US-backed Afghan militias accused of human rights abuses

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

US-backed Afghan militias are committing murder, rape, torture and extortion, risking increasing support for the insurgent groups they were designed to fight against, a prominent human rights group has said.

Militias including the Afghan Local Police (ALP) – seen as a key plank in Nato's troop reduction plans – suffer from poor oversight and no accountability, and are prone to act with impunity, Human Rights Watch said.

The ALP programme was introduced by the former commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, despite opposition from a sceptical President Hamid Karzai, who had it "forced down his throat like a foie gras goose", a military official told the Guardian.

One of Petraeus's predecessors, General Dan McNeill, had rebuffed British attempts to arm militias after warning in 2008 that "there has been some good work here to get those things back in the box".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/12/us-backed-afghan-militias-abuses

[jwirr]

1. No surprise here. Shame.

[No Elephants]

2. They hate us for our freedoms.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Militias funded by US accused of rights abuses

Source: Independent

Militias funded by US accused of rights abuses
By Julius Cavendish in Kabul
Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Militias in Afghanistan funded by the United States are terrorising the communities they were supposed to protect, murdering, raping and torturing civilians, including children, extorting illegal taxes and smuggling contraband, according to a damning new report from Human Rights Watch.

In a 102-page report entitled 'Just Don't Call It a Militia' the group documents how the Afghan government and the U.S. military have provided guns and money to paramilitary groups without adequate oversight or accountability. Because of their links to senior Afghan officials, many of these groups operate with impunity.

Their behaviour fuels support for the Taliban, and creates insecurity rather than decreasing it. But, under U.S. General David Petraeus, who recently left Afghanistan to head up the Central Intelligence Agency, Nato aggressively pursued a strategy of raising militias as a security quick-fix ahead of its departure in 2014.

Because U.S. law, makes it illegal to finance groups facing credible allegations of human rights abuses, the report's findings could, potentially, put at risk a central plank of Nato's exit strategy if U.S. lawmakers would have it so.



Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/militias-funded-by-us-accused-of-rights-abuses-2353693.html

[Octafish]

4. Repression abroad leads to repression at home.

Odd how so few seem to notice it.

And people wonder what the heck ever happened to Democracy?

[defendandprotect]

5. kr

[Overseas]

6. K&R.