[PAA-Discuss] RAWA Newsletter - Sep.12, 2008

[juli3 at aol.com]

RAWA Newsletter


This is latest newsletter with 11 news.


1. Afghan President pardons men convicted of bayonet gang rape
2. In memory of 91 innocent Afghans massacred by US troops in Azizabad
3. US troops are committing war crimes, AHRO
4. A 13-year old Afghan girl was gang-raped by nine men in Takhar
5. No tears in west for 60 Afghan children
6. Afghan Parliament drafts Taliban-style bill
7. Videos show dead Afghan children after US raid in Azizabad
8. Afghans will dig up graves to prove civilian deaths
9. Afghans say life no better after invasion
10. Afghanistan After Seven Years of War: You Call This a Good War?
11. 47 self-immolation cases were recorded in Herat city hospital in six months



1- Afghan President pardons men convicted of bayonet gang rape

The Independent: The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has pardoned three men who had been found guilty of gang raping a woman in the northern province of Samangan. The woman, Sara, and her family found out about the pardon only when they saw the rapists back in their village.



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2- In memory of 91 innocent Afghans massacred by US troops in Azizabad

RAWA News: The U.S. bombs struck a large gathering of people who had congregated in Azizabad to honor a local leader who had died months earlier. A resident, Fatima, 25, explained from her hospital bed in Herat, where she wept and cursed those who carried out the air strike. We were holding a memorial service in our home, she said, tears running down her face. Suddenly the infidels attacked and I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was in hospital, and they told me that all of my family were dead and already buried. Was my two-year-old child a terrorist? Then am I not also a terrorist? Why did they let me live?



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3- US troops are committing war crimes, AHRO

RINF News: An Afghan human rights organisation has accused the United States army of committing war crimes in Afghanistan. Afghanistan Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) said on Tuesday that, according to their own investigations, civilians are killed in most operations conducted by US forces.



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4- A 13-year old Afghan girl was gang-raped by nine men in Takhar

PAN (Translated by RAWA): In Talaqan (capital city of Takhar province) nine men raped a 13-year old girl. Six people, including three policemen, have been accused of being involved in the crime and detained.



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5- No tears in west for 60 Afghan children

DailyMirror.lk: Imagine what would happen if a terrorist kills 95 US citizens or citizens of any of the Nato countries. Such a massacre would have dominated the headlines for weeks, if not months. Giving a melodramatic touch, the western media would also carry photographs of the dead children, interviews with their neighbours, friends and teachers and statements of grieving parents and political leaders. But 60 Afghan children who died in the US attack had none of it. No speaker addressing the ongoing Democratic Party convention, dared to mention the Afghan civilian massacre, though they talked about US troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.



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6- Afghan Parliament drafts Taliban-style bill

PAN: Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament, has prepared a draft law which, when approved, will ban obscene movies, female dances and high-volume music at parties. Those indulging in such acts will be awarded deterrent punishments under the draft bill titled Law against Immoral Acts. The draft has been prepared in three chapters and 20 articles by a parliamentary commission tasked with countering drugs and immoral acts.



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7- Videos show dead Afghan children after US raid in Azizabad

The Associated Press: The bodies of at least 10 children and many more adults covered in blankets and white shrouds appear in videos obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, lending weight to Afghan and U.N. allegations that US-led raid last month killed more civilians than the US reported. The sounds of wailing women mixed with the voices of men shouting inside a white-walled mosque in the western village of Azizabad, where an Afghan government commission and U.N. report said some 90 civilians -including 60 children and 15 women- were killed.



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8- Afghans will dig up graves to prove civilian deaths

Reuters: Relatives of Afghans killed in a US-led coalition raid in western Herat province have offered to dig up graves to support claims of large-scale civilian deaths. The Aug. 22 air strike in Shindand district has outraged Afghans and opened a rift between coalition forces on the one hand and the Afghan government and the UN on the other, which both say that more than 90 civilians were killed.



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9- Afghans say life no better after invasion

Reuters: Seven years after the attacks on New York and Washington, the event that sparked off the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, many Afghans say life is no better and some say its worse. A recent spate of civilian deaths caused by U.S.-led air strikes has added salt to their wounds.



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10- Afghanistan After Seven Years of War: You Call This a Good War?

CounterPunch.com: The antiwar movement in the U.S. can no longer afford to ignore the war in Afghanistan without fading into irrelevance. The original aims of the war on terror have been resuscitated, and as Obama has repeatedly emphasized in recent months, its central front is shifting back to Afghanistan. The Afghan people have endured seven long years of misery thanks to U.S. occupation, and it is high time to take a principled stand against U.S. imperial aims in Central Asia. The war on Afghanistan is no more justified than the war on Iraq.



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11- 47 self-immolation cases were recorded in Herat city hospital in six months

IRIN News: More than six years after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001 when all women were denied the right to work and education, many women suffer domestic and social violence, discrimination and lack of access to unbiased justice and other services, women's rights activists say. At least 184 cases of self-immolation were registered by the AIHRC in 2007 against 106 in 2006.



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