The United Nations special representative, Staffan de Mistura, meanwhile, said both sides should redouble their efforts to avoid killing civilians as the fighting is expected to ratchet up with the arrival of good weather.
“If there is a spring offensive , who should not be paying the price is civilians,” he said. “Since the Taliban have been responsible for the biggest civilian casualties, we are addressing them first, but we are also addressing NATO and asking them to do the same.”
According to the United Nations, the insurgents were responsible for 75 percent of civilian casualties in 2010 and NATO forces were responsible for 16 percent. (In the remaining cases, the culprit was unclear.)
The Taliban appeared aware of the concerns those numbers raised, and in their news release they twice mentioned civilian protection. They said they would make every effort to avoid attacks that hurt civilians, but also warned that “all Afghan people should bear in mind to keep away from gatherings, convoys, and centers of the enemy.”
The Taliban define the enemy as NATO troops, as well as foreign and Afghan contractors who assist NATO and the Afghan government. And the news release explicitly said that civilian members of the High Peace Council, created by the government to reach out to the insurgents, would be targets.
The release said the council’s members were “trying to pave the way for the prolongation of the American occupation by cashing in on the name of jihad, religion and tribal chieftainship.”
NATO officials see the Taliban promises to protect civilians as little more than propaganda.
Lt. Col. John L. Dorrian, a NATO public affairs officer, said the Taliban had talked a lot about protecting citizens, “but we haven’t seen much sign of it.” He noted that assassinations of tribal elders and other local politicians opposed to the Taliban had continued despite their promises to spare noncombatants.
While the Taliban have made public statements in the past about the commencement of the spring fighting season, this year’s announcement, like much of the recent Taliban propaganda, was a sophisticated product. It was e-mailed in the morning, at the beginning of the news cycle on Afghan radio and television and the information was supplied in Dari and Pashto, the two most common languages here, as well as English.
Afghan television networks headlined the Taliban’s announcement on the evening news. Some international organizations ordered their staff to stay inside secure compounds for the next several days, and the spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Intelligence said at a news conference that the insurgency’s effort was aimed at undermining Afghans’ faith in the government as it prepared to take full responsibility for security from NATO troops in some provinces.
Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Intelligence Directorate, said the Taliban announcement was just one more attempt to diminish people’s confidence in the government, following a series of bold actions in recent weeks, including a jailbreak that freed nearly 500 of its members,.
“Terrorists and radical parties and Al Qaeda, who support these small terrorist groups, undertook these to undermine the transition to Afghan control of the security forces and the peace process,” he said. “They are trying to show that the government is weak.”
