UN urged to put Taliban chiefs on trial for 'ethnic cleansing'

Northern Alliance commanders called on the United Nations yesterday to prosecute Taliban leaders for war crimes, including ethnic cleansing.

Mohammed Muhaqiq, a leader of the ethnic Hazara minority, said eight Taliban commanders, including the supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, should be tried for the massacre of thousands of unarmed Hazara civilians.

Some of the eight were granted an amnesty under the terms of the surrender of the northern stronghold of Kunduz to the Northern Alliance earlier this week.

"We believe their acts are worse than those of Slobodan Milosevic," said Mr Muhaqiq. "These are war criminals involved in the massacre of thousands of innocent civilians and we demand from the United Nations that they should face a war crimes trial."

The Hazara, who are believed to be descended from the soldiers of Genghis Khan, form 20 per cent of the population. They are Shia Muslim, unlike the majority of Afghans, who are Sunnis, and have been persecuted for their beliefs for centuries. But there is evidence that the fundamentalist Taliban took the crimes against them to new depths.

Among the leaders named by Mr Muhaqiq yesterday is Mullah Manan Niazi, who is alleged to have presided over the massacre of 6,000 mostly Hazara civilians when Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taliban in 1998. Taliban soldiers were said to have gone from house to house looking for Hazara and slaughtering them. Mullah Niazi was the governor of the city at the time. Also named by Mr Muhaqiq was Mullah Mohammed Fazil, who negotiated the surrender of Kunduz. He has been accused of presiding over the massacre of at least 178 unarmed Hazara civilians in the town of Yakaolang in January. Mullah Fazil is in Northern Alliance custody.

Mullah Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader, who is in the besieged southern city of Kandahar, also stands accused over the massacre at Yakoalang. He was said to be in contact with Taliban forces by radio as the massacre took place.

The other Taliban leaders named by Mr Muhaqiq were Mullah Dadullah,a notorious commander with an artificial leg who is accused of carrying out further atrocities against the Hazara in Yakaolang, and burning the town to the ground, in June; Mullah Nurullah Nouri; Mullah Sattar; Mullah Shazada and Mullah Manan Hanafi.