30 May 2011, NYT: Civilians Are Killed in Airstrike by NATO
29 May 2011, NYT: Taliban Bomber Infiltrates Afghan-NATO Meeting, Killing Police Official and Others
11 March 2011, NYT: Insurgents Kill Most Civilians, Military Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/world/asia/01afghanistan.html
May 31, 2011
Karzai Gives 'Last' Warning to NATO on Airstrikes
By Ray Rivera
KABUL, Afghanistan -- In one of his sternest warnings yet concerning civilian casualties, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that NATO must stop air attacks on Afghan homes immediately, or face "unilateral action" from the Afghan government.
Speaking at a news conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Mr. Karzai declined to say what actions the government would or could take, saying only that Afghanistan "has a lot of ways of stopping it."
In an admonishment that carried an air of threat, he said NATO forces were on the verge of being considered occupiers rather than allies.
"If they continue their attacks on our houses, then their presence will change from a force that is fighting against terrorism to a force that is fighting against the people of Afghanistan," he said. "And in that case, history shows what Afghans do with trespassers and with occupiers."
Mr. Karzai has used similar language before, but taken with other recent statements, his comments could further threaten a relationship with his Western backers that has been strained over issues like night raids, corruption and the continuing scandal surrounding questionable loans and huge losses at Kabul Bank.
The timing also represents a political gamble for Mr. Karzai, appealing to popular anger at home while testing the will of the American and international community to continue supporting a war that has become increasingly unpopular, especially since the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2.
NATO officials responded diplomatically, noting that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top coalition commander in Afghanistan, understood the need to work closely with the Afghan government to reduce civilian casualties.
"General Petraeus has repeatedly noted that every liberation force has to be very conscious that it can, over time, become seen as an occupation force," Rear Adm. Vic Beck of the Navy, a spokesman for the NATO-led military coalition, said in a statement. He added, "We are in agreement with President Karzai on the importance of constantly examining our actions in light of that reality -- and we are doing just that."
The American Embassy in Kabul referred comment to NATO.
Civilian casualties, as well as the night raids and airstrikes that often lead to them, have been a bitter source of contention between NATO forces and the Afghan president for years. But Mr. Karzai's latest statements, coming both before and after an airstrike on Saturday that killed several civilians, most of them women and children, have been laced with more definitive terms.
On Saturday, Mr. Karzai ordered his Defense Ministry to take charge of the nighttime raids from the coalition forces in his most aggressive attempt yet to stem the use of such operations, which have angered Afghans for years for their intrusiveness and the civilian casualties they frequently cause.
Then after an airstrike on Saturday night [1] in the Now Zad district of Helmand Province, the president issued a "last" warning to NATO forces that airstrikes that ended in civilian casualties must stop.
NATO, in an apologetic statement after the attack, acknowledged that nine civilians had been killed. The strike was aimed at a group of five insurgents who had ambushed a Marine foot patrol, killing one Marine, and then continued to fire on the patrol from inside a compound.
Local officials said 14 civilians had died in the strike, and on Tuesday Mr. Karzai said 11 were children, ages 2 to 7.
Images of grieving friends and relatives carrying the bruised and bloodied bodies of dead children were broadcast on television the morning after the attack, inflaming passions.
Mr. Karzai called the deaths "shocking" and said in a statement that "NATO and American forces have been warned repeatedly that their arbitrary and improper operations are the causes of killing of innocent people."
He added that he was warning "NATO, American forces and American officials for the last time on behalf of Afghanistan's people."
Talking to reporters on Tuesday, he said the Afghan people were suffering from both the "terrorists and in the war against terrorism."
NATO has increasingly turned to the use of night raids in recent months, calling them one of the most effective weapons it has in capturing and killing insurgent leaders. But coalition forces in recent years have also taken steps to protect civilians. A United Nations report [2] said that 2,777 civilians died last year, the most since the war began, but that the number of those killed by NATO forces had fallen to 16 percent. Insurgents accounted for 75 percent of the deaths, while the parties responsible for the remaining deaths could not be identified.
Reacting to a recent spate of high-profile NATO attacks that resulted in civilian casualties, General Petraeus issued a reminder to his troops this month about "the need to balance tactical aggressiveness with tactical patience."
Mr. Karzai on Tuesday also condemned the insurgents who had stepped up their campaign this spring, including a bombing in Takhar Province [3] on Saturday that killed the senior police commander for the northern region, Gen. Daoud Daoud, and five others. But the president added that "when NATO forces kill and wound Afghan people, the Afghan people will not accept this, because NATO came to protect this country."
The president has over the years been known to use erratic, sometimes hyperbolic language in reference to his Western allies. In a closed-door session of Parliament last month, he reportedly threatened to join the Taliban over international pressure to stem corruption inside his government.
In an emotional speech in March, Mr. Karzai angered Western officials after he appeared to call for an end to NATO combat operations in the country during a memorial service for civilian casualties in Kunar Province. He later issued a clarification saying he was referring only to operations that cause civilian casualties.
The Afghan president said he intended to meet with top NATO leaders soon, possibly next Sunday, to spell out what actions the government intended to take if the airstrikes did not end. Not heeding his warnings, he said, is a threat to the country's sovereignty, saying Afghanistan must be treated as an ally, not as an occupied country.
"If it turns out to be the other," he said, "to the behavior of an occupation, then of course the Afghan people know how to deal with that."
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/world/asia/30afghanistan.html
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/world/asia/11civilian.html
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/world/asia/29afghan.html