Families Demand Release Of 39 Afghans Detained In Turkey

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
February 23, 2024

The families of 39 Afghan citizens detained in Turkey after they reportedly tried to reach Europe on a migrant route have called for the release and the safe return of their relatives.

The Afghan migrants were hiding inside a truck carrying boxes of tissue when they were arrested in the Çilimli district of the northwestern Duzce Province, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported on February 22.

All 39 Afghans were taken to the Immigration Department, and the truck driver was also arrested on charges of human trafficking, Anadolu reported.

Their relatives said they were attempting to reach Europe via Turkey to seek better opportunities.

The father of one of the Afghans detained in Turkey told Radio Azadi that he told his son he didn’t have money for the journey, but he left anyway and reached Turkey after staying in Iran for a month.

The man, who identified himself as Sediqullah, a resident of Nangarhar, said he now has sent his 18-year-old son money so he can return to Afghanistan.

His son is among a wave of migrants who are fleeing Taliban persecution and a country that is reeling from one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

Some Afghans who have been detained by the Turkish police in the past claim that they were tortured by the security forces during their detention.

“They electrocuted, tortured, and brutalized the Afghans,” said 23-year-old Rahman Heydari, an Afghan who was recently deported from Turkey.

Earlier this month, Abdul Rahman Rashid, the Taliban’s deputy minister of refugees, said some 1,600 Afghans currently languish in Turkish prisons. He said that Ankara has released more than 600 Afghans, who returned to their country.

Last year the number of Afghans deported by Turkey was in the thousands. In November alone the number was 4,000. The number of Afghans expelled by Turkey was even higher in 2022 when Ankara deported 50,000 back to their country.

According to the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, Turkey hosts one of the largest refugee communities worldwide, with some 3.6 million Syrians and more than 300,000 people from other countries, the majority of whom are Afghan.

In a 2022 report, global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch criticized Ankara for routinely pushing tens of thousands of Afghans — many of whom are undocumented — back to its border with Iran or deporting them directly to Afghanistan “with little or no examination of their claims for international protection.”

Neighboring Iran and Pakistan forced more than 1 million Afghans to return to their country in the past year.

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

The SAS fought a dirty war in Afghanistan

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The Spectator (UK): The SAS blocked UK visas for Afghan special forces soldiers, perhaps fearing that they would be able to produce evidence incriminating the SAS in the shooting of unarmed civilians. That was the striking implication of a BBC Panorama investigation this week – with the Ministry of Defence confirming that it is undertaking a review of 2,000 cases where Afghan applications were blocked by the SAS. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghanistan A cricket team to tour Sri Lanka in April

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Ariana: Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) on Friday announced that the nation’s A team is scheduled to play five One Day matches and one four-day match against Sri Lanka from April 28 to May 14. Afghanistan A will arrive in Sri Lanka on April 25 and kick off their tour with a One Day match against the Sri Lanka A side on April 28. Other four One Day matches are scheduled to be played on April 30, May 3, May 5, and May 7.  Following the One Day matches, a one-off four-day match is slated to be held from May 11 to May 14. The venues for these matches are yet to be confirmed. Click here to read more (external link).

Other Sports News

Afghanistan: Archaeological sites ‘bulldozed for looting’

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BBC News: Dozens of archaeological sites in Afghanistan have been bulldozed to allow systematic looting, according to researchers at the University of Chicago. They say their analysis of satellite photos provides the first definitive photographic evidence that looting patterns that began under the previous government have continued since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Ancient settlements dating back to the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age – some earlier than 1000BC – are among those they say have been damaged. Most of the sites identified are in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh region, which more than two millennia ago was the heartland of Bactria. Click here to read more (external link).

Related

Non-Combatant Murder Spree Persists: Taliban Gun Down Resident of Maidan Wardak Province in Kabul

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8am: According to reliable sources cited by the Hasht-e Subh Daily, the victim, identified as Elyas, was brutally gunned down by Taliban fighters on the evening of Tuesday, February 20, in the vicinity of Kabul’s sixth security district. Elyas hailed from the Husay-e Dowum Bahsud district in Maidan Wardak province, and his funeral took place yesterday. It’s imperative to note that since their resurgence, the Taliban have perpetrated numerous killings across the nation, employing various pretexts. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Publicly Execute Two Afghan Men Convicted of Murder

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
February 22, 2024

ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s fundamentalist Taliban authorities publicly executed two men Thursday who had been convicted of murder in separate incidents.

The Taliban’s Supreme Court said the executions, by gunshot, were carried out in a football stadium in the southeastern city of Ghazni.

