Dokument #1321335
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
Information regarding the Harakat-e Islami
(various spellings), a Shia group headed by Sheik Asef Mohseni
(various spellings) current to September 1996 may be found in
AFG24949.E of 24 September 1996 and AFG19613.E of 9 February
1995.
Additional information concerning the
Harakat-e Islami, including whether or not actions attributed to
the group include war crimes or crimes against humanity, is scarce
and occasionally confused among the sources contacted by the
Research Directorate. The confusion is exacerbated by the
proliferation of groups within the Afghan conflict, many of which
have similar and even identical names (Rashid 1987, 219).
One documentary source states that
Mohseni's Harakat-e Islami, as late as 1982, had "links to extreme
leftwing Iranian organizations (the Spahi Pazdaran, better known in
the West as the Revolutionary Guards)" and that in 1987 Harakat-e
Islami and another Iran-supported Shia group were engaged in "a
vicious struggle" (Rashid 1987, 219). However, a number of sources
state that Mohseni's Harakat-e Islami was unusual among the Shia
groups in that it broke ties with Iran at a relatively early date
(1980) and did not join the Wahdat coalition of Shia groups
(Middle Eastern Studies Jan. 1995, 9; Rais 1994, 194; Roy
1995, 95-97; Rubin 1995, 222; ibid. Feb. 1996; Balancie and de la
Grange 1996, 146).
Two of the documentary sources describe
Harakat-e Islami as a moderate group (Rubin 1996, 222; Mondes
Rebelles 1996, 146), an assessment that was corroborated by a
professor of Political Science at Portland University (31 Mar.
1999) and the Director of the Centre for Afghanistan Studies (CAS)
at the University of Nebraska in Omaha (1 Apr. 1999).
According to The Fragmentation of
Afghanistan, Harakat-e Islami support is drawn primarily from
the Qizilbash ethnic group and includes rural forces based in the
Turkmen valley and "the most extensive urban underground network of
the resistance" (1996, 222; corroborated in Mondes
Rebelles 1996, 146).
Recent media reports concerning the
Harakat-e Islami are scarce among the sources consulted by the
Research Directorate but indicate good relations between Haraket-e
Islami and Iran. On 2 March 1997 IRNA radio reported that Sheikh
Mohseni was urging the people to rise up against the Taliban. On 26
June 1997 the same source reported that Harakat-e Islami and other
Shia leaders had met with the Iranian Deputy-Minister for
Asia-Pacific Affairs. The Voice of the Islamic Republic in Iran
cites a Harakat-e Islami spokesman reporting on the defence of
Bamiyan in the face of a Taliban offensive (13 Sept. 1998). The
most recent report found among the sources consulted by the
Research Directorate concerning the Harakat-e Islami, cites Sheikh
Mohseni, speaking at a meeting in Qom, Iran of "Iran-based Muslim
scholars of Afghanistan", predicting the fall of the Taliban (IRNA
5 Dec. 1998).
A number of sources were contacted by the
Research Directorate in an attempt to determine whether or not
actions attributed to the Harakat-e Islami include war crimes or
crimes against humanity. These included a Professor of Political
Science at Portland University (31 Mar. 1999), the Director of the
Centre for Afghanistan Studies (CAS) at the University of Nebraska
in Omaha (1 Apr. 1999) and a Professor at the Middle East Studies
Centre (MESC) at Ohio State University in Columbus (1 Apr. 1999).
All of the oral sources emphasized the complexity of the conflict
in Afghanistan, the weakness of central control within the
contending factions and the generally "dirty" or vicious character
of the war on the parts of all parties. The Professor of Political
Science at Portland University (31 Mar. 1999) and the Director of
the Centre for Afghanistan Studies (1 Apr. 1999) stated that, as a
Shia group that included members of the Hazara ethnic group,
Mohseni's Harakat-e Islami was frequently victimized during the war
and more likely to be on the receiving end of war crimes or crimes
against humanity. Two other oral sources contacted did not provide
information on the topic requested.
Documentary sources consulted by the
Research Directorate do not provide definitive information
concerning whether or not actions attributed to the Harakat-e
Islami include war crimes or crimes against humanity. The 1991
Human Rights Watch report The Forgotten War: Human Rights
Abuses and Violations of the Laws of War Since the Soviet
Withdrawal (available in Regional Documentation Centres),
which contains extensive information regarding human rights abuses
committed by the warring factions in Afghanistan, rarely specifies
the groups responsible. The Harakat-e Islami of Mohseni is not
specifically named among the few accounts in the report that do
specify the group involved in human rights abuses. Amnesty
International's 1996 Report and 1995 publication
Afghanistan: International Responsibility for Human Rights
Disaster do contain specific reports that allege that human
rights abuses were perpetrated by a group led by Sheikh Mohseni.
