September, 09 2010, 02:06pm EDT
Afghanistan: Unchecked Violence Threatens Election
Insurgent War Crimes, Weak Government Response; Women Candidates at Risk
NEW YORK
Insurgent attacks on candidates and poor government security protection risk severely compromising Afghanistan's September 18, 2010 parliamentary election, Human Rights Watch said today. Candidates - as well as their staff members and election officials - face assassinations, kidnappings, and intimidation by insurgents as well as by rival candidates. Women candidates are facing the highest level of intimidation.
This is the second parliamentary election since the fall of the Taliban. The first was in 2005. The August 2009 presidential and provincial elections were held amid widespread violence, poor security, and allegations of serious corruption. Candidates, members of parliament, and election officials and monitors have expressed concerns to Human Rights Watch that security problems and corruption may have worsened since then and that the electoral process has not been reformed.
"Taliban attacks and the broad lack of confidence in the Afghan government to conduct a secure election threatens its validity," said Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher at Human Right Watch. "Insurgent violence, particularly against women candidates, was inevitable, but the government's weak response was not."
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for killing three parliamentary candidates during the campaign period. On July 23 in Khost, Sayedullah Sayed, a candidate and religious scholar, was killed and 20 others were wounded when the mosque in which he was speaking was bombed. On July 24, the Taliban abducted Najibullah Gulisanti, candidate for Ghazni province, and killed him two weeks later after Taliban demands for a prisoner exchange were rejected. On August 29, gunmen killed another candidate, Haji Abdul Manan Noorzai, while he was walking to a mosque in Herat. While some candidates have complained to Human Rights Watch about the government's lack of provisions for protecting candidates, others have not requested help or turned it down, citing a lack of confidence in the Afghan security forces.
The Taliban and other insurgent groups have also killed and threatened campaign supporters and voters. On July 14 in Logar province, two Taliban insurgents on a motorbike shot dead a shopkeeper who had displayed a poster for a parliamentary candidate in his shop. News reports said that so-called "night letters" were later distributed warning villagers that they would face the same fate if they did as the shopkeeper had done.
In Niazai, Logar province, on July 16, the Taliban killed two brothers who supported a local candidate. Afghan election monitors reported that in Darnota district, Nangarhar province, Taliban have made house visits warning that they will cut off the fingers of people found with voter registration cards.
In early September, a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, told reporters that, "Everyone affiliated with the election is our target - candidates, security forces, campaigners, election workers, voters are all our targets." Under the laws of war, which are applicable in Afghanistan, deliberate attacks on civilians, including government officials not directly taking part in the hostilities, are prohibited. Those ordering or conducting such attacks are responsible for war crimes.
"Attacks on candidates and voters are war crimes," Reid said. "It is sadly telling that the Taliban are willing to kill those who engage in this simple act of personal freedom."
Women candidates face escalating threats from both insurgents and rival candidates. In Herat on August 26, 10 people working for a woman running for parliament, Fauwzia Gilani, were abducted. Five were soon released. The Taliban initially denied responsibility, but later claimed that they had abducted five men. On August 29, five bodies with multiple gunshot wounds were discovered close to the abduction site.
Gilani told Human Rights Watch that she had received threatening phone calls prior to the abductions telling her to withdraw her candidacy, as well as messages after the abductions that if she withdrew her candidacy, her staff would be released. A local security official told Human Rights Watch that it is possible the abduction and killings were carried out by or for rival candidates.
In July, Mawlawi Shahzada, a member of parliament and candidate in the eastern province of Kunar, called a female candidate, Wagma Safi, an "infidel." Shahzada made the dangerous charge to his supporters gathered in Chawki district and said that anyone who votes for Safi would be an infidel. Safi told Human Rights Watch that she was concerned because such categorizations make individuals vulnerable to reprisal by insurgents or even members of their communities.
She filed a complaint with the Electoral Complaints Commission, which has a wide range of sanctions at its disposal, including disqualification of candidates, annulment of results, and referral to relevant criminal authorities for investigation. The Commission fined Shahzada 10,000 Afghanis (just over US$200). Safi said the fine was unlikely to deter further threatening behavior.
