By Radhika Coomaraswamy, Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict

8 February 2011 - As we landed in Kabul, we were informed that Hamida Barmaki, her four children and husband had been killed in a suicide bomb attack on a supermarket in the centre of town. According to intelligence, the bomber was aiming at private contractors attached to Xe, formerly Blackwater. Instead, they killed Afghanistan's leading child rights activist, a member of the independent Human Rights Commission, a beloved professor and someone respected by all sides to the conflict. Such is the tragedy of Afghanistan; the heartbreaking tale of what combatants call collateral damage.

 
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