by Anisa Shaheed
In response to the Taliban's statement Tuesday on its pledge to protect national infrastructure projects, Human Rights Watch deputy director for Asia division Phelim Kine stated that this move was an ironic about-face for the insurgent group but nonetheless a hopeful sign.
In an article published on the HRW website, Kine said: "That's an ironic about-face for the insurgent group synonymous with years of atrocity, mayhem, and destruction, including attacks on the country's electrical power grid.
"But the Taliban's interest in protecting infrastructure rather than destroying it is a hopeful signal given the country's desperate need for infrastructure development to boost a war-ravaged economy in which 39 percent of Afghans live in poverty and 23 percent are unemployed.
"Those disastrous economic indicators have been exacerbated by insecurity created by both corruption and an intensifying Taliban insurgency that is widening its control in parts of the country," he wrote.
However, Kine went on to say that the Taliban's record in honoring its commitments to limiting the scope and targets of its attacks makes the likelihood of the group switching gears from destroying infrastructure to protecting it an open question.
"After all, despite the Taliban's vow that it will 'safeguard and protect the lives and properties of the civilian people,' the latest update from the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) found that the Taliban remain responsible for most civilian casualties in the country's long-running armed conflict," he wrote.
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