Afghanistan civilian casualties: what are the real figures?

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/nov/19/afghanistan-civilian-casualties-statistics-data

Afghanistan civilian casualties: what are the real figures?
Spiralling military deaths in Afghanistan have obscured catastrophic civilian casualties. How many people have died?


• Get the Afghan civilian casualties data:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/nov/19/afghanistan-civilian-casualties-statistics-data#data


Two awful incidents in Afghanistan today: in Zabul province, two US soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber in a car just outside a military base.

Meanwhile, another suicide bomber on foot blew himself up in a busy market in Uruzgan province. He was targeting a security forces convoy but his victims were civilians: 10 died (including two boys aged 12 and 14) and another 13 were wounded.

While we are pretty good at providing detailed statistical breakdowns of coalition military casualties (and by we, I mean the media as a whole), we're not so good at providing any kind of breakdown of Afghan civilian casualties.

There has been some work done. Human Rights Watch has published breakdowns of civilian casualties, and academics such as Mark Herold at the University of New Hampshire have done detailed reporting on very specific periods of the operation.

Obviously, collecting accurate statistics in one of the most dangerous countries in the world is difficult. But the paucity of reliable data on this means that one of the key measures of the war has been missing from almost all reporting.
You've noticed it too - asking us why we publish military deaths but not civilian casualties. So, we're going to give it a go.

The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) publishes statistics on civilian casualties, splitting them into deaths caused by government/military forces, anti-government forces and so on. True, they're not very visible on the UNAMA site and are not updated regularly in a visible way - but they do seem to be the best we can get. They published a report earlier this year which provided some details. Others have been released in press briefings. So the latest figures we have, reported by IRIN, show that over 2000 civilians have died this year so far.

We've summarised the numbers below and you can get the full data going back to 2006 on the google spreadsheet attached. Take a look and let us know what you think - and what you can do with it.

[T Wolf]

1. We (the US) do not care. They are not "us" so their deaths do not even register

in the minds of most Americans.

They're just "collateral" damage that does not change anything about our policies or specific tactics.

[annm4peace]

2. RAWA: Revolutiona y Association of Women of Afghanistan

I have been going to their site for news, since 1999.

If you want to see the impact on the Afghan people, especially women and children.
Please also check out this site.

http://www.rawa.org/index.php

The US "War on terrorism" removed the Taliban regime in October 2001, but it has not removed religious fundamentalism which is the main cause of all our miseries. In fact, by reinstalling the warlords in power in Afghanistan, the US administration is replacing one fundamentalist regime with another. The US government and Mr.Karzai mostly rely on Northern Alliance criminal leaders who are as brutal and misogynist as the Taliban.

RAWA believes that freedom and democracy can’t be donated; it is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values. Under the US-supported government, the sworn enemies of human rights, democracy and secularism have gripped their claws over our country and attempt to restore their religious fascism on our people.

Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved. Today RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over and we have to work hard for establishment of an independent, free, democratic and secular Afghanistan. We need the solidarity and support of all people around the world.

Pictures.
http://www.rawa.org/gallery.html

# Massacare of over 120 civilians in air raid of the U.S. (May 5, 2009)
# Some Afghan so-called politicians responsible for ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan
# Paghman: Beauty of yesterday, ruins of today
# Afghan children in Kabul living in disastrous conditions
# "Globalization" of Poverty Hits Afghanistan
# Self-immolation among Afghan Women
# Gap between rich and poor in Kabul (November 2006)
# Afghanistan Under the US "War on Terror"
# Sanobar, 11-years-old girl is abducted and raped by warlords (Nov.5, 2006)
# 7-year-old Samia, victim of family violence (Feb.8, 2006)
# Gulbar, an Afghan woman is burnt by her husband (Jan.26, 2006)
# People of Takhar protest against warlords (May 29, 2005)
# Kabul in the gape of poverty and destitution (January 2005)
# Taliban-style public hangings in "liberated" Afghanistan
# Lawlessness in southern Afghanistan
# Buildings of Afghan Ministers and Authorities in Kabul
# Highest level authorities occupy land and demolish the homes of poor people in Kabul
# Beggary in Kabul
# Kabul: One Year After the Taliban
# Teachers and Students Protest Against Warlords in Takhar Province
# Bomb Blast in Jalalabad, 9 killed, 92 wounded
# Kabul and Mazar Under Interim Setup
# Earthquake kills thousands in North of Afghanistan
# Northern Alliance massacre hundreds of Pakistani Taliban
# Photos from Yakawlang where 300 people were massacred by Taliban
# Live photos of the massacre in Yakawlang
# Taliban beating women in public
# Taliban atrocities in Herat
# Afghan refugees eating grass, freezing temperature kills 18 children
# 2000-year old Bamiyan Buddhas yesterday and today
# Taliban use cranes to hang two men in public
# Forced displacement of people by Taliban
# Photos of four men hanged by Taliban in Kabul
# Paintings by children of RAWA schools
# Photos from Afghanistan (Bamyan and Mazar)
# RAWA activists in drought-stricken villages of Herat
# Drought-stricken families in Heart province
# Life under Taliban in Mazar-e-Sharif
# Life under Taliban in Jalalabad

[G_j]

3. excellent resource!

thank you

[Solly Mack]

4. k/r