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Taliban May Talk With U.N. on Lowering Afghan Casualties Bomb Kills Court Workers in Kabul
(about 2 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents have agreed to meet with United Nations officials to discuss civilian casualties and how to reduce them, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan said Tuesday. KABUL, Afghanistan — Within hours of the top United Nations official in Afghanistan issuing a statement saying the Taliban had “signaled their willingness” to talk about reducing civilian casualties, militants set off a bomb that killed at least 17 civilians and wounded 39 others, many of them critically, outside the capital’s Supreme Court complex on Tuesday.
Jan Kubis, special representative of the United Nations Secretary General, said he welcomed the insurgents’ “signals of willingness” and that efforts are now under way to determine how such meetings could take place. He also deplored what he said was a 24 percent increase in civilian casualties through June 6 this year compared with the same period in 2012, with three-fourths of those caused by anti-government forces, according to United Nations data. The powerful explosion, felt throughout central Kabul, destroyed three buses taking court workers home from their jobs, according to Gen. Dawood Amin, the deputy Kabul police chief. He said the death toll might rise beyond 17, as the authorities were still searching for bodies. The victims included at least nine women and several children, he said, but no police or military personnel.
Word of the talks comes as NATO countries draw down their forces in Afghanistan, with the United States planning to end its combat role by 2014. A recent spring offensive by the Taliban has led to an increase in violence as the insurgents test the Afghan army as it prepares to take over completely from withdrawing NATO forces. The Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, e-mailed a statement to reporters afterward saying that a member had carried out the attack, and that the court’s employees had been “sentenced to death” because of their “important role in cruelty, bad behavior with our countrymen, and legalizing the infidels.”
Mr. Kubis, speaking at a news conference, said that the United Nations had publicly and through private channels asked the Taliban to engage in talks about how to address the problem of civilian casualties. Very recently, he said, “we received signals of their willingness to discuss this issue with us. I welcome this. Now we are discussing modalities of how hopefully to start this dialogue.” Most of the victims, however, were believed to be low-level employees of the court.
It was the first public acknowledgment by the international group in recent months of any progress in efforts to talk with the insurgents, although these talks would be limited to the subject of reducing civilian casualties, and not cover wider talks to end the conflict. Earlier in the day, Jan Kubis, the United Nations secretary general’s special representative, said at a news conference that the Taliban had made “rather recent” responses to overtures from the United Nations seeking to discuss civilian casualties. “I can confirm that we received signals about their willingness and readiness to discuss this issue with us,” he said. “I welcome this.”
There have been secret peace talks between the United Nations and the Taliban in previous years, but no known ones recently. Mr. Kubis also deplored what he said was a 24 percent increase in civilian casualties this year through June 6, compared with the same period in 2012, and he blamed the insurgents for three-quarters of those, based on data compiled by the United Nations.
Mr. Kubis did not give a detailed breakdown of civilian casualty figures, which would be covered in a forthcoming report, which is due out in July. But he expressed concern that the latest data show a marked increase in civilian casualties, in contrast to last year, when there was a decrease. That provoked an angry reaction from Mr. Mujahid, who said in a telephone call after the news conference that the world body “should not act as a propaganda machine for the invaders in Afghanistan.”
In addition to 2,499 civilian casualties through June 6 of this year – representing a 24 percent increase over the same period in 2012 – Mr. Kubis said 21 percent of those civilian victims were children, an increase of 30 percent over the previous year. Mr. Mujahid said he “would not confirm” that any such talks were under consideration by the Taliban. However, he maintained that “our mujahedeen have been strictly advised to exercise maximum caution when conducting an operation in an area populated by civilians.”
“This is unacceptable,” he said. Of those, 74 percent were attributable to anti-government forces, he said, and only 9 percent were caused by pro-government forces. There was little evidence of such caution on Tuesday afternoon, however. A powerful bomb planted either on one of the buses or close by exploded when the largest number of court workers would be present, about 20 minutes after work let out at 4 p.m. but before the buses were fully loaded.
He did not provide a breakdown of how many of those victims were killed and how many wounded. Mr. Kubis also said that civilian casualties resulting from improvised explosive devices increased 41 percent from a year earlier, and targeted killings or assassinations by insurgents rose 42 percent, while deaths from airstrikes launched by the coalition continued to decline, by another 30 percent for the first half of this year. Witnesses and policemen described a scene of devastation, with three buses destroyed and body parts strewn over a broad area.
The rise in casualties during the first half of this year, compared with the drop during the same period in 2012, may well reflect the weather more than the tempo of the war. This winter was mild and short, while last year it was severe and long, helping curtail some of the violence. The explosion was also close to the American Embassy, where sirens sounded ordering workers to take shelter and entrances were blocked for several hours.
Most of the victims appeared to be Supreme Court workers, according to Mujib Aziz, the secretary to the chief justice, who was reached by telephone in the court’s bunker. The chief justice himself was in his office during the attack and was unharmed, Mr. Aziz said.
The attack came a day after an unsuccessful assault on the Kabul airport, in which no one was killed.
Mr. Kubis said earlier on Tuesday that the United Nations had publicly and through private channels asked the Taliban to engage in the talks on civilian casualties. “Now we are discussing modalities, how hopefully to start this dialogue, sooner rather than later,” he said. “We need to come to an understanding how to do this, as you know it’s not that simple to have a meeting between the two of us.”
Such talks would be limited to the issue of civilian casualties, rather than broader peace initiatives. There have been secret peace talks between the United Nations and the Taliban in previous years, but no known ones recently.
Mr. Kubis did not give a detailed breakdown of civilian casualty figures, which will be covered in a report due out next month. But he expressed concern that the latest data show a marked increase in civilian casualties over last year, when there was actually a decrease.
Mr. Kubis said that 21 percent of the 3,092 civilian casualties this year have been children, an increase of 30 percent over the previous year.
“This is unacceptable,” he said.
He did not provide a breakdown of how many of the victims were killed and how many wounded. Mr. Kubic also said that civilian casualties caused by improvised explosive devices increased 41 percent compared with last year, and that targeted killings or assassinations by insurgents rose 42 percent. Deaths from airstrikes launched by the coalition continued to decline, by 30 percent so far this year.
The rise in casualties over last year may well reflect the weather more than the tempo of the war. This winter was mild and short, while last year it was severe and long, helping curtail some of the violence.