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From The Sunday Times
January 6, 2008

Expelled British envoys tried to turn Taliban chief

Dean Nelson

TWO British diplomats expelled from Afghanistan over the Christmas holiday were trying to “turn” a senior Taliban commander, it has emerged.

They held secret meetings with Mansoor Dadullah - a thorn in the side of British military in Helmand province - to try to persuade him to break with the Taliban and form his own political party and militia, according to Afghan government sources.

If they had succeeded it would have been a coup for the western allies shoring up the government of Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Instead, Mervyn Patterson, a high-ranking UN official, and Michael Semple, the acting head of the EU mission to Afghanistan, were expelled after an Afghan national “confessed” to Afghan intelligence that he had accompanied the two to a secret meeting with Dadullah in Musa Qala.

Days later the Taliban sacked Dadullah for refusing to obey orders, according to a statement to the Pakistan-based Islamic Press Agency by a Taliban spokesman. He said that sympathisers of Dadullah should break all contacts with him and continue their jihad.

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Dadullah took over the Taliban’s southern stronghold last May after his brother, Mullah Dadullah, was killed by Afghan forces. Of 86 Britons killed in Afghanistan since October 2001, 27 were killed by the Taliban since Dadullah took charge. He now claims to command more than 25,000 battle-hardened fighters who are loyal to him.

Patterson, from Northern Ireland, and Semple, an Irish passport-holder who has worked as a British diplomat in Pakistan, are regarded as two of the most knowledgeable and experienced political officers in Afghanistan. They speak fluent Dari and Pashtun and have extensive contacts.

According to friends, they were visiting Musa Qala on a fact-finding mission. However, the governor of Helmand province, Assadullah Wafa, complained to Karzai that they had met Taliban commanders, and demanded action be taken.

The UN denied the men were involved in an intelligence operation or that they held talks with Dadullah. Dadullah also denied meeting foreigners.

This shows how the mission is not well coordinated between the civilian international community such as UN , European Union and some other on one side and the NATO , US forces and the Afghan government on the other side. This all adds to the problem instead of solving it.

Ahmed, Germany,

well the NATO and British forces in afghanistan have come to protect the innocent people against the Taliban, not to sell them back to the same ppl

amin , delhi, india

This is unacceptable, westerners trying to get hold of the government of afghanistan under taliban rule ? its completely rediculous, if this is the master plan then why loosing lives of nato soldiers and taliban fighting on one end and on the other side making secret deals ? This is not the solution for the problem .. Either end talibanisation by military strategies or make deals with taliban leaders with the help of Afghan government so that their team work come to an end and they get weak and powerless ..

Suliman Akbarzai, Peshawar. ,

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