April 27, 2004

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Some 300 Afghan women protestors in the Pakistani capital urged Afghan president Hamid Karzai not to rely on warlords, with notorious records of human rights abuses, for rebuilding the war-ravaged country.  

"Compromising and dealing with the (anti-Taliban) Northern Alliance is not going to bear any fruit for anyone including Mr. Karzai," the Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women (RAWA) said in a statement on Tuesday.  

Northern Alliance commanders dominate the post-Taliban administration headed by Karzai since they ousted the hardliners from power with the help of a United States-led military coalition for harbouring Osama bin Laden.  

The protestors gathered outside United Nations offices in Islamabad to mark the twin anniversaries of the 1978 communist coup in Afghanistan and the 1992 capture of Kabul by anti-communist forces.  

The women's group, which campaigned clandestinely at great risk against the Taliban and their sometimes brutal repression of women, said the current regime supported figures who committed past abuses against women.  

"On the one hand different countries of the world are promising to give eight billion dollars in aid, and on the other hand Mr. Karzai is considering the appointment of the dirtiest elements... to important government posts," it said.  

In its statement RAWA accused the current governor of Herat province, anti-Taliban and anti-Soviet warlord Ismail Khan, of "insulting and humiliating" women by making them undergo hospital examinations "to see if they have recently had sexual intercourse."  

During the five-year rule of the Taliban women were banned from classrooms and workplaces and forced to wear the all-covering burqa veil in rarely-permitted forays from home.