After last year’s parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, ordinary Afghans were deluded when many former warlords, Taliban commanders and other human rights violators found their way to the country’s parliament. This fact, however, still lies burried under the pile of media hype covering the "positive" outcome of the "historic" event.
According to reports, as many as three former Taliban commanders are now members of parliament. These members include the Taliban responsible official who directly oversaw the destruction of the 2000 year-old giant statues of Buddha in Bamian, and Maulana Abdul Salam Rocketi, a notorious commander, known for his involvement in civilian executions.
Another member of parliament, who is as bad a violator of human rights as the Taliban, is Professor Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, an ethnic Pushtoon responsible for the training of Al-Qaeda recruits in Afghanistan and killing of civilians en mass. What is worse, however, is that he is still very powerful and influential. Here is a brief profile of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf.
- Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf was born in 1946 in Paghman Valley, Afghanistan.
- He holds a degree in religion from Kabul University and a masters from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.
- He was a member of the radical group Akhwan-ul-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) founded in 1969 by two other human rights violators, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Dr. Syed Burhanuddin Rabbani. This group was known to engage in radical Islamic practices, such as throwing acid in the faces of unveiled women.
- In 1973 he collaborated with Burhanuddin Rabbani and a Tajik warlord, Massoud in a failed coup attempt against the then president, Dawood Khan.
- Until after the Soviet invasion in 1979, he was only recognised by the Pakistanis as the leader of the Ittihad-i-Islami Baraye Azadi Afghanistan {Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan} faction, known for its serious human rights violations during the civil war of 1992-1996.
- Sayyaf, a Wahabi Muslim, had a close relationship with Osama bin Laden during the jihad against the Soviets. Together they established a network of training camps, bunkers and emplacements in the Jalalabad area. The facilities were later used by Al-Qaeda personnel.
- After the withdrawal of the Soviet forces in 1989, and the overthrow of the Soviet-backed régime in 1992, Sayyaf’s organisation’s human rights record became noticeably worse, underlined by their involvement in the infamous massacres and rampages in the streets of Kabul against civilians.
- In 2001 Sayyaf was the only Pashtun member of the Northern Alliance.
- In 2003 Sayyaf was elected to be one of the 502 representatives at the Constitutional Loya Jirga in Kabul. As a former mujahideen leader, Sayyaf heavily influenced the future constitution by forcing radical Islamic clauses into it.
- In 2004 he exerted pressure on Karzai to appoint his ally, Fazal Hadi Shinwari, chief justice. In violation of the constitution, Shinwari, who still holds the post, was over the age limit and had training only in religious, not secular, law.
For more information on Sayyaf’s atrocities during the civil war of 1992-1996, see Human Rights Watch’s report, Blood-stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan’s Legacy of Impunity.
Sources used in compiling this profile:
Tags: Afghan parliament, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Sayyaf, Afghanistan
fuck u bousted u are the fucken person which bring the country to worst and fuck the public economy distroyed the accomidtions and fainally u did too much worng thing that is not forgetable and fucken
i have to many bad words to u but i m tired , i can writ it hope u dont mind i dont like u beard i fuck u dought i fuck u sister u fuck the country u are son of bitch