A female candidate from the central region who did not want her name or province made public told Human Rights Watch that she had received death threats from two rival candidates and that one of her campaigners had been severely wounded in an assault and told not to campaign again in the area.
In one northern province, letters have been distributed accusing a woman running for a parliamentary seat of being "un-Islamic" and a "prostitute." The letter also says a rival candidate has distributed videos proving the allegations. Questioning the religious faith and sexual propriety of candidates in this way puts candidates at risk and is particularly dangerous for women, Human Rights Watch said.
Under the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law, "[a]busing, humiliating, intimidating," or "harassment or persecution" of women are deemed as "violence against women." In cases where harassment results from the misuse of status or position, perpetrators can be punished with imprisonment for not less than six months.
The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) said that the majority of threats against individual candidates reported to them were against women, including at least 40 incidents of threatening letters or phone calls in 10 provinces. Many of these incidents include threats of violence if the woman does not withdraw her candidacy.
The government has promised to make security personnel available for women running for parliament. But less than two weeks before the election, Human Rights Watch interviews with a number of election monitors, candidates, and women's rights activists suggest that the most women candidates have still not been provided with bodyguards, security advice, or transport security, even if they requested protection. Security was similarly inadequate during the 2009 elections. The Afghan government should rapidly address the security threats to women candidates, Human Rights Watch said.
"It is astonishing, given the threats and attacks, that the government continues to respond so inadequately to the security needs of women running for parliamentary seats," Reid said.
Election authorities have legitimate concerns about the possibility that suicide bombers will wear burqas in an attempt to breach security at polling places, Human Rights Watch said. There have been weeks of discussion among government departments about who has responsibility for ensuring that women will be stationed at the polls to carry out body checks, mirroring the failures in preparation for the 2009 presidential election. Consequently less than two weeks before the election, recruitment of female security staff for these jobs has barely begun, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch has learned of serious allegations of government interference in campaigns in several provinces. One independent candidate said that several cabinet ministers have offered logistical support to "pro-government" candidates. Officials from the Free and Fair Election Foundation and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission told Human Rights Watch of a number of cases in which provincial governors, security chiefs, and senior civil servants have been accused of using government resources to support candidates, sometimes in an intimidating manner. There are also numerous allegations that fraudulent voter registration cards and ballot papers have been produced and traded.
The Interior Ministry and Office of the Attorney General should promptly and transparently respond to threats and attacks against candidates, campaign staff, election monitors, officials, and voters with serious and credible investigations and hold those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said. Government officials should not automatically blame attacks on the Taliban and other insurgent groups - which commit most, but not all, campaign-related violence - as this allows rival candidates to carry out attacks and threats with impunity, Human Rights Watch said.
The government should take seriously attacks against women candidates, including making the availability of protection widely known, even if some candidates choose not to use it.
The Electoral Complaints Commission should also be prepared to use its strongest sanctions, including disqualification, when there is evidence of serious crimes by candidates, such as statements that put other candidates' lives at risk. The commission should refer instances involving criminal offenses to the Office of the Attorney General.
"In this tense political environment, these elections could have wide-reaching ramifications for Afghanistan's future stability," Reid said. "The government will have to do far more to persuade the Afghan people that it can - and will - guarantee the security and independence of these elections."
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
LATEST NEWS
Right-Wingers Plot to Give Trump Control Over Federal Reserve If Reelected
"Under such an approach, the chair would regularly seek Trump's views on interest-rate policy and then negotiate with the committee to steer policy on the president's behalf," The Wall Street Journal reported.
Apr 26, 2024
Right-wing allies of former U.S. President Donald Trump are reportedly crafting a plan to give the executive branch control over Federal Reserve policy decisions, an effort that comes as the presumptive GOP nominee continues to signal his authoritarian intentions for a potential second term.
The Wall Street Journalreported Thursday that former Trump administration officials and other supporters of the ex-president "have in recent months discussed a range of proposals, from incremental policy changes to a long-shot assertion that the president himself should play a role in setting interest rates."
