Leave Taliban alone, Afghan president tells West

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has called on US troops to stop arresting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, saying that their operations undermined his government's authority and were counter-productive. The stinging attack, made in an interview with the New York Times published on Apr. 26, is the latest in a series of conflicts between Western governments with troops in Afghanistan and the elected leader of the country. Western diplomats expressed surprise at the Afghan leader's criticism. Karzai is facing re-election next year and may be hoping to bolster flagging support with a populist stance. However, in recent months relations have deteriorated seriously, with Western officials openly doubting the ability of the Afghan president, who was heavily backed by the US and the UK in 2001 after the fall of the Taliban regime, to manage rampant corruption and combat drug trafficking in the war-wracked southwest Asian state. Karzai said he wanted US forces to stop arresting suspected Taliban members and their supporters, saying that fear of arrest and their past mistreatment were discouraging them from coming forward to lay down their arms. "It has to happen," he said. "We have to make sure that when a Talib comes to Afghanistan... he is safe from arrest by the coalition." Efforts at winning over Taliban fighters or sympathizers are mired in confusion: NATO allies in Afghanistan are divided over the exact nature of the amnesty or "reconciliation program" for insurgents. However, Washington is skeptical of such efforts, and has been fiercely critical of some British tactics aimed at winning over key Taliban commanders in the past, as has Karzai himself. Karzai also attacked the number of civilian deaths inflicted by the coalition. Although levels of "collateral damage" inflicted by NATO operations have dropped substantially, deaths still continue. Two women and two children were killed recently in an air raid by NATO troops on a suspected Taliban position after a firefight. Up to 9,000 civilians have died since 2001. "I want an end to civilian casualties," the Afghan president said in the interview. "And as much as one may argue it's difficult, I don't accept that argument."