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NATO Won’t Go to Afghanistan
// NATO cannot find volunteers
NATO member states met in Mons, Belgium, yesterday. The meeting was devoted to the issue of increasing the number of NATO servicemen in Afghanistan by 2500 people. Such necessity appeared due to unusual activeness of Talibs in the south of the country, whose increased raids took away lives of 35 NATO soldiers in last 2 months. However, yesterday’s meeting showed that most NATO member states are not very eager to expand their participation in the dangerous mission in Afghanistan.
The first to announce the need for extra forces to southern Afghanistan was US general James Jones, commander-in-chief of NATO united forces in Europe. He said 2500 servicemen are needed to resist the strong resistance of Talibs.
Same ideas were expressed by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. He urged NATO countries to give more support to those members who have already sent many soldiers to Afghanistan.
Then, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the alliance members not to abandon Afghanistan on its difficult way towards building democracy. She was on a visit to Canada, where she was to extract additional help. Canadian government sent 120 people more to Afghanistan.
The situation with other NATO members turned out to be more complicated. Turkey, Italy, and France said their forces were involved in Lebanon. Germany said it does not have the “physical possibility” to send more people. Spain said its participation in Afghan mission is “more than enough”. Great Britain used the same argument. It has already sent 5400 soldiers there.
Only Latvia, Estonia, and Croatia expressed readiness to expand their military presence. However, this gesture was rather symbolic: Tallin promised 120 people instead of 79 which are there now, Riga sent 20 soldiers (36 are already there), and Zagreb might double the number to 300 soldiers.
ISAF forces now include 18500 servicemen from 37 countries beside the same number of american soldiers who act independently from NATO staff. Talibs killed 35 NATO soldiers recently. Yesterday’s meeting in Mons showed the majority of NATO states do not want to compensate these losses by their people.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 14, 2006
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