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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban exploiting Afghan civilian deaths |
| 2006-05-30 |
| Civilian deaths caused by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan - including an airstrike that killed at least 16 villagers and a fatal traffic accident that sparked a riot in Kabul on Monday - are undermining President Hamid Karzai and boosting support for the resurgent Taliban, lawmakers and rights activists say. “It’s damaging for the dignity of the government,” said Noorulaq Homi, a lawmaker from Kandahar province. “The people distance themselves from the government and move toward the Taliban. It is a positive message for the enemy.” At least 16 people were killed in an airstrike on Azizi village in Kandahar on May 21. US security forces on Monday fired on protesters, killing one person and wounding two, in Kabul after a riot erupted because of a traffic accident involving US troops that killed three people, police and witnesses said. Such incidents place Karzai, the US-backed president, in a political fix. He remains reliant on the US-led coalition to protect his government but can’t ignore the public anger stirred by military mistakes. Karzai was also angered in mid-April when seven civilians were killed by coalition fire in eastern Kunar province. The risk of civilian casualties appears to have heightened as security forces and militants, who often hide among their ethnic Pashtun brethren, have gone head-to-head in some of the deadliest combat since the hard-line Taliban regime was ousted by US-led forces in late 2001. As many as 372 people have died in the fighting since May 17, mostly militants, many of them killed in airstrikes, according to Afghan and coalition figures. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, which keeps track of coalition attacks that result in civilian deaths, said at least 135 Afghans have been killed by coalition fire since it started keeping track in mid-2003, though it does not consider its record complete. An Associated Press estimate of civilian deaths during major combat - from the beginning of the US-led coalition invasion in October 2001 until about February 2002 - found that between 500 and 600 civilians were killed in that period. Other estimates put the toll much higher. In the time since then, an AP count based on figures from Afghan officials, the coalition and witnesses shows at least 180 civilians have died during coalition military action. Karzai took the unusual step last week of summoning the top US commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Karl W Eikenberry, and telling him “every effort” should be made to ensure civilians’ safety. He has also called an official investigation into the incident. The government and coalition have reported 16 dead civilians from the May 21 airstrike. But Abdul Qadar Noorzai, director of the rights commission office in Kandahar, said Friday that people from Azizi told him approximately 25 family members were killed in one mud-brick home and nine in the village’s religious school. Haji Ikhlaf, an Azizi resident wounded in the attack, told AP earlier that villagers had buried 26 civilians. Ahmad Nader Nadery, a member of the Afghan rights commission, said the accidental killings are being used by the Taliban and Al Qaeda as a recruiting tool. In the eastern city of Gardez, near the border with Pakistan, tribal leaders have shown the commission fliers printed by the Taliban that cited civilian casualties as a reason to join the militants’ struggle, he said. Parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanooni on Monday asked Afghans to exercise restraint in light of the riots in Kabul. “We call on the people to be tolerant because there is the risk this could be exploited by our enemies,” he said, referring to Taliban rebels. The worst such incident came in July 2002, when Afghan officials said 48 civilians were killed and 117 wounded in an airstrike in Uruzgan province. The dead included 25 members of an extended family attending a wedding celebration. In 2004, the US military said it had modified its rules of engagement after Karzai expressed outrage over the deaths of 15 children in two airstrikes in late 2003. Officials refused to say how the rules had been changed, saying that would help militants. The US military has responded to past accidental deaths by saying that efforts are made to avoid such casualties but that Afghanistan is still a combat zone where militants take cover among civilian populations. Col Tom Collins said the deaths in Azizi were a result of the militants firing from the mud-brick homes. He said international law gives coalition forces the right to return fire. Lawmakers in Afghanistan’s newly elected parliament have drafted a resolution condemning the civilian deaths in Azizi and calling for the military to take more care. “They (the coalition) need to be very careful to separate the civilians and the enemy,” said Saleh Mohammed Registani, a lawmaker from central Panjshir province. “The situation is getting worse. It’s a big problem for the coalition.” |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Sounds to me like the Taliban is CAUSING Afghan civilian deaths IN ORDER to exploit them. |
| Posted by: glenmore 2006-05-30 10:20 |