From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Afghanistan: NATO Wants Capital For Itself HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- "The commander, Mayor General John McColl, pushed to have all Afghan forces leave the capital as stipulated in the agreement that set up the government and to allow the UN [read: NATO] force to have responsibility for security in the capital." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung January 2, 2002 Officers Search for Security Force Base in Kabul F.A.Z. KABUL. Officers from Germany and 17 other countries began searching on Wednesday for housing and other facilities that could be used by a 4,500-member international security force being formed to assist the interim government of Afghanistan. The 25 service members who arrived early on Wednesday will help prepare the way for an advance group of 250 troops, including 200 Germans, who will build the infrastructure necessary for the main force. That second group will leave next week at the earliest. "I hope that we will have an idea by Saturday or Sunday when the transfer can start," German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said in Berlin on Wednesday. The main group is expected to arrive in late January. Members of the fact-finding mission are looking at five areas in northwestern Kabul that are located on main highways as possible bases. "That way we can get in or out quickly if trouble occurs," one unidentified German officer told the news agency AFP. The sites were recommended by the British military, which will command the mission through at least half of its six-month deployment. The arrival of the fact-finding mission ran into repeated delays. The original arrival date of Saturday was pushed back several times because of technical problems in Afghanistan. While the officers waited to leave over the weekend, the British commander of the United Nations force was locked in negotiations aimed at solving a dispute between him and the defense minister of the interim government. The commander, Major General John McColl, pushed to have all Afghan forces leave the capital as stipulated in the agreement that set up the government and to allow the UN force to have responsibility for security in the capital. But the defense minister, Mohammed Fahim, wanted his troops to patrol with the security forces. Their talks broke down on Friday evening. Interior Minister Yonus Qanooni then began discussions with the British commander, and the two agreed that the international force would be joined by military police officers serving in Mr. Qanooni's agency. Mr. Fahim's troops must remain off the streets under the compromise. Guy Richardson, a spokesman for the British security forces, said meetings would be held in the next few days with Afghan leaders and British military commanders who began arriving shortly before the Dec. 22 inauguration of the interim government. Top of the agenda, Mr. Richardson said, will be trips into the countryside to assess where to deploy troops outside the capital. Several roads are considered unsafe because of bandits, and sporadic fights with pockets of Qaida terrorist fighters have been reported. Jan. 2 _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
