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NATO seeks more troops for Afghan operations

Vaiju Naravane

Nations criticised for not delivering on promise

Paris: The car bomb in Kabul that killed 15 persons including two U.S. soldiers and injured several others lent greater urgency to a two-day meeting of NATO defence chiefs that began in Warsaw on Friday.

U.S. General James Jones said on Thursday that NATO forces had been surprised by the strength of the Taliban-led insurgency in southern Afghanistan and called for more troops — between 2,000 and 2,500 soldiers.

He said his demand for more troops was "not outrageously high," and criticised NATO members for dragging their feet over providing troops and equipment.

NATO's General Secretary, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, in an interview with a French daily reiterated the demand for more troops but said he did not wish to speculate on the exact number that would be required. He too criticised member states for not honouring promises. "We are in an alliance based on solidarity. Member states should do what they have promised. That is not presently the case," he said. "Without naming names, certain allies do much more than others. We lack both troops and equipment such as helicopters,' Mr. Scheffer said.

"Political solution needed"

It was NATO's responsibility, he admitted, to create conditions of security in southern Afghanistan, but the organisation cannot do everything.

"We must understand that the solution for Afghanistan is not a military but a political one, the solution lies in reconstruction and development". He said the failing was evident: "Afghanistan is not enough on the radar screen of the international community. It is a closed circle — without security there is no development, without development there can be no security," Le Monde quoted him as saying.

Mr. Scheffer agreed that trafficking in narcotics was one of the major evils plaguing Afghanistan but refused to comment on reports alleging high-level Government involvement in the opium trade. There have been allegations that members of President Hamid Karzai's Government their family are linked to poppy cultivation. He said NATO ought to do more to train and equip Afghan military and police forces.

Canadian Colonel Brett Boudreau, spokesman for NATO's defence committee, said more troops and equipment in Afghanistan would be high on the agenda.

The Warsaw meeting, which ends on Saturday, will be the first chance for NATO military chiefs to discuss the situation in Afghanistan since a NATO-led force took over military command of southern Afghanistan on July 31 from the U.S.-led coalition.

The force, which has around 10,000 mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops in the south — has come under regular attacks, particularly in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

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