NATO,Taliban clash: Innocent civilians pay huge price

Such media contents that come in various dimensions, frames and formats, depending on the ideology, predisposition and to a large extent biases of the writers or outfits they represent have nevertheless pointed out to one fundamental fact-that scores have innocently lost their lives directly or indirectly in the process of the clash. Even though in […]

Such media contents that come in various dimensions, frames and formats, depending on the ideology, predisposition and to a large extent biases of the writers or outfits they represent have nevertheless pointed out to one fundamental fact-that scores have innocently lost their lives directly or indirectly in the process of the clash.

Even though in a clash of this nature, lives are sadly expected to be lost, the mortality and hardship posed to the peasant civilian Afghans is worrisome. There are a lot of established cases where these innocent people, both young and old,  have no reasons to bear the sad consequencies of either of the warring factions in the crises.

The facts depicting the general situation of this country speak for themselves: 200,000 internally displaced persons; a further 2 million forced into exile in Iran and Pakistan.

For instance, from the side of the Taliban, it was reported that more than 80 schoolgirls have fallen ill in three cases of mass sickness over the past week in northern Afghanistan, raising fears that militants who oppose education for girls are using poison to scare them away from school.

Omar blamed the sickness on “enemies” who oppose education for girls. Presidential spokesman Waheed Omar said any attempt to keep girls out of school is a “terrorist act.”

The Taliban and other conservative extremist groups in Afghanistan who oppose female education have been known to target schoolgirls. Girls were not allowed to attend school when the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan until they were ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Last year, dozens of schoolgirls were hospitalized in Kapisa province, just northeast of Kabul, after collapsing with headaches and nausea. The Taliban was blamed as well for the act.

In the south and east, where the Taliban control towns and villages, there have been several reports that girls’ schools remain shut, teachers have been threatened and some girls have been attacked with acid.

In another related development sometime in April, a suicide bomber attacked private security guards while they were at a bazaar in southeastern Afghanistan, killing four Afghans and wounding 12, the government said.

Meanwhile, the US/NATO-led forces have been doing a handful of damage in the course of their operations.Witnesses in several accounts have said that many cilvilians have lost their lives in the course of the operation.

However, on September 4, 2009, more than 90 Taliban fighters and civilians are reported to have been killed in a NATO airstrike in a region under the control of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan. Germany insisted no civilians were killed in the attack, however.

NATO fighter-bombers attacked two fuel trucks after the Taliban hijacked the vehicles in Kunduz province and beheaded the drivers. It was reported that the trucks stalled while crossing a riverbed in the Taliban-controlled Ali Abad district and were reportedly hit just as local villagers swarmed the tankers to siphon fuel. The Taliban reportedly encouraged the villagers to take the fuel just before the airstrike.

Haji Habibullah, the district governor of the Ali Abad district, said that “some of the dead were civilians and some were Taliban fighters.” More than a hundred people were reported to have suffered serious injuries, including burns. Civilians have been seen burying their dead and have taken the wounded to local hospitals; some are being transported to Kabul for treatment

The International Committee of the Red Cross has voiced concerns about the increasing number of civilian victims in Afghanistan which have become very alarming.

As the casualty incidence keeps generating condemnation and concerns, a statement on a website of the Afghanistan Taliban movement called for the establishment of a joint committee to investigate civilian deaths.

In addition to the Taliban, representatives from the United Nations, NATO and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference was billed also to sit on the committee. The statement came in response to a UN report, issued last week, which found that anti-government forces, including the Taliban, were responsible for 76 per cent of civilian casualties during the first six months of 2010, and that such casualties had jumped 31 per cent compared with the same period in 2009.

Suicide attacks and roadside bombs are the main cause of civilian deaths. According to UN-Assisted Mission in Afghanistan (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.

Meanwhile, NATO forces have been accused of being unable to differentiate between the militia men and innocent civilians and that in itself is said to be the major cause of civilian casualties on the side of the NATO forces.

However, according to CIVIC’s field work, Afghans in most cases still do not receive compensation for death, injury or property damage. Some analysts and observers of the Afghanistan invasion are of the view that the Taliban were never properly defeated following the US-led invasion in 2001. In the initial few years of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom, the Taliban and their extremist allies were not able to withstand the severe military assault that the United States waged with the help of its superior air power.

Over time, however, the Taliban-led forces have been able to re-group in the south and south-eastern parts of Afghanistan, where they are currently well-entrenched in a number of largely inaccessible areas.

Thus, in the absence of Afghan public approval and friendly regional climate, the NATO mission in Afghanistan will continue to hang in the balance while innocent civilians continue to pay a huge price with their lives.