financial sanctions are hampering their operations. 

Congressional Republicans say the U.S. must not allow the Taliban to access any amount of funding, the Washington Post reported.  

The United States has not recognized the Taliban government nor has the rest of the world.    

The Biden administration is pressing the Islamist group to cut ties with terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, end reprisals against Afghans affiliated with the deposed government, rule Afghanistan inclusively, uphold human rights, and allow women to fully participate in public life and girls to seek an education.   

The letter deplored the Taliban government’s grave human rights abuses, crackdowns on civil society and repression of women. 

“However, pragmatic U.S. engagement with the de facto authorities is nevertheless key to averting unprecedented harm to tens of millions of women, children and innocent civilians,” it added.   

“Ongoing engagement with the Taliban to coordinate access to urgently needed hard currency can provide the necessary leverage to secure human rights improvements,” argued the letter from U.S. lawmakers.   

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, responding to a VOA question about the letter, told reporters that the status of the Afghan reserves was the subject of an ongoing litigation brought by victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks and other terrorist attacks “who hold judgments against the Taliban.”   

Psaki stressed the legal proceedings cannot be disregarded and the administration continues to face difficult questions like how the funds can be made available to directly benefit the people of Afghanistan while ensuring the Taliban do not benefit from them. 

“The Taliban remain sanctioned by the United States as a specially designated global terrorist group. That certainly has not changed, but this is, of course, complicated by the ongoing litigation over those funds,” she argued.  

Washington has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan this year and vowed to work with international partners to facilitate the delivery of relief assistance to Afghans.    

The U.S. Treasury decided earlier this month to allow personal and non-personal remittances to be made to Afghans while donors agreed to transfer $280 million from the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.  

However, the U.N.-led relief community says the scale of the rapidly deteriorating Afghan humanitarian emergency requires much more than what is currently being done.  

“Afghanistan’s economy is now in free fall, and that if we do not act decisively and with compassion, I fear that this fall will pull down the entire population with it,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned on Sunday.   

Griffiths told an Afghanistan conference of Islamic countries in neighboring Pakistan that Afghan health facilities are overflowing with malnourished children, some 70% of teachers are not being paid, and millions of Afghan children are out of school, noting that prices of key commodities continue to rise. 

Anita Powell contributed to this report.
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An attack on an Afghan journalist, who was stabbed in Kabul on Sunday, has rattled the country’s media.      

Jawed Yusufi, a reporter for the independent outlet Ufuq News, was attacked about 6 p.m. local time in the predominantly Hazara section of western Kabul, according to his employer and local media advocates.  

Three men armed with knives stabbed Yusufi multiple times, badly wounding him. He remains under special care at a local hospital, his employer reported on its website.   

A spokesperson for the Taliban blamed robbers for the attack.    

But Ufuq News said that the assailants did not take Yusufi’s money or mobile phone, which suggests it was not a robbery.  

The media outlet condemned the attack and called on the Taliban, media groups and international organizations “to take serious and practical steps in support of freedom of expression and the safety of journalists.”

The attack on Yusufi came the same week that one journalist was beaten and had equipment confiscated and at least three journalists were detained. 

A spokesperson for the Taliban interior ministry said in a video message that an investigation has been opened into the attack on Yusufi and other incidents targeting journalists. 

Since seizing power, the Taliban have repeatedly pledged to respect Afghanistan’s independent media.   

But Hujatullah Mujadidi, head of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association, says the Taliban have failed to protect journalists.  

“In every case, the Taliban promise to carry out an investigation, but so far, no case has been investigated,” Mujadidi told VOA.  

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack and called for the Taliban to hold those responsible to account.   

“Prosecuting those who attack journalists is an essential measure to assure any semblance of press freedom in Afghanistan,” CPJ’s Asia coordinator Steven Butler said in a statement. 

Media harassed 

On December 11, Sayed Rashed Kashefi, a journalist for Kabul Times, a state-run English-language newspaper, was detained and beaten by what he said were Taliban forces.

At the time, he was photographing humanitarian aid distribution in the city.  

Kashefi told the local TOLOnews channel that the attackers confiscated his equipment and asked where he worked.   

Separately, journalists were detained in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Kunduz in the past week, according to Mujadidi.  

Faisal Noori, a journalist in the northern city of Kunduz, was taken by Taliban intelligence officials from his home and interrogated for hours.  

In a Facebook post, Noori wrote that the incident had resulted from a “misunderstanding,” but he complained about forces entering his house without permission and treating him like a criminal.  

“The events of the past week, particularly the illegal detentions of journalists, have demoralized journalists,” Mujadidi said. ”Attempts to restrict freedom of expression represent a blow to the Afghan media community.”  

Since the Taliban took power in August, media rights groups have reported dozens of cases of journalists being detained or beaten while covering protests and other events.   

The Taliban have circulated media guidelines that reporters say amount to an attempt to control the media, and the International Federation of Journalists estimates that at least 150 media outlets have closed.

 
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The World Food Program warns the crisis of acute hunger facing millions of people in Afghanistan as winter sets in is just one step away from becoming a catastrophe.

To prevent the worst from happening, the World Food Program is rapidly ramping up humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. The agency, which has provided food aid to 15 million Afghans in 2021, says it will increase the number of beneficiaries to 23 million in the coming year.

WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri said the Afghan economy is in shambles and currency depreciation is making it increasingly difficult for people to feed themselves.

“Families are resorting to desperate measures as the bitter winter sets in. Nine in every ten families are now buying less expensive food, which tends to be less nutritious… Eight in 10 are eating less, and seven in 10 are borrowing food in order to get by,” he said.

WFP reports half of all children under five, around 3.2 million, are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this winter. Around a million children suffering from this condition have received nutrition treatment and malnutrition prevention this year, as have half a million pregnant and nursing women.

Phiri said WFP is planning to scale up this program in 2022. He said it also is working to provide school meals, take-home rations, and cash transfers for one million children across the country.

“The needs are quite enormous. And we have a huge amount to do to stop this crisis from becoming a catastrophe. Our country director describes this situation as quite dire. he says it is an avalanche of hunger and destitution,” said Phiri.

The World Food Program says it urgently needs $220 million a month or $2.6 billion in total to provide lifesaving assistance to 23 million Afghans in the coming year.
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Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban assured a special meeting of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Sunday that they will do more to enhance national political inclusivity and promote human rights, including those of women, in the country. 

 

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi spoke in Pakistan at the day-long OIC-convened huddle, which included delegates from the United States, China, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

It was the biggest international gathering on helping Afghanistan to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban seized power from the Western-backed government in August following a U.S.-led foreign troop exit from the country after 20 years.

 

“We stand ready, as a member of a single family, to listen to and accept all requests, concerns and advice of Islamic countries in relation to Afghanistan that can lead towards a proper and just roadmap and direct us out of the current crisis,” Muttaqi said.

“We consider human rights, women’s rights and participation by all capable Afghans from various regions our duty. We have done much in this regard and will continue to take further steps,” he added.

 

The chief Taliban diplomat renewed his government’s counterterrorism assurances, saying no one would be allowed to use Afghan soil against any country. 

 

Washington and Western allies have blocked the Taliban’s access to some $9.5 billion in Afghan assets, mostly held in the U.S. Federal Reserve, imposed financial sanctions and halted non-humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged country’s largely foreign aid-dependent economy.

 

Muttaqi again demanded the unfreezing of assets and removal of sanctions, saying they “have led to health, education and social services teetering on the brink; all of this has only harmed the general public.” 

 

The U.S. and other countries have cited concerns about terrorism and waning human rights, especially those of women, for refusing to directly engage with the Taliban. Those concerns stem partly from the previous Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, when girls were prevented from receiving an education, and women from leaving home unless accompanied by a close male relative. 

 

Taliban leaders repeatedly have promised their new administration will not bring back the harsh policies of their previous rule. But most Afghan girls across the country are still not allowed to return to school and most female government employees have been barred from resuming their professional duties.

 

The Islamist group has not yet inducted a single woman in the Cabinet since announcing its government in September.

 

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, while inaugurating the OIC summit, warned that the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Afghanistan could turn into “the biggest man-made crisis” unless the world urgently takes remedial steps. He called for the U.S. to unconditionally end sanctions on Kabul and unfreeze the assets in favor of facilitating humanitarian assistance to Afghans. 

 

“I speak to the United States specifically; they must delink the Taliban government from the 40 million Afghan citizens even if they have been in conflict with the Taliban for 20 years,” the Pakistani leader said. “But this is a question of the people of Afghanistan, 40 million human beings.” 

 

“Unless action is taken immediately, Afghanistan is heading for chaos…But chaos suits no one. It certainly does not suit the United States,” Khan said. He added that chaos would benefit transnational terrorists linked to Islamic State and would mean more refugees heading toward Pakistan, which already hosts 3 million Afghan refugees. 

 

The frozen assets and abrupt suspension of aid are said to have exacerbated Afghan economic upheavals and increased humanitarian needs in the country where U.N. officials say 23 million people are already facing hunger due to years of war, a severe drought and high levels of poverty. 

 

The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, Thomas West, who attended the summit, described it as a “timely and important initiative” in a tweet after landing in Islamabad on Saturday. 

 

“While we continue clear-eyed diplomacy with the Taliban – on human rights, terrorism, and educational access, among many other issues – the Afghan people will remain at the center of our considerations,” West wrote. 

 

The sanctions and the lack of diplomatic recognition of the Taliban government in Kabul have disrupted the Afghan banking system, undermining delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid to those who urgently need it. Diplomats acknowledge facing the delicate task of channeling aid to the crisis-hit Afghan economy without also propping up the hardline Islamists. 

