Afghanistan.

The Security Council on 8 December, deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, expressed its support for the Secretary-General's proposal to establish a civil affairs unit in the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA) to promote respect for minimum humanitarian standards and deter massive and systematic violations of human rights and humanitarian law. An assessment team was to be sent to Afghanistan, as soon as security conditions permitted, to determine the exact mandate, composition and location of the civilian monitors.

In unanimously adopting resolution 1214 (1998), the Council also demanded that the Taliban stop providing sanctuary and training for international terrorists and their organizations, and that all Afghan factions cooperate with efforts to bring indicted terrorists to justice.

Condemning the Taliban's capture of the Iranian Consulate-General and the murder of Iranian diplomats and a journalist in Mazar-i-Sharif, the Council stressed that those acts were flagrant violations of international law, and called on the Taliban to cooperate with the United Nations in investigating the crimes. The Secretary-General was encouraged to dispatch a mission to Afghanistan to investigate reports of grave breaches of international humanitarian law, particularly mass killings and mass graves of prisoners of war and civilians, and the destruction of religious sites.

Further, the Council demanded that the Taliban and other Afghan factions stop fighting, conclude a ceasefire and resume negotiations under United Nations auspices without delay or preconditions. It deplored the failure of the Taliban leadership to comply with previous resolutions and expressed its readiness to consider the imposition of measures, in accordance with Council responsibilities under the Charter, with the aim of achieving full implementation of those resolutions.

The Council also demanded that the Afghan factions end discrimination against girls and women and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and adhere to international norms and standards. It further demanded that the Taliban and others halt the cultivation, production and trafficking of illegal drugs.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 23 November reported that the human rights situation had "not improved over the last year", and of particular concern were allegations of mass killings and other serious violations of human rights and international law by all sides in northern Afghanistan in 1997 and 1998. The situation for women and girls - who were denied access to adequate health care, to all levels and types of education, to employment and, at times, to humanitarian assistance - deteriorated in all areas under the control of the Taliban movement.

On 22 August - one day after the fatal shooting in Kabul of Lieutenant Colonel Carmine Calo, a military adviser of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA) - in view of serious security concerns, all United Nations international staff such staff had been withdrawn from that country.

On 8 October, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in expressing his concern at reports of border clashes between armed forces of the Taliban and the Islamic Republic of Iran, urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint, in accordance with Council resolution 1193 (1998) of 28 August. On 12 October, in view of the dangerous level of tensions between the two parties, the Secretary-General authorized his Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, to pay a one-day visit to Kandahar on 14 October. Mr. Brahimi then travelled extensively in the neighbouring countries, in particular visiting Islamabad and Teheran, and returned to Headquarters on 29 October.

Secretary-General Shocked by Hostage Decapitations in Chechnya, But Relieved at Cochetel's Release

Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 8 December was shocked to hear news reports that four foreign hostages - Peter Kennedy, Daren Hickey and Rudolph Petschi of the United Kingdom, and Stanley Shaw of New Zealand - had been found decapitated in Chechnya.

On 12 December the Secretary-General stated that he was "immensely relieved" to hear of the release of Vincent Cochetel, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in North Ossetia, Russian Federation, and "very happy for his family who will have him home in time for the holidays". Mr. Cochetel of Franco had been abducted on 29 January from his residence in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, near Chechnya.

Widespread Killings by Taliban Reported

Widespread killings and atrocities had taken place in Mazar-I-Sharif after the 8 August takeover of that city by the Taliban, Choong-Hyun Paik, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, reported on 26 October.

According to the report, some 3,000 Hazaras (who are Shia Moslems and an ethnic minority in Afghanistan) were executed summarily in their homes or in the streets during the first six days after the takeover, and the estimated total number of killings "so far ranges between 5,000 and 8,000".

Also, numerous Hazaras had been placed in metal containers, which were left under the sun during the day and subsequently taken to Shabergan at dusk. Each of the 10 to 12 containers had been filled with some 130 prisoners, and witnesses said they saw some containers opened with all men in them dead from suffocation. In others, only 10 to 20 persons remained alive.