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U.N., U.S. Call for Alliance to Maintain Discipline as Kabul Revels
WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - It was a day of jubilation and irony in Kabul Tuesday, as residents celebrated the liberation of the Afghan capital from the Taliban amid the very same chaotic disorder that the Taliban claimed to have eradicated during their rule, and as the U.S. called on the victorious opposition forces to "maintain discipline" in the very same city the U.S. had asked them to hold back from entering.
U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson echoed Washington's concerns as she called on the U.S. and Britain to prevent chaos and bloodshed in Kabul, voicing concern over the human rights record of Alliance forces, news agencies reported.
Alliance troops entered Kabul early Tuesday morning, having ignored pleas from U.S. officials to hold back, following the withdrawal overnight of Taliban forces from the city.
"It would have been preferable in broad terms for them to have waited and for there to be others in the city, but things move very quickly and now that they are there, we're going to work with them and others to make sure this leads to the formation of a broad-based government," a senior State Department official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Reports are that the people of Kabul are celebrating, but we would like to see the Northern Alliance make sure that their troops maintain discipline," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan has also voiced concern about the Alliance's occupation of Kabul, having warned earlier that it would only prolong civil war and might repeat what happened early last decade, when Alliance factions fought each other in Kabul, according to a BBC online report.
Foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said Pakistan would prefer to see Kabul's security handled "by the United Nations or a multi-national force sanctioned by the [U.N.] Security Council," commenting after the takeover of Kabul.
"Pakistan holds the view that the Northern Alliance must not occupy Kabul," he said at his daily briefing.
Robinson demanded that the U.S. and Britain ensure the capture of cities in Afghanistan by the opposition does not lead to a bloodbath, and that other countries involved in the military campaign in Afghanistan share the responsibility for shielding civilians from marauding warlords and massacres across the country.
"It is extremely important that the message should go out, and I look particularly to the United States and Britain and the countries that are involved in the military strategy to make it very clear, that there will be no toleration of massacres, of rapes and abuse of civilians," Robinson, who is on a tour of India, said.
She said there were fears of anarchy in Afghanistan following the Northern Alliance taking control of the capital, Kabul, and other cities from the Taliban.
"If it happens, there will be justice against the perpetrators. In other words, there will no longer be impunity. My office is in the process of mapping out just how bad the situation has been in Afghanistan.
"Both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance have abused and massacred and created total human rights violations against civilians in Afghanistan.
"There have been some leaders of the Northern Alliance who have very bad human rights records."
The New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement a day before the U.S. bombing campaign began on October 7 calling on the U.S. not to support opposition leaders with a record of human rights violations.
"The various parties that comprise the United Front… amassed a deplorable record of attacks on civilians between the fall of the Najibullah regime in 1992 and the Taliban's capture of Kabul in 1996," the statement read.
"The U.S. and its allies should not cooperate with commanders whose record of brutality raises questions about their legitimacy inside Afghanistan," Sidney Jones, executive director of HRW's Asia division, said in the statement.
And the London-based Amnesty International issued a statement Tuesday after the takeover of Kabul, quoting its secretary general Irene Khan as saying, "The Afghan population is at the mercy of armed political groups with an appalling human rights record.
"We have the gravest concerns for the people of Kabul who are now at high risk of reprisal attacks and killings," Khan said.
The Northern Alliance is notorious for engaging in torture and executions and for mass rapes and sexual assaults on Afghan women.
In an article Monday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, one Afghan refugee living in the Pakistani border town of Chaman - which has channeled thousands of Afghan refugees across the border - voiced the worries of many Afghans about the Alliance's past.
Truck driver Haji Abdul Ghani described an incident he "swore" happened three weeks ago in central Afghanistan of a Northern Alliance fighter killing an infant.
"They put the nozzle of the gun in the baby's mouth," Ghani was quoted in the article as saying. "The baby began sucking it like the nipple of his mother's breast. Then they fired."
The article quoted other refugees who said that their past "bitter" experiences proved the Alliance groups were "vicious," and that most Afghans only wanted survival and opportunities for their families, without siding with the Taliban, al-Qaeda or the Northern Alliance.
"If the Northern Alliance comes, we will all be killed," Ghani said in the article.
But the anonymous State Department official said that initial reports from the Afghan capital are promising, with residents cheering the anti-Taliban forces.
"It's not ideal, but obviously events move very quickly and so far Kabul residents seem to be happy," he said. "We are perfectly capable, willing and able to deal with the situation now."
In Kabul, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets, praying and rejoicing at the militia's withdrawal.
Huge crowds cheered "Allahu Akbar [God is Great]" as Northern Alliance troops entered Kabul, sparking celebrations at the end of five years of hard-line Taliban rule.
Black turbans, the Taliban's trademark, hung from the gate of the police headquarters after opposition security troops took control of the city shortly after dawn.
A group of 360 prisoners from inside the Taliban police headquarters were freed and a jail for religious offenders was also emptied, witnesses said.
And listeners carrying transistor radios in the street whooped with delight as the Taliban ban on music ended and a woman's voice - a symbolic choice given the Taliban's ban on female employment - broadcast the news.
"I don't believe this. I never thought that a time would come when I would be reading the news again. As I read the news this morning it was like a dream," said radio announcer Jamila Mujahid, 40.
The Alliance issued a statement overturning the Taliban's ban on women working soon after taking the city.
"The mujahideen [fighters] give the good news to all sisters and women of Afghanistan that they have the right to pursue education and work in accordance with Islamic teaching and based on our honorable traditions," it said.
The statement, issued in the name of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, also said the alliance would "provide opportunities for work and training for the women of Afghanistan."
But Kabul residents, in the midst of their revelry, also had reports of armed men robbing the central bank and driving away in cars stuffed with money and civilians were seen stealing fans and air conditioners from the Pakistan embassy.
Millions of dollars were also stolen from moneychangers in the Shara-e-Shazada market. The thefts wiped out the life savings of many local residents and dealt a major blow to the local economy.
"This was all our capital. Even the computers, carpets and teapots have gone. This is a crime against Afghanistan, the Afghans and against Islam," said Haji Amin Jan Khosti, chief of the Shara-e-Shazada money exchange.
And in a more chilling display of emotion, hundreds of Afghans gathered in a Kabul park to spit on the bodies of six executed Taliban fighters.
The emotions vented at the six bullet ridden corpses in a dusty street on the edge of the Shari Naw park was a macabre demonstration of the pent up hatred felt by many people for the militia, most of whose fighters fled Kabul before the killings.
An official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who led attempts to recover the remains said up to 20 bodies might be in the park.
"Death to Pakistan, death to terrorists," onlookers shouted as ICRC officials sought to move the bodies from the park to a local morgue.
One witness told AFP the Taliban fighters had been summarily executed shortly after 8:00 a.m. as the victorious forces seized control.
After the capture of key northern city Mazar-i-Sharif last Friday, similar reports of lootings and violence were received, prompting warnings against chaos by the U.S. government.
Speaking in New Delhi, Robinson said the U.N. had just received reports that humanitarian aid had been looted in Kabul following the takeover.
Although she said the U.S. had the right to retaliate for the September 11 terror attacks by ordering the strikes in Afghanistan, the U.N. commissioner said she was "deeply concerned by the civilian casualties" in the bombings.
"There should be no more killing or damage to civilian life," she said.
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