A large number of justice and government officials, as well as residents, witnessed the event, but no one was allowed to bring cellular phones or cameras to the stadium.

The court statement said the two put to death were tried and found guilty of fatally stabbing two people. It added that the judicial order was enforced after the Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, approved it.

The Taliban have executed four people and flogged around 350 others, including women, in front of hundreds of onlookers since reclaiming power in August 2021 and imposing their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Female victims were mostly accused of crimes such as adultery and running away from homes.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid defended Thursday’s executions. “The court order took all the Sharia standards into consideration,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The United Nations has criticized the punishments as violations of human rights, saying they run counter to international law and must stop.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, renewed the criticism while commenting on Thursday’s killings, calling them inconsistent with the fundamental right to life.

“UNAMA urges the de facto authorities to establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a step towards its abolition,” the mission wrote on X.

The Taliban have rejected the criticism, saying their criminal justice system and governance at large are based on Islamic rules and guidelines.

Public floggings and executions were routine under the previous Taliban government in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Afghan authorities have imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s rights to education and public life. They have barred female visitors from parks and gyms and forbidden girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade.

The Taliban have ignored international outcry and calls for removing curbs on women. The treatment of women has mainly deterred foreign governments from recognizing the Taliban administration in Kabul.

A U.N. expert panel this week called for other countries to officially recognize “gender apartheid” as a crime against humanity, highlighting the oppression of women and girls under regimes like the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Taliban’s Latest Edict: Girls Over 10 Barred from Education in Kandahar – A Disturbing Backslide in Women’s Rights

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8am: Sources disclosed to Hasht-e Subh Daily on Thursday, February 22, that the Taliban have mandated school principals in Kandahar province to bar girls aged 10 and above from attending classes below the sixth grade. According to these sources, the directive emanates from the Taliban’s educational authorities in Kandahar. Click here to read more (external link).

Related

Afghan Fund Untapped in Switzerland, Taliban Make No Demand

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Ahadi (file photo)

Akmal Dawi
VOA News
February 21, 2024

Sixteen months after its establishment, the U.S.-backed Fund for the Afghan People has yet to release any payments for its intended purposes, a board member reveals.

The fund, created using half of Afghanistan’s frozen assets in the United States, aims to help stabilize the Afghan economy without benefiting the de facto Taliban authorities.

Established in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, the Switzerland-based fund holds $3.5 billion that formerly belonged to the Afghan Central Bank. It is authorized to support activities such as paying Afghanistan’s debts to international organizations, funding electricity imports and even printing currency.

“I’m surprised that they [the Taliban] have not asked for any payment so far,” Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, a co-chair of the fund’s board of trustees, told VOA.

Ahady emphasized his willingness to facilitate the funding of authorized activities.

Taliban officials declined to comment.

Despite the fund’s inaction, the Taliban recently announced payment of outstanding electricity bills using domestic funds.

Additionally, a European donor helped settle Afghanistan’s World Bank debt last year, unlocking new bank aid.

Last week, the World Bank announced it had approved a new approach to Afghanistan aimed at supporting income-generating activities. Under the new approach, work will be resumed on a $1.2 billion project that will bring clean energy from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan via Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is also in arrears to the Asian Development Bank, resulting in a hold on the ADB’s regular assistance programs since 2021.

Ahady said the fund would consider paying the ADB debt.

“But we are the last resort,” he added.

Saving the assets

Over $9 billion in Afghan assets remain frozen in the U.S., Europe and the United Arab Emirates, inaccessible to the Taliban.

In the U.S., $3.5 billion face claims from 9/11 victims’ families. It is unclear if that frozen portion generates interest like the funds in Switzerland.

The fund has already accrued more than $200 million in interest in less than two years, according to Ahady.

“Afghans see this as their national treasure,” said Masuda Sultan of Unfreeze Afghanistan, an organization advocating the release of the frozen assets. “Afghans believe the funds should not be used to pay for consumption of goods and services.”

Despite dire poverty in Afghanistan, the fund in Switzerland is not earmarked for immediate humanitarian needs — a deliberate choice, according to Ahady.

“Humanitarian needs are so huge at this juncture that [if used], this amount of money [the fund] will disappear quickly,” he said.

The United States and other donors have given billions in humanitarian assistance to Afghans over the past two years.

As the Taliban remain a pariah regime widely condemned for their repressive policies, the future of the frozen assets remains uncertain.

“The funds belong to Da Afghanistan Bank,” said Ahady, referring to the Afghan Central Bank, now governed by the Taliban.

The now $3.74 billion fund can only be released if the Afghan Central Bank demonstrably acts independently from the Taliban and complies with anti-terrorism safeguards.