Nazia Nazar
Afghanistan’s President Dr. Ashraf Ghani ordered a thorough investigation into institutionalized sexual abuse of children by police, after reports revealed the Taliban were using child sex slaves to launch deadly insider attacks. In mid-June, AFP had in its report given the details of this evil custom, its causes and the consequences, There has been international condemnation of paedophilic, which is said to have been exploited by the Taliban for insider attacks and within two years hundreds of policemen have been killed in the southern province of Uruzgan. A statement issued by the presidential office said: “Anyone, regardless of rank within the forces found guilty will be prosecuted and punished.” This ancient custom is deeply entrenched in Uruzgan, where officials and survivors of such attacks said that the Taliban are recruiting the victims to attack their abusers.
President action has come after two weeks of the release of AFP report and ahead of two crucial donor conferences on Afghanistan in Warsaw and Brussels this year. The Taliban are accused of using child sex slaves to attack police in southern Afghanistan, exploiting the cultural practice of paedophilic boy play for military gain, which the Taliban reject as propaganda. According to one report, the Taliban had emerged after a student of madarassa in Kandahar was abducted and abused by a war lord. Mullah Omer’ supporters and of course his students fought for recovery of the abducted child. From then on, the Taliban organized the movement and had been victorious against the warlords and other religious groups. In 1996, the Taliban were controling over 90 per cent of Afghanistan. Predatory sexual behaviour by Afghan soldiers and police could stir public anger.
It would also undermine US and Afghan public support for the ANDSF, and put the enormous investment at risk. The practice also continues to embolden the Taliban’s desire to reassert sharia law in Afghanistan and is fuelling their insurgency. “Such wild abuses of the predatory mujahideen forces in the early 1990s drove the popularity of the austere Taliban, helping them sweep to power across most of the country. Similar behaviour of the government forces after 2001 is also helping to inspire the insurgency,” a Western official in Kabul told AFP. The subculture of keeping boys for personal servitude and sexual pleasure is a centuries-old practice in Afghanistan, which observers call one of the most egregious violations of human rights in the country. According to AFP report, “the ancient custom was banned under the Taliban’s rule from 1996-2001, but there has been a resurgence in recent years.
It is said to be widespread across southern and eastern Afghanistan’s rural Pashtun heartland and with ethnic Tajiks across the northern countryside. Powerful warlords, commanders, politicians and other members of the elite often keep “bachas” as a symbol of authority and affluence. Boys dressed as women, are widely used by these men as dancers at private parties and are also sexually exploited. According to Independent Human Rights Commission, tight gender segregation in Afghan society and lack of contact with women has contributed to the spread of this malaise. Several other factors such as an absence of the rule of law, corruption, limited access to justice, illiteracy, poverty, insecurity, and the existence of armed groups have also resulted in its spread.
AIHRC points out that Afghanistan’s criminal law prohibits rape and pederasty, but there are no clear provisions on sex abuse of boys. “There is a gap and ambiguity in the laws of Afghanistan regarding bacha bazi, and the existing laws do not address the problem sufficiently. Many of the perpetrators have connections with the security organs and by using power and giving bribes they get exempted from punishment,” added the report. The boys are typically aged between 10 and 18. Sometimes they are kidnapped, says AIHRC, but often desperate poverty drives their families to sell them to abusers. “The victims suffer from serious psychological trauma as they often get raped,” AIHRC’s report said. Such victims suffer from stress and a sort of distrust, hopelessness and pessimistic feeling. This practice creates fear among the children and a feeling of revenge and hostility develop in their mind.
“In the absence of any services to recover or rehabilitate boys who are caught in this horrendous abuse, it’s hard to know what happens to these children,” said Charu Lata Hogg, a director at London-based charity Child Soldiers International. “We have heard anecdotal reports that many grow up to keep their own bachas, perpetuating the revolving door of abuse.” Bacha bazi is having a detrimental bearing on the perpetual state of conflict in Afghanistan, helping the Taliban to infiltrate security ranks in provinces such as Uruzgan, officials say. The abusive practice in security ranks also undermines support for NATO-trained Afghan forces. To date, the US has provided over $60 billion in assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), including nearly $500 million to the Afghan Local Police,” the US Congress said in December 2015 .
