President emotional during speech on Afghan children

(10 Dec 2006)
1. Wide of Hamid Karzai, Afghan President, walking to podium
2. Backshot of audience
3. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Hamid Karzai, Afghan President:
"We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists. Our children are dying because of this. Cruelty is at the highest level."
4. Backshot of audience
5. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Hamid Karzai, Afghan President:
"Every day our children are dying. Two children were killed in Musa Qala (a district of Helmand province) recently. Girls are afraid to go to school and our life is living with suffering."
6. Wide audience clapping
STORYLINE:
President Hamid Karzai became highly emotional during a speech on human rights on Sunday. Dabbing away tears and taking long pauses, he claimed that Afghan children are being killed by terrorists from Pakistan and in bombing raids by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition.
Karzai struggled to speak as he talked about the chaos engulfing parts of his country.
"We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists. Our children are dying because of this. Cruelty is at the highest level," he said.
Karzai was speaking on the 58th anniversary of the United Nations universal declaration on human rights. He told the audience that Afghanistan has a decades-long history of limited human rights, from the time of the Soviet invasion through the Taliban's rule.
Karzai became emotional about 10 minutes into the speech, after talking about an Afghan boy who was left paralysed by what he said was a NATO airstrike in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province.
A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force declined immediate comment.
"Every day our children are dying," Karzai said, claiming that two children were killed in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province recently.
"Girls are afraid to go to school and our life is living with suffering," he added.
Afghanistan has seen more than 100 suicide attacks this year which is a record number. Close to 4,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence in 2006.
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