[Peace] Civilian casualties in Afghanistan

[Predrag Tosic]

3,500 Civilians [Estimated] Killed in Afghanistan by U.S. Bombs


 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DECEMBER 10, 2001 10:00 AM

     CONTACT: Marc Herold  (603) 862-3375
              Andrea Buffa (510) 839-8911

 3,500 Civilians Killed in Afghanistan by U.S. Bombs University of
New  Hampshire  Economics  Professor  Releases  Study  of Civilian
Casualties  in  Afghanistan  Monday  Morning  on  Democracy   Now!
Radio/TV Show

 DURHAM, NEW  HAMPSHIRE  - December 10 - More than 3,500 civilians
 have been killed in Afghanistan by U.S.  bombs,  according  to  a
 study to be released December 10 by Marc W.  Herold, Professor of
 Economics,  International Relations,  and Women's Studies at  the
 University  of New Hampshire.  Professor Herold will announce his
 findigs on  Monday,  December  10  in  a  discussion with award-winning
 journalist,  Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!  !  in Exile's War  and
Peace Report (http://www.democracynow.org).

 Professor Herold  has  been gathering data on civilian casualties
 since October 7 by culling information from news agencies,  major
 newspapers,  and first-hand accounts.  "I decided to do the study
 be cause I suspected that the modern weaponry was not what  it  was
 advertised to be. I was concerned that there would be significant
 civilian casualties caused by the bombing, and I was able to find
 some  mention  of  casualties  in  the  foreign  press but almost
 nothing in the U.S. press," said Herold.

 Herold's data will be available at
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/.

 For each   day   since  October  7,  when  the  U.S.  bombing  of
Afghanistan began,  he lists the number of  casualties,  location,
type of weapon used,  and source(s) of information.  Following are
several examples from his daily calculations:

 * On October 11,  two U.S.  jets bombed the mountain  village  of
 Karam,  comprised  of  60  mud houses,  during dinner and evening
 prayer time,  killing 100-160  people.  Sources:  DAWN,  (English
 language Pakistani daily newspaper),  the Guardian of London,  the
 Independent, International Herald Tribune, the Scotsman, the
 Observer, and the BBC News.

 * On October 13,  in the early morning, an F-18 dropped 2,000 lb.
 JDAM bombs on the Qila Meer Abas neighborhood,  2 kms.  South  of
 the Kabul airport, killing four people. Sources: Afghan Islamic Press,
 Los Angeles Times,  Frontier Post,  Pakistan Observer, the Guardian of
 London, and the BBC News.

 * On October 31,  in a pre-dawn raid, an F-18 dropped a 2,000 lb.
 JDAM  bomb  on  a  Red  Crescent clinic,  killing 15 - 25 people.
 Sources:  DAWN,  the  Times  of  London,  the  Independent,   the
 Guardian, Reuters, Associated Press, and Agence France Presse.


 Professor Herold has sought whenever  possible to cross-corroborate
accounts  of  civilian  casualties.  He relied upon British,
Canadian, and Australian newspapers; Indian newspapers, especially
The   Times  of  India;  three  Pakistani  daily  newspapers;  the
Singapore  News;  Afghan  Islamic  Press;  Agence  France   Press;
Pakistan News Service; Reuters; BBC News Online; Al Jazeera; and a
variety of other reputable sources,  including the United  Nations
and other relief agencies.

 The Pentagon  has  repeatedly  denied  reports   of   civilian
casualties  in  Afghanistan,  and  most  U.S.  media  outlets have
qualified their reports of casualties with  the  statement  "could
not  be  independently  confirmed."  But Professor Herold has been
able to confirm the number of casualties and  has  found  that  the
number is climbing toward 4,000. "People have to know that  there is a
human cost to  war,  and  that this is a  war  with  thousands of
casualties," said Herold.  "These were poor people to  begin with,
and, on  top of that, they had absolutely nothing to do
with the events of September 11."