 

U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths reiterated those concerns while addressing Sunday’s conference in Pakistan. 

 

“Afghanistan’s economy is now in free fall, and that if we do not act decisively and with compassion, I fear that this fall will pull down the entire population with it,” Griffiths warned. 

 

Griffiths said health facilities are overflowing with malnourished children, some 70 percent of teachers are not getting paid and millions of Afghan children are out of school, noting that prices of key commodities continue to rise.

 

The cost of wheat and fuel are up by around 40 percent and food now accounts for more than 80 percent of the average household expenditure. 

 

Griffiths underscored the importance of “continued constructive engagement” with the Taliban government “in a process of meaningful dialogue to clarify what we expect of each other.”
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Representatives from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United States, Russia, China and the European Union are meeting Sunday in Pakistan to discuss ways to help Afghanistan avert a looming humanitarian catastrophe.

Pakistani officials said participants at the day-long meeting are “expected to explore avenues for containing and reversing the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and a potential economic collapse.”

The OIC-convened huddle will be the biggest international gathering on Afghanistan since the Taliban retook power from the Western-backed government in mid-August on the heels of a U.S.-led foreign troop exit from the country after 20 years. International donor institutions and the United Nations will also be in attendance.

The Taliban government’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who arrived Saturday, is expected to brief participants on difficulties facing his country.  

“Our expectation is the conference will come up with a mechanism to coordinate humanitarian and economic assistance for Afghanistan,” Muttaqi told reporters in the Pakistani capital. “We also hope that it will also help in the revival of [the global community’s] normal relations with Afghanistan.”

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the OIC meeting does not constitute an official recognition of the Taliban government but warned that “abandoning Afghanistan” would be a “historic mistake” because it would aggravate the humanitarian crisis and trigger a fresh exodus of refugees.

“We are not speaking of a particular group. We are talking about the people of Afghanistan. Please act and act now,” Qureshi said on the eve of the summit.

U.S. Special Representative Thomas West, who arrived in Islamabad Saturday, described the event as “a timely and important initiative.”  

 

Sanctions, poverty, frozen assets

The August 15 Taliban takeover of the country has blocked its access to some $9.5 billion in Afghan central bank assets, largely held in the U.S. Federal Reserve. It has triggered international financial sanctions on the new rulers of the war-ravaged country and halted non-humanitarian assistance to a traditionally foreign aid-dependent economy.

The freezing of assets and abrupt suspension of aid have exacerbated economic upheavals in Afghanistan where the United Nations says 22.8 million people are experiencing acute food shortages stemming from years of war, a severe drought and high levels of poverty.

The sanctions and the lack of official diplomatic recognition of the Taliban government in Kabul have disrupted the banking system, undermining delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid to Afghans.

The U.S. and other countries have cited concerns about terrorism and waning human rights, especially those of women, for refusing to directly engage with the Taliban. Those concerns stem in large part from the previous Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, when girls were prevented from receiving an education, and women from leaving home unless accompanied by a close male relative.

“While we continue clear-eyed diplomacy with the Taliban—on human rights, terrorism, and educational access, among many other issues—the Afghan people will remain at the center of our considerations,” Ambassador West wrote in a subsequent tweet Saturday.

Taliban leaders repeatedly have promised their new administration will not bring back the harsh policies of their previous rule. But most Afghan girls across the country are still not allowed to return to school and most female government employees have been barred from resuming their professional duties.

The Islamist group insists its new regime is fully representative and would give women their due rights in line with Islamic laws or Sharia. Yet four months into the Taliban government, not a single woman has been included in the Cabinet.

Muttaqi insisted Saturday that diplomatic recognition was “a legitimate right” of his government. He went on to claim the end of the Afghan war has improved security, and that conflict-related casualties also have “dropped to zero” across the country since the Taliban regained power.

International aid organizations have acknowledged that working conditions and security for their operations significantly improved under Taliban rule as compared to when war was being waged across the nation.

Qureshi said Sunday’s conference will be a good opportunity for the world to share their concerns with the Taliban and for the Islamic countries to convey to them that Islam allows girls to attend schools, and for women to play a role in the governance and fully participate in the public life.

The Pakistani minister cautioned, however, against pressuring the Taliban, saying such a policy in the past had failed to produce the desired results.  

“We have to be realistic about the options that we have. Let us nudge them through persuasion, through incentives to move in the right direction,” said Qureshi.
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At least 10 people were killed and 11 others injured in an explosion Saturday at a Karachi bank branch constructed on a sewage drain in the city’s industrial area, police said.

 

The cause of the blast, at a branch of Pakistan’s largest bank, Habib Bank Limited, could be a gas leak, a senior police officer said.

 

“Our explosives teams are at work trying to ascertain the nature of the blast, but apparently the structure was constructed on drain and gas could be a probable cause,” Sarfaraz Nawaz told reporters.

 

A petrol station located next to the bank in the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate, and cars parked nearby, were badly damaged.

 

Television footage showed the bank’s floor ripped apart, exposing twisted iron bars.

 

Another senior police officer, Sharjeel Kharal, told reporters it was not immediately clear how many were dead or injured in the explosion as the bank had a skeleton staff Saturday.

 

Construction laws are often flouted in Pakistan. Several sewage drains have been covered over in concrete in Karachi to make way for parking lots.

 

Last month, the country’s Supreme Court ordered the demolition of a multi-story apartment building found to have been constructed on an illegal plot at Karachi’s main thoroughfare.

 
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Pakistan is rallying Muslim countries to help Afghanistan stave off an economic and humanitarian disaster while also cajoling the neighboring country’s new Taliban rulers to soften their image abroad.

Several foreign ministers from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation are meeting in Islamabad on Sunday to explore ways to aid Afghanistan while navigating the difficult political realities of its Taliban-run government, Pakistan’s top diplomat said Friday.

The new Taliban administration in Kabul has been sanctioned by the international community, reeling from the collapse of the Afghan military and the Western-backed government in the face of the insurgents’ takeover in mid-August.

The OIC meeting is an engagement that does not constitute an official recognition of the Taliban regime, said Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

He said the message to the gathering on Sunday is: “Please do not abandon Afghanistan. Please engage. We are speaking for the people of Afghanistan. We’re not speaking of a particular group. We are talking about the people of Afghanistan.”

Qureshi said major powers — including the United States, Russia, China and the European Union — will send their special representatives on Afghanistan to the one-day summit. Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will also attend the conference.

Afghanistan is facing a looming economic meltdown and humanitarian catastrophe in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover. Billions of dollars’ worth of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the U.S., have been frozen and international funding to the country has ceased.

The world is also waiting before extending any formal recognition to the new rulers in Kabul, wary the Taliban could impose a similarly harsh regime as when they were in power 20 years ago — despite their assurances to the contrary.

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Muttaqi said that Afghanistan’s new rulers were committed to the education of girls and women in the workforce.

Yet four months into Taliban rule, girls are not allowed to attend high school in most provinces and though women have returned to their jobs in much of the health care sector, many female civil servants have been barred from coming to work.

 

However, security has improved under the Taliban, with aid organizations able to travel to most parts of Afghanistan, including areas that for years were off-limits during the war, said a senior humanitarian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The World Health Organization and U.N. agencies have warned of the humanitarian crisis facing Afghanistan and its 38 million people. Hospitals are desperately short of medicines, up to 95% of all households face food shortages, the poverty level is soaring toward 90% and the afghani, the national currency, is in free fall.

Pakistan has been at the forefront in pressing for world engagement in Afghanistan. Qureshi said Friday he has warned in talks with many foreign ministers — including with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington — that a total collapse in Afghanistan will hurt efforts to fight terrorism and trigger a massive exodus from the country.

Refugees will become economic migrants, he added, meaning they would not want to stay in neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran, but will try to reach Europe and North America.

Qureshi also warned that if Afghans are left without help, militant groups such as al-Qaida and the regional Islamic State affiliate will regroup and flourish amid the chaos.

The OIC has leverage because of its nature as an Islamic organization and Qureshi expressed hope the summit will also be an opportunity for the world’s Muslim nations to press upon the Taliban the imperative of allowing girls to attend school at all levels and for women to return to their jobs in full.

Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson center, said OIC nations could do more, suggesting they work through their religious scholars and have them interact directly with the Taliban.

For now, it would be difficult for the West to engage with the Taliban, Kugelman said, adding that such an interaction would be tantamount to admitting defeat in the 20-year war.

For the Taliban, it would be the “final satisfaction of being able to engage … from the standpoint of victor,” he said.

“The Taliban defeated the West … their powerful militaries and caused them to suffer through a chaotic and humiliating final withdrawal,” he said. “For the West to turn around and bury the hatchet with the Taliban, this would amount to a legitimization of its defeat.” 

 
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The U.S.-Taliban peace deal, signed in February 2020, paved the way for the fall of Afghanistan into the Taliban’s hands, former Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib told VOA in an exclusive interview.

When asked to explain why his government dissolved in a matter of days in August as Taliban forces swept across the country ahead of the U.S. withdrawal, Mohib blamed the three-year-long direct negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban.

The talks, said the former Afghan official, “absolutely sent a signal that the Taliban were returning.”

Mohib, who served as Afghanistan’s national security adviser from August 2018 to the fall of Kabul, said that former President Ashraf Ghani decided to flee the country after his government lost control over its security forces.

“It was the moment that the president left as his life was in danger,” he told VOA.

He said his government had “reliable” intelligence that the Taliban “planned to come and hang the president,” adding that similar intelligence was shared by “the U.S. and some other open sources.”

