Next Afghan Government Must Represent Women. Amnesty says
Jeremy Lovell

LONDON, Nov 1, 2001 (Reuters) - Human rights pressure group Amnesty International called on Thursday for a future government in Afghanistan to be truly representative of all groups within the country, especially women.

In a special report it accused both the country's Taliban rulers and the opposition Northern Alliance of committing gross violations of human rights, and urged the international community to seize the opportunity help build a stable future.

"A political settlement must be based on broad consultation and participation by the widest possible cross-section of Afghan society," the report said.

Torture, summary execution, punishment amputations, stoning and the complete abolition of the rights of women had become everyday fare for Afghan civilians, beaten into subjugation by more than two decades of civil war.

"Human rights must become the agenda. Without that we see no hope for stability," the group's Secretary General Irene Khan told a news conference announcing the report.

She said the world had repeatedly ducked its obligations in Afghanistan, deepening the misery in a country already driven by abject poverty and famine. "The international community must not again turn its back on Afghanistan," Khan said.

She said once the U.S. bombing campaign had ended, there must be a concerted, long term effort to bring peace, justice and prosperity back to the country. She did not say when she thought the air strikes, in search of the world's most wanted man, Saudi-born extremist Osama bin Laden, would cease.

De-mining of one of the world's most mined nations must resume immediately peace returned, human rights monitors must be deployed, arms controls instituted and the justice system must be quickly brought into the 21st century. Those guilty of human rights violations must be punished without fear or favour and here must be no exceptions for political expediency. "There are no quick fixes," Khan said. She accused all sides of recruiting and employing child soldiers, whom she said must be demobilised immediately.

She called for all groups in Afghanistan to be drawn into a lasting solution that she insisted must come from Afghans and not be imposed from outside. Khan did not specifically include or exclude the current combatants from any future solution and refused to comment on current efforts to involve its former king, Zahir Shah.

She did not condemn the U.S. air attacks, but said they were making aid distribution more difficult.