October 09, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 26, 1428

KABUL, Oct 8: Afghanistan announced on Monday it had put to death 15 men, one convicted of killing three foreign journalists, in the second confirmed executions since the fall of the Taliban regime six years ago.

The state broadcaster, Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) announced the executions in its evening news bulletin, saying the punishments were for crimes including murder and rape.

The convicted men went before a firing squad late on Sunday, government officials said earlier.

The head of prisons, Abdul Salaam Asmat, said the 15 were put to death at Afghanistan’s largest prison, Pul-i-Charki, notorious for mass executions during the 1979-1992 Soviet and communist governments.

The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan reacted with disappointment, saying it had been a “staunch supporter” of a moratorium on the death penalty that President Hamid Karzai had observed over the past years.

UN special representative Tom Koenigs urged the country to “work towards attaining the highest human rights standards and ensuring that the due process of law and the rights of all citizens are respected.” The last known execution by Karzai’s post-Taliban government was in April 2004 when military commander Abdullah Shah was killed with a single bullet after being convicted for a spate of murders. A Supreme Court spokesman, Wakil Omari, said that other people were believed to have been executed in secret since then but he had no details.

RTA listed the men executed on Sunday, giving lengthy details of the legal process by which they were convicted and saying the punishments were handed out for “the continuation of order in society” and “creating stability.” Among them was Reza Khan, convicted of killing three foreign journalists travelling to Kabul from Pakistan in 2001 to cover the fall of the Taliban government.

RTA made no mention of two brothers also convicted for the November 2001 killing of the Afghan, Australian, Italian and Spanish journalists. The woman in the group was raped.

A man identified as Farhad was executed for murder and for the May 2005 abduction of Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni, the broadcaster said.—AFP