With more than two decades of war behind it, Afghanistan has one of the worst human rights abuse records in the world. While some human rights groups and Afghans are demanding that some sort of tribunal should be set up, others told IRIN that it would prove an impossible endeavour.

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and expert on Afghanistan, told IRIN earlier that any premature attempts by the international community to hold warlords accountable for war crimes risked stalling progress towards a future Afghan consensus. "There is nobody in Afghanistan who does not have blood on their hands," he said. "This has been a war of 23 years."

Rashid maintained that human rights groups should limit their demands for war criminals to a small list, which should be done in consensus with all the major Afghan factions, and that there should be an amnesty for the larger majority of fighters. "There is no one guy who did everything; everybody did a little bit, but some guys did more," he said.

Rashid said the best option was to urge human rights organisations to consider protecting the rights of Afghans in the future, and that they should help by providing constitutional and legal lawyers and frameworks for Afghans to build a new constitution and to develop human rights legislation.

The views of some Afghans differ, and a group outside the country has been campaigning for those responsible for human rights abuses to be put on trial.

Mirza Alam Hamidi, originally from Khowst, the capital of Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan, now living in Holland, told IRIN there was a great need for those involved in human rights abuses to be brought to justice. He said the people of Afghanistan deserved at least this. He added that there should be a new government in Afghanistan made up of people who "don't have blood on their hands", and that more should be done to encourage Afghans who have emigrated to return and help rebuild their homeland.

He claimed previous regimes in Afghanistan were controlled by a "gang of a few" who committed all the abuses, and that although the idea of a war crimes tribunal may not be practical at this point in time, it was certainly something for the future government to follow up on. "Afghans should work on building a consensus among themselves and, once they have a stable governing mechanism, they can bring all those people accused of human rights violations to justice," he said.

Abdul Samad Hamid, aged 71, a former vice chancellor of Kabul University, now living in Germany, told IRIN that outside interference in the past from countries like the former Soviet Union, Pakistan and Iran had perpetuated human rights abuses in Afghanistan. "The human rights of Afghans were violated by external forces," he said. "Now that Afghanistan is going to belong back to Afghans they will uphold the human rights of all the people." Hamid said that, if implemented in its true spirit, Islam would guarantee basic human rights in Afghanistan.

Regarding a war crimes tribunal, Hamid said some kind of accountability was necessary, but that nobody should be allowed to shed more blood to do that. "We want to return back to normal lives, and vengeance should not be a priority," he stressed.

Afghans living in Pakistan shared a similar view. Fifty-year old Naikbeen, a refugee from the western Afghan province of Herat now living in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, told IRIN that the international community should act swiftly. He said it should make the necessary security arrangements for the convening of an emergency Loya Jirgah (Supreme national tribal assembly), which should form a representative government, and that human rights should be high on its the agenda.

"Women should not be forced to veil, and they should get education and also give representation in the cabinet. A war crimes tribunal should only be appointed by an Afghan government," Naikbeen added.

Naikbeen called upon the Northern Alliance not to torture or kill the Taliban and their associates whom they have taken into custody. He appealed to the Northern Alliance to keep them as POWs until a new government was formed.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also demanded a war crimes tribunal for both the Taliban and Northern Alliance members. "We prefer that the most grievous cases be tried under international law," Sam Zia-Zarifi, a researcher for HRW in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, told IRIN. While unable to explain how this could be done, he said it was up to the political side to decide. "We do not support an amnesty that seems to be coming out from some quarters. We have heard unofficially that Iran, as part of the Six-plus-Two group [of Afghanistan's six neighbouring states plus the US and Russia] has called for an amnesty. We do not agree with this," he explained.

In terms of feasibility, he admitted it would be difficult to find evidence to stand up in court, but said it was certainly not impossible. "Some of the worst crimes in Afghanistan have been well documented, and that is certainly a good place to start."

HRW admits that there is now a "lack of clarity" in reports coming out of Afghanistan regarding when and by whom human rights violations were committed, and even whether the violations ever took place at all. It also admits that confusion may stem from the fact that Afghanistan has endured so much devastation that it is sometimes difficult to determine at first sight whether destruction took place two days, two months or two years ago.

Zia-Zarifi said the first step towards bringing commanders to trial was to ensure that those with a public record of human rights violations did not become part of the new governance in Afghanistan. He added that it would also be difficult to track down some commanders.

"Some of these commanders are still fighting for the Northern Alliance and, given that some Taliban commanders have defected to the Northern Alliance, we feel that this is a real threat," he warned. "Some of the Northern Alliance commanders in the 1993 to 1994 period are still commanders today, and they should be brought to trial," he maintained.

The new Afghan government would decide how these people should be brought to trial, he said. "The Security Council is playing a role in drawing up a blueprint of the new government, and we have made it clear that the war crimes tribunal should be high on the agenda and part of this process," Zia-Zarifi said, adding that the tribunal should be based on the models used in Rwanda, Yugoslavia and South Africa.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International, this week also expressed concern over human rights violations across Afghanistan. "The rapid advance of the Northern Alliance into Kabul without any international arrangements to safeguard civilians is a clear indication that the military agenda has overtaken human rights concerns," Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene Khan said. Adding that human rights abuses committed by the Taliban could not be used to justify new abuses committed by the Northern Alliance, Khan said the killings "must stop".

HRW has said it is clear that there had been a major breakdown of law and order in some Afghan cities, but that there are still confusing reports about human rights abuses.

Zia-Zarifi said that security in Mazar-e Sharif was still tense, and there were still pockets of fighting, not only between the Taliban and Northern Alliance but also between factions of the Northern Alliance itself.

He added that there had been reports of Taliban being massacred by the Northern Alliance. "We have heard of executions being carried out in Mazar, but we do not have a confirmed figure. It is believed to be in the region of 120 and 200," he said. Moreover, there were reports that fighting was continuing at a school in Mazar-e Sharif, where the Taliban were said to be hiding, and that it was unclear whether the killings were part of this fighting or actual executions.

There has also been word of violations being committed in people's homes in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "We have heard that armed gunmen, whose identity we cannot confirm, are entering homes two to three times a day. Our sources believe they could be linked to the Northern Alliance," he said.