Taliban killed 100 ex-Afghan gov’t officials, others — UN report

UNITED NATIONS, United States — The Taliban and their allies have killed more than 100 security and civilian personnel linked to the former US-backed Afghan government since seizing power in August, according to a new United Nations report.

The report, an advance copy of which was seen by AFP on Sunday, describes severe curtailing of human rights by Afghanistan's fundamentalist new rulers.

Taliban officials on Monday rejected the claims, insisting that the reported deaths were linked to "personal enmity" cases and were under investigation.

"The Islamic Emirate has not killed anyone since the amnesty was announced," the interior ministry said on Twitter.

The UN report said that, in addition to the political killings, women's freedoms and the right to protest had also been curbed.

Despite the Taliban's promise of general amnesties, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan "continued to receive credible allegations of killings, enforced disappearances, and other violations", the report said.

The UN said its Afghan mission had received more than 100 reports of killings that it deems credible.

More than two-thirds were "extra-judicial killings committed by the de facto authorities or their affiliates".

Additionally, "human rights defenders and media workers continue to come under attack, intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and killings," it said.

The report also detailed a government clampdown on peaceful protests, as well as a lack of access for women and girls to work and education.

"An entire complex social and economic system is shutting down," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

Afghanistan is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster made worse by the Taliban takeover, which prompted Western countries to freeze international aid and assets worth billions of dollars held abroad.

The country was almost entirely dependent on foreign aid under the previous government, but jobs have dried up and most civil servants have not been paid for months.

No country has yet recognised the Taliban government, with most watching to see how the hardline Islamists, notorious for human rights abuses during their first stint in power, restrict freedoms.

With poverty deepening and a drought devastating farming in many areas, the United Nations has warned that half the 38 million population faces food shortages.

The UN Security Council last month unanimously adopted a US resolution to allow some aid to reach desperate Afghans without violating international sanctions.

But there are growing calls from rights groups and aid organisations forthe West to release more funds, particularly in the middle of a harsh winter.