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  • Afghanistan expels top officials

    Afghanistan expels top officials

    Two high-ranking officials from the European Union and the United Nations - one British, the other Irish - have been ordered to leave Afghanistan.

    The two men, based in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, had been holding meetings with different tribes and groups, including possibly the Taleban.

    They have been given 48 hours to leave the country and the UN has said that it will comply with the request.

    But officials hope to resolve what they have called a misunderstanding.

    "We are currently trying to clarify the situation with the Afghan authorities, and we are hopeful that our staff member and the UN can continue with the essential work that is required to deliver peace, stability and progress to the people of Helmand province," said UN spokesman Aleem Siddique.

    'Intense diplomacy'

    Alastair Leithead, BBC correspondent in Kabul, says the two, one of whom was acting head of the EU mission in Afghanistan, spoke to a lot of different groups across the country.

    He says their role was to try to find out what was happening "on the ground" with tribal elders, government representatives and non-government representatives.

    Officials have stressed these discussions should not be interpreted as support for the Taleban.

    Our correspondent says people were describing the situation as a storm in a teacup which had been take much further than expected.

    Intense diplomacy was continuing to try and resolve the situation, he adds.

    Homayun Hamidzada, spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said: "The foreign nationals have been declared persona non grata and their Afghan colleagues have been arrested and are being investigated."

    He said they had been "involved in some activities that were not their jobs".

    Helmand province is the heart of Afghanistan's drug-producing region, and the EU and UN have been playing a major role in the eradication programme.

    Analysts say the poppy industry has been a primary reason for the Taleban's resurgence in the south of the country.

    BBC NEWS | South Asia | Afghanistan expels top officials
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Troung Reply

    "And in southern Helmand province, where a number of militias tied to local warlords already operate as adjuncts to the local security forces, they have been linked to drug crime, frequent looting and murder.

    But so, too, have the official police.

    'I am speaking for myself, not my government here - but as far as Afghanistan is concerned in three decades of war there is not any example of a militia having done anything for the benefit of Afghanistan,' said Helmand Police Chief, Gen Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

    'If you use the name of militia or of arbakai, people will be shocked. They had a very bad reputation and just look after the interests of their own tribe. The British have not contacted me on this issue, but I will always tell them to focus on the national police, not militias.'"


    Where are the controls? Biometrics of militias recorded as in Iraq? Does "Pashtunwali" prevail as firmly in the south as the east? Isn't Gordon Brown telling his M.P.s that this is the direction that they want to move? Wasn't this discussed in detail with the host nation before embarking on this approach?

    I thought Karzai WANTED accomodation with the Taliban and integration of rehabilitated leaders into his gov't?
    "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

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    • #3
      The question is were these guys acting on behalf of the Karzai government or acting on their own? Seems like the later to me which is likely why Karzai is not happy with them in his country.
      Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman.

      -- Larry Elder

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