UN Afghanistan Report Shows Double Standard In Judging Civilian Casualties

International News

Written by Samuel Sokol

Thursday, 18 February 2010 13:07

The United Nationsâ€™ Afghanistan Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, issued in January, has absolved coalition forces of culpability for the majority of civilian casualties in the almost decade long allied occupation of Afghanistan.

According to the report issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, at least â€œ5,978 civilians were killed and injured in 2009, the highest number of civilian casualties recorded since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.â€

Already in 2009 the United Nations reported that the annually rising death toll in the war ravaged Muslim nation was mostly due to suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices placed by insurgent groups. While there was blame placed on American forces for unnecessary casualties amongst the civilian population, the 2009 report explained that the Taliban would frequently attack coalition forces in densely populated areas. The report did suggest that coalition forces keep only a necessary minimal military presence in civilian zones, but did not go so far as to blame the United States army for resultant deaths.

The Afghanistan report stands in stark contrast to a report recently written by a United Nationsâ€™ investigative team headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, a South African Jewish judge, which was sent to conduct a post-mortem on Israelâ€™s January 2009 incursion into the Hamas ruled Gaza Strip.

The Goldstone Report, as it is colloquially known, discusses â€œeleven incidents in which Israeli forces launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcomeâ€¦ in which the facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack.â€ These allegations of war crimes on behalf of the Israeli Defense Forces have been vociferously protested by Israeli and Jewish leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the report a â€œstrategic threat,â€ saying that it hampers the ability of democracies to fight terrorism and to engage in asymmetrical warfare.

Ashley Perry, media advisor to Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon, told the Five Towns Jewish Times that Israel is held to a different standard than other countries in international forums. While not speaking about any particular UN resolution, Perry said if the Palestinian Authority said that the earth was flat, an automatic majority at the United Nations would vote to confirm it.

Dan McNortan, UNAMA spokesman in Afghanistan, refused to comment regarding allegations that the United Nations has applied a different standard to the coalition forces than it has in judging the IDF.

The United Nations alleged that Israeli forces engaged in â€œintentional attacks against the civilian population and civilian objects,â€ in discussing attacks on Gaza mosques.

While the mission only checked two mosques, the missionâ€™s military expert, retired Irish Col. Desmond Travers, stated with assurance that there was â€œno evidence that mosques were used to store munitions.â€ He said, â€œThose charges reflect Western perceptions in some quarters that Islam is a violent religion,â€ ignoring the role that radical political Islam plays in the worldview of Hamas.

When the IDF produced documentary evidence of weapons being stored in mosques in the Gaza Strip, Travers said that he did not believe the photographs, calling them â€œspurious.â€

One of Hamasâ€™s favorite tactics in fighting Israeli forces is to cause the IDF to respond to attacks originating from civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and mosques. Subsequent deaths and property damage are then carefully filmed and distributed to the press by members of the de-facto Hamas government.

Noted Jewish-American jurist Alan Dershowitz has spoken out harshly against Richard Goldstone, calling him a â€œtraitorâ€ and stating that his report â€œaccuses Israel of using Hamas rocket attacks against its civilians as an excuseâ€”a coverâ€”for a carefully planned and executed policy of deliberately targeting innocent civilians for mass murder.â€

Israel entered the Gaza Strip as a result of almost a decade of continuing rocket and mortar fire on its population centers in the Western Negev desert.

The Israeli Defense Forces recently issued a counter-report addressing some of the war crimes allegations. The United Nations blames Israel, rather than Hamas, for the conflict, with the United Nationsâ€™ report going so far as to suggest Israeli reparations to the population of the Gaza Strip, a territory ruled by an internationally recognized terrorist organization.

In the case of Israel, the United Nations decided, â€œthe incident and patterns of events that are considered in this report have resulted from deliberate planning and policy decisions throughout the chain of command, down to the standard operating procedures and instructions given to the troops on the ground.â€

The United Nations Afghanistan report, on the other hand, noted that many attacks on civilian targets originate from forces outside of the normal coalition chain of command. However, the UN stopped short of saying that attacks on civilians or unintended deaths because of night bombing raids were the product of a formal policy decision to harm non-combatants.

Coalition forces have been given credit for attempting to minimize civilian casualties in Afghanistan. â€œInternational military forces did take strategic and specific steps to minimize civilian casualties in 2009,â€ according to the United Nations. â€œThe change in ISAF command, clearer command structures, and a new tactical directive have all contributed to the efforts by ISAF to reduce the impact of the armed conflict on civilians.â€

In contrast, Israeli attempts to warn civilians before airstrikes with pre-recorded telephone calls were dismissed as lacking â€œcredibility and clarity.â€

In summarizing its findings, the Afghanistan Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict found the â€œISAFâ€™s declared strategy of prioritizing the safety and security of civilians is a welcome development.â€ By the same token, the Taliban was blamed for actively attacking Afghan civilians. The report concludes, â€œthe inability or unwillingness of the armed opposition to take measures that preempt and reduce the harm that their tactics entail for civilians translates into a growing death toll and an ever larger proportion of the total number of civilian dead.â€

The New York Times reported in 2009 in the name of the United Nations that â€œfor all the civilians killed at the hands of the Afghan government and American-led forces, the Afghan people have more to fear from the insurgents.â€ Significantly more non-combatants have been injured or killed in Afghanistan by allied troops than by IDF forces in the Gaza Strip.

The former British commander in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, told the BBC that he did not â€œthink there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more effort to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the [Israel Defense Forces] is doing â€¦ in Gaza.â€

A career diplomat with years of experience at the United Nations confided that it is no surprise that the United Nations uses a different standard to judge Israel. Speaking off the record and requesting to remain anonymous, he mentioned the UNHRCâ€™s refusal to condemn the brutal tactics used by the Sri Lankan army against Tamil insurgents last year. The United Nations, he said, referred to the brutal civil war as an â€œinternal matter.â€

Speaking in Dublin, Navi Pillai, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for an investigation of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. According to the BBC, she expressed â€œdisappointment that the issue of alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka was not properly addressed at the Human Rights Council.â€

The United Nationsâ€™ spokesman in New York could not be reached by the Five Towns Jewish Times for comment.