Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Afghanistan

NATO won't destroy Afghan poppy fields

2010-03-26

NATO has rejected an appeal made by Russia for eradication of opium fields in Afghanistan, arguing that the sole source of income in the region cannot be removed.

Addressing a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on Wednesday, head of Russia's Federal Drug Control Agency (FSKN) Victor Ivanov said "Afghan opiates led to the death of 1 million people by overdose in the last 10 years, and that is United Nations data. Is that not a threat to world peace and security?"

The Russian official tasked NATO forces with "normalizing the situation in Afghanistan" which includes "the elimination of drug production."

Meanwhile, NATO spokesman James Appathurai voiced understanding for Russian concerns, given the country's estimated 200,000 heroin and morphine addicts and the tens of thousands dying each year as a result of their addiction.

However, he went on to say that the Afghan drug problem had to be handled carefully in an effort to avoid alienating local residents.

"We share the view that it has to be tackled," the spokesman said. "But there is a slight difference of views," Appathurai added.

"We cannot be in a situation where we remove the only source of income for people who live in the second poorest country in the world without being able to provide them an alternative. That is simply not possible," the NATO official explained.

According to statistics provided by Ivanov, Russia was the single largest consumer of heroin in 2008. Moscow blames NATO for the surge in heroin trafficking from Afghanistan to Russia.

The production of opium in Afghanistan has skyrocketing since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

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India-Pakistan

Kayani meets Sarkozy: France wants to be Pakistans strategic partner

2009-05-20

ISLAMABAD: French President Nicholas Sarkozy expressed his countrys desire for a strategic partnership with Pakistan during a meeting with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani in Paris on Tuesday. According to APP, the French president told the army chief that Paris would help Pakistan build the capability to meet the challenges it was facing.

Most of all they want a chunk of the American cash coming in to Pak-land ...

Gen Kayani also met the French foreign minister, defence minister, chief of defence staff and chief of army staff, and visited the French Army Headquarters. Later on Tuesday, the army chief briefed NATOs top officers in Brussels about the fight against the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan, AP said.

Officials discussed plans to provide training for Pakistani officers in NATO training centres, and reviewed the status of NATOs main supply route to landlocked Afghanistan, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said. Gen Kayani also held talks with Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Russia takes formal control of Georgia borders

2009-05-01

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia took formal control of the borders of Georgia's separatist zones and slammed NATO exercises due in the country, as a spy row created new frictions between Moscow and the alliance. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev inked the border defence treaties with the leaders of the Moscow-backed rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in a sombre Kremlin ceremony.

NATO, the Czech EU presidency and the United States voiced dismay at the accords, saying they breached an EU-brokered Russia-Georgia ceasefire deal agreed last August.

Under the pact, effective for 10 years, Russia assumes immediate responsibility for guarding the regions' de facto borders with Georgia, including maritime patrols of Abkhazia's strategic Black Sea coast. Medvedev called the signing a "crucial political act" and said it would be "a key factor for establishing security on our borders and in the whole of the Caucasus".

It comes just one week before NATO holds what it describes as anti-terrorist exercises in Georgia, in the face of vociferous Russian opposition.

"The planned NATO exercises in Georgia, no matter how our Western partners try to convince us otherwise, are an overt provocation. One cannot carry out exercises in a place where there was just a war," Medvedev said at the signing.

Each side accused the other of violating the terms of the EU-brokered ceasefire that ended the five-day Russia-Georgia conflict last August.

"Any actions which would be seen and perceived by Tbilisi as encouragement for the course of remilitarisation... are seen by us as contradicting the six principles for resolving the conflict agreed last August," Medvedev said.

NATO countered that Russia's agreements with the two rebel regions were a "clear contravention" of the ceasefire accord and vowed to press on with the exercises, which will run from Wednesday to June 1 and involve over 400 soldiers. "This is a clear contravention of the 12th of August and 8th of September agreements negotiated by the EU," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels.

