Hazara Nation

Even Mother Nature was cruel on the day 15 years ago when rampaging thugs chopped off Marzia’s fingers for a gold ring and shot dead her nine-year-old son when he cried out to object.

It was a bone-chillingly cold morning, she recalls, when militia loyal to Pashtun warlord Abdul Rab-Rasoul Sayyaf – now a parliamentarian – captured her village, west of Kabul and dominated by ethnic Hazaras.

Poverty-stricken Afshar, a complex of mudbrick houses at the foot of a barren and rocky mountain, was crushed in the orgy of murder, rape and looting.

In a post-assault attack on the village, gunmen smashed into her simple house, says the illiterate housewife in her 40s. They demanded a gold ring she was wearing.

“I couldn’t take it off. One of them stepped forward with a bayonet and said ‘I will take it off,’ and chopped my fingers,” she says, holding up a hand missing the thumb, fore and middle fingers.

Her son Samad cried out. “When he chopped my fingers, my son jumped towards me and wailed ‘Oh, nanai (mother)’. Another man turned his gun and fired at him,” she says, her lips quivering. “My son died in my arms,” she says, wiping away tears with the palm of her butchered hand.

The number of dead in what has become known as the Afshar Massacre is not clear: a United Nations report says 300 civilians, almost all ethnic Hazara Shiites, were killed but villagers say even more were slaughtered, some decapitated.

Hundreds of Hazara men were rounded up and corralled into forced labour – or just disappeared. Villagers claim 1,200 men were taken away.

One was Marzia’s husband, Sayed Mohammad.

Sitting near his wife in their one-room home, he says he was accused of being a combatant, beaten, and forced to dig trenches and wash dishes for his captors for six months before he was freed, half-paralysed and mentally ill.

The February 1993 Afshar campaign was one of the worst episodes of the 1992-1996 civil war that erupted when internationally supported militias that had driven out the Soviet occupiers turned on each other.

The ethnic-based factional fighting – in which all sides are accused of atrocities, including the Hazara – killed around 80,000 civilians in Kabul alone, according to rights groups.

An almost daily barrage of rocket and artillery fire reduced large parts of the attractive capital to rubble.

The conflict was ended when the Taliban Islamic militia took power in 1996, initially welcomed for restoring calm after the chaos. But they too brought terror before being ousted in a US-led invasion late in 2001.

“The Afshar Massacre is one of the worst brutalities of the civil war,” says Horia Musadeq from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

“It is just one example of hundreds of incidents Afghans suffered. Hundreds of civilians were killed, women were raped and many men were captured, held and tortured,” he said.

A 2005 Human Rights Watch report implicates Sayyaf – now an ally of President Hamid Karzai – and other figures such as Burhanduddin Rabbani, president at the time and now also in parliament.

“The Afshar campaign was marked by widespread and serious violations of international humanitarian law,” it says, and calls for “justice-seeking mechanisms to sideline past abusers from political power”.

Karzai in late 2006 signed a Peace, Reconciliation and Justice Action Plan that seeks to “establish accountability” – which some fear could see a backlash from strongmen worried about having to face a judicial process.

Just weeks later the parliament voted in a bill that would give groups and factions amnesty against prosecution. Its position on individuals is vague.

Karzai admitted at a meeting in December, at which Marzia was among several victims who pleaded for justice, that this was a concern.

“There are tyrants in our land,” he said. “We must move with lots of caution so as not to cause lots of noise and more human rights violations.”

The United Nations has meanwhile expressed disappointment at the delays in implementing the action plan, which also provides for investigations of atrocities and memorials for those killed.

Marzia says she wants justice, even if only from “great God”.

Responding to such calls is vital for Afghanistan to recover from its three decades of war and to revive the national spirit, Musadeq says.

“We can’t survive as a nation unless we give justice to war victims. Can you imagine that those who have killed her or others’ children sit in the parliament, live in palaces and drive Landcruisers?” she asks.

“When Sayyaf speeds past a victim in his Landcruiser, kicking up dust, think how it feels. It feels really bad.” Read the full story

AFP

Even Mother Nature was cruel on the day 15 years ago when rampaging thugs chopped off Marzia's fingers for a gold ring and shot dead her nine-year-old son when he cried out to object.

It was a bone-chillingly cold morning, she recalls, when militia loyal to Pashtun warlord Abdul Rab-Rasoul Sayyaf -- now a parliamentarian -- captured her village, west of Kabul and dominated by ethnic Hazaras.

Poverty-stricken Afshar, a complex of mudbrick houses at the foot of a barren and rocky mountain, was crushed in the orgy of murder, rape and looting.

In a post-assault attack on the village, gunmen smashed into her simple house, says the illiterate housewife in her 40s. They demanded a gold ring she was wearing.

"I couldn't take it off. One of them stepped forward with a bayonet and said 'I will take it off,' and chopped my fingers," she says, holding up a hand missing the thumb, fore and middle fingers.

Her son Samad cried out. "When he chopped my fingers, my son jumped towards me and wailed 'Oh, nanai (mother)'. Another man turned his gun and fired at him," she says, her lips quivering.

"My son died in my arms," she says, wiping away tears with the palm of her butchered hand.

The number of dead in what has become known as the Afshar Massacre is not clear: a United Nations report says 300 civilians, almost all ethnic Hazara Shiites, were killed but villagers say even more were slaughtered, some decapitated.

Hundreds of Hazara men were rounded up and corralled into forced labour -- or just disappeared. Villagers claim 1,200 men were taken away.

One was Marzia's husband, Sayed Mohammad.

Sitting near his wife in their one-room home, he says he was accused of being a combatant, beaten, and forced to dig trenches and wash dishes for his captors for six months before he was freed, half-paralysed and mentally ill.

The February 1993 Afshar campaign was one of the worst episodes of the 1992-1996 civil war that erupted when internationally supported militias that had driven out the Soviet occupiers turned on each other.

The ethnic-based factional fighting -- in which all sides are accused of atrocities, including the Hazara -- killed around 80,000 civilians in Kabul alone, according to rights groups.

An almost daily barrage of rocket and artillery fire reduced large parts of the attractive capital to rubble.

The conflict was ended when the Taliban Islamic militia took power in 1996, initially welcomed for restoring calm after the chaos. But they too brought terror before being ousted in a US-led invasion late in 2001.

"The Afshar Massacre is one of the worst brutalities of the civil war," says Horia Musadeq from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

"It is just one example of hundreds of incidents Afghans suffered. Hundreds of civilians were killed, women were raped and many men were captured, held and tortured," he said.

A 2005 Human Rights Watch report implicates Sayyaf -- now an ally of President Hamid Karzai -- and other figures such as Burhanduddin Rabbani, president at the time and now also in parliament.

"The Afshar campaign was marked by widespread and serious violations of international humanitarian law," it says, and calls for "justice-seeking mechanisms to sideline past abusers from political power".

Karzai in late 2006 signed a Peace, Reconciliation and Justice Action Plan that seeks to "establish accountability" -- which some fear could see a backlash from strongmen worried about having to face a judicial process.

Just weeks later the parliament voted in a bill that would give groups and factions amnesty against prosecution. Its position on individuals is vague.

Karzai admitted at a meeting in December, at which Marzia was among several victims who pleaded for justice, that this was a concern.

"There are tyrants in our land," he said. "We must move with lots of caution so as not to cause lots of noise and more human rights violations."

