CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 114: Special Edition on Afghanistan

7 December 2007 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 114 - Special Edition on Afghanistan

 

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- AFGHANISTAN: Children and armed conflict at a glance

- TORTURE: Transfer of child prisoners criticised [news]

- DISABILITY: More than half of disabled population under 19 [news]

- SEXUAL ABUSE: Boy dancers sexually abused by former warlords [news]

- EDUCATION: Politicians divided over plans to increase Pashto language schools [news]

- GENDER BASED VIOLENCE: A call to end violence against women and girls [news]

- THE RIGHT TO LIFE: Child Alert [publication]

**NEWS IN BRIEF**

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AFGHANISTAN: Children and armed conflict at a glance

[7 December 2007] – On 15 November, Taliban militants dragged a 16-year old boy out of his classroom and shot him dead for teaching his classmates English. This is one of many similar attacks on government-run schools in recent years by the Taliban, which claims some subjects are ‘un-Islamic’, and has been stepping up its campaign of terror on Afghan civilians, jeopardising the country’s reconstruction efforts.

Afghanistan has been dogged by war for almost 25 years. An estimated six million people, out of a population of 20 million, fled during this time; although many have now returned, the past 12 months have seen some of the heaviest fighting since the Taliban regrouped last year, with the help of opium trade money and training grounds in Pakistan.

Since the Soviet invasion in 1979, resisted by the mujahideen – or religious fighters – funded by the US and Saudi Arabia, the conflict has taken different forms. A Soviet-backed communist government fell in 1989 and plunged the country into civil war, leaving a power vacuum for the hard-line Taliban – a militant student movement that emerged from the ‘madrassas’ or religious schools of Pakistan. 

The Taliban was ousted by US airstrikes in 2001 for harbouring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden; now, despite having a central government in Kabul and receiving billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, the country is still riven by factional fighting in many provinces.

According to a recent UNICEF report, Afghan children are at greater risk now than at any time since 2002, and at least 400 schools are closed because of threatened attacks.

Under the Taliban’s rule, girls were not allowed to go to school; indeed many still do not dare risk the insecurity. In a report released last year, Human Rights Watch documented more than 200 attacks on schools between January 2005 and 21 June 2006, in which schools were blown up or burned down, teachers killed and threatened, and students intimidated. These attacks, said Human Rights Watch, are intended as a campaign of terror against the civilian population, and are war crimes.

Facts and figures:

  • Afghanistan’s infant mortality rate ranks are among the highest in the world: an estimated 1,000 children die every day, many from preventable diseases, according to a 2007 UNICEF report.
  • Afghanistan has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its two Optional Protocols, but has never submitted a State Party report to the Convention’s monitoring body – the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
  • 16 per cent of Afghan children are married off before age 15. The minimum legal age of marriage in Afghanistan is 16 for girls and 18 for boys, but poverty is pushing the age down because the bride’s family receives a payment for marrying off their daughter – a recent case reported a girl of three as being married.
  • Landmines kill 62 Afghans a month on average, 50 per cent of the victims are children.
  • The juvenile justice system centres around Child Correction and Rehabilitation Centres. In five of the 22 provinces where CCRCs exist, young people in conflict with the law are held together with adult offenders; the reason for this, according to the authorities, is a lack of available guards. In 12 provinces, there are no Child Correction and Rehabilitation Centres at all.

[Sources: UNICEF, AlertNet, Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan]

 

Further information

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TORTURE: Transfer of child prisoners criticised [news]

[OTTAWA, 21 November 2007] - Canadian troops are under orders to turn over juvenile soldiers captured in Afghanistan to local authorities, despite reports of torture and allegations the former warden of the main prison in Kandahar had raped minors, according to political leaders.

"These practices would be in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We transfer them in a prison system that has been at the centre of allegations of torture," deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said in the House of Commons. "How can the government justify the transfer of children and when will it end this practice?"

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said underage prisoners are treated with "particular care," although the government would not say how many Canada has handed over to Afghan authorities.

"My understanding is that there are current provisions within the Afghan detention system to keep juvenile prisoners separate from others," he said. "With respect to detainees or prisoners taken by Canadian Forces, we take a similar practice. They are not housed in proximity to other detainees."

Mr. MacKay went on to launch a stinging attack against the opposition for focusing on the rights of detainees while Canadian soldiers - including two more over the weekend - are being killed.

