Taliban suddenly opposed to executions

Reuters AlertNet reported Afghanistan's Taliban, notorious for summary public executions, urged the United Nations on Thursday to press the Afghan government to stop executing prisoners on death row, citing concern about fair trials.

Are they opposed to anyone being executed, or only Talibans.

Afghanistan resumed executions this week after a break of more than a year, with three Taliban sentenced for deadly attacks among nine people put to death in the past few days.

Now we know why they suddenly don't like executions.

Those executions followed a public outcry over rising crime. About 120 other people have been sentenced to death and their fate rests with President Hamid Karzai, who has to approve any execution order. The United Nations and European Union have called on Karzai to halt the executions, citing concern about the standards of judicial fairness.

Does te EU have a recommendation how it can be done fairly, or are they just opposed to executions generally.

The United Nations says Afghanistan's law enforcement and judicial systems fall far short of internationally accepted standards. The Taliban leadership council said it too was worried about fair trials.

Do the Taliban provide FAIR trials before they execute people? Should Afghanistan trials be as fair as Taliban trials?

"We strongly request the U.N., the EU, the Red Cross and human rights groups to earnestly prevent this barbaric act," the Taliban said in a statement on their website, accusing Karzai's government of corruption.

The Taliban, fighting to overthrow Karzai's pro-Western government, have executed dozens of captured soldiers and civilians since U.S.-led forces ousted the militant Islamist movement in 2001.

But surely they gave them fair trials first, didn't they.

During their 1996-2001 rule in Afghanistan, the Taliban executed dozens of people, occasionally staging killings in public at Kabul's main sports stadium. In their statement, the Taliban warned the government against more executions, saying the officials responsible for them would be punished.

How? Are you going to shoot them in the head in a stadium, or is that procedure reserved for women wearing burkas?