Women, children killed in southern Afghanistan raids

Mon Feb 4, 11:25 AM ET

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Raids by Afghan and NATO troops against Taliban insurgents in southern and southwestern Afghanistan killed several civilians, among them children, local officials said Monday.

Ten people were killed in southwestern Farah province and two others were killed in southern Helmand province, they said. Authorities from Farah gave conflicting figures for the number of civilians killed.

AFP/File Photo: A US-led coalition soldier stands guard while a helicopter flies over Farah province, southern Afghanistan,...

The strike in Farah late Sunday, involving ground and air forces, took place in Bakwa district, which has seen a series of attacks by fighters with the Taliban movement, in government between 1996 and 2001.

The governor of Bakwa district said that two women and three children were among the dead and only one Taliban fighter was killed.

"A Taliban commander had been invited to the house," said Khan Agha. "In the operation nine people were killed, which includes two women and three kids." The rest were men.

But provincial governor Ghulam Mohaidun Balouch said that out of 10 people killed in the raid on a Taliban "cell" most were rebels.

"Among the 10, eight are Taliban plus the wife of the commander and his child," he said.

Balouch said Italian NATO troops, who are based in the nearby province of Herat, were involved.

Meanwhile, NATO-led troops raided a civilian house overnight in Lashkar Gah, the capital of troubled Helmand province, killing a man and a child, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal told AFP.

"The forces have killed the owner of the house and a little girl," he said.

Andiwal said the foreign forces have taken only two "cell phones" from the house and the reasons behind the raid were not known.

"We don't know why they raided the house and on what basis," he said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said it was not involved in the raids.

Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Hartmund Beilman said the force "deny any involvement of ISAF in any aerial bombing (in Farah). ISAF is very sorry about civilian casualties but ISAF is not involved."

Regarding the raid in Lashkar Gah, the colonel said he "cannot confirm any involvement by ISAF troops," adding they "have not even been informed of such an incident."

The issue of civilian casualties in military operations against Taliban insurgents is one of the most sensitive aspects of the international effort in Afghanistan.

Separately, Afghan police clashed with Taliban militants in the Deh Rawood district of central Uruzgan province on Sunday, killing nine militants, provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat told AFP.

"Nine Taliban were killed. Eight Taliban bodies were left at the battlefield. There were no casualties to police forces," Himat said.

There has been a major scaling down in the level of a Taliban insurgency in the past two months due to harsh winter conditions. Taliban Islamists were forced from power in late 2001 by a US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Bleak prospects for country's estimated 1.5 million widows

Photo: Abdullah Shaheen/IRIN

Estimates show that more than 1.5 million widows live in Afghanistan almost 90 percent of them unable to read and write

KABUL, 30 January 2008 (IRIN) - Knocking on the windows of cars stuck in traffic on Shar-e-Naw Street in Kabul, Zulaikha and her children beg for money to keep warm and feed themselves. Their daily routine starts at about 7am and ends at 6pm every day.

"Often we collect 100-150 Afghanis [US$ 2-3] a day," she said, adding that it was barely enough for bread and tea.

Zulaikha lost her husband, Jamaluddin, in factional fighting between former Taliban and Northern Alliance forces in the northern outskirts of Kabul in 1999. She has three children - an 11-year-old son and two daughters aged eight and nine.

Over the past three years she has been living in a shack outside Kabul, for which she pays a monthly rent of $15.

"We have nobody to help us," the widow said.

Afghanistan has one of the highest numbers of widows (proportionate to the total population) in the world, owing to the armed conflicts that have bedevilled the country for over two decades.

The average age of an Afghan widow is just 35 years, and 94 percent of them are unable to read and write.

There are over 1.5 million widows out of an estimated 26.6 million people in Afghanistan, according to Beyond 9/11, a US-based nonprofit group that provides direct financial support to Afghan widows and their children. Some 50,000-70,000 widows live in Kabul alone, it says.

The government of Afghanistan does not have an accurate figure for the number of widows in the country, but some officials say there are more than 1.5 million.

Most widows illiterate

"The average age of an Afghan widow is just 35 years, and 94 percent of them are unable to read and write," Deborah Zalesne, a board member of the Beyond 9/11 and a law professor at the City University of New York, told IRIN.

