The Head of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Sima Samar said the lack of government support is "the only reason" why a major report documenting human rights violations over three decades of the Afghan conflict has not been published.
"The report documenting human rights violations of 30 years was supposed to be published on Dec. 10, 2011. We shared the plan with the President, but he did not support us in publishing it," Samar said.
The 800-page report is the most extensive documentation of human rights violations in Afghanistan, covering the period from before the 1978 Soviet invasion until the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001.
Limited portions of the report have been shared with select members of the media. Press reports indicate that most key Afghan power-brokers in the current government as well as insurgent leaders fighting the government are implicated for serious human rights abuses.
The president last year refused to renew the tenures of three of AIHRC's commissioners who played critical roles in compiling the report, prompting allegations that he tried to silence the body. Samar's comments are the latest such allegations and directly attribute blame to the President.
Karzai is worried the publication of the report will create instability, while rights group say its publication is critical to bringing violators to justice.