The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) seems to have a hard time upholding rules of engagement, causing further hardship for civilians in Afghanistan. Following a devastating aerial attack in August last year, the force commander ordered a tightening of the rules.
Nato has issued new military rules of engagement in Afghanistan in an attempt to limit civilian deaths, after the air strike last month which reportedly killed 90 people, including 60 children, it emerged yesterday.
The orders were issued by General David McKiernan, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, who also asked the US central command to reopen an inquiry into the air strike in the western district of Shindand, as video footage surfaced showing the bodies of child victims.
But the new rules apparently do not work.
Last week’s much reported strike on hijacked oil tankers were possibly made in breach of the rules:
International military officials in Afghanistan denied reports on Sunday that an investigation into a deadly air strike ordered by the German Bundeswehr had found it in breach of NATO rules.
ISAF spokesman General Eric Tremblay said NATO investigators were “on the ground” in northern Kunduz province where the bombing took place on Friday, but had not yet reported any findings. Nor had ISAF come up with a definitive death toll, he said.
[…]
The Washington Post reported earlier the German commander who ordered the air strike had possibly been in breach of NATO rules as he based the call on just one intelligence source.
The newspaper said a NATO fact-finding team estimated that about 125 people were killed in the bombing near the city of Kunduz, at least two dozen of whom – but perhaps many more – were not insurgents.
[…]
The blame game for this botched action becomes obvious in the run-up for the German elections in 3 weeks time. Chancellor Angela Merkel has requested an immediate investigation.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for an urgent investigation into an airstrike in northern Afghanistan, amid tension about who was to blame.
Reports have suggested that civilians were among the dozens of victims of Friday’s German-ordered air strike.
The Kunduz province raid has strained relations between German and US commanders in Afghanistan.
[…]
“The German government and I personally want to see a Nato investigative team swiftly put together that will carry out a thorough and quick explanation of what took place,” she said.
Her comments came as the Washington Post reported that the strike may have been ordered in breach of Nato rules.
And now, the report that ISAF-forces stormed through a hospital run by a Swedish charitable organization in violation of international rules.
KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. troops burst into a Swedish charity-run hospital in Afghanistan and tied up patients’ relatives and staff, the charity said on Sunday, in what it called a breach of deals between the military and aid groups.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) said soldiers had entered its hospital in Wardak, south of Kabul, on Wednesday evening without explanation and conducted a search, including of female wards and toilets.
[…]
“It is not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement” between aid groups and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, he said.
A press officer for the NATO-led force, Lieutenant-Commander Christine Sidenstricker, said she was aware of an incident but did not have enough information to comment.
On Wednesday evening September 2 at 10 pm coalition vehicles drove up at SCA’s Hospital in Shaniz, Wardak province along the main highway from Kabul to Ghazni. They entered the hospital compound, reportedly without giving any reason or justification for entering the hospital compound. They searched all rooms, even bathrooms, male and female wards. Rooms that were locked were forcefully entered and the doors of the malnutrition ward and the ultrasound ward were broken by force to gain entry. Upon entering the hospital they tied up four employees and two family members of patients at the hospital. SCA staffs as well as patients (even those in beds) were forced out of rooms/wards throughout the search.
On leaving the hospital at around 12 pm, IMF issued verbal “orders”/instructions; that on receiving any patient that could be an insurgent the hospital staff has to report to the Coalition Forces who would then determine if the hospital would be permitted or not of treating such patient.
“This is simply not acceptable. It is not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement between NGOs and ISAF. We demand guarantees from the IMF command that such violations will not be repeated and that this is made clear to commanders in the field. SCA can not and will not tolerate this kind of treatment by the IMF. Nor is the SCA bound by any orders from IMF regarding to whom treatment can be given” says Anders Fange, Country Director, SCA. […]
Time to find an exit strategy for Afghanistan!
This comes on top of this recent scandal:
Animal House in Afghanistan
The entire engagement in Afghanistan seems out of control.
Nothing but a drunken party and shooting gallery, huh? How much are we spending on this shindig this year?
Much better than President Obama’s “Bush had it right” strategy.
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All in the name of spreading democracy … the extraordinary way. Many NATO soldiers lost their lives so polling stations in remote areas could open.
KABUL, Afghanistan (NY Times) — Afghans loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites where no one voted but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president’s re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here.
“We think that about 15 percent of the polling sites never opened on Election Day,” the senior Western diplomat said. “But they still managed to report thousands of ballots for Karzai.”
Results suggest fraud alarms have been sidestepped (Times Online)Besides creating the fake sites, Mr. Karzai’s supporters also took over approximately 800 legitimate polling centers and used them to fraudulently report tens of thousands of additional ballots for Mr. Karzai, the officials said.
The result, the officials said, is that in some provinces, the pro-Karzai ballots may exceed the people who actually voted by a factor of 10.
Afghan preliminary election results
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."it appears the ISAF need’s to take a dale carnegie course, asap.
the entire afghanistan fiasco is begging to resemble alice’s encounter with the cheshire cat:
vietnam redux. it took the russians 10 years to recognize their mistake, l wonder how long it’ll take us.
it took the russians 10 years to recognize their mistake, l wonder how long it’ll take us.
Moving ahead with Karzai’s seriously corrupt regime will get us no further than the flogging of a dead horse…
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(Salon.com) – Meanwhile, the Taliban have used pockets of Pashtun populations in the north of the country as a base to take over three districts that allow them to block supplies coming in from Tajikistan, according to McClatchy.
These setbacks are taking place even as U.S. missiles slammed into a base of the militant Haqqani group in eastern Afghanistan, allegedly killing 35 guerrillas. The Haqqani group is cooperating with the Hizb-i Islami and with the “old Taliban” of Mulla Omar in attempting to undermine the Kabul government and its NATO backers.
Both Hikmatyar and Jalal al-Din Haqqani were assets of the Reagan administration in the 1980s fight against the Soviets and they received large amounts of monetary aid from Washington, but have now turned on it.
In any case, the Taliban are obviously attempting to cut the supply routes that allow the U.S. and NATO to keep their troops supplied with ammunition, fuel and food.
U.S. military planes take to Russian skies
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Or you could call it a quagmire. From the NYT:
There’s an old saying: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”.
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(NYT) – Men voters in some districts and capital city of the southeastern Paktika province were allowed to cast ballots on behalf of their female family members for lack of separate arrangements, voters said. There is only one polling center in the provincial capital for both male and female voters near the attorney office, but no women were seen on the Election Day.
A man who claimed to have voted for his female family members told Pajhwok Afghan News the Independent Election Commission (IEC) officials allowed him to cast ballots on behalf his female family members. He added the permission was granted in the wake of insecurity and cultural problems for the women. […]
Mohammad Zahir Shah, a voter, said he cast 35 votes of female members of his family.
Taliban control of US build Highway One, Kabul – Kandahar
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."of Massachusetts just spoke on the House floor calling for an exit strategy in Afghanistan.
Thank you, congressman McGovern.