Former Afghanistan Military Personnel: NATO and the International Community Have Remained Silent About Our Killing and Harassment

The statement, released on Sunday (July 21), states: "According to reports and statistics from the Republic era, including women, more than 300,000 military personnel were employed in various security institutions. After the Taliban regained power, their information, stored in the security institutions' databases, fell into the hands of the Taliban, making it easier for them to identify and locate these individuals."

The statement adds: "Many of these former military personnel, fearing for their lives and the lives of their families, were forced to leave Afghanistan, especially illegally to other countries such as Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. They face significant challenges, including economic difficulties and the threat of being deported and handed over to the Taliban."

The statement continues: "Many former military personnel who remain in the country, despite the Taliban's general amnesty announcement, have been victims of violence and oppression by the Taliban over the past three years. They continue to face the risk of arrest, torture, threats, and even extrajudicial executions by the Taliban."

According to the committee, reports indicate that in the past three years, hundreds of former Afghanistan military personnel have been mysteriously killed, disappeared, and in some cases, had their homes and possessions stolen and received death threats under the guise of being unidentified armed individuals.

The statement mentions a video sent exclusively to the "Committee for the Support of Former Afghanistan Military Personnel" by a former female military member, describing it as one of the hundreds of tragic stories of former military personnel in the country.

The statement emphasizes that former Afghanistan military personnel in the country, besides facing security threats, are also grappling with severe economic problems, poverty, and unemployment, which have caused significant mental and psychological issues, especially among former female military personnel.

The statement reads: "These military personnel, who previously fought alongside NATO forces against terrorism and the Taliban to ensure international security, national interests, and defend Afghan citizens, are now living in hidden and dire conditions in their own country. Meanwhile, the international community and organizations, especially NATO, which fought alongside the security and defense forces of the former government for twenty years, have remained silent and taken no practical steps in response to the arrest, torture, humiliation, harassment, and killing of their former comrades."

The "Committee for the Support of Former Afghanistan Military Personnel" calls on NATO, the United Nations, the Security Council, and Amnesty International to pressure the Taliban to immediately stop the arrests, torture, harassment, extrajudicial killings, home inspections, and confiscation of properties of former military personnel.

The committee also called for the prosecution of Taliban leaders and urged the international community not to support this group. Additionally, they requested increased support and the issuance of more humanitarian visas for former military personnel, especially female military personnel.

The committee urged regional countries, the international community, and the United Nations to support an alternative to the "self-declared" Taliban government to end the gradual death of the Afghan people, emphasizing that the best alternative to the "self-declared Taliban government" is a legitimate, democratic, and decentralized system.