Am Sonntag übergeben die Niederländer offiziell das Kommando an die Amerikaner und Australier. Damit endet nach vier Jahren die niederländische Führung des ISAF-Einsatzes in der Provinz Uruzgan. Während dieser Zeit waren ca. 16.000 niederländische Soldaten in Afghanistan im Einsatz – 24 starben, weitere 140 wurden verletzt. Auch die Bitten der weiteren NATO-Partner bezüglich einer erneuten Verlängerung des Einsatzes konnten den Abzug nicht verhindern. Anfang des Jahres führte die Diskussion um den Einsatz sogar zu einer Spaltung des niederländischen Kabinetts.
“We offer the majority of the population relatively safe living conditions and advancements in health care, education and trade,” chief of defense Gen. Peter van Uhm, said of his troops’ legacy in the southern Uruzgan province.
“We have achieved tangible results that the Netherlands can be proud of,” he told a news conference July 28.
But the Taliban welcomed the Dutch withdrawal and urged other countries with troops in Afghanistan to follow suit.
“We want to wholeheartedly congratulate the citizens and government of the Netherlands for having the courage to take this independent decision,” Qari Yusuf Ahmadii, described as the Taliban’s spokesman for west and south Afghanistan, told the Dutch daily Volkskrant in an interview published July 29.
“We do not wish to negotiate with anybody about peace as long as foreign soldiers are in Afghanistan and our country is occupied.”
Around 1,950 Dutch troops are deployed in Afghanistan, mainly in Uruzgan where opium production is high and the Taliban very active, under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
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Since the start of its lead role in Uruzgan at a cost of some 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to the Dutch state, the number of NGOs doing development work in the province has risen from six to 50, according to a Dutch embassy document.
It states that 50,000 children are attending school in Uruzgan, four times as many as in 2002. A million fruit trees have been distributed to farmers to provide an alternative livelihood to poppy cultivation.
The Dutch are also helping to build a road between the province’s two most populated towns, Chora and Tarin Kowt, in a bid to boost trade.
And it has trained 3,000 Afghan soldiers, who “are now able to independently carry out operations,” according to Van Uhm.
“The work is not done,” Rob de Wijk, director of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, a policy think tank, told AFP. “One does not leave as one starts registering success.”
Jan Kleian, president of the ACOM military union, said he had spoken to several soldiers on the ground, “and they are not happy to leave”.
“They want to finish what they started; the mission is not completed,” he said.
Added Wim van den Berg, president of the AFMP soldiers’ federation: “This mission cannot be completed in just a few years. It takes 20 or 30 years to bring security to such a war-torn country.”
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Freitag, 30. Juli 2010 um 09:46
Die niederländische Mehrheitsentscheidung muss respektiert werden. Bezeichnend sind allerdings die sarkastischen Glückwünsche der Taliban zur Beendigung des niederländischen Engagements.