The U.S. State Department declined to respond to Mohib’s claims, saying officials do not comment on intelligence matters. However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described his conversations with Ghani in an interview with CBS News in October. Blinken said that the day before Ghani fled the country, he assured Blinken that he would stay and “he was ready to fight to the death.”

Explaining Kabul’s fall

The U.S. and Taliban signed the peace agreement on February 28, 2020, which outlined a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in exchange for Taliban concessions to enter political talks with the Afghan government and to deny outside terrorist groups the use of Afghan territory.

For months, Afghan and U.S. leaders spoke about preparations for the final American withdrawal, which President Joe Biden later pushed back to August. At the time, U.S. intelligence and Afghan officials believed it would take at least several months after American troops left for Taliban fighters to threaten the capital. They hoped a negotiated power-sharing agreement could take shape in the meantime.

Instead, the Taliban arrived in the capital on August 15, days before the completion of the American withdrawal. Ghani and Mohib had already fled the country with a few other officials as the Afghan government collapsed.

In an exclusive interview with VOA Urdu, Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, blamed Ghani’s departure for the fall of Kabul.

“Certainly, there was a chance” to reach a power-sharing plan, Khalilzad told VOA.

The Taliban agreed, he said, to negotiate with an Afghan government delegation to form an inclusive government. “But the same day that this agreement was announced, without many of his inner circle knowing, he [Ghani] departed Afghanistan for Uzbekistan and then U.A.E.”

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met Ghani a day before the fall of Kabul, also said that the then-president agreed to send a delegation to reach an agreement for peaceful transition of power.

Karzai said that when Ghani left the country, he “invited” the Taliban to come to Kabul to protect the city.

‘No guarantees’

Mohib, however, maintained that “there were no guarantees” that the Taliban would accept a negotiated outcome.

“Even the day that the Taliban entered Kabul, it was not clear whether the Taliban would sit down for negotiations with the government negotiation team,” said the former Afghan national security adviser.

He added that Abdullah Abdullah, the then-chairperson of the High Council for National Reconciliation, who returned from Doha after negotiating with the Taliban, said that the Taliban “do not believe in peace.”

Mohib said that he talked to Khalil Haqqani, the current Taliban acting minister of refugees and repatriations, who called for “surrender.”

“[He said] first surrender and then we will negotiate,” said Mohib.

Mohib added that his government wanted to avoid fighting in Kabul that “would destroy the city and kill hundreds of thousands of people.”

In a statement after fleeing Kabul, Ghani said that “leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens.”

Mona Shah and Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch. 

 

Afghanistan’s economy

 

U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths appealed for flexible and sustained international funding before the end of this year to prevent the further collapse of Afghanistan’s economy. He told VOA in an interview that he will press the United States to help during his meeting next week with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington. 

 

UN Aid Chief: Afghan Economy Needs Restart Before Year-End

 

COVID-19 ‘not going away’

 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered a bleak forecast for 2022, saying December16 that COVID-19 “is not going away” and vaccines alone will not end the pandemic. 

 

UN Chief: Vaccines Alone Won’t End Pandemic 

 

JCPOA negotiations

 

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council on December 14 that Iran is “slow-walking” talks on the 2015 nuclear deal in Vienna. She said Tehran’s actions would not give them any negotiating leverage. 

US Official: Iran ‘Slow-Walking’ Nuclear Talks 

Security Council resolution 

 

Russia vetoed a draft Security Council resolution on December 13 that warned about the security implications of climate change. The landmark proposal was supported by 113 countries from among the U.N. membership, including countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis. 

 

Russia Vetoes UN Resolution on Climate’s Impact on Global Security

 

In brief 

— On December 13, the U.N. said food aid for starving Ethiopians was stolen from the World Food Program by armed men in northern Ethiopia. The incident, in the town of Kombolcha in the northern province of Amhara, happened on the night of December 10. 

 

The U.N. said 18 WFP trucks were stolen by forces believed to be from either the “Ethiopian National Defense Forces or an affiliated allied military force.” Fifteen trucks have since been returned, and three remain unaccounted for, along with their drivers. It was the second time in a matter of days that humanitarian supplies were looted or stolen from WFP. 

 

— In Geneva, on December 17, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a European Union-drafted resolution calling for the establishment of an international commission of human rights experts on Ethiopia during a special session. 

 

One-third of the council’s 47 members must agree to hold a special session and none of the 13 African members voted to have it. The resolution, adopted by a vote of 21 countries in favor, 15 voting against and 11 abstentions, authorizes the president of the HRC to appoint three experts initially for one year to investigate, collect and preserve evidence of human rights violations by all parties to the conflict in Tigray since it began in November 2020. The federal government of Ethiopia rejected Friday’s meeting, saying it was politically motivated. 

 

Some good news 

 

The World Health Organization and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a leading cancer treatment center in the United States, have formed a partnership to provide cancer medication free of charge to children in developing countries. 

 

New Initiative Provides Free Treatment for Children with Cancer in Developing Countries 

 

Quote of note 

 

“There is no way Lebanon can find the right track if the Lebanese political leaders are not able to understand that this is the moment, probably the last possible moment, to come together.” 

 

— U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaking about the political and economic crisis in Lebanon, where he arrives Sunday for a 3-day visit. 

 

Next week

 

Libya has been working toward presidential and legislative elections on December 24, but they were thrown into doubt last week when the Upper House of parliament called for a two-month delay for the presidential elections, amid disagreements over the legal framework for the elections and who is eligible to run. 

 

With barely a week to go until the poll, there is no final list of candidates and little time left to even print one for ballots. 

 

Did you know? 

 

The U.N. Security Council has five permanent veto-wielding members (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States). The other 10 members are elected for 2-year terms in groups of five in alternating years.

 

On December 31, Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam will wrap up their terms. On January 1, 2022, Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates will take up their seats. The other five elected members are India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway. 

 
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The Afghan ambassador appointed by the country’s overthrown government has left his post at the United Nations, the U.N. said.

Ghulam Isaczai “relinquished his position as of December 15,” according to a letter received Thursday, assistant U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq told AFP.

With Afghanistan in economic crisis following the Taliban takeover in August, the country’s mission to the U.N. has struggled to keep operating, diplomats said.

The Afghan mission to the U.N. could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

On Sept. 14, Isaczai formally asked the U.N. to state that he remained the Afghan ambassador.

Later that month the Taliban asked the U.N. to accredit Suhail Shaheen, a former spokesperson for the movement, as the new ambassador replacing Isaczai.

Isaczai took part in a U.N. Security Council meeting in late November, at which he openly criticized his country’s new hardline Islamist rulers.

But early this month, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution in which it indefinitely delayed a decision over the rival claims to the representative seat for Afghanistan.

The Taliban have criticized the U.N.’s failure to decide on this issue, saying it ignores the rights of the Afghan people.

When they previously ruled Afghanistan, from 1996-2001, the Taliban had no ambassador at the U.N. 

 
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Transcript 

 

The Inside Story: 9-11: Twenty Years Later (September 9, 2021 – Episode 04) 

 

 

Voice of CARLA BABB, VOA Pentagon Correspondent: 

 

September 11th – a time for Americans to pause and remember the thousands killed in the terrorist attacks in 2001, and those who gave their all to save others that day.  

 

 

Amanda, Daughter of 9-11 First Responder:  

 

9-11 never left him, 9-11 became him, he would do it all over again. 

 

  

Voice of CARLA BABB, VOA Pentagon Correspondent: 

 

Some of America’s last troops in Afghanistan returning home, and the impact of two decades of war on everyday life, on this special edition of The Inside Story: 9-11: 20 Years Later.  

 

 

CARLA BABB, VOA Pentagon Correspondent: 

 

Hi. I’m Carla Babb, VOA Pentagon Correspondent. We are standing steps away from where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 in the morning, killing 184 people. Nearly three thousand people were killed in terrorist attacks that day. Another plane headed for the U.S. Capitol crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Two planes hit the World Trade Center towers in New York City.  The crumbled Twin Towers became known as “ground zero” of the terrorist attack, changing the lives of thousands of people.  

Many Americans old enough to remember the attacks know exactly where they were that day. I was in high school in North Carolina. I remember how the faculty turned the TVs on to follow what was happening, the disbelief in everyone’s faces, the sadness in the hallways.  

I also remember the bravery we saw, those who risked their lives to save others. Here’s VOA’s Anna Rice with stories of heroism from that day.  

 

Angela Alioto, Thomas Alioto’s Wife:  

 

It was a terrible sight to see. He was all covered with white powder.  

  

   

Amanda, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter:  

 

147 is his firehouse, which is what he loved and where his heart always was. 

 

   

Ashley, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter:  

 

Inside his helmet he kept pictures of us. 

 

   

Alyssa, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter: 

 

This was actually the last picture I took with my dad. 

   

ANNA RICE, VOA Correspondent:  

This picture snapped by an unknown photographer went viral in both the U.S. and international media. A copy of the photograph is stored at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.  

 

   

Amanda, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter: 

 

This is our father here. He is kneeling down. He was working down at the pile, for months. 

 

 

ANNA RICE: 

 

After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Alioto worked for extended periods of time at Ground Zero looking for the remains of the dead, breathing in toxic substances that took a toll on his health.   

 

   

Angela Alioto, Thomas Alioto’s Wife: 

 

My husband had glass and pieces of black smoke and things in his lungs… And little by little he was taken from us. 

  

 

ANNA RICE: 

 

Doctors said he had ten years at most. He lived for eighteen.   

   

 

Amanda, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter: 

 

He was a fighter, but 9/11 never left him. 9/11 became him; he would do it all over again. 