"While we understand fully the need to help bolster Afghan capacity with respect to these transferred prisoners, what is absolutely abhorrent is [Liberal MP Denis Coderre's] fixation, knowing that the blood of Canadian soldiers and innocent Afghans is on the hands of the Taliban," he said.

New Democrat defence critic Dawn Black berated the government for releasing minimal or censored information on the capture of juvenile Afghan fighters.

"I don't have evidence of a particular child who has been transferred from Canadian troops. I have evidence that Canadians have been ordered to transfer all Afghan detainees, including children," Ms. Black told reporters. "I'm concerned that Canadian Forces personnel are being ordered to transfer children over to Afghan authorities where we know that rape, torture and abuse take place," she said.

'Problem exaggerated'

Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused the opposition of exaggerating the problem with Afghan detainees, stating there has been only one recent allegation of mistreatment.

"The government has already said that we learned of evidence of abuse in one recent case in the past couple of weeks," Mr. Harper said. "That is being investigated according to the arrangement we have with the Afghan government."

Indeed, Canadian officials said last week they had evidence that one more Taliban detainee in an Afghan prison showed signs of physical abuse, bringing the total to seven since Canada began systematically visiting Afghan prisoners in May.

The government was forced last week to release more than 1,000 pages of documents on detainee conditions as a result of a Federal Court ruling in a suit brought by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. The documents were heavily redacted.

One of the documents noted that the warden of the notorious Sarpoza prison in Kandahar, where many prisoners handed over by Canadians were held, had been fired after charges that he raped juvenile detainees. Make-up and hashish were found in his office.

He was later exonerated because an Afghan military judge said it was "impossible for a drunken man in his 50s to commit an act of rape," reported a Canadian official in a cable to Ottawa.

Further information

[Source: Globe and Mail, Canada]

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15508

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DISABILITY: More than half of disabled population under 19 [news]

[KABUL, 3 December 2007] - Abdul Samad was 17 when he lost his legs in a landmine explosion in Helmand Province in 1998. He wanted to commit suicide when he first realised his disability, but his family kept him alive.

Nine years later, although he has five children, he thinks his problems have only increased. “My children are also deprived of a happy life because of my disability,” he said.

Plagued by over two decades of war, poverty and underdevelopment, Afghanistan has about 800,000 people with disabilities out of an estimated total population of 24.5 million. Many of them are also illiterate, unemployed or lack access to health services and other opportunities.

One in five households in Afghanistan has a disabled person, according to a 2005 survey conducted by Handicap International, an international non-governmental organisation campaigning on behalf of people living with disabilities.

About 36 per cent of disability in the country is physical, 26 per cent sensorial, 20 per cent epilepsy and 10 per cent mental, the survey found.

Education

More than half of Afghanistan’s disabled population is under 19, say organisations helping people with disability.

Over 72 per cent of all disabled people over six have not received any education, Afghanistan’s National Disability Survey (NDS) said in 2005.

“Many hurdles impede access to education for people with disability,” said Samiulhaq Sami, an adviser to the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled. “Physical, attitudinal and financial barriers mostly deny education to disabled people,” he added.

Most schools and educational centres lack facilities for disabled people and access to buildings is also a major problem for those with movement problems.

Employment

Fewer than 30 per cent of disabled people have jobs in Afghanistan, according to government statistics.

Apart from the disability itself, other impediments to employment are illiteracy and lack of work experience (over half of the disabled population is under 19).

In an effort to support the participation of disabled people in local and national decision-making and increase their opportunities, on 2 December the European Commission (EC) provided 1.44 million euros (about US$2.13 million) for several community-based rehabilitation projects in 11 provinces in Afghanistan.

“The EC funding will be used to improve local capacities to provide, promote and support different community-based services for disabled people,” said Hanjorg Kretschmer, head of the EC delegation to Afghanistan.

Poor health services

Although Afghan officials say access to basic health services has been extended to about 80 per cent of the population, money and transportation are two of the main problems faced by most disabled Afghans.

“Among the difficulties reported, disabled persons faced problems mainly regarding money for fees or medication and transportation (25.1 per cent), the absence of transportation (20 per cent), and far behind, the absence of medication (four per cent),” according to the NDS findings.

