[NYTr] Afghan children deliberately shot after suicide attack: UN

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

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AP via Intl Herald Tribune - Nov 19, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/19/asia/AS-GEN-Afghan-Bombing-Aftermath.php

OR: http://tinyurl.com/2q9a7f

Afghan children were deliberately shot after suicide attack, UN says

The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan: An internal U.N. report obtained Monday said
lawmakers' bodyguards fired indiscriminately into a crowd after a
suicide bombing, and that school children suffered most from the
"onslaught." The report also suggests some in the U.N. want legal
action taken against the gunmen.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan, however, said the report is
one of several conflicting views inside the world body and has not been
officially endorsed.

The report by the U.N. Department of Safety and Security, obtained by
The Associated Press, said it was not clear how many people died in the
suicide bombing and how many died from subsequent gunfire after the
Nov. 6 attack in Baghlan province. Sixty-one students and six lawmakers
were among those killed.

But the report said as many as two-thirds of the 77 people killed and
more than 100 wounded were hit by gunfire; however, some estimates said
the number of people shot was much lower. It described the gunmen's
actions as "crimes."

"Regardless of what the exact breakdown of numbers may be, the fact
remains that a number of armed men deliberately and indiscriminately
fired into a crowd of unarmed civilians that posed no threat to them,
causing multiple deaths and injuries," the report said.

"It is believed that at least 100 rounds or more were fired into the
crowd with a separate group of school children off to one side of the
road bearing the brunt of the onslaught at close range," it said.

Though the U.N. report described the firing as deliberate, some
witnesses told the AP that there was a blanket of smoke at the blast
site so thick that they couldn't see who was shooting. Other witnesses,
though, could see clearly enough to identify the gunmen as the
lawmakers' bodyguards.

Adrian Edwards, the world body's spokesman in Afghanistan, confirmed
the internal report's validity, but said it was one of several
conflicting views inside the U.N. and that its findings had not been
endorsed.

"What you are seeing at the moment represents part of the picture only.
What hasn't been resolved is that there is widely diverging, contrary
views on this, and until those have been resolved, there is no complete
finding," he said.

According to Afghan authorities, most of the casualties were the result
of the suicide attack. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary has
said most of the victims were hit by ball bearings from the bomb, and
not bullets.

The AP first reported Saturday that a preliminary U.N. report said as
many as two-thirds of the 180 bombing casualties were from gunfire. The
weekly report obtained Monday provided a more complete picture of the
view of the U.N. Department of Safety and Security.

The report said that in the chaos following the suicide attack,
bodyguards protecting the lawmakers opened fire into the crowd for
several minutes.

"It has been confirmed that eight of the teachers in charge of this
group of school children suffered multiple gunshot wounds, five of
which died," it said.

The report said that investigations "are being hampered by restrictions
on witnesses and officials" and that despite several arrests, there
have not yet been any reports of who is responsible, "particularly
those who fired into the group of school children, being identified and
brought to account for their crimes."

The attack happened as about a dozen lawmakers from the parliament's
economic committee were being greeted by hundreds of children on a
visit to a sugar factory in Afghanistan's normally peaceful north.

Among the parliamentarians killed was Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, the chief
spokesman of Afghanistan's only opposition group, the National Front.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and Afghan
officials say they do not know who was behind the bombing. The Taliban
has denied it was responsible. A government investigation is also under
way.

One doctor who helped treat patients after the bombing told the AP that
he was pressured by a government official to hide the truth about how
many gunshot victims he attended to. The doctor refused to identify the
official and spoke only on condition he wasn't identified because of
fear of reprisals.