   

 

ANNA RICE: 

 

Alioto’s three daughters have a hard time remembering that dreadful day. Amanda was 10, Ashley was 6 and Alyssa was only 4. Angela Alioto picked up the two older girls from school earlier than usual that day, but they didn’t go home – they went to their neighbor’s place. A lot of their neighbors also had family members who were firefighters.   

 

   

Amanda, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter: 

 

All the moms were crying watching it on TV, so once I started seeing the TV – the fire department – I had a feeling daddy was there. 

 

   

ANNA RICE: 

 

On the morning of 9/11 Thomas Alioto was heading home after a night shift. After he learned the first plane hit the tower, he turned around and went straight to what had been the World Trade Center. He almost died under the North Tower that was collapsing to the ground – it took him a few hours to free himself from the rubble. And then he just lost track of time – it was a blur, a desperate attempt to find survivors amid the wreckage, the debris, the giant metal beams.   

  

  

Angela Alioto, Thomas Alioto’s Wife: 

 

He thought he was dead. I remember him telling me that he had no feeling; he thought something was biting him, I can’t explain… He was bleeding inside his boots…”  

 

 

ANNA RICE: 

 

In 2006 due to health issues Alioto had to leave his job. His only outlet now was his family.  

   

Amanda, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter: 

 

We lived a little bit differently than other children around us. They didn’t really understand… You know, our dad came home… Like, their dad came home and that was it. But our dad didn’t really come home as who he was… He was a completely different person. 

   

 

ANNA RICE: 

 

Ashley and Amanda became teachers – like their mother. Alioto tried to convince Alyssa, the youngest of the three, to do the same. But she chose a career in the police force – and that made him extremely proud. Right before her graduation from the academy, Alyssa and some of her friends went to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a tradition New York policemen observe.  

   

 

Alyssa, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter: 

 

I sent him a helmet. He said, what does it say? And then he said to look for Mike Esposito, who was his best friend whom he lost that day. He had sent me a picture and I said I’d try and find that. And then he said, ‘can we spend some time together tonight? I said yes.’ That was December 17th, 2019 at 2 pm. That was the last time I spoke to him, because later that night he lost his battle. 

   

 

ANNA RICE: 

 

Everything in the house still reminds Angela and the girls about Alioto.    

   

Ashley, Thomas Alioto’s Daughter: 

 

I can still smell the smoke. It makes me feel like my dad is here. 

   

 

ANNA RICE: 

 

It’s the second 9/11 anniversary in their house that Alioto is not present at. A metal cross he found at Ground Zero, awards, his helmets – Alioto’s daughters cherish everything that reminds them of their father. Alyssa’s graduation picture has his face photoshopped on it – he died six days before the event, but in the picture, they are together. You can even hear his voice – a little recorder hidden in stuffed toys that still says the words his family heard so many times:  

   

 

 

Thomas Alioto’s recorded voice:  

 

Alright… I love you. Bye. 

 

 

ANNA RICE: 

 

For Nina Vishneva in New York, Anna Rice, VOA News 

 

CARLA BABB: 

Following the attacks, the United States launched a war against al Qaeda — the terrorist group who claimed responsibility and against the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan and harbored the terrorists. 20 years later, the Taliban is back in control of Afghanistan. Soldiers from 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York, were among the first to deploy to Afghanistan in 2001, and they’re now among the last to return after the withdrawal.  

 

CARLA BABB: 

A homecoming nearly 10 months in the making, troops landing on American soil after multiple delays…  turning in their weapons after a historic deployment.  

 

  

Lt. Col. Chris Rowe, Battalion Commander:    

 

It doesn’t feel real. I was talking to somebody earlier. You almost feel like somebody’s going to call you up and say, ‘OK, yep, just kidding. We gotta go back. We’re not done there. 

 

CARLA BABB: 

Battalion commander Lt. Col. Chris Rowe said these troops helped turn over every American base in Afghanistan… from Helmand in the south to Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, and then the military’s hub, Bagram Airfield … before finally providing security at Kabul international airport, helping evacuate more than 120,000 people while under constant threat.  

 

  

Lt. Col. Chris Rowe, Battalion Commander: 

 

Very hectic. Rivaled pretty much any deployment that I’ve been on, quite frankly, and we’ve got some good ones. But the uncertainty you speak of, it was very real. 

  

CARLA BABB: 

Uncertainty from having to rely on the Taliban, America’s enemy for two decades and responsible for killing thousands of U.S. troops.   

 

  

Lt. Col. Chris Rowe, Battalion Commander: 

 

Lost guys on patrols, multiple rocket attacks at bases that I have been on with soldiers, it wasn’t a good feeling. 

 

  

Capt. Swasey Brown, 431 Charlie Company Commander: 

 

We needed them. At the end of the day, they were, you know, that first kind of filter and providing us almost like the security outside to allow us to do our jobs.  

  

CARLA BABB: 

About half of these soldiers either weren’t born or don’t remember the terror attacks in 2001 that started the war they ended.   

  

CARLA BABB: 

The soldiers of 10th Mountain Division have felt the impact of the war on terror as much as anyone — 46 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11/2001.”   

  

CARLA BABB: 

Their mission flag now lowered, families sharing that first hug.   

 

  

Wife of serviceman:  

 

It felt like home. It felt like exactly where I wanted to be for over nine months. It was amazing! 

  

CARLA BABB: 

For some, 288 days felt like a lifetime.  

Aubrey Evans:  

 

I’m ecstatic. She was just 5 months when he left, so he’s missed pretty much all of the firsts.”  

 

CARLA BABB: 

A long-awaited reunion for Aubrey and Sam Evans; their daughter’s smile says it all.  

 

 

Nasria, American Stranded in Afghanistan: 

I feel like I have to be a voice for the American citizens left behind.  

 

CARLA BABB: 

That’s Nasria. She’s one of the 100-200 Americans trapped in Afghanistan after American evacuation efforts ended August 30. She asked we only use her first name for her safety. She spoke exclusively with VOA,telling me that she’s terrified and traumatized.  

 

  

Nasria, American Stranded in Afghanistan: 

 

There’s been days where, you know, I think to myself, like, am I going to make it home? Am I going to end up living here? Am I going to end up dying here? What’s going to happen?  

  

 

CARLA BABB:  

 

Twenty-five-year-old California native Nasria came to the Afghan capital in June to visit family and marry her longtime boyfriend. She and her new husband fled to the airport after the Taliban took control, but they never made it in.  

 

  

Nasria, American Stranded in Afghanistan: 

 

It was so hard to just get on a flight. There were a couple days where we had to sleep on streets. People were literally stepping over people. That’s how bad it was. 

  

 

 

 

CARLA BABB:  

 

After her booked flight home was canceled amid the chaos, she reached out to the State Department for help.  

 

 

Nasria, American Stranded in Afghanistan: 

 

They told us, ‘Go to a certain location. You will be picked up.’ And this is from the State Department. ‘You will get picked up. Go there.’ And it was in the middle of the road across the airport. So, we waited an extra 12 to 13 hours with no food, no water, nothing.  

 

 

Unidentified:  

 

They’re not letting us pass. They’re gassing us and shoot at us. Pop of guns. 

 

 

CARLA BABB: 

 

Day and night the Taliban kept blocking her.  

  

 

Nasria, American Stranded in Afghanistan: 

 

I was, got a gun pointed to my head! Our troops were literally at the gate just waiting for us to continue walking. And they (the Taliban) had blocked us. And there was a time where I went past them and I started walking as fast as I can, and they started shooting right by my leg and told me to come back or they would shoot me. That’s how it was, and I’ve never in my life have ever experienced anything like this. It was like the movie scene. It was like literally a movie scene. 

 

 

CARLA BABB:  

 

She says her husband, an Afghan national, even begged the Taliban to let her in the airport without him, but she refused to leave him.  

 

 

Nasria, American Stranded in Afghanistan: 

 

I was not going to leave without my husband because I knew in my heart I was never going to step foot back in Afghanistan again once I go home. And I’m pregnant, and definitely my child is going to need a father. I’m going to need a husband by my side. 

CARLA BABB:  

 

Now that the U.S. military is gone, Nasria says the Taliban are hunting Americans.  

  

 

Nasria, American Stranded in Afghanistan: 

 

And apparently, they’re going door to door for now, trying to see if anybody has a blue passport. 

  

 

CARLA BABB:  

 

The State Department has told her to stay put and that they will find a way to get her out, but she gets more discouraged with each passing day.  

 

 

Nasria, American Stranded in Afghanistan: 

 

I don’t even think I’m going to be able to go home. I’ve definitely lost all hope. If I was only 15 steps away from the airport and I was told people are going to come out of the airport to get me, what, what hope am I supposed to have now? 

 

 

CARLA BABB:  

 

She certainly is a brave young woman. We are hoping for her safety and that she and   

all the Americans and Afghans trapped like her can leave Afghanistan soon.  

 

 

Voice of narrator:  

 

Well before the Taliban re-took power in Afghanistan, they had been gathering in an important resource: money. While it is impossible to know exactly how much money they have amassed, it is clear the militants have been intent on creating financial independence.  

 

A June United Nations report estimates the military group raised 300 million to $1.6 billion annually. Where did the money come from? Much of it came from criminal activity, including opium production and drug trafficking, as well as extortion and kidnapping for ransom. Drug trafficking alone may have earned the Taliban $460 million.  

 

According to the report, other sources of income include taxation in areas they control. Daily taxes from a Taliban checkpoint between Pul-e-Khumari and Mazar-e-Sharif alone were estimated to be substantial. The Taliban also ramped up mining operations in areas they controlled, bringing in as much as $464, million last year.  

