Deal with tribal elders praised

Move by British could be replicated in Kandahar

Lee Greenberg, Ottawa Citizen, 21 Oct 06

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A low-key deal that saw British and Taliban troops agree to withdraw from a hotly contested position in southern Afghanistan could be replicated in Kandahar province, where Canadian soldiers are engaged in their bloodiest combat mission since the Korean War.

Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who commands NATO's multinational brigade in the country's treacherous southern region, yesterday praised the deal and said it would act as a catalyst for similar arrangements. He steered clear of calling it a truce, as others have, however, and portrayed it as a step forward.

"The deal is working out right now and it's because people are communicating and working with each other," Brig.-Gen. Fraser said in an interview yesterday. "I'm not going to predict where it is, but I think other elders in the province and the region will probably take a look at examples where people are taking responsibility for security in their own hands."

On Tuesday, British troops quietly withdrew from a remote mud-walled government outpost in the Musa Qala region of Helmand province, where the force has suffered eight casualties. They did so after separate deals with tribal elders, called on NATO and Taliban troops to withdraw from the region. Tuesday's pullout followed 35 days without a clash between the two sides.

The government district centre at Musa Qala is one of three such posts that have claimed at least 16 British casualties. The British agreed reluctantly to defend the district centres under pressure from Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Lt.-Gen. David Richards, the NATO commander in Afghanistan, called the district centres "magnets" for the Taliban.

Canadian troops, responsible for neighbouring Kandahar province, have to control a similar district centre in Zhari, and use the Panjwaii district centre as a transportation hub.

Brig.-Gen. Fraser said the Musa Qala deal would not be used as a "cookie cutter" approach. "It will provide a catalyst for other elders and other leaders to look at their own situations and find solutions that work for them."

He also reserved the right to "to go back in" if insurgents resumed hostilities or threatened development.

On Nov. 1, Brig.-Gen. Fraser will hand over control of NATO operations in southern Afghan-istan to Dutch Maj.-Gen. Ton Van Loon.

In a wide-ranging interview marking his departure, Brig.-Gen. Fraser said NATO's progress in the war-torn Asian country should be measured in "years, not months."

"This country has gone through 30 years of fighting. It's the fifth-poorest nation in the world. We're starting almost from square nothing."

He disagreed with some polls showing support for the mission may be dropping, and levelled criticism at the media for not portraying the mission's progress.

"The support for the soldiers is phenomenal," he said. "The media are not giving the Canadian public the full story. The media have got to start talking about what Canada is doing over here."

He mentioned efforts by Canadian officials to build bureaucracies at both provincial and national levels, as well as aid efforts in education, women's rights, health care and with the police.

Brig.-Gen. Fraser presided over a major summer offensive, dubbed Operation Medusa, that saw more than 500 Taliban fighters killed.

"They've failed," he said of the mutltifaceted insurgency, which includes local power brokers, drug lords and Taliban fighters who are not necessarily in concert. "It is the most complicated battle space environment I've operated in 26 years without a doubt," he said.

He said much work needs to be done.

"Operations will continue throughout the winter and they will continue into next year," Brig.-Gen. Fraser said. "The fighting is not over."