UN calls for end to violence in Afghanistan

UN calls for end to violence in Afghanistan

NEW YORK (AFP) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to violence in Afghanistan amid fears of a new civil war now that the Taliban has seized power.

"I call for an immediate end to violence, for the safety, security and rights of all Afghans to be respected, and for adherence to Afghanistan s international obligations, including all international agreements to which it is a party," Guterres said in a report to the Security Council this weekend.

The document, obtained by AFP, has not yet been released publicly.

"I urge the Taliban and all other parties to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs can be met," Guterres said.

The report was compiled as the mandate of the UN political mission in Afghanistan is scheduled to expire on September 17.

The UN says Afghanistan is mired in a humanitarian crisis affecting 18 million people, or half the population.

UN aid efforts can finance help for only 38 percent of the population, so the world body urgently needs nearly $800 million, the report says.

"I call on all donors to renew their support so that life-saving response is urgently scaled-up, delivered on time and suffering is mitigated," said Guterres, who has convened an international aid conference for Afghanistan in Geneva for September 13.

He also called on countries to take in Afghan refugees and refrain from deporting any they might already be hosting.

And in an allusion to the Taliban s brutal first stretch of rule from 1996 to 2001, Guterres said: "Reports of severe restrictions on human rights throughout the country are highly concerning, particularly accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan who fear a return to the darkest days."

The Department of Correctional Services said in a statement on Sunday that "Mr Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma has been placed on medical parole".

The parole took effect on Sunday and he will serve out the rest of the 15-month prison sentence outside jail.

"Medical parole placement for Mr Zuma means that he will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires," it said.

The decision to grant parole was motivated "by a medical report" the department received, it said.

The 79-year-old was admitted to hospital for observation on August 6 for an undisclosed condition, and underwent a surgical procedure on August 14. He remains hospitalised.

Dignity

Prison authorities appealed to South Africans to "afford Mr Zuma dignity as he continues to receive medical treatment".

He started serving his sentence on July 8 at the Estcourt prison, around 180 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of Durban. Two weeks later, he was allowed to leave prison to attend his brother s funeral at his Nkandla rural home.

His jailing sparked a spree of unprecedented violence and looting of businesses and shops in post-apartheid South Africa, resulting in millions of dollars worth of damage and losses.

His successor Cyril Ramaphosa described the unrest as an orchestrated attempt to destabilise the country and vowed to crack down on alleged instigators.

Earlier on Sunday a handful of members of a group of veterans of the ruling ANC s armed struggle wing Umkhonto we Sizwe, who have staunchly stood behind Zuma in recent years, disrupted a eulogy by the party chairman Gwede Mantashe, at a funeral of one of group s leaders, chanting for Zuma to be freed from jail.

Meantime, Zuma s long-running corruption trial over an arms deal dating back more than two decades was last month postponed to September 9, pending a medical report on his fitness to stand trial.

Proceedings have repeatedly been postponed for more than a decade as Zuma fought to have the charges dropped.

Zuma faces 16 counts of fraud, graft and racketeering related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and equipment from five European arms firms when he was deputy president.

He is accused of taking bribes from one of the firms, French defence giant Thales, which has been charged with corruption and money laundering.