.
TARIN KOWT, Afghanistan (TimesOnline) Jan 6, 2007 – Two months after Dutch troops arrived in southern southern Afghanistan, Colonel Theo Vleugels established a hilltop outpost on the fringes of Taleban territory.
The conventional strategy would have been to build a “platoon house” surrounded by sandbags, razor wire and machinegun posts, as the British did in Helmand province.
However, Colonel Vleugels, commander of the Dutch force in neighbouring Uruzgan province, was convinced that that would antagonise the local population. So he built a qala — a traditional Pashtun home with mud walls and a large reception room where guests are greeted in the local fashion with tea, nuts and dried fruit.
It is designed as a base for Dutch soldiers and as a place for local people — including those close to the Taleban — to air grievances and talk politics.
In Uruzgan local people
are encouraged to air
their grievances (Paul Verheul)
THE HAGUE (RNW) Aug. 18, 2004 – The position of the Dutch troops stationed in southern Iraq is becoming more precarious. According to Defence Minister Henk Kamp and military personnel on the ground, the atmosphere among the local Shiite population has grown noticeably worse over recent weeks – a direct consequence of the US military campaign in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, which lies just north of the “Dutch” province of al-Muthanna. The regional authorities are also said to be less cooperative than before. Meanwhile, a perceptible increase in the level of popular support for radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr and his armed militia forces has also been reported.
Dutch Base Camp Smitty
.
Taleban forces in southern Afghanistan have taken control of a town which British troops had pulled out of after a peace deal with local elders. Some local people said they were leaving the town, Musa Qala in Helmand province, for fear of bombing raids on the Taleban by Nato forces.
The Musa Qala peace deal was a controversial change of tactics for British troops in Afghanistan.
It saw them pull out of the small Helmand town as part of an agreement with the elders, who said they would keep Taleban fighters out of the town centre and run security with their own auxiliary police unit.
There has been peace for a 142 days, a British spokesman said – but that appears to have come to an end.
The Helmand governor and local people told the BBC that the Taleban had moved in overnight, arrested some of the elders who opposed them and destroyed part of the government compound.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."