Afghanistan issues blanket pardons for war crimes

Reuters
March 17, 2010

Afghanistan confirmed for the first time publicly on Tuesday that it had enacted into law a blanket pardon for war crimes and human rights abuse carried out before 2001.

Human rights groups have expressed dismay that the law appeared to have been enacted quietly, granting blanket immunity to members of all armed factions for acts committed during decades of war before the fall of the Taliban.

President Hamid Karzai had promised not to sign the National Stability and Reconciliation Law, when it was passed by parliament in 2007.

Human rights groups say they learned only this year that the bill had been published in the official gazette, making it law.

Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omer, said on Tuesday that the bill had become law because it was passed by two-thirds of the parliament and therefore did not require Karzai’s signature.

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