Forgive and forget: Victims plead for Afghan peace

Families gather at the graves of their relatives killed in local conflicts, adorned with their pictures, on the outskirts of Kabul on Monday. (AP)
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Updated 17 September 2020
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Forgive and forget: Victims plead for Afghan peace

  • ‘Civilian voices should be heard’ in Doha talks, campaigners say

DHAKA: With anguish in his voice, Baz Mohammad Timoory recalls the night when 13 of his family members, including his mother, were killed in an air raid on the outskirts of Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province.

It has been a year and a half since the attack, but the 30-year-old laborer still does not know if the strike was conducted by the Afghan government or US-led troops stationed in the country.

“It’s not easy to see the deaths of your brother, nephews, nieces, mother and sisters,” he told Arab News from Kunduz, a lush agrarian province which lies 340 km north of Kabul. But with the government and Taliban negotiators holding talks in Doha to end decades of conflict in the war-ravaged country, Timoory said he is ready to “forgive and forget the past.”

He added: “I am not after taking revenge. I want the two sides to find a solution for bringing peace to Afghanistan.”

Timoory is not the only person who shares that sentiment.

According to a UN report released in February, 100,000 Afghans have died in the conflict since 2009.

The global body conceded that the number could be much higher if it included civilian deaths from previous conflicts.

“We want an end to the war in the country, so others live in security, harmony and no more children become orphans and mothers widows,” said Bashir Ahmad.

He is the eldest son of police officer Nasir Ahmad, who was killed in a Taliban attack three weeks ago, his family said.

The Ahmads are part of a group of victims and survivors who said they are ready to “forgive” the Taliban, provided they “choose the path of peace.”

Others have urged the “restoration of justice” and punishment for Taliban members.

“Victims of war warn that without a proper mechanism to address widespread past violations, in the best scenario, we will have a fragile peace. At worst, the conflict will resume after a brief pause,” said a statement by the group.

The statement, addressed to both sides in the Doha talks, was released in Kabul last week ahead of the negotiations which began on Saturday behind closed doors.

The talks are expected to be long and complicated as the two sides struggle to end the fighting and protect the rights of women and minorities. There are 42 negotiators from both teams, including five women on the Kabul government’s side, but there is no one representing the victims’ families.

When questioned on their exclusion from the talks, Fawzia Koofi, a female government negotiator, said: “It is not clear if the team will remain the same until the end of the talks or change. With time, there might be additions and changes.”

The long-awaited talks are based on an agreement signed between the US and the Taliban in February this year in Qatar, where the Taliban have had their political office since 2013.

Initially scheduled to take place on March 10, the intra-Afghan talks faced several rounds of delays, mainly due to a hold up in the release of about 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for government hostages held by the militant group.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was slow to release the remaining 320 Taliban prisoners who were accused of serious crimes by several countries, including France and Australia.

Meanwhile, there are accusations that government and US-led operations against the Taliban led to civilian deaths.

Human rights campaigners have called for civilian “voices to be heard” during the Qatar dialogue and said that the ongoing talks and the February accord fail to protect victims’ rights.

Lal Gul Lal, chief of Afghanistan’s Human Rights Organization, a body funded by donors, said: “About 600,000 civilians have been killed in the past 19 years.

“Failure to address past atrocities, killings and to restore justice has been one of the main reasons for the continuation of the crisis and failure of past peace deals in Afghanistan,” he said, in reference to the former Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in the 1980s. Subsequent peace deals were prepared, but soon fell apart.

“If we want justice, it is for the sake of peace; both are interdependent. The voices of victims should be heard,” he told Arab News.

In the 2001 Bonn deal, signed after the Taliban was removed from power, there was a push for transitional justice, but “due to foreign and domestic pressures and interests, it was never implemented in Afghanistan,” Lal said.

Sharzad Akbar, chairperson of the government-appointed Independent Human Rights Commission, said victims should be given a platform to address their grievances, and their “suffering should be acknowledged and humanitarian needs addressed during the talks.