The Czech EU statement stressed "the EU's full support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia in its internationally recognised borders."

"This action contravenes Russia's commitments under the August 12 ceasefire," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement, adding the move "violates Georgia's territorial integrity."

Wood urged Russia to "honor its commitments" under last year's ceasefire deal and said "establishing a 'border' under the control of Russian soldiers marks another step in the opposite direction."

Georgia, for its part, shrugged off the border pacts, saying they simply formalised a state of affairs in place since the end of last summer's war. "This is yet another step by the Russian authorities towards completing the occupation of these two Georgian regions," the secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, Eka Tkeshelashvili, told AFP.

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Afghanistan

Afghan civilian casualties down 39 per cent

2009-04-24

I, for one, did not see this coming. Why hasn't the MSM been following this? Could it be that the reporting on Afghanistan is as innaccurate and biased as the reporting on Iraq?
Western and Taliban-led forces between them killed almost 40 per cent fewer Afghan civilians in the first three months of this year than in the same period of 2008, NATO's top spokesman told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday. The 39-per-cent reduction in civilian deaths "at least in part reflects the increased efforts by international forces" to reduce the body count, James Appathurai said.

NATO heads the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, but has been plagued by accusations of civilian deaths - an issue which has had a serious impact on the alliance's image among some segments of the Afghan population.

Over the last 18 months, NATO has boosted its troop presence in Afghanistan by almost half in a bid to rein in the rising Taliban-led insurgency, with thousands more troops set to join ISAF's current 58,000 soldiers over the summer. NATO and Afghan forces are also due to set up some three dozen coordination centres around the country over the summer in order to beef up security ahead of national elections.

Despite those major boosts, "it is important to note that efforts to reduce the number of civilian casualties are having an effect," Appathurai stressed.

According to NATO's figures, Taliban-led fighters killed roughly four times as many Afghan civilians as did international forces in the first quarter of the year. That proportion was unchanged since last year, Appathurai said.

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Afghanistan

Afghanistan seeks control over NATO deployments - Karzai can't control Kabul

2009-01-21

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan government has sent NATO headquarters a draft agreement that would give Afghanistan more control over future NATO deployments in the country _ including the positioning of some U.S. troops, officials said Tuesday.

The draft technical agreement would put into place rules of conduct for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan and the number of additional NATO troops and their location would have to be approved by the Afghan government. The agreement _ an attempt by Afghanistan to gain more control over international military operations _ would also prohibit NATO troops from conducting any searches of Afghan homes, according to a copy of the draft obtained by The Associated Press.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met with Gen. David Petraeus on Tuesday and discussed how to prevent civilian deaths and the role of Afghan forces in U.S. missions, told legislators that his government sent the draft agreement to NATO about two weeks ago. As the head of U.S. Central Command, Petraeus oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Addressing parliament at its opening session, a frustrated Karzai said the U.S. and other Western military allies have not heeded his calls to stop airstrikes in civilian areas in Afghanistan. He warned that the fight against militants cannot be won without popular support from Afghans.

The Afghan president urged the U.S. and NATO to follow a new military strategy in Afghanistan that would increase cooperation with Afghan forces and officials to prevent the killing and maiming of civilians. "We will not accept civilian casualties on our soil during the fight against terrorism and we cannot tolerate it," Karzai told parliament.

U.S. and NATO-led troops say militants deliberately use civilians as human shields in their fight against foreign and Afghan troops, and there have been multiple disputes over whether some of those killed in operations were civilians or militants.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the letter from the Afghan government has been shared with NATO nations but no discussions about it have yet taken place. "The bottom line here is we are very much willing to engage in discussion to see how we can, in cooperation with them (Afghan authorities), improve how we do business," Appathurai said.

The draft technical agreement calls for:

The deployment of additional NATO troops and their location carried out only with Afghan government approval.

Full coordination between Afghan and NATO defense authorities "at the highest possible level for all phases of military and ground operations."

