By NNN-Xinhua,
Kabul : The chief spokesman of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday said that his government echoed United Nations call on Taliban militants and the NATO-led forces stationed in Afghanistan to avoid harming civilians, adding any type of civilian casualties are intolerable.
“The Afghan government supports United Nations stance calling on anti-government elements and international forces to avoid harming civilians,”Waheed Omar told a weekly press briefing here.
He made the comments in the wake of the United Nations report released earlier in the day, indicating 31 percent rise on civilian causalities in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year.
“Aerial bombardments and night raids by our international partners are the main causes of civilian casualties,” he stated, adding “we want both of them to be stopped.”
However, Omar said the directives issued by NATO-led forces commander in last July has helped to reduce the incidents causing civilian casualties.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in its report released Tuesday said, “from Jan 1 to June 30, 2010, UNAMA Human Rights Unit documented 3,268 civilian casualties including 1,271 deaths and 1,997 injuries.”
Anti-government militants were responsible for 2,477 casualties (76 percent of all casualties, up 53 percent from 2009) while 386 were attributed to pro-government elements’ activities (12 percent of all casualties, down from 30 percent in 2009), according to the report.
According to the UN report, the number of children killed or wounded rose 55 per cent in the first six months of 2010 compared to the same period last year, with 176 children killed and 389 injured.
Most of the casualties were caused by insurgent attacks and roadside bombings, it said. The report said that 386 – or 12 per cent – of the Afghan casualties were due to the US, Nato or other pro-government forces.
Omar also said that the government would soon announce a plan to devolve all private security companies without exception.
President Hamid Karzai recently expressed concern over the activities of private security companies and called for their banning.
Dozens of private security firms are active in Afghanistan and often provide escort to NATO-led troops’ logistic convoys and guards to foreign agencies’ offices based in Afghanistan.