UN rapporteur slams 'complacency' on Afghan killings(Intrn'l forces kill 200 vsTaliban 300 past 4mo)

Source: AFP

KABUL (AFP) - There is "staggeringly high" complacency in Afghanistan about civilians being killed by international troops, police and even secret militias led by foreign intelligence units, a UN rapporteur said Thursday.

International forces have killed about 200 civilians in operations in the past four months, while Taliban and other rebels have killed around 300, said UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Philip Alston.

Secret units controlled by foreign intelligence services operating with impunity have also killed civilians in anti-rebel operations, and police had carried out unlawful killings, he added.

"Afghanistan is enveloped in an armed conflict. But that does not mean that large numbers of avoidable killings of civilians must be tolerated," said Alston, a professor of law in New York who is independent of the UN.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080515/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrest;_