UN rights says situation worse in AfghanistanWed 22 Apr 98 - 01:29 GMT GENEVA, April 22 (AFP) - The UN commission on human rights said Tuesday that the situation in Afghanistan had worsened over the past year, particularly for women in areas controlled by the extreme Islamic Taliban. A resolution approved without a vote by the 53 member states of the commission also expressed concern at reports of massacres of the civilian population, the exodus of millions of Afghans to Pakistan and Iran, and the deteriorating humanitarian situation. The resolution condemned the use of torture, arbitrary arrests and summary trials but welcomed the recent release of prisoners of war. The commission demanded the effective participation of women in political, economic and social life and the end of discrimination against them. A report on Afghanistan by South Korean Choong-Hyun Paik said that the absence of a central authority and the chaos in some regions were largely to blame for the worsening situation. In Kabul, which the report said was increasingly like a ghost town, some 1,500 people had reportedly been detained. Children were malnourished and a growing number of women were committing suicide. The report also said prisoners of war were ill-treated and conditions of detention were inhuman. It quoted the head of the Kabul supreme court as saying that the civil war on several fronts made it impossible for the Taliban to collect taxes and pay for the education and employment of women. The official also expressed the view that women should not be exposed to the "evil" of education, the report said. |