"A small group of the president's allies—whose work is so secretive that even some prominent former Trump economic aides weren't aware of it—has produced a roughly 10-page document outlining a policy vision for the central bank," the Journal reported. "The group of Trump allies argues that he should be consulted on interest-rate decisions, and the draft document recommends subjecting Fed regulations to White House review and more forcefully using the Treasury Department as a check on the central bank. The group also contends that Trump, if he returns to the White House, would have the authority to oust Jerome Powell as Fed chair before his four-year term ends in 2026."
During his first four years in the White House, Trump repeatedly criticized Powell—whom the former president appointed in 2017—over the central bank's interest rate policy and insisted he had the authority to oust the Fed chair before the end of his term. The Fed is an independent body subject to limited congressional oversight.
"I have the right to do that," Trump said in 2019 of ousting Powell. "I'm not happy with his actions, I don't think he's done a good job."
The Fed, still under Powell's leadership, has since jacked up interest rates to their highest level in decades in an attempt to combat inflation—an approach that progressive lawmakers and economists have criticized as misguided, arguing that prices were elevated primarily by pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and corporate profiteering and that hiking rates would harm workers. (Progressives have historically pushed for Fed reforms that would make the powerful central bank more accountable to the public.)
Late last year, Trump said interest rates were "too high" but did not say he would pressure the central bank to lower them, saying: "Depends where inflation is. But I would get inflation down."
More recently, Trump suggested the Fed's indication that rate cuts are coming in the near future as inflation cools is a political ploy to "help the Democrats."
"It looks to me like he's trying to lower interest rates for the sake of maybe getting people elected, I don't know," Trump said in a Fox Business appearance in February.
Economist Paul Krugman predicted in his New York Timescolumn earlier this year that "Trumpist attacks on the Fed for cutting interest rates are coming."
"What we don't know is how the Fed will react," Krugman wrote. "In a recent dialogue with me about the economy, my colleague Peter Coy suggested that the Fed may be inhibited from cutting rates because it'll fear accusations from Trump that it's trying to help Biden. I hope Fed officials understand that they'll be betraying their responsibilities if they let themselves be intimidated in this way."
"And I hope that forewarned is forearmed," he added. "MAGA attacks on the Fed are coming; they should be treated as the bad-faith bullying they are."
The Journal reported Thursday that "several people who have spoken with Trump about the Fed said he appears to want someone in charge of the institution who will, in effect, treat the president as an ex officio member of the central bank's rate-setting committee."
"Under such an approach, the chair would regularly seek Trump's views on interest-rate policy and then negotiate with the committee to steer policy on the president's behalf," the newspaper continued. "Some of the former president's advisers have discussed requiring that candidates for Fed chair privately agree to consult informally with Trump on the central bank's decisions... Others have made the case that Trump himself could sit on the Fed's board of governors on an acting basis, an option that several people close to the former president described as far-fetched."
According to earlier Journal reporting, Trump's team has discussed several possible replacements for Powell, including former White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and Arthur Laffer, a former Reagan adviser and notorious tax-cut enthusiast.
Trump allies' plot to help the former president exert control over Fed policy if he's reelected in November provides further insight into the presumptive Republican nominee's likely approach to a second term.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump—who is facing 88 charges across four criminal cases—has vowed to be a dictator on "day one," wield federal authority to go after his political opponents, launch the "largest domestic deportation operation in American history," and use the U.S. military to crack down on protests.
"If a president is truly determined to make himself a dictator, the question at the end of the day is whether the military and other force-deploying agencies of the federal government are willing to go along," Josh Chafetz, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, toldThe Washington Post in a recent interview. "If they are, there's not much Congress or the courts could do about it."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Supreme Court Urged to 'Rule Quickly' After Trump Immunity Arguments
"It'd be a travesty for justices to delay matters further," said one legal expert.
Apr 25, 2024
After about three hours of oral arguments Thursday on former President Donald Trump's immunity claims, legal experts and democracy defenders urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule swiftly, with just over six months until the November election.
