"War On Terror" brings torture to Afghanistan

http://www.rawa.us/faryab.htm

People in Faryab complain of torture and illegal taxes by
warlords
In many parts of Faryab, incidents of extortion and illegal
taxes by warlords have become common
By Shoaib Sharifi

MAIMANA, 12 Apr 2006 (IRIN) - Sitting in a small restaurant in a
busy bazaar in Maimana, capital of Afghanistan’s northern Faryab
province, Abdul Hadi, 36, worries out loud over the fate of his
family in Kata Kala village, some 80 km away.

“I don’t know what will happen to my family after I fled 13 days
ago,” lamented Abdul Hadi, after a local warlord tried to
extract a US $1,200 illegal tax on some land he had sold.

“Two armed men grabbed me from my house and placed me in a dark
room for five hours,” Hadi alleged. “The commander of the armed
group demanded that I pay up or accept staying in jail,” Hadi
claimed, adding he was only released on condition of paying the
gunmen when other villagers intervened. “I left the home and
fled because I cannot pay that amount of money,” he explained.

Such incidents are not unusual in Afghanistan’s troubled north.
Ali Mohammad, 48, another villager living in Kata Kala, contends
that he was imprisoned and tortured for 15 days by the same
warlord when he resisted gunmen demanding money for his yearly
crops.

“If I complain, I might be killed,” Ali Mohammad noted, citing
the government’s failure to protect local citizenry from such
actions.

But Hadi and Ali Mohammad both live in an area of Faryab where
such actions have become largely institutionalised – with
extortion and the threat of private jails now the norm.

“According to our reports, irresponsible gunmen are still
torturing people in their private prisons and taking illegal
taxes in remote districts of Faryab where the government’s
control remains weak,” Habibullah, deputy head the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Maimana, told
IRIN.

“Unfortunately, these warlords are supported and equipped by
some high-ranking officials from inside the government,”
Habibullah claimed, adding: “To tackle this, the government
should avoid employing human rights abusers and war criminals
and strengthen the so-called disarmament process in the area.”
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