The Afghan government on Wednesday rejected the findings of a recent report by the UN mission in Afghanistan in which it has attributed more civilian deaths to pro-government forces compared to those attributed to the Taliban.
UNAMA attributed 52 percent of all civilian casualties to anti-government elements, with 38 percent attributed to Taliban, 11 percent to Daesh/Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), and 3 percent to unidentified anti-government elements.
Addressing a press conference in Kabul on Wednesday, President Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the Afghan government has serious reservations and objection on the nature and mechanism of data collection in the report.
He said the Taliban is accountable for a large number of the casualties among the civilians in the country.
“On behalf of the Afghan government and President of Afghanistan, I want to offer my sympathy to all those families who lost their loved ones in recent terrorist attacks by the Taliban. We strongly condemn these crimes by the Taliban,” Sediqqi said.
“Unfortunately the Taliban continue killing the innocent people. The Taliban inflicts major harms to our innocent people in every attack they carry out. The Taliban carry suicide attack, they plant roadside bombs, they attack schools, mosques, carrying suicide attacks in bazaars and public places make the main part of Taliban’s strategy,” he said.
Siddiqui rejected the UN report as unauthentic and asked the organization to investigate the share of the Taliban in the civilian casualties.
“We have serious reservations about the publication of UNAMA report. There are serious shortcomings on the report which needs to be addressed. We have a reservation on the nature of collection of figures and statistics, the process of collection of data and information and documentation of the events and incidents in which the civilians lose their lives, so we have serious objections on the modality of collection of date and statistics,” said Sediqqi.
“Do our colleagues have access to the areas where there is conflict?” asked Sediqqi.
From 1 January to 30 June 2019, anti-government elements caused 1,968 civilian casualties (531 deaths and 1,437 injured), the UN report says.
Sediqqi challenged the UN report in this manner.
“If I give the statistics of attacks by the Taliban over the past three days… Since last Wednesday, we have lost our 110 countryman across the country as a result of attacks by the Taliban and 200 more were wounded,” he said.
He said that the attack in Spin Boldak district in Kandahar, earlier this week, killed three people, the attack on the office of Green Trend killed 20 people, and the roadside bomb blast by the Taliban in Herat on Wednesday killed 34 people and wounded 17 others.
“In these three attacks, we lost 64 people who are all civilians,” Sediqqi said.
During the first six months of 2019, UNAMA attributed 1,397 civilian casualties (717 deaths and 680 injured) to pro-government forces, a 31 percent increase from the corresponding period in 2018.
“If you calculate this figure, the Taliban has killed over 20 people on a daily basis, but UNAMA did not mention it in its report,” Sediqqi said. “Can UNAMA clarify it that how these statistics and data remain absent from their report?”
He said “the Taliban are the main perpetrators of the casualties because they deliberately kill Afghan civilians”.
