===================================================================== NATO military force should keep out of development: NGOs Agence France Presse (English) Wednesday, November 29, 2006 Section: International News Byline: by Bronwen Roberts Dateline: KABUL, Nov 29 Time: 06:42:00 GMT (01:42 Eastern Time) Priority: Urgent KABUL, Nov 29, 2006 (AFP) - NATO soldiers' involvement in both reconstruction and combat in Afghanistan endangers relief workers and undermines long-term development, nongovernment groups say, as NATO leaders meet in Riga. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has an important role to play in stabilising the war-torn country, but the idea that the military can bring both protection and development to win peace has yet to be proved, they added. Below-expected reconstruction after 25 years of war was, meanwhile, ratcheting up public frustration, leaving the country at a "dangerous crossroads", the Agency Coordinating Body For Afghan Relief (ACBAR), the umbrella body of NGOs said. Incapacity meant only about a quarter of this year's development budget had been spent, it said. But the international community had also only delivered on 56 percent of its commitment of nearly 30 billion dollars to the destitute nation, it said in a statement urging NATO nations to rethink their role here. ACBAR also questioned ISAF's "quick impact projects", such as handing out stationery to schools kids, and involvement in other relief and reconstruction work. "Military actors are not trained in development and their approaches are often undertaken with little community ownership or capacity to support community maintenance over time," it said. "Further, when military forces do quick impact projects it can also seriously undermine and threaten the aid efforts of civilian agencies." For example, ISAF-led provincial reconstruction teams want to hand out free vaccinations for livestock but this can have adverse effects on a national strategy for vaccinations and undermines a para-vet system being set up, a kind of fast-reaction unit modelled on paramedics. NGOs have also expressed concern that the involvement of soldiers in aid will blur the difference between troops and relief workers, further putting them in the sights of insurgents and challenging their neutrality. By August, 28 aid workers have been killed this year compared with 31 for the whole of last year, ACBAR said. The private Norwegian Refugee Council agreed in a separate statement that ISAF had a key role to play in security efforts, including police and defence reform and bringing alleged war criminals to trial. But it should keep out of development which must be distinct from military operations, it said. "NATO should do what it does best -- support the security sector and keep the peace -- so that aid agencies can do what we do best -- deliver protection and assistance to civilians in need," said the council's Ann Kristin Brunborg. "We have observed that the engagement of NATO forces in peace and combat operations simultaneously is blurring local perceptions of the reasons behind foreign intervention in Afghanistan," she said. The killing of civilians in military offensives, for example, undermines "peace operations" in more stable areas. *Human* *Rights* *Watch* has estimated 1,000 civilians have been killed in unrest this year. "It also threatens the safety and security of our beneficiaries and our staff, especially when such killings spur communal unrest," Brunborg said. The council and ACBAR said the theory that the military could bring both protection and development to win peace had yet to be proved. "With 11 times more cash being spent on military assistance than development aid in Afghanistan, thats one raucously expensive hypothesis," Brunborg said. Over the past five years, the international community had spent more than 82.5 billion dollars on military assistance but only 7.3 billion dollars in development help, the council said. Afghanistan is in a "perilously fragile" situation with frustration about unmet expectations in a context of "extreme poverty, low capacity, deteriorating security and increasing illicit activities," ACBAR said. "Unless the needs and expectations of the Afghan people are met shortly, the country could easily slide back into chaos." br/gn Afghanistan-unrest-NATO-development © 2006 AFP Length: 620 words Keywords: AFGHANISTAN; UNREST; NATO ===================================================================== NATO hurting the war effort Alaska Highway News Tuesday, November 28, 2006 Page: A4 Section: Opinion Source: Prince George Citizen When the 26 members of NATO meet this week in Riga, Latvia, they should look at the village of Ashoga in Afghanistan -- and decide if they are willing to win a war they promised the United Nations they would fight. Ashoga, a hamlet in the province of Kandahar, was the site of an Oct. 19 raid by NATO strike aircraft that killed, according to varying reports, 13 civilians, among them women and children. Moments later, soldiers -- from a European country, according to NATO -- swept through the village, killed a wounded teenager and then departed without offering medical assistance. It appears there were no Taliban insurgents in the area. Neverthless, a NATO investigation this week cleared the soldiers of any wrongdoing, reiterated its regret at the incident but insisted the village was a "legitimate target." Such a sparse response invites a few basic questions -- not the least of which is how a handful of innocent Tajik tribesman were mistaken for a bunch of Taliban thugs. But, while it's tempting to point fingers -- especially with Canadian troops dying to win the same hearts and minds the strike proceeded to shred -- the fact is what happened at Ashoga is distressingly commonplace in Afghanistan in a large part because, in a political level, NATO is shirking its responsibilities in this war. The reasons are simple. NATO hasn't committed enough troops to stem the insurgency -- according to the U.S.