Tyrkia skal lede en muslimsk "fredsbevarende styrke" i et fremtidig
Afghanistan uten Taliban...
Sitat: "Turkey has a large professional army with long combat experience in
the battle against Kurdish separatists, though its human rights record is
patchy."
Mvh. Bjarke, Oslo
Turkey asked to lead Islamic peace troops
European diplomats want Ankara to consider heading UN force to provide
post-Taliban security in Afghanistan
Jonathan Steele in Ankara
Thursday October 18, 2001
The Guardian
Turkey is being asked to consider sending troops and possibly taking
overall command of a mainly Islamic peacekeeping force to provide
security in Afghanistan once the Taliban regime has been replaced,
European diplomats say. The force would be under the mandate of the
United Nations.
Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, is expected to raise the issue when
he meets the Turkish prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, in Ankara this
morning. The idea of a UN force with predominantly Is lamic contingents,
first disclosed in the Guardian last week, would be a precedent-setting
departure for the world body. It has been gathering pace in the last few
days as the United States and other western governments focus on the
danger of a security vacuum in Kabul if the Taliban regime collapses.
They fear chaos and revenge killings if forces from the anti-Taliban
Northern Alliance were to capture the capital. Northern Alliance troops
come from the Tajik and Uzbek minorities, while the largest group in the
capital were Pashtun before the latest crisis. Many Pashtuns have fled
in the last three weeks but thousands are believed to remain.
"As a member of Nato, Turkey is the obvious candidate to lead an Islamic
force," a British official said last night. Turkey has a large
professional army with long combat experience in the battle against
Kurdish separatists, though its human rights record is patchy. It also
has extensive international peacekeeping experience from Bosnia and
Kosovo.
Other countries being mentioned as key participants in the suggested
force include Morocco, Bangladesh and Jordan. Jordan's King Abdullah saw
the prime minister in Downing Street on Tuesday.
The king is understood to have been keen to offer troops for the US-led
military campaign in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks in New
York and Washington. But he had second thoughts when he saw the strength
of feeling in the Islamic world about the air strikes and President
Bush's call for a "crusade".
A peacekeeping force under a United Nations mandate would be a separate
issue, which Islamic countries could accept. Jordan, with a highly
professional army, took a ma jor role in the UN peacekeeping force in
Sierra Leone, and also has experience from Bosnia. Although Islamic
countries would dominate the force, other nations, including Nato
members, would be expected to provide logistics and intelligence
support.
The idea for Kabul to be demilitarised and given United Nations
protection revives a plan first mooted towards the end of the communist
regime of Mohammed Najibullah in 1992. But it never got off the ground
because key commanders in Najibullah's army defected and mojahedin
forces took over the city with virtu ally no shots fired. After these
forces turned against each other in a frenzy of ethnic killing, and
later, when the Taliban emerged and captured Kandahar, the idea of
demilitarisation for Kabul with its ethnically mixed population and
symbolic importance as the seat of government was again raised by UN
envoys trying to broker an end to the civil war.
A UN force is strongly backed by Lakhdar Brahimi, the former Algerian
foreign minister who is Kofi Annan's special representative for
Afghanistan. Mr Brahimi is in Washington for discussions with the Bush
administration. He would recruit members for the force if the idea is
accepted. Mr Brahimi is also trying to help to negotiate a broad-based
government for Afghanistan to replace the Taliban regime.
The Northern Alliance has offered to provide security for Kabul or even
not to send its troops into the city if the Taliban falls, but this is
not considered a good enough guarantee for Kabul's citizens.
The plan for a UN Islamic force is that it would move in after a Taliban
collapse. But if it is put together quickly and effectively its
existence might encourage the Taliban to withdraw d over control
peacefully if they have not yet been defeated or collapsed.
Earlier yesterday, before flying to Turkey, Mr Straw met other European
foreign ministers in Luxembourg to review the bombing campaign and the
problem of delivering aid.
The ministers dropped a section in the draft declaration prepared for
the meeting which said it was important that the delivery of aid be seen
as "neutral and impartial" - implicit criticism of the American
air-dropping of aid which has been widely seen as a propaganda effort.
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