KABUL, Afghanistan, June 16 (UPI) -- The United Nations has continually delayed release of a report that says many in the government of Afghanistan have records of killing, torture and rape.
The report by the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights was originally scheduled for release in January 2005, the Boston Globe reported.
Saman Zia-Zarifi of Human Rights Watch, who was involved in overseeing the report, said the United Nations "has been intimidated because some of those named are close to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"It is afraid to rock the boat because of these guys," Zia-Zarifi told the Globe. "But the boat is taking on water, and they are going to pull it down."
While the report also details atrocities by the Taliban and by warlords who continue to fight the Karzai government, the most sensitive sections are reportedly on people like Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a pro-Karzai member of Parliament who allegedly massacred Shiite Afghanis during the struggle against the Soviet Union. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord who is Karzai's military chief of staff, kept hundreds of Taliban prisoners in containers so crowded that many died, the report said.
