Taliban to target Canadian civilians
Group says slaying of aid workers was act of 'revenge'; open letter threatens more bloodshed if troops don't pull out of Afghanistan
GLORIA GALLOWAY
With a report from Agence France-Presse
August 18, 2008
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The Taliban issued an open letter to Canada yesterday, saying more Canadian blood will be spilled if the country's troops are not pulled out of Afghanistan.
The broad threat, which was aimed at civilian rather than military targets, came just days after four aid workers, including two Canadians, were gunned down in Logar near Kabul.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack yesterday, saying it was an act of revenge.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail conducted several hours before the letter was made public, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the killing of the aid workers was retaliation for the U.S. bombing of a wedding party in Jalalabad on July 6.
Afghan officials say as many as 27 people, including the bride, were killed by missiles fired from a helicopter. U.S. military spokesmen say only insurgents were hit.
"The coalition forces invaded Afghanistan and we know that women are very important to the forces that invaded Afghanistan," Mr. Mujahid said through a translator.
"Our women and common people are important to us too. About one month ago, the coalition forces attacked a wedding in Jalalabad that killed 49 people, women, children, men, boys, everyone that was present."
The attack on the aid workers was carried out, he said, "to take revenge on the coalition forces and foreign people and to show the world that our people are just as important as yours."
Jackie Kirk, 40, of Montreal, Shirley Case, 30, of Williams Lake, B.C., and Nicole Dial, 30, a dual citizen of the United States and Trinidad, were travelling with an Afghan driver, Mohammad Aimal, 25, near Logar south of Kabul last Wednesday when their white sport utility vehicle marked with the emblems of their organization, the International Rescue Committee, was riddled with bullets.
The vehicle was travelling in an area considered relatively safe.
Thomas Johnson, the director of the culture and conflict studies program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., said it is quite plausible that the deadly attack last week was a planned act of retribution.
"Traditionally badal, or revenge, has been one of the mainstays of the Pashtunwali code, or the way of the Pashtun," said Prof. Johnson who was in Kandahar conducting research.
"So it's not at all surprising to me that the Taliban would use revenge as justification for the killing of the aid workers."
The letter of warning issued yesterday promised more of the same.
"Afghanistan has to try to have good relations with you, but if your government continues a reversed policy, the Afghans will be obliged to kill your nationals, in revenge for their brothers, their sisters and their children," the Taliban wrote.
"Events such as Logar will happen again, because occupied Afghanistan looks at all actors that are established in the interest of America with an eye of hostility."
The letter was signed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and ended with the names of Mr. Mujahid and Qari Yousef Ahmadi, another recognized Taliban spokesman. It was posted on the Taliban website.
Neither the Canadian military nor Foreign Affairs officials in Afghanistan would comment on the letter.
But security in Kandahar province has steadily grown worse during the past two years as the amount of territory that is firmly under Taliban control has expanded. Roads that were once safe for Western officials are now off limits because of the threat of explosives or ambush. Foreign aid workers have had to scale back operations here, where the poorest and most vulnerable simply cannot be reached.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Defence in London said British NATO troops were involved in the deaths Saturday of four Afghan civilians in southern Afghanistan, adding that it has opened an inquiry into the incident.
Canada has committed to keeping troops in Kandahar until 2011 but the letter yesterday said Canadians must persuade the federal government to end "the occupation of Afghanistan, so that the Afghans are not killed with your hands and so that you are not killed with the hands of the Afghans."
The Canadian people grieved for the aid workers who were killed, the letter said. But "they have to know that the Canadian forces, under American command, handicap tens among the Afghan people every day to this kind of condolence, and they kill, in addition to men, numbers of women and children, as well."
The Afghans did not go to Canada to kill the Canadians, it said, "Rather, it is the Canadians who came to Afghanistan to kill and torture the Afghans, to please the fascist regime of America. Your government did not take into account the national interests of Canada, and did not follow a neutral policy. It sacrificed its national and international respect and standing in service of the interests of America."
On Friday, President Hamid Karzai appointed Rahmatullah Raufi, the former military commander in Kandahar province, as governor. Mr. Raufi has promised repeatedly over the past three days to make security his primary focus.
But Mr. Ahmadi, the other Taliban spokesman, told The Globe that his fighters are not worried about the change of hands at the governor's house.
"This is not a problem for us because this man is the same slave of the foreigners," he said.
"We don't care about Raufi. We are not happy but we are not worried about this. If the foreigners send more soldiers, we don't care. They have sent many brave commanders to fight us but we don't care."
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