Over the past few years, U.S. and NATO forces have received a fair amount of blame for failures to prevent civilian casualties. But while deadly incidents still occur, the coalition does seem to be making good on a promise by its top commander to reduce civilian harm.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a new report today on civilian casualties in 2009, and the overall picture is grim: Last year was the deadliest yet for civilians, since the end of Taliban rule in 2001. But according to the report, 2009 also saw an overall drop in the number of civilian casualties caused by U.S., International Security Assistance Force and Afghan government forces.
UNAMA recorded 2,412 civilian casualties last year, a year-on-year increase of 14 per cent. Of that total, UNAMA said, "armed opposition" (i.e., the Taliban and affiliated groups) accounted for 1,630 deaths. That's 4o percent more than in 2008, when Taliban attacks claimed the lives of 1,160 civilians.
Suicide attacks and roadside bombs are the main cause of civilian deaths. According to UNAMA, such attacks caused 1,054 civilian deaths last year. Targeted killings are also on the rise. "Civilians are also being deliberately assassinated, abducted and executed if they are perceived as being associated with the government or the international community," said Norah Niland, UNAMA’s chief human rights officer, in a statement.
Part of the drop in casualties caused by the coalition may be attributed to tighter rules for the use of force -- and serious restrictions on the use of air strikes. After assuming command of ISAF in June, General Stanley McChrystal issued controversial new guidance that all but ended air strikes, except in extreme cases.
Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, told Danger Room that McChrystal's new playbook for preventing civilian casualties "is obviously working." But she said ISAF was still doing a less-than-stellar job to compensate civilians harmed during military operations. "For the 25% of casualties that pro-government forces cause, ISAF still doesn't have a way of properly addressing the harm," she said. "International forces have combat the perception among many Afghans that they don’t care if innocent people suffer harm during military action."
According to CIVIC's field work, Afghans in most cases still do not receive compensation for death, injury or property damage. "Rather, the processes for dispensing condolence payments are opaque, ad hoc, and vary from nation to nation," Holewinski said, referring to the military's system for compensating civilians for death or injury. "As long as international forces are causing even one civilian casualty, ISAF must establish consistent policies for responding to civilian casualties, including thorough investigations, proper apologies and monetary compensation."
The idea behind the campaign to reduce civilian deaths is simple: It is supposed to help eliminate a key recruiting tool for the Taliban. But in an interviewed with ABC News that aired last night, McChrystal said that the Taliban were attracting more insurgents because of an effective and proactive recruiting drive, not because of missteps by the coalition.
"I really think the recruiting of insurgents is done by the insurgency and they do an effective and very energetic propaganda campaign to do that," he told Diane Sawyer. "So I think that it’s not what we do as much as it is the efforts that they make, and it’s really an effort of ignorance. It’s not well schooled people."
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
