Taliban causing more civilian casualties in Afghanistan: UN
BY MATTHEW FISHER, CANWEST NEWS SERVICEJANUARY 13, 2010 3:21 PM
An Afghan child is shown next to a U.S. soldier. According to a recent report by an Afghanistan human rights watchdog, children are the greatest victims of the war-torn country.
Photograph by: Zohra Bensemra, Reuters
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — The United Nations has accused the Taliban of causing far more civilian casualties than NATO and Afghan forces.
A report released Wednesday by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) concluded the Taliban had killed 1,630 civilians in 2009 — a staggering 40 per cent increase from one year earlier.
According to the same UNAMA calculations, which were based on a wide variety of Afghan sources, NATO and Afghan troops killed 596 civilians last year — a drop of nearly 30 per cent from 2008.
The UN credited the drop in coalition-caused civilian casualties to new orders given last June to NATO forces by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal after President Barack Obama placed him in overall command of the war in Afghanistan.
"This decrease reflects measures taken by international military forces to conduct operations in a manner that reduces the risk posed to civilian casualties," the UNAMA report said.
McChrystal's "tactical directive" ordered troops under his command, including more than 2,500 Canadian soldiers based in Kandahar, to follow much stricter rules of engagement to avoid civilian casualties including not ordering air strikes if any civilians were known to be in the vicinity.
"We have said all along that it is about protecting the population," said Canadian Brig.-Gen. Eric Tremblay, NATO's chief military spokesman in Kabul. "The numbers clearly indicate that we have had fewer civilian casualties. We welcome these numbers but we must eliminate civilian casualties. They must be reduced further."
A new directive to be called "Reduce Civilian Casualties Through Tactical Patience" was to be released by NATO soon, said Tremblay.
Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, followed McChrystal's directive last summer with an announcement of his own about civilian casualties.
In a "Book of Rules," which set out how his followers should behave in their private lives as well as in war, the one-eyed "Commander of the Faithful" said "the utmost steps must be taken to avoid civilian human loss in martyrdom operations."
"It is vital that determined efforts are now made by the insurgency to put into effect the Taliban "Code of Conduct" that calls on them to protect the lives of civilians," Norah Niland, the UN's chief human rights officer said in a written statement.
Tremblay, however, scoffed at Taliban promises to reduce civilian casualties.
"These numbers tell the Afghan population that what the Taliban has said about protecting the population, they have not done," the general said. "Their way of conducting warfare and the insurgency has created way too many civilian casualties."
In all, 2,412 civilians died in 2009, an increase of 14 per cent from the previous year.
These were the highest figures for civilian casualties since U.S. forces ousted the Taliban from power in the fall of 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Of those civilians who died as the result of violence in 2009, 186 were killed in incidents that involved neither the Taliban nor NATO and Afghan forces.
Most of those killed by the Taliban died in executions, suicide bombings and as the result of attacks using the insurgents weapon of choice, homemade landmines.
Despite McChrystal's mid-year directive, two-third of the deaths caused by NATO and Afghan forces came as the result of attacks by warplanes and unmanned drones.
While NATO and Afghan forces killed fewer civilians, the number of NATO soldiers who died leapt from 295 to 530 as the pace of the war accelerated dramatically in 2009 because of a wave of attacks by the Taliban using much bigger and more powerful improvised explosive devices.
Thirty-two Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan in 2009 — the same number as in 2008.
The worst year for Canadian fatalities was 2006 when 36 soldiers and a diplomat were killed.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
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