Louise Arbour needs to get a grip

Some Canadians are distressing--see the bolded bit; and why the focus on "international forces"?

KABUL - The UN's top human rights officer says civilian casualties in Afghanistan have reached "alarming levels."

Louise Arbour blames both the insurgents and NATO-led forces for the high rate of civilian deaths. But Arbour says international forces need to pay particular attention to the problem.

The former Canadian Supreme Court justice says such killings not only violate international law [emphasis added] but they also erode public support in Afghanistan for both NATO and the western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Arbour is wrapping up a six-day trip to Afghanistan. She met in private with top NATO commanders and says she believes they are aware of the significance of the issue.

Arbour also says the issue of women's rights in Afghanistan has stalled "despite the promise of the post-Taliban era."

Women continue to suffer disproportionately in Afghanistan's war-torn and poverty stricken society, she said.

Karzai has repeatedly pleaded with international forces to do all they can to prevent civilian casualties.

An Associated Press count of such casualties this year found that militants had caused 346 deaths while international troops had caused 337 deaths through the end of October.

The civilian death numbers seem a bit low compared to the UN figures (end of this post)--but hardly that great for a country of Afghanistan's size. Sorry to be realistic.

In 2002 motor vehicle accidents killed 8,000 Afghans, the eighth leading cause of death (UN figures, must have gone up a fair bit since then). In Canada, in 2001 (with a population close to Afghanistan's but many more automobiles per capita by many orders of magnitude), there were 2,778 deaths in traffic accidents.

Maybe Loopie Louise should "pay particular attention to the problem." Clearly there is discrimination regarding developing countries in terms of vehicular deaths.