Elected Afghan president asks London and Washington
- From: xi <xieu.ling@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:53:32 -0700 (PDT)
My comment: Afghans are tired of both the London-Washington terrorism
and taliban terrorism. When both criminal groups stop their massacre
in Afghanistan?
Leave Taliban Alone, Afghan President Tells West
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042708D.shtml
Karzai says US and British troops are undermining his authority and
stopping insurgents from laying down their arms.
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has called on British and
American troops to stop arresting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan,
saying that their operations undermined his government's authority
and
were counter-productive.
The stinging attack, made in an interview with the New York Times
published yesterday, is the latest in a series of rows between
Western
governments with troops in Afghanistan and the elected leader of the
country. Western diplomats expressed surprise at the Afghan leader's
criticism and the Foreign Office played down the row yesterday.
'We fully support the Afghan government and continue to work with
it, President Karzai and the international community in the interests
of the Afghan people and the long-term peace and stability of
Afghanistan,' said a spokesman.
Karzai is facing re-election next year and may be hoping to
bolster flagging support with a populist stance. However, in recent
months relations have deteriorated seriously, with Western officials
openly doubting the ability of the Afghan president, who was heavily
backed by the US and the UK in 2001 after the fall of the Taliban
regime, to manage rampant corruption and combat drug trafficking in
the war-wracked southwest Asian state.
Karzai said he wanted American forces to stop arresting suspected
Taliban members and their supporters, saying that fear of arrest and
their past mistreatment were discouraging them from coming forward to
lay down their arms. 'It has to happen,' he said. 'We have to make
sure that when a Talib comes to Afghanistan ... he is safe from
arrest
by the coalition.'
Efforts at winning over Taliban fighters or sympathisers are
mired
in confusion: Nato allies in Afghanistan are divided over the exact
nature of the amnesty or 'reconciliation programme' for insurgents.
British policy, despite official insistence that 'there are no
negotiations with the Taliban', is to weaken the radical Islamic
movement by splitting off foot soldiers tempted by money or misled by
tribal chiefs, religious leaders and ideologues from a 'hardcore' of
leaders.
'We fully support efforts to bring disaffected Afghans into
society's mainstream, providing they renounce violence and accept
Afghanistan's constitution,' said the Foreign Office spokesman. 'We
have always said there is no military solution in Afghanistan - a
fully comprehensive approach is needed ... and that will involve
reconciliation of those Taliban prepared to integrate into the new
Afghanistan.'
However, Washington is more sceptical of such efforts, and has
been fiercely critical of some British tactics aimed at winning over
key Taliban commanders in the past, as has Karzai himself.
Karzai also attacked the number of civilian deaths inflicted by
the coalition. Although levels of 'collateral damage' inflicted by
Nato operations have dropped substantially, deaths still continue.
Two
women and two children were killed recently in an air raid by Nato
troops on a suspected Taliban position after a firefight. Up to 9,000
civilians have died since 2001.
'I want an end to civilian casualties,' the Afghan president said
in the interview. 'And as much as one may argue it's difficult, I
don't accept that argument.'
Relations between Karzai and London were strained last month by
the Afghan premier's rejection of Lord Paddy Ashdown, the favoured
candidate to take up a post as 'aid tsar' in Kabul with a brief to
coordinate the international aid flowing into the country. Karzai
blocked the appointment amid negative local press coverage, a
historic
popular distrust of the British and advisers' fears of a potential
crackdown on corruption.
With casualties and costs mounting and little obvious progress,
Western governments are looking increasingly for an exit from
Afghanistan, where 94 British servicemen have been killed since 2001.
'Nato now wants a way out which is not failure,' said Mike Williams,
of London's Royal United Services Institute. 'They need to redefine
the situation which will allow them to leave without failing.'
A key problem for policymakers is 'battle fatigue' among Western
populations. 'We are going to get bored of the war long before the
Taliban are,' said one Nato official.
.
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