It appears the news from Afghanistan of the past few days is good news.

The capital city of Kabul has fallen to Northern Alliance forces – armies that the United States supports.

We are seeing pictures of women doing away with harsh clothing restrictions. We’re also looking at pictures of men shaving their beards. And there is news that Northern Alliance forces are reinstating education for girls and allowing women to be employed. Clearly, these changes are a welcome improvement from past years.

However, these images of celebration are only part of a larger issue. Reports are coming in from Afghanistan of Northern Alliance guerillas engaging in looting, pillaging and murdering opposition forces – in some cases civilians.

These violations are being perpetrated by armies with already poor human rights records. And sadly, many of these forces have been, and are continuing to be, supported by the American government.

CNN reported that “anti-Taliban forces have killed or executed as many as 600 people since Northern Alliance fighters took control of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday.”

Many of the people being murdered are captured Taliban prisoners. In accordance with the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Article 3, Section A, “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture” is prohibited. This convention was adopted by the United Nations in 1949.

According to current reports, anti-Taliban forces are committing these crimes in direct violation of international law. We must strongly reconsider our full-fledged support of the forces committing these abuses.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, several tons of aid were taken from the United Nations World Food Program warehouses on Friday by a Northern Alliance army. In addition, UNICEF said a 10-truck convey of aid was usurped by incoming Northern Alliance soldiers to Mazar-e-Sharif.

Representatives of the World Food Program said that at least 89 tons of aid were raided from one of its warehouses.

And according to the Sydney Morning Herald, the representative said that after the fall of the city to Northern Alliance forces, “a group of armed people entered the UNICEF premises and removed almost every item inside, including computers, furniture and radio equipment.”

At the same time, the United States continues to support armies that are known to have committed egregious human rights violations.

The Northern Alliance continues to show its disregard for the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law. We must reconsider our support of Northern Alliance forces.

In this time of instability in Afghanistan we must also consider the government that comes to power following the Taliban. One alternative is to allow United Nations peacekeeping forces to flood the country with humanitarian goods.

We must respect human rights and begin the process of reconciliation. A careful long-term process taking this into account must be at the forefront of any current initiative in Afghanistan.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Zach Calef, Omar Tesdell