Afghan civilian casualties reach `alarming’ levels
22 November, 2007
KABUL: Civilian deaths caused by fighting in Afghanistan reached "alarming" levels this year and international forces must take urgent action to avoid further casualties, the United Nations said.
Such killings ``not only breach international law, but are eroding support among the Afghan community for the government and international military presence,’’ Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, told reporters in Kabul.
Arbour, who met with North Atlantic Treaty Organization commanders during her six-day visit, said there was a ``sober realization’’ that the issue must be tackled.
NATO-led forces are battling Taliban insurgents waging a guerrilla war against President Hamid Karzai’s government. Militant attacks, including suicide bombings, killed 346 civilians this year to the end of October, while international troops caused 337 deaths, the Associated Press reported, citing its own tally.
At least 230 Afghan civilians were killed last year during U.S. and NATO operations because of a lack of precautions or the use of indiscriminate force, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in an April report.
Safeguards to protect civilians must be ``at the forefront of operational decisions,’’ Arbour said, according to a UN transcript of the news conference.
Attacks by insurgents, including the deliberate targeting of teachers and humanitarian workers, ``breach the most fundamental principles of humanitarian law,’’ she added. Arbour didn’t provide a UN tally of civilian deaths.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force says it makes every effort to avoid civilian casualties and has blamed Taliban rebels for using villagers as human shields during fighting in southern and eastern provinces. Reports of civilian deaths are sometimes exaggerated or fabricated and used as ``insurgent propaganda,’’ the alliance says.
NATO commands more than 35,000 soldiers from 37 nations in Afghanistan, including about 15,000 U.S. personnel. An additional 10,000 American soldiers are carrying out anti-terrorism operations in the South Asian country, including the hunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Arbour said she was ``very disappointed’’ by the Afghan government’s lack of progress in implementing a national peace, reconciliation and justice plan adopted in December last year.
There has been too much focus on prosecuting people for human rights abuses during two decades of conflict instead of acknowledging and compensating victims, she said.
The human rights commissioner said she was concerned at the treatment of prisoners by Afghanistan’s intelligence service and said Karzai must make public a decree outlining its powers.
The National Directorate of Security has been known to whip prisoners, expose them to extreme cold and deprive them of food, Amnesty International said in a report earlier this month.
The government must do more to improve women’s rights, including boosting the female literacy rate and participation in public life, Arbour added.
Karzai’s government has worked to improve the plight of women in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted in 2001. Under the Islamist regime, women were forced to wear an all- covering dress and veil known as the burqa and girls were barred from attending school.
The government has made the empowerment of women a national priority and 28 percent of seats in the Afghan Parliament are reserved for female lawmakers. The government says it is committed to 60 percent primary school enrollment for girls and 75 percent for boys by 2010.
The female adult literacy rate of 13 percent, compared with 43 percent for males, remains too low and women are ``strikingly absent’’ from branches of government and the justice system, Arbour said.
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