3 people killed in Afghanistan last week

KABUL (Pajhwok): UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres last week hailed a two-day meeting in Doha on Afghanistan as productive and hoped Afghan rulers would participate in future such meetings.

Last week’s key events:

• Guterres hopes caretaker govt to attend future meetings
• Doha talks productive: Guterres; unsuccessful: Russia
• Some countries concerned about Afghan humanitarian situation
• Mujahid: We continue to prosper, concerns baseless.
• Swidzerland, Global Fund pledge $6.6m aid to Afghanistan

Casualities

Three people were killed in Afghanistan last week in various incidents.

Local officials say a robber was killed in a clash with security forces, the son of a previous district chief was gunned down in Baghlan and in Ghazni, one person was killed in a clash between two families.

Note: These figures are based on reports reaching Pajhwok Afghan News. Some incidents may have gone unreported or sources provided incorrect figures.

In the previous week, two people had been killed in Afghanistan.

Doha meeting

A two-day meeting, which concluded on Monday in the Qatari capital, aimed to bring together member states and international envoys to address various issues confronting Afghanistan, but a special envoy for Afghanistan was not appointed in the meeting.

Delegations and special representatives from 28 countries and international organizations attended the talks in the absence of any offuical representative from Afghanistan.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the caretaker government of Afghanistan had set a number of conditions for participating in this meeting, which, according to him, were not acceptable to the United Nations. He hoped that representatives of the Islamic Emirate would participate in more such meetings in the future.

The Doha meeting did not appoint a UN representative for Afghanistan  But Guterres said that further consultations will be held on this matter.

Journalist Lotfullah Najafizada, former lawmaker Shah Gul Rezaei, women’s rights activists Mehbooba Siraj and Mitra Mehran had been invited to the Doha meeting on behalf of Afghanistan’s civil society.

However, Russia abstained from the huddle, terming the caretaker government’s demands as legitimate.

Doha meeting successful or failure?

Guterres called the meeting productive and said: “We want a peaceful Afghanistan, an Afghanistan that is at peace with itself and its neighbors and a country with national sovereignty. able to fulfill its international commitments…Afghanistan should not become a center of militancy; the rights of women and girls should be respected and there should be a government in which all ethnic groups can participate.

Russian Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the second UN—convened meeting in Doha on Afghanistan was a ‘failure’.

Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman of IEA, said the Doha meeting was unsuccessful due to the absence of the caretaker government.

Interaction with IEA

Japanese ambassador in Afghanistan Takayoshi Kormaya in a meeting with acting minister of information and culture Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa has said his country wants positive ties with the IEA.

Kormaya said his country desired positive ties with the IEA and the time had come for the international community to interact with the Afghanistan caretaker government.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN said that the world’s engagement with the Islamic Emirate was important.

Speaking at a press briefing following the conclusion of the second Doha meeting on Afghanistan, Vasily Nebenzya said that although not recognized by Moscow, being engaged with Kabul is paramount.

“… We have no choice but to engage pragmatically with the de facto authorities of Afghanistan whom we did not recognize like nobody else. But the reality is there, we have to engage with those people who rule Afghanistan now,” said Vasily Nebenzya.

Human rights

A statement from the German Foreign Ministry said: “At the Munich Security Conference 2024, we, the Foreign Ministers of Albania, Andorra, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, the Netherlands and Romania express our deepest concerns about the ongoing human rights violations of women and girls in Afghanistan, and urge the de facto authorities to put an end to systematic gender persecution, which could amount to crimes against humanity.”

According to the statement, this included the recent wave of detentions of women and girls in Afghanistan by the authorities. “We demand their immediate release and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the fundamental rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.”

Zabihulllah Mujahid said: “Afghan citizens, including women, are entitled to their rights, public rights, honor and properties are protected, they have physical and spiritual security, the doors of courts are open for all Afghans without any discrimination, the economic situation of the country is on the path to stability, the local currency is stable, mega projects are being implemented, development has been made in health, education and infrastructure sectors and the process is ongoing.”

Mujahid said despite all these developments made in the past two and a half years, a wrong imatge of Afghanista was being promoted and tension and fears spread about Afghanistan, which demonstrated the lack of understanding by these countries or some circles provided wrong information intentionally to these types of gatherings.

Humanitarian aid

Switzerland has donated $1.9 million to the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund (AHF). The Global Fund has approved over US$4.7 million in emergency funding to deliver HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria services to 1.3 million Afghans returning from Pakistan.

sa/ma

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