The government says no?
"Afghan children’s deaths questioned" February 08, 2012|By Rod Nordland
KABUL - Afghan government officials cast doubt yesterday on whether more than 20 children who died in camps recently had perished from the cold.
What kind of camps?
The officials were sharply critical of some of the camp residents, saying that they had exaggerated their circumstances to attract more aid, and that news accounts of the deaths were “one-sided.’’
Mohammad Daim Kakar, the director general of Afghanistan’s disaster assistance agency, confirmed that camp officials, parents, and religious leaders in two of the camps in Kabul had reported the deaths of 21 children, and two elderly adults. The New York Times, quoting similar sources, found 22 cases of children under 5 who had died there as of last week, with a 23d case reported Sunday.
Kakar said the cases his agency had been told about all concerned children who were reported to have died at night.
“Is that reasonable that all of them would die at night?’’ he said. He was also suspicious because the deaths were not registered, and camp officials did not take his agency’s investigators to cemeteries to show them fresh graves.
“I am not saying they are liars, but for us, it is a question mark,’’ he said.
I'm getting kind of cool on you, bud.
Temperatures at night have been dropping typically to the mid-teens Fahrenheit over the past month, much colder than usual, along with several heavy snowstorms.
Also see: Avalanches in Afghanistan
“Of course they die at night,’’ said Mohammad Ibrahim, the camp representative at the Nasaji Bagrami camp, which has had the largest number of deaths of children. “What do they expect? It is colder at night.’’
He and the camp mullah, Walid Khan, furiously denied that any officials had tried to see the cemetery there and had been rebuffed.
“Let them shave off my beard if I am lying,’’ Ibrahim said.
They led journalists to the cemetery yesterday and pointed out each of the gravestones marking the 16 children under 5 who died in that camp since Jan. 15, including a pair of paving stones used as markers for the graves of two twin girls, 3 months old, Naghma and Nazia Jan, who died the same night, Jan. 22. The markers could just be seen poking through 18 inches of snow.
“I buried every one of them,’’ said Khan. The men’s accounts were corroborated by the graveyard’s caretaker, Abdul Rasoul.
Of those 16 children, the camp officials said, 15 died of the cold and were under 5; the 16th, the 5-year-old daughter of Khan, died of burns after accidentally spilling a pot of boiling water on herself while trying to stay warm.
“I blame the cold for that, too,’’ Khan said.
The most recent cold victim there was a 1-year-old, Qader, son of Sayed Azam, officials there said. He died Friday but his death was not reported until Sunday.
Most victims were children who were discovered late at night or early in the morning, frozen and dead in unheated tents and huts after supplies of firewood and other fuel were exhausted.
Kakar said that despite his suspicions, aid supplies would be increased to the camps, which are mostly inhabited by refugees who fled fighting in other parts of Afghanistan....
Oh, one of those kinds of camps. Many span the globe thanks to the USraeli empire lo these last six decades or so.
The other thing is these kinds of camps -- created by AmeriKa -- are rarely referred to in the reports I read in my newspaper. I guess I just "caught 'em" on a "good" day.
Kakar made his comments at a news conference held jointly with Islammudin Jurat, a spokesman for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation. Jurat was critical of what he called one-sided news reports of the camp deaths that failed to take account of efforts made in the past on behalf of the residents of the camps.
I can certainly sympathize and empathize with that feeling.
Widespread Afghan news media coverage about the deaths of the children over the last two days has spurred action from many local sources. Private Afghan businessmen, and companies like Roshan, a mobile telephone carrier, and Ariana Television, through their charitable arms, have visited both of the worst hit camps in recent days, handing out aid ranging from food and firewood to cash payments to each family.
--more--"
You kids, don't be picking through that trash:
"Explosions kill 6 Afghan children, 5 NATO troops" January 07, 2012
KABUL - Explosives hidden in a trash heap killed six children in southern Afghanistan yesterday, police said, and five NATO troops were killed in roadside bombings in the volatile region.
The children were rummaging through the trash for food scraps and bottles in the southern province of Uruzgon when the blast killed them, police spokesman Farid Ayal said. A civilian man also died in the blast....
:-(
Couldn't have AmeriKa done better?
--more--"