House searches and detention operations to be carried out only by Afghan security forces.

If approved, the agreement would apply to all 48,000 NATO-led forces who operate under the International Security Assistance Force, including some 17,000 Americans. It's not clear if the agreement would apply to the separate U.S. coalition and its 15,000 U.S. troops, said U.S. spokesman Col. Greg Julian.

Karzai's office said that the president late Tuesday met with Petraeus and talked about ways to prevent civilian casualties. Karzai also told Petraeus that U.S. troops need to more closely cooperate with Afghan authorities and soldiers, Karzai's office said.

The latest dispute over civilian casualties arose two weeks ago, when the U.S. military said its troops killed 32 militants in the eastern province of Nangarhar, while Karzai said 17 of those killed were civilians.

Civilian deaths undermine Karzai's support ahead of his re-election bid this year. They also sap the support that foreign troops need to help the government extend its reach across the country.

U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, the commanding officer of all NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, issued a directive to troops in September meant to reduce the number of casualties. Commanders have said they are advising troops to break off a battle with militants rather than risk firing into a civilian area.

Appathurai, the NATO spokesman, said that directive is meant to convoy NATO's concerns over civilian casualties.

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Africa Horn

Mandate Keeps NATO From Hijacked Tanker

2008-11-19

BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO has no plans to intercept the Saudi supertanker hijacked by Somali pirates since its warships in the area have no mandate to board captured merchant vessels by force, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Ohfergawdsakes ...

NATO officials have said the hijacking of the 318,000-ton UAE-owned MV Sirius Star on Saturday took place in a part of the Indian Ocean far removed from the area where an alliance flotilla has been operating since last month.

The four-ship contingent was dispatched to the region under a U.N. mandate to escort vessels chartered by the WFP to Somali ports, and to conduct patrols designed to deter pirates from attacking merchant ships transiting through the Gulf of Aden. Two warships - the Greek frigate HS Themistokles and the Italian destroyer ITS Durand - are escorting cargo ships chartered by the World Food Program to carry food aid from Mombasa to Mogadishu. A Turkish frigate, the TOG Gokova, and the British frigate HMS Cumberland are conducting deterrence patrols in the Gulf of Aden, where they engaged in a firefight last week with pirates attempting to hijack a Danish ship.

The area where the Sirius Star was attacked, located about 520 miles (833 kilometers) southeast of Kenya - closer to Tanzania than Yemen - is far outside the range in which Somali pirates are normally considered a threat. "This attack took place a thousand miles away from where one would normally expect this type of attack to take place," Alliance spokesman James Appathurai told The Associated Press. "The NATO ships could have intervened to prevent the seizure had they been there ... but what they don't have the mandate to do is to board ships that have already been hijacked to free the crew."

So, just what would it take to change the mandate?

"NATO's mandate is not related to interception of hijacked ships outside the patrol area," Appathurai said. "I'm not aware that there's any intention by NATO to try and intercept this ship."

Attacks on the 20,000 commercial vessels sailing around the Horn of Africa are up 70 percent this year. The pirates are reported to use some of the $100 million they received in ransom payments to acquire better and faster boats, global positioning systems and satellite phones that help them in locating the merchant ships.

Reinvesting in the business, as it were ...

A number of shipping companies are said to be considering rerouting their vessels from transiting through the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal, and instead sending them around the Cape of Good Hope. Experts say this is a much longer journey that would add 12-15 days to the trip at a cost of btw $20,000-$30,000 a day to the cost of the journey.

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India-Pakistan

Forces get 'licence to kill' to protect NATO supplies

2008-11-17

The Peshawar-Torkham road will be reopened today (Monday) for moving NATO supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan, political administration officials said, adding a shoot-to-kill order had been issued for those trying to disrupt the supplies.

Hundreds of trailers and containers have been stranded on the route, which was closed last week after Taliban hijacked more than a dozen trucks carrying NATO supplies on the road through the Khyber Pass. The trailers loaded with armoured vehicles, edibles and other logistics were seen parked along Peshawar's Ring Road and in several areas of Jamrud and Landikotal tehsils without any security.