“We recognize all civilian victims of conflict, from violence including suicide attacks, air strikes, night raids, roadside bombs and more. This is not only the requirement of international law and good practice, but also a duty of the negotiation teams and a right of victims in Islam,” she said.


Afghan refugees stuck in Pakistan as Germany halts entry program

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Afghan refugees stuck in Pakistan as Germany halts entry program

BERLIN/ISLAMABAD: In a cramped guesthouse in Pakistan’s capital, 25-year-old Kimia spends her days sketching women — dancing, playing, resisting — in a notebook that holds what’s left of her hopes.

A visual artist and women’s rights advocate, she fled Afghanistan in 2024 after being accepted on to a German humanitarian admission program aimed at Afghans considered at risk under the Taliban.

A year later, Kimia is stuck in limbo.

Thousands of kilometers away in Germany, an election in February where migration dominated public debate and a change of government in May resulted in the gradual suspension of the program.

Now the new center-right coalition intends to close it.

The situation echoes that of nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared to settle in the United States, but who then found themselves in limbo in January after US President Donald Trump took office and suspended refugee programs.

Kimia’s interview at the German embassy which she hoped would result in a flight to the country and the right to live there, was abruptly canceled in April. Meanwhile, Germany pays for her room, meals and medical care in Islamabad.

“All my life comes down to this interview,” she told Reuters. She gave only her artist name for fear of reprisal.

“We just want to find a place that is calm and safe,” she said of herself and the other women at the guesthouse.

The admission program began in October 2022, intending to bring up to 1,000 Afghans per month to Germany who were deemed at risk because of their work in human rights, justice, politics or education, or due to their gender, religion or sexual orientation.

However, fewer than 1,600 arrived in over two years due to holdups and the cancelation of flights.

Today, around 2,400 Afghans are waiting to travel to Germany, the German foreign ministry said. Whether they will is unclear. NGOs say 17,000 more are in the early stages of selection and application under the now dormant scheme.

The foreign ministry said entry to Germany through the program was suspended pending a government review, and the government will continue to care for and house those already in the program.

It did not answer Reuters’ questions on the number of canceled interviews, or how long the suspension would last.

Reuters spoke with eight Afghans living in Pakistan and Germany, migration lawyers and advocacy groups, who described the fate of the program as part of a broader curb on Afghan asylum claims in Germany and an assumption that Sunni men in particular are not at risk under the Taliban.

The German government says there is no specific policy of reducing the number of Afghan migrants. However, approval rates for Afghan asylum applicants dropped to 52 percent in early 2025, down from 74 percent in 2024, according to the Federal Migration Office (BAMF).

POLITICAL SHIFT

Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021. Since May 2021 Germany has admitted about 36,500 vulnerable Afghans by various pathways including former local staff, the government said.

Thorsten Frei, chief of staff to Germany’s new chancellor Friedrich Merz, said humanitarian migration has now reached levels that “exceed the integration capacity of society.”

“As long as we have irregular and illegal migration to Germany, we simply cannot implement voluntary admission programs.”

The interior ministry said programs like the one for Afghans will be phased out and they are reviewing how to do so.

Several Afghans are suing the government over the suspension. Matthias Lehnert, a lawyer representing them, said

Germany could not simply suspend their admissions without certain conditions such as the person no longer being at risk.

Since former chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders in 2015 to over a million refugees, public sentiment has shifted, partly as a result of several deadly attacks by asylum seekers. The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), capitalizing on the anti-migrant sentiment, surged to a historic second-place finish in February’s election.

Afghans Reuters spoke with said they feared they were being unfairly associated with the perpetrators, and this was putting their own lives at risk if they had to return to Afghanistan.

“I’m so sorry about those people who are injured or killed ... but it’s not our fault,” Kimia said.

Afghan Mohammad Mojib Razayee, 30, flew to Germany from Cyprus in March under a European Union voluntary solidarity mechanism, after a year of waiting with 100 other refugees. He said he was at risk after criticizing the Taliban. Two weeks after seeking asylum in Berlin, his application was rejected.

He was shocked at the ruling. BAMF found no special protection needs in his case, a spokesperson said.

