INTERNATIONAL

Afghan opposition to NATO’s bloody occupation grows

by Paul Stevenson

As a new poll finds a strong majority of Afghans oppose foreign occupation, NATO has escalated attacks on the resistance, killing dozens of civilians.

A poll published in May by the International Council on Security and Development found massive Afghan opposition to occupation. It found that 87 per cent of Southern Afghans (where NATO forces are concentrated) and 76 per cent of those in the North think NATO military operations are bad for the Afghan people; 69 per cent of southern Afghans blame foreign forces for most civilian deaths, and only a minority across the country believes that foreign forces protect the local population.

Air strikes

In response to increasing resistance, NATO has increased its attacks. On May 29, a NATO air strike in Helmand killed 14 civilians, 12 of whom were children. Later the same day, NATO killed 38 more people in Nuristan. The growing anger at civilian casualties forced Afghan President Hamid Karzai to call for an immediate cessation of all attacks on houses. Karzai said that the attacks might lead Afghans to see NATO as an occupying force. NATO defended its practice of killing people in their homes, saying it was necessary to fight the insurgency.

Attacks by the resistance have spread across the country even to areas such as Herat, which has previously been relatively calm.

The Canadian government, which is trying to convince us that our troop trainers will be safe, has clearly not been watching the course of events. Trainers are just as likely to be killed on base in Kabul as anywhere else in the country. There is no safe space for any NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, and no safe place for Afghans under NATO occupation.