The government of Afghanistan pays a monthly stipend of 500 Afghanis (US$10) to war disabled, which is insufficient to meet their basic needs.

[Source: IRIN]

Further information

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15722&flag=news

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SEXUAL ABUSE: Boy dancers sexually abused by former warlords [news]

[PUL-E KHUMRI, 21 November 2007] - They are known as "bacha bereesh", boys without beards, teenage boys who dress up as girls and dance for male patrons at parties in northern Afghanistan.

It is an age old practice that has led to some of the boy dancers being turned into sex slaves by wealthy and powerful patrons, often former warlords, who dress the boys up as girls, shower them with gifts and keep them as "mistresses".

Afghan police are battling to crackdown on the practice which has angered Islamic clerics who say those involved should be stoned for sodomy, forbidden under Islamic law.

In a society where the sexes are strictly segregated, it is common for men to dance for other men at weddings in Afghanistan.

But in northern Afghanistan, former warlords and mujahideen commanders have taken that a step further with competitions for their dancing boys.

"Every boy tries to be the first. They are dressed in women's clothes, have bells on their feet and have artificial breasts," said Mohammad Yawar, a former mujahideen fighter against the Taliban and resident of the northern town of Pul-e Khumri.

The practice, called "bacha bazi" -- literally "boy play" -- has a long history in northern Afghanistan, but sometimes it does not stop with just dancing.

"I very much enjoy hugging a boy. His smell and fragrance kills me," said Yawar.

The 38-year-old businessman said he recruited a 15-year-old boy three years ago to help him with his work.

"I have had him for at least three years, since he was only 15. He was looking for a job and I gave him somewhere to stay," said Yawar, showing the boy's picture.

"I don't have a wife. He is like my wife. I dress him in women's clothes and have him sleep beside me. I enjoy him and he is my everything," he said, kissing the photograph.

Mark of prestige

Having the best-looking boy and the best dancer is a mark of prestige.

"Everyone tries to have the best, most handsome and good-looking boy," said a former mujahideen commander, who declined to be named.

"Sometimes we gather and make our boys dance and whoever wins, his boy will be the best boy."

Former mujahideen commanders hold such parties in and around Pul-e Khumri about once a week.

"Having a boy has become a custom for us. Whoever wants to show off, should have a boy," said Enayatullah, a 42-year-old landowner in Baghlan province.

"I was married to a woman 20 years ago, she left me because of my boy," he said. "I was playing with my boy every night and was away from home, eventually my wife decided to leave me. I am happy with my decision, because I am used to sleeping and entertaining with my young boy."

The men say they lavish money and gifts on their boys.

"I was only 14-years-old when a former Uzbek commander forced me to have sex with him," said Shir Mohammad in Sar-e Pol province. "Later, I quit my family and became his secretary. I have been with him for 10 years, I am now grown up, but he still loves me and I sleep with him."

Ahmad Jawad, aged 17, has been with a wealthy landowner for the past two years.

"I am used to it. I love my lord. I love to dance and act like a woman and play with my owner," he said.

Asked what he would do when he got older, he said: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner and I will have my own boys."

But Shir Mohammad, at 24, was already getting too old to be a dancing boy. "I am grown up now and do not have the beauty of former years. So, I proposed to marry my lord's daughter and he has agreed to it."

Poverty

Many local residents have called for a crackdown, but are sceptical it will work as many of the men are powerful and well-armed former commanders.

Jahan Shah, who lives in Pul-e Khumri, said government and security officials should take tough action against unIslamic and immoral acts.

"If they don't stop this, it will become a custom and hundreds of other boys will be involved in it," he said.

Police and security officials in northern Afghanistan say they have been doing their best to arrest the men involved.

"It is sad to state that this practice that includes making boys dance, sexual abuse and sometimes even selling boys, has been going on for years," said General Asadollah Amarkhil, the security chief of Kunduz province.

"We have taken steps to stop it to the extent that we are able," he said.

Amarkhil said poverty, widespread in Afghanistan after nearly three decades of war, forced teenage boys into compliance.

"We have taken very strict measures to save the lives of the boys and punish the men," he said. "We are monitoring to find out where these men and boys gather, then go there and arrest them."

Those found guilty of abuse would be jailed for at least 15 years, said Baghlan chief prosecutor Hafizullah Khaliqyar.