“It’s absurd — but not surprising. The decision-making process is simply about luck, good or bad,” said Nicolas Chevreux, a legal adviser with AWO counseling center in Berlin.

Chevreux said he believes Afghan asylum cases have been handled differently since mid-2024, after a mass stabbing at a rally in the city of Mannheim, in which six people were injured and a police officer was killed. An Afghan asylum seeker was charged and is awaiting trial.

’YOU DON’T LIVE’

Spending most days in her room, surrounded by English and German textbooks, Kimia says returning to Afghanistan is unthinkable. Her art could make her a target.

“If I go back, I can’t follow my dreams — I can’t work, I can’t study. It’s like you just breathe, but you don’t live.”

Under Taliban rule, women are banned from most public life, face harassment by morality police if unaccompanied by a male guardian, and must follow strict dress codes, including face coverings. When security forces raided homes, Kimia said, she would frantically hide her artwork.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and local culture and that they are not targeting former foes.

Hasseina, is a 35-year-old journalist and women’s rights activist from Kabul who fled to Pakistan and was accepted as an applicant on to the German program.

Divorced and under threat from both the Taliban and her ex-husband’s family, who she says have threatened to kill her and take her daughter, she said returning is not an option.

The women are particularly alarmed as Pakistan is intensifying efforts to forcibly return Afghans. The country says its crackdown targets all undocumented foreigners for security reasons. Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not respond to request for comment on how this affects Afghans awaiting German approval.

The German foreign ministry has said it is aware of two families promised admission to Germany who were detained for deportation, and it was working with Pakistan authorities to stop this.

Marina, 25, fled Afghanistan after being separated from her family. Her mother, a human rights lawyer, was able to get to Germany. Marina has been waiting in Pakistan to follow her for nearly two years with her baby.

“My life is stuck, I want to go to Germany, I want to work, I want to contribute. Here I am feeling so useless,” she said.

Four pro-Palestinian activists charged over UK military base break-in

Updated 37 min 23 sec ago
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Four pro-Palestinian activists charged over UK military base break-in

  • British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organization

Four pro-Palestinian activists have been charged after breaking into a military air base in central England last month and damaging two planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.

Counter-terrorism police said the charges were for conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

The four, aged between 22 and 35, remain in custody and are due to appear in a London court on Thursday. Police said they will present evidence to court linking the offenses to terrorism.

The campaign group Palestine Action has said it was behind the incident on June 20, when the air base in Oxfordshire in central England was broken into and red paint was sprayed over two planes used for refueling and transport.

British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. The group has condemned the decision as an “abuse of power” and announced plans to challenge it in court.

The police statement said those charged had caused 7 million pounds ($9.55 million) worth of damage to the two aircraft at the Brize Norton Royal Air Force base.

Palestine Action has routinely targeted companies in Britain with links to Israel, including Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems. 2


Hotels and homes evacuated on Greek island of Crete as wildfire burns out of control

Updated 03 July 2025
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Hotels and homes evacuated on Greek island of Crete as wildfire burns out of control

  • Homes were reported damaged as flames swept through hillside forests, fanned by strong winds
  • As fires crested ridgelines and edged toward residential areas, the blaze sent clouds of ash into the night sky

ATHENS, Greece: A fast-moving wildfire whipped by gale-force winds burned through the night and into Thursday on Greece’s southern island of Crete, prompting the evacuation of more than 1,500 people from hotels and homes.

The fire department said 230 firefighters backed up by 10 water-dropping aircraft were battling the flames, which have burned through forest and farmland in Crete’s Ierapetra area on the island’s southern coast. Two people were evacuated by boat overnight, while six private boats were on standby in case further evacuations by sea became necessary, the coast guard said.

Homes were reported damaged as flames swept through hillside forests, fanned by strong winds.

“It’s a very difficult situation. The fire is very hard to contain. Right now, they cannot contain it,” Nektarios Papadakis, a civil protection official at the regional authority, told The Associated Press overnight.

“The tourists who were moved out are all okay. They have been taken to an indoor basketball arena and hotels in other regions of the island,” he said.

