Int'l experts slam U.S. for human rights violations in Afghanistan

A paratrooper conducts security at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29, 2021. (U.S. Army Photo by Master Sgt. Alexander Burnett/Handout via Xinhua)

CHONGQING, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The United States should be denounced by the international community for its human rights violations in Afghanistan, said experts at an international seminar held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Saturday.

Over 40 experts, media representatives and diplomats from China, France, Nepal, Japan and other countries participated in the seminar, an online side event at the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Fu Zitang, Vice President of the China Society for Human Rights Studies and President of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said that the war waged by the United States in Afghanistan not only severely violated the human rights of the Afghan people, but also posed grave threats to the human rights of people in neighboring countries.

Fu criticized the United States for imposing its own concepts of democracy, freedom and human rights on Afghanistan against the will of its people, adding that such hegemonic, interventionist acts can only result in failure.

Cheng Xizhong, a senior research fellow at the Charhar Institute think tank, said that the United States is the world's biggest human-rights violator, pointing out that wars and military operations waged by the country in the name of anti-terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001 have claimed over 800,000 lives and displaced more than 38 million people.

Christian Mestre, a professor at the Human Rights Institute at the University of Strasbourg, said that the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan is a kind of political hegemony and a complete failure, adding that the European countries should review their relations with the United States.

Calling the United States the most belligerent country in the world, Hector Constant Rosales, the Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said its invasion in Afghanistan has led to a humanitarian crisis, and the United States and its allies should pay the price for the crimes they have committed in the country.