GENEVA, May 1. /TASS/. The West bears responsibility for the current plight of Afghanistan, and the world community should not forget about the crimes committed in that country over a period of 20 years by the military of United States and other NATO countries, Ilya Barmin, the spokesman for the Russian delegation at the 46th session of the Working Group of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, has said.

"The world community should remember the war crimes committed by the military of the United States, other NATO countries and their allies during the 20-year period of presence in Afghanistan. So far, not all of them have been assessed properly," Barmin said at the working group’s meeting devoted to reviewing the human rights situation in Afghanistan under the universal periodic review procedure.

"It is the Western countries that are responsible for the poor state of affairs in Afghanistan, where they have been unsuccessfully experimenting for 20 years to build democracy according to their own templates," Barmin stated.

As the Russian delegation’s spokesman emphasized, "the determination of the Afghan authorities to correct the human rights situation in the country as a whole deserves support".

Nevertheless, it is obvious that the current Afghan government "finds itself in a difficult situation and lacks resources to normalize the socio-economic situation," he continued. "It should be clearly understood that this state of affairs stems from the hypocritical policy of the West, which holds Afghan assets and seeks to link humanitarian aid with political concessions from Kabul and the fulfillment of human rights obligations," Barmin recalled. "We find consider such actions unacceptable."

The Universal Periodic Review is a mechanism for collecting information on human rights in all 193 UN countries. It is a constant reminder to states of the need to fulfill their obligations in this field. The HRC Working Group includes representatives from the 47 member-countries. All UN states submit periodic reports on the observance of rights and freedoms to the HRC approximately every five years.