The Fire Service and a civil protection agency issued mobile phone alerts for the evacuations and appealed to residents not to return to try to save their property.

As fires crested ridgelines and edged toward residential areas, the blaze sent clouds of ash into the night sky, illuminated by the headlights of emergency vehicles and water trucks that lined the coastal road near the resorts of Ferma and Achlia on the southeast of Crete.

Several residents were treated for breathing difficulties, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

Crete is one of Greece’s most popular destinations for both foreign and domestic tourists.

The risk of wildfires remained very high across Crete and parts of southern Greece Thursday, according to a daily bulletin issued by the Fire Service.

Wildfires are frequent in the country during its hot, dry summers, and the fire department has already tackled dozens across Greece so far this year.

In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 died, including some who drowned while trying to swim away from the flames.


Ryanair cancels 170 flights due to French air traffic controllers strikes

Updated 03 July 2025
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Ryanair cancels 170 flights due to French air traffic controllers strikes

Ryanair said it was forced to cancel 170 flights affecting over 30,000 passengers due to a national strike by air traffic controllers in France, planned on Thursday and Friday.

“In addition to flights to/from France being canceled, this strike will also affect all French overflights,” the Irish airline said in a statement.


Thailand set for another acting PM after cabinet reshuffle

Updated 03 July 2025
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Thailand set for another acting PM after cabinet reshuffle

  • Power passed to transport minister and deputy prime minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit who took office for only one full day
  • The revolving door of leadership comes as the kingdom is battling to revive a spluttering economy and secure a US trade deal averting President Donald Trump’s looming threat of a 36 percent tariff

Bangkok: Thailand’s king is scheduled Thursday to swear in a new cabinet in a reshuffle that will see a third person in a week take on the role as the country’s prime minister.

The Southeast Asian nation’s top office was plunged into turmoil on Tuesday when the Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra pending an ethics probe which could take months.

Power passed to transport minister and deputy prime minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit who took office for only one full day, as the bombshell was dropped in an awkward interim ahead of the reshuffle.

When former defense minister Phumtham Wechayachai is sworn into his new position as interior minister he will also take on a deputy prime minister role outranking Suriya’s — thus becoming the acting premier.

Before Paetongtarn was ousted she assigned herself the role of culture minister in the new cabinet, meaning she is set to keep a perch in the upper echelons of power.

She arrived at the Government House on Thursday morning for a group portrait before heading to the Grand Palace to meet King Maha Vajiralongkorn for the closed-door oath-taking.

The newly-appointed cabinet is set to hold its first meeting Thursday afternoon, with a royal statement expected in the evening.

The revolving door of leadership comes as the kingdom is battling to revive a spluttering economy and secure a US trade deal averting President Donald Trump’s looming threat of a 36 percent tariff.

Phumtham is considered a loyal lieutenant to the suspended Paetongtarn and her father Thaksin Shinawatra, the powerful patriarch of a dynasty which has dominated Thai 21st-century politics.

Thaksin-linked parties have been jousting with the pro-military, pro-conservative establishment since the early 2000s, but analysts say the family’s political brand has now entered decline.

The 71-year-old Phumtham earned the nickname “Big Comrade” for his association with a left-wing youth movement of the 1970s, but transitioned to politics through a role in Thaksin’s telecoms empire.

In previous cabinets he held the defense and commerce portfolios, and spent a spell as acting prime minister after a crisis engulfed the top office last year.

Paetongtarn has been hobbled over a longstanding territorial dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, which boiled over into cross-border clashes in May, killing one Cambodian soldier.

When she made a diplomatic call to Cambodian ex-leader Hun Sen, she called him “uncle” and referred to a Thai military commander as her “opponent,” according to a leaked recording causing widespread backlash.

A conservative party abandoned her ruling coalition — sparking the cabinet reshuffle — accusing her of kowtowing to Cambodia and undermining the military.

The Constitutional Court said there was “sufficient cause to suspect” Paetongtarn breached ministerial ethics in the diplomatic spat.
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