Afghan NGO report for NATO summit

Passing along this report submitted by 29 Afghan NGO's to the recently passed NATO summit in Lisbon on the deteriorating situation for Afghans caught in the war. A friend I recently spoke to whose lived in Afghanistan the last 3 years and writes for the Wall Street Journal mentioned that he thinks this is a pretty accurate view what's up there. If you don't have time to read the whole thing I guess I'd just mention that the report states that 2010 so far has been the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since 2001, a 21% increase in deaths in the first 6 months of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. With nearly 320,000 Afghans internally displaced, 1/3 due to the war. US/Nato are pressing hard on a new strategy, going around Karzai gov and arming militia groups throughout the country in a last ditch effort to "win" the war. Yet my friend says that while he was embedded with one such militia in a southwest province where the heaviest fighting is occurring that horrible war crimes and human rights abuses are systematic as these militias act with impunity raping boys, beheading anyone who doesn't submit to their power, and other general terrorizing similar to what was seen during the Mujahideen period, only difference is that its being financed by the US instead of the Soviets. Despite Obama's upbeat tone at Lisbon, the report claims that civilian deaths increased rapidly since 2007 by 64% overall, increase specifically of 6% in women's deaths and 55% in children. Was struck by the following, especially because it speaks directly against the current US "heart and minds" strategy. In terms of COIN (from pg. 10) "The tactic of locating troops closer to villages often places Afghans in harm's way and their presences is rarely seen as a source of protection, but as a cause of greater insecurity. In the case of Kandahar, violence has rise and armed opposition groups executions and assassinations of civilians have increase since the announcement of the pro-government forces operations in the province. As the mayor of Kandahar city recently admitted, "Everyone is a target."