.Afghanistan Expels EU, UN Diplomats
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Afghan government expelled two senior European diplomats Thursday over accusations they held unauthorized meetings with Taliban militants, officials said.
The diplomats - one worked for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the other was the acting head of the European Union mission - had traveled to Musa Qala, a former Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province on Monday, where they met with local leaders, said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the U.N. mission.
After that trip, the two were accused of meeting with Taliban militants and were told to leave the country, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The diplomats left Afghanistan on Thursday, Siddique said.
President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, has said the two were "involved in some activities that were not their jobs."
An official at EU headquarters in Brussels confirmed that the EU official expelled is Michael Semple, deputy EU representative. Semple is Irish.
The official, who spoke on condition he not be identified because of the sensitive nature of diplomatic relations, labeled the incident a "misunderstanding."
The U.N. official, Mervyn Patterson, is British, from Northern Ireland.
The Afghan government, and particularly Karzai, has voiced a growing interest in meeting with Taliban leaders to try to persuade them to join the government and put down their arms.
But the diplomats' expulsion will make some Western nations and international organizations wary of making their own overtures to the militants in an effort to end the insurgency, which has left over 6,300 people - mostly militants - dead this year alone.
William Wood, the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, called the issue a "misunderstanding" rising from apparent lack of coordination with the Afghan government.
"I am absolutely confident that the European Union and the United Nations were acting with absolutely the best of intentions. They are good friends of Afghanistan," Wood told a news conference in Kabul.
But talking to the Taliban or their supporters in order to bring them to the government's side "is a particularly difficult field which requires particularly close communication, particularly close dialogue (with the government) and apparently that did not take place," he said.
British, Afghan and U.S. forces retook Musa Qala earlier this month from Taliban militants, who had held it since last February. Afghan and Western officials moved quickly into the town to extend governance to an area where the Taliban had run its own court system and collected taxes.
"We were in Helmand province to talk to the people on the ground, to understand from the people on the ground what their needs are, what their concerns are, and that includes people who are perhaps less than supportive of the government of Afghanistan," Siddique said.
Siddique said talks were continuing to secure the return of the two diplomats, who have years of experience in Afghanistan, speak the local languages and know the country's complex tribal structures.
"Discussions are ongoing with the Afghan authorities to seek the return of (the U.N.) official so that we can continue with the important work of building peace in Afghanistan," Siddique said.
MyWay
The diplomats - one worked for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the other was the acting head of the European Union mission - had traveled to Musa Qala, a former Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province on Monday, where they met with local leaders, said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the U.N. mission.
After that trip, the two were accused of meeting with Taliban militants and were told to leave the country, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The diplomats left Afghanistan on Thursday, Siddique said.
President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, has said the two were "involved in some activities that were not their jobs."
An official at EU headquarters in Brussels confirmed that the EU official expelled is Michael Semple, deputy EU representative. Semple is Irish.
The official, who spoke on condition he not be identified because of the sensitive nature of diplomatic relations, labeled the incident a "misunderstanding."
The U.N. official, Mervyn Patterson, is British, from Northern Ireland.
The Afghan government, and particularly Karzai, has voiced a growing interest in meeting with Taliban leaders to try to persuade them to join the government and put down their arms.
But the diplomats' expulsion will make some Western nations and international organizations wary of making their own overtures to the militants in an effort to end the insurgency, which has left over 6,300 people - mostly militants - dead this year alone.
William Wood, the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, called the issue a "misunderstanding" rising from apparent lack of coordination with the Afghan government.
"I am absolutely confident that the European Union and the United Nations were acting with absolutely the best of intentions. They are good friends of Afghanistan," Wood told a news conference in Kabul.
But talking to the Taliban or their supporters in order to bring them to the government's side "is a particularly difficult field which requires particularly close communication, particularly close dialogue (with the government) and apparently that did not take place," he said.
British, Afghan and U.S. forces retook Musa Qala earlier this month from Taliban militants, who had held it since last February. Afghan and Western officials moved quickly into the town to extend governance to an area where the Taliban had run its own court system and collected taxes.
"We were in Helmand province to talk to the people on the ground, to understand from the people on the ground what their needs are, what their concerns are, and that includes people who are perhaps less than supportive of the government of Afghanistan," Siddique said.
Siddique said talks were continuing to secure the return of the two diplomats, who have years of experience in Afghanistan, speak the local languages and know the country's complex tribal structures.
"Discussions are ongoing with the Afghan authorities to seek the return of (the U.N.) official so that we can continue with the important work of building peace in Afghanistan," Siddique said.
MyWay
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