Trump—the presumptive Republican candidate to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden, despite his 88 felony charges in four ongoing criminal cases—is arguing that presidential immunity should protect him from federal charges for trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, which culminated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Justices across the ideological spectrum didn't seem inclined to support Trump's broad immunity claims—which critics have said "reflect a misreading of constitutional text and history as well as this court's precedent." However, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) shared examples of what it would mean if they did.
"Trump could sell pardons, ambassadorships, and other official benefits to his wealthy donors, members of his clubs, or cronies who helped him commit other crimes," CREW warned. "Trump could sell nuclear codes and government secrets to help pay back crippling debts."
"But this isn't just about what Donald Trump could do. It's really about how total immunity for the president would threaten our democratic system of checks and balances," the group continued. "The president could order the military to assassinate activists, political opponents, members of Congress, or even Supreme Court justices, so long as he claimed it related to some official act."
After warning that a president could also order the occupation or closure of the Capitol or high court to prevent actions against him, CREW concluded that "the Supreme Court never should have taken this appeal up in the first place. They should rule quickly and shut these ludicrous claims down for good."
The organization was far from alone in demanding a quick decision from the nation's highest court.
"In the name of accountability, the court must not delay its decision," the Brennan Center for Justice said Thursday evening. "The Supreme Court's time is up. It needs to let the prosecution move forward. The court decided Bush v. Gore in three days—it should act with similar alacrity in deciding Trump v. U.S."
In Bush v. Gore, the case that decided the 2000 election, the high court issued a related stay on December 9, heard oral arguments on December 11, and issued a final decision on December 12.
On Thursday, the arguments "got away from the central question: Is a former president immune from criminal prosecution if he tried to overthrow a presidential election, using private means and the power of his office to do so?" the Brennan Center noted. "The answer is simple: No."
"It is not an 'official act' to try to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power or the Constitution, even if you conspire with other government officials to do it or use the Oval Office phone," the center said. "Trump's attorney was pushing the court to come up with a sea change in the law. That's unnecessary and a delay tactic that will hurt the pursuit of justice in this case."
In a departure from previous claims, Trump's attorney, D. John Sauer, "appeared to agree with Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, that there are some allegations in the indictment that do not involve 'official acts' of the president," NBC Newsreported, noting questions from liberal Justice Elena Kagan and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee.
Barrett summarized various allegations from the indictment and in three cases—involving dishonest election claims, false allegations of fraud, and fake electors—Sauer conceded that Trump's alleged conduct sounded private, suggesting that a more narrow case against the ex-president that excluded any potential official acts could proceed.
Due to Trump attorney's concessions in Supreme Court oral argument, there's now a very clear path for DOJ's case to go forward.\n\nIt'd be a travesty for Justices to delay matters further.\n\nJustice Amy Coney Barrett got Trump attorney to concede core allegations are private acts.\u2b07\ufe0f— (@)
According to NBC:
Matthew Seligman, a lawyer and a fellow at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School who filed a brief backing prosecutors, said Sauer's concessions highlight that Trump is "not immune for the vast majority of the conduct alleged in the indictment."
Ultimately, he said, the case will go to trial "absent some external intervention—like Trump ordering [the Justice Department] to drop the charges" after having won the election.
At the same time, Sauer's backtracking might have little consequence from an electoral perspective. Further delay in a trial, which Sauer is close to achieving, is a form of victory in itself.
Slate's Mark Joseph Stern pointed out that when Barrett similarly questioned Michael Dreeben, the U.S. Department of Justice lawyer arguing the case for Smith, it seemed like they "were trying to work out some compromise wherein the trial court could distinguish between official and unofficial acts, then instruct the jury not to impose criminal liability on the former."
"It was fascinating to watch Barrett nodding along as Dreeben pitched a compromise that would largely preserve Smith's January 6 prosecution but limit what the jury could hear, or at least consider," Stern added. "That, though, would take months to suss out in the trial court. More delays!"
