Karzai: British have made matters worse in Afghanistan

Britain and Afghanistan fell out in spectacular fashion on Jan. 24 after President Hamid Karzai accused his British allies of bungling the military operation in Helmand and setting back prospects for the area by 18 months. Karzai, Britain's key ally in Afghanistan, had little praise for the efforts of the 7,800 British troops deployed in his country. Most are in the restless southern Helmand province, where Britain has invested billions of dollars in trying to defeat the Taliban, bolster central government authority and begin reconstruction. But Karzai said that they had failed in the task, particularly the initial military mission launched nearly two years ago by 16 Air Assault Brigade–a unit that is returning for its second tour this year. "There was one part of the country where we suffered after the arrival of the British forces," Karzai told a group of journalists at the Davos Economic Forum. "Before that we were fully in charge of Helmand. When our governor was there, we were fully in charge. They came and said, 'Your governor is no good.' I said 'All right, do we have a replacement for this governor; do you have enough forces?'.Both the American and the British forces guaranteed to me they knew what they were doing and I made the mistake of listening to them. And when they came in, the Taliban came." Asked if he was blaming British failure for the return of the Taliban, he added: "I just described the situation of mistakes we made. The mistake was that we removed a local arrangement without having a replacement. We removed the police force. That was not good. The security forces were not in sufficient numbers or information about the province. That is why the Taliban came in. It took us a year and a half to take back Musa Qala. This was not failure but a mistake." In Musa Qala itself, Karzai's assessment must seem ironic. The Afghan President lambasted Britain for encouraging him to remove Sher Muhammad Akhunzada as Helmand governor in 2006, a move which he claimed undermined the security situation. Akhunzada was a fierce fighter against the Soviet occupation and is seen as staunchly anti-Taliban. However, he was also accused of being a prominent figure in the drug trade and embroiled in numerous personal vendettas. He was removed after British officials told President Karzai that their troops would struggle to bring peace to Helmand if the governor remained in power, he has retained a strong background influence and is angling to be reinstated. Karzai also accused the British of forcing him to remove key police officials, such as Abdul Wali Khan, also known as "Koka," who was notorious for his human rights abuses and so disgusted local people that they allowed the Taliban into Musa Qala as a favorable alternative to government authority. Yet now his reinstatement, along with a hundred of his fighters, is being considered as a serious option by the Karzai government, despite top-level requests from NATO commanders and diplomats to block the appointment. "The UK does not want Koka here," one British commander in Musa Qala said. "All our good work could be undermined by the baggage he brings with him." Afghan civilians in the bazaar agreed. Wali Mahmoud, a village elder, said: "He was like a king here, doing whatever he wanted. He killed more people than I could count."