- The US-led coalition in Afghanistan has distributed leaflets
calling on people to provide information on al-Qaida and the Taliban or
face losing humanitarian aid.
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- The move has outraged aid organisations who said their
work is independent of the military and it was despicable to pretend otherwise.
-
- MedÈcins Sans FrontiËres, the international
medical charity which passed the leaflets to the Guardian, said the threat
endangered aid workers. Fourteen aid workers were killed in Afghanistan
last year and 11 so far this year.
-
- The Taliban claimed responsibility yesterday for the
murder of two British security staff and their Afghan translator from the
London-based crisis management company Global Risk Strategies, which is
employed by the UN to help prepare for national elections scheduled for
September.
-
- After examining the leaflets yesterday Britain and the
US said they had been a mistake and it was not their policy to link aid
with military operations in that way. The decision to distribute the leaflets
had been made at a local level, they said.
-
- Last night the Pentagon said it would instruct forces
in the field and those on future training courses not to repeat the mistake.
Joseph Collins, deputy assistant secretary at the Pentagon, said: "I
have seen the leaflets in question. While they were no doubt well-intentioned,
they do not reflect US policy. The United States does not condition humanitarian
assistance on the provision of intelligence.
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- "We will instruct forces in the field to be careful
not to portray assistance as a reward for the provision of intelligence."
-
- The US has stepped up operations along the southern border
with Pakistan over the past few months in an effort to counter a resurgence
of the Taliban and to try to smoke out Osama bin Laden.
-
- The leaflets were distributed by US forces in Zabul province,
which borders Pakistan and where the Taliban have regained control of several
districts.
-
- One of the leaflets, showing an Afghan carrying a bag
of provisions, reads: "In order to continue the humanitarian aid,
pass over any information related to Taliban, al-Qaida or Gulbuddin organisations
to the coalition forces." The latter reference is to the renegade
warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is believed to have allied himself with
the Taliban.
-
- MSF, which provided medical services in hospitals in
the city of Kandahar and nearby town Spin Boldak and in neighbouring refugee
camps, said it was appalled by the leaflets.
-
- Kenny Gluck, its director of operations, said he did
not know whether the leaflets technically breached international law but
said they contravened the spirit of the law.
-
- He said it was dangerous enough for aid workers in southern
Afghanistan without being linked to the military in this way.
-
- "We have to go back to the population and say 'This
is not how we work'," he added.
-
- The White House would like to capture bin Laden before
the presidential elections in November. The suspicion is that he is in
hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.
-
- Pakistan protested to the US yesterday following an incursion
by US troops into its territory on Sunday to hunt suspected al-Qaida or
Taliban militants.
-
- Mullah Sabir Momin, a Taliban commander, contacted Reuters
by satellite phone yesterday to claim responsibility for the murder of
the two Britons and their translator in Mandol district, in Nuristan province
in the north-east.
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- "The two British non-believers and their Afghan
translator were killed by the Taliban because the Taliban are killing all
locals and foreigners who are helping the Americans to consolidate their
occupation of Afghanistan," he said. Global Risk Strategies issued
a statement in London confirming that two employees, both British, had
been killed. Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry,
said the bodies were discovered by local authorities.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1210400,00.html
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