'NATO troops paying for peace in Afghanistan'

by Marc Bastian and Waheedullah Massoud

– Fri Oct 16, 2009, 3:13 am ET

KABUL (AFP) –

NATO officially denies that any of its members pay Taliban fighters in Afghanistan for peace, but military sources said Thursday that the practice is widespread among foreign forces fighting the Taliban.

The Times newspaper said 10 French troops killed in Sarobi, near Kabul, last year had not properly assessed the risks, because their Italian predecessors never told them they paid the Taliban not to attack them.

The Italian government described the British daily's report as "totally baseless" and said it had "never authorised any kind of money payment to members of the Taliban insurrection in Afghanistan".

But a senior Afghan official suggested otherwise.

"I certainly can confirm that we were aware that the Italian forces were paying the opposition in Sarobi not to attack them," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We have reports of similar deals in (western) Herat province by Italian troops based there under NATO umbrella.

"It's a deal: you don't attack me, I don't attack you," he said, adding that the practice was passed on between foreign forces and it was likely that senior commanders were either involved or turned a blind eye to it.

"It is simply a matter of buying time and surviving," he added.

A French Army spokesman in Kabul, Lieutenant Colonel Jackie Fouquereau, told AFP: "The French do not give money to insurgents."

NATO spokesman in Afghanistan General Eric Tremblay said he was "not aware" of such practices and had no information about the Italian case.

"It's not a counter-insurgency tactic. But the Afghan government can sometimes make local arrangements. If it's done, it's more by the Afghan government than the international forces," he added.

But according to a number of Western and Afghan officers, all speaking on condition of anonymity, the politically sensitive practice is fairly widespread among NATO forces in Afghanistan.

One Western military source told of payments made by Canadian soldiers stationed in the violent southern province of Kandahar, while another officer spoke of similar practices by the German army in northern Kunduz.

"I can tell you that lots of countries under the NATO umbrella operating out in rural parts of Afghanistan do pay the militants for not attacking them," the senior Afghan official said.

He added that it "seems to be the practice with military forces from some NATO countries, excluding the US forces under NATO, the British forces and the whole coalition forces" under the US-led "Operation Enduring Freedom".

"I think more than 50 percent of NATO forces deployed in rural Afghanistan have such deals or at least have struck such deals" to ensure peace, the official said.

He said he did not want to say precisely how many but one Western officer said: "As it's not very positive and not officially recognised, it's never spoken about openly. It's a bit shameful.

"Consequently, it's sometimes not communicated properly between the old unit and the new unit that comes in to relieve them," which may have happened between the Italians and the French.

According to The Times, the Italian secret service gave tens of thousands of dollars to Taliban commanders and local warlords to keep the peace in the Sarobi region.

The French soldiers had been deployed there for less than a month when 10 of them were killed and 21 others injured on August 18, 2008 in one of the deadliest ambushes by Taliban fighters against foreign forces.

Italy denies paying off Taliban in Afghanistan

October 16, 2009

ROME (AP) —

The Italian government denied a newspaper report Thursday that its secret services paid Taliban fighters thousands of dollars to keep an area in Afghanistan controlled by the Italians safe.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi's office called the report in the Times of London "completely groundless." The defense minister said the paper published "rubbish."

The Times reported that Italy had paid "tens of thousands of dollars" to Taliban commanders and warlords in the Surobi district, east of the capital, Kabul. The newspaper cites Western military officials, including high-ranking officers at NATO.

It accused Rome of failing to inform its allies, misleading the French, who took over the Surobi district in mid-2008, into thinking the area was quiet and safe. Shortly thereafter, the French contingent was hit with an ambush that killed 10 soldiers and had big political repercussions back in Paris.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai and French government officials refused to comment on the report.

"The Berlusconi government has never authorized nor has it allowed any form of payment toward members of the Taliban insurgence," a statement by the premier's office said. It says it does not know of any such payment by the previous government.

Berlusconi won elections in April 2008, replacing a center-left government headed by Romano Prodi.

The statement noted that in the first half of last year the Italian contingent suffered several attacks, including in the Surobi district where one soldier was killed in February 2008.

Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa fired back at the Times, saying the newspaper "collects rubbish."

In an interview with Corriere della Sera, La Russa said that in the summer of 2008 "I had been minister for a short time, I've never received news from the secret services of payment to the chiefs of the Taliban."

La Russa said that a benevolent attitude toward the Italians who serve in Afghanistan is due to "the behavior of our military, which is very different compared to that of other contingents."

"They have always showed they are close to the people and they get the same in return," La Russa said of the Italian soldiers. "To connect all of this with the death of the French soldiers ... seems an absurdity to me."

Italy has about 2,800 soldiers stationed in Herat and in the capital of Kabul.