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ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan-- Unfortunately, Peter Bouckaert
is a very busy man. Bouckaert, the representative
of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Peshawar,
near the Afghan-Pakistani border, keeps
an eye on human rights violations on both
sides of the border, actual and potential.
He has more than he'd care to see. And
he expects worse to come.
"We
are very busy," said the 31-year-old Belgian, "we
work day and night seven days a week."
HRW is nothing if not impartial. Last week
alone Peter and his colleagues in New York
strongly criticized the Taliban, the United
States, and Pakistan. Among the things on Bouckaert's
plate are what he calls Pakistan's illegal
treatment of refugees, Taliban's violation
of civilian rights in their own country, and
of course America's bombing.
On Pakistan's
closure of its border with Afghanistan, Bouckaert
said "We feel that there should
be an open border and people fleeing for their
lives should be allowed to cross into Pakistan,
and Iran, and all the neighboring republics.
Pakistan is in violation of international law.
International law requires countries to accept
refugees who meet requirements of refugee conventions.
There are many people who meet those requirements."
"We understand
that there is some security concern, concern
that terrorists might infiltrate
with the refugees, but we believe that the
terrorist threat should be dealt with in a
screening process."
HRW also strongly criticized the Pakistani
government , publicly for selecting very remote
and inhospitable areas as sites for future
refugee camps, almost all of which have no
access to water.
Bouckaert, who has no colleagues inside Afghanistan,
collects information from nongovernmental organizations
who do, and compiles lists of abuses. Last
week he issued statement specifying eight instances
where Taliban troops beat up or otherwise assaulted
NGO staff and confiscated trucks and food.
On the bombing,
he said, "We are concerned
about the bombs hitting power plants electricity
stations, television stations and radio antennas.
We don't think that radio stations are legitimate
military targets, and hitting electricity grids
has a severe impact on the civilian population."
And one of
his biggest concerns is what is going to
happen in the future: "Whenever
territory changed hand in Afghanistan there
has been reprisal killings and very serous
massacres."
He said, "profound ethnic divisions," have
erupted into massacres several times in recent
Afghan history.
"We are
concerned what is happening in northern city
Mazar-e- Shariff. When the Taliban
took over there were serious massacres and
we are concerned that we could see reprisal
killings for those massacres."
Bouckaert,
who has monitored human rights violations
in Kosovo, Chechnya Sierra Leone,
Burundi Gaza Macedonia and Indonesia, said
one of the more difficult parts of his job
is "the almost complete lack of access
to the country" and even to people coming
out with reliable information.
They have developed
methods, which he called, "slow
and time consuming" since HRDW arrived
in Afghanistan during the jihad against the
Soviet Army. "We have been documenting
abuses here for a long time," he said.
And it appears he will continue to be busy,
he said.
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