I am not accusing the Taliban 2.0 regime of committing ethnic cleansing in Afghanistan. Not now, at least. However, the frequency of ethnically motivated crimes across Afghanistan by the regime against certain ethnic communities is concerning. People are rightfully worried.
The Taliban's record of ethnically-charged war crimes is dark and bloody. The memories of the Mazar Massacre in 1998, the Yakawlang's Massacre in 2001, the Taliban's scorched-earth offensive in Shamali plain in 1991, and many other less known crimes still hunts people.
Genocide and ethnic cleansing do not happen in isolation or vacuum. It is a snowball of repeated crimes and violence against targeted ethnic groups and communities. In the absence of legitimate and accountable polity, these crimes exponentially grow and gain momentum.
The catastrophe wreaks havoc when the ruling regime violets all legal and social norms, stifles media, suppress voices of dissent, and sanctions particular racial and ethnic group under the disguise of sustaining "peace and order."
Given the Taliban's track record of terror and brutality and its role in ethnically-motivated crimes over the last 30 years, the group can push the country into a bloody ethnic conflict and commit ethnic cleansing only to maintain its power.
For the sake of humanity, we should condemn any form of ethnically-motivated crime and speak against it.
* the Taliban's scorched-earth offensive in Shamali plain in 1999
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