Nato troops paying for peace in Afghanistan

KABUL (AFP) - NATO officially denies that any of its members pay insurgents in Afghanistan for peace, but military sources said Thursday that the practice is widespread among foreign forces fighting the Taliban.
The Times newspaper said 10 French troops killed in Sarobi, near Kabul, last year had not properly assessed the risks, because their Italian predecessors never told them they paid the Taliban not to attack them.
The Italian government described the British daily’s report as “totally baseless” and said it had “never authorised any kind of money payment to members of the Taliban insurrection in Afghanistan”.
But a senior Afghan official suggested otherwise.
“I certainly can confirm that we were aware that the Italian forces were paying the opposition in Sarobi not to attack them,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“We have reports of similar deals in (western) Herat province by Italian troops based there under NATO umbrella.
“It’s a deal: you don’t attack me, I don’t attack you,” he said, adding that the practice was passed on between foreign forces and it was likely that senior commanders were either involved or turned a blind eye to it.
“It is simply a matter of buying time and surviving,” he added.
A French Army spokesman in Kabul, Lieutenant Colonel Jackie Fouquereau, told AFP: “The French do not give money to insurgents.”
NATO spokesman in Afghanistan General Eric Tremblay said he was “not aware” of such practices and had no information about the Italian case.
“It’s not a counter-insurgency tactic. But the Afghan government can sometimes make local arrangements. If it’s done, it’s more by the Afghan government than the international forces,” he added.
But according to a number of Western and Afghan officers, all speaking on condition of anonymity, the politically sensitive practice is fairly widespread among NATO forces in Afghanistan.