 

Still more money has come from donations by wealthy supporters, and a network of non-government charitable foundations. Other sources of funding are foreign governments. US officials have said for years that the Taliban have received money, weapons, and training from Russia. Analysts say the militants also received money from Pakistan, and to a lesser degree, Iran.  

 

Now that the Taliban are largely in control of Afghanistan, they have the opportunity to raise even more money, including accessing government accounts, and through federal taxation. However, they will also incur the costs of running a government. The Afghan government spent $11 billion in 2018.  80% of that came from foreign aid. Some donors have announced they will stop sending aid, at least for now. Economists warn that a scarcity of US dollars could cause the value of the Afghan currency to fall and inflation to rise.  

 

The Taliban are also facing a different economy than the one they presided over from 1996 to 2001. The country’s GDP has nearly quintupled, and the economy has become more urbanized. 

 

CARLA BABB: 

The 9-11 attacks grounded airline flights in the United States for two days. And it forever changed the way people travel by plane. Security screening has come a long way in 20 years.  VOA’s Julie Taboh shows us how technology is keeping up.  

 

 

JULIE TABOH, VOA Correspondent  

     

Thomas Carter remembers the horror he felt watching planes crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.    

 

     

Thomas Carter, TSA Federal Security Director:     

 

To watch those events unfold before my eyes, you knew that nothing would ever be the same. 

   

 

JULIE TABOH: 

 

Carter is now a federal security director at the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. federal agency that oversees the nation’s airports. He says the mission to make airports safer has in recent years increasingly turned to technology.    

 

Thomas Carter, TSA Federal Security Director: 

   

Technology is a key facet of our counterterrorism mission, and it’s one of our key tools. 

 

     

JULIE TABOH: 

 

That technology — often invisible to the traveler moving through checkpoints — can include scanners that use algorithms to analyze a suspicious item inside a bag, light waves checking liquids for explosives, and — coming to an airport near you — biometrics, such as facial recognition technology that can help confirm a person’s identity.   

     

The AIT, or advanced imaging technology machine, considered the workhorse of checkpoint security, scans the contours of the body using millimeter wave technology – radio waves passing through clothing – looking for anything unusual, such as explosives or bomb-making equipment.   

  

     

Thomas Carter, TSA Federal Security Director: 

    

If you were a suicide bomber, you would have to place that device somewhere on your person. This machine allows us to detect that.    

 

 

JULIE TABOH: 

     

Some of the latest airport security technology comes from the medical industry. The computed tomography machine works like a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI machine, giving inspectors a 3-D view that can be rotated 360 degrees.    

 

 

Thomas Carter, TSA Federal Security Director: 

  

Which allows our officers to get an extremely high-definition, high-resolution image.   

     

    

Jeffrey Price, Aviation Security Expert:  

 

We’re seeing now is better technology of things we’ve already been doing for the past decade or so. 

  

 

 

  

JULIE TABOH 

 

Looking to the future, Carter says there may come a day when travelers scan themselves into the checkpoint, with limited touching and mainstream use of biometrics.     

 

   

Thomas Carter, TSA Federal Security Director: 

 

That includes facial recognition, retina scanning or fingerprints. 

 

     

JULIE TABOH: 

 

The 20th anniversary of 9/11, Carter says, will be a day of remembrance, reflection and a renewal of purpose, especially as he looks to the Freedom Tower in Manhattan, built where the twin towers once stood.    

 

     

Thomas Carter, TSA Federal Security Director: 

 

We know that that represents the strength of our nation, and we know that we have a mission ahead of us to protect it. 

   

   

JULIE TABOH: 

 

Advanced technology, and extra patience from passengers worldwide, all can help in the mission to help keep air travel safe. Julie Taboh, VOA News.  

 

CARLA BABB: 

Just after the first U.S. troops set foot in Afghanistan after 9-11, a young reporter working for the American Forces Network went to interview some of the newly deployed troops. That reporter now works for us.  VOA’s Kane Farabaugh recently visited some of the troops he met 20 years ago for their perspectives on the service they performed and the impact it had.  

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH, VOA Correspondent: 

  

My assignment to Afghanistan in 2002 was to understand the conditions and motivations of service members who were spending their first Fourth of July holiday after 9/11 in Afghanistan, trying to rout the al-Qaida terrorist network.  

 

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

Meanwhile an air force B52 was also in the area on a planned mission to bomb suspected Taliban and Al Quida locations.  

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH: 

  

My friend and American Forces Network colleague, Staff Sergeant Dan Millbauer, accompanied me on our first experience in a combat zone. 

  

  

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

  

When you come into the country the way we did in a military aircraft under the cover of darkness to avoid being shot at and landing in a corkscrew kind of pattern, that’s when it first hits you that, ‘Oh yeah, this is real. We are going into harm’s way. 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH: 

  

At the time, nearly 10-thousand U.S. forces were in “harm’s way,” many based at Bagram Airfield which was quickly growing into one of the largest U.S. military facilities in the world.  

It’s where Rhonda Lawson served with a U.S. Army mobile public affairs detachment, or MPAD, which hosted us in Afghanistan. To keep U.S. troops there informed, her team produced a base newspaper and other products.  

 

  

Rhonda Lawson, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

What I took pride in doing was telling the Army’s story, telling the soldiers’ story. // I wanted people to know that our soldiers were real people.  Our soldiers had families.  Our soldiers had feelings. 

 

  

KANE FARABAUGH: 

 

US troops also received messages from back home showing passionate support for their mission.  

 

 

 

 

 

Rhonda Lawson, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

One of the cards that I got, it just said ‘Kick Bin Laden’s ass’ on it.  So, there was this sense that we needed to get revenge. 

  

 

KANE FARABAUGH: 

 

But finding Bin Laden took nearly a decade.  Neither Lawson nor others we spoke to during our 2002 visit thought operations in Afghanistan would become the longest in U.S. history.  

 

  

Rhonda Lawson, U.S. Army Veteran: 

  

Desert Storm, a lot of the fighting ended in about six weeks, and I think people thought this would be quick like Desert Storm. 

 

  

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

A lot of us thought that any operations around 9/11 response would be temporary or quick. 

 

  

KANE FARABAUGH: 

 

As the war in Afghanistan dragged on, Millbauer returned to Afghanistan a second time in 2003 to work with a Psyop unit.  

 

  

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

It’s really trying to strategically put out information. 

 

  

KANE FARABAUGH: 

 

Millbauer says noticed some things had changed when he returned to Bagram Airfield.  

  

 

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

There was more activity, more people there, more units. 

 

  

 

KANE FARABAUGH: 

 

And working in Afghanistan was more dangerous, says Millbauer. He vividly remembers a close call during a mission to support a remote Afghan radio station.  

 

   

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

I heard this whistling of an RPG coming in… it passed over my head. 

  

 

KANE FARABAUGH: 

 

No one was injured, says Millbauer.  For him, the constant threat of attack didn’t change his outlook on U.S. military objectives, including helping locals in have a better life.  

 

 

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

Some of the things we did, when I saw we, I mean coalition forces, was to teach people that kind of stuff, and provide them with clean water sources, and lots of money to improve their lives, and in that regard, I was behind that all the way. 

  

 

KANE FARABAUGH: 

 
Millbauer and Lawson were two of more than 775,000 U.S. forces who served at least one deployment to Afghanistan since 2001.  More than 2,300 lost their lives.  Despite the country now falling back into the hands of the Taliban, Lawson – who retired from the U.S. Army in 2017 – believes the U.S. effort was not in vain.  

 

  

Rhonda Lawson, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

I will never consider our presence in Afghanistan a failure.  I believe our country accomplished a lot. 

  

  

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

  

It’s hard to say the mission might have been accomplished in total. 

 

 

 

KANE FARABAUGH: 

 

Millbauer, who left the military in 2007, feels the U.S. reached the point of doing all it could in Afghanistan.  

 

  

Dan Millbauer, U.S. Army Veteran: 

 

We’ve found and eliminated Osama Bin Laden, but it’s been a few years since that // I think after 20 years, it’s probably time to get out of there and let them try to take care of themselves the best they can. 

 

  

KANE FARABAUGH: 

  

Many Afghans are worried about how they will be treated by the Taliban, who too control of most of the country as US forces pulled out of Afghanistan – ending America’s longest conflict. Kane Farabaugh, VOA News, Peterborough, New Hampshire.  

  

CARLA BABB: 

That’s all for now on this episode of The Inside Story. For the latest news updates go to VOANews.com and stay connected @VOANews on Instagram and Facebook. Follow me on Twitter at CarlaBabbVOA. I am Carla Babb, here at the Pentagon.   

See you next week on The Inside Story.   

 

 
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The diesel fuel needed to produce oxygen for coronavirus patients has run out. So have supplies of dozens of essential drugs. The staff members, unpaid for months, still show up for work, but they are struggling to make ends meet at home. 

This is the plight at the Afghan-Japan Hospital for communicable diseases, the only COVID-19 facility for the more than 4 million people who live in the capital of Kabul. 

While the coronavirus situation in Afghanistan appears to have improved from a few months ago when cases reached their peak, it is now the hospital itself that needs life support. 

Its predicament is a symptom of the crisis in Afghanistan’s health care system, which is on the brink of collapse and able to function only with a lifeline from aid organizations.

“We face many problems here,” said Dr. Ahmad Fatah Habibyar, the hospital’s administration logistics manager, citing three months of unpaid salaries, shortages of equipment and drugs, and a lack of food. 

Some of the staff are in such financial difficulties that they are selling their household furniture to make ends meet, he said. 

“Oxygen is a big issue for us because we can’t run the generators,” he said, noting the hospital’s production plant hasn’t worked for months “because we can’t afford the diesel.” Instead, oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients are bought from a local supplier. 

