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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
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
