Financial Times:
Nederland doet mee aan hoogste beleidsorgaan voor Afghanistan
Onderstaand bericht uit de Financial Times van 2 september is interessant om twee redenen:
- de door NAVO commandant Richards genoemde tijdslimiet van zes maanden om aantoonbare vooruitgang te bereiken in de oorlog tegen de Taleban
- het nieuwe(?) overlegorgaan, de 'Policy Action Group' dat veel lijkt op een soort nationale veiligheidsraad waar de belangrijkste besluiten over de oorlog vermoedelijk genomen worden. De Nederlandse ambassadeur zit daarbij; het is wellicht van belang om vragen te stellen over zijn precieze mandaat en de relatie tussen het Afghaanse parlement en dit orgaan, dat door buitenlanders gedomineerd wordt
Financial Times
Nato sets deadline to beat Taliban
By Rachel Morarjee in Kabul and Daniel Dombey in Lappeenrata
Published: September 1 2006 22:14 | Last updated: September 1 2006 22:14
The general in charge of the international force in Afghanistan has given his soldiers six months to establish a clear advantage against the bitter Taliban-led insurgency in the south of the country.
“We have to show in the next six months that the government is on the winning side,” said Lieutenant General David Richards, commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, in an interview with the Financial Times.
Gen Richards' comments come at the end of the first month in which Nato has been responsible for Afghanistan's turbulent south – a month in which nine British soldiers have died in the violent province of Helmand, including one killed on Friday.
Earlier this week, UK officials said that soaring drug production in Helmand was likely to take Afghanistan's opium production to record highs, in United Nations figures expected this weekend.
Twenty two British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations in November 2001.By contrast, Germany and the Netherlands, which are stationed in less violent Afghan regions, continue to debate whether they should be prepared to dispatch soldiers to more dangerous areas.
The Nato chief's remarks also illustrate mounting concern that international and Afghan officials need to do more to win the support of the population in the south.
“Over the past five years there has never been a united agenda” to tackle the insurgency, Jawed Ludin, chief of staff of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, told the FT, referring to the initial 2001 defeat of the Taliban by a US-led coalition.
He added that Mr Karzai had set up a top-level multinational group to focus on tackling the insurgency in a more co-ordinated and integrated manner.
Mr Ludin said the Policy Action Group included Mr Karzai, Afghan ministers, Nato and US military commanders and the ambassadors of Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, which have all contributed troops in the four southern provinces.
“It has been understood that the situation in the south calls for a much more coherent policy to win hearts and minds,” said Mohammed Haneef Atmar, Afghan Minister of Education and head of a working group on reconstruction in the south which is part of the initiative.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
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