Afghanistan: UN team investigates suspected mass graves

Responding to the concerns of the local community in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, a United Nations team has been dispatched to the site of suspected mass graves in the area, according to a UN spokesman in the country.

Spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that UN human rights and police advisers would accompany a representative of the Minister of Interior to Bamiyan. He added that the team would undertake a preliminary assessment and consult with the local community and authorities before returning to the Afghan capital.

"We were informed that representatives of the Hazara community in Bamiyan believe that the graves contain bodies of members of their community, killed, by their estimates, approximately one month before the fall of the Taliban," the spokesman reported. "The community was anxious to exhume the bodies for proper burial, but did not wish to do so before the site and its evidence were properly recorded."

Meanwhile, the President of the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Hamid Ghodse, today welcomed a decree issued by the Interim Administration last week banning farmers from repaying loans with opium.

In a statement issued in Vienna, the Board urged the Afghan authorities to ensure that the ban is strictly and effectively enforced, while calling on the international community to support national efforts to eradicate illicit poppy cultivation.

"The Board reiterates that reconstruction of Afghanistan, as well as lasting peace and security in Afghanistan, cannot possibly be achieved without addressing the problem of drugs, which will require the simultaneous involvement of both the Afghan authorities and all relevant intergovernmental bodies concerned with its reconstruction," the statement said.