KABUL: Afghanistan’s president has ordered a “thorough investigation” into institutionalised sexual abuse of children by police, after AFP revealed the Taliban are using child sex slaves to launch deadly insider attacks.
There has been international condemnation of paedophilic “bacha bazi” - literally “boy play” - which AFP found has been exploited by the Taliban to mount a series of Trojan Horse attacks over two years that have killed hundreds of policemen in the remote southern province of Uruzgan.
“The president has ordered a thorough investigation (in Uruzgan) and immediate action based on findings of the investigation,” the presidential palace said of Ashraf Ghani in a statement.
“Anyone, regardless of rank within the forces, found guilty will be prosecuted and punished in accordance and in full compliance of the Afghan laws and our international obligations,” the English language statement said.
The ancient custom of bacha bazi, one of the country’s worst human rights violations, sees young boys - sometimes dressed as women - recruited to police outposts for sexual companionship and to bear arms.
It is deeply entrenched in Uruzgan, where police commanders, judges, government officials and survivors of such attacks told AFP that the Taliban are recruiting bacha bazi victims to attack their abusers.
The claims - strongly denied by the Taliban - expose child abuse by both parties in Afghanistan’s worsening conflict.
The presidential statement said there was “no place” in the Afghan establishment for abusers, adding it will do “whatever it takes” to punish them.
The announcement follows a flurry of international reaction to AFP’s report.
“We strongly condemn any abuses of the horrific nature described in the article,” the US embassy in Kabul said.
“We urge the Afghan government... to protect and support victims and their families, while also strongly encouraging justice and accountability under Afghan law for offenders.”
In a letter last week to US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, Congressman Duncan Hunter demanded a proactive American role to end bacha bazi in Afghan forces.
“I remain concerned... that the Taliban is increasing its use of children to access security positions and mount insider attacks against... Afghan police,” Hunter said in the letter seen by AFP.
“It is my belief that we can begin taking immediate steps to stop child rape from occurring in the presence of US forces and reduce any risk of coinciding insider attacks. This includes imposing a zero-tolerance policy.”
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said bacha bazi is of “high concern” for the international community.
“UNAMA continues to receive anecdotal reports of bachi bazi, including within Afghan security forces, and continues its engagement with government to ensure the criminalisation and prevention of all forms of exploitation and abuse of children,” Mark Bowden, the UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, told AFP.
The Afghan government announcement, which did not specify a timeframe for the investigation, comes ahead of two crucial donor conferences on Afghanistan in Warsaw and Brussels this year.
The war-battered country remains heavily dependent on international financial and military assistance, which helps sustain security forces - including police.
Any perception of apathy about bacha bazi risks jeopardising that assistance, said Michael Kugelman, an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
“No donor in good conscience can justify funding police forces that engage in such reprehensible practices,” Kugelman told AFP.
“There’s already much talk of donor fatigue, but as donors hear more about bacha bazi, there’s bound to be donor fear as well - fear of bankrolling institutions that do morally reprehensible things.”
The Afghan interior ministry has said it is committed to institutional reforms, while acknowledging that bacha bazi within police ranks is a “serious crime”.
The government last year launched a probe into sexual abuse and the illegal recruitment of child conscripts around Afghanistan.
But the country has yet to pass legislation criminalising bacha bazi and no initiatives have been publicly announced to rescue any children enslaved by police.
“The absence of any initiatives to release and recover children from their abusers is a serious failure on the part of Afghan authorities,” Charu Lata Hogg, an associate fellow at London-based Chatham House think tank, told AFP, adding that donors must pressure Kabul for change.
“Abuse of children cannot be passed off as cultural practice.”
WHAT IS BACHA BAZI?
Powerful warlords, commanders, politicians and other members of the elite often keep “bachas” as a symbol of authority and affluence.
Bachas, dressed as women, are widely used by these men as dancers at private parties and are sexually exploited.
Bacha bazi is not widely seen as homosexual behaviour - popularly demonised as a deviant sexual act, prohibited in Islam - and is largely accepted as a cultural practice.
HOW COMMON IS IT?
“Women are for child-rearing, boys are for pleasure” is a common saying across many parts of Afghanistan.
The ancient custom, banned under the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule, has seen 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.
HOW HAS IT BEEN ALLOWED TO FLOURISH?
Tight gender segregation in Afghan society and lack of contact with women have contributed to the spread of bacha bazi, rights groups say.
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 the spread of bacha bazi, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said in a report in 2014.
AIHRC points out that Afghanistan’s criminal law prohibits rape and pederasty, but there are no clear provisions on bacha bazi.
“There is a gap and ambiguity in the laws of Afghanistan regarding bacha bazi and the existing laws do not address the problem sufficiently,” the report said.
“Many of the perpetrators have connections with the security organs and by using power and giving bribes they get exempted from punishment.”
WHERE DO THE BOYS COMR FROM? AND WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM AFTERWARDS?
Bachas 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 of bacha bazi 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. Bacha bazi results in fear among the children and a feeling of revenge and hostility develop in their mind.”
In turn, many adolescent victims are said to grow up to have boy lovers of their own, repeating the cycle of abuse.
“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.”
HOW IS BACHI BAZI AFFECTING THE SECURITY SITUATION
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.
“Predatory sexual behaviour by Afghan soldiers and police could undermine US and Afghan public support for the ANDSF, and put our 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.
