LONDON, Nov 3: Amnesty International has called upon the United States and other Western countries to end their self-created human rights crises in Afghanistan.

"The United States, its West European allies and the countries of the former Soviet Union have failed to bring to an end the very human rights crisis that they helped to create," Amnesty International said on Wednesday as it launched a special campaign to mark the anniversary of Soviet Union's invasion on Afghanistan falling next month.

"Twenty years on from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, all states that have armed, trained and financed warring factions in Afghanistan have a special responsibility for ending the human rights catastrophe in that country," Amnesty said asserting that the international actors have a special responsibility for ending the human rights catastrophe.

"Pakistan, Iran and other countries that are reportedly supporting the warring factions in their military campaigns must now use their influence on armed groups to ensure that they respect human rights." It highlighted the changing patterns of human rights abuses in the war-torn Afghanistan and called for decisive action to reverse international neglect of this deteriorating situation.

"It will be 20 years next month since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and this country's descent into civil war," Amnesty International said. "For two decades, the international community has mostly averted its eyes from the human rights catastrophe in Afghanistan. It must now act to end it."

The human rights organisation said that a new pattern in Afghanistan's human rights tragedy is the targeting of people on the basis of their group identity - as women, children, ethnic minorities and defenders of human rights. It said ethnic tensions were not a driving force during the earlier stages of the civil war, but that was changing now.

The Amnesty accused the ruling Talibans of targeting minorities such as Tajiks and Hazaras while some non-Pushtun forces of targeting Pushtuns. "Defenceless Afghan citizens in minority-populated areas have seen their fathers, sons, friends and neighbours massacred before their eyes or hauled away by armed groups," Amnesty International said. "Survivors have witnessed the destruction of their crops, livestock, orchards and irrigation systems and have been forced to flee their homes."

The AI also urged upon the armed groups in Afghanistan to end their catalogue of rights abuses.