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UN:
‘MARTYRDOM CULTURE' NOT MAJOR CAUSE OF AFGHAN SUICIDE ATTACKS, UN
REPORTS: 11/9/2007 (MaximsNews.com, U.N.)
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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 11 September 2007 – Suicide
attackers in Afghanistan, including children, are being coerced or duped into
carrying out such operations, and seemed to be motivated by a variety of
grievances such as foreign occupation, anger over civilian casualties and
humiliation rather than a “martyrdom culture,” according to a new United
Nations report.
“Based
on what we’ve found you can say we are puncturing a few popular myths,”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Tom Koenigs said of the
study carried out by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). “The
Afghan suicide attacker is not crazed, fanatical or brainwashed. Some are
recruited in madrassas, but many are not. Of those we’ve seen most are young,
poor, uneducated, and easily influenced.”
Released
yesterday on the anniversary of Afghanistan’s first-known suicide attack, the
9 September 2001 slaying of commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, and just days before
the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the study
presents data and analysis and includes interviews with more than two dozen
failed and alleged suicide attackers. It is the most detailed so far into the
phenomenon in Afghanistan.
It notes
a sevenfold increase in suicide attacks in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2006 and
a continuing though slower rise in 2007. Its recommendations include immediate
efforts to diminish perceptions of a foreign military occupation, and political
steps to reduce the insurgents’ support base by meeting the demands of the
population, cutting corruption, overseeing fair judicial processes and providing
basic public services.
“Unlike
other conflict areas wherein suicide attacks are commonly used, Afghanistan
fortunately has yet to develop a robust “martyrdom culture,” which
simultaneously celebrates the attacker and helps forge a justifying narrative
for the attacks as in other theatres,” according to the study, Suicide Attacks
in Afghanistan (2001-2007 – www.unama-afg.org).
“In
fact, in Afghanistan it is rare that one can identify, much less celebrate, the
attacker and his deed. Not all attackers seem to be truly ideologically
committed, based upon the highly limited data garnered for this study. While
suicide attackers in Afghanistan may have been inspired by such attacks in Iraq
and neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan has been spared sectarian violence
despite having a relatively large Shi’a population as discussed in this
report,” it says.
The
study calls on all forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations to reduce
civilian casualties and “conscientiously work to uphold the dignity and honour
of Afghans, to avoid provoking outrage in the population and a ready supply of
volunteers for jihad.”
Afghan
national security forces must be supported increasingly to assume responsibility
for providing more effective security, and the means must be found to engage
other Muslim countries to support security and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
The
cross-border dimension of suicide attacks in Afghanistan must also be addressed
by bolstering Pakistani support to eliminate domestic enablers for the
insurgency in Afghanistan and address militancy within its own borders, the
study states.
Previous
research has noted the low effectiveness of Afghan suicide attackers, who in
some cases succeed in blowing up only themselves. UNAMA’s findings affirm this
but also point to a possible explanation, that coercion and misrepresentation on
the part of terrorist training and recruitment networks mean attackers are often
ill-prepared for their missions and unaware of the consequences.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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Madarshahi, J. Michael Adams, Gloria Feldt,
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O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and
others.
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