ABSTRACT
The Afghan war was an impediment to the process - but public recognition that the Soviet Union, as a matter of policy, was systematically committing Nazi-style atrocities and even genocide would be an insuperable barrier. In February 1985 the Task Force began holding hearings on many aspects of the Afghanistan issue, some of which heard detailed testimony relevant to human rights and genocide issues. In the 13th century, Genghis Khan devastated and depopulated Afghanistan, slaughtering hundreds of thousands, wiping out flourishing cities and turning once-fertile areas into barren desert. The U.N.'s prewar population estimate of 15 to 17 million was generally accepted, but extrapolations from a test census in Kabul in the mid-1970s suggested that the total population was in fact closer to 12 million and could not have been more than 15 million. It is therefore impossible to develop precise figures on those killed between 1978 and 1992.
