The Talibans have claimed over 1,000 innocent Afghan civilians killed in the three weeks of US bombing raids and although this had not been verified and its veracity challenged by the Americans, the incontrovertible fact is the mounting toll of innocent civilian casualties.
The Afhan refugees in their thousands are fleeing not the Talibans but the bombs and missiles from the US-led airstrikes.
Those who perpetrated the September 11 terrorist mass murders have committed heinous crimes against humanity and must be brought to justice, but the United Nations is not setting up any tribunal to try those responsible, whether Osama bin Laden or his al Qaeda network.
While the over 5,500 September 11 victims comprising 81 nationalities is an awesome figure, the mounting toll of Afghan civilian casualties from the sustained US bombings and the stark prospect of tens or hundreds of thousands of Afghans dying from starvation with the onset of winter must force the question to the fore of international consciousness - whether a retaliation causing 5,500, 12,000 or more dead Afghans who have nothing to do with Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda or the Talibans could be morally justifiable?
The Malaysian Parliament should hold a specific debate next week to adopt an unanimous all-party motion to call for an immediate halt to the US-led “war of terror” in Afghanistan and to urge similar calls by other Parliaments in the world, to generate a sense of common humanity and international pressure to demand that in seeking justice for the September 11 terror attacks, new injustices and equally heinous terror should not be perpetrated on the innocent Afghan civilians.
(27/10/2001)