| | Civilian losses overshadow millions to rebuild Afghan legal system CanWest News
07/02/2007
By Steven Edwards
[Printer Friendly Version]
United Nations - Canada will join other countries in Rome on Tuesday to announce aid programs aimed at repairing Afghanistan's tattered judicial system, but the landmark conference also takes place amid rising concern over the number of Afghan civilians killed in Western security forces operations. United Nations officials suggested privately Monday that strikes by pro-government forces against Taliban and other insurgents may be responsible for more than half of the estimated 593 civilians killed due to insurgency-related violence this year.
Leading the U.S. delegation to the Rome conference, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said Taliban fighters were using civilians as human shields. He did, however, also acknowledge mistakes.
"U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are doing their best to avoid hitting civilians, but sometimes the weapons miss their targets," he said, according to the Italian ANSA news agency. "In addition, one must not forget an important fact: Taliban and other extremists use civilians as shields."
Khalilzad, himself Afghan-born and a former U.S. ambassador to the country, later told reporters the families of victims of U.S. operations may receive on-the-spot compensation payments. He explained that U.S. commanders "have some flexibility."
UN officials in Afghanistan are reluctant to speak openly about what one called the "very contentious" issue of civilian deaths.
The latest occurred Friday, when air strikes against presumed Taliban targets in the southern Helmand province killed what locals said were 62 insurgents and 45 civilians. A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which took part in the operations with a U.S.-led coalition force, acknowledged civilians had died, but said preliminary findings suggest there were a dozen or less.
"The reports of civilian deaths that we have seen in Helmand since Friday are certainly disturbing," Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in Kabul. "We want to know the full facts about what has happened there. However, at this stage we still don't have complete information."
But privately, officials pointed to Associated Press estimates issued Sunday, which in turn cited UN sources for the tentative figures. They showed 314 civilians had been killed by international or Afghan military action since the year began. Direct military action by insurgents had killed an additional 279.
UN officials stress that an undetermined number of casualty reports were from secondary sources and could not be verified because the regions were inaccessible to UN staff.
They also suggested most recent deaths occurred following operations in Helmand and points west, whereas Canada's 2,500 troops operate in Kandahar, to the east of Helmand.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused Western forces of viewing Afghan lives as "cheap" as he dispatched a team to investigate Friday's strikes.
He will today address the Rome conference, billed as the highest-level gathering ever that has focused on entrenching the rule of law in Afghanistan.
Helena Guergis, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, will identify new justice programs that Canada will finance with funds drawn from the $1.2 billion the government has promised to spend on Afghan development through to 2011.
Delegations from more than 20 other countries and institutions will announce similar initiatives.
"The conference aims at reaffirming commitments of the Afghan government and the international community in accelerating the judicial reform process and the rule of law, which are basic pillars for the reconstruction of Afghanistan," says an Afghan government statement.
Strengthening what is referred to as "governance" institutions is seen as vital not only for the country's development, but to prevent Taliban and other insurgents from filling the current power vacuum in certain regions.
Canada's new initiatives are expected to include additional support for the training of judges, and the provision of experts to advise on ways ordinary Afghans can gain access to lawyers.
Also addressing the conference will be Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, NATO chief Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, and Massimo D'Alema, Italy's foreign minister.
"Without justice and the rule of law, it is difficult to guarantee security, economic development and human rights," Gianni Vernetti, Italian under secretary for foreign affairs, told ANSA as he announced Rome will spend 10 million Euros ($13.6 million US) of its Afghan aid money to revamp the country's judiciary.
Other Stories:
|
|