Afghanistan: Information on the Harakat-e Islami (various spellings) including whether or not actions attributed to the group include war crimes or crimes against humanity
Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
Publication Date | 1 April 1999 |
Citation / Document Symbol | AFG31499.E |
Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Afghanistan: Information on the Harakat-e Islami (various spellings) including whether or not actions attributed to the group include war crimes or crimes against humanity, 1 April 1999, AFG31499.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad8b38.html [accessed 28 May 2023] |
Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
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]
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.