Human Rights Watch is sounding the alarm about the development.
They did not have time to collect their belongings or harvest their crops. Their home is now the property of the Taliban. At least six men who resisted were thrown into prison. The four of them are still sitting there.
Thus, 400 families were evicted from their homes in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, according to a report Human Rights Watch.
In all, the same thing happened to thousands of families in northern and southern Afghanistan, according to the organization.
They expel people without any justification or legal action. At the same time, assistant director Patricia Gussman says, they threaten military power.
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One minority in particular is hardest hit.
Who gets kicked out is far from random. Most of them are minorities and political opponents of the Taliban. Empty houses are given as a reward to their supporters.
according to local mediaThe Taliban allied with several local militias to carry out the evictions.
One minority in particular is hardest hit: the Hazara. They are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Most of them are Shiite Muslims who live in the center of the country.
Hazaras are a persecuted people for centuries. They were also persecuted by the first Taliban regime in the mid-1990s. Immediately after the Taliban regained power in August, 11 soldiers killed in the Afghan army because they were Hazaras.
Most of the evictions were carried out in 15 villages in the central province of Daykundi and Uruzgan, according to Human Rights Watch. There, 2,800 Hazaras were expelled in September, according to the organization.
In early October there are bound to be evictions in the provinces of Balkh, Kandahar and Helmand, north and south of the country:
Uncertainty since the coup
The time since the Taliban took power has been marked by great turmoil in Afghanistan. Several organizations have called for warnings about the regime’s human rights violations. Among other things, curtailing press freedom and banning women from working and studying.
The Taliban overthrew many female judges. The New York Times writes that they now fear for their lives.
The Taliban initially promised that the government would reflect this Ethnic and religious diversity in the country. It is now mainly made up of men from the same pro-Taliban Sunni Muslim group.
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Putting pressure on the population before winter
The Taliban’s evictions are taking place while the situation in the country is already critical.
According to the United Nations, more than 665,000 people have been forced to flee the country, having been driven from their homes due to drought, economic situation or violent conflict. And it is only during 2021. The total is there four million In the homeless country.
It is particularly cruel that families are now being evicted so that they actually have to harvest their crops. It’s just before winter hits, Gussman says.
According to the World Bank survive 60 percent of farming families in Afghanistan. They rely on harvesting their crops before the often very cold winters come.
Instead, they were now forced to move away from their farms. Without having the time to prove neither ownership nor the opportunity to complain about the eviction.
“The Taliban will have to stop the forced eviction of Hazaras and others, and resolve any property disputes in accordance with the law,” Gusman said.
Many documents regarding who owns what in Afghanistan were lost during the country’s decades-long civil war. It has created anarchy as many Taliban are asking to support their claims to the same land, he writes Watchman.
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