RF urges UN mission in Afghanistan for more efforts to prevent

MOSCOW, May 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia thinks efforts taken by the U.N.
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan are insufficient to prevent casualties
among Afghanistan's civilian population, Russian Foreign Ministry's human rights envoy Konstantin Dolgov told Itar-Tass on Friday.
"The mission has taken some steps to minimize civilian casualties but
statistics proves these steps are not enough," Dolgov said. "We hope more
efforts in this area will be taken."
According to a joint report of the U.N Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, since the
beginning of 2011, the death toll among civilians has gone up by 15
percent to more than 420 people (a third of them were killed in operations
of Afghan and foreign military forces and two thirds in actions of
extremist militants).
"We proceed from the necessity to strictly observe the international
humanitarian law norms by all the parties in Afghanistan and
non-inflicting even unintentional damage on the civilian population and
the infrastructure of Afghanistan," The Russian diplomat stressed.