Taleban Challenge UN on Casualty Figures

The Taleban have disputed the findings of a United Nations report holding them responsible for most civilian deaths in Afghanistan this year, and have called for an independent commission to be set up to investigate casualties.

In what looks like a concerted effort to challenge the version of events given by the Afghan government’s international allies, the insurgents have also invited journalists to visit areas from which – according to coalition forces – they have been driven out.

The August report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, held “anti-government elements” – the Taleban and associated groups – responsible for 76 per cent of the 3,268 civilian casualties recorded in the first six months of this year; and within that figure, 72 per cent of the 1,271 deaths.

Afghan security forces and the international troops were deemed responsible for 386 casualties, 12 per cent of the total (the rest could not be attributed to either side).

The report concluded that civilian casualties caused by government and allied forces were 30 per cent down on the figure for January-June 2009, whereas those caused by the insurgents showed a 53 per cent increase.

Rejecting these figures, Taleban representatives insisted that foreign forces were responsible for most casualties, and said they were ready to cooperate fully with a fresh investigation conducted by an independent body.

A spokesman for the group, Zabihollah Mojahed, accused foreign forces of employing air attacks and heavy weaponry because they could not take on the Taleban face to face.

“We try to prevent civilian casualties, but in areas where the foreign and local military is present or patrolling, it becomes necessary for us to attack,” he added. “We have told people many times to stay away from these forces.”

The insurgents’ offer was spurned by Afghan government officials, who said the UNAMA report was accurate.

“The armed opposition to the government of Afghanistan is the enemy of the people of Afghanistan,” Wahid Omar, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said. “They carry out these act deliberately and it is they who inflict civilian casualties in most cases.”

The International Assistance Force, ISAF, forces also rejected the proposal.

“There is no need for the Taleban to suggest this,” ISAF spokesman Brigadier-General Joseph Blotz said. “Instead of suggesting a commission, the Taleban should stop killing civilians.”

UN spokesman Nilab Mobarez declined to comment on the Taleban’s suggestion.

The Taleban have also called for observers to investigate statements by General David Petraeus, the commander of NATO and US in Afghanistan, that coalition forces have driven the insurgents out of numerous parts of the country.

Describing these claims of military success as propaganda, Taleban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said, “In order for the reality to be clarified for the world and for the people of Afghanistan, we suggest that a group of local and foreign journalists should come to those areas which Petraeus claims have been captured from the Taleban, from which the Taleban have withdrawn, or where he says our access has been restricted, and see for themselves how far these claims by the American general are true or false.”

Civilian casualties have long been a source of anger among Afghans, creating tensions between President Karzai and his foreign allies. Karzai has criticised the international forces on many occasions and urged them to do more to prevent civilians being killed and injured during combat operations.

The Taleban’s attempt to challenge the UN’s casualty figures has thus found a receptive audience among some Afghans.

Kabul resident Ahmad Rashid said the government should cooperate with the Taleban on an investigation.

“We ask the Afghan government to respond positively to the Taleban’s suggestion to find out which side is to blame for civilian casualties,” he added.

Mohammad Sediq, who has moved to the capital from Helmand province, which has seen heavy fighting in recent months and years, said he believed foreign forces were responsible for the majority of casualties.

“Those who sit in luxury offices and comment about civilian casualties… can’t tell good from bad because they’re intoxicated with dollars,” he said. “People in the war zone and those who’ve lost relatives know the reality. If the government and the foreign forces aren’t afraid of telling the truth, why won’t they agree to conduct an investigation?”

Political analyst Wahid Mozhda accused the UN of undermining its own credibility with its latest report, and he insisted that it was the international forces that inflicted most civilian casualties.

“There have been dozens of cases where two Taleban have been killed and dozens of innocent people including women and children have been wiped out in attacks and bombardments by foreign forces, yet those forces have counted them all as Taleban or al-Qaida,” he said.

By contrast, he said, “The Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has issued a statement asking his men to be more careful when comes to civilian casualties. We’ve seen a fall in the number of suicide attacks since this statement came out.”

In Mozhda’s view, the reason the government rejected the Taleban proposal for a new commission was that it did not want to grant any legitimacy to the insurgents.

“If the Afghan government were to give a positive response to the Taleban’s suggestion, it would be de facto recognising the group,” he said.

Zia Rafat, a political analyst and lecturer at Kabul University, said that the Taleban were playing a calculated political game – trying to repair their image and to show the world and the Afghan people that they respected human rights.

Rafat said the Taleban lacked the political legitimacy to make demands of this kind. Their proposal, he said, was merely a way of exerting pressure on the international community and the Afghan government, and of diverting attention from human rights abuses committed by insurgent groups.

“Instead of suggesting a commission to assess [numbers of] victims, the Taleban could act with care during warfare,” he said. “If civilians are killed during clashes between the two sides, the root cause of the conflict goes back to the Taleban network.”

Not all critics of the Taleban are prepared to reject their overture out of hand.

Shokria Barakzai, a member of parliament who has been an outspoken critic of the Taleban, said it was significant that they had for the first time offered to cooperate with a delegation investigating casualties in areas they controlled.

“It can be seen as a positive message from the Taleban,” she said.

Abdol Wahed Faramarz is an IWPR-trained journalist in Afghanistan.