johalputt: Richard Norton-Taylor

Afghans will determine their own fate, says defence secretary, as MPs warns country could descend into civil war within years

The defence secretary has admitted that no one can predict what will happen to Afghanistan after British, US and other Nato troops end their frontline role there at the end of 2014, and stressed that only the Afghan people can find a lasting solution to the country's violence, corruption and lawlessness.

Philip Hammond's remarks came as the Commons cross-party defence committee warned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war within a few years and suggests that the British government's attitude towards the country is one of simply hoping for the best.

Hammond told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the UK had intervened in Afghanistan to protect its national security and had never intended to stay for a protracted period.

"Afghanistan is an incredibly complex society; a multiethnic society that was very fragmented before we started," he said. "Our ability to influence outcomes is very limited."

He defended the long deployment of British troops, saying their actions had brought about "the removal of international terrorists able to use Afghanistan as a base" and helped train the Afghan national security force, which "can and, increasingly, is holding the ring" on the insurgents.

"The sacrifices have been huge and we will never forget the sacrifice that has been made to deliver the security of Britain and our allies," he said.

"It was always clear that this could not be an open-ended intervention. We had to create the conditions where we would eventually be able to withdraw and allow the Afghans to maintain their own security so our security was protected.

"While the situation is not perfect we have come a long way to being able to deliver that objective."

The defence secretary also said it was clear that "the long-run solution to security has to be an Afghan solution; it cannot be imposed from outside". History, he said, had shown the futility of such attempts.

Asked about the committee's warnings, Hammond said it had been offered a range of views as to Afghanistan's future, which ran from the overly optimistic to the possibility of civil war.

"I completely accept nobody can say with certainty what the future for Afghanistan will be, but what I can say is that the future of Afghanistan will have to be determined by the Afghan people," he said.

Former British ambassadors to Afghanistan told the Commons committee that Nato's understanding of the Taliban was limited, that "corruption and abuse of power was intrinsic in Afghan society" and that the country's economy depended heavily on the drugs trade.

The MPs warned that the start of an Afghan-led peace settlement with the Taliban was vital to ensure the country's stability and security after the withdrawal of British troops next year. But they added that coalition forces' lack of progress in reducing violence in the country "does not augur well for improving security and economic development on a long-term sustainable basis".

The committee also criticised the government for failing to combat the perception that the pullout amounted to "withdrawal through fatigue".

Publication of the report came a day after the government announced that the last group of Royal Marines to be deployed in Afghanistan was returning to the UK. Troops from 40 Commando Royal Marines were based in the Nahr-e Saraj district. The 7,200-strong Royal Marine Corps has deployed commandos to Afghanistan 12 times since 2001, and troops from 40 Commando were the first British soldiers in the country that year, securing Bagram airfield and patrolling the streets of Kabul.

The defence committee said the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office took an optimistic view of the future yet gave very little information about how they planned to be involved in Afghanistan beyond 2014,

James Arbuthnot, chairman of the committee, said: "We have received starkly opposing predictions for Afghanistan's outlook, post-2014. The fact is that the UK has limited influence."

The report concludes: "We hope that Afghanistan can become a secure, prosperous and flourishing country but we are concerned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war within a few years."

Some ground may have to be given in negotiations with the Taliban but the committee stressed the importance of open and free elections and said the rule of law and human rights should not be compromised in any settlement. The committee said that all Afghan people, including women, must be involved in the peace process. If women were excluded as a consequence of negotiating with the Taliban, the progress made could easily unravel, the MPs warned.

"If the UK is to continue to provide financial and training support to Afghanistan post-2014, there needs to be a clear articulation of the areas the UK will fund and support and the outcomes it expects to achieve," the report said.

"It must be clear to those engaged in the peace negotiations that, in providing support in the future, the UK will be paying close attention to the progress on the rights of women, children and minority groups, the tackling of corruption and the furtherance of the rule of law".

The report also claimed that not enough was being done to train and equip Afghan security forces properly. Concerns remained over the capability of Afghan forces to fill the gap left by withdrawing coalition forces, particularly in terms of helicopters, close air support and logistics, the committee said.

"We are concerned that the ANSF [Afghan national security forces totalling about 350,000] will reduce its strength by over a third on current plans based on the expectation that the insurgency will have been diminished," the report adds. "The government should urge the international community to develop a contingency plan in case the level of the insurgency does not diminish".

