As the British General Election of 2010 draws to an end and the people prepare to vote, and after nine years of a now financially ruinous war, Parliament Square swells with a new Democracy Village formed to bring UK involvement in the war in Afghanistan to an end.

Over the past 10 days, deaths continue to be reported from Afghanistan from a range of causes including suicide bombings and ISAF/NATO (International Security Assistance Force/North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) air-strikes.

The majority of those killed being civilians.

In 2010, civilian deaths in Afghanistan continue to rise with 12 dead after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb on April 28th.

Depressingly, both the US and UK military continue to insist on using the term Insurgent or Taliban as an indiscriminate moniker to describe what is now, in large part, the Afghani civilian people themselves.

On April 21st, Nato commanders were forced to apologise after shooting dead four Afghanis in their vehicle and then describing them as known Insurgents. Among the four dead were a police officer and a 12 year old boy. Nato had previously claimed they had used Biometric Data fingerprinting to identify them as Insurgents, a claim which was later hurriedly dropped.

The village forms with toilet, kitchen and sleeping areas and calls upon those engaged with bringing the war to an end to join them as the election period passes and a new, albeit weakened, British political environment begins.

London, UK. 04/05/2010.



Reuters 'Roadside bomb kills 12 civilians in Afghanistan' 28th April 2010
 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SGE63R0CY.htm

New York Times 'NATO Apologizes for Killing Unarmed Afghans in Car' April 21st 2010.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/asia/22afghan.html

Afghanistan Conflict Monitor 'Courageous Restraint' 4th may 2010.
 http://www.afghanconflictmonitor.org/civilian_casualties/