The United Nations has meanwhile expressed disappointment at the delays in implementing the action plan, which also provides for investigations of atrocities and memorials for those killed.

Marzia says she wants justice, even if only from "great God".

Responding to such calls is vital for Afghanistan to recover from its three decades of war and to revive the national spirit, Musadeq says.

"We can't survive as a nation unless we give justice to war victims. Can you imagine that those who have killed her or others' children sit in the parliament, live in palaces and drive Landcruisers?" she asks.

"When Sayyaf speeds past a victim in his Landcruiser, kicking up dust, think how it feels. It feels really bad." Read the full story

This report documents the massacre of civilians and other serious breaches of international humanitarian law committed by the Taliban in Afghanistan in August, 1998. The incident, which occurred in Mazar-i Sharif, a city in northern Afghanistan, represents one of the single worst examples of civilian killings in Afghanistan's twenty-year war where At least 8000 Hazaras were singled out and massacred by the Taliban regime. No foreigners or press were allowed in the city or its environs at the time. Human Rights Watch was the first international human rights organization to interview survivors who have reached Pakistan in the weeks following the massacre.Human Rights Watch conducted the interviews for this report in Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta, Pakistan. The eyewitnesses they spoke to included residents of Mazar-i Sharif who were Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara. The witnesses had lived in different neighborhoods of the city. Some had stayed in the city for several weeks after the Taliban takeover; others had left within a few days. Most had arrived in Pakistan after several weeks of travel inside Afghanistan.

Their testimonies about the events in Mazar-i Sharif from August 8 through early September are consistent in the depiction of the patterns of attack by the advancing Taliban troops, the systematic nature of the search operations, the sorting of prisoners at the jail, and the transport of prisoners. All of those who remained in the city after the first day separately witnessed summary executions of men and boys as they were being taken from their homes or while being transported to the jail. All of them also heard one or more of Governor Niazi's speeches that, while they varied somewhat in content, reflected consistent themes of anti-Shi'ism and revenge for the 1997 killings.

Human Rights Watch also interviewed sources in nongovernmental organizations and in the diplomatic community who have monitored and documented the events in Mazar. Information provided by these sources is consistent with the patterns described by eyewitnesses

Abductions and Rape of Women:

Human Rights Watch has also received persistent reports that women and girls, particularly in certain Hazara neighborhoods of Mazar-i Sharif, including Saidabad, Karte Ariana, and Ali Chopan were raped and abducted during the Taliban takeover of the city and that their whereabouts remain unknown.

A witness living in Kamaz camp stated that some of the Taliban took young women from the camp at the same time that they were arresting men. She knew of four or five girls who were taken from the camp, all in their early twenties. A witness from the neighborhood of Karte Ariana told Human Rights Watch that she had seen teen-age girls in the area being pushed into the Taliban's Pijaro cars and taken to an unknown destination.

A male medical student who worked and lived in one of the city hospitals for twenty days straight after the takeover stated that he saw one rape case during that time. A Hazara woman, who was a nurse, and her sister had walked to the hospital from Ali Chopan.

"The nurse was in a very bad shape, she had sharp stomach pains. I could not examine her because the hospital was full of Talibs. This was a day before they segregated the hospital and put women in the children's building. I just asked a few questions and finally she said that she was raped by the Talibs. She did not say which ones. We could not talk long with the Talibs watching. I could not do much, I just gave her analgesics."

Another witness tells this story, "An acquaintance of ours came to our house seven or eight days after the takeover. She became ill in our house because she had taken over twenty pills to kill herself, I don't know what kind. We called doctors from the neighborhood who gave her something to wash out her stomach. She lived in Ali Chopan, but her family was staying elsewhere, and she had gone back to check on the house when she was picked up by the Taliban. At first she did not want to tell us anything, but then she said that when she went to their house, the Talibs abducted her and locked her up in a house with twenty to twenty-five other young girls and women. They were raped every night. They were all Hazaras. She was the only one released. One Talib told her that now they are halal [sanctified], and she should go to his parents in Qandahar and wait for him to come and marry her. He gave her a pass and his own identity card and told her to go to the Taliban's headquarters and from there to Qandahar, but instead she escaped."

The difficulties inherent in documenting such attacks on women are many. The refugees from Mazar-i Sharif are scattered throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan. The where abouts of abducted women and girls remain unknown. Rape victims are unlikely to seek medical attention unless their injuries are severe. They are often reluctant to report their assaults because of the shame and stigma that they may bear as a result, and Afghan women coping with upheaval and the loss of family members in particular may fear the added worry of being identified as rape victims. Nonetheless, Human Rights Watch received consistent and reliable reports of abuses against women and thus underscored the need for an investigation that is prepared to examine the full range of reported violations, including sexual violence.

Attacks on Civilians fleeing Mazar:

A source interviewed by Human Rights Watch stated that there were most likely BM-21 Grad (Hail) multiplerocket launchers, commonly known as Katyushas used in the taking of Mazar. An unknown number of civilians on the road were also killed when they were bombed by Taliban airplanes; witnesses stated that the bombs scattered hundreds of grenade-sized munitions over a wide area on the road.

In one such incident, witnesses said that rockets hit an area called Tangi Shadyan on the southern outskirts of the city at about 12:00 p.m., killing at least fifty. Cars and trucks carrying people were struck, and one witness stated that "people were in pieces" along the road. A witness who left immediately when the Taliban arrived told Human Rights Watch that he and his family carried with them nine bodies of a family that had been killed in a rocket attack on the road, including two women, three men, and four small children, and buried them in farmland on the way to the mountains.

Eye Witness Testimonies : [2]

A witness whose testimony is described as "extremely reliable" by aid officials said most of the victims had been shot in the head, the chest and the testicles. Others had been slaughtered in what he called "the halal way" - by having their throats slit.

One housewife, who has since fled to Pakistan, said the Taliban entered her house and shot her husband and her two brothers dead. Then they cut the men's throats in front of the woman and her children.

Another piece of testimony explained why one Taliban was "very worried he might be excluded from heaven". He had personally shot people in nearly 30 houses, opting to kill them as soon as they opened the door. After killing the men in two homes, he learnt that they were not Hazara but Pashtun. "That he had killed people in 28 Hazara households seemed not to cause him any concern at all," the witness said.

The Human Rights Watch report and other statements identify three Taliban leaders who appear to be guilty of incitement to kill victims purely because of their ethnic origin. They are:

Mullah Manon Niazi, the new Taliban governor of Mazar-e-Sharif - Numerous witnesses heard him make speeches at mosques and on radio inciting hatred of Hazaras. "Wherever you go we will catch you," he said. "If you go up, we will pull you down by your feet; if you hide below we will pull you up by your hair." One witness testified that Niazi personally selected prisoners to be consigned to the death containers.

Mullah Musa, the so-called director of public health - A witness said Musa toured a public hospital looking for Hazara patients to mark out for death. Later that day, the witness heard from a doctor that Musa had taken a group of gunmen to the army hospital, where they had murdered all 20 or so patients, and relatives who had been visiting them.

Maulawi Mohammed Hanif - a Taliban commander who announced to a crowd of 300 people summoned to a mosque that the policy of the Taliban was to "exterminate" the Hazaras.

International aid workers fear the killings are continuing following the recent fall of the central Afghan town of Bamiyan. They have said thousands of people remain unaccounted for
. Read the full story

February 1993
Location: Afshar and Karteh Sahe, West Kabul. Majority of Hazara residents. (central Afghanistan - Hazarajat).