"We have 25 cases of such immoral acts. They are being processed and we are trying our utmost to tackle the problem," he said.

Islamic scholars recommended harsher punishment.

"Those who do this are the devil," said Mawlawi Mohammad Sadiq Sadiqyar, a scholar and
prayer leader in the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. "Under Islamic law, those who practice this should be stoned to death."

But some of the men say they are not interested in women.

"We know it is immoral and unIslamic, but how can we quit? We do not like women, we just want boys," said Chaman Gul, aged 35 of Takhar province.

[Source: Reuters]

Further information

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15772&flag=news


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EDUCATION: Politicians divided over plans to increase Pashto language schools [news]

[KABUL, 21 November 2007] - A plan to dramatically increase Pashto-language schools in Kabul, Afghanistan’s predominantly Dari speaking capital, is revealing deep rifts in Afghan society.

National unity has always been a difficult concept in Afghanistan, a country with a bewildering array of ethnic and tribal groups, and language often ignites controversy.

While some politicians applauded the Education Ministry’s initiative, it has prompted a strong backlash from others.

During a roundtable discussion on television channel Tolo TV, Najibullah Kabuli, a Member of Parliament, went as far as calling the initiative a “crime”, and accused Education Minister Hanif Atmar of seeking to build barriers among schoolchildren.

Education Ministry spokesman Zahoor Afghan defended the proposal, pointing to Article 43 of the Afghan constitution which requires the State to provide classes in local languages in the areas where they are spoken.

“The real criminals are those who robbed and killed people and then forced their way into parliament using the power of the gun,” he told IWPR, adding that Pashtun parents in Kabul were asking for opportunities for their children to study in their mother tongue.

Another Kabul parliamentarian, Malalai Shinwari, supported the proposal.

“This is the children’s right, and I hope the government will give them this right,” she said. “A child can learn better in his or her own language than in any other.”

Aqel Khan, 10, attends Rahman Babahi High School, said he couldn’t agree more. Before transferring to a Pashto-language school, he went classes given solely in Dari.

“When lectures were given in Dari, I couldn’t understand them,” he said. “Here I can learn and remember things easily, as I am studying in my native language.”

Shinwari accused opponents of the plan of acting out of political motives.

“They are fanatically opposed to Pashto and want to impose their own language on others,” she claimed…

At an October 31 press conference, Education Minister Atmar told reporters that providing classes in different languages is not new to Afghanistan.

“This issue has not resulted in disunity over the past 70 years, so why would it do so now?” he asked.

Dari and Pashto the most widespread languages in Afghanistan, with Dari spoken predominantly in the north, and Pashto in the south. Kabul parliamentary Fawzia Nasiryar pointed out that many other languages are spoken throughout Afghanistan, such as Uzbek and Turkmen. If Kabul’s Pashtuns have access to education in their language, other linguistic minorities should be granted the same right, she argued…

There are about 200,000 Pashtun students in the city, according to Ministry statistics. Of those, only 20,000 actually study in Pashto. Five out of Kabul’s 175 schools are Pashto-only, while nine provide classes in both Pashto and Dari.

Herat parliamentarian Ahmad Behzad applauded the initiative. “Both Dari and Pashto are our formal languages,” he pointed out. “People from all over Afghanistan live in the capital. Some pupils are unable to study in Dari, yet education in one’s native language is one of the pillars of the constitution.”

Read the full article here

[Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting]

Further information

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15770&flag=news

 

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GENDER BASED VIOLENCE: A call to end violence against women and girls [news]

[MAZAR-E-SHARIF, 4 December 2007] – As the world prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on 10 December, the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has joined forces with local authorities and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) to call on all Afghans to defend and support the rights of women to live free from violence and fear of violence both in their homes and in the wider community.

"Over the past six years there has been real and substantial progress for Afghanistan's women and girls, they are no longer excluded from public life, they have returned to schools and universities in their millions and are now playing a vital role in helping to rebuild their country.

"Despite this progress, violence against women remains endemic. Scores of women and girls have been murdered this year by members of their own families and countless others have been beaten or otherwise abused. Many of the victims continue to suffer in silence. This violence is unacceptable regardless of whether it is perpetrated by family or strangers, in the public sphere or behind closed doors, in times of peace or conflict." said Marguerite Roy, Head of UNAMA's regional office in Mazar-e-Sharif.

