NATO PLANS TO OCCUPY SPACE USED BY TALIBAN: Bringing more troops to Afghanistan will help 'establish governance,' spokesperson says

NATO's top priority when its International Security Assistance Force takes over southern Afghanistan from a U.S. general at the end of July is to use a much larger force of Canadian, British, Dutch, Romanian and U.S. troops to occupy space now used freely by the Taliban.

"We all know that just killing the Taliban is not really the game," NATO's spokesperson on Afghanistan, Mark Laity, said during a brief visit to Afghanistan's second-largest city on behalf of ISAF's commander, Lt.-Gen. David Richards.

"What we need to do is establish governance and move the matter of space and that is what ISAF intends to do. A lot of these spaces are effectively ungoverned, and that means the Taliban, criminals, they feel they've been able to operate."

However, he warned, "If the Taliban wants to fight, they will be fought."

Part of the strategy already being used by the Canadians to win the Afghans over in what is the Taliban heartland is to conduct clinics. About 450 people attended one such gathering yesterday in the town of Gumbad where Canada keeps a platoon house.

Canadian and U.S. medics, doctors and vets brought to the scene in British helicopters provided medical and dental checkups and de-worming medicine. About 150 of those who showed up were also given polio vaccine.

There were gifts, too, of rice, beans, windup radios that don't require a battery, blankets and shovels - and a political message contained in a comic-book style pamphlet celebrating the virtues of democracy.

"We are here to show support for the government of Afghanistan," said Capt. Marilyn Shenette, a hospital administrator with 1 Ambulance in Edmonton. "This is an underserved village. We are just providing them with more medical aid that they are used to having."

NATO's Laity went to great lengths not to criticize the United States, which has used a carrot and stick approach, but which has sometimes had a greater emphasis on the stick than the carrot.

"If you listen carefully, the Americans are not just talking about attacking the Taliban. They are moving into space and bringing in aid and reconstruction," Laity said. "The tactics and strategy of General Richards is to build on what the Americans have done."

When NATO takes over in the south, it will be able to call on about double the combat forces - 4,000 fighting troops - that the U.S. has had available in the south since ousting the Taliban in late 2001. Those forces include the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, which has been temporarily under U.S. command since arriving in March, but will switch to NATO/ISAF in five weeks.

Elsewhere yesterday, a U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed fighting insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, while a suicide car bomber targeted a military convoy and wounded two Afghan boys, officials said.

The soldier was fatally wounded Sunday during combat operations in the Pech district of Kunar province, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement. His nationality was not released pending notification of his family.

Also yesterday, five kidnapped Afghan aid workers, including three attached to a Swedish agency, were released after four days in captivity in eastern Afghanistan, police said. No details were revealed on the kidnappers, who freed the hostages Sunday after warnings from tribal elders and police.

PUBLICATION: Montreal Gazette
DATE: 2006.06.27

BYLINE: MATTHEW FISHER