Secret War: Negroponte, Death Squad Mastermind Video
By Cesar Chelala/New York
A Unicef-supported study found that the majority of children under 16 years in Kabul suffer from psychological trauma. Children in Afghanistan are exposed not only to violence related to acts of war but also to violence resulting from accidents, beatings by close relatives or neighbors or seeing close relatives being beaten or executed.
The year 2009 has been the deadliest for Afghan children since 2001, according to the Afghanistan Rights Monitor, a Kabul-based human rights group. From January to December 2009, about 1,050 children died in suicide attacks, roadside blats, air strikes and in the cross-fire between Taliban insurgents and pro-government Afghan and foreign forces, states ARM.
Today in Afghanistan more than one in five children dies before the age of five, often of a preventable cause. Many children who survive birth then die because mothers stop breastfeeding them too soon. Traditionally, the women are not allowed to decide when to start or to stop breastfeeding or how to give supplementary food. Usually, that decision is reserved for the elders of the family, generally men.