Afghanistan

Philip Hammond

Defence policy

Terrorism policy

Global terrorism

Ministry of Defence

UK security and terrorism

Sam Jones

Richard Norton-Taylor

via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/10/afghanistan-future-uncertain-hammond

08:06

Al-Sweady inquiry into accusations against British troops opens with evidence of alleged signs of torture on prisoners

A public inquiry into allegations that British troops murdered up to 20 unarmed prisoners and tortured five other men following a fierce battle with Iraqi insurgents opened in London on Monday with evidence that some of their death certificates recorded what were described as signs of severe mutilation.

Several of the deceased were said to bear signs of torture after their corpses were handed back to their families by British personnel at a base called Camp Abu Naji, while the Iraqi death certificates recorded that one man's penis had been removed and two were missing eyes, the inquiry was told.

However, there is a "stark dispute" between the relatives of the dead men and the Ministry of Defence over the way in which the deaths occurred, said Jonathan Acton Davis QC, counsel to the inquiry.

"The Iraqi witnesses say that the evidence points to there having been a number of Iraqi men having been taken into Camp Abu Naji alive by the British military on 14 May 2004, and who were handed back to their families dead the next day.

"The military say the evidence points to 20 Iraqi dead having been recovered from the battle … and handed back to the families the next day."

The two sides, said Acton Davis, could not reach agreement even over the number of deceased, or their identities.

The allegations arise out of a gun battle known as the battle of Danny Boy, which took place a year after the 2003 invasion of Iraq and underlined the way in which British troops were being drawn into an increasingly bloody insurgency rather than accepted as liberators following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Even as the inquiry opened, almost nine years after the battle, there were signs of legal disputes to come, with lawyers for relatives of the dead Iraqis insisting that its terms of reference are too narrow, and the MoD arguing that the inquiry should be limited strictly to allegations of mistreatment that were the subject of high court proceedings that preceded it.

Acton Davis said both bids were to be rejected. The inquiry would not examine the manner in which men may have been killed on the battlefield; nor would it fail to examine fresh allegations of mistreatment.

"The claimants, the military, and indeed the public is entitled to an independent and effective investigation into all allegations made, even if some of them were not raised in the judicial review proceedings," he said.

The al-Sweady inquiry, which is named after Hamid al-Sweady, a 19-year-old alleged victim, will hear evidence from around 60 Iraqi witnesses, in London and Beirut, and up to 200 military witnesses. It is not expected to report before the end of next year.

The battle of Danny Boy began with an attack by insurgents on a checkpoint by that name, three miles (5km) north-east of Majar al-Kabir in south-east Iraq on 14 May 2004.

Acton Davis said the attack was first launched against vehicles and men of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. "A fierce battle followed that involved not only the Argyles but also the soldiers of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment. It resulted in many Iraqis being killed, and two British soldiers being wounded."

Acton Davis said the first responsibility of the inquiry would be to attempt to establish whether 20 Iraqi men were killed during the battle and their corpses taken to Camp Abu Naji, as the Ministry of Defence insists was the case, or whether they were captured alive and then unlawfully killed during 14 and 15 May 2004.

In addition, the inquiry will examine allegations that five men taken prisoner following the same battle were mistreated at a second British base at Shaibah, near Basra, four months later.

The inquiry was established after a number of former prisoners and relatives of the dead men brought proceedings in the high court in London, demanding an independent inquiry in line with the requirements of the European convention on human rights.

It was ordered in November 2009 by the then defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, after high court judges accused the MoD of "lamentable" behaviour and "serious breaches" of its duty of candour during the court proceedings.

Acton Davis told the inquiry about the difficulties that had been encountered during attempts to recover documents concerning the events at Danny Boy and Camp Abu Naji.

Some difficulties resulted from the manner in which documents had been archived, while in 2010 investigators discovered in the files of the Royal Military Police a number of relevant papers which had been "entirely absent" from those disclosed by the MoD in the high court proceedings.

A further nine files of detainee records were handed over by the MoD in 2011. This led to six-week search of MoD archives by 12 members of the inquiry staff, which resulted in the recovery of 600 more relevant documents.

As of last week, evidence that the inquiry was still waiting to receive from the MoD included emails known to concern a visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to the British detention centre at Shaibah. The MoD is reported to have suppressed concerns expressed by the ICRC about the injuries they saw on the Iraqi detainees.