Victims: Innocent Hazara residents of Afshar and Karteh Sahe and members of the Hezb-e-Wahdat (Unity Party) who defended the Hazara people and fought for equal rights.

Perpetrators: Then former President Rabbani, his chief military commander and son-in-law, the so-called "lion of Panjshir" Ahmad Shah Massoud (both from Jamiat-i-Islami political group who participated in the murders) and Abdul Rasul with his political party, Ittehad-i-Islami.

* "...hundreds of its Hazara residents were massacred by government forces, under the direct order of President Rabbani and his cheif commander, Massoud.""At one o'clock on the morning of 11 February, while the inhabitants of Afshar lay asleep in their beds, the Institute of Social Sciences was attacked from three sides: from the west by Sayyaf's Ittehad-e-Islami forces, and from the north and south, by Rabbani's forces, helped by traitors within the Party, who had already been bought off."

"Following this withdrawal, forces loyal to Sayyaf and Ahmad Shah Massoud raided the area. For the next 24 hours they killed, raped, set fire to homes, and took young boys and girls as captives. By the time the news was broadcast in Kabul and internationally the following day, some 700 people were estimated to have been killed or to have disappeared. One year later, when parts of the district were retaken by Hezb-e-Wahdat forces, several mass graves were unearthed containing a further 58 bodies..."
(S.A. Mousavi: The Hazaras of Afghanistan )

Hence, Human Rights Watch reported that civilians had their throats slit and leg or arm cut off. More than 1,000 were killed and/or disappeared.


Leaders of the Massacre
"Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a current U.S. ally, was among the mujahedeen leaders in power in Afghanistan- the ones who welcomed Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan in 1996 from Sudan, where he had been forced to leave under U.S. pressure. Sayyaf, whose men carried out brutal atrocities during the mujahedeen’s rule, was a close ally of Ahmed Shah Massoud, on the rights in this photograph, whose men also carried out brutal acts."



An Afghan woman recounts how her husband was killed in Afshar, west of Kabul. Hundreds of innocent people from Hazara minority were massacred by forces of Sayyaf and Ahmad Shah Massoud in this area in 1993


Headline:
* According to The Guardian, November 16, 2001:

* According to Los Angeles Times (Apr.26,1999) "In one terrible incident in 1993, documented by the State Department, Masoud's troops rampaged through a rival neighborhood, raping, looting and killing as many as a thousand people."

* "nternational responsibility for human rights disaster", (AI, 1995) In March 1995 Shura-e-Nezar forces reportedly carried out raids on hundreds of civilian homes in Kabul's south-western district of Karte She, killing or beating whole families, looting property and raping Hazara women. One family, interviewed by a foreign journalist in Kabul, said President Rabbani's soldiers had told them they wanted to "drink the blood of the Hazaras". Medical workers in the area confirmed at the time at least six incidents of rape and two attempted rapes, but believed the actual number was much higher.

* Human Rights Watch, (October 10, 2001)"In March 1995, Massoud [Defence Minister at that time] forces were responsible for rape and looting after they seized control of Kabul's predominantly Hazara neighborhood of Karte Seh.
On the night of Feb. 11, 1993, the Massoud and Sayyaf forces conducted a raid in west Kabul, killing Hazara civilians and committing widespread rape. Estimates of fatalities range from 70 to more than 100.
Read the full story

Mass Killing during the Military Operation of Taliban
The Taliban first time entered Bamyan city 13th September, 1998 after short fighting on Aghrubut pass. On 15-17 September the Taliban launched search in Bamyan villages to find out suspect people. During their search they arrested and killed any male members of Hazara above thirteen. Arrested people were taken to desert and then assassinated. Sar Asyabb, Haider Abad and Syed Abad villages were among the villages, which suffered more
Some people were slaughtered herd and some bodies were cut to pieces. Houses were burnt or destroyred.
I was reported that dead bodies were scattered everywhere. Five bodies were found in Azhdar, three were behind guardroom of Bamyan airport and several bodies were found among trees behind new Bazar. Many people were killed from displaced families who were living around Buddha statues but following the capture of city they went to nearby villages.
Reportedly Abdul Wahid and Maysam two workers of ICRC who decided not to leave their office were also killed.
Number of killed people per village during the Taliban search between 15th to 17th September 1998, as known by Cooperation Centre of Afghanistan ( CCA ) reporter is as follow:
Village Number of Person Killed
Sar-e-Asia 75
Khushkak Chap Dara 11
Taapchi 07
Shibarto 11
Darray Fauladi 37
Dushti Isa Khan and Tajiks 09
Gorvavna and Tai Boti 85
Azhder 05
Jagra Khil 25
Patmasti 15
Surkh Dar 13
Dasht-e-Mulla Khulam 21
Airport area 03
Kallu 28
Bazar 17
Total: 512
It was on the second day of the Taliban presence in Bamyan, that two groups of non-Afghan Talibs based in Iranian Consulate building and Bamyan Laycee (High School) targeted the small Buddha by Tank and BM 40 Artillery. These shelling caused some damages in the lower part of its body. Then climbing the statue, they dug its head, filled it with explosive stuff and set it off. The explosion defaced small Buddha and created some cracks in its body.
Looting and Confiscation:
230 Trucks ( Kamazand ten wheelers Trucks) were taken by different groups of the Taliban. The Taliban promised to return looted trucks but so far only two trucks have been given back to the owners. There were also reports of looting of the peoples household furniture and public properties.
Suspension as Preventive Measures: (March 1999)
Harassment's of civilians continued under the Taliban rule, which broaden the gap between the people and the Talib.
When the snow began to melt Hizb-e-Wahdat forces returning from their mountainous refuge, capture Yakaulang district. Taliban became suspicious about the affiliation of Bamyan people with the opposition forces. So they took around 550 people as hostages and transferred them to different prisons in Parwan, Kabul and Kandahar city. Among the arrested people were members of council, which was found by the Taliban, namely: Sayed Adil Kazmi, Paykar from Fatmasti, Natiqi from Kushkak, Shaikh Emami from Surmara and Shaikh Zaki from Kalu.
On 28 of March following an uprising the Taliban forces leaded by Mulla Abdul Wahid Ghourbandi destroyed and burnt the villages located on the road between Sheebar and Bamyan city including Shashpul, Ahangraan.
They also burnt Surkh Qool and other villages located in Kalu valley. People living in these villages were forcibly evacuated. Two Takya Khanas (Mosques) in Sar Asyab and Gurvana villages were also burnt.
Human Rights Violation By Hizb-e Wahdat: ( 21 April to 15 May 1999)
Suppression of civilian people in Bamyan resulted in reverse and prompted them to support the opposition forces. On April 21 the Taliban were forced to retreat from Bamyan in the face of of an offensive by the forces of Hizb-e Wahdat.
Hizb Wahdat forces had the control of Bamyan for three weeks. It was reported that they arrested 11 drivers and 25 passengers that were passing by through Bamyan on the road from Behsood to Bamyan. They were arrested because of their ethnicity. ( They released by the Taliban on May 9th. When they recaptured Bamyan).
Atrocities during the second military operation of the Taliban May 9th and onward:
The fall of Bamyan to the opposition considered a big set back to the Taliban. Therefore the Taliban massed four thousand troops for recapturing of Bamyan. The operation was leaded by high ranking commanders of Taliban including Maulavi Abdul Kabir Deputy to the acting Shura. Mulla brother Akhund, head of the East-West zone , Mulla Fazal Akhund, chief of military corps and Mulla Abdul Wahid, Ghourbandi - a frontline commander.
The Taliban retook the Bamyan on 9th of May 1999. Entering Bamyan city the killed everyone they saw. The number of killed people is not known so far has been quest to be hundreds. Most of the population evacuated the city and took refugee in the mountain sides. They are facing seriously with hunger, weather in mountainous areas is cold and the land is still snow full. It was reported that a group of 150 people including man, woman and children have been taken as captives by the Taliban from Bersona village and have been transferred to Parwan province.
Yakawlang was also evacuated by the people for the fear of being killed or arrested by the Taliban. A few families could manage to reach Ghazni while some other have gone to Panjab or Behsoo districts.
Reported by Cooperation Centre of Afghanistan ( CCA ) Peshawer Pakistan
Tens of thousands of people who have taken refuge in the mountains are at risk of losing their lives if urgent assistant is not provided. They need food and protection against the Taliban assaults. Reports reaching from Bamiyan indicate that almost all population of Bamiyan center, Yakowlong and the villages located alongside Shiber-yokowlong road Kalu valley have fled from their homes for the fear of being killed or arrested by the Taliban. Some have gone to neighboring districts but the majority of the fleeing families are still wondering about in outskirts of Baba mountain range where the land is still covered by snow and the weather is severely cold. Recapturing Bamiyan from Hezb-e-Wahdat the Taliban have destroyed and Burnt the houses of people at Dukani and Haider Abad villages and have taken 150 people from Borosona village including Women and Children as captives. These acts have further frightened the civil population. We strongly ask the UN to deploy to other places in Hazarajat which are currently controlled by the opposition. Precaution measures are needed to be taken so that the atrocities on civilian population could be reduced.
CCA repeats its call upon warring factions to refrain from any action against civilian people. We particularly urge the Taliban to release civilian people whom were arrested recently from Bamiyan.
Cooperation center for Afghanistan
4, P/1, Phase IV, Main Road Opposite PDA, Hayatabad,
Peshawar, Pakistan
tel: 92-91-816286/ 815647
Fax: 92-91-816386

