MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, July 23 (UPI) -- A report detailing atrocities in the Afghan civil war in the 1990s is unlikely to ever be released, researchers say.
The researchers who wrote the 800-page report say senior Afghan officials are effectively suppressing the findings, which list the names of current and former warlords, The New York Times reported Monday.
Human rights activists say the abuses should be brought to light and prosecuted but Afghan officials, and some American diplomats, fear the report will trigger new violence, the newspaper said.
The report, "Conflict Mapping in Afghanistan Since 1978," was prepared by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. It gives the locations of 180 mass graves and contains testimony from survivors and witnesses to war crimes.
The study, completed in December, was ordered by President Hamid Karzai in 2005. It names more than 500 Afghans as responsible for the mass killings -- including some of the most powerful political and tribal figures in Afghanistan's government and ethnic factions, the newspaper said.
It names the country's national martyr, Ahmed Shah Massoud -- a militia leader who held out against the Taliban's sweep to power. He was assassinated by al-Qaida just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The Times said American officials are opposed to releasing the report before Afghanistan's 2014 presidential election and the withdrawal of NATO combat troops.
"It's going to reopen all the old wounds," said an official who wished not to be named.