And doctors are bracing for more infections they fear are inevitable with the omicron variant. 

Without outside help, “we are not ready for omicron. A disaster will be here,” said Dr. Shereen Agha, the 38-year-old head of the hospital’s intensive care unit. The hospital was short even of basic supplies like examination gloves, he said, and its two ambulances sit idle for lack of fuel. 

Foreign aid

The previous government had contracted with a Netherlands-based aid group, HealthNet TPO, to run the hospital. But the contract expired in November and was financed under a fund managed by the World Bank, which like most of the international community has frozen payments to the new Taliban government. 

HealthNet TPO program manager Willem Reussing said the organization is in negotiations to secure funding, “but the donor community is very reluctant to continue support and has strict conditions.” The World Health Organization and UNICEF were only managing to maintain minimal services and did not cover the coronavirus response, he added. 

“The health care system … is really on the brink of collapsing,” Reussing said. “The Afghan-Japan Hospital is a dire example, where we are nearly begging donors to step in and save lives.” 

When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August amid a chaotic U.S. and NATO troop withdrawal, the international community pulled all funding and froze billions of dollars of Afghanistan’s assets abroad. For a country heavily dependent on foreign aid, the consequences have been devastating. 

The economy already was deeply troubled under the previous government, with state employees often going unpaid. Last year, almost half the population was living in poverty, with the situation made worse by the pandemic and a drought that has driven up food prices. 

The Taliban government wants the international community to ease sanctions and release Afghanistan’s assets abroad so it can pay civil servants, including doctors and teachers. 

The United Nations has sounded the alarm over a hunger crisis, with 22% of Afghanistan’s 38 million people near famine and another 36% facing acute food insecurity. 

“We’re seeing the economic collapse being exponential,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in an interview last week with The Associated Press. “It’s getting more and more dire by the week.” 

Children’s hospital

Nowhere is that more evident than the malnutrition ward of the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital, where anxious mothers sit by emaciated children. 

Two-year-old Mohammad, his cheeks sunken and his hair sparse, sipped a cup of high-nutrition milk with his mother, Parwana, beside him. From the central province of Wardak, she had been sleeping in the hospital for six nights. 

“I don’t even have money to change his diapers,” the 20-year-old said. Her husband, a tailor, lost both legs in a roadside bomb several years ago, and has trouble sitting up. Work is hard to come by, and Parwana said her father and brothers are helping the family of three survive. 

In the next bed, 1½-year-old Talwasa lay covered in blankets. Only her eyes moved behind half-closed eyelids. 

“We are in a very bad situation,” said her mother, Noor Bibi, who has six other children. Her husband can’t find work, she said, and “we only eat dried bread and can’t find food for weeks and weeks.”

Deputy Health Minister Dr. Abdul Bari Omar said last week that Afghanistan had 3.5 million malnourished children, although he noted that the data was from the previous government. 

“It didn’t happen in the last four months. Malnutrition was inherited from the previous system, but we are trying to find a solution for this problem,” he said, adding that the former administration also had failed to resolve shortages of medical equipment. 

The deputy director of the children’s hospital, Mohammad Latif Baher, said the facility had seen 3,000 malnutrition cases in the last four months. Of those, 250 were hospitalized and the rest were treated at home. 

Dwindling supplies

Hospital workers also are struggling with shortages, and they have not been paid for months. 

“We are loyal to our homeland and our profession. That’s why we still continue our jobs and provide services to our patients,” Baher said, noting they have gone without salaries for five months. He said the hospital also is running low on drug supplies, including special food supplements for malnutrition, as well as antibiotics, analgesics and anesthetics. Some supplies had come in from aid agencies, he added, but more were needed. 

The situation was similar at Wazir Mohammed Akhbar Khan National Hospital, where supplies were running low. As with most of the other state-run hospitals, its patients must buy their own drugs, with staff only dipping into emergency supplies for those who truly cannot afford it. 

Sometimes doctors are forced to give smaller doses of drugs because they simply don’t have enough, said Ghulam Nabi Pahlawi, the emergency department’s head nurse.

But it is in Kabul’s COVID-19 hospital where the situation seems most severe. 

Pharmacist Bilal Ahmad said more than 36 essential medications had run out and many others had expired. In three months, he said, another 55 medications will run out. 

“The requirements, we cannot fulfill them,” Ahmad said. 

 
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Several Chinese biotech and surveillance technology companies and government entities are facing new U.S. sanctions for alleged human rights abuses of the Uyghur Muslims in China’s western Xinjiang province.

On Thursday, the Biden administration said the new sanctions will prevent American companies from selling products to China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and its 11 research institutes that develop biotechnology.

The administration says China uses biotechnology to oppress the Uyghurs. China denies this and says any security measures against the Uyghurs are to prevent terrorism.

“The scientific pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Unfortunately, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is choosing to use these technologies to pursue control over its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “We cannot allow U.S. commodities, technologies, and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted toward uses contrary to U.S. national security.”

The move comes as the administration recently announced a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing because of China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang.”

The White House also said it supports bipartisan legislation that would ban imports of items made in Xinjiang unless China can prove they weren’t made using forced labor.

That bill was blocked Wednesday by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who wanted to tie it to extending child tax credits, which are set to expire.

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
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Activists and human rights groups who have long campaigned against the alleged human rights violations committed by Bangladesh’s elite paramilitary forces have welcomed the U.S. sanctions on the forces imposed on December 10.

The U.S. action, which also levied sanctions and visa bans on dozens of former and current government officials and entities in a number of countries including China, Myanmar, North Korea and Russia as part of International Human Rights Day observance, targeted Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion. The RAB, the country’s paramilitary force, has been accused of involvement in hundreds of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings. The sanctions also target the country’s national police chief.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the sanctions may have been triggered by some “exaggerated information,” but several global rights groups said the U.S. action against the force is justified.

“RAB deserved to be sanctioned years ago because it has been a de facto death squad, operating with impunity for years in Bangladesh,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of the international rights group Human Rights Watch.

Hong Kong-based Bangladeshi rights activist Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman said the U.S. sanctions were needed in response to “crimes against humanity” that span more than a decade.

Established in 2004, the RAB was created primarily to counter terrorism and other serious crimes. Known as an elite force, its personnel are drawn from the army, air force, navy and police. But soon after its creation the force began earning notoriety for alleged abuses, including detention, torture and extra-judicial killings.

Beginning in 2009, after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL) came to power, the RAB was accused of involvement in the disappearance of opposition political activists.

According to the Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar, between 2009 and September 2021, RAB killed at least 1,255 people in extrajudicial shootouts. During the same period, at least 605 people vanished through enforced disappearance in the country and RAB was allegedly involved in 190 of those cases, the rights group reported. 

Among the disappeared, 81 were found dead while 154 people still remain missing, according to the Odhikar report. 

Cases of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings rose dramatically in the months ahead of the last two national elections, noted exiled Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader AKM Wahiduzzaman. 

“This trend clearly showed that the disappearances and killings were committed in the interest of the ruling party and that a big number of the victims were opposition party activists,” said Wahiduzzaman, a former university teacher in Bangladesh who told VOA he fled to Malaysia in 2016 out of fear for his life. “Security forces, including RAB, also shot dead many opposition activists during the violent anti-drug campaign and falsely tagged them as drug peddlers.” 

Hasina said in 2009 that her government would act strictly to bring an end to extrajudicial killings in the country. But two years later Human Rights Watch Asia Director Brad Adams alleged that her government was not acting against RAB’s “murderous practice.” 

“A death squad is roaming the streets of Bangladesh and the government does not appear to be doing anything to stop it,” Adams said. 

Authorities in Bangladesh have consistently denied that the country’s security forces participated in enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings. But, in 2017, a court in Bangladesh handed out death sentences to 16 RAB members for abducting and murdering seven people in Narayanganj city.

After the U.S. imposed the sanctions last week, VOA reached out to RAB’s legal and media wing director Khandaker al-Moin, but he said he would not issue comments to foreign media. 

Home Minister Kamal asserted Saturday that judicial inquiries were conducted in the cases of all killings by all security forces. 

“None can kill a person just on his own. In our inquiries in the past, we found all the incidents [of killings] were justified. Such incidents happen in all countries,” Kamal said to the reporters. 

Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said the United States had imposed the sanctions on the basis of exaggerated allegations from some NGOs and human rights groups. 

“It is very unfortunate that a developed country like America takes many actions [against other countries] that appear to be not very mature,” Momen said to local reporters adding that hundreds of thousands of people disappear in the United States each year.

In 2017, Swedish Radio broadcast a secretly recorded interview of one senior RAB officer who admitted that his force routinely picked up people, killed them and disposed of their bodies. 

Earlier this year, in a documentary, “All the Prime Minister’s Men,” the Doha-based news channel Al Jazeera secretly filmed Haris Ahmed, a brother of the then-Bangladesh Army Chief General Aziz Ahmed, boasting that he could use RAB to extort money from businessmen and other purposes. 

“My gangsters are RAB. I don’t need thugs. These [RAB] are my thugs,” Haris, a former convicted murderer, said in the recording. 

Human Rights Watch has for years called for RAB to be disbanded, and the U.S. sanctions showed again why the Bangladesh government should act on its recommendation and end the reign of terror perpetrated by this unit, Robertson said. 

“Just whispering the name ‘RAB’ is enough to bring chills down the spines of opposition political cadre, civil society activists and ordinary people, and the fact that ‘cross-fires’ became synonymous with extra-judicial killings, tells you all you need to know about this murderous force,” Robertson told VOA. “Now, the designation means the U.S. is finally putting their words of condemnation into action by sanctioning some of the key, top officers of RAB both present and past.” 

