NATO envoy's suggestion Kabul safer than London sparks outcry

LONDON (AlertNet) - Aid workers have dismissed a top NATO envoy's comment that children are probably safer in Kabul than London or New York as "incredibly insensitive" and "potentially damaging".

Mark Sedwill's remarks, made during an interview on the BBC's "Newsround" programme, were rejected as misleading by aid groups citing grim statistics on infant mortality and child casualties due to the worsening conflict between U.S.-led NATO forces and the Taliban.

Children living in the Afghan capital had told Newsround, a British current affairs programme aimed at children, that they felt unsafe on the streets because of the risk of bombs. But Sedwill dismissed their fears.

"Here and in Kabul and the other big cities, actually, there are very few of those bombs," he said.

"The children are probably safer here than they would be in London, New York or Glasgow or many other cities," he said, adding: "It's a very family-orientated society, so it is a little bit like a city of villages."

Aid groups were quick to point out that Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous places for children and that it has the world's highest infant mortality rate with one in five children not making it to their fifth birthday.

Ashley Jackson, head of policy for Oxfam in Afghanistan, said each hour, 30 children die largely because of malnutrition, diarrhoea or diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis. She also cited a government survey that showed nearly a quarter of children displayed some sign of psychiatric disturbance mainly attributed to the trauma of the conflict.

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