GUEST BLOGGER: “Next time, I will not vote for Karzai; I will vote for my donkey” – Pt. 2

Posted By: Rebecca W., Erica in Afghanistan

Another of Goli’s brothers was shot by the ISAF troops and was taken away to Kandahar Air Field (KAF) for questioning. His mother and father went to KAF to beg for his release and to insist that he was innocent. The military provided him with hospital treatment and released him after establishing that he was not a member of the Taliban. All the other injured family members were taken to the local hospital and the family had to sell half of their land in order to pay for the hospital bills.

Three days after the attacks, the Canadian troops came to the village and apologized for the deaths and injuries and paid money to the villagers. The injured civilians even received a visit in hospital from President Karzai and the governor. Every injured person received 20,000 Afghanis (approx. $430) to help pay for the hospital bills. No money, however, was given to compensate for the deaths or for the loss of property and livestock.

GUEST BLOGGER: Fatal Trip to the Hairdressers in Kandahar City

Posted By: Rebecca W., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan

At 3pm on July 22, 2006, Amanullah sent his ten-year old son to get a much-needed haircut. As usual, the father and son had been working since the morning selling ice-cream from their cart. This day, however, changed that routine forever. As his son reached the hairdressers, a suicide bomber exploded a car-full of explosives that were directed at a convoy of Canadian troops. Eight civilians, including Amanullah’s son, were killed.

Amanullah immediately ran over to help his son. A second suicide bomb then exploded and shrapnel became embedded in Amanullah’s feet, legs and arms. Since that day, Amanullah has found it almost impossible to support his family of six women and small children. He no longer has an assistant to help him with the ice-cream cart and his injuries make it difficult for him to undertake the hard physical labor required to make and sell ice-cream.

Amanullah lost his son to a suicide bomber targeting Canadian troops

GUEST BLOGGER: The Three Carpenters from Kandahar – Pt 1

Posted By: Rebecca W., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan

Mohammad, Amanullah and Abdul have been friends for over ten years. They are carpenters who work together in Kandahar City. On June 4, 2006, they were finishing a large window frame when a suicide bomber blew himself up just outside their shop. The bomber was targeting a convoy of Canadian troops; as with most civilians caught in the conflict, the three carpenters were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The three friends were all injured. Pieces of shrapnel were embedded in their legs, arms and faces. Mohammad and Abdul were so badly burned that they were flown to Pakistan where they stayed for a month. “The doctors were looking at me as if I was a dead man,” Abdul told me. Over two years after the incident, the skin on his face and arms is still mottled and scarred from the burns.

GUEST BLOGGER: Grieving a Son in Kandahar – Part 1

Posted By: Rebecca W., working with CIVIC’s Erica in Afghanistan

Ahmed Sultani is a small 70-year old man with a soft-spoken voice and lines etched deeply into his tanned face. On July 22, 2006, his 18-year old son, Zalmai, was killed by a suicide bomber who had been targeting Canadian troops in the centre of Kandahar city. In this attack, twelve civilians were killed and twenty-eight were injured. Ahmed told me how his neighbors came to his house in a village outside Kandahar to tell him that his son was dead. The women of the house started screaming and wailing in grief. Ahmed rushed down to the city and found his son “on the ground and he was torn up and burned and we took him. Half his body was missing.”

I asked him what he missed most about his son and his eyes filled with tears. “Every time I think about him, my heart goes to pieces. I cry hard. I miss everything about him. He was a good son. He was married and he had one son and then another baby was on the way when he was killed. Now he has another son but he never saw this son.”

Q and A: America and the Cluster Ban Treaty

Over half the world’s governments agreed last week to a ban on cluster munitions. But not the United States. Our government not only skipped the deliberations, but continues to defend its policy of keeping and using these deadly weapons.

Why won’t America join the movement to ban cluster munitions? Our executive director Sarah Holewinski sat down with a premier expert to find out. Marc Garlasco is senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch and a board member of CIVIC. He was instrumental in getting the ban passed and was there at its signing.

Sarah: The US says it can’t support the Convention on Cluster Munitions because its military then couldn’t help countries devastated by tsunamis and earthquakes. Is this true?

Marc: This is circular reasoning at its best. First of all, what humanitarian operation uses cluster munitions? The real issue is US ships have cluster munitions on them, and the US was worried their allies who did sign the Convention could no longer work with it because of that. But this is a non-issue. No humanitarian or peacekeeping operation has ever been barred because of weapons.

Take the landmine ban treaty, for example. The US didn’t sign that and yet has worked together with allies like the UK (who did sign it) for years. What’s more, this new Convention allows for those kinds of partnerships, whether cluster munitions are on ships or planes, so this is a non-issue.

Sarah: But the US says it needs cluster munitions to defend the country. Do we really need them?

Marc: We haven’t used them since 2003, so let’s just say they’re obviously not indispensable when fighting a war. There are plenty of other weapons that can defend the country and not indiscriminately kill and maim civilians, who represent the vast majority of victims.

Sarah: The US says it won’t “unilaterally get rid of” clusters.

Marc: The Cluster Munitions Conventions is nowhere near a unilateral effort. There are 111 countries who have agreed to destroy their stockpiles and not use these horrible weapons again, including key NATO allies like the UK, Germany, France, and Canada. If they can do it, so can the United States.

Sarah: So, as a nation, we’re really behind the 8-ball here, aren’t we?

Marc: Couldn’t have said it better myself.

To learn more about the impact of cluster munitions on civilian populations, and to take action on this issue, click here.