Ashrafuzzaman, liaison officer of the Asian Legal Resource Centre, said the sanctions should go even farther. 

“The sanctions have been imposed only on some former and present RAB officers. Actions should be taken also against the perpetrators from police, military intelligence and other agencies who committed identical crimes,” Ashrafuzzaman told VOA. 

He urged the United Nations to review its position about Bangladesh’s participation in global peacekeeping operations. 

“The offenders of crime at home cannot be peacekeepers abroad,” he said.
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The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, is urging the Nicaraguan government to urgently restore public rights and freedoms and the rule of law, which observers say have been under siege since 2018. A report on Nicaragua’s human rights situation has been submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The report tracks the evolution of the electoral process from 2018 until November 7 when Nicaragua’s general election was held. The High Commissioner’s report finds the lead-up to the election marred by many irregularities and gross violations of human rights.

The report documents the arbitrary detention of no fewer than 39 political leaders, human rights defenders, businesspeople, journalists, peasants, and student leaders during the electoral period, between May and October. This group includes seven people who had declared their intention to run for president.

Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada al-Nashif, says 35 of these people still are detained in the pre-trial detention center known as “Nuevo Chipote.” 

“According to the information received, many have been detained incommunicado for over 90 days, some in prolonged solitary confinement, and they have only been able to see their families on isolated occasions. Such conditions pose real risks to their physical and mental integrity and may constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even rise to torture,” said al-Nashif.

The report documents the detention of more political activists and journalists on ambiguous criminal charges during the election weekend and following days. It notes harassment and arbitrary arrests have limited the ability of human rights defenders to monitor the electoral process.

Al-Nashif says protests or demonstrations by groups not participating in the elections were banned in the country. 

“All these restrictions and human rights violations created an environment unconducive to genuine and free elections. In this regard, all people arbitrarily detained should be immediately released and have their civil and political rights fully restored,” she said. 

Nicaragua’s attorney general, Wendy Morales Urbina, rejects the High Commissioner’s report, calling it prejudicial, lacking in objectivity, politically biased and interventionist. 
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A global human rights group is accusing all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan of inflicting “extensive” casualties on civilians before the U.S.-backed government in Kabul collapsed and the Islamist Taliban took power last August.

The London-based Amnesty International said Wednesday in a new report that the months leading up to the fall of Kabul were marked by “repeated war crimes and relentless bloodshed” committed by the Taliban, Afghan security forces and the U.S. military.

“Our new evidence shows that, far from the seamless transition of power that the Taliban claimed happened, the people of Afghanistan have once again paid with their lives,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general.

“Homes, hospitals, schools and shops were turned into crime scenes as people were repeatedly killed and injured. The people of Afghanistan have suffered for too long, and victims must have access to justice and receive reparations,” she said.

Amnesty International noted in its report that during their military advances across Afghanistan in July and August, Taliban fighters tortured and killed ethnic and religious minorities, soldiers loyal to the deposed government, and people “perceived as ex-government sympathizers in reprisal attacks.”

 

US Air Strikes

The report documented four recent air strikes — three allegedly carried out by U.S. forces, and one by the then-Afghan Air Force that resulted in 28 civilian deaths, including women and children.

“Such strikes form a pattern of civilian harm that continued until the last moments of the conflict, when a U.S. drone strike killed 10 people, including seven children in Kabul on 29 August 2021,” the report said. “The U.S. military later admitted that those killed were civilians.”

Amnesty International called on the Taliban and the U.S. to meet their international obligations and establish “clear and robust mechanisms for civilians to request reparations for harm sustained during the conflict.”

The August 29 U.S. drone attack in the Afghan capital, the day before American troops ended their 20-year mission, was conducted in response to a suicide bombing outside Kabul’s international airport that killed nearly 200 people, including 13 U.S. service members.

Pentagon officials had acknowledged that the strike was a “tragic mistake.” An independent investigation led by the Air Force inspector general concluded the strike did not violate laws of war and was a result of “confirmation bias” rather than criminal negligence.

The U.S. military said this week it would not punish any of the personnel involved in the drone operation after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved recommendations from two top commanders.

ICC Probe

In her remarks Wednesday, Callamard, also denounced as “misguided” a recent decision by the International Criminal Court that it would focus an Afghan war crimes investigation into alleged crimes by the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan rather than by American or former Afghan security forces.

Callamard urged the court to follow “the evidence on all possible war crimes, no matter where it leads.”

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan in a statement earlier this month defended the decision, arguing he had to consider his budget, the gravity of the alleged crimes and whether prosecutions could lead to a conviction. He denied bowing to any political pressure.

“I made a decision, based upon the evidence, that the worst crimes in terms of gravity and scale and extent seem to be committed by the so-called Islamic State-Khorasan and also the Taliban,” Khan told a meeting of ICC member states in The Hague on December 6.

The ICC launched a preliminary investigation in Afghanistan in 2006, and Khan’s predecessor Fatou Bensouda asked judges in 2017 to authorize a full investigation, saying there was “reasonable” suspicion of war crimes by the Taliban and the US military.

The ICC’s investigation had long upset Washington and prompted former President Donald Trump’s administration to impose sanctions on Bensouda. The Biden administration lifted those sanctions earlier this year.

The deposed Afghan government asked the court in early 2020 to halt the inquiry while Kabul conducted its own investigation into war crimes.
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The Taliban didn’t take the Afghan capital — they were invited, says the man who issued the invitation. 

In an Associated Press interview, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered some of the first insights into the secret and sudden departure of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — and how he came to invite the Taliban into the city “to protect the population so that the country, the city doesn’t fall into chaos and the unwanted elements who would probably loot the country, loot shops.” 

When Ghani left, his security officials also left. Defense minister Bismillah Khan even asked Karzai if he wanted to leave Kabul when Karzai contacted him to know what remnants of the government still remained. It turned out there were none. Not even the Kabul police chief had remained. 

Karzai, who was the country’s president for 13 years after the Taliban were first ousted in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, refused to leave. 

In a wide-ranging interview at his tree-lined compound in the center of the city where he lives with his wife and young children, Karzai was adamant that Ghani’s flight scuttled a last-minute push by himself, the government’s chief negotiator Abdullah Abdullah and the Taliban leadership in Doha that would have seen the Taliban enter the capital as part of a negotiated agreement. 

The countdown to a possible deal began Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban came to power. 

Karzai and Abdullah met Ghani, and they agreed that they would leave for Doha the next day with a list of 15 others to negotiate a power-sharing agreement. The Taliban were already on the outskirts of Kabul, but Karzai said the leadership in Qatar promised the insurgent force would remain outside the city until the deal was struck. 

Early on the morning of Aug. 15, Karzai said, he waited to draw up the list. The capital was fidgety, on edge. Rumors were swirling about a Taliban takeover. Karzai called Doha. He was told the Taliban would not enter the city. 

At noon, the Taliban called to say that “the government should stay in its positions and should not move that they have no intention to (go) into the city,” Karzai said. “I and others spoke to various officials and assurances were given to us that, yes, that was the case, that the Americans and the government forces were holding firm to the places (and) that Kabul would not fall.” 

By about 2:45 p.m., though, it became apparent Ghani had fled the city. Karzai called the defense minister, called the interior minister, searched for the Kabul police chief. Everyone was gone. “There was no official present at all in the capital, no police chief, no corps commander, no other units. They had all left.” 

Ghani’s own protection unit’s deputy chief called Karzai to come to the palace and take over the presidency. He declined, saying legally he had no right to the job. Instead, the former president decided to make a public, televised message, with his children at his side “so that the Afghan people know that we are all here.” 

Karzai was adamant that there would have been an agreement for a peaceful transition had Ghani remained in Kabul. 

“Absolutely. Absolutely. That is what we were preparing for, what we were hoping (along) with the chairman of the peace council to go to Doha that evening, or the next morning, and to finalize the agreement,” he said. “And I believe the Taliban leaders were also waiting for us in Doha for the same … objective, for the same purpose.” 

Today, Karzai meets regularly with the Taliban leadership and says the world must engage with them. Equally important, he said, is that Afghans have to come together. 

War has dominated Afghanistan for more than 40 years, and in the last 20 years “Afghans have suffered on all sides,” he said. “Afghans have lost lives on all sides. … The Afghan army has suffered. Afghan police have suffered, the Taliban soldiers have suffered.” 

He added: “An end to that can only come when Afghans get together, find their own way out.” 

The former president has a plan. In his talks with the Taliban, he is advocating the temporary resurrection of the constitution that governed when Afghanistan was a monarchy. The idea was also floated during earlier Doha talks. 

At the same time, a traditional Loya Jirga — a grand council of all Afghans, including women — would be convened. It would decide the country’s future, including a representative government, a constitution, a national flag. 

There’s no indication the Taliban will accept his formula, though he says they have not rejected it in discussions. A jirga is a centuries-old Afghan tradition for decision-making and is particularly popular among ethnic Pashtuns, which make up the backbone of the Taliban. 

Karzai said a future Afghanistan has to have universal education rights for boys and girls and women “must find their place in the Afghan polity, in the administration, in economic activity and social activity, the political activity in all ways of life. … That’s an issue on which there cannot be any compromise.” 

But until it happens, Karzai says, the world has to engage with the Taliban. Afghanistan needs to operate. Government servants have to be paid. Health care facilities need to function. 

“Right now, they need to cooperate with the government in any form they can,” said Karzai. who also bemoaned the unchallenged and sometimes wrong international perceptions of the Taliban. He cited claims that women and girls are not allowed outside their homes or require a male companion. “That’s not true. There are girls on the streets — women by themselves.” The situation on the ground in Kabul bears this out. 

