ISLAMABAD, March 5: The Basque government and the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) signed a protocol here on Tuesday to take the case of the war criminals in Afghanistan before international criminal courts and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

The protocol, signed at a news conference, provides for trial of the war criminals belonging to different factions, including the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, for human rights violations against the Afghan people.

The Basque government housing and social matters department chief, Javier Madrazo Lavin, and Sehar Saba of RAWA signed the protocol.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Javier said within the framework of the Basque cooperation rules, legal, political and financial assistance would be provided to RAWA to begin with the legal actions in the international criminal courts.

A delegation of the Spanish government may also report the human rights violations in Afghanistan by Taliban and the Northern Alliance to the UN in its 58th session of the Human Rights Commission, he said.

Giving some of the names of those who are accused of war crimes, genocide and violence and abuse of women in Afghanistan, RAWA representative, Saba Sehar, said Burhanuddin Rabbani, Gulbadin Hekmatyar, Ahmed Shah Masood, Sayyaf, Dostum, Mullah Omar, Khalili, Taliban and the Northern Alliance leadership are all involved in the crimes against the Afghan people and women.

Accusing the Northern Alliance, she said RAWA would like to remind the world that those who destroyed the Afghan people mentally and physically do not have the right to power.

She said some of the worst perpetrators of human rights abuses were holding important posts in the Interim Administration.

The violence, the human rights abuses are still going on, she said, adding, Afghanistan is not only limited to Kabul where the presence of the International Security Assistance Force has somewhat improved the situation but reports of killings, beatings and restrictions on women ae rampant in other parts of the country.

In response to a question about civilian casualties due to US-led coalition bombings, Ms Saba said there are casualties but that is another issue as the Americans came to root out Taliban and terrorism in Afghanistan.

However, she said the methodology adopted by the US was not positive as it led to civilian casualties and forced many people to abandon their homes and become refugees.

The RAWA member, who asked the press photographers not to take her pictures for security reasons in response to a question about the reason said there are still many Jihadi groups, including the fundamentalists from Afghanistan who are powerful enough to harm the RAWA members. Recounting a list of attacks on RAWA officials, she said that RAWA founder was killed in Pakistan and many other Afghan women tried to lodge cases against atrocities of fundamentalist groups but they were not registered by the police authorities.