"About 90 percent of Afghan widows have children, and the average widow has more than four," Zalesne added.

Photo: Mirwais Bezhan/IRIN

The average age of an Afghan widow is just 35 years. About 90 percent of Afghan widows have children, and the average widow has more than four children, according to Beyond 9/11

To survive many Afghan widows weave carpets, do tailoring, beg or even engage in prostitution.

In urban areas where women have better access to employment and other services than in conservative rural areas, an average working widow earns about $16 a month, experts estimate.

Shelter, food, earning a living and social protection are among the most pressing issues for widows, the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA) said.

During winter, when fuel and food costs increase, female-headed households become highly vulnerable.

Psychosocial difficulties

"Widowed women are also at greater risk of emotional problems and impaired psychosocial functioning than either married women or men, typically because of social exclusion, forced marriages, gender-based violence and lack of economic and educational opportunities," said Zalesne.

"In Afghanistan's patriarchal society, the death of a husband not only diminishes a woman's economic independence but also damages her sense of social protection," said Hussain Ali Moin, an official at MoWA.

Widowed women are also at greater risk of emotional problems and impaired psychosocial functioning than either married women or men.

Government, donors not doing enough

Women's rights activists such as Soraya Subhrang, a member of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, have criticised the government and international donors for not doing enough to alleviate the plight of widows.

"Afghan women in general and widows in particular do not have a voice to express their problems and are also deprived of meaningful representation in public institutions," Subhrang said.

Officials at the Ministry of Women's Affairs also concede that Afghan widows often live in wretched conditions, and say more needs to be done to deal with their problems.

The interim-Afghanistan National Development Strategy (i-ANDS) has a noble aim: to reduce poverty among women by at least 20 percent and ensure that women make up at least 20 percent of all public bodies by 2010. However, there is a long way to go before the lives of widows like Zulaikha can be changed for the better, analysts say.

AFGHANISTAN: Aid reaches winter-affected families as deaths top 500

Photo: Khalid Nahez/IRIN

Keeping warm in Herat city. More than 400 people - mostly children, women and the elderly - have lost their lives in the past six weeks due to cold weather, heavy snowfall and flooding

KABUL, 29 January 2008 (IRIN) - Food and non-food humanitarian relief supplies have been delivered to hundreds of vulnerable families affected by heavy snow and extremely cold weather in western and central-western provinces of Afghanistan, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Latest figures from Afghanistan's National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) indicate that 503 people - mostly children and the elderly - have lost their lives due to cold weather and heavy snow since December 2007. The UN has confirmed at least 329 deaths in Herat, Badghis, Ghor and Farah provinces.

Some parts of Afghanistan are facing their harshest winter in 30 years, with temperatures falling to minus 25, aid agencies say.

UN agencies, Afghan and foreign aid organisations, NATO-led Provincial Reconstruction Teams and local residents have separately delivered relief items in Herat, Badghis and other affected provinces, OCHA said in a situation report.

More on Afghan winter woes

Cold-snap deaths top 300

Over 140 killed, dozens injured as winter bites

Winter aggravates IDP hardships

"State of alert" declared as snow causes deaths, blocks roads

Blocked roads threaten food security

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has distributed over 65 metric tonnes (mt) of mixed food aid to 6,000 families in five districts in Herat Province, western Afghanistan. Additionally, 12,797 mt of food items have been delivered to neighbouring Ghor Province where tens of thousands are "high risk" in terms of food-insecurity. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has also stocked 1,000 blankets, 500 plastic mats, heaters and personal hygiene items in Ghor Province.

Meanwhile, the Afghan Red Crescent Society has earmarked about US$1 million to ensure that every vulnerable, affected family receives a cash voucher of up to $70, the organisation said.

IDP camps affected

Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in several camps and settlements in Herat, Helmand and Kandahar provinces are feared to have been severely affected by the winter weather.

"[IDPs] living in camps near Herat [city] have suffered greatly from the recent snowfall and intense cold," OCHA's report said.

Aid agencies have agreed to assist 2,500 families in Maslakh, Shaidai and Minaret IDP camps in Herat Province.

However, it is still unclear whether similar aid will be offered to thousands of other IDPs in Mukhtar and Zherai camps in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where UN agencies suspended their relief operations in March 2006.

