Examples of violations by United Front [Northern Alliance] factions
Late 1999 to early 2000: Internally displaced persons who fled from villages in and around Sangcharak district recounted summary executions, burning of houses, and widespread looting during the four months that the area was held by the United Front. Several of the executions were reportedly carried out in front of the victims' family members. Those targeted in the attacks were largely ethnic Pashtuns and, in some cases, Tajiks.
April 1999: After taking control of Bamiyan city on April 21, forces belonging to United Front faction Hizb-i Wahdat beat and detained residents suspected of supporting the Taliban, and burned their houses. Hizb-i Wahdat relinquished control of the city to the Taliban, after heavy fighting in early May 1999.
September 20-21, 1998: Several volleys of rockets were fired at the northern part of Kabul, with one hitting a crowded night market. Estimates of the numbers killed ranged from 76 to 180. Although a spokesperson for United Front commander Ahmad Shah Massoud disclaimed responsibility, the attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Massoud's forces, who were then stationed about 25 miles north of Kabul. In a September 23 press statement, the ICRC described the attacks as indiscriminate and the deadliest that the city had seen in three years.
Late May 1997: Some 3,000 captured Taliban soldiers were summarily executed in and around Mazar-i Sharif by two United Front factions: Junbish forces under the command of General Abdul Malik Pahlawan and Hizb-i Wahdat forces led by General Muhaqqiq. The killings followed Pahlawan's withdrawal from a brief alliance with the Taliban, and the capture of the Taliban forces who were trapped in the city. Some of the Taliban troops were taken to the desert and shot, while others were thrown down wells and then blown up with grenades.
January 5, 1997: Junbish planes dropped cluster munitions on residential areas of Kabul. Several civilians were killed and others wounded in the air raid, which also involved the use of conventional bombs.
[...]
Russia
Russia has played a crucial enabling role in the resupply of United Front forces by arranging for the transportation of Iranian aid, while providing considerable direct assistance itself, including crucial support services.
Military assistance to United Front forces crosses the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border with the active collusion of the Russian government, which maintains border forces there and leads the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peacekeeping forces (201st Division) within the country. Witnesses have described seeing stores of rocket and artillery rounds awaiting delivery at the border ferry crossing at Dasht-i Qalah, stacked in plain view of the Russian Border Guard troops manning the Tajik side of the crossing. The rocket projectiles were most likely 122mm rockets for BM-21 truck-mounted multiple-rocket launch systems, while the artillery shells were most likely for M-30/D-30 towed howitzers. Other witnesses have observed BM-21 and BM-21V truck-mounted multiple-rocket launch systems, as well as wooden crates with hand grenades and large-caliber rockets stacked up on the Tajik side of the crossing, partially covered by tarps. On one occasion a witness described seeing a BM-21 being ferried across the river on the barge ferry at Dasht-i Qalah. The consistency, volume, and lack of subterfuge or concealment of shipments crossing the border strongly imply that the Russian role is not the result of isolated, unit-level agreements or arrangements, but rather the result of a broader government policy. A high-level Russian government commitment to resupply the United Front is further confirmed by reports that many of the supplies crossing into Afghanistan at Dasht-i Qalah originated from the Russian military base at Kulab, Tajikistan.
The Russian base at Kulab serves as the linchpin for United Front forces in the Panjshir Valley and northern Afghanistan. The base has been an assembly point for military supplies headed to the de facto United Front capital at Taloqan (until September 2000) via the crossing at Dasht-i Qalah. The base also has provided logistical support and maintenance services for United Front aircraft and helicopters. In 1997 and 1998, Antonov-12 cargo planes based in Kulab were being used to ferry military supplies from Mashhad, Iran to the United Front via Kulab. Supply flights of Mi-17 helicopters, ferrying ammunition and weapons from Kulab to Takhar province, Panjshir Valley, and other areas under United Front control, are commonplace. Moreover, Western military experts in the region have alleged that Russia recently provided helicopters to the forces of United Front commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.
Another resource employed by the Russian government to expedite shipments of military materiel to anti-Taliban forces is the Russian Army's transportation battalion based in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. The battalion is responsible for road maintenance and security during the final portion of the trip that brings arms cargos from Mashhad to the rail terminus at Osh, and from there to Afghanistan via trucks. Not only does it appear that bulk arms shipments are sent into Afghanistan from Tajikistan across the Amu Darya river with Russian cooperation, it is unlikely in the extreme that the one hundred to 140 (or more) heavy trucks required to transport the 700 tons of arms and 300 tons of flour arrived by train in Osh in October 1998 (see section on Kygyzstan) could travel from Osh to Khorog or Ishkashim without the knowledge and permission of the Russian military and foreign ministry.
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