This year's human rights day will focus on stopping violence against women while the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, has just launched a worldwide advocacy campaign urging people to commit to ending violence against women.

"While the United Nations is playing a vital role in helping to empower Afghan women and build the capacity of Afghanistan's institutions to support victims, we must recognise that we all have a part to play," she added. "Within our own families, amongst our friends and in the wider community we must send a strong message that violence against women must end."

[Source: ReliefWeb]

Further information

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15771&flag=news

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THE RIGHT TO LIFE: Child Alert [publication]

From time to time, and for countries and regions where children are most at risk, UNICEF produces emergency reports known as Child Alerts. Child Alert: Afghanistan was written by Martin Bell, UNICEF Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies, following an assignment to Afghanistan during July and August 2007. He was formerly a BBC war reporter and an Independent Member of the British Parliament.

[25 October 2007] - A child's first right is the right to life. This is being denied in Afghanistan on an ever-increasing scale.

In a war among the people, children may be more in the line of fire than any group except the fighters themselves, and they are often at even greater risk than the fighters. Children are easy targets. They are inquisitive and curious. They play on streets and gather in crowded places. They are especially vulnerable to two insurgent techniques utilized in Iraq and then in Afghanistan: suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices, also called roadside bombs.

Through centuries of warfare, the suicide bomber was unknown in Afghanistan. But suicide bombings are now used regularly by the Taliban and other insurgents, sometimes in assassination attempts but usually against international military vehicles and convoys. It is a common feature of attacks on convoys that the casualties are higher among civilian bystanders, especially children, than among the intended targets. The soldiers are armed, travelling in armoured vehicles and protected by their body armour. The children have no protection.

  • On 15 June 2007, in Tirin Kot, Uruzgan Province, 12 children were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his car into an international military convoy near a school playground.
  • On 19 March 2007, in Kabul, a 14-year-old child was killed during an attack on an American convoy.
  • On 8 March 2007, in Kandahar, three children were injured when a suicide bomber targeted a Canadian military convoy. One week later, another child was killed in a similar attack.
  • On 21 November 2006, in Khost, four children were injured when a suicide bomber attacked NATO soldiers who were handing out sweets to children.
  • On 17 October 2006, in Lashkar Gar, Helmand Province, two children were killed during an attack on a British patrol.
  • On 28 August 2006, also in Lashkar Gar, a bomb exploded in a crowded bazaar, killing 15 people and wounding 47, including 15 children.

But not only the Taliban and other insurgents are doing the fighting, and concerns extend to the operations of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which supports the Afghan Government. Of the 37 nations in ISAF, it is principally Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States that are engaged in combat in the south and east of Afghanistan. Their intensive use of air power in support of ground troops, whose numbers are limited, is putting children at risk. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission believes that neither side has respected the laws of armed conflict and that children in particular are more vulnerable than they have been at any time during the war. The Commission's records include, for example, an account of a two-day battle in Helmand Province, in June 2007, during which the Taliban were engaged in action against the combined forces of ISAF and Afghan soldiers and police. Neither side appeared to suffer any casualties, but air strikes claimed the lives of 27 civilians, including 17 children.

ISAF spokespersons have accused the Taliban of deliberately operating among civilians and using schools as bases and children as human shields. The NATO countries are signatories of the Geneva Conventions, which commit them to the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The Taliban, of course, have not signed any international treaty or convention.

ISAF maintains that it does not target civilians or practise wide-area bombing. Its aircraft are called in by field commanders against known Taliban positions, and its munitions are directed as precisely as possible to hit them. It admits, however, that some civilian casualties are inevitable and has expressed regret for these casualties.

Further information

For more information, contact:
UNICEF
H-9, 3 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel: + 1 212 824 6127; Fax: + 1 212 326 7731
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.unicef.org

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15383

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**NEWS IN BRIEF**

UN: Impose Burma Arms Embargo to End Child Soldier Use (6 December 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15746&flag=news

OPT: Israeli Violations of the Right to Life: Palestinian Child Fatalities during the First Half 2007 (Defence for Children International - Palestine Section, November 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15410&flag=report

Uganda: Doubly Traumatised - Lack of access to justice for female victims of sexual and gender-based violence in northern Uganda (November 2007)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=15698&flag=report

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