A UN expert probing mass killings in Afghanistan visited today the graves of men women and children killed by the former Taliban regime and said a mechanism was needed to end the country's cycle of violence and reprisal.
Pakistani lawyer Ms Asma Jahangir, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, travelled to the site about 30 km (20 miles) west of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif after meeting officials of rival factions in the northern capital.
Mr Sardar Sayedi, a representative of the Hezb-i-Wahdat party, told reporters Jaghal Can contained the bodies of ethnic Hazaras killed by the Taliban about four years ago.
"There were thousands of them, all civilians, most of them Hazaras, forced out of their houses and then killed," he said.
Journalists who visited Jaghal Can yesterday were shown pits containing dozens of piles of bones and scraps of clothing.
Ms Jahangir said things had improved in Afghanistan, but added: "At the same time, there are worries that the cycle of violence and reprisals will continue unless the system of state absorbs it and gives people justice."