In exclusive interview with TOLOnews, registered presidential candidate and member of Hezb-e-Islami (Islamic Party), Qutbuddin Hilal said Thursday that he believed insurgent attacks against foreign forces in Afghanistan were a "reaction" to provocation. He went on to discuss the changes he would like to see brought to the Afghan constitution, particularly when it came to provisions related to human rights issues.
"You known that war is going on in the country; foreigners attack the opposition groups and the opposition attacks the foreign troops," presidential candidate Hilal said when asked what his opinion was on suicide attacks. "It's actually a reaction."
Hilal suggested the aggressive bombing tactics of the coalition forces were the provocation that caused insurgents to respond with violence of their own. He condemned suicide attacks against civilians.
Although the Taliban has repeatedly said that it is committed to not harming Afghan civilians, but only security forces and foreigners, suicide attacks and other forms of assaults conducted by the insurgents frequently result in civilian casualties.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a mid-year report in June that showed a 23 percent increase in total civilian casualties from January to June 2013 in comparison to the same period in 2012. Seventy-four percent of the civilian deaths and injuries were attributed to insurgent violence.
In his interview with TOLOnews, Hilal also spoke about the Afghan Constitution, and what he would like to see changed if he was to win next spring's election. He said that while he endorses the Constitution of Afghanistan, he has reservations about certain articles of the Constitution. The problematic articles were said to be those pertaining to human rights and women's rights, which he suggested were in conflict the Constitution's adherence to Islam.
"I don't reject the Constitution as a whole," Hilal assured. "In the 3rd Article of the constitution it is said that no laws would implemented in Afghanistan in defiance to the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah, it is a great sentence. Yet despite that the constitution needs to be understood accurately by law experts and judges, it is in serious need of changes and amendments."
One of the items that is now protected by law, which Hilal said he opposed, was the integration of male and female schools beyond childhood.
"We can have co-education in preliminary classes, but boys and girls should be separated when they are matured."
Education has often been one of the talking points of progress in Afghanistan for politicians and development workers. In 2001, there were only 900,000 Afghan boys in school and nearly no girls. This year, eight million schoolchildren were documented, with 2.6 million of them being girls.
Some have spoken out against Hilal and his party, saying they are responsible for human rights violations and should be denied the opportunity to compete in the spring elections.
"The representative of Hezb-e-Islami has entered in the democratic process abusing freedom of speech, democracy and human rights," claimed civil society activist Ajmal Balochzada. "It is important to mention that this party has committed major crimes against the people; more than 67,000 people were killed due to rocket shelling by Gulboddin Hekmatyar on Kabul and still Hezb-e-Islami legitimizes suicide attacks and they are not prepared to confess their crimes."
Since the candidate registration process ended last Sunday, a number of political figures and human rights groups have come out and pushed for the rejection of nominees reportedly with histories of human rights violations. The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) is now in the process of vetting the registered candidates and has said that it will reject any who have a criminal background or ties to insurgent groups.
"The ECC should ban the entry of those candidates in the electoral process who have been engaged in crimes and the killing of innocent civilians," said MP Fawzia Kofi.
Ms. Kofi raised doubts regarding the independence of the ECC and its ability to regulate the involvement of powerful figures who have already been involved in government from participating in the elections. Human rights activists have voiced similar concerns.
Already, eight complaints have been filed against registered candidates. ECC officials declined to name the candidates who were complained against or detail the nature of the complaints that were submitted.
The ECC is expected to send its list of eligible candidates to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) for announcement by October 19.