The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) revealed on Tuesday that "more than 200 members of the military, law enforcement, and former government officials in the country have been killed since the Taliban took power, despite a general amnesty for old adversaries." The report indicated that "at least 218 unlawful killings connected to the Taliban have been recorded since they assumed power in Afghanistan in mid-2021 until June of last year."
UNAMA noted that "in most cases, security forces in de facto control briefly detained individuals before they were killed." On the other hand, senior Taliban leaders stated that "there is an amnesty for former government and military officials by order of the movement's supreme leader." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban government responded to UNAMA, saying that they "have not received reports of any instances of non-compliance with the regime and will investigate any incidents that occurred."
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, confirmed that "the killings are a betrayal of the people's trust as victims were assured they would not be targeted." Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, stated that "the scale of the killings is shocking," expecting the actual number to be higher.
UNAMA indicated that "about half of the recorded killings occurred in the four months following the Taliban's takeover, amidst the withdrawal of US-backed foreign forces in August 2021, while 70 cases were recorded in 2022." It added, "For the majority of violations addressed in this report, there is limited information regarding the actions taken by the de facto authorities to investigate the incidents and hold perpetrators accountable," referring to the Taliban administration. In total, UNAMA documented 800 human rights violations associated with the Taliban against former government and military officials, including arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture.
