Danger Room | By Nathan Hodge | 13 January 2010
UN Raps Taliban for War’s Massive Civilian Toll

Astan Border Police. (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense)

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a new report today on civilian casualties in 2009, and the overall picture is grim: Last year was the deadliest yet for civilians, since the end of Taliban rule in 2001. But according to the report, 2009 also saw an overall drop in the number of civilian casualties caused by U.S., International Security Assistance Force and Afghan government forces.
UNAMA recorded 2,412 civilian casualties last year, a year-on-year increase of 14 per cent. Of that total, UNAMA said, “armed opposition” (i.e., the Taliban and affiliated groups) accounted for 1,630 deaths. That’s 4o percent more than in 2008, when Taliban attacks claimed the lives of 1,160 civilians.

Suicide attacks and roadside bombs are the main cause of civilian deaths. According to UNAMA, such attacks caused 1,054 civilian deaths last year. Targeted killings are also on the rise. “Civilians are also being deliberately assassinated, abducted and executed if they are perceived as being associated with the government or the international community,” said Norah Niland, UNAMA’s chief human rights officer, in a statement.

Part of the drop in casualties caused by the coalition may be attributed to tighter rules for the use of force — and serious restrictions on the use of air strikes. After assuming command of ISAF in June, General Stanley McChrystal issued controversial new guidance that all but ended air strikes, except in extreme cases.

Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, told Danger Room that McChrystal’s new playbook for preventing civilian casualties “is obviously working.” But she said ISAF was still doing a less-than-stellar job to compensate civilians harmed during military operations. “For the 25% of casualties that pro-government forces cause, ISAF still doesn’t have a way of properly addressing the harm,” she said. “International forces have combat the perception among many Afghans that they don’t care if innocent people suffer harm during military action.”

According to CIVIC’s field work, Afghans in most cases still do not receive compensation for death, injury or property damage.  “Rather, the processes for dispensing condolence payments are opaque, ad hoc, and vary from nation to nation,” Holewinski said, referring to the military’s system for compensating civilians for death or injury. “As long as international forces are causing even one civilian casualty, ISAF must establish consistent policies for responding to civilian casualties, including thorough investigations, proper apologies and monetary compensation.”

The idea behind the campaign to reduce civilian deaths is simple: It is supposed to help eliminate a key recruiting tool for the Taliban. But in an interviewed with ABC News that aired last night, McChrystal said that the Taliban were attracting more insurgents because of an effective and proactive recruiting drive, not because of missteps by the coalition.

“I really think the recruiting of insurgents is done by the insurgency and they do an effective and very energetic propaganda campaign to do that,” he told Diane Sawyer. “So I think that it’s not what we do as much as it is the efforts that they make, and it’s really an effort of ignorance. It’s not well schooled people.”

Afghan-Taleban Response:

Voice of Jihad | 15 January 2010
Response of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to UN Report on Civilian Casualties

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) has  published a report about civilian casualties in Afghanistan in which they have made some finger-pointing remarks. The report is a follow-up to the assertions made by UN Secretary General recently.

They claim that among the 2,412 civilians killed last year, the Armed Opposition of the government  have killed many of them and a minuscule number of them have lost their lives due to American bombardment and firing.

A few days ago, UN Secretary General made self-same claims about civilian casualties. However, the UN has not disclosed the source upon which they had prepared the report. Have they gone to any rural area or war-stricken zone  for the collection of the data? Certainly, they have not. The rural areas are under the control of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and according to the World Security and Development Council map, these areas constitute 80% of the territory of Afghanistan. Therefore, it is clear that they have patched up the report in the Guest House of UNAMA in Kabul, stuffing the desired data  into it which are  palatable on political grounds. Then, they have placed the blame on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

It is worth mentioning that this report has overlooked many events, which occurred last year. The number of civilians killed by the invaders in Kunar, Nooristan, Laghman, Kunduz, Logar, Paktika, Helmand, Farah and Uruzgan provinces certainly exceed the number of those entered in the report.  In addition to this, every day, our countrymen are killed in rural areas,  on highways and in their houses by the invading soldiers, blind bombardments and  the Predators.

Residents of Nawzad district say that amore than one hundred and fifty common  people have been killed by missiles fired from Shorab Military Base. Similarly, the civilians killed in Marja, Zamindavar, Garamsir, Gerishk, Nad Ali and Nava at the hand of the invaders during operations, bombardment and missiles strikes surpass the number shown in UNAMA report.

We would like to remind UN Secretary General and other officials of the United Nations,  have you visited Zamindavar area of Kajaki district where the invading foreign troops set fire to 2,000 shops of common people, burning to ashes the whole bazaar?   Have you met  the patients who were injured by phosphorus bombs in an aerial strike in Kunduze province last September?   Even the provincial authorities of the Puppet Kabul regime in Kunduz prevented relatives of the dying victims from taking the injured persons to Kabul for medical treatment because they feared the world will know about the phosphors bombs.

Last year, we saw that the Western media were frequently publishing partial and farce reports about civilian casualties perpetrated by the invading Americans. Fore example, the Western media, quoting American spokesmen, reported that 35 militants from the armed opposition were killed by  American troops in Dai Chupan last year. Later, it was proved that all were civilians killed as a result of American bombardment. Up to this very day, no reporter or an official of the United Nations visited the area to find out about the incident.

We would like to tell Banki Mooon and other UN officials that you will never achieve the goal through such farce and politically-motivated reports. The people do not believe you.  The so-called unjustified war on terror has lost its luster. People now know that it is a war of colonialism aimed at expanding American dominance over the world. It began in Afghanistan but the US will gradually spread it to other countries.   To counter this, the devout Afghan Muslims, the freedom-loving and patriotic forces have taken up arms to achieve their aspirations and natural rights.

The Mujahideen have sprouted from among the people. They live among them and share their joy and pains. No more you would be able to confuse the mind of the public of the world, nor you will  ever be able to boost the sagging morale of the Americans and NATO soldiers, nor it suits you to resort to such fictitious tactics.  Only you will contribute to  discrediting yourself by condescending to such actions.

Sources: Danger Room | VOJ – Alternate Link