AFGHANISTAN: Child Alert

[25 October 2007] - A child's first right is the right to life. This is being denied in Afghanistan on an ever-increasing scale.

In a war among the people, children may be more in the line of fire than any group except the fighters themselves, and they are often at even greater risk than the fighters. Children are easy targets. They are inquisitive and curious. They play on streets and gather in crowded places. They are especially vulnerable to two insurgent techniques utilized in Iraq and then in Afghanistan: suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices, also called roadside bombs.

Through centuries of warfare, the suicide bomber was unknown in Afghanistan. But suicide bombings are now used regularly by the Taliban and other insurgents, sometimes in assassination attempts but usually against international military vehicles and convoys. It is a common feature of attacks on convoys that the casualties are higher among civilian bystanders, especially children, than among the intended targets. The soldiers are armed, travelling in armoured vehicles and protected by their body armour. The children have no protection.

• On 15 June 2007, in Tirin Kot, Uruzgan Province, 12 children were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his car into an international military convoy near a school playground.
• On 19 March 2007, in Kabul, a 14-year-old child was killed during an attack on an American convoy.
• On 8 March 2007, in Kandahar, three children were injured when a suicide bomber targeted a Canadian military convoy. One week later, another child was killed in a similar attack.
• On 21 November 2006, in Khost, four children were injured when a suicide bomber attacked NATO soldiers who were handing out sweets to children.
• On 17 October 2006, in Lashkar Gar, Helmand Province, two children were killed during an attack on a British patrol.
• On 28 August 2006, also in Lashkar Gar, a bomb exploded in a crowded bazaar, killing 15 people and wounding 47, including 15 children.

But not only the Taliban and other insurgents are doing the fighting, and concerns extend to the operations of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which supports the Afghan Government. Of the 37 nations in ISAF, it is principally Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States that are engaged in combat in the south and east of Afghanistan. Their intensive use of air power in support of ground troops, whose numbers are limited, is putting children at risk. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission believes that neither side has respected the laws of armed conflict and that children in particular are more vulnerable than they have been at any time during the war. The Commission's records include, for example, an account of a two-day battle in Helmand Province, in June 2007, during which the Taliban were engaged in action against the combined forces of ISAF and Afghan soldiers and police. Neither side appeared to suffer any casualties, but air strikes claimed the lives of 27 civilians, including 17 children.

ISAF spokespersons have accused the Taliban of deliberately operating among civilians and using schools as bases and children as human shields. The NATO countries are signatories of the Geneva Conventions, which commit them to the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The Taliban, of course, have not signed any international treaty or convention.

ISAF maintains that it does not target civilians or practise wide-area bombing. Its aircraft are called in by field commanders against known Taliban positions, and its munitions are directed as precisely as possible to hit them. It admits, however, that some civilian casualties are inevitable and has expressed regret for these casualties.

Further information

• Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
• Afghanistan: Parents arrange marriages for children as young as 3 (12 October 2007)
• Afghanistan: Teenager hanged by Taliban in latest child killing (3 October 2007)
• CRIN's page on Afghanistan