Stern and other experts signaled that the decision likely comes down to Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts, with the three liberals seemingly supporting the prosecution of Trump and the other four conservatives suggesting it is unconstitutional.
People for the American Way president Svante Myrick said in a statement that "today's argument brought both good and bad news. It was chilling to hear Donald Trump's lawyer say that staging a military coup could be considered part of a president's official duties."
"Thankfully, the majority of the court, including conservative justices, did not seem to buy that very broad Trump argument that a former president is absolutely immune from prosecution under any circumstances," Myrick added. "On the other hand, it's not clear that there is a majority on this court that will quickly reject the immunity arguments and let the case go forward in time for a trial before the election. That's a huge concern."
Trump was not at the Supreme Court on Thursday; he was at his trial in New York, where he faces 34 counts for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. The are two other cases: a federal one for mishandling classified material and another in Georgia for interfering with the last presidential contest.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Just the Beginning': 50+ Arrested for Blockading Citigroup Bank Over Climate Crimes
"Through people-powered resistance, we can give money a conscience and stop Citi's destruction of our planet," said one Indigenous campaigner.
Apr 25, 2024
Twenty more demonstrators were arrested Thursday, the second day of Earth Week protests targeting Citigroup's Manhattan headquarters in what organizers called "the beginning of a wave of direct actions to take place over the summer targeting big banks for creating climate chaos that is killing our communities and our planet."
Protest organizers—who include Climate Defenders, New York Communities for Change, Planet over Profit, and Stop the Money Pipeline—said 53 activists were arrested over two days of demonstrations, which included blocking the entrance to Citigroup's headquarters, to "demand that the bank stop funding fossil fuels."
Organizers said this week's demonstrations "were just the beginning" of what they're calling a "Summer of Heat" targeting big banks for their role in the climate emergency and for "polluting our land, air, and water, and threatening the health of children, families, and our planet." Citigroup is the world's second-largest fossil fuel financier.
"We're holding Citi accountable for financing dirty fossil fuels from Canada to Latin America and beyond," said Chief Na'moks of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, one of several Indigenous leaders who took part in the action. "Through people-powered resistance, we can give money a conscience and stop Citi's destruction of our planet."
Jonathan Westin, executive director of Climate Defenders, asserted that "Citigroup's racist funding of oil, coal, and gas is creating climate chaos that's devastating communities of color across the country."
"We're taking action to tell Citi that we won't put up with their environmental racism for one more day," Westin continued. "Our communities have reached the boiling point. Our children have asthma, our city's sky was orange, and our air polluted because of the climate crisis caused by Citi and Wall Street."
"We're going to keep organizing and taking direct action until Citi listens to us," he vowed.
Stop the Money Pipeline co-director Alec Connon said: "To have any chance of reigning in the climate crisis, we must stop investing in fossil fuel expansion. Yet, Citibank is pumping billions of dollars into new coal, oil, and gas projects."
"We're here to make it clear: If they're going to fund the companies disrupting our climate and our lives, we're going to disrupt their business," Connon added.
Activists have repeatedly targeted Citigroup in recent years as the megabank has pumped more than $300 billion into fossil fuel investments around the world since the Paris climate agreement.
According to the protest organizers:
Citi has provided $668 million in funding to Formosa Plastics between 2001-2021, which is trying to build a $9.4 billion plastics facility in a majority Black community in the heart of Cancer Alley in Louisiana.
Citigroup is also one of the biggest funders of state-run oil and gas companies in the Amazon basin, pumping in over $40 billion between 2016-2020, and a major backer of Petroperú, which has been involved in oil spills and Indigenous rights violations.
"From wildfires, heatwaves, and floods to deadly air pollution and mass drought, Citi's fossil fuel financing is killing us," said Alice Hu of New York Communities for Change. "We've sent polite petitions and had pleading meetings with bank representatives, but Citi refuses to stop pouring billions each year into coal, oil, and gas."
"That's why we're fighting for our lives now with the best tool we have left: mass, nonviolent disruptive civil disobedience," Hu added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular