NEW DELHI - UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson has voiced concern about reports of summary executions of surrendered Taleban fighters in Afghanistan and says such acts violate the Geneva Convention on Human Rights.
"I'm hearing reports from Kabul, Mazir-i-Sharif of summary executions of people who have laid down their arms," she said, as US-backed anti-Taleban fighters from the Northern Alliance consolidated their grip on Afghanistan.
"This is contrary to international humanitarian law, contrary to the Geneva Convention," Robinson told a news conference in the Indian capital where she attended a human rights meeting.
"Those conventions apply in Afghanistan and must be upheld."
Robinson said she had discussed a controversial new Indian anti-terrorism decree with government leaders, and added that it was important for countries to combat terrorism following the September 11 attacks on the United States.
But they should not lose sight of human rights, she said.
If anti-terror measures were regarded as repressive, it could have the counter-effect of "breeding resentful youngsters who might be manipulated to become future terrorists," she said.
Robinson, who last week expressed concern over the Northern Alliance's record of human rights abuses, urged that "very clear standards" of treatment of captured prisoners be imposed.
"The best way to get that message through is that if there are summary executions...then any leader of such forces would not participate in a future government," she said.
There have been a number of reports of executions as Northern Alliance forces have swept across Afghanistan. Foreign fighters for the Taleban -- Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens -- are said to have suffered some of the fiercest retribution.
She said the issue of accountability over past brutal acts in Afghanistan must be addressed, keeping in mind the West turned a blind eye to human rights violations there for years.
- REUTERS
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