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Mix-Ansicht- Civilian deaths no cause for concern - dira, 12.01.2002, 19:33
- Fiktionen humaner Kriegführung - dira, 12.01.2002, 23:58
Civilian deaths no cause for concern
<h2>Civilian deaths no cause for concern</h2>
The Pentagon doesn't keep count, and the media keep silent, writes Gay Alcorn, Herald Correspondent in Washington.
Marc Herold, a University of New Hampshire economics professor, was so disturbed by the lack of coverage of civilian deaths in the war in Afghanistan that he began keeping a tally himself.
Scouring through news reports as varied as the BBC, The Times of India and The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's Herald Sun, he took conservative estimates where possible and came up with a admittedly rough tally of 3767 civilian deaths between October 7 and December 6.
That was before before a December20 strike against a convoy heading for Kabul killed as many as 65 people, and bombing of the village of Qalaye Niazi on December 29 killed, the United Nations says, at least 52.
Dr Herold says that, on average, 62 civilian Afghans have died each day since bombing began. The total is now close to 5000, far more than the 3000 killed in America on September 11.
Dr Herold's report received extensive coverage in the European media but almost no mention in the American press, which has struggled with defining a role in this conflict that is patriotic but still objective. Recently, serious media have begun to look at the suffering of Afghan civilians, but the issue is so emotional that many media outlets have chosen silence.
"DO NOT USE photos on Page 1 showing civilian casualties from the US war in Afghanistan," wrote copy editor Ray Glenn to staff of the News Herald in Panama City, Florida."Our sister paper in Fort Walton has done so and received hundreds and hundreds of threatening emails and the like. The only exception is if the US hits an orphanage, school or similar facility and kills scores or hundreds of children."
Some conservative commentators, who bristle at any criticism of America's response to terrorism, dismiss the issue of civilian deaths entirely."Civilian casualties are not news," said Michael Barone, a Fox News pundit."The fact is that they accompany wars."
The Pentagon is reluctant to talk about civilian deaths, and keeps no tally, saying chaos on the ground makes it impossible. Aid groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross say the violence makes accurate counts difficult, but the ICRC has buried hundreds of people around battle sites including Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar.
Nobody alleges that the US has deliberately targeted civilians. Its bombs have struck terrorist camps, airfields, radar sites, armoured vehicles, and more recently suspected terrorists in caves and in convoys. But American warplanes have dropped anti-personnel cluster bombs in urban areas, which inevitably kill or main civilians.
Dr Herold says the strategy of using air strikes to support local ground forces is designed to minimise American casualties without regard to civilian deaths. Only one American soldier has died from enemy fire.
"The critical element remains the very low value put upon Afghan civilian lives by US military planners and the political elite, as clearly revealed by the US willingness to bomb heavily populated regions," he writes.
"The hollowness of pious pronouncements by [Defence Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld, [National Security Adviser Condoleezza] Rice and the compliant corporate media about the great care to minimise collateral damage is clear for all to see."
After September11, American anger has been so acute that surveys have found that the public would accept large numbers of civilian deaths in Afghanistan or elsewhere, and large numbers of American military casualties, to prevent further atrocities at home.
The deadliest"accident" may turn out to be the December29 bombing of the village of Qalaye Niazi in eastern Afghanistan. Reporters have visited the village, and spoken to its citizens.
People had travelled to the village to celebrate a wedding that night. According to a Washington Post account, air strikes began at 3.30am as people were sleeping. Villagers rushed from their houses, only to be struck by a second wave of attacks.
The US says intelligence indicated the village harboured Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, and that an arms cache was found in one building. Villagers say there were no terrorist leaders - although some Taliban foot soldiers had swapped sides. A doctor estimated the number of deaths at 80; the UN said 52.
"Look at these shoes," Bai Jan, an elder, said of a pair of children's shoes."Are these Taliban shoes?" Reporters have seen braids for women's hair among the rubble, strips of party dresses and blood-soaked turbans. Unlike the victims of September11, there will be no monetary compensation for their families, no speeches or memorials, and no New York Times obituaries
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