RAWA Pledges Continued Fight for Afghan Women's Rights

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has issued a declaration in which the group criticizes U.N.-brokered peace talks between the Taliban and Northern Alliance and makes recommendations on how other nations and the U.N. might help the Afghan people.

On the possibility of the Taliban and the Northern Alliance forming a joint government, the RAWA declaration argued, "To endeavor to unite the fundamentalist bands is to unite the blood-dripping hands of murderers in the crushing oppression of the Afghan people and of Afghan women in particular .... Attainment of even an outline of democracy under the domination of the fundamentalists in an unattainable dream."

RAWA further declared, "We reiterate that unless and until the existing murderer fundamentalist leaders are placed in the defendants seats for crimes against humanity and perpetration of atrocities, no peace initiative in our country can be credible in the eyes of our devastated people."

RAWA's recommendations on how the U.N. and other nations can be "true friends of Afghan people" are as follows. "If the UN really wants an end [to] the human rights violations in Afghanistan, it should focus on disarming all fundamentalist bands in Afghanistan through deployment of a UN peacekeeping force, rely on and support democratic elements in the country, and pave the way for a traditional loya jirga and then free elections in Afghanistan, which would engineer a state apparatus on the basis of democracy and human rights principles in our country."

Media Resources: Frontier Post - April 12, 1999

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