First Afghan war criminal is jailed

The first war criminal to go on trial in Afghanistan, Abdullah Shah, has been convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. His crimes included rape, extortion and burning to death 50 people in the war between the mujahadeen factions for Kabul in the 1990s.

Human rights activists have described the conviction as "a lucky break" and say it came despite the United Nations' apparently indifferent attitude to investigating offenders.

Abdullah Shah was a former mujahadeen commander with friends high in the new administration. He returned to Kabul after the fall of the Taliban and was initially arrested on domestic abuse charges. Police saw him, gun in hand, running after his wife, who was screaming that he was trying to kill her. Once he was in custody, other victims came forward, appealing to the judge to try him for earlier crimes.

It was a gamble. If Abdullah Shah was freed, they knew their lives would be in danger. They presented the judge with a list of the names of those Abdullah Shah raped or murdered, locations of mass graves and names of witnesses.

One of the men who petitioned the judge was Ghulam. Eight years ago, he was at a party on the night before the wedding of his son, Hamayoon, when Abdullah Shah and his gunmen dragged Hamayoon away, leaving a ransom demand of $5,000 (£3,200). He was shot dead.

The judge also heard how Abdullah Shah, who was sentenced for domestic violence and war crimes, burnt to death 50 men, women and children when he seized a truckload of people trying to flee the fighting. Human rights groups say at least 400 civilians were killed by soldiers loyal to the mujahadeen leaders Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Rasool Saif in Afshar, Kabul, in 1993.

Fighters also systematically raped women and looted houses in one of the first instances of ethnic cleansing in the Afghan civil war.

Human rights workers, who expect the case to trigger other calls for justice, have criticised the UN for giving investigations a low priority. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special representative, has said "responsibility to the living should take precedence over finding out what happened in the past". One problem is that some of the most serious culprits are members of the UN-backed government in Afghanistan.