AFGHANISTAN: Reconstruction Can Help Win War Against Taliban

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Analysis by Farhad Bayani - The Killid Group*

KABUL, Aug 9 2007 (IPS) - On Jul. 26, coalition aircraft pounded Taliban targets in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, killing 78 civilians and reducing to rubble, countless mud-walled homes.

Angry protests erupted in Gereshk district against foreign troops and the Afghan government.

A defensive Hamid Karzai government in Kabul took up the matter of civilian deaths with the military commanders of the International Security Assistance Force-led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Sultan Ahmad Bahin, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry in Kabul, says the Afghan president has time and again urged the coalition troops to protect civilians. "The government has told NATO commanders to be more accurate in air-strikes," he insists.

But, he adds defensively, unfortunately, their task is made more difficult with Taliban fighters using the civilian population as human shields.

As the death toll mounts in the conflict between security forces and the Islamist militants, public sentiment has turned against the coalition forces and their Afghan counterparts in the army and police, to the advantage of the Taliban which has reimposed control in parts of southern Afghanistan.

"Civilian killing is a big challenge we are faced with," confirms General Zahir Azimi, spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence in Kabul. "We are looking to find ways to continue the fight against the enemies and reduce civilian deaths," he says.

The general announced that a joint Afghan, NATO and international strategy to prevent unnecessary civilian casualties in military operations was being finalised. Also, the government has found it is imperative to finds ways to counter Taliban propaganda in the conflict areas, he adds.

There is a growing realisation that the Kabul government could be losing the war for people’s minds to the Taliban. Local people need to be made aware that the aerial and land battles were for their protection against Islamist fighters who have been attacking government employees, killing doctors and students and destroying newly-built schools, many of them for girls.

Political analyst Habibullah Rafi points out that civilian casualties would only decline if the coalition forces were to coordinate military operations with Afghan forces. "Since the overthrow of the Taliban by U.S.-led forces the number of civilian deaths has escalated. Most victims of air strikes are ordinary people, and not the Taliban," he asserts.

According to Rafi, the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan has not bolstered efforts to improve the lives of Afghans. Instead by bombing wedding parties and forcibly entering rural homes to look for militants, civilians have been forced to defend themselves and join the Taliban fighters, he says.

"Only reconstruction of the war-torn country can help improve the lives of people. If the coalition and other foreign troops were to use construction tools (instead of weapons), it will bring peace and prosperity in Afghanistan. The war can be won by rebuilding," he predicts.

To Farid Hamidi, commissioner of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, all parties in the conflict have abused the rules of war. "Civilian deaths are in violation of international law, the law of war and fundamental rights of Afghans. Neither side is mindful of the rules of war," he asserts.

Equally dismissive of human rights obligations on warring parties are the new breed of suicide bombers that have emerged for the first time in Afghanistan’s nearly 3 decades of war.

Hilaluden Hilal, member of the parliamentary commission for domestic security, urges the government to ensure accountability from ISAF. He describes the "threat from suicide bombers is another challenge before the government and security forces."

Is there a way out of the Afghan mess?

Political analyst Rafi holds out little promise. "The Afghan people have always been mere pawns in the unending war game being played by rival sides," he claims. "All sides claim they are defending the rights of the people, but they are not because they use all possible (illegitimate) ways to achieve their goals. All that the people have ever got is poverty and misfortune."

Continuing conflict and security concerns have frustrated any hope of recovery and reconstruction under the Karzai government. In 2004, Afghanistan became the 191st signatory to the Millennium Declaration, committing itself to meet eight millennium development goals by 2015.

Yet, life expectancy, 44.5 years at birth, is at least 20 years lower than all of its neighbouring countries. One out of five children dies before the age of five, and one woman dies from pregnancy-related causes approximately every 30 minutes, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

*Reporting contributed by The Killid Group