KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that Afghanistan has one of the world’s highest numbers of enforced disappearances, with tens of thousands missing after being detained by governments or militia forces since 1970.
In an article published on the International Day of the Disappeared, Friday, August 30, HRW stated that advocates working to end longstanding impunity in Afghanistan should remember the victims and their families who are still waiting for answers.
“Enforced disappearances are grave international crimes and are considered ongoing crimes so long as the fate of those disappeared remains unacknowledged and their whereabouts unknown,” HRW said.
“They cause profound suffering to families who can never really mourn,” it added.
The rights group said that the Taliban are among the abusive authorities who have extensively used enforced disappearances over the past 46 years to assert control and instill fear among their opponents.
“The victims include hundreds of members of the former government’s security forces, many of whom are feared to have been summarily executed after being detained, and women protesters who have been held incommunicado, sometimes for many weeks,” HRW said.
The rights group stated that the death list of 4,785 people forcibly disappeared in Afghanistan since 1978, published in 2013, allowed victims’ families to hold mourning ceremonies. However, this list represents only a fraction of the tens of thousands of cases that have occurred since then.
According to HRW, other lists include more than 600 individuals, including students, journalists, and other civilians, who were captured by various rival militia forces during the 1992-1995 conflict in Kabul.
“Between 2010 and 2018, United States-backed police forces in Kandahar were responsible for some 2,200 enforced disappearances of accused Taliban as well as civilians belonging to rival tribal communities. Most are believed to be buried in mass graves in the desert,” part of the report reads.
In addition to the thousands killed and injured during decades of war in Afghanistan, many more have gone missing across the country, with families of most of the missing individuals still waiting for their return.
Enforced disappearances continue to increase following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, with hundreds going missing across the country over the past three years, particularly former government officials and members of the former ANDSF.
In a 2021 report after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, HRW documented over 100 cases of executions and enforced disappearances of former ANDSF members in just four provinces within three months.
These incidents are occurring despite the Taliban’s announced amnesty for former government civilian and military officials, as well as reassurances from Taliban leadership that they are holding their forces accountable for violating the amnesty order.
