Afghan assembly grants immunity for war crimes

[maddezmom]

KABUL, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's parliament has granted immunity to all Afghans involved in the country's 25 years of conflict, lawmakers said on Thursday, despite calls by human rights groups for war crimes trials.

The decision passed on Wednesday in the lower house, Wolesi Jirga, would also cover fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who now heads his own militant group, critics and supporters of the move said.

Rights groups have strongly pressed the government to punish those guilty of abuses, including some members of parliament and senior government officials, saying justice was vital for peace.

But the national assembly said its motion would help reconciliation in a nation shattered by years of war and civil strife that have left almost no family untouched by tragedy.

"In order to bring reconciliation among various strata in the society, all those political and belligerent sides who were involved one way or the other during the two-and-half decades of war will not be prosecuted legally and judicially," the motion passed by the assembly says.

more:http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL79281.htm

[struggle4progress]

1. Afghan council urges war crimes amnesty (AP)

Thursday, February 1, 2007 · Last updated 8:07 a.m. PT
By RAHIM FAIEZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

... The amnesty resolution, passed in the lower house Wednesday, covers the mujahedeen leaders who led the resistance against the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and later turned their weapons on one another, plunging the country into civil war.

Lawmaker Sayed Mustafa Kazmi, who backed the resolution, said it was aimed at fostering national unity. But rights activists have called for Afghanistan's factional leaders and warlords to face prosecution for the massacres and torture they allegedly committed in their struggle for power, especially during the 1992-96 civil war.

Only justice, the rights advocates say, will heal the wounds of Afghanistan's traumatic past.

But justice for the warlords would come at a political price. Several of the accused hold prominent positions in parliament and in the government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai, who has shown little enthusiasm for charging them with war crimes ...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Afghan_War_Crimes.html