Atrocities against civilians — foreigners injure, insult

From Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Excerpting, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett

Terrorized goaded to violence

Imagine the sorrow and horror afflicting each individual whose tragic story is told in the ‘timetable’ of atrocities committed against innocent people. How can we compensate people who have endured three decades of warfare, whose land has been ravaged that … The $33 billion dollar supplemental funding bill passed by the U.S. Congress to pay for U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could have been directed toward helping Afghanistan replant its orchards, replenish its flocks, rebuild its irrigation systems.

A partial November-October list describes, in part, the suffering and agony that people in Afghanistan have endured since April 2009 . Focusing on this particular list does not excuse atrocities committed by Taliban fighters but it does indicate our own responsibility to urgently educate others and ourselves about a deeply disturbing pattern: U.S./NATO officials first distribute misleading information about victims of an attack and later acknowledge that the victims were unarmed civilians.

November 14, 2010, Kandahar province
Circumstances: “Also on Sunday, ISAF said one Afghan child had been killed inadvertently and one wounded by artillery fire. The wounded child was taken to an ISAF hospital for treatment. An ISAF patrol had come under fire in the Zharay district of southern Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold, and returned fire with artillery, the coalition said” http://alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6AD0GK.htm.

U.S./NATO initial response/acknowledgment: “Following the engagement, the combined force confirmed that two Afghan children were inadvertently caught in the engagement, one was killed and one was wounded. The wounded child was medically evacuated to an ISAF medical facility. “Our thoughts and concerns are with the families of this terrible accident,” said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres, ISAF Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Center director.”
http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/isaf-investigates-civilian-casualty-incident-in-kandahar.html

November 10, 2010, Sangin district of Helmand province
Circumstances: “the NATO-led force in Afghanistan said it was investigating whether its troops had inadvertently killed three Afghan civilians on Wednesday while its forces fought insurgents in the south of the country.” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A941I20101110

U.S./NATO initial response: International Security Assistance Force is looking into the possibility that three Afghan civilians were inadvertently killed and one wounded by ISAF forces during combat operations with insurgents in the Sangin district of Helmand province Wednesday. Four Afghan civilians were brought to a nearby ISAF base following the engagement, three died and one was wounded. “Our thoughts and concerns are with the families of this terrible accident,” said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres, ISAF Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Center director.
http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/isaf-looks-into-civilian-casualties-in-helmand.html

Saturday, October 23, 2010, Maidan Shahr district, Wardak province
Circumstances: NATO forces killed two civilians, including a teenage boy, during a fight with insurgents Saturday in Wardak province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Mohammad Halim Fidai, the governor of the province. Fidai condemned the killings. The deaths prompted hundreds of residents to stage a demonstration that blocked a highway for nearly an hour.

The coalition could not confirm the two civilian deaths. NATO said that after insurgents attacked a patrol with a homemade bomb, the troops stopped to investigate the explosion and clear any other bombs in the area. After they stopped, they received fire from an unknown number of insurgents, the coalition said in a statement. During the fighting, the coalition said two Afghans fell off a motorcycle and were taken away by villagers so their conditions could not be verified. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101023/aponreas/asafghanistan

U.S./NATO initial response: “a statement released by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said two civilians had possibly been killed in the Maidan Shahr district of Wardak province, west of Kabul, when insurgents attacked the patrol. However, it did not say whether they were killed by ISAF troops or by insurgents.” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69M17N20101023

October 23, 2010, Regey village of Sangin district in Helmand province
Circumstances: “President Hamid Karzai said Monday that a rocket attack on a residential compound in the southern province of Helmand was carried out by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).” He said, “The attack by a helicopter gunship last Friday killed 52 people in Regey village, in Helmand’s volatile Sangin district.”
http://news.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/21-nato-says-cannot-verify-afghan-civilian-deaths-sk-02

U.S./NATO initial response: According to “ISAF public affairs officer Todd Breasseale, “We do not know where the information they say they have is coming from.” He said “We are looking into who was responsible for (the rocket attack), that is part of our investigation.”
http://news.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/21-nato-says-cannot-verify-afghan-civilian-deaths-sk-02