Asked to describe the Taliban, Karzai said: “I would describe them as Afghans, but Afghans who have gone through a very difficult period in their lives as all other Afghans have done for the past 40 years.” 

We “have been through an extremely difficult period of our history in which we, the Afghans, have made mistakes on all sides, in which the international community and those who interacted with us have made tremendous mistakes,” Karzai said. “It’s time for all of us to realize that, and to look back at the mistakes that we have all made and to make it better.” 
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Britain and Pakistan Tuesday advocated a collective international response to scaling up humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, which is facing mass starvation and economic collapse after the Taliban takeover of the country.

“A stable inclusive Afghanistan is our shared goal,” Christian Turner, the British high commissioner in Islamabad, told an international seminar in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.  

“I want to emphasize the U.K. is taking a pragmatic approach. We are talking to the Taliban,” he said.  

The British diplomat, however, stressed that issues related to counterterrorism, the rights of minorities, rights of women and school education for girls remain at the center of the dialogue with the Taliban.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the seminar the Taliban government has assured all neighbors of Afghanistan and extra-regional powers that they will not allow Afghan soil to be used for terrorism.  

“We have advocated and worked for the establishment of an inclusive polity in Afghanistan, respecting the rights of all ethnic and religious minorities as well as of women,” Qureshi said.

Qureshi said that Pakistan will host foreign ministers of Islamic countries later this week to mobilize support for providing food, medicine and housing to millions of people in Afghanistan. The Taliban and representatives from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, the United Nations and European Union have also been invited to Sunday’s “extraordinary session” of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The Islamist Taliban seized power from the Western-backed government in August following the withdrawal of the United States and allied nations from the war-ravaged country.

Washington and its allies responded by suspending financial aid and freezing Afghan monetary assets, largely held in the U.S. Federal Reserve, so they do not help the Taliban to reintroduce their hardline repressive rule of the 1990s.

The abrupt disruption of the assistance has left the Afghan economy, which heavily depended on external aid over the past 20 years, on the brink of collapse. The sanctions have led to the breakdown in most basic services, including electricity, health services and education, with prices for food, fuel and other basic staples rising rapidly and out of reach for ordinary Afghans.  

The Afghan banking system is only partially functional and cut off from the rest of the world due international sanctions. No country has granted diplomatic recognition to the new Taliban government over human rights concerns and lack of inclusivity.  

Former American diplomat Robin Raphel told the Islamabad seminar the U.S. and other Western governments remain focused mostly on evacuating vulnerable Afghans and avoiding any hint of recognition of the Taliban government. But saving lives of millions of Afghans should also be the priority, she said.

“The European Union and some European governments are now actively considering opening offices in Kabul to engage directly with Taliban leaders who are not on the terrorism list. The U.S. would do well to consider doing the same thing in my view,” Raphel said.  

The U.S. Treasury decided last week to allow personal and non-personal remittances to be made to Afghans while donors agreed to transfer $280 million from the World Bank-administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF).  

The U.N. children’s fund, UNICEF, will receive $100 million for health services, while the rest of the money will go to the World Food Program to assist 2.7 million people with food aid.

The WFP estimates that the number of severely food insecure Afghans is a staggering 22.8 million, more than 50 percent of the population.

An estimated 8.7 million people “are one step away from famine-like conditions” and around 95 percent of households are unable to feed themselves sufficiently on a daily basis,” Mary-Ellen McGroarty, the WFP director in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul earlier this week.

“The impacts of the worst drought in 30 years and the economic implosion, crippling the country, the destructive legacy of the conflict, are all coming together. They are merging, they are layering and they are morphing into a tsunami of hunger and destitution across the country,” she warned. McGroarty said 3.1 million Afghan children have been diagnosed as malnourished in 2021.
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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warns Afghanistan is facing a profound human right crisis and failure by the Taliban rulers to uphold the rights of their people will lead to further turmoil and hinder the country’s development.  The High Commissioner’s report has been presented at a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

This unrelentingly bleak report describes a society where millions of people are unable to meet their basic needs because of the near collapse of the Afghan economy.  It says people suffering poverty and hunger are forced to take desperate measures to survive, including child labor, child marriage, and even the sale of children.

Before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, the United Nations recorded the highest number of civilian casualties on record, with women and children among the main victims.  While casualty numbers have dropped, the report says civilians continue to be killed in attacks by various armed groups.

U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, Nada Al-Nashif, tells the Council extrajudicial killings are increasing across the country.  She expresses concern at the continued recruitment of children by an extremist jihadist militant group and Taliban authorities.  

“While the Taliban takeover has brought an uneasy end to fighting against governmental forces in the country, the current situation leaves the population with little protection in terms of human rights,” Al Nashif said. “Women and girls in particular face great uncertainty with respect to the rights to education, to livelihoods and to participation, in which they had made important gains over the past

Al Nashif says Afghan society will pay a high price if the Taliban continue to marginalize women by depriving them of an education, prohibiting them from working, and keeping them under the control a male relative.  

“The continued participation of women in all aspects of life will be fundamental to Afghanistan’s future,” Al Nashif said. “The UN partners have estimated that restricting women from working could contribute an immediate loss of up to one billion dollars—or up to five percent of the country’s GDP.  As more and more girls are held back and pushed further behind, that economic and social damage will accumulate for future generations.”   

The U.N. Credentials Committee has decided to not allow the Taliban to represent Afghanistan at the United Nations.  So, Nasir Andisha, Ambassador to the UN in Geneva under ex-President Afghan Ghani’s regime remains the person who the UN recognizes as the legitimate representative of Afghanistan.

In taking the floor at the council, the ambassador thanked the High Commissioner for her report.   He called on the international community to side with the people of Afghanistan and to not allow the Taliban to deprive them of their fundamental rights and freedoms.
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Students and faculty members from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music arrived with their families Monday in Portugal, where they are being granted asylum and where they hope to rebuild their acclaimed school. 

The 273-person group, including some 150 students, flew into Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, from Doha, Qatar. Their departure from Afghanistan was staggered in five airlifts to Doha over six weeks in October and November. 

“The arrival of the (institute’s) community today means that the first and most important step of saving lives and insuring freedom is now over,” said the institute’s founder and director, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast. 

Governments and corporate and private donors met the group’s evacuation and resettlement expenses. 

“From now on, (the institute’s) musicians will be a symbol of courage and resolve, not only for Afghan artists, but also for the people of Afghanistan, in their struggle against the oppression and tyranny of the Taliban,” Sarmast said.

The musicians are among tens of thousands of Afghans, including many from the country’s sports and arts community, who have fled since Taliban fighters seized Afghanistan in August, when the U.S. and NATO ended their 20-year military presence. 

The Afghanistan girls’ youth soccer team has also resettled in Portugal, a country of 10.3 million that has taken in 764 Afghans since summer. 

Afghanistan has a strong musical tradition, and a pop music scene had flourished there over the past two decades. But many musicians fear for their futures under the Taliban, which rules according to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. 

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music, founded in 2010, was renowned for its inclusiveness. It became a symbol of a new Afghanistan, with boys and girls studying together and performing to full houses in the United States and Europe. 

The school’s campus in Kabul is now occupied by a Taliban faction. Its bank accounts were frozen and its offices ransacked, according to former school officials. 

The plan is to recreate the school in Portugal, allowing the students to continue their educations, as part of a wider Lisbon-based center for Afghan culture that will welcome exiles. 

 
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The U.S. military will not punish any of the military personnel involved in an errant drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 10 civilians, after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved recommendations from two top commanders. 

“The secretary’s not approving or calling for additional accountability measures,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday at the Pentagon in response to a question from VOA. 

Pentagon officials had previously acknowledged that the strike on August 29 was a “tragic mistake.” An independent investigation led by the Air Force inspector general said the strike did not violate laws of war and was a result of “confirmation bias” rather than criminal negligence. 

The strike killed at least 10 civilians, including seven children, and was carried out days after a suicide bomber outside Hamid Karzai International Airport killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members. 

The U.S. military had initially said the strike was preventing another Islamic State-Khorasan attack on troops before admitting its mistake. 

Evidence later showed that what the military had believed were suspected explosives inside a vehicle turned out to be water tanks for an aid worker’s family. 

U.S.-based Nutrition and Education International founder and President Steve Kwon criticized the Pentagon on Monday, calling its decision “shocking.” 

The airstrike killed NEI employee Zemari Ahmadi and nine of his family members. 

“How can our military wrongly take the lives of ten precious Afghan people, and hold no one accountable in any way?” Kwon said in a statement released Monday, according to CNBC news. “What message is it sending to family members who lost their loved ones, and my employees who lost a beloved colleague?” 

The Pentagon promised to pay compensation and also to help relocate abroad family members and Afghans working for NEI, but that remains stuck on determining just who is qualified, according to officials. 

Earlier Monday VOA had confirmed that the recommendation to Austin from Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command who oversaw the withdrawal, did not include punishments for service members involved in the botched strike because McKenzie had found no grounds to do so. 

Gen. Richard Clarke, head of Special Operations Command, also declined to recommend punishment of service members to Austin, according to Kirby. 

In the past two decades, the U.S. military has killed at least hundreds of civilians by accident in war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Somalia.

Specific individuals are held accountable on rare occasions, such as when the Pentagon disciplined several military personnel for their roles in an October 2015 airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that killed 42 people.

“The U.S. makes horrible mistakes, of course, and has to own up to it,” Thomas Joscelyn, the senior editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal told VOA, while adding that despite errant U.S. drone strikes and civilian casualties committed by Afghan forces, “the No. 1 killer of civilians throughout that war was the Taliban.” 

 

 
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