Afghans angry over deaths

Opinion: March 21, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By Khan Mohammad Danishju

The Institute for War & Peace Reporting

KABUL

Even before the killing of 16 civilians allegedly by a U.S. soldier, Afghans had expressed their anger at the number of civilian casualties caused by coalition forces.

At a conference earlier this month at the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, Afghan politicians and security experts openly challenged casualty figures provided by Western military leaders.

Speaking at the conference, Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, deputy commander of ISAF, cited figures compiled by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan that insurgent groups were responsible for 958 of the 1,030 civilian casualties reported during the previous four months.

Bradshaw said the remaining 72 casualties were caused either by coalition forces or Afghan troops operating along with NATO forces.

Gen. John Allen, commander of ISAF and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the figures showed that protecting civilian lives was a top priority for the NATO-led force.

“Everything ISAF does is focused on providing security for the people of Afghanistan. We have worked hard to take extensive measures to prevent civilian casualties, and those efforts are getting results,” he said.

But some of the Afghans attending the conference were openly scornful of the coalition’s assertions.

“How can we believe the numbers you are presenting,” said Haji Amanullah Azimi, a member of the upper house of Afghanistan’s parliament. “The number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan has reached its highest level yet, and we have always heard from you during the past decade that they will decrease. Unfortunately, we’ve observed no reduction, and no change in your tactics.”

Coalition response

Bradshaw responded by saying that the coalition regretted every civilian death and noted that casualties among western forces was increasing as well.

“Our forces are also killed in Afghanistan, and they have families and children, too,” he said.

Lal Gul, the head of the independent Afghanistan Human Rights Organization, challenged Bradshaw over how the war is being conducted.

“Your casualties and the casualties of the Afghan people are useless,” he said. “The terrorist centers are in Pakistan and the leaders of the Taliban live there. Those centers must be attacked, but you look for terrorists in the villages of Afghanistan. Is this fair?”

Others, echoing the recent demand that the suspect in last Sunday’s massacre be tried in Afghanistan, said that coalition forces need to be held accountable for the civilian casualties they cause.

Khan Mohammad Danishju is a reporter in Afghanistan who writes for IWPR, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.