October 4, 2010, Kajaki district of Helmand province
Circumstances: Three Afghan civilians were killed along with 14 insurgents in a NATO air strike targeting a Taliban commander. The air strike in southern Helmand province came only a day after another air strike by foreign forces targeting insurgents in different district of the province, which Afghan police said also killed civilians as well as fighters.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6934AW20101004

U.S. NATO Initial response: “A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was investigating the report of a strike, but did not have any information.” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6934AW20101004

October 3, 2010, Baraki Barak district of Logar province
Circumstances: “Two Afghan civilians were accidentally killed Sunday by coalition forces after insurgents attacked an ISAF base in Logar Province, eastern Afghanistan. The incident, being investigated by NATO, occurred when coalition forces returned fire following an attack by insurgents.” http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/afghanistanunrest

U.S. NATO Initial response: “The civilians were killed when ISAF forces returned fire following a mortar or rocket attack by the insurgents, it said in a statement. The incident was under investigation.” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6921BZ20101003

U.S/NATO acknowledgement: “ISAF said it had accidentally killed two civilians when insurgents attacked a military base in Baraki Barak district of Logar province south of Kabul.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6921BZ20101003

October 2, 2010, Helmand province
Circumstances: “At least three Afghan civilians were killed in a NATO air strike targeting senior Taliban commanders in southern Helmand province at the weekend, the provincial police chief said on Sunday.”

U.S. NATO Initial response: “The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties, but declined immediate comment on the total number of people killed in Saturday’s raid, or the number of possible civilian casualties”
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SGE692013.htm


Voice for Creative Nonviolence Kathy Kelly reports on civilian Afghans caught in U.S. war

August 26, Kunar Province
“Following an alleged Taliban attack on a nearby police station, NATO forces flew overhead to ‘engage’ the militants. If the engagement includes bombing the area under scrutiny, it would be more apt to say that NATO aimed to puree the militants. But in this case, the bombers mistook the children for militants and killed six of them, aged 6 to 12. Local police said there were no Taliban at the site during the attack, only children.

“General Petraeus assures his superiors that the U.S. is effectively using drone surveillance, sensors and other robotic means of gaining intelligence to assure that they are hunting down the right targets for assassination; but survivors of these attacks insist that civilians are at risk. In Afghanistan, thirty high schools have shut down because the parents say that their children are distracted by the drones flying overhead and that it’s unsafe for them to gather in the schools.…

“I think of Nur [11-year-old Nur Said] trapped in his misery at the Emergency surgical center — one among many thousands of amputees whose lives are forever altered by the war and poverty that afflict his country.

“Many of these survivors are likely to feel intense hatred toward their persecutors.

“Three hundred villagers in the Sayed Abad district of Wardak province took to the streets in protest on August 12, following an alleged U.S. night raid. ‘They murdered three students and detained five others,’ one of the protesters said. ‘All of them were civilians.’”


Sources and notes

“Atrocities in Afghanistan: A Troubling Timetable Updated” (Afghanistan by Voices Co-coordinators)

“Since April of 2010, Voices activists have maintained a partial listing of civilians killed by U.S. led ISAF/NATO troops in Afghanistan.” All of the information assembled is available in mainstream news. “We realized that we ourselves were not paying close enough attention; we weren’t pausing to ask questions and absorb the details, so we’ve tried in the past several months to carefully update the ‘Afghan Atrocities’ timetable.” http://vcnv.org/atrocities-in-afghanistan-a-troubling-timetable-updated-1


The Indefensible Drones: A Ground Zero Reflection, Voices for Creative Nonviolence – Kathy Kelly, September 8, 2010, http://vcnv.org/the-indefensible-drones-a-ground-zero-reflection


Kathy Kelly co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, (www.vcnv.org) a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare.

In 2009, Kelly lived in Gaza during the ‘Operation Cast Lead’ bombing. Later that year, Voices for Creative Nonviolence formed another small delegation to visit Pakistan, aiming to learn more about the effects of U.S. drone warfare on the civilian population and to better understand consequences of U.S. foreign policy in Pakistan. Kathy Kelly’s 2010 most recent trip to the region included a visit to Afghanistan, focusing on surgical centers serving victims of war.


Kelly and Voices for Creative Nonviolence companions based in Chicago believe that “nonviolence necessarily involves simplicity, service, resources sharing and nonviolent direct action in resistance to war and oppression.”

_______________________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]