However, the reports appear to have confused Harakat-e Islami
(Islamic Movement) and Harakat-e Inqilab e-Islami (Movement for the
Islamic Revolution). In both reports Amnesty International, while
attributing the leadership of the group at issue to Sheikh Mohseni,
provides the latter name which in fact refers to an entirely
different, mainly Sunni group (Rais 1994, 194; Roy 1995, 95). It is
unclear therefore whether the Amnesty International reports of
human rights violations (predominantly related to conditions in
places of detention) refer to the Harakat-e Inquilab e-Islami, with
the leadership mistakenly attributed to Sheikh Mohseni, or to
Sheikh Mohseni's group, with the name incorrectly stated as
Harakat-e Inquilab e-Islami. The Research Directorate was unable to
obtain clarification on this issue from Amnesty International
within the time constraints of this Response. In its 1996
Annual Report, the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) states that it made visits to persons detained by the
Harakat-e Islami "faction" in Kabul. However, no details regarding
the treatment of detained persons or the conditions of detention
are provided in the report (1 June 1997).
In its 1995 Report, Amnesty
International correctly identifies the Harakat-e Islami in an
account of clashes between Shia groups and states that:
Armed clashes broke out in September between two Shi'a factions - Hezb-e-Wahdat, allied to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Harakat-e-Islami, allied to Borhannudin Rabbani. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands injured during the clashes. Scores of them were believed to have been killed deliberately and arbitrarily (REFWORLD).
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the
list of additional sources consulted in researching this
Response.
References
Amnesty International. 1996. Report
1996. (REFWORLD).
_____. 1995a. Report 1995.
(REFWORLD).
_____. 1995b. Afghanistan:
International Responsibility for Human Rights Disaster.
(REFWORLD).
Balencie, Jean-Marc and Arnaud de la
Grange. 1996. Mondes Rebelles: Acteurs, Conflits et Violences
Politiques. Paris: Éditions Michalon.
Director, Centre for Afghanistan Studies
(CAS), University of Nebraska, Omaha. 1 April 1999. Telephone
interview.
Human Rights Watch. 1991.
Afghanistan: The Forgotten War: Human Rights Abuses and
Violations of the Laws of War Since the Soviet Withdrawal. New
York: Human Rights Watch.
International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC). 1 June 1997. Annual Report 1996. [Internet] http://www.icrc.ch [Accessed 30 Mar.
1999].
IRNA [Tehran, in English]. 5 December
1998. "Afghan Scholars Meet in Qom to Discuss Afghan Problems."
(FBIS-NES-98-339 5 Dec. 1998/WNC)
_____. 26 June 1997. "Iranian Official
Reviews Results of Afghan Visit." (FBIS-NES-97-177 26 June
1997/WNC)
_____. 2 March 1997. "Islamic Party
Calls for Resistance Against Taleban." (FBIS-NES-97-061 2 Mar.
1997/WNC)
Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran
[Mashhad, in Persian]. 13 September 1999. "Afghan Opposition:
Fighting Continues for Town of Bamian." (FBIS-NES-98-257 14 Sept.
1998/WNC)
Middle Eastern Studies
[London]. January 1995. Hafizullah Emadi. "Exporting Iran's
Revolution: The Radicalisation of the Shiite Movement in
Afghanistan."
Professor, Middle East Studies Centre
(MESC), Ohio State University, Columbus. 1 April 1999. Telephone
interview.
Professor of Political Science, Portland
University. 31 March 1999. Telephone interview.
Rais, Rasul Bakhsh. 1994. War
Without Winners: Afghanistan's Uncertain Transition After the Cold
War. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Rashid, Abdul. 1987. "The Afghan
Resistance: Its Background, Its Nature and the Problem of Unity,"
in Afghanistan: The Great Game Revisited. Edited by Klass,
Roseanne. Freedom House.
Roy, Olivier. 1995. Afghanistan:
From Holy War to Civil War. Princeton: Darwin Press.
Rubin, Barnett. February 1996.
Afghanistan: The Forgotten Crisis. WRITENET.
(REFWORLD).
_____. 1995. The Fragmentation of
Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International
System. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Additional Sources Consulted
Danish Immigration Service. July 1998.
Report on the Fact-finding Mission to Afghanistan.
Helsinki Watch/Asia Watch. March 1988
. By All Parties to the Conflict: Violations of the Laws of War in Afghanistan.
Laber, Jeri and Barnett R. Rubin. 1988."A Nation is Dying": Afghanistan Under the Soviets, 1979-87.
Maley, William and Fazel Haq Saikal. 1992.Political Order in Post-Communist Afghanistan.
Mousavi, S.A. 1998.The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study.
Olesen, Asta. 1995.Islam and Politics in Afghanistan.
Two sources contacted did not provide
information on the topic requested.
Unsuccessful attempts to contact an oral
source.
Electronic sources: IRB databases,
LEXIS/NEXIS, Internet, REFWORLD, WNC.