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Taliban Hindus' Markers Provoke Outrage
PARIS, May 23 (News Agencies) - Human rights groups, the United Nations and governments around the globe on Wednesday blasted an order by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia forcing Hindus to wear yellow stickers to differentiate themselves from the Muslim majority.
"Similar practices in the past - from Nazi Germany in the 1930s to Rwanda in the early 1990s - have led to the most horrible crimes," the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said in a joint statement.
"[The decree] harks back to the darkest periods of human history," the U.N. bodies said, urging the Taliban to "urgently reconsider their position."
In a move reminiscent of the detested yellow Stars of David Jews were forced to wear in Hitler's Germany, the Taliban's secret religious police on Tuesday ordered Hindus in Afghanistan to carry a thumb-sized yellow marker inside their pockets.
Officials for the Taliban militia said the yellow badge would save Hindus from harassment during regular spot-checks, during which police herd Muslims into mosques to ensure their beards meet strict requirements.
But the order by the Taliban regime against the tiny Hindu community has sparked international outrage.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said forcing social groups to wear distinctive clothing or identifying marks stigmatized and isolated them and could "never, never be justified".
Boucher said the edict was "the latest in a long list of outrageous oppressions" inflicted by the Taliban authorities on the Afghan people, adding: "These kind of strictures only add to the suffering of people who have borne 23 years of war and natural catastrophe."
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) said the "intolerable measure" constituted "a serious violation of the fundamental principles of universally recognized human rights".
"[It] recalls some of the most deplorable acts of discrimination in history," echoed a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
India said the move was an example of the Taliban's obscure and racist policies and such edicts had "no place in civilized society".
Indian government spokesman R.S. Jassal said any attempt to justify such edicts on religious grounds were "reprehensible" and called for international pressure on the Taliban to "rescind such discriminatory orders and allow all communities to live in dignity and peace".
Predominantly a Sunni Muslim country, Afghanistan has a small Hindu and Sikh minority.
Sikhs are exempt from the yellow badge order as they are already recognizable from their turbans.
Afghanistan's Hindu leaders, meanwhile, said they were personally happy to carry an identifying mark that would spare them harassment by the notorious religious police over Hindus' failure to attend Islamic prayers.
"This is not something new. We reached an agreement with the authorities two years ago that the Hindus should wear a gray skull hat and a ring," said Inder Singh Majboor, a Sikh and Hindu community leader. "There is no cause for concern in this."
But members of the Hindu community were more apprehensive about a measure that will make them stand out even more in what the Taliban claim is the world's purest Islamic state.
"Just leave us alone and do not make us run away. Only a limited number of us are left here," said one Hindu as he emerged from a temple in Kabul.
"I have an Indian visa. I will leave. I cannot put up with these yellow marks," his friend said. Both asked not to be named.
Singh said there were 1,720 Hindus and Sikhs living in Afghanistan, including 520 in Kabul.
The total is down sharply from the estimated 50,000 living there before the Taliban took power.
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