Posted by Erica G from Kabul In the two months since Gen. Stanley McChrystal assumed ISAF command, we have seen a serious shift in thinking about civilian casualties and Afghan community concerns. This is most clearly embodied in the July Tactical Directive‘s much stricter guidelines on airstrikes and other uses of force that could risk…
Posted by Erica G from Kabul Last Wednesday evening at 2pm, international forces raided a clinic in Wardak province run by one of the largest NGOs in Afghanistan, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA). They forced entry into several rooms, tied up local staff and some family members of the patients, and ordered even bed-ridden…
Posted by Erica G from Kabul Since the new UN estimates on civilians killed so far in 2009 were released on Friday, I’ve been getting questions on whether these numbers are helpful, or even accurate, in describing the conflict: What’s the value of the obsession with body counting? In one sense, these numbers offer a…
by Nimmi Gowrinathan When the cameras came, everyone came to the edges of the IDP camp. One hand on the hot metal of a barbed wire fence, the emptiness in their eyes was captured in images flashed around the world as the military campaign of the Government of Sri Lanka came to end. The cameras…
By Erica Gaston The UN issued its mid-year review on civilian deaths this morning. More than 1000 Afghan civilians have been killed so far this year — 24% more than in the first part of 2008. Two key take-aways from the report: 1) Numbers of those killed by insurgent attacks are way up (59% of…
Posted by Scott Paul, CIVIC Fellow based in New York City It’s hard not to be inspired by the story of Izzeldin Aboul Aish. A doctor who received his Master’s of Public Health from Harvard, Aboul Aish returned to Gaza to raise his daughters and help his people. He is widely known from his television…
By Sarah Holewinski, Executive Director of CIVIC Conclusions from the US investigation into the May 4th airstrikes in Afghanistan are leaking out. It appears that US personnel made mistakes–resulting in civilian deaths–by not sticking to their own stringent guidelines on the use of force. After eight years in Afghanistan, American forces finally have good rules…
Posted by Erica G from Kabul This past week in Afghanistan, three US Senators — Patrick Leahy (VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Mark Warner (VA) – used one afternoon of a packed Congressional assessment visit to sit down with a Afghan family affected by the conflict. They heard about the family’s experiences and help received…
Originally printed in The Guardian May 12, 2009 VIDEO BY THE ORGANIZATION WAR WITHOUT WITNESS: Click here Yesterday a shell was reported to have hit a temporary hospital in the so-called no-fire zone in north-east Sri Lanka, killing 47 people. Vany Kumar, 25, works at the temporary medical facility in Mullaivaikal East primary school, which…