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| Afghanistan | |
| MP, Victims Call Report On Ghorband Casualties False | |
| 2014-01-28 | |
[Tolo News] A Parwan MP and family members of the civilians killed two weeks ago during a confrontation between Taliban hard boyz and coalition and Afghan forces in Ghorband District have called into question the accuracy of the recent report submitted to President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... on the incident. The report was compiled and submitted by a delegation led by Parwan MP Abdul Satar Khawasi, who was linked last week to efforts to incite violence against foreign troops when a video recording of him railing agaignst the U.S. was delivered to TOLOnews. President Karzai commissioned the report after the joint NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... -Afghan military operation was called a success by some and failure by others. Despite differing reports from NATO officials, Afghan military brass and Karzai's delegation, what is certain is that there were civilian casualties that were caused by an air raid conducted by coalition planes, but sanctioned by Afghan officials. A Parwan MP on Monday claimed Khawasi and his delegation were seeking to score political points with Karzai by submitting a report that smeared the U.S. "The delegation was not impartial...They lied, they did not say the facts," Parwan MP Rahman Rahman said.
The report came at a sensitive time in U.S.-Afghan relations as a security pact governing their military partnership post-2014 remains unsigned by President Karzai, who has demanded the U.S. end its unilateral operations in Afghanistan and help kickstart peace talks with the Taliban. Those who support the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) have come out in support of the Ghorband operation and in condemnation of Khawasi's report, while Karzai and others have blamed the U.S. for the Ghorband incident, further undermining the chances of a security deal being finalized anytime soon. Relatives of four civilians killed during the fight in Ghorband told TOLOnews that Karzai's delegation had taken the wrong people in to provide accounts of the incident for Karzai's report. They said the individuals the delegation chose as witnesses had in fact been involved in the combat - fighting the coalition and Afghan troops. Part of Khawasi's report to Karzai included photos of supposed civilian casualties from the incident. However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... has proven that the photos were actually from 2009, originally posted to the Taliban's internet homepage. "The delegation showed old photos and, in fact, the delegation did not even go to the place," MP Rahman said. The Governor of Parwan's office has confirmed that the government delegation did not travel to the village in Ghorband during its investigation into the incident. Hashmatullah, a young boy who lost his mother, brother, and two sisters in the Ghorband clash recounted his experience, which had major differences from the tale told by Khawasi's delegation. "The Taliban came to our house and fired from our home outside," Hashmatullah said. "We told them to leave, we are neutral, but at that moment the air planes dropped bombs and we were under them." Despite being directly effected by the incident, and ostensibly being the very victims Karzai's delegation was committed to honoring, Hashmatullah's family said that they had never been contacted by the delegation or the government. "We did not see anyone, no delegation and no government," Hashmatullah's uncle said. Another relative of the family Nik Mohammad claimed Taliban hard boyz had pretended to be civilians as they entered the village and began exchanging fire with the Afghan and coalition troops. Lawmakers, military leaders and civil society groups have come out in support of the joint operation, while also paying condolences to the civilians that were lost. Many have said Karzai's reliance on the clearly doctored report would only serve to undermine he and the government's credibility. "The report destroys the credibility of the delegation as it was incorrect," civil society activist Mir Ahmad Joyenda said. "The credibility of the government will also be called into question." | |
| Posted by:Fred |