Photo: Ebadi/WFP

The UN and other aid agencies have delivered food and non-food items to many affected families

Needs assessments, coordination

Blocked roads, rugged terrain and insecurity have hindered access to remote areas. This has prevented reliable humanitarian needs assessments from being carried out, and has to some extent affected coordinated relief delivery, some aid agencies said. Consequently, there are confusing numbers regarding casualties and aid needs.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and WFP conducted a joint assessment of some areas in Ghor Province by air, which was followed by talks with officials in the provincial capital, Chaghcharan, on 24 January.

"There is a need to improve information collection and management and also strengthen coordination which will help humanitarian actors to respond effectively and promptly," Ingrid Macdonald, a regional advocacy adviser with the Norwegian Refugee Council in Kabul, told IRIN.

Meanwhile, dozens of people in Jowzjan Province, northern Afghanistan, demonstrated on 27 January calling on the government and aid organisations to provide urgent humanitarian assistance.

In Daykundi Province, central Afghanistan, where a convoy of commercial trucks could not deliver about 800 mt of WFP food aid due to extremely cold weather - people are waiting for aid to be delivered by two military helicopters, officials said.

AFGHANISTAN: Oxfam calls on donors to overhaul aid policy

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Photo: Khalid Nahez/IRIN

Although agriculture is the main source of income for over 70 percent of Afghans, it has received little direct assistance

KABUL, 31 January 2008 (IRIN) - Billions of dollars of international aid money spent on rebuilding, development and humanitarian efforts over the past six years have contributed to social and economic progress, but the process has been "too centralised, top-heavy and insufficient", British charity organisation Oxfam International, said on 31 January.

"It [the rebuilding and development process] has been prescriptive and supply-driven, rather than indigenous and responding to Afghan needs," Oxfam said in a report on the second anniversary of the Afghanistan Compact - a joint multi-year framework approved in London on 31 January 2006 by the Afghan government and international donors to help bring about a stable, developed and democratic Afghanistan.

Two years on, many of the Compact's objectives are unmet and too many commitments remain unfulfilled, Oxfam said.

Matt Waldman, policy and advocacy adviser for Oxfam in Kabul, told IRIN that since 2002 over US$15 billion in aid had been disbursed in Afghanistan, though donors had pledged to provide $25 billion by the end of 2007.

"Ten billion dollars is a substantial shortfall," said Waldman, adding that donors should do more to deliver their commitments to Afghanistan - the fifth least developed country in the world.

Despite over six years of multilateral rebuilding and development efforts, many Afghans still suffer severe hardships comparable with sub-Saharan Africa, due to poor aid effectiveness, Oxfam said.

"Major change" needed

In a separate letter addressed to donors, Oxfam called for a "major change" in aid policy vis-à-vis Afghanistan in order to reduce human suffering and "avert humanitarian disaster".

Photo: Akmal Dawi/IRIN

International donors and organisations have spent over US$15 billion on rebuilding, development and humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan over the past six years. A banner in Kabul city shows a number of donors commemorating Youth Day

Major donors such as the USA should use development - not solely military means - to tackle growing insurgency in rural Afghanistan because "development and security are inextricably connected", Oxfam said. "Military action addresses symptoms, not underlying causes or conditions."

According to Oxfam, the US military spends $65,000 a minute in Afghanistan ($35 billion for 2007). By contrast, agriculture, which is the main source of livelihood for over 70 percent of Afghanistan's population (estimated at 26.6 million) has received about $300-400 million in direct assistance since 2002.

International donors should refrain from relying on short-term fixes while dealing with conflict resolution and development in Afghanistan. They should engage in long-term, sustainable and comprehensive endeavors instead, Oxfam advised.

Lack of coordination

Insufficient coordination among international donors and the Afghan government badly affected aid effectiveness in the country, Oxfam said in November 2007.

Furthermore, the misuse of funds and corruption in aid disbursements have often been worrying factors about which Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, have increasingly raised concerns.

"Weak coordination, corruption and aid mismanagement are also major problems," said Waldman. "Donors and the government of Afghanistan should adopt greater measures to ensure transparency and improve coherence," he said.

Oxfam also urged donors to promote Afghan ownership of development arrangements, saying that local institutions should be helped to play a greater and more meaningful role in building peace in the country.