Western diplomats expelled from Kabul

Two senior Western diplomats were given 48 hours to leave Afghanistan on Dec. 25 after trying to negotiate with anti-government leaders in Helmand. Michael Semple, the acting head of the European Union mission in Afghanistan and a close confidant of Britain's ambassador, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, and Mervin Patterson, the third-ranking United Nations official in the country, were detained by KGB-trained secret police. They were accused of threatening Afghanistan's national security. President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, said the two were "involved in some activities that were not their jobs." The men were ordered out of Afghanistan after allegedly offering aid and development incentives to tribal elders in the Taliban heartlands. Diplomats say they were given until Dec. 27 to leave, although there were hopes that a negotiated solution could be found as officials spoke of a "misunderstanding." They were meeting government officials and tribal commanders connected to Musa Qala, a Taliban stronghold recently retaken in a major British-led assault. It follows a pledge by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to increase engagement with tribal groups in the area in a bid to secure a lasting peace, while ruling out talks with the Taliban's more intransigent senior leaders. British agents have already begun talks with low-level Taliban leaders. Britain also backs Karzai in his own efforts to reach out to lower-level Taliban. Helmand's governor, Assadullah Wafa, ordered the arrest of Semple and Patterson, diplomats said. Afghan officials claimed the pair were arrested, but their diplomatic status means they have been ordered to leave instead. Their Afghan colleagues are being investigated. But a spokesman for the UN, Aleem Siddique, said the arrest was a "misunderstanding," and strongly denied the pair had been holding talks with the Taliban. "We don't talk to the Taliban, full stop." He said: "We do not believe there is any basis for any UN official to need to leave the country, and we're making this position clear to the government of Afghanistan. We see this as a misunderstanding of what people were doing in Helmand. "There is a miscommunication between the authorities in Helmand province and the central government, and that's what we're trying to clear up." Both diplomats are believed to hold Irish passports. Semple has great experience in Afghanistan, speaking Dari and Pashtu. His expulsion would be a setback for the Western push to win "hearts and minds" at a time when NATO forces are struggling to hold terrain captured from the Taliban. Semple serves as deputy to the EU representative in Kabul, Francesc Vendrell. He has previously worked for the UN as acting humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan.