The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has urged for formulation of a strategy based on which individuals that have been involved in violation of human rights could be barred from taking part in the next year’s presidential election. “Ahead of the upcoming election, there must be a solution to prevent those who have violated human rights and those who are war criminals to not participate in the election. We must not let them gain power,” AIHRC Executive Director Musa Mahmoodi said on Saturday.
The necessity to prevent human rights violators and war criminals from taking part in 2014 presidential election emphasized by AIHRC stands in contradictory to what President Hamid Karzai and Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) have been saying over the last few months.
According to IEC, all Afghan nationals who fulfill the basic conditions for being nominated as a candidate in the election can take part in it. It does not matter whether an individual has the charges of violating human rights on his head or has been involved in committing crimes. As far as he has not been convicted by any court, he remains eligible for running in the elections.
Meanwhile, President Karzai has even called upon Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, to participate in the next year’s presidential election and try his luck before the Afghan public. The Afghan government has kept a soft stance towards the insurgent groups such as Taliban and Hezb e Islami and according to the president, Taliban are not terrorists but angry brothers and there has never been a plan to eradicate them. So how could not they take part in election?
When such thinking exists for Taliban who have been killing, massacring, torturing and abusing the Afghans then people who are charged with crimes and violations of human rights feel safer and confident not to only take part in elections but also remain active in government entities.
The call from IEC to prevent war criminals and violators of human rights from taking part in the upcoming presidential election is quite timely and accurate. The government must expose such people and put them on trial. It is the primary and most crucial responsibility of the Afghan government. However, keeping in view the intention of the government, it seems improbable that it gives any importance to the call of AIHRC.