They must be held accountable

By Mohamed Anwar Yar*

My name is Mohamed Anwar Yar, I am an Afghan and was born in the province of Herat. 

I was trained in the military during a peaceful period in Afghanistan, but in 1978 there was a Communist-led military coup in which Russian troops backed a coup against the government.

I felt that it was my job to educate people about the Russian-backed coup. So I used my pen and my words to tell people what was happening in Afghanistan. When the coup happened I started to write my thoughts and opinions down and copied them in 600 copies which I shared around Kabul.

When they discovered that it was me who wrote it, I was arrested and imprisoned...

I was tortured for seven days in a row, around the clock. I was exposed to beatings, electric shock, threats, insomnia; they hit me in the face so my teeth were destroyed, and they burned me with metal spears. I have scars all over the body.

How did I manage to survive? It is a good question.

The first answer is, through my strong belief in God. After interrogation and torture, where my body was destroyed, I was moved to a prison for political prisoners.

We sat in small rooms in solitary confinement in dark, damp cells. I sat in complete isolation for several months.

"Torture is immoral, remote from all human rights; no religion or community can accept it."

When they told me that I was going to die, I was scared. I feared that my children would now have to grow up without their father. I feared that I, like many others, would be executed in secret and that nobody would know what had happened to me.

Some months later the Russians, along with Babrak Karmal, came to Afghanistan and declared an amnesty and I was released. In the six months after my arrest my family did not know what had happened to me. They just knew that I had been arrested. They did not know whether I was alive or dead. There was no contact.

I came to Europe in 2005. I lived in Afghanistan until then, and during Karzai’s election I revealed crimes in national newspapers. They planned to kill me for that reason. I wrote to his two vice presidents and published details of their misdeeds. Today they are in parliament.

The last time I was in prison was in 2005 because of my articles against the criminals in the Afghan parliament...The first time I was in prison was the hardest, but it was also very hard in 2005, because by then we had democracy, and I believed that it would stop.

In my articles I explain how Afghanistan is a member of the international war tribunal in The Hague. I hope that the criminals in our homeland will be held accountable in court. The people in power have killed 65,000 people in Afghanistan. They must be held accountable.

"I will continue my fight for truth and justice."

Anyone who is in power today has mistreated people in the most gruesome ways: nails through heads, cutting off ears, noses and breasts, women raped, people sawn to death and burned alive in containers. I want this be known, and I will continue my fight for truth and justice.

Torture is immoral, remote from all human rights; no religion or community can accept it. Torture is about power and force.

One can never forget being subjected to torture. It affects one in a way that is indescribable. It interferes with everything.

My doctor referred me to the Swedish Red Cross Centre for Victims of Torture and War, Malmö [an IRCT member organisation], where I have received treatment for six months now. I have learned techniques and received medical treatment, which makes me believe that I can move forward. But what I have experienced, I can never forget. And it is not only me but my people and my country who suffer from these memories.

I am grateful that there are some who will tell the world about the injustices in Afghanistan.

--The Swedish Red Cross Centre for Victims of Torture and War, Malmö, Sweden, May 2009

* This testimony is an extract from an interview given to the photographer Christian Vium, who, in collaboration with the IRCT created the exhibition "Faces of Survival" to mark the UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims in 2009. It has been edited by the IRCT for clarity of language.