The public execution of a 22-year-old Afghan woman accused of adultery by the Taliban has been condemned by the West and Afghan authorities.
A three-minute video emerged yesterday of a man identified by Afghan officials as a Taliban member shooting the kneeling woman five times to cheers from a crowd of around 150 men in Parwan province.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a powerful plea today for the rights of women in Afghanistan, using a global forum to insist that they must be part of the country's future growth.
In the video, a woman named as Najiba is shot repeatedly in the back in front of a crowd of men in Qol village in Parwan province just north of the capital Kabul.
The woman was married to a member of a hardline Taliban militant group and was accused of adultery with a Taliban commander, Parwan provincial spokeswoman Roshna Khalid said.
"Within one hour they decided that she was guilty and sentenced her to death. They shot her in front of villagers in her village, Qol," she said, adding that the execution took place late last month.
Meanwhile, the six NATO troops killed today in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan were American, a US official said, without offering further details about the incident.
The Afghan government issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns this un-Islamic and inhuman action by those professional killers and has ordered the Parwan police to find the culprits and bring them to justice".
The International Security Assistance Force announced the deaths in a statement, without specifying the nationalities of the victims.
A total of 29 people also died today from roadside bombs and insurgent attacks. Eastern Afghanistan is considered a hotbed of Taliban activity.
Earlier, donors pledged to give Afghanistan $16bn (€13bn) in development aid over the next four years as they seek to prevent it from sliding back into chaos when foreign troops leave.
However, the international conference in Tokyo also heard demands for reforms to fight widespread corruption.
Donor fatigue and war weariness have taken their toll on how long the global community is willing to support Afghanistan.
There are also concerns about security following the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014 if financial backing is not secured.
In his remarks to the conference, Afghan president Hamid Karzai acknowledged security remained a major problem, but said his country had come a long way.
"In these past ten years, with help from the international community, we have made remarkable progress toward healing of the scars of conflicts and destruction," he said.
"And we are laying down a new path for people to realise their aspiration of a peaceful and prosperous and democratic country."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "Afghanistan's security cannot only be measured by the absence of war.
"It has to be measured by whether people have jobs and economic opportunity, whether they believe their government is serving their needs, whether political reconciliation proceeds and succeeds."
The Afghan central bank has estimated that at least $6bn (€4.8bn) a year in new investment from foreign donors will be needed to foster economic growth over the next decade.
Mrs Clinton also stressed the importance of Afghanistan taking aggressive action to fight corruption and promote reforms.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the blood and treasure sacrifices of the past could be wasted without investment in Afghanistan's civil society when foreign combat forces leave.
He said progress in security and broad-based development had been made, but it remained "fragile".
Mr Ban added: "Failure to invest in governance, justice, human rights, employment and social development could negate investment and sacrifices that have been made over the last ten years.
"We are at a critical moment in Afghanistan's history in transition from reliance on the aid that has enabled the country's institutions to take roots to a normalised relationship of a sovereign, functioning Afghanistan with its people and with its international partners."
The main points of the donation agreement:
Representative democracy and fair elections:
- Afghanistan must hold credible and transparent elections in 2014 and 2015, with a timetable of dates for polls to be published early next year.
Governance, rule of law and human rights:
- Afghanistan must improve citizens' access to justice, especially for women, respect human rights and allow the country's Independent Human Rights Commission to do its work.
- The country must strengthen its fight against corruption with measures such as requiring senior officials to make public their income annually.
Fiscal transparency and banking:
- Afghanistan must improve the management of public funds and ensure transparency while boosting supervision of its banking sector.
- It must adopt international recommendations on ways to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.
National revenues and local government budgets:
- Afghanistan must improve its tax collection, raising the ratio of tax revenue as a portion of gross domestic product to 15% by 2016 and 19% by 2025, from 11% now.
Growth and sustainable development:
- Afghanistan must promote private-sector development and allocate sufficient resources to promote health, gender equality, education and food security.