A senior official told Daily Times the vehicles, escorted by security officials, would pass through Khyber Agency in a convoy.

Political Agent Tariq Hayat said a Quick Response Force had been formed to guard the Afghanistan-bound containers.

"It's not the first time this has happened," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told AP about the hold up on Sunday.

Although NATO supplies were formally suspended on Saturday, drivers said they had been denied entry into Khyber Agency since November 11 (Tuesday). "We have been made to wait here for the last six days under no security cover," said a driver on condition of anonymity.

Sources said the Peshawar-Jamrud road was also closed for the vehicles carrying NATO supplies on the recommendations of the NWFP government.

NWFP police chief Malik Naveed Khan told Reuters there were three criminal gangs in Khyber with direct links to terrorist groups. The recent attacks on foreigners in Peshawar were an attempt "to defame Pakistan internationally and give an impression that there's no rule," Khan said. He was confident that an offensive by security forces in Bajaur and pressure in other tribal regions had begun to pay off.

Also on Sunday, Hayat said a deadline given to the Koki Khel tribe had lapsed, adding it was now up to the tribe to expel Taliban or face action. Meanwhile, Malik Attaullah Jan, the tribe's leader, told a grand jirga there was no terrorist in the tribe and that the government needed a pretext to launch an offensive. He said the tribe was ready to hand over Taliban to the government provided it identified them.

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Africa Horn

NATO ships to escort UN food shipments to Somalia

2008-10-25

(Xinhua) -- Three of a fleet of seven NATO ships are on their way to the East African coast to escort World Food Programme (WFP) food shipments to Somalia, NATO's top military command for operations, Allied Command Europe, said Friday.

The three ships from Italy, Greece and Britain, belong to a standing maritime force that is tasked with promoting military cooperation with navies of NATO's partner countries. The remaining four ships of the group -- from Germany, Turkey and the United States -- will continue their planned port visits in the Gulf region, said the command.

The three NATO ships may use force pursuant to the authorized rules of engagement and in compliance with relevant international and national law, it said. Upon arrival, the three will begin escort duties and establish a naval presence in the area as a deterrent to piracy, the command added.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said Tuesday that the ships will be in position in a matter of days.

The ships were ordered to redirect toward Africa at short notice after NATO defense ministers agreed two weeks ago to send warships to carry out anti-piracy duties off the coast of Somalia. The decision was in response to a request by the WFP and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

"NATO's ability to quickly react to the UN's request for support demonstrates NATO's military flexibility to respond to real security challenges on the seas as well as on the land, and in the air," said General John Craddock, Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Rampant piracy in the waters off Somalia is making food shipments impossible without escorts. The shipments are crucial as over 40 percent of the Somali population depends on WFP food aid.

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Africa Horn

Frenchies 'capture Somali pirates'

2008-10-24

Nine suspected Somali pirates have been captured by the French navy and handed over to regional officials in northern Somalia, the authorities there say. Patrolling French marines arrested the pirates in the Gulf of Aden after intercepting two boats on Wednesday, officials in Puntland said.

It comes as the International Maritime Bureau said the waters off Somalia were the world's worst for pirate attacks. Pirates believed they can act with impunity, the monitoring agency said.

Nato ships are expected in the region in the coming days to escort aid ships through the dangerous waters. But a spokesman said a precise time for the fleet's arrival could not be given because of delays caused by a violent storm that has sunk boats and killed livestock in northern Somalia.

'Robust action'
The crew of a French warship picked up the suspected pirates and handed them over to the authorities in semi-autonomous Puntland on Wednesday, Puntland's presidential adviser Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade said. He said eight suspects had been caught, although other reports put the figure at nine. "The pirates were on board two small boats when the French military arrested them. They dropped all their weapons in the water before they were caught," Puntland's deputy Fisheries Minister Abdukadir Muse Yusuf was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Many pirates are based in the Puntland town of Eyl. The authorities there had been accused of turning a blind eye but have recently stormed two ships seized by pirates and freed the crew.