-based *Human* *Rights* *Watch*, the alliance fields only 18,000 troops in Taliban-riddled southern Afghanistan, an area nearly twice the size of Portugal. Some members won't allow their soldiers into the region, some haven't contributed troops at all, while others, notably Germany and the Netherlands, have sent personnel that either aren't trained for combat, don't have equipment like night-vision goggles, or operate under so-called caveats from their national governments that forbid them from doing things like, oh, fighting. It's a deficiency that hamstrings the entire NATO effort in the region, starting from the obvious fact that fewer troops means soldiers are more vulnerable and less able to actually go out and interact with Afghanis, the people who will ultimately determine who wins and who loses. More grieviously, however, fewer troops means more reliance on air power, more opportunities for mistakes like Ashoga -- and fewer alliance eyes on the actual ground which can correct those eorrors before they lead to tragedy. More heinous still, however, is some NATO members aren't taking reconstruction -- the only way to actually beat the Taliban -- seriously. According to a U.S. congressional report, while the training of the Afghan National Army, led by the U.S., is making some progress, the installation of an Afghan police force, a German responsibility, and judiciary, an Italian one, have stalled due to lack of money. They are failures coupled with the tendency of some countries' so-called provincial reconstruction teams (Germany again, for one) to just hand cash over to the Afghan government -- and all too often into the pockets of corrupt officials Bottom line, despite the best efforts of their troops on the ground, the policies of some NATO members are making it easier for mistakes like Ashoga to happen and harder for the damage of those incidents to be repaired. This week's summit can change that -- and if the organization is to be anything other than a Cold War anachronism, it had better. © 2006 Hollinger Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership Edition: Final Story Type: Opinion Length: 567 words ===================================================================== NATO summit must address Afghan warlords, detainees: watchdog Agence France Presse (English) Tuesday, November 28, 2006 Section: International News Dateline: KABUL, Nov 28 Time: 09:01:00 GMT (04:01 Eastern Time) Priority: Urgent KABUL, Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) - *Human* *Rights* *Watch* called on NATO leaders Tuesday to push their military force in Afghanistan to confront abusive warlords and to protect detainees from mistreatment and torture. The US-based rights watchdog said the leaders' meeting in Latvia Tuesday should also ensure better protection for civilians in International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations and make reparations for casualties and damage. The call echoes a similar one Monday by Amnesty International and comes amid concern about the mounting civilian death toll in ISAF's actions against the Taliban and other militants, namely in air strikes. In an open letter to NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the New York-based group said the summit should "pay considerable attention to the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan". It was concerned NATOs mission focused only on the Taliban and their allies and ignored serious abuses by warlords -- some in senior government positions -- including land grabs, intimidation of journalists and ethnic violence. "NATOs failure -- or refusal -- to confront regional warlords, and in some instances to even cooperate with them, has led to significant human rights abuses ... and eroded the legitimacy of the Afghan central government and its international backers." *Human* *Rights* *Watch* also said it was concerned NATO was not upholding its responsibility to monitor the treatment of detainees once they were handed to Afghan authorities. Most were apparently transferred to the Afghan intelligence agency, called the National Directorate of Security, "an opaque, unaccountable and abusive institution" reported to mistreat and torture detainees, it said. The directorate had on one occasion even hidden a detainee from the International Committee of the Red Cross, it said. "*Human* *Rights* *Watch* urges NATO to formulate and articulate a common policy that requires NATO members to be involved at all stages of the detention process," it said, recalling outrage at US military abuse of prisoners. The names and details of detainees should also be made public, it said. The body reiterated its call for protection of civilians in combat operations. Scores of civilians have been killed this year, including 31 in an ISAF air strike a month ago. A proper system of compensation for casualties and damage must be created, it said. *Human* *Rights* *Watch* has said around 1,000 civilians were killed this year, which has been the worst for a Taliban insurgency launched after the hardliners were removed from government in late 2001. br/dk/jc Afghanistan-unrest-NATO-summit-rights © 2006 AFP Length: 406 words Keywords: AFGHANISTAN; UNREST; NATO ===================================================================== Probe urged into alleged Afghan civilian deaths and torture Agence France Presse (English) Monday, November 27, 2006 Section: International News Dateline: KABUL, Nov 28 Time: 19:15:00 GMT (14:15 Eastern Time) Priority: Urgent KABUL, Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) - Amnesty International called on NATO leaders meeting in Latvia Tuesday to set up a body to investigate allegations of the killing and torture of civilians in military operations in Afghanistan. The London-based rights watchdog said in a statement Monday it was concerned by reports that anti-insurgent aerial bombardments by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were resulting in civilian deaths. Military offensives by the 37-nation force had also contributed to the displacement of up to 90,000 people, who had fled their homes because of the violence, it said. It added: "Detention procedures currently used by ISAF may be resulting in the torture or ill-treatment of Afghan nationals who are handed over to Afghan security forces known to use such practices." NATO should create a body together with its Afghan partners and the United Nations to "pursue justice for human-rights violations such as these", it said. The body should investigate allegations and ensure the prosecution of those found responsible and reparation for the victims. "ISAF has a crucial role to play in securing the rule of law in Afghanistan," said Amnesty's deputy Asia Pacific director Tim Parritt. "We urge NATO leaders to ensure that ISAF does not fall short of international humanitarian and human rights law in pursuing this aim." The summit in Riga on Tuesday and Wednesday will focus on NATO's anti-Taliban operation in Afghanistan, the alliance's most ambitious mission yet. Nearly 32,000 troops are in the ISAF force, which has this year fought hard against the resurgent Taliban, making regular use of air strikes, which have killed scores of civilians in rural compounds, including 31 a month ago. *Human* *Rights* *Watch* has said 1,000 civilians have been killed in the unrest this year, with an official report saying 3,700 people have been killed in total. Most of the dead are rebel fighters. br/jw Afghanistan-unrest-NATO-summit-rights © 2006 AFP Length: 310 words Keywords: AFGHANISTAN; UNREST; NATO =====================================================================