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Afghan official warns foreign forces against causing civilian casualties

Media: BBC Monitoring (Afghan Islamic Press, Pakistan)

Date: 21 January 2009

 

Kabul, 21 January: The chairman of the Provincial Council of Kapisa: If foreign forces continue causing civilian casualties, their fate will be similar to that of the Russians. After a number of civilians were killed in a foreign military ground and air operation the other night [19 January] in Kapisa Province, the Chairman of Provincial Council of Kapisa Dr Monawar Shah strongly condemned civilian casualties in an interview today and told Afghan Islamic Press [AIP]: "We have called on foreigners many times to avoid civilian casualties in their operations. However, foreigners killed 14 civilians in the Anzari village of Tagab District the other night on first of Dalwa." Dr Monawar Shah added: "Twelve people were killed and six others were wounded in the operation. Also, the foreigners took eight people alive with them."

 

He said this was a very bad action by the foreign forces and added: "We have previously also told foreigners and now, too, we tell them that if they continue civilian casualties in Afghanistan, their fate will be similar to that of the Russians." He expressed the hope that the foreign forces would not endanger the lives of ordinary people and would adopt a proper policy in this regard. The coalition forces said yesterday that they had killed 19 insurgents, including a commander. Foreign forces have previously also carried out such operations in Kapisa which have reportedly caused civilian casualties. People have also staged demonstrations against such foreign military operations many times.

 

I saw Dr. Monawar the other day, apparently just before he gave this interview. I see him pretty often. He gives us man hugs. He makes us tea. I consider him one of my Afghan friends here. It's pretty hard to think that he expects us to meet the same fate as the Russians. I guess I'd be pretty pissed off, too, if a whole bunch of folks in my village were killed. We called him on it later. He said he was misquoted. I think he meant what he said.

 

It comes down, as does this entire struggle, to how you define combatants vs. civilians. From what we were told, some of our guys (coalition troops, but not my unit directly) did a late night raid, took fire, and fired back in force. To our guys, everyone in those houses was a combatant. To the Afghans, most of them were civilians. From the coalition perspective, they lived with Taliban- "harbored them," we'd say. As soon as our guys started taking fire, they perceived everyone in those houses to be a threat. The Afghans argue that, down in these distant valleys, everyone knows Taliban, everyone lives with and among them, everyone is related by kin, or tribe, or some lingering alliance from their days fighting the Russians.  The hard truth is that, down here, friendships are fickle, volatile, dangerous things.