Blanket Amnesty for Afghan War Criminals

The upper house of parliament in Kabul has passed a bill that would grant amnesty for war crimes committed in Afghanistan over the past 25-years. All that's needed now is the signature of Hamid Karzai and it will become law.

The resolution, which has been condemned by the United Nations and international human rights groups, was passed by the lower house Jan. 31 and covers the mujahedeen leaders who led the anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s and plunged Afghanistan into civil war in the early 1990s. Many of them sit in parliament.
Senators on Tuesday approved the same resolution by a 50-16 majority, Nekpai said.

"Unfortunately, the majority of the lower and upper houses of parliament are warlords and people with blood on their hands," said Nafas Gul, a female senator for Farah province who voted against the resolution. "It's a betrayal of the rights of Afghans."