Eyewitness accounts of Taliban massacre in Yakaolang
The massacre of around 300 people in Yakaolang, which took place on 9th January 2001 by the Taliban, has been observed without much ado by the governments and media of the world. In a situation where our country has been besieged politically and economically by regional and global powers, the voice of our nation is bound captive in the claws of fundamentalists and their foreign guardians, thus remaining unheard. RAWA, which considers itself the loyal ally to the desires of the people of Afghanistan, and especially the deeply pained women of the country, takes as its revolutionary duty to break the fundamentalists' and their foreign allies' blockade of silence and to carry the just voices of our oppressed people to every nook and corner of the world."Sufi Gardizi the military commander and representative of Taliban in Yakaolang is a very sick man, fanatical and factionalist. Before the day of the massacre of the people of Yakaolang, Sufi Gurdizi fanned a policy of discord between the tribe of Sadat and Hazara. He gathered supporters amongst Khalqis, Purchamis (Khaliq and Parcham were two fictions of PDPA a puppet party of Russia) and Nasries (members of a pro-Iran party called Nasr) who were enforcing his commands such as Gulam Ali, General Hayat Ullah Khalqi, Sheikh Raza Saeedi, Syed Jawad, Syed Abdullah and others. One month before the tragedy of Yakaolang rumor spread that Karim Khalili was making preparation for an assault against the Taliban. Taliban and Jawadi (on behalf of the Nasries) gave assurance to the people that on the basis of the agreement between Taliban and Khalili at the Suof valley, they would not attack Yakaolang. At the middle of December the forces of Khalili started to move from the area of Suof valley towards Bameyan. Preparation was made by Sufi Gardizi, his assistant (Niaz Muhammad) and General Khadim Khalqi against the possible attack of Khalili.

The first clash took place at the Gum Aab. General Khadim and Hayat (Khalqi) lost the battle to Khalili, but the fighting continued both sides moved towards Yakaolang. After some clashes the forces of Khalili entered Yakaolang on 2nd of January. Six days later Khalili and Co. gathered the people of different villages and a man known by the name of Khuda Dad Urfani, who introduced himself as the welfare minister of the government of Rabbani, gave a speech in which he said: "This time we will not act like in the past. We will not sell lice (fighters of Hezb-e-Wahdat were used to block the roads in areas under their control and forcibly sell their lice on passengers and get huge amount of money from them); will not show the dance of the death (one of the brutal crimes committed by Hezb-e-Wahdat was to chop off the head of their victims and then put boiled oil on it to stop the bleeding and then they enjoy the movements of the victims till he breaths his last. They were calling it "Dance of the death". There are many reports of this wild act by them), we will not sell opium to the fronts. We have read these things in Payam-e-Zan and it is shameful for us to record what went before once again in the books of history".

On 7th of January Taliban started their counter attacks towards the sub-province and after two days of war, the armed men of Khalili escaped and the district of Yakaolang once again came under the control of Taliban.

On 9th of January Taliban surrendered the center of the sub-province and Dra Ali which contain the following villages: Bugandak, Nazar Shah, Qala Shah Nang, Mandeek, Gubandi, Kushkak, Akhundan, Dahan Shorab, Sar-e-Asyab, Khata Khana, and Bedmishkin. The Arabs and Pakistanis were in charge of searching house by house. A very horrendous and intimidating atmosphere prevailed over the area. Women and children were mourning loudly. Blood flowed in the eyes of young and old men, as their hands were tied behind their backs with their turbans. No one was there to come to the relief of those innocent and hapless people. Khalili had escaped and empty-handed people left to wait for punishment of Taliban. A very small number of people succeeded to take their families to the nearby mountains and remained secure. The decree of Mullah Omar and Arabs had been issued as such: "Behead all men whose age is greater than 12, let it be a warning lesson for the Sadat and Hazara survivors of the Yakaolang". The command of massacre was carried out within three days. They tied the hands of people on their back immediately after their arrest and carried them to the sub-province under the watchful eyes of Arabs and Pakistanis.

They had chosen the place of mass execution on the back of the building of Oxfam, a hospital near Shor Aab (back of the house of Syed Hasan Karimi). They lined up the victims of such horrible crime against each other and then fired in turn on them. Brother was watching the death of his brother and uncle was watching the death of his nephew who himself was about to be shot dead in a moment.
Syed Hamid Ullah, Syed Muhammad Bakhsh, Haji Gulam Hasain and Syed Muhammad (eye witness of the massacre of Yakaolang) unbelievably and miraculously survived this slaughterhouse. They have witnessed the killing of their relatives by the Taliban. Syed Habib Ullah a teacher was trapped in the snare of Taliban, recall his story like this:

"I with twelve other men became the prey of Taliban. They tied our hands with the ropes on our back and moved us towards the sub-province. Our guards were Arabs and Pakistanis. When we reached the river, they didn't allow us to take off our shoes. The weather was extremely cold and snowy. After passing the river our clothes and legs changed to a piece of ice. They didn't allow any of us to talk. The distance from the village to the center of the sub-province was about an hour. During the way the humiliation and beating by Arabs and Pakistanis continued.

