AFP Photo/Patrick Baz (think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)
SitiWanMahani - Tentera Amerika Syarikat yang ditempatkan di Afghanistan tidak sengaja tertembak mati seorang budak lelaki berusia 4 tahun, kata pegawai tempatan. Insiden itu mendorong teguran daripada Presiden Karzai yang enggan menandatangani perjanjian keselamatan dengan Amerika Syarikat melainkan ia memberi jaminan keselamatan awam.
Marin yang berpangkalan di wilayah keganasan melanda Helmand tersilap melepaskan tembakan ke atas bayi tersebut kerana penglihatan yang lemah, kata pihak berkuasa kerajaan tempatan.
“Sebagai cuaca berdebu, angkatan laut yang berpusat di sana berfikir dia adalah musuh dan melepaskan tembakan. Hasil daripada silap tembak, dia telah terbunuh,” jurucakap Gabenor Helmand Province, Omar Zwak, Reuters.
Sebagai tindak balas kepada kejadian itu, NATO berkata siasatan terhadap perkara itu akan dilancarkan segera dan bahawa segala langkah yang mungkin diambil untuk menge-lakkan korban awam.
Kematian yang berusia 4 tahun di tangan tentera Amerika mencetuskan reaksi marah dari Presiden Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, yang menuntut menamatkan segera kepada semua operasi ketenteraan di rumah-rumah awam dan menunjukkan dedikasi yang jelas kepada proses damai sebelum pakatan keselamatan adalah ditandatangani.
“Kami telah dipanggil . . . untuk menamatkan mutlak untuk operasi ketenteraan ISAF/NATO di rumah-rumah dan kampung-kampung untuk mengelakkan pembunuhan seperti mana kanak-kanak yang tidak bersalah atau orang awam yang menjadi mangsa,” kata jurucakap presiden, Aimal Faizi, semasa mengulas mengenai kematian lelaki.
Washington dan Kabul sedang bertelagah atas pakatan keselamatan yang akan menyak-sikan kehadiran tentera Amerika tinggal di belakang selepas pengeluaran Amerika Syarikat yang dijadualkan pada bulan Disember. Pentadbiran Obama telah ‘ratcheting’ beri tekanan kepada Karzai untuk menandatangani perjanjian itu selepas tarikh akhir 31 Disember.
Ia berpendapat bahawa jika Amerika Syarikat tidak meninggalkan sekurang-kurangnya 8,000 tentera ia boleh membenarkan Taliban untuk mendapatkan semula bertapak dan negara ini terjun ke dalam “Huru-hara”.
Kerajaan Afghanistan telah menolak dakwaan ini sebagai “tidak berasas” dan dibayangkan bahawa ada motif terselindung di sebalik pakatan keselamatan.
“Kami amat menolak yang tidak berasas kerana mereka pada masa lalu telah dibuktikan tidak tepat,” Faizi memberitahu Reuters.
‘Tidak menghormati nyawa Afghanistan’
Isu ‘Causalities’ awam telah menjadi tulang pertengkaran di antara Amerika Syarikat dan Afghanistan baru-baru ini.
Presiden Karzai decried tentera Amerika Syarikat berikutan serangan udara pada bulan November yang membunuh seorang anak kecil dan mencederakan dua wanita. Dalam menegur marah beliau mengisytiharkan serangan yang berlaku di wilayah Helmand “mendedahkan bahawa tentera Amerika tidak menghormati kehidupan Afghanistan.”
Beliau berkata jika apa-apa “kekejaman” berterusan, “pakatan keselamatan tidak akan ditandatangani dengan Amerika.”
Washington telah mengambil isu dengan kepimpinan Afghanistan selepas Kabul mengu-mumkan pembebasan 72 tahanan Amerika Syarikat difikirkan “penjenayah berbahaya” yang disyaki “jenayah keganasan yang berkaitan”. Kerajaan Afghanistan berkata terdapat terlalu sedikit bukti untuk mewajarkan satu ujian bagi orang-orang tahanan dan ia tidak boleh membenarkan “rakyat Afghanistan yang tidak bersalah itu diletakkan dalam tahanan selama berbulan-bulan dan tahun-tahun tanpa perbicaraan tanpa alasan sama sekali.”
Afghan toddler killed by US troops amid heightened tension over security pact
US forces stationed in Afghanistan accidentally gunned down a four-year-old boy, say local officials. The incident prompted a rebuke from President Karzai who is refusing to sign a security pact with the US unless it gives assurances of civilian safety.
Marines based in the violence-plagued province of Helmand mistakenly opened fire on the boy because of poor visibility, said local government authorities.
“As the weather was dusty, the marine forces based there thought he was enemy and opened fire. As a result of mistaken fire, he was killed,” the spokesman for the governor of Helmand Province, Omar Zwak, told Reuters.
In response to the incident, NATO said an investigation into the matter would be launched immediately and that all possible measures were taken to avoid civilian casualties.
The four-year-old’s death at the hands of American troops sparked a furious reaction from the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who demanded an immediate end to all military operations on civilian homes and show a clear dedication to the peace process before a security pact is signed.
"We have called … for an absolute end to ISAF/NATO military operations on homes and villages in order to avoid such killings where innocent children or civilians are the victims," the president's spokesman, Aimal Faizi, said when commenting on the death of the boy.
Washington and Kabul are currently at loggerheads over a security pact that would see an American troop presence stay behind after the US’s scheduled withdrawal in December. The Obama Administration has been ratcheting up the pressure for Karzai to sign the agreement after the December 31st deadline.
It argues that if the US does not leave behind at least 8,000 troops it could allow the Taliban to regain a foothold and plunge the country into “chaos”.
The Afghan government has rejected these claims as “baseless” and intimated that there is an ulterior motive behind the security pact.
"We strongly reject that as baseless as they have in the past been proved inaccurate," Faizi told Reuters.
‘No respect for Afghan life’
The issue of civilian causalities has been a bone of contention between the US and Afghanistan recently.
President Karzai decried US forces following an airstrike back in November that killed a small child and injured two women. In a furious rebuke he declared the strike that happened in Helmand province "reveals that American forces have no respect for Afghan lives."
He said that if such “cruelty” goes on, “the security pact will not be signed with America.”
Washington took issue with Afghan leadership after Kabul announced the release of 72 prisoners the US deems “dangerous criminals” who are suspected of “terror-related crimes”. The Afghan government said there was too little evidence to warrant a trial for the detainees and it could not allow “innocent Afghan citizens to be kept in detention for months and years without a trial for no reason at all.”
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