Afghanistan: Campaign against Taliban 'causes misery and hunger'

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1367185.ece

By Kim Sengupta
Published: 06 September 2006

Two international think-tanks published reports yesterday highlighting failures of US and UK policy in Afghanistan, and warned the security situation in the country was deteriorating.

The Senlis Council claimed that the campaign by British forces against the Taliban had inflicted lawlessness, misery and starvation on the Afghan people.

Thousands of villagers fleeing the fighting and a continuing drought, as well as farmers who have lost their livelihood with the eradication of the opium crop, were suffering dreadful conditions in refugee camps.

In a separate intervention, the influential International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) said that a vital opportunity was lost when the West failed to carry out adequate reconstruction work after the 2001 war.

[panader0]

1. Ain't democracy grand!

[High Plains]

2. Here's a link to the full report. It's a devasting indictment of US

and NATO policy in Afghanistan.

Link: http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/publications/014_publication

By the way, Senlis last year floated a proposal to resolve the opium problem in Afghanistan by licensing the production and diverting it into the legitimate medicinal market, which Senlis claims is suffering from a shortfall of thousands of tons of opium. The UN says Afghanistan will produce 6,100 tons this year...