PESHAWAR, Jan 12: United Nations Rapporteur Asma Jahangir has suggested that an inquiry commission should be set up to look into human rights violations in Afghanistan.

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in Afghanistan made the suggestion at a seminar on Afghan women here.

She will hand in her recommendations to the United Nations next week.

A human rights activist, Ms Jahangir, had gone Afghanistan in October 2002, on a 10-day fact-finding mission about human rights violations.

The UN official said she had called for the formation of the commission to look into violations over the last 23 years of war in Afghanistan.

She said that many opposed the setting up of the commission at present, but insisted that this was the right time for such work.

“If this issue can create a rumpus why not now, instead of waiting for five years when there will be no one to guarantee peace,” she said, addressing an audience including the United States and United Nations officials.

The rapporteur said that she was not recommending strict punishments such as executions for violators, but that admissions of wrongdoing could help make amends.—PPI