100,000 civilians casualties in Afghanistan in 10 years

A United Nations report says Afghanistan passed a
grim milestone with more than 100,000 civilians killed or hurt in the last 10
years since the international body began documenting casualties in a war that
has raged for 18 years.
The report released Saturday by the U.N. Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan comes as a seven-day “reduction of violence” agreement
between the U.S. and Taliban takes effect, paving the way for a Feb. 29 signing
of a peace deal Washington hopes will end its longest war, bring home U.S.
troops and start warring Afghans negotiating the future of their country.
“Almost no civilian in Afghanistan has escaped being
personally affected in some way by the ongoing violence,” said Tadamichi
Yamamoto, the secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan. “It
is absolutely imperative for all parties to seize the moment to stop the
fighting, as peace is long overdue; civilian lives must be protected and
efforts for peace are underway.”
Last year there was a slight decrease in the numbers
of civilians hurt or killed, which the report says was a result of reduced
casualties inflicted by the Islamic State affiliate. The group was drastically
degraded by U.S. and Afghan security forces as well as the Taliban, who have
also bitterly battled the Islamic State.
According to the U.N. report, 3,493 civilians were
killed last year and 6,989 were injured. While fewer civilians were hurt or
killed by Islamic State fighters, more civilians became casualties at the hands
of the Taliban and Afghan security forces and their American allies.
The report said there was a 21% increase in civilian
casualties by the Taliban and an 18% rise in casualties blamed on Afghan
security forces and their U.S. allies who dropped more bombs last year than in
any year since 2013.
“All parties to the conflict must comply with the
key principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution to prevent
civilian casualties,” said Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for
human rights. “Belligerents must take the necessary measures to prevent women,
men, boys and girls from being killed by bombs, shells, rockets and improvised
mines; to do otherwise is unacceptable.”
The seven-day “reduction in violence” began at
midnight Friday. If it holds it will be followed by the signing of a long
sought peace deal between the United States and the Taliban in the Middle
Eastern state of Qatar where the Taliban maintain a political office.
U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has spent the
past 18 months negotiating the deal with the Taliban after his appointment in
September 2018 by the White House, will sign the deal on the behalf of
Washington. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants American troops
brought home from Afghanistan. He says they have become a police enforcement
force, which is not what they are there to do.
The peace deal will also include Taliban guarantees
that Afghanistan will not be used as a staging arena for attacks against the
U.S. or its allies.
The most difficult phase is expected to be the
intra-Afghan negotiations as Kabul still struggles to come up with a unified
position opposite the Taliban. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was declared the
winner of a presidential race held five months earlier, followed by his
political rivals refuting the results and calling the polling fraught with
fraud.
The negotiations among Afghans, which will also
hammer out an eventual permanent cease-fire, are to begin around March 10. Both
Germany and Norway have offered to host the negotiations but until now a venue
has not been chosen.