France has launched two operations already this year to free French ships and crew seized by Somali pirates.

Pirates are still holding the Ukrainian ship, the MV Faina, and its cargo of tanks and military hardware, off the Somali coast. They demand $20m (£12m).

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Thursday that 63 of 199 incidents of piracy worldwide recorded in the first nine months of this year had taken place off east Somalia and the Gulf of Aden. This was double the 36 attacks blamed on Somali pirates out of 198 worldwide in the same period last year, the bureau added. "Piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia are unprecedented," said IMB director Pottengal Mukundan. "It is clear that pirates in the Gulf of Aden believe that they can operate with impunity in attacking vessels."

He said the extension of attacks from eastern Somalia into the Gulf of Aden now threatened a vital trade route between Asia and Europe. International naval forces patrolling the region must take greater action to prevent future attacks, he said. "What is required is robust action against the pirates' mother ships before they succeed in hijacking vessels," he said. "The locations and descriptions of these mother ships are known."

'Self-defence measures'
The flotilla of seven Nato frigates and destroyers is due in the area "sometime in the next four or five days", a spokesman said. He said the fleet will then split, with three or four carrying on with their original plan to conduct exercises with the Gulf States, while the result continue to Somalia. The ships will escort World Food Programme ships carrying aid into Somalia, and provide a general deterrent.

Chief Nato spokesman James Appathurai said the crew would have a "full range of self-defence" measures at their disposal, including the "use of force". But he admitted "what they are trying to do is complicated".

"There are a host of pirates, but they don't identify themselves with eye-patches and hook hands so it isn't immediately obvious that they are pirates." He said the rules of engagement should be agreed and finalised in the next day or two.

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Africa Horn

NATO anti-piracy force in Somalia within days

2008-10-23

...now with Rules of Engagement!

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A NATO anti-piracy force will arrive off the coast of Somalia in the next few days with clear rules on how it can take on high-seas bandits, NATO said on Wednesday.

The commander of the force, U.S. Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, told reporters on Tuesday the alliance had still not provided him with rules of engagement."They will arrive in the coming days," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said of the anti-piracy ships."They will have the rules of engagement that they need ... they will know exactly what they need to do and how they should do it," Appathurai told a regular news conference, adding the rules of engagement, including how and when the mission could use force, would be agreed within a day or two.

Six NATO members have contributed ships, including destroyers and frigates, to a special anti-piracy task force following a request from the United Nations. The NATO group passed through the Suez Canal last week on its way to the Horn of Africa, where piracy has surged this year, with more than 30 ships seized and ransoms estimated at $18-$30 million have been paid to free hostages. Appathurai said the group was facing very heavy seas, which had slowed it down.

Asked what the NATO group would be able to do, Appathurai said: "This is a very, very complicated thing to do ... pirates don't identify themselves with eye-patches and crooked-hands, it isn't always immediately obvious that they are pirates."
Kill everything that says "Yarrrrrrr!"
"There will be a number of very competent and very effective military ships coordinating with each other as appropriate to provide presence, to provide deterrence and where necessary and possible to intervene. I don't know how the pirates will react to this."
Probably lay low until they leave. They can't stay forever.

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Afghanistan

NATO: Troops can target Afghan drug operations

2008-10-10

NATO defense ministers Friday authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug barons blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

"With regard to counter-narcotics ... ISAF can act in concert with the Afghans against facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai, referring to the NATO force.

The United States had been pushing for NATO's 50,000 troops to take on a counter-narcotics role to hit back at the Taliban, whose increasing attacks have cast doubt on the prospects of a Western military victory in Afghanistan. However, Germany, Spain and others were wary and their doubts led to NATO imposing conditions on the anti-drug mandate for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Troops will only be able to act against drug facilities if authorized by their own governments; only drug producers deemed to be supporting the insurgency will be targeted; and the operation must be designed to be temporary lasting only until the Afghan security forces are deemed able to take on the task.