They kept us in the neighborhood of the building of O.P.S. A man by the name of Adul Hameed who was Tajik and my student, interceded for me and Syed Sharaf. He went to tell Taliban that we belong to the nationality of Tajik and are the true followers of the last Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). They separated three of us from the other twelve people, and took the remaining to the front of the building of Oxfam and positioned them facing the wall. In this massacre the number of Pakistanis and Arabs exceeded the Taliban. A quarrel broke out amongst them, each one of them wanted to do the killing with his own hands and gain the blessing of becoming a Ghazi (According to Islamic traditions a person becomes Ghazi by killing the enemy of Islam, but in Afghanistan people also call anyone who fight foreign aggressors. Tr). Meanwhile they lined up some other men including teacher Syed Amin, targeted their face and hearts and in turn shot them to dead with the Klashnikovs. We saw bodies dieing with great difficulty. Amongst them there were semi-dead bodies that cried for help. The dreadful hours and the nightmare of that day was a deep blow in our heart and soul, which would never be forgotten by us till the end of our lives. They allowed three of us to go to our homes. Next day, they killed my brother in front of the eyes of his wife and children when he left his underground hiding place and tried to escape.

Three village elders who succeeded in escaping from the slaughterhouse of Taliban describe their stories as follow:

"We were taken to the back of the building of Oxfam (British NGO). They separated three of us from the other 24 people. They immediately shot down the remaining ones. The bullet was striking at the head and face of our sons, brothers, nephews, uncles and other relatives. Their blood-smeared bodies covered the ground. After 15 minutes while beating and humiliating us, they dragged us towards the dead bodies of our relatives. Just looking at them closely we were about to lose our consciousness. Whatever the situation was we had to keep our senses. Curses and threats of death by the Taliban continued. Trembling of the hands and feet of our relatives was the indication to help them. At the front side of the ground, a vehicle was ready to carry the dead and semi-dead bodies. Consecutive blows of the stock of the rifles increased the pain of our bodies. How could I help the semi-dead people? With the force of the gun they compelled us to throw them inside the vehicle like stone and wood. With the help of sordid Taliban we carried them to Shor Aab and once again with threat and beating unloaded the car. If we could have helped, some of them could have lived, but the wild slaves stopped us from helping the wounded people. After the end of the work while being exhausted we were allowed to leave and make our way towards the village. On reaching near the village we heard the moan and cry of women and children. We asked an old lady what is the matter? She said: 'they took all men with them and plundered whatever they found'.

"Four days later Taliban allowed us to bury the martyrs. There and in the surrounding villages we had no clue of any man to help us in carrying and burying them". The village of Bedmishkin had 34 martyrs that were recognized by these three men and were carried to the shrine within three days. "Another two days passed till with the help of some old men from Gird Baid village and Khum Astana we prepared a mass grave for the dead bodies. The people of village cannot forget the burning pain of that day forever. For the old mothers, grief-stricken women and miserable children that have seen the dead bodies of their fathers, husband and sons in that freezing cold weather, martyred by the brutal hands of the Taliban and their Arab and Pakistani counterparts on the pretext of being Hazara or Syed, must be the unluckiest day and most probably the end of their lives. The fate of another 165 martyrs also finished in the same way and the survivors sat in sorrow. After this horrible and disgraceful incident took place, the forces of Khalili again took control of the city. Khalili, leader of Hezb-e-Whadat (Unity Party), this infamous servant of Iranian regime, came to pray for the dead on their graves. Everyone including old men and women of the village at the same day reached the graveyard. After finding Kalili there, they all started to shout and cry "why has this man come to the graveyard while he himself had a hand in the killing of our sons?"

One night, before the massacre of the people of Yakaolang in the area of Dah Surk, Aziz Topchi had proposed to attack the sub-province at night because Taliban were not well informed of the area. But Khalili in reply had told him: "Let Taliban come and kill everyone so in the future people react and fight against them". You can very easily judge the personality of this traitor and his feeling for his people, from such sentences, even though he claims himself to be their leader.

"After the massacre of the innocent people of our village, the plundering and looting of the property of people came. Taliban looted the people in the same amount as armed men of Khalili did before and after the massacre. The eyewitnesses said that the gunmen of the two wings searched houses, and took money, jewelry, tape recorders and other expensive things. For example 70 million Afghani in cash was taken from the house of Syed Raheem "Khum Astana", 30 million cash from the house of Syed Asad Ullah of "Bedmishkin village" about one million and sixty hundred thousand from the wife of Syed Ghazfar and etc. Beside looting and plundering, the inhuman act of Taliban and Arabs continued by the raping of women and girls. Violating the honor of Sulatan's daughter is the tip of the iceberg.

After all that adversity, the old men and women decided to leave the area. The sad and horrifying tale of their journey in that cold weather, traveling by foot from one mountain to another mountain, by itself is another story that the eyewitnesses have described with tears in their eyes. It is enough to understand that in past winters, people spent six month of the season in their homes, not even thinking of traveling outside the area.

The fact that the world has not heard about nor attended to the atrocities of the Taliban and the massacre of Yakaolang in the depth in which it should leaves the Taliban free to pretend that the matter did not occur. If we pay attention to the Radio Shariat interview with the two Taliban servants by the name of Taqadus and Tawab Hydarey, who themselves are ethnic Hazara we can find out how they want to deny everything by saying, "the enemies of the Islamic Emirate want to make an important matter out of the incident of Yakaolang. No killing has occurred there and we deny it. The people of Yakaolang should consider the rightfulness of the Islamic Emirate."

Behind these acts only one policy is lurking and it is ethnic cleansing. The people of Shamali (northern areas) and other places are also victim of such incidents. The massacre of Yakaolang will not be the end of such measures taken by the Taliban. Unfortunately our people will be waiting for even worse days with more of these kinds of savage and inhuman acts, which are dictated by fundamentalists and their foreign masters.

A Hazara woman "M" from Bedmishkin village describes her sorrowful story:
"We were at our home when Taliban rushed in and started searching the whole house. I pleaded for mercy and showed Holy Quran to them but they threw the Quran into the heater. They destroyed all our possessions even the food items and took the expensive materials with them.
My brother ran away when he was informed that Taliban are patrolling everywhere. He had hidden himself at the back of a wall but he was discovered by Taliban and killed on the spot. After two days we were informed by Taliban to take the wounded body of my brother but we found his dead body in a very bad condition. The freezing weather has stuck his wounded body to the ground.
It had turned to a normal habit that whenever we heard firing we used to cover our children with quilt just to give them a psychological protection against noisy sound of firings and now the children have become used to that so even in Pakistan when they hear some noise they wrap themselves in the quilts.
My mother's cousin, Yahya who was a pretty young boy was killed in the same way by the Taliban. Taliban entered their house and took him out and killed him right across from their gate. This happened early in the morning and the dead body was lying over there till night when his wife and his five children came out late at night to search for their father. His body received several bullets, indicating that he had resisted to Taliban torture. The snow around him had been turned red. Taliban stopped his wife and children while they were trying to take his dead body back home. His wife and two other elder women pleaded a lot with Taliban to release the dead body but the Taliban turned down any plea. Taliban beat Yahya's wife so much that she nearly died. Late at night when the Taliban vacated the area, Yahya's relatives, all women brought his dead body back home and buried him there."
Mass graves in Bedmishkin village where the victims are buried.

