In Afghanistan, the Taliban forcefully evict the Hazaras from their land
A man from the Hazara minority in his field in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, on October 2, 2021 (illustrative image).
BULENT KILIC AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
As the country grapples with drought, economic hardship and escalating conflict, Taliban officials have driven thousands of residents, mostly from the Hazara Shiite community, from their land to redistribute them to their own supporters, says Human Rights Watch.
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Since the Taliban came to power in August, hundreds of Hazara families have been evicted from their lands.
Taliban officials are ordering them "
to leave their homes and farms, often with just a few days' notice and without any legal recourse to prove their property rights
," Human Rights Watch said in
a statement
released Friday, October 22.
#Afghanistan: The #taliban expel members of the #Hazara Shiite minority from their own lands and homes, some now having to live in camps for internally displaced people.
It's unfair and illegal, HRW points out.
https://t.co/8fA6Xodfvr pic.twitter.com/ZovO3twQfr
- HRW in French (@hrw_fr) October 22, 2021
Persecuted minority
Deportations which, according to the NGO, are akin to "
collective punishment
".
Members of this Shiite minority have long been the object of persecution by the Taliban.
When they first came to power, between 1996 and 2001, they were victims of mass killings by the Islamists.
For Human Rights Watch, these expulsions are therefore a way of further persecuting them.
"
The Taliban use the pretext of territorial conflicts to expel these people and they do it by favoring their supporters, those who are on their side in the conflict,"
explains Patricia Gossman, deputy director of the Asia division for the NGO Human Rights Watch.
In some provinces, it is the Hazaras who are evicted from their homes. It is a minority that has long suffered abuse from the Taliban. It is therefore a way for the Taliban to reward their supporters while punishing those they consider to be their enemies, particularly the Hazaras. They say that these lands did not belong to them since the previous government was corrupt and therefore the decisions that could have been taken at the time no longer hold water.
"
Five provinces are concerned: at the beginning of October, Helmand, located in the south of Afghanistan, and the Balkh, in the north, and before that, Daikundi, Uruzgan and Kandahar.
According to the NGO, people associated with the previous government are also subject to deportation.
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