Afghan rally demands amnesty

Tens of thousands of former mujahedeen rallied in Kabul to show support for a proposed amnesty for Afghans suspected of war crimes

KABUL: About 30,000 Afghans rallied at what was once a Taliban execution centre in Kabul on Friday to press President Hamid Karzai to approve a blanket amnesty for 25 years of war crimes.   

Karzai on Thursday said he needed legal advice before making any decision over the bill, which has already been approved by both houses of parliament. His foreign minister has said it can’t be done, due to international agreements to punish those responsible for such crimes.  

The peaceful rally was held in the Ghazi soccer stadium, where people were executed, tortured or maimed for crimes against Islam, during the Taliban rule. The bill sets an amnesty for war criminals in the government, the parliament and also for wanted Taliban leaders and former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who leads a separate insurgency against government and foreign troops.   

The parliament which was elected in 2005, is made up of mujahideen (holy warriors) leaders, ex-communist and Taliban members, among many others. Most of the rally’s participants were supporters of the mujahideen groups that fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan until 1992, but then fell into a bitter and bloody power struggle after victory.   

More than a million people died during the Soviet backed rule and Western funded opposition, and tens of thousands more died during the civil war that followed. “Whoever is against the mujahideen is against Islam,” Abdul Rabb Rasoul Sayyaf, a Mujahideen leader and an MP, told the gathering which also included dozens of women.   

An estimated 10,000 police were stationed across the city to prevent any possible violence. Human rights groups have demanded war crimes trials as the only way to bring peace and reconciliation, but Mujahideen groups say the amnesty bill is aimed at uniting Afghans after 30 years of war.