View Full Version : "Innocent Civilians" Killed in Afghanistan
Flatus Veteranus
11th Aug 2002, 17:21
When honing my rapier-like wit on the "Today" programme's BB, I am constantly up against the Guardian-reading chatterati who state as an incontestable fact that the collateral casualties resulting from allied bombing in Afghanistan amounted to 3,000 innocent civilans dead. When I ask them for an authoritative source for this figure, all I get is vague references to websites (you are not allowed to give URLs or email addresses on the BB).
Can anyone give a link to a site that would support or,more likely, refute that figure? Most grateful. :confused:
ABC News:
Estimates of military mishaps and civilian casualties in Afghanistan, however, have been hard to come by.
Last year, an anti-war Web site said civilian casualties had exceeded the 3,000-plus casualties of Sept. 11 in the United States. (Note - see link below) The figures were questioned by several news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, which put the figure between 1,067 and 1,201 last month.
Citing the difficulties involved in arriving at accurate estimates while hostilities were ongoing, Amnesty International spokeswoman Maya Catsanis says the organization has called upon the U.S. authorities to investigate such reports and arrive at an estimate of Afghan civilian casualties.
But Reuben Brigety of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch believes it is necessary for independent organizations to investigate such allegations and arrive at reliable figures.
Brigety himself was part of a three-member Human Rights Watch team that visited Afghanistan in March to investigate reports of civilian casualties. Their report is expected to be published this fall, but until then, Brigety declined to offer details on the estimates of civilian casualties.
Report by Marc Herold (http://www.cursor.org/stories/civilian_deaths.htm)
pdf format (http://www.globalexchange.org/september11/heroldAfghanReport.pdf)
Flatus Veteranus
12th Aug 2002, 10:15
Thank you ORAC. Much material and food for thought in your link.