KABUL, 1 March 2010 (IRIN) - The number
of civilian deaths caused by the conflict in Afghanistan in the first two
months of 2010 was slightly lower than in the same period in 2009, according
to two Afghan human rights groups.
Some 163 civilians died and 187 were
wounded in violent incidents in different parts of the country in January
and February 2010, compared to 201 deaths in the same period of 2009, the
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said.
"Ninety-two civilian deaths have
been attributed to the armed opposition and 71 to pro-government Afghan
and foreign forces," Fareed Hamidi, a commissioner of the AIHRC, told
IRIN.
The Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM),
a non-government rights body, had slightly different figures: 201 civilian
deaths in the first two months of 2010 as against 297 in 2009.
ARM said it gathers data from a variety
of sources including local and international media, government officials,
provincial councils, NGOs and local people. AIHRC said it verifies violent
incidents through its provincial offices and a "civilian casualty
verification team".
The figures may come as a surprise given
the major anti-Taliban military operation which began on 13 February in
the southern province of Helmand.
"Suicide attacks, improvised bombs,
air strikes and crossfire between belligerent parties caused most of the
civilian deaths over the past two months," Ajmal Samadi, ARM's director,
told IRIN.
He said at least 45 civilians had died
in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, southern Afghanistan, as a result of
airstrikes and military operations by pro-government Afghan and foreign
forces from 13 to 23 February 2010.
Jeff Lifton, a spokesman of the NATO-led
forces in Kabul, regretted the deaths of 15 civilians killed by foreign
forces during the offensive in Helmand's Nad Ali District; and NATO's top
military commander in Afghanistan apologized on 22 February for the death
of several civilians in an air strike in Uruzgan Province.
No apology
Taliban insurgents do not usually publically
apologize for the harm they cause to civilians, though they claimed responsibility
for the assault on a guest house in the centre of Kabul on 26 February
in which, according to President Hamid Karzai's office, [http://president.gov.af/Contents/88/Documents/1350/kabul_attack_eng.html]
13 civilians, including six foreigners, were killed.
On 28 February an improvised roadside
bomb allegedly planted by the Taliban in Helmand's Nawzad District killed
at least seven people and injured five others, the Interior Ministry said.
"Verbally the warring sides respect
civilian protection but in practice they all have killed an alarming number
of civilians. We've had enough empty promises. It is time for all to stop
killing civilians," said ARM's Samadi.
A human rights unit of the UN Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has been tracking civilian casualties
since 2007, said it publishes figures twice a year. In January and February
2009 it recorded 290 civilian deaths. [http://unama.unmissions.org/Portals/UNAMA/human%20rights/Protection%20of%20Civilian%202009%20report%20English.pdf]
Last year was the deadliest year for
Afghan civilians since the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001, according
to rights watchdogs and UNAMA, and there are no signs of the conflict abating
in 2010, given a major US/NATO troop surge.
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