"N.B" widow of a victim (Wali) describes:
"Taliban entered into our houses and set everything on fire. My husband ran away and told me he would not return until a month. An hour later I heard firing near my house but I ignored it as I thought it might be the usual firing. Two days later, a 7 years old boy knocked on our door at night and informed us that Uncle Wali had been killed by Taliban. I couldn't believe it because I thought that Wali had gone to Kabul. He said Wali's dead body is lying at the back of the wall. I couldn't bear that sad condition. Taliban had killed him near the wall while he was trying to flee. His eyes and mouth were open and his teeth had turned blue by the chilling weather. The cruel Taliban have searched his pocket and took his whole belongings. His blood had dried up and had stuck him to the ground. I was alone and couldn't move his dead body and there was no one else in the house to help me. Wali's dead body remained there for one day more until I found two men who brought his dead body to our house and I myself buried him. We stayed there for a week then I along with some other families immigrated to Pakistan. My 6 month-old baby caught a severe coughing-cold on the way and died before reaching Pakistan. The agony of my husband and my baby is still burning in my heart and I remember each and every moment of those disastrous days.
My uncle was arrested by Taliban, who accused him of having hidden weapon. He was a poor peasant who had no link with any armed group. Taliban took him out of his house and shot him before his relatives. His mother and his wife begged Taliban to allow them to bury his dead body but Taliban didn't allow any one to go close to him. His mother was looking after his dead body for three days so that the dogs wouldn't eat him. When Taliban left the place they buried him.
Our neighbor, whose husband had been killed many years ago, was living with her children. When Taliban left the village to patrol and kill the young people in other villages, she took her youngest son along with her and went to mountains and told her other sons to remain in the basement room. After several days when she came back, her elder son had died of cold. For several days she kept the dead body of her son in the house because Taliban didn't allow the people to bury the dead bodies."
Another widow:
"We were at our home when Taliban rushed into our house and searched the whole house. They asked about the men and we told them that all the men were taken by Taliban and we don't have any news of their whereabouts. They took 10,000,000 Afghanis (around US$160) from one house and 800,000,000 Afghanis from another house. Taliban killed my husband, brother-in-law and my sister's husband who were young."

A Rawa member reports from the massacre by Taliban in Yakaolang:

On returning from the sub-province of Yakaolang (Bamiyan, central Afghanistan) a member of RAWA has submitted this report. Her father and uncle lost their lives in the horrible fighting between the Taliban and the Khalili forces.

On 14 December 2000 at midnight, while the oppressed and pain-wracked people of the sub-province of Yukaolang were engaged in the battle with cold weather, as well as the constant struggle against poverty and starvation, the forces of Karim Khalili and Qurbanali Arfani attacked using guerrilla warfare. This resulted in Taliban fatalities as well as the deaths of many innocent villagers.

At 4AM, the Taliban forces retreated and the armed men of Khalili began systematically looting and pillaging the property of the villagers, under the pretext of conducting an investigation. This went on for seven days.

Among the plundered property:

* the store of Haji Yar Muhammad of Tajik nationality,
* Baz Muhammd of Tajik nationality,
* Dawad Karbalaie of Hazara nationality,
* the shop of Haji Abdul Gafoor,
* the house of Ibrahim son of Ali Zafar,
* the house of Muhammad Ali son of Sayad Ali,
* the radio repair shop of Sayid Ahmad from the village of Bedmishkin.

After the theft and robbery, the Taliban dragged people out of their homes and shot them dead. Among the people who lost their lives were

* Haji Yaqub,
* Haji Ishaq,
* Sayed Sarwar,
* and an engineer Syed Dawad with his four children.

From the village of Akhundan,

* Muhammad Mosa, son of Khuday Nazar,
* Marheez, son of Sher Muhammad,
* Ahmad, son of Iqbal
* about seventeen children were murdered.

But the men of the Taliban were not satisfied. They burnt any remaining people's houses, and then bulldozed them. They also set on fire stockpiles of wheat and animal fodder.

In the village of Quraan the armed men of the Taliban shot a number of small children to death. So unsatiated was the bloodlust of the Taliban, that they killed three peasants by the name of Rajab, Khadim and Hameed in a single house.

After their defeat, the retreating gunmen of Khalili robbed houses they passed. This is why people left their homes, turned to Pakistan and Iran and joined the line of new refugees.
Read the full story

HRW

The massacre in Yakaolang follows previous attacks by the Taliban on Hazaras and members of other ethnic minorities in north central Afghanistan. The provinces of Baghlan and Samangan, which lie north of Bamiyan, have seen intermittent fighting between Taliban and United Front forces since 1998. As a means of controlling the civilian population and ensuring that it does not give assistance to the United Front, Taliban forces have frequently resorted to detaining men from villages in the area and holding them for prolonged periods as virtual hostages.n May 2000, Taliban forces summarily executed a group of civilian detainees near the Robatak pass, which lies along the road connecting the towns of Tashkurgan and Pul-i Khumri. Until a systematic forensic investigation is carried out, the precise number of those killed cannot be known, but Human Rights Watch has obtained confirmation of thirty-one bodies at the execution site, twenty-six of which have been identified as the bodies of Ismaili Shia Hazara civilians from Baghlan province. Their remains were found to the northeast of the Robatak pass, in an area known as Hazara Mazari, on the border between Baghlan and Samangan provinces. The area was controlled by the Taliban at the time of the executions. There are reported to be as many as three other gravesites near the pass.All of those who have been identified were detained for four months before being killed; many of them were tortured before they were killed. The men were taken from their homes by Taliban troops between January 5 and January 14, 2000. The facilities at which the men were detained were under the command of Commander Mullah Shahzad Kandahari, who was the Taliban commander of the Khinjan front north of Kabul and who was also reportedly present in Yakaolang when it was held by the Taliban in January 2001.

On January 5, 2000, a Taliban force raided the village cluster of Naikpai, in Doshi district of Baghlan province. The Taliban soldiers came in a convoy of pickup trucks at dawn. They started to round up men from Bakas, Zaighola, and other hamlets in Naikpai, seizing many of them in their houses. A number of those who were arrested were village elders. There were many other people present and virtually the entire population of the village witnessed the arrests. Local residents assumed that the arrests were a warning to deter them from having contacts with United Front forces.The house-to-house searches and arrests continued for nine days. While they were underway, the detainees were held at Mullah Shahzad's operational military base at Khinjan. Relatives of the detainees were allowed to visit the base, and were informed of conditions in the facility by the detainees. The men who were detained between approximately January 5 and 10 were subjected to severe beatings with electric cables and were forced to stand outside in sub-zero temperatures and snow. One of those who was later killed near the Robatak pass, Sayyid Tajuddin, who was thirty-eight, suffered frostbite as a result of the exposure following his beating. When the detainees were transferred to Pul-i Khumri, he was admitted to the Textile Factory hospital. Both feet were amputated there, and he was provided with a pair of locally fabricated crutches.
At the end of the operation, around January 14, all of the detainees were transferred to Pul-i Khumri, where Shahzad maintained his rear base. The detainees were held in the residential quarters attached to the Pul-i Khumri Textile Mill. On or around May 8, the detainees were removed from the facility. When relatives inquired as to their whereabouts they were ordered by the authorities to leave the area. However, a staff member of the facility informed them that the men had been loaded onto a single truck, thought to be a "kalafil" truck of Soviet manufacture, during the evening. The truck was reportedly escorted by a Taliban Toyota pickup. The prisoners were later found dead at Hazara Mazari, a journey of approximately one-and-a-half hours from the detention facility. The men are believed to have been shot the same night that they were taken from the facility.

