Noor wants UN to probe HRW allegations

MAZAR-E-SHARIF (Pajhwok): Atta Mohammad Noor, the governor of the northern Balkh province, on Friday demanded the United Nations to thoroughly probe the Human Rights Watch (HRW) what he called “baseless allegations against him.”

Copies of a written statement handed over to journalists in a press conference by Munir Farhad, the governor’s spokesman.

The HRW report released Tuesday (March 3) calls on new President Ashraf Ghani and his government to prosecute officials and commanders “whose serious human rights abuses have long gone unpunished.”

The report titled Today We Shall All Die: Afghanistan‘s Strongmen and the Legacy of Impunity, said the “previous Afghan government and the United States enabled powerful and abusive individuals and their forces to commit atrocities for too long without being held to account.”

The report based on 125 interviews HRW has carried out since August 2012 profiles eight “strongmen” linked to police, intelligence, and militia forces responsible for serious abuses in recent years.

The eight men named were Hazara leader Abdul Hakim Shojoyi, former Takhar police chief Khair Mohammad Timur, Afghan Local Police Commander Azizullah from the Urgun district in Paktika province, Atta Mohammad Noor, the incumbent acting governor of northern Balkh province, Najibullah Kapisa, the National Directorate of Security chief for Takhar, Mir Alam, a former senior commander with the Jamiat party, Asadullah Khalid, the former head of the National Security Directorate, and General Abdul Raziq, the Kandahar provincial police commander.

All those implicated in the HRW report have dismissed the HRW report in categorical terms. Farhad said that such kinds of reports would damage the personalities of a number of persons. He said: “How Noor can involve in drugs and other illegal activities at a time when poppy cultivation has dropped to zero level in Balkh province.”

rm

Visits: 2