Afghans longing for Dutch troops: ambassador

13 January 2006

AMSTERDAM — Afghanistan is anxiously waiting the arrival of Dutch troops. As a paradise on Earth, the Netherlands has a duty to help others,” the Afghan Ambassador in Brussels, Humayun Tandar, said on Thursday.

Tandar was referring to the ongoing political discussion in The Hague on whether to send 1,200 Dutch troops to take part the 6,000-strong Nato mission in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan. The Taliban remain active in the area.

Speaking on current affairs programme ‘Nova’, Tandar said it was “a choice between the fight against the fascist Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda, or bombs in one’s own country and trains full of blood, as happened in Madrid.”

“Terrorists have no pity,” he said.

Tandar said he hoped passionately the Dutch parliament will ultimately be able to vote in favour of sending the military mission to Afghanistan. Such a mission will bring honour on the Netherlands, he emphasised.

The ambassador conceded the deployment could “perhaps cost the lives of a few soldiers but save the lives of thousands of others.”

The Dutch soldiers are mainly needed to build schools, hospitals and bridges. Confrontations with the Taliban and al Qaeda, Tandar said, would be small scale and only a small part of the mission.

Subject: Dutch news