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Expelled diplomats hope for swift return to Afghanistan

The two senior western diplomats expelled from Afghanistan after being accused of talking directly to the Taliban left Kabul early on Saturday amid hopes that they could soon be readmitted.

Michael Semple, the Irish acting head of the E.U.’s mission, and Mervyn Patterson, a Briton working for the U.N., flew to neighbouring Pakistan hours before the politics of the region were thrown into turmoil by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The pair had been ejected on the orders of President Hamid Karzai after he accused them of holding what Kabul regards as illegal talks with unidentified Taliban last week. They are alleged to have done so after NATO’s recapture of Musa Qala, the most important rebel stronghold in Helmand province, where British troops have engaged in heavy fighting.

Western sources said the two officials — both experienced in the region — had informed the Minister for Security in Kabul of what they were up to, but were victims of internal struggles within the embattled Kabul administration. “Karzai has been showing weakness here and acted out of feelings of pique, as he sometimes does,” said one western source. “This is a struggle with the Governor of Helmand [Asadullah Wafa], who had demanded the two men’s removal. Karzai is asserting Afghan sovereignty.” The source echoed hopes that, once face has been saved, the well-regarded pair would quietly be allowed back.

The U.N.’s Kabul spokesman Aleem Siddique confirmed that the men had left, amid reports that Sir Sherard Cowper-Cowles, Britain’s ambassador to Kabul, was cutting short his holiday at home and returning to his post.

Britain backs the U.N.-E.U. policy of seeking to engage with lower-level Taliban as well as with middle-ranking officials and fighters who may be prepared to defect to the government side — not the same as negotiating with hardline leaders, the U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted.

“As part of our efforts in Helmand province we need to be speaking to people on the ground,” Mr. Siddique said. “Tribal communities and tribal relationships are a very complex web.” He has insisted that the expelled officials did not meet Taliban leaders as such.

Mr. Karzai has been making offers of reconciliation of his own towards Taliban leaders and may have resented what he thought was activity behind his back that undermined his authority. Reports that British intelligence agents have been active in the area have raised the temperature in a zone which has been the prey of great power rivalry since the “great game” a century ago.

But the Bush administration and U.S. forces in Afghanistan have been irritated by the need to retake Musa Qala after a British-negotiated withdrawal allowed the Taliban to make it a centre for drug smuggling and attacks. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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