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Afghanistan's Mounting Civilian Toll |
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Written by NotOverYet
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Wednesday, 28 November 2007 |
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TIME
Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007
By RORY CALLINAN/KABUL
With the Taliban once again on the upswing, the war in Afghanistan is
seeing more and more civilians in the crossfire. The government in
Kabul has acknowledged a botched military operation in June that saw
more than 50 civilians killed in the Chora district of Uruzgan
province in the southern part of the country. That province, a
Taliban stronghold, has experienced raids with tragic civilian
casualties in the past. On Sept. 27, another one apparently took
place.
On that day, Assadullah, a farmer, was visiting friends in a
neighboring village when he heard the bombs. Racing home to see if
his huge extended family was safe, he found his house flattened.
Digging desperately through the rubble he uncovered the bodies of his
15 nephews and nieces, still in their beds, heads on their
pillows. "When I saw they were not alive, I thought the whole world
had died," he says. "I had a strong pain in my heart. I thought, 'Why
am alive?'"
The attack cost Assadullah 20 members of his family. As well as his
nephews and nieces, aged from six months to 17 years, he lost his
mother, his two brothers and their wives. In two other nearby
villages in the Kakrak area, some 360 km. southwest of Kabul, dozens
more were killed, many of them children. Assadullah says the final
death toll was 67, with many more injured.
What happened that night has been barely mentioned by the Afghan
government. But there has been official acknowledgement: on Nov. 17,
Assadullan and other villagers received discreet payouts as
compensation for their loss after a meeting between an Uruzgan
delegation and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Dutch Ambassador Hans
Blankenberg, and representatives of the U.S. military.
A spokesman for the Dutch military, whose 1,600 troops lead the
International Security and Assistance Force's Provincial
Reconstruction Team responsible for security in Uruzgan, says he
believes the operation had involved a U.S. aircraft and Afghan Army
soldiers, but he was still awaiting confirmation from an after-action
report due to be completed by the officer in charge of Southern
Command this week.
On Nov. 20, President Karzai's spokesman Humayun Hamidzada confirmed
to TIME that compensation had been paid during the meeting, but
declined to reveal how many people had been killed in the raids or
how many families had received compensation. He says Karzai expressed
his sorrow to the delegation, but without admitting the government
was responsible. "Civilian casualties have dropped in the last four
months, but sometimes these things happen," says Hamidzada. "The
government is in close contact with NATO and this has produced good
results."
Politicians and tribal leaders told TIME that the families of 49
victims of the raids received compensation: 100,000 Afghanis (about
$2,000) for a dead relative and 50,000 Afghanis ($1,000) for those
who were injured. Uruzgan elder Ghulam Farooq, who attended the
meeting with Karzai and the Western officials, says some of those
killed in another village heard the bombing and ran into a mosque for
shelter. "Bombs fell on the mosque. Eighteen people were killed," he
says. "There were children and women."
Assadullah says he and his neighbors had no warning that any
operation was imminent in their region. He thinks the bombing may
have been sparked when a family became frightened after seeing army
patrols and moved into the house next to his in the village, arousing
the soldiers' suspicion. He says that house was bombed. Other
villages where families moved in with each other were also bombed,
said residents of the area.
"There was no Taliban around at the time," Assadullah says. "The
Taliban did not even get a bleeding nose that night." Despite his
loss, Assadullah says if the ISAF helps to rebuild the villages and
stops bombing and shelling, then the villagers might continue to
support their efforts. But he adds an ominous warning: "If nothing
changes for the good, our people must join the Taliban." With
reporting by Muhib Habibi |
