KABUL - The Transitional Justice Coordination Group (TJCG) has ramped-up pressure on the Afghan government to implement justice against those accused of human rights abuses and war crimes, including, the organization said, a number of high-ranking government officials.

Referring to the recent report on human rights in Afghanistan by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the TJCG claimed only a small number of the total human rights violators still free in Afghanistan were mentioned. The TJCG stressed that Afghanistan has become a safe haven for human rights violators.

Specifically, the TJCG has called on the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) to publish its report on war criminals and violators of human rights in Afghanistan. "The report, 'Drawing the dispute', was contained by the Karzai administration and now it is being contained by the human rights commission," TJCG member Abdul Basir Faizi said.

The TJCG has criticized the AIHRC and the Afghan government for not being more transparent about the report. "With the publication of the report, all hidden facts would be disclosed and those involved in violations of human rights and war crimes and work in high level government levels would be exposed, therefore the government should publish the report," another TJCG member named Abdullah Ahmadi said.

The social justice watchdog also touched on upcoming negotiations with the Taliban. "We are quite concerned about the transparency of the talks and the government shouldn't ignore the crimes committed by the Taliban," another member of TJCG named Wadood Pedram said.

Meanwhile, Balkh Acting Governor Atta Mohammad Noor, who was named in the HRW report as a human rights violator, has warned that he will file a complaint against the HRW report to the United Nations. "The report is totally political and neutrality hasn't been considered in it, there are some hands behind the report published by the Human Rights Watch," Noor's spokesman Munir Ahmad Farhad said.

The HRW report named eight Afghan strongmen who have allegedly been involved in human rights abuses, drug smuggling, kidnapping and hostage taking. HRW asserted that the Hamid Karzai administration failed to ensure prosecution of violators of human rights and called on the national unity government to turn over a new leaf. (Tolonews)