NATO defense ministers will review the success of the mission when they next meet February in Poland. Despite the limitations, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates welcomed the NATO move. "Secretary Gates is extremely pleased that, after two days of thoughtful discussion, NATO has decided to allow ISAF forces to take on the drug traffickers who are fueling the insurgency, destabilizing Afghanistan and killing our troops," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

Germany and Spain agreed to the anti-drug mission after an appeal for help from Afghanistan's defense minister. "We've asked NATO to please support us, support our effort in destroying the labs and also the interdiction of the drugs and the chemical precursors that are coming from outside the country for making heroin," Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters after meeting his NATO counterparts Thursday. ...

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan reacts with fury after up to 20 die in 'American' attack on its soil

2008-09-04

The war in Afghanistan spilled over on to Pakistani territory for the first time yesterday when heavily armed commandos, believed to be US Special Forces, landed by helicopter and attacked three houses in a village close to a known Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold.

I believe they were Ruritanian Special Forces. Prove me wrong.

The surprise attack on Jala Khel was launched in early morning darkness and killed between seven and 20 people, according to a range of reports from the remote Angoor Adda region of South Waziristan. The village is situated less than one mile from the Afghan border.

Time to pack the bags and move to Karachi. Or Mauritania ...

Local residents were quoted as saying that most of the dead were ~~camp-followers~~ civilians and included women and children. It was not known whether any Taliban or al-Qaida militants or western forces were among the dead.

Furious official Pakistani condemnation of the attack followed swiftly, amid growing concern that the Nato-led war against the Taliban in Afghanistan could spread to Pakistan, sparking a region-wide conflagration.

Owais Ahmed Ghanisaid, the governor of North-West Frontier province, adjoining South Waziristan, said 20 people had died and called for retaliation. "This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan expect that the armed forces ... would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply," he said.

Good luck with that. They're busy planning how they're going to save Perv ...

The foreign ministry in Islamabad termed the incursion "a gross violation of Pakistan's territory" and a "grave provocation" which, it said, had resulted in "immense" loss of civilian life. "Such actions are counterproductive and certainly do not help our joint efforts to fight terrorism. On the contrary, they may fuel the fire of hatred and violence we are trying to extinguish."

As if we'll be able to tell ...

"This is a very alarming and very dangerous development," said a former senior Pakistani official. "We have absolutely been telling them [the US] not to do this but they ignored us."

Why should we pay attention to you? It's not like you control your country's land or borders. Sovereignty only works if you enforce it. Let the Talibunnies across the border to attack us and we'll decide that the border is no good.

US and Nato commanders say Taliban and al-Qaida fighters use the unruly, semi-autonomous tribal areas of Pakistan to stage attacks on coalition forces inside Afghanistan and create "safe havens" where they are immune from attack. Nato and civilian casualties in Afghanistan have reached record levels in the past 12 months in the face of a spreading Taliban offensive.

US forces have used missile-carrying drones - unmanned aerial vehicles - to attack militant targets inside Pakistan in the past. But yesterday's assault, involving up to three helicopters and infantry commandos, marked the first time the fight has been taken directly to the enemy on Pakistani soil.

Major-General Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistan army, said Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) had carried out the raid. "Two helicopters of Isaf landed very early in the morning and conducted a raid on a compound there. As per our report, seven civilians were killed in this raid."

But a Nato spokesman denied involvement. "There has been no Nato or Isaf involvement crossing the border into Pakistan," a Nato spokesman, James Appathurai, said. There were unconfirmed reports that the incursion was carried out by US Special Forces, which are not under Isaf command and can operate independently. A US military spokesman at the Bagram base near Kabul did not deny an attack had occurred but declined to comment.

"No comment. Ask the Ruritanians."

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