KABUL, 21 September 2005 — Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai yesterday called for a new approach to battle militants in Afghanistan, saying airstrikes are no longer effective and that US-led coalition forces should focus on terrorist bases and their support. Karzai also demanded an immediate end to foreign troops searching people’s homes without his government’s authorization.
“I don’t think there is a big need for military activity in Afghanistan anymore,” he told reporters in Kabul. “The nature of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan has changed now. “No coalition forces should go to Afghan homes without the authorization of the Afghan government... The use of airpower is something that may not be very effective now.”
As part of a new approach, Karzai said foreign governments should “concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supply to them, on the money coming to them” — a veiled reference to alleged support that the militants get from neighboring Pakistan. Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of aiding Taleban rebels and other militants, a charge Islamabad vehemently denies.
Karzai’s comments came amid the biggest resurgence in Taleban violence since the hard-line regime was ousted in 2001. More than 1,200 people have been killed in the past six months — many of them suspected rebels slain in coalition airstrikes, according to information from Afghan and US officials. The country held legislative elections Sunday, the final step toward democracy on a path laid out in 2001.
Just hours before Karzai spoke, coalition commander Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry warned that he expected “more fighting in the weeks ahead.” “We are staying on the offensive against the enemies of Afghanistan, and we will continue that process throughout the fall and throughout the winter,” Eikenberry told journalists.
Karzai played down the militant threat. “We do not think a serious terrorist challenge is emanating from Afghanistan,” he said. Karzai did not specify whether he was referring to a threat from Al-Qaeda terrorists or Taleban rebels - or both.
Meanwhile, the main body of observers of the landmark weekend parliamentary poll said it had noted some intimidation of voters, but its final assessment would only be ready later this week. “There were a few cases of intimidation by powerful candidates or their agents,” Free and Fair Elections in Afghanistan chairman Nader Naderi told AFP, describing the pressure as “nonviolent.”
“Some of the candidates or their agents were telling the voters to vote for them ... they were threatening the voters that if they didn’t vote for them, they will be punished,” he said. Naderi said most cases were reported in southern Kandahar province, the stronghold of the Taleban hard-liners that ruled the country until they were forced out in a US-led campaign in 2001.
Intimidation was also noted in restive central Logar and in northern Baghlan, he said. “We expect a full report in one or two days,” Naderi said.
Vote counting after Sunday’s election, the country’s first parliamentary vote in more than 30 years, began yesterday for all but two provinces. Logistical problems delayed the count for eastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces, officials said.
Logistical problems delayed the count for two of the country’s 34 provinces while the process was interrupted in the eastern province of Nangarhar by a rocket attack, said a spokesman with the UN-Afghan commission in charge of the vote.
Two rockets were fired at the Nangarhar capital Jalalabad, 120 kilometers east of the capital Kabul. One hit a government compound and wounded a guard and the other damaged a home, police said.
The attack briefly halted counting but it resumed a short while later, said election commission spokesman Sultan Baheen. Police blamed the rocket attack on militants loyal to Taleban.
