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The Afghanistan Death List - Afghans killed by the state in 1978-79

No of names: 4,782
Afghanistan Civil War

Organisation: The Public Prosecution Service in The Netherlands
Org. type: Government
Website language: English
After the death of a suspected Afghan war criminal under prosecution in The Netherlands, The Public Prosecution Service decided to publish one piece of evidence in the trial: a list of almost 5000 people who were killed by the Afghan state 1978-79 during the first years of the civil war in Afghanistan.

Links to the documents in Dari and translated to English, with a disclaimer.
Death List in English (pdf, 415 kB)
Death in Dari (pdf, 5.1 MB)
*Disclaimer (pdf, 30 kB)

Below is an excerpt of the findings of The Public Prosecution Service and their rationale behind the publishing of the lists. Source

"In the course of a War Crimes investigation concerning Torture and Killings, the International Crimes Unit of the Netherlands National Police has obtained Death Lists from Afghanistan, dating from the 1970s. Almost 5000 names are listed in these documents, in which the authorities meticulously recorded the regime’s killings.

These lists end the uncertainty of numerous relatives who have been in the dark for decades about the fate of their fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins and other loved ones.

During the course of the investigation, the Netherlands Police found and contacted witnesses in Germany. They mentioned the existence of Death Lists. One of the witnesses, a 93 year old woman from Hamburg, turned out to be in the possession of 154 pages listing in Dari the names of people who, according to the then-Afghan authorities, were executed in 1978 and 1979.

On these pages, the dead are listed in chronological and alphabetic order. The Lists state their names, the names of their fathers, their professions and their places of residence as well as accusations. The woman gave the Lists to the Police on the condition that they would be returned to her. She had obtained the list from United Nations Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan Felix Ermacora."

More reading:
Text on the list by Kate Clark for Afghanistan Analysts Network
On the appearance of a second death list by Patricia Gossman for Afghanistan Analysts Network
Afghanistan Documentation Project: Fb page
5000 Victims, commermorative Fb page

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