At Least 12 Killed During Koran-Burning Protest at UN Office in Afghanistan

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Quran Protests Spread to Turbulent Afghan East
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Demonstrators battled police in southern Afghanistan's main city on Sunday and took to the streets in the turbulent east for the first time as Western pleas failed to halt a third day of rage over a Florida pastor's burning of the Quran.

An officer was shot dead in a second day of clashes in the city of Kandahar, said provincial health director Qayum Pokhla. Two officers and 18 civilians were wounded, he said.

In Jalalabad, the largest city in the east, hundreds of people blocked the main highway for three hours, shouting for U.S. troops to leave, burning an effigy of President Barack Obama and stomping on a drawing of a U.S. flag. More than 1,000 people set tires ablaze to block another highway in eastern Parwan province for about an hour, said provincial police chief Sher Ahmad Maladani. The violence was set off by anger over the March 20 burning of the Quran by a Florida church - the same church whose pastor had threatened to do so last year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, triggering worldwide outrage.

The protests, which began Friday, also appear to be fueled more broadly by the resentment that has been building for years in Afghanistan over the operations of Western military forces, blamed for killing and mistreating civilians, and international contractors, seen by many as enriching themselves and fueling corruption at the expense of ordinary Afghans.

Coverage of the trial of a group of U.S. soldiers charged with killing Afghan civilians and the publication of photos of some posing with dead bodies added to the anger. Thousands of demonstrators in the previously peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif poured into the streets after Friday's Muslim prayer services and overran a U.N. compound, killing three U.N. staff members and four Nepalese guards.

On Saturday, hundreds of Afghans holding copies of the Quran over their heads marched in Kandahar before attacking cars and businesses. Security forces opened fire and nine protesters were killed but the governor of Kandahar said officers had only fired into the air. He said 81 were wounded and 17 people, including seven armed men, had been arrested.
Military commander Gen. David Petraeus and the top NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said they "hope the Afghan people understand that the actions of a small number of individuals, who have been extremely disrespectful to the holy Quran, are not representative of any of the countries of the international community who are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people."

The Taliban said in a statement emailed to media outlets that the U.S. and other Western countries had wrongly excused the burning of the Quran as freedom of speech and that Afghans "cannot accept this un-Islamic act."

"Afghan forces under the order of the foreign forces attacked unarmed people during the protests, killing them and arresting some, saying there were armed people among these protesters, which was not true," the Taliban said.

The governor of Kandahar said he and the main leaders of the protests in the southern city had reached an agreement that would end the demonstrations in exchange for the release of those who were arrested. He said they released 25 people but did not provide details. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/04/03/qu...ter-third-day/

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Afghanistan: Koran protests in Kandahar and Jalalabad
At least one person has been killed and 18 injured in a third day of protests in Afghanistan over the burning of a Koran in the US last month.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched in Kandahar, Jalalabad and other areas on Sunday.
On Friday, 14 people, including seven UN staff, were killed in Mazar-e Sharif after similar protests.
US President Barack Obama described the killings as "outrageous" and the Koran burning as "intolerance and bigotry".
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called on the US Congress to condemn the Koran burning and prevent it from happening again.
A statement from his office said Mr Karzai made the request at a meeting with Gen David Petraeus, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan.
Ten people in Kandahar died and dozens were injured following Saturday's protests.
Protests spread
On Sunday, demonstrators in Kandahar city - the birthplace of the Taliban - marched on the main UN office.
At least one person was killed when a gas canister exploded in Kandahar.
Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said the canister was in a traffic police booth which was set alight by protesters, the AFP news agency reported.
Smaller protests were also reported in two other districts of Kandahar province, and in Parwan province, north of the capital, Kabul.
There are conflicting reports that at least one other person may have been killed, but it is not clear at which protest. At least 18 people were injured.
In the eastern city of Jalalabad, hundreds of demonstrators peacefully blocked a main road for three hours on Sunday.
The crowd shouted for US troops to leave Afghanistan and burnt an effigy of Mr Obama, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.
The UN's chief envoy to Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, blamed Friday's violence in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif on the Florida pastor who burnt the Koran on 20 March.
"I don't think we should be blaming any Afghan," Mr de Mistura said. "We should be blaming the person who produced the news - the one who burned the Koran. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from offending culture, religion, traditions."(That is exactly what freedom of speech is in the US, you're not protected from being offended, that's our freedom to speak)
He said the UN would temporarily redeploy 11 staff members to Kabul while their office in Mazar-e Sharif was rebuilt but there would be no evacuation.
In a statement published on Saturday evening, Mr Obama extended his condolences to the families of those killed by the protesters in Afghanistan.
"The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," he said. "However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity."
Regional police commander Dawood Dawood told the BBC that the UN guards killed on Friday had not reacted quickly enough.
"They didn't fire when they should have. But they also didn't allow the Afghan National Police to guard the UN building from the inside," he said.
Condemnation
The controversy began in Florida on 20 March, when Pastor Wayne Sapp soaked a Koran in kerosene, staged a "trial" during which the Islamic holy book was found guilty of "crimes against humanity", and then set it alight.
The incident took place under the supervision of Pastor Terry Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
The authorities in both Kandahar and Mazar-e Sharif have blamed the Taliban for the violence. However, the Taliban has rejected the accusation.
Pastor Jones has said that the Dove World Outreach Center's congregation does not "feel responsible" for the attack.
The protests began in Mazar-e Sharif on Friday, when protesters marched on the UN compound.
Several demonstrators were killed by guards at the compound, who were then overpowered by the mob.
Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the governor of Balkh province, said the group seized weapons from the guards and stormed the building. Four Nepalese guards, a Norwegian, a Romanian and a Swede were killed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12949975