Afghan Biographies

Razekh, Hafiz


Name Razekh, Hafiz
Ethnic backgr.
Date of birth
Function/Grade Hezb-e Hambastegi
History and Biodata

Directing board of Hezb-e Hambastegi:
Hafez Rasekh, (20120617)

Background:
The Solidarity Party of Afghanistan has been registered as a political party since 2004. It has not fielded political candidates, but has been outspoken on controversial issues, including organizing street protests against the US and NATO presence in Afghanistan, the execution of Afghans in Iran, and civilian casualties caused by international troops. It has also spoken out against Taliban abuses, and in support of women’s rights.

Some see the Solidarity Party’s ‘background in the Maoist Afghan political party established in 1968’. This is both correct and not the whole picture. The party is new (founded in 2004) and not a direct descendant of the 1960s’ Maoist movement, Sho’la-ye Jawed, although some of the founders of the party participated there and later fought the Soviets in non-fundamentalist organisations like the ‘Teachers Front’ in Farah (where the party has a strong base today), but also with other, moderate mujahedin organisations. Moreover, the old party leadership has been voted out by young people two years ago.

The newcomers had lost patience with the attempts to participate in the post-2001 political process which they perceive as a façade democracy. Instead, they not only oppose human rights violators from all factions but also what they call the ‘NATO occupation’ of Afghanistan and demand the immediate withdrawal of all western troops. They have established contacts with leftist parties in Europe (their posters feature prominently in the party’s office and in Pakistan who share this demand. The new young leaders of the party have no background in Maoist politics but rather reflect the anger of parts of the younger generations who are just tired of the war.

The Afghan government should immediately reverse its suspension of the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan for organizing a protest calling for accountability for war crimes, Human Rights Watch said 20120614. The suspension violates both Afghan law and the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly under international human rights law.(Details read below.)

More Background:
On 30 April, some 150 sympathisers of Hezb-e Hambastagi-ye Afghanistan (the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan) marched from Kabul’s Cinema Pamir down Jade-ye Maiwand. In a reaction to the official celebrations of 8 Saur (28 April), usually referred to as ‘Mujahedin Day’ – in commemoration of the day when the mujahedin entered Kabul after the downfall of the Najibullah government in 1992 –, the protesters carried banners calling this date, and that of 7 Saur (27 April), ‘black days in Afghanistan’s history’. (27 April is the anniversary of the 1978 Saur revolution, or coup d’état, that brought a leftist government into power that later called the Soviet Union to intervene.)

The protesters carried crossed-out portraits of communist, mujahedin and Taleban leaders, demanding that they be brought to justice, and condemned what they called Afghanistan’s ‘warlord culture’. In order to show what they meant, they also had pictures of Ratko Mladic with them, the Bosnian Serb general who is currently facing the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Reportedly, the protesters burnt some of the portraits. There were no reports of further disturbances or of arrests.

This was not the first time that Hezb-e Hambastegi followers took into the streets – earlier they held protests against the US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement and permanent US bases in Afghanistan (on 6 February this year), civilian casualties caused by NATO forces and executions of Afghan citizens in Iran, declared their support for the ‘green’ Iranian opposition and its arrested activists in 2010 and participated in the protests against the controversial Shia family law in 2009 - this time they definitely hit a nerve.

Meanwhile, on 26 May, however, the Senate’s committee for legislative and judicial affairs sent an official letter to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Attorney General (AG) urging a suspension of the party’s registration.

On June 2, 2012, the Ministry of Justice wrote to the Solidarity Party to inform them of the May 29 decision of the Meshrano Jirga, the upper house of the Afghan parliament, calling for the party’s suspension, pending investigation and possible prosecution of its leaders.

Last Modified 2012-06-17
Established 2012-06-17