GENEVA, Feb. 26, Reuter: A United Nations Human Rights report today accused the Afghan army of murdering and torturing civilians, saying that abuses continued after the government announced a ceasefire last month. The report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission was released as U.N. special envoy Diego Cordovez held a second day of peace talks in Geneva with the Afghan and Pakistani Foreign Ministers. Cordovez has been trying since June, 1982 to mediate an agreement on the withdrawal of 115.000 Soviet troops backing the Kabul government. A timetable for the withdrawal is the only remaining sticking point in a four point U.N. peace plan. He held separate, closeddoor talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan and his Afghan counterpart Abdul Wakil, U.N. officials said.
The Human Rights report was the third annual investigation submitted by Austrian parliamentarian Felix Ermacora, the U.N. special reporter to the 43nation commission. It updated his findings presented to the U.N. General Assembly last November.
The Kabul government did not reply to his request to visit the country in its eighth year of war, but he had extensive interviews with Afghan refugees in Pakistan earlier this month.
he welcomed the January announcement by Afghan leader Najib of a “national reconciliation” process and his offer of a six month ceasefire to the Western backed guerrillas.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 6, 1987
