Afshar Operation

Infobox civilian attack
title=Afshar Operation


caption=
location=Kabul, Afshar District
target=Sabra and Shatila refugee camps
date=16 September 1982
time=
timezone=
type=
fatalities=700 to 1000
injuries=
perps=Ustad Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's faction of Mujahideen the, Ittihad
motive=Military attack against a Shi'ite Muslim minority Afshar Operation was a military attack by Burhanuddin Rabbani's Islamic State of Afghanistan government forces against the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezbi Islami and Wahdat forces. The attack took place in a densely populated district of Kabul, the Afshar district. Afshar district is situated on the slopes of Mount Afshar in west Kabul. The district is predominantly home to the Hazara ethnic group. The attack became an urban war zone where "repeated human butchery", by Ustad Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's faction of Mujahideen the, Ittihadcite web |date=2006 |url = http://hrw.org/reports/2005/afghanistan0605/5.htm#_Toc105552365|title = Ittihad|format = HTML |publisher = Human Rights Watch| accessdate = 2008-04-21 | last= |quote=] ,turned on the Shi'ite Muslim minority groups. Reports emerged that Sayyaf's forces rampaged through Afshar, murdering, raping and burning homes.cite web |date=Sunday, 2 December, 2001, 17:56 GMT|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/1682466.stm|title = A personal account|format = HTML |publisher = BBC News| accessdate = 2008-04-21 | last= Phil Rees |quote=] cite web |date=2007 |url = http://hrw.org/reports/2005/afghanistan0605/4.htm#_Toc105552354|title = The Battle for Kabul: April 1992-March 1993|format = HTML |publisher = Human Rights Watch| accessdate = 2008-04-21 | last= |quote=] At the time Ittihad was allied with the Rabbani government. A commission after the fighting was over was able to pay the ransoms of, approximately eighty to two hundred persons [who] were later released, and that ransoms were paid to Ittihad commanders holding them to secure their release, but that approximately 700-750 persons were never returned, and were presumably killed or died in captivity." The same commission received information that many women were abducted during the operation, but said that few families would report it. cite book | last = John Lee Anderson | authorlink = John Lee Anderson | title = The Lion's Grave|edition= November 26, 2002|pages= 224 | publisher = Atlantic Books| isbn= 1843541181]

Background

The broader backdrop for the Afshar events was recurrent heavy fighting, in and around Kabul, that resulted from attacks on the fragile Rabbani interim government by an alliance of anti-government militias backed by unfriendly neighboring countries. From shortly after the fall of the communist regime in April 1992 until the emergence of the Taliban as a military force in early 1995, all of Afghanistan's militarily significant neighbors -- Iran, Uzbekistan and Pakistan -- for different reasons, sought to undermine and overthrow the Rabbani government by arming renegade proxy militias.Fact|date=May 2008 The ringleader of the renegade alliance that resulted was Islamic firebrand Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; Mazari's Hezb i Wahdat and the militia of former communist general Abdul Rasheed Dostum were junior partners. Fact|date=May 2008

Government Orders

According to a Human Rights Watch report, "credible and consistent" accounts from several officials who worked in Shura-e-Nazar (the informal politico-military organization headed by Rabbani's defense minister, Ahmad Shah Masood) and the Rabbani interim government reveal that a military campaign against Hizb e Wahdat was planned and approved by officials at the "highest levels" of the Rabbani government. According to HRW, the operation represented not only the largest and most integrated use of military power but also the worst case of human rights voilation undertaken by the Islamic State of Afghanistan, the Rabbani-led government, up to that time.

Controversy

Former AP reporter John Jennings calls the "Afshar massacre" a "myth." Jennings went into considerable detail to debunk allegations of a massacre of civilians.cite book | last = Roy Gutman| authorlink = Roy Gutman| title = How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan|edition= January 15, 2008|pages= 304 | publisher = United States Institute of Peace Press| isbn= 1601270240] Although he did leave open the possibility that some captured Hazara fighters were summarily executed rather than being treated as POWs, by government troops furious at Wahdat atrocities against Kabul civilians during the preceding months. Jennings also described another militia leader Ahmad Shah Massoud's followers rescuing a wounded Hazara woman caught in the crosssfire during the height of the battle. And he recounts entering a nearby basement where Wahdat fighters had tied up non-Hazara hostages with wire, shot them and tried to burn the bodies, before fleeing the scene ahead of Masood's advancing troops. Despite these written reference -- and although Jennings is quoted on other topics in the HRW reports -- any account of what he witnessed during and after the Afshar battle was left out by HRW editors.

References