On or around May 18, shepherds from the Robatak pass area reported the presence of bodies to the provincial authorities in Samangan. The mayor of Samangan detailed a party of ten workmen, with an escort of Taliban troops, to locate and bury the bodies at the Hazara Mazari site.
It was apparent from the appearance of the bodies that the detainees had been brought to the execution site with their hands bound behind their backs, and tied together by their forearms in groups of three, according to a worker who assisted in the burials. Twenty-eight of the victims were found lying where had been were shot, face down on the ground. The execution party had made no attempt to remove or cover the bodies. The body of another man, identified as Sahib Dad, was found tied to a tree, his arms and legs each tied separately with a length of rope in such a way that his captors would have been able to manipulate them while he was immobilized.

The workmen buried the twenty-nine bodies at the Hazara Mazari site. The burial was perfunctory. The bodies were covered with at most thirty centimeters of earth, inadequate to protect them from wild animals. The worker who assisted in the burials described what he saw:

The bodies were lying on the ground face down. All of their hands were bound behind their backs.... The bullet wounds could not be made out on the backs but there was blood on the ground beneath the chests. I saw the bodies about four days after they had been killed. Their backs had not been blown up but the blood had obviously poured out of the chests and I understood that they had been killed by firing into the back because there was no visible wound on any other part of the bodies and they were lying in pools of blood that had poured out of their chests. They were tied together in groups of three using their turbans and scarves which had been wound together to make ropes. They were tied together one to the other, using their own turbans.... To tell you the truth we were so terrified and upset that we barely dared look at the ground. You could hardly stand there.
Soon after the workmen returned, word reached Naikpai that some of its people were among the dead. A group of residents went to inspect the gravesites, where they found shallow graves and recognized bits of clothing belonging to their missing relatives. They also found two more bodies at a short distance from the others; the two men had been shot and their bodies were left where they fell.

Since the massacre, the Robatak area has remained under Taliban control. Local human rights researchers visited the site at Hazara Mazari in November 2000 and photographed the remains that were visible from the surface. Some of those photographs are appended to this report.

The actual number of persons killed at Robatak may be much higher that the thirty-one that Human Rights Watch has been able to confirm. Other gravesites have been reported at different locations near the pass. However, the researchers believe that if there were bodies at these sites, they may have been disturbed or moved by Taliban authorities as no remains were visible from the surface.

The motive for the prisoners' killing remains unclear. The killings took place just after the Taliban and the United Front had negotiated an agreement on a prisoner exchange during a summit meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, held under the auspices of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. And during the same time period, United Front forces appear to have attacked and killed Taliban troops in ambushes along the road that runs through the Robatak pass Read the full story

HRW.Org

On January 7, Taliban forces began advancing on Yakaolang from Bamiyan in a bid to recapture the district. Moving westwards, they established their rear base at Feroz Bahar, east of the center of town, from which they launched three main thrusts. The first attack met with stiff resistance on the hill to the east of Dar-i Ali, a valley in which a number of villages are clustered. The Taliban forces were compelled to retreat and call for reinforcements after losing some thirty of their men. The second attack, which contained the main column of troops, was held up at Surkh Kotal, near Zulflucht, for about four hours until the Hizb-i Wahdat forces retreated. After breaking through the defensive line at Surkh Kotal, the Taliban proceeded to Nayak, the district center, without further resistance, reaching it on the morning of January 8. A witness described the Taliban advance On the evening of the January 7, a friend told me that a helicopter had been heard flying into Feroz Bahar. Initially people thought that it was supplying the United Front troops, but it turned out that it had been flying in Taliban troops. That night there were sounds of heavy fighting. In the morning again, we heard intense firing, and there was clearly a battle going on in Nayak. Later that morning Nayak fell and the fighting was over.... From 2:00 p.m. on January 8 we watched United Front troops retreating, walking past us and with their mounted column, heading west towards lower Yakaolang. There were so many of them that it took the rest of the day for them to pass us-they were trooping past us until late evening. They were heading for Deh Surkh and Daga.

Upon reaching the district center, the Taliban organized eleven search parties. They were each allocated a sector of central Yakaolang and moved from house to house within their respective sectors, rounding up male occupants. The search party allocated to Dar-i Ali commandeered twelve horses and so was able to travel extensively through the valley, only part of which is accessible by road.
Another witness described the Taliban's capture of the district and the search operations in Dar-i Ali. He first learned of the Taliban advance when Hizb-i Wahdat troops stationed near his office informed him that a helicopter had landed at Feroz Bahar, and that they believed a Taliban attack was imminent. Between midnight and 3:00 a.m. there was heavy fighting all around the area. When there was a lull in the fighting at 3:00 a.m., the witness fled to Dar-i Ali. After about 8:00 a.m., the fighting stopped. At approximately 3:00 p.m., he went to a friend's house that was nearby and asked if he could wait there. The family told him that the Taliban were conducting searches and that it would not be safe. After leaving his friend's house, the witness encountered a group of Taliban troops who ordered him to join a crowd of men who were being herded towards a local aid agency.The witness saw three bodies lying in front of the aid agency. The Taliban soldiers said that they were men who had tried to run away.The witness described what happened next:

A group of about one hundred men was gathered at the [aid] center. After some time the Taliban ordered us to move, and we were herded down towards Nayak [the district center]. At first the pace was slow, but after some time we were met by a group of mounted Taliban and the soldiers started to whip the detainees and ordered us to move more quickly. When we got to Nayak, another group of Taliban was waiting there at the entrance to the bazaar, armed with sticks. They beat us and told the Taliban in charge of the group to "take them to the Mullah.
According to other witnesses, the detainees were herded to the office of a relief agency located in Nayak, where most were later executed.

As reports of detentions and killings began to circulate through the district, groups of village elders sought meetings with Taliban commanders to ensure the security of their communities. According to a witness:

The same day [January 10] news came that the Taliban were searching houses as far as Girdbayd, some five kilometers from Nayak. People coming from there said that the Taliban had killed some of the people there. We all discussed among ourselves whether this could be true or not. After a couple of days [January 11 or 12], eight or ten of the village elders decided that they must go to Nayak to discuss the security of the area with the Taliban. They set off on foot towards Nayak.

The following is his account of what the elders told him:
On the way there, near Qala Issa Khan [a hamlet about 500 meters west of Nayak, also known as Qala Arbab Hassan], the elders saw Jan Agha, a local Tajik commander, sitting in a Taliban "Datsun" (a pickup truck). Jan Agha was gesticulating at the elders, pointing to something in the village, but they could not work out what it was, and so they proceeded.
The elders walked into Nayak unchallenged and went straight to the Taliban command post. They asked to see Commander Mullah Abdul Sattar, but he refused to see him. Then they managed to find Commander Haji Faqoori and after some persuasion, he managed to get Commander Sattar to see them. Sattar told the elders that he had just received orders from Kandahar, from Mullah [Mohammad] Omar [the head of the Taliban movement], declaring a general amnesty. He instructed the elders to go and meet with [Hizb-i Wahdat commander] Khalili and tell him not to fight any more, or there would be more killing.
On their return, Jan Agha told the elders what he had been pointing to and they saw a pile of bodies at the edge of Qala Issa Khan.

