U.S.-led military intervention root cause of humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan: Chinese diplomat

GENEVA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese diplomat said here on Tuesday that the U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan is the root cause of the humanitarian disaster in the Asian country.

In a joint statement delivered on behalf of a group of countries at the ongoing 48th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese Mission to the UN in Geneva, expressed deep concern over the situation in Afghanistan.

"The United States and its allies have conducted a military intervention in Afghanistan for 20 years, which severely undermined the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, compromised its economic and social development, and violated the human rights of the Afghan people," Jiang said.

The statement pointed out that by April 2020, at least 47,000 Afghan civilians had been killed in the war waged by the U.S. and more than ten million Afghan people had been displaced. Afghanistan's neighbors have also been severely affected by the U.S.-led military intervention.

"The countries in question must be held accountable for what they have done in the past 20 years. They have the obligation to fulfill their commitment to Afghanistan's peaceful reconstruction rather than simply walking away and shifting the burden to the international community," the statement said.

The statement called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to attend to the severe negative impact of the military intervention by the countries in question on the human rights of the Afghan people, and to hold these countries accountable for the crimes of killing Afghan civilians by their military personnel.