Media blind to Afghan civilian deaths
by Dave Markland January 01, 2007
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In early September, Canadian military personnel stationed in Afghanistan's Kandahar province spearheaded NATO's Operation Medusa, aimed at Taliban strongholds in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts of that province. Accustomed to seeing the Canadian Forces' role as that of peace-keepers, many observers were stunned by reports that the Medusa offensive had resulted in hundreds of enemy combatants killed along with five fatalities suffered by Canadian soldiers. Meanwhile, there was a largely unreported civilian exodus as some 80,000 people fled their homes while “at least 50 civilians were killed over several weeks of bombing” (New York Times, Nov 27, A12).
Public concern here in Canada resulted in a surge of public debate and reflection, as evidenced by call-in radio programs, opinion polls and letters to the editor. All this has fuelled on-going organizing efforts across the country that continue to demand Canada's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
One might have expected our major national media to engage such an important discussion with in-depth news coverage of the conflict, along with critical and incisive editorials and opinion pieces. Instead, our most respected media went to considerable lengths to avoid negative portrayals of our military role and that of our NATO allies, even to the point of completely ignoring certain shocking and disastrous events which are of vital importance in understanding the role of our military in Afghanistan and its effects on the people of that country.
This article examines several recent instances of NATO forces killing Afghan civilians - all of which occurred well after the close of Operation Medusa - and the coverage which those events were given by our country's agenda-setting English newspapers: the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.
Double tragedy
At around 2am on October 18, NATO helicopters firing on houses in the village of Ashogo in Kandahar killed between nine and thirteen civilians, including women and children. Almost simultaneously, in neighboring Helmand province, another NATO air strike killed a reported thirteen civilians. Additionally, NATO revealed that just one purported Taliban insurgent was killed in the attacks. In fact, during the attack on Ashogo, there were no Taliban whatsoever in the village, according to local officials. NATO blamed the botched attacks on intelligence failures.
News of these two catastrophes was vividly related by a veteran Afghanistan reporter, Kathy Gannon, whose article was carried widely on the Associated Press wire. The Toronto Star (Oct 19) ran her AP report on page A7 with the title "NATO strikes kill villagers". That was pretty much the end of coverage in the Star: no editorials or opinion pieces weighed in on the killings. The paper did briefly revisit the events in a news article three days later (Oct 22, A14) in reporting on an Afghan father's accusations that during the Kandahar attack NATO troops had executed his wounded son when the soldiers had entered their house. (As for the allegation, NATO later announced that they had exonerated themselves on the matter. See "No evidence to support claim of execution-style killing of Afghan teen: NATO", Bill Graveland, Canadian Press, Nov 21.)
In terms of the Globe and Mail, that paper completely ignored the double tragedy when it came to light. Only when NATO air strikes killed more Afghan civilians the following week did the Globe even mention the earlier case. However, the Globe low-balled the body count when they did (belatedly) report the incident, stating on one day that twenty civilians had been killed by NATO in the October 18 attacks, only to state the next day that nine civilians had died. Evidently, the Globe chose to drop the Helmand province incident from their tally, and then opted to cite the lowest death estimate for the Kandahar attack by itself (Oct 26, A18; Oct 27, A17). Later, Human Rights Watch, in referring to these attacks, would surmise, “at least 22 civilians were killed as a result of NATO air operations in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.” (See HRW Letter to NATO, Nov 28.)
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by Dave Markland January 01, 2007
Article Link
In early September, Canadian military personnel stationed in Afghanistan's Kandahar province spearheaded NATO's Operation Medusa, aimed at Taliban strongholds in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts of that province. Accustomed to seeing the Canadian Forces' role as that of peace-keepers, many observers were stunned by reports that the Medusa offensive had resulted in hundreds of enemy combatants killed along with five fatalities suffered by Canadian soldiers. Meanwhile, there was a largely unreported civilian exodus as some 80,000 people fled their homes while “at least 50 civilians were killed over several weeks of bombing” (New York Times, Nov 27, A12).
Public concern here in Canada resulted in a surge of public debate and reflection, as evidenced by call-in radio programs, opinion polls and letters to the editor. All this has fuelled on-going organizing efforts across the country that continue to demand Canada's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
One might have expected our major national media to engage such an important discussion with in-depth news coverage of the conflict, along with critical and incisive editorials and opinion pieces. Instead, our most respected media went to considerable lengths to avoid negative portrayals of our military role and that of our NATO allies, even to the point of completely ignoring certain shocking and disastrous events which are of vital importance in understanding the role of our military in Afghanistan and its effects on the people of that country.
This article examines several recent instances of NATO forces killing Afghan civilians - all of which occurred well after the close of Operation Medusa - and the coverage which those events were given by our country's agenda-setting English newspapers: the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.
Double tragedy
At around 2am on October 18, NATO helicopters firing on houses in the village of Ashogo in Kandahar killed between nine and thirteen civilians, including women and children. Almost simultaneously, in neighboring Helmand province, another NATO air strike killed a reported thirteen civilians. Additionally, NATO revealed that just one purported Taliban insurgent was killed in the attacks. In fact, during the attack on Ashogo, there were no Taliban whatsoever in the village, according to local officials. NATO blamed the botched attacks on intelligence failures.
News of these two catastrophes was vividly related by a veteran Afghanistan reporter, Kathy Gannon, whose article was carried widely on the Associated Press wire. The Toronto Star (Oct 19) ran her AP report on page A7 with the title "NATO strikes kill villagers". That was pretty much the end of coverage in the Star: no editorials or opinion pieces weighed in on the killings. The paper did briefly revisit the events in a news article three days later (Oct 22, A14) in reporting on an Afghan father's accusations that during the Kandahar attack NATO troops had executed his wounded son when the soldiers had entered their house. (As for the allegation, NATO later announced that they had exonerated themselves on the matter. See "No evidence to support claim of execution-style killing of Afghan teen: NATO", Bill Graveland, Canadian Press, Nov 21.)
In terms of the Globe and Mail, that paper completely ignored the double tragedy when it came to light. Only when NATO air strikes killed more Afghan civilians the following week did the Globe even mention the earlier case. However, the Globe low-balled the body count when they did (belatedly) report the incident, stating on one day that twenty civilians had been killed by NATO in the October 18 attacks, only to state the next day that nine civilians had died. Evidently, the Globe chose to drop the Helmand province incident from their tally, and then opted to cite the lowest death estimate for the Kandahar attack by itself (Oct 26, A18; Oct 27, A17). Later, Human Rights Watch, in referring to these attacks, would surmise, “at least 22 civilians were killed as a result of NATO air operations in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.” (See HRW Letter to NATO, Nov 28.)
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