According to the same witness, the elders subsequently met with Khalili, but he refused to stop fighting. Fearful of further conflict, the witness said, many local residents started to leave the area.

Mullah Mohammad Omar, the head of the Taliban movement, stated in late January 2001 that there was no evidence of a civilian massacre in Yakaolang, but in the same interview retracted an earlier offer to allow journalists to visit the area.

The identity of those Taliban soldiers who actually carried out the killings in each case has yet to be established. However, eyewitness testimony and Taliban radio broadcasts have helped to identify some of the Taliban commanders who were present in Yakaolang, while information about the Taliban command structure points to the commanders with responsibility for the conduct of Taliban forces in Baghlan at the time of the Robatak detentions and killings. One commander, Mullah Shahzad Kandahari, appears to have been involved in both operations.

As general commander of the Khinjan front in Baghlan province during the first half of 2000, Mullah Shahzad had authority over the detention facilities in Khinjan and Pul-i Khumri, where the Robatak prisoners were held, and was in command of the troops stationed in the area. The Taliban Chief Military Commander for the Northern Zone (Fifth Corps, based in Mazar-i Sharif), Mullah Abdul Razak Nawfiz, was the immediate superior officer of Mullah Shahzad, and was responsible for directing his operations and briefing him on Taliban strategy and policy. He was also the official who would have had primary responsibility for investigating crimes by the commander and preventing further abuses.

Witnesses have testified that Mullah Shahzad was also in command of some of the Taliban troops in Yakaolang. Others Taliban commanders in Yakaolang included Qari Ahmadullah of Ghazni, the minister of intelligence, who reportedly issued a statement from Yakaolang on the Taliban-operated Radio Shariat. Also present were Mullah Abdul Sattar, at the time the regional military commander for Hazarajat; Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, the former regional military commander for Hazarajat; and Mullah Abdul Salam "Rocketi," a former commander with the Ittihad-i Islami party. Further investigation is necessary to determine what role, if any, they may have played in the massacres.

Mullah Omar said that journalists were biased against the Taliban and should instead visit Kandahar to see the graves of Taliban prisoners killed by United Front forces in Mazar-i Sharif during 1997. Kate Clark, "Taleban bar press from `massacre' site," BBC World Service, January 28, 2001,

On at least two occasions, the Taliban killed delegations of Hazara elders who had attempted to intercede with them. On January 9, elders of Kata Khana gathered to meet with the Taliban. The Taliban arrested the entire group and killed everyone except two neighborhood leaders. In another case, the elders of Bed Mushkin village met with the Taliban to discuss security for the area. All were killed except one.
The main execution site in Yakaolang appears to have been outside the relief agency in Nayak where the detainees from Dar-i Ali were killed. Witnesses also reported seeing piles of bodies in four other locations in and around Nayak: outside the district hospital, in the ravine behind the mosque in the old bazaar area, outside the prayer hall of Mindayak village, and at Qala Arbab Hassan. Of these, the largest pile of bodies was at Qala Arbab Hassan. Other killings were reported from neighborhoods in areas surrounding the district center, including outside the leprosy and tuberculosis clinics. A witness who visited Yakaolang district four weeks after the incident inspected one of the mass graves at Bed Mushkin village, in which twenty-six bodies had been found. One of the bodies was that of a seventeen-year-old boy, Mir Ali, much of whose skin had been removed either prior to or after his death.12 In a separate case, seven men were shot dead at the Zarin crossroad near the leprosy clinic in Yakaolang.

Eyewitnesses reported that personnel of the Center for Cooperation on Afghanistan (CCA), a local aid agency-identified as Sayyid Sarwar and Sayyid Talib-were among the civilians rounded up in Dar-i Ali and executed outside the relief agency office. Other staff members of relief agencies were identified among those killed. These included a driver named Daoud who was working for a international humanitarian agency; a man named Qasim who worked as an assistant in the leprosy clinic; and Sayyid Ibrahim and a man named Tahsili, both of whom worked in the district hospital and were staff members of a local assistance organization. Witnesses reported seeing a Land Cruiser and a Russian-made jeep in the possession of the Taliban, both of which belonged to the Yakaolang offices of humanitarian aid organizations.
Several staff members of another local leprosy clinic were also identified among those killed: Sayyid Yakut, a gardener from the village of Kata Khana, near the center of Yakaolang district; a man named Taqi, a carpenter, from Akhundan village; Gul Agha, son of Mahmood, of Sarasiab village; and Sayyid Mahdi, son of Burki, a watchman, also from Sarasiab. One of the center's leprosy patients, Sayyid Amir of Panj-o-ak village, was also reported killed.

Taliban forces were only able to remain in Yakaolang for two weeks, before being driven out of the district again on January 23. While retreating north through the Dar-i Shikari valley, on or about January 20, a convoy of Taliban forces encountered a group of Hazara herders at Tala Burfak. Apparently frustrated that their path was blocked by the Hazaras' herds, some of the Taliban fired gunshots at the group, killing three of them on the spot.

The armed conflict in Yakaolang and the abuses committed in the district by the Taliban resulted in massive internal displacement. Humanitarian aid workers estimate that thousands of persons from Yakaolang took refuge in Panjao and Lal districts, the Tarpuch sub-district of Balkhob district, the Kashan valley in Kohistanat district, and Dar-i Chasht in Lower Yakaolang district. Read the full story

BBC
By Kate Clark in Kabul

The Taleban authorities in Afghanistan have banned journalists from going to Yakawlang in the centre of the country.

The United Nations and human rights groups say Taleban soldiers massacred civilians there earlier this month.
The Taleban had previously said journalists could visit the site.
But now, their supreme leader, Mullah Omar, has accused reporters of bias and said they will not be allowed to go.
Under Taleban regulations, journalists have to get permission to travel outside Kabul.

We had asked to go to Yakawlang to check reports that Taleban soldiers had killed local men, including teenagers and the elderly, in revenge for Taleban losses suffered during fighting with the opposition.
'Hostile' journalists

In an interview with the BBC, the Taleban supreme leader, Mullah Omar, accused journalists and human rights groups of concentrating on allegations that the Taleban had carried out massacres while ignoring the mass killing of Taleban prisoners of war by the opposition almost four years ago.He asked why reporters did not go to Kandahar where the Taleban dead were reburied, instead of going to Yakawlang for what he called gossip and corruption.

Mullah Omar said journalists were biased and hostile and there was no evidence of a civilian massacre.

But to the rest of the world, the travel ban will only make it seem that the Taleban have secrets in Yakawlang they want to try to keep hidden.

'Massacre' of Taleban

The 1997 mass killing of Taleban prisoners of war in Mazar-e-Sharif and Dashti Laili referred to by Mullah Omar was actually one of the most widely reported massacres.

Journalists were able to see the graves after General Malik's rival, General Dostum, took over the area.

He allowed access to the site in order to discredit his predecessor.

The Taleban were accused of killing thousands of civilians in revenge when they eventually captured Mazur a year later.

Alleged civilian killings

Since then, there have been several similar allegations that Taleban forces have killed unarmed civilians in Bamiyan, Samangan and now Yakawlang.

Each time after the opposition captured territory from the Taleban and then lost it.

These areas have remained under Taleban control, making independent investigation much more difficult.

A few days ago, the opposition made new allegations against the Taleban.

They said they had uncovered fresh mass graves in the Khojah Ghar district of Takhar province in north-eastern Afghanistan.

They said they had found about 70 bodies, including those of women and children.
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