Posted by: Erica
KABUL – Last week I was meeting with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) at their offices, when two community elders from Wardak province walked in. Wardak province is adjacent to the province in which Kabul is located, but the fighting there has been so intense that few human rights organizations or independent monitors have been able to go there for months to investigate claims of civilians caught in conflict. Based on the stories coming out of Wardak, these two elders were relatively lucky. U.S. military forces were engaged in ground fire and then called in air support to strike targets in their district. No members of their family were killed or seriously injured. Nonetheless 3 houses were virtually destroyed and they lost most of the livestock, which was their main means to support their families. By their accounts, most people in their district were in a similar position. Of the 100 families who lived in their village, only 12 remained. The others had fled out of fear of being caught in continued fighting and airstrikes.
The two men had come to the AIHRC for help in making a claim for compensation with the miltiary authorities who had been active in their region. They said that representatives of the local Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) had come and surveyed the damage immediately after the strike in late May. (PRTs act as a sort of local base for international military. They are located in most provinces in Afghanistan). The elders said they had also filed their claim with ISAF authorities in Kabul, who had promised to forward it to the appropriate military and help them in getting compensation. Now 6 months later they had heard nothing and they wondered what they could do to get compensation for the property that they and their community had lost.
To be continued: Wed, Nov. 19, 2008.
