The failed attempt to down an airliner on Christmas Day and the intelligence failures leading up to it continue to dominate every day’s news cycle. Meanwhile, there has been scarcely a word in the media about the killing of 10 people, including 8 school children in a raid that took place in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar on 27 December. It is as if there is an almost complete media black-out.
I have yet to see even one mention of it on TV and there is hardly anything about it in US print media. I have asked friends and family if they had heard of the case and everyone have responded in the negative.
One exception to the silence is Amy Goodman, who, as usual provides thorough coverage of uncomfortable news.
Here with Anjali Kamat yesterday at Democracy Now – The War and Peace Report, interviewing Jerome Starkey, the Times of London correspondent in Afghanistan.
ANJALI KAMAT: On Monday, hundreds of people, mostly students, protested in Kabul and in the province of Nangarhar against the US killing of civilians. Nearly thirty civilians have died over the past two weeks alone in US-led air strikes and ground operations.
But the incident that has sparked the most outrage took place in eastern Kunar province on December 27th, when ten Afghans, eight of them schoolchildren, were killed. According to the Times of London, US-led troops dragged innocent children from their beds and shot them during a nighttime raid. Afghan government investigators said the eight students were aged from eleven to seventeen, all but one of them from the same family. The headmaster of the local school said seven of the children were handcuffed and then executed. A preliminary investigation by the United Nations reinforced Afghan claims that most of the dead were schoolboys.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Afghanistan now to speak with Jerome Starkey. He’s the Times of London correspondent in Afghanistan who reported on this story. He’s joining us on the telephone from Kabul.
Jerome, welcome to Democracy Now! Lay out the story for us. What is exactly being alleged happened?
[…]
Full transcript of the interview in the link above. The relevant video segment starts @ 9.40.
Juan Cole commented on Monday:
Serial Catastrophes in Afghanistan threaten Obama Policy
You probably won’t see it in most US news outlets, but on Monday morning in Kabul and Jalalabad, hundreds of university students demonstrated against US strikes this weekend that allegedly killed a number of civilians. I want to underline the irony that the students in Tehran University are protesting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while students in these two Afghan cities are calling for Yankees to go home. Nangarhar University in Jalalabad only has a student body of about 3200, so ‘hundreds’ of students protesting there would be a significant proportion of the student body.
[…]
First, the US military launched a raid in Kunar Province two days after Christmas on a village at night, in which President Hamid Karzai alleged that 10 civilians, some 8 of them schoolchildren, had been killed (some say dragged out of their beds and executed). The NYT reported the head of a Kabul delegation to the village saying,“They gathered eight school students from two compounds and put them in one room and shot them with small arms.” (The spokesman is a former governor of Kunar and now a close adviser to President Hamid Karzai– i.e. not exactly a pro-Taliban source). The charitable theory is that in a nighttime raid, US troops got disoriented and hit the wrong group of young men.
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What is an extraordinary piece of information about the “incidence” is this NATO-admission made some days after the attack:
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The row escalated Wednesday when Afghan government investigators accused Western forces of killing 10 civilians, eight of them teenagers, in a raid in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan.NATO forces have disputed the results of the Afghan probe, saying the foreigners involved were non-military Americans on a sanctioned operation who fired in self-defence after being shot at by villagers.
But Afghanistan’s powerful NSC accepted the findings of the investigation, saying foreigners entered a house and shot the 10 people, who were unarmed and posed no threat.
[…]
(my bold)
“Non-military Americans on a sanctioned operation.” WTF! In other words; mercenaries. We know that Blackwater/Xe were contracted to provide security at the CIA-base that was recently blown up, with considerable loss of intelligence resources. Was the crew operating in eastern Kunar from the same corporation?
What about the Rules of Engagement (RoE) applying for Afghanistan? There are multiple hits if you google for RoE in Afghanistan, many of them news articles simply stating that the RoEs have been tightened in the aftermath of attacks with significant loss of civilians. But the specifics are hard to get to.
Pipeline News, a conservative blog, has come up with the following (based on reporting by Washington/Moonie Times):
What is the current directive regarding ROE in Afghanistan?
“All forces operating under the authority of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan are subject to Rules of Engagement (ROE) issued by Allied Joint Force Command Headquarters Brunssum. The ROE are consistent with NATO publication MC 362/1 NATO Rules of Engagement. Non-ISAF US forces operate under similar ROE promulgated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. US ROE are based on CJCSI 3121.01A. All US units, ISAF and non-ISAF, retain the inherent right of self defense. The ROE are classified and their content cannot be released to or discussed with members of the public. (my bold)
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A few enterprising U.S. media sources [in this case, an article published November 16, 2009 in the Washington Times] have expended much effort to piece together specific components of the ROE [source, U.S. troops battle both Taliban and their own rules]“1. No night or surprise searches.
- Villagers have to be warned prior to searches.
- ANA or ANP must accompany U.S. units on searches.
- U.S. soldiers may not fire at the enemy unless the enemy is preparing to fire first.
- U.S. forces cannot engage the enemy if civilians are present.
- Only women can search women.
- Troops can fire at an insurgent if they catch him placing an IED but not if insurgents are walking away from an area where explosives have been laid.””
If the WT’s reporting is correct, it would appear that several or most of the quoted rules were broken in the referenced raid. Is the use of non-military units a way to deliberately bypass the RoE?
I have my doubts that we will ever find out in view of the silent treatment this atrocity is given by the media.
In the bigger picture, how do the children fare in Afghanistan?
AFGHANISTAN: 2009 worst year for children – rights watchdog
KABUL, 6 January 2010 (IRIN) – Armed conflict killed hundreds of children and adversely affected many others in 2009 – the deadliest year for Afghan children since 2001 – an Afghan human rights group has said.
About 1,050 children died in suicide attacks, roadside blasts, air strikes and in the cross-fire between Taliban insurgents and pro-government Afghan and foreign forces from January to December 2009, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) a Kabul-based rights group, said in a statement on 6 January.
“At least three children were killed in war-related incidents every day in 2009, and many others suffered in diverse but mostly unreported ways,” Ajmal Samadi, ARM’s director, was quoted in the statement as saying.
[…]
“Both male and female children have been the increasing victims of war and criminality in Afghanistan but the government has not done enough to alleviate their hardship and to reduce their deprivation,” Hamida Barmaki, a child rights officer at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), told IRIN.
ARM said it recorded at least 2,080 cases of grave violations of child rights in 2009. These included the recruitment of children as suicide bombers and foot soldiers, murder, rape, forced labour, and the denial of essential services by warring parties and criminal groups.
And all of this is happening before the 30,000 additional US troops have started deploying in earnest. The violence will surely escalate – at least initially.