“We saw letters issued by the provincial government of Herat that said, effectively, don’t direct any assistance specifically to displaced people. The theory is that since they don’t want to either encourage them to stay or even acknowledge that displacement is a problem they’re going to pretend that it doesn’t exist.”-Michael Bochenek, Amnesty International
Not being reported by most of the main stream U.S. media is what looks like a new phase in the so called U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan: Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing, specifically by targeting children.
The New York Times has published a report, concerning the growing number of cases of children freezing to death, and being targeted by U.S. led forces.
The Washington Post has also written about the increased forced displacement, and articles about the increased killing of children by U.S. led forces.
For years the Brookings Institution has been reporting on the increasing number of people being forcibly displaced in Afghanistan.
Also, Amnesty International has recently reported that as many as 400 people, per day, are being forced from their homes into refugee (concentration?) camps. As of the middle of February, 2012, there were an estimated 500,000 people in these camps.
It’s in those camps that children are freezing to death. The camps do not have any basic necessities. The U.S. backed Afghan government says it’s necessary because of the continued U.S. led war with “Taliban”, and natural disasters.
Amnesty says many of the Afghans being affected include those who returned to Afghanistan after the U.S. “liberated” the country from the Taliban. Ten years later, those who returned say they were better off in Pakistani refugee camps!
The U.S. supported Afghan government officials deny there is a problem. They label returning refugees as “economic migrants”.
The camps for economic migrants are where hundreds of children have frozen to death this winter. According to the British Telegraph, at least 40 people, mostly children, froze to death just in the past four weeks!
“They may be refused enrollment or threatened with expulsion if they can not produce a national identification card, a document that most Afghans do not have…”-Amnesty International
One program started by the U.S. supported Afghan government, is a national identification (ID) card (similar to what some lawmakers in the U.S. want for Americans). If you don’t have the ID card you don’t get any help, your children are not even allowed to attend school (wasn’t that one of the reasons for getting rid of the Taliban, so that kids could go to school?).
“Economic migrants” are not issued ID cards, unless they have other forms of documentation. Now realize that most Afghans who live outside major cites, as well as those people who fled the civil wars in the 1990s, have no “documentation”.
“In the typical scenario, a group of men arrives, claiming to own the land and telling the families they must leave.”-Amnesty International
If you don’t have this Afghan national ID, you can be kicked out of your home (similar to what Israelis have been doing to Palestinians) and placed in the so called refugee camps. In these camps people are even being denied food because they can not “prove” they are Afghans!
A New York Times article said that U.S. supported Afghan government officials refuse to recognize the increasing number of deaths because those who died did not have proper ID!!!
Where’s all the international aid? Most of the supplies coming into the camps are coming from locals! But, they are not enough. Nader Nafey, a local businessman, brought food for 200 people at the Charahi Qambar camp. The problem is that there is more than 900 people in the camp!
“Private Afghan businessmen, as well as companies like Roshan, a mobile telephone carrier, and Ariana Television, through their charitable arms, have visited both of the worst-hit camps in recent days, handing out aid, including food, firewood and cash payments.”-New York Times
Amnesty International says the billions of dollars in international aid, is deliberately being blocked from the camps, by the U.S. supported Afghan government.
New York Times investigators have interviewed U.S. supported Afghan officials, who blame it all on the refugees. They make the outrageous claim that the undocumented economic migrants sold off all their food, and even rented out their government supplied apartments, to risk death living in the unheated tents of the refugee camps!!!
This is taking place while killings of Afghan children, by U.S. led forces, is also increasing.
“Seven boys under 14 and an 18-year-old were killed in the attack….They were herding sheep less than half a mile from their homes when the bombing happened.”-New York Times
U.S./NATO/ISAF officials consider herding sheep suspicious: “We were engaging a group of armed men that we observed engaging in unusual behavior.”-Lieutenant Colonial Jimmie E. Cummings
“Suddenly some airplanes came and dropped bombs on the children and killed my son, my two nephews and some other children from our village. When we went there we saw the children in pieces, some missing legs, some missing arms, only the heads and face could be recognized, nothing else.”-Abdul Zahid, local police officer
Recently French NATO/ISAF forces admitted killing the seven boys, and the 18 year old. The French say they had information that the boys were Taliban gun smugglers! (an excuse used thousands of times by U.S. led forces)
Here’s another typical explanation given by U.S. led forces: “These were young Afghans. They were adult-sized, athletic, strong, walking perfectly in the valley. I have no doubt that they were carrying weapons.”
Locals basically say ‘no shit sherlock, we all carry guns, this is Afghanistan where we all have the right bear arms!’ That’s right all you right wingers in the U.S., the right to have weapons is more respected in Afghanistan (even if the U.S. supported government is against it) than in the hypocritical United States! The problem is that U.S. led forces in Afghanistan target anyone seen carrying a weapon, no mater how young.
“Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war in ever-increasing numbers. For much too long Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of war.”-Ján Kubiš, United Nations Special Representative for the Secretary-General
On February 4, 2012, the United Nations published a report, which said there was a 192% increase in the number of civilians killed, in the last six months of 2011! The report also said civilian deaths have been increasing every year!
The report blames the yearly increases not only on freedom fighters, but on U.S. supported pro-government forces: “Among the tactics of Pro-Government Forces, aerial attacks caused the greatest number of Afghan civilian deaths in 2011…”
The fact that year after year civilians are increasingly killed or driven into death camps, implies only one thing; an official policy of Genocide.
While many ethnic groups are targeted, the majority are Pashtuns. The Pashtuns just happen to be the majority of Afghans, and make up the majority of “Taliban”.
This looks more and more like an official U.S. policy to eradicate the dominant Pashtuns, through genocidal ethnic cleansing. Don’t forget, not one Afghan has ever been directly linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States!!!