April 3, 2009


CAIRO — With the country is already plagued by daily attacks, aid groups are warning that a planned US troop surge in Afghanistan would sink the central Asian Muslim country into abyss.

"(The) planned increases in troops and military operations during 2009 are likely to lead to higher levels of displacement, further restrictions to social services, and greater impediments for aid agencies to reach civilians in need of protection and assistance," 11 aid agencies said in a joint report on Friday, April 3.

"Yet such considerations are not being adequately factored into international security strategies."

The US is planning to send additional 30,000 more troops to join the 62,000 NATO-led troops in Afghanistan.

"There is a likelihood that the deployment of more troops will lead to more fighting and that civilians will be caught up in those hostilities," Oxfam head of policy in Kabul, Matt Waldman, said.

"So that is why we are calling for military forces to do everything possible to minimize the harm that they cause to civilians, whether it is in air strikes or in ground operations."

The report, titled "Caught in the Conflict", said Afghan civilians are taking the full brunt of the raging conflict in the war-torn country.

"The intensification and spread of the conflict in Afghanistan is increasingly affecting civilians."

The aid groups, which include Oxfam, Save the Children and Action Aid, said some 552 civilians were killed in NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan last year.

"IMF have also carried out or supported raids and search operations, a large number of which have involved an excessive use of force, including loss of life, physical assault, damage to property and theft, as well as aggressive and improper treatment of women."

According to UN, nearly 2,200 civilians were killed in 2008, a 30 percent increase from the previous year.

Creating Militias

The aid groups also lambasted military involvement in aid and humanitarian work in Afghanistan and endangering relief workers.

"(The military)'s hearts and minds approach to assistance, drawn from counter-insurgency doctrine, is not only at odds with accepted principles of development, but, given that it is so often ineffective and unsustainable."

"In contravention of the Guidelines, some military actors engage in relief activities for the purposes of force protection; and certain ISAF contingents, such as the US and France, are failing to identify themselves as combatants by the continued use of unmarked, white vehicles, which are conventionally used by the UN and aid agencies."

Thirty-one aid workers were killed last year, twice as many as 2007.

The aid groups also called for scrapping US-funded Afghan plans to create local militias to fight against the Taliban.

"With only cursory training, and a weak command and control system, there is considerable potential for the abuse of power and violation of human rights."

Funded by the US, the Afghan government is training a force of local men, being piloted in Wardak province, to police and fight the Taliban in the region.

"The forces are at risk of infiltration, cooption or subversion by militants, warlords or criminal groups, and could lead to increased levels of crime," it added.

"Thus steps to empower certain groups could easily undermine local stability."