Aid groups and young Afghans have reportedly criticised a top NATO official's comments that war-ravaged Kabul is a safer place for children to grow up than most Western cities, saying that he should 'get out more' to see the reality in Afghanistan, which is much worse off in terms of health, education and violence in most international charts
Aid groups and young Afghans have reportedly criticised a top NATO official's comments that war-ravaged Kabul is a safer place for children to grow up than most Western cities, saying that he should 'get out more' to see the reality in Afghanistan, which is much worse off in terms of health, education and violence in most international charts.
Yesterday Mark Sedwill, NATO''S top civilian chief in Afghanistan, had insisted that despite the danger of unexploded bombs, children in the Afghan capital faced fewer threats compared to many Western cities like New York, London or Glasgow.
The Guardian quoted Ashley Jackson, the head of policy for Oxfam in Afghanistan, as saying that the ground reality is completely different from what Sedwill had claimed.
'I would encourage him to get out into Kabul more and visit schools and some of the street children in Kabul and ask them what they think, because his comments are very much out of line with what children and their parents feel are the dangers in Afghanistan,' he added.
Various surveys have found a grimmer picture about the country. Watchlist, a consortium of human rights groups and UN agencies, revealed that 200,000 Afghans children had been injured or maimed by conflict since 2001.
Although the cities are less affected by Taliban violence than rural areas in Afghanistan''s south and east, Jackson said a recent survey of children living in large cities by the ministry of public health showed that a quarter showed signs of psychological disorders and trauma, the paper said.
Surprisingly the fact that children beg and sell trinkets outside Sedwill''s own office, the headquarters of Nato''s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), has weakened his claim further. Like half of all Afghan children, they are not in school, spending their time trying to make a bit of extra money for their families instead, it added.
Yesterday Justin Forsyth, chief executive of UK's 'Save the Children', had said that it was wrong and misleading on the part of Sedwill to claim that children in Kabul are safer than those living in Western cities, adding 'Afghanistan is the worst place on earth to be born a child - one in four children living there will die before they reach the age of five."
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