Karzai condemns Russian raid

[din]

Central & South Asia
Karzai condemns Russian raid
Afghan leader says Moscow's involvement in joint anti-drugs operation "violated sovereignty".

Last Modified: 30 Oct 2010 15:07 GMT


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Heroin addiction has spread beyond Afghan borders, prompting concern in Russia among other nations [GALLO/GETTY] Hamid Karzai has strongly criticised the involvement of Russians in an anti-drugs operation in eastern Afghanistan, saying that it happened without permission and violated Afghan sovereignty.

A statement from the Afghan president's office on Saturday said he had ordered the defence and interior ministries to investigate the operation and to report back to him by Saturday night.

The first joint US-Russian raid of such nature took place late on Thursday in Nangahar province.

Russian involvement in Afghanistan is still a sensitive issue since the end of the Soviet occupation of the country. Soviet troops fought Mujahideen fighters for 10 years before pulling out of the country in 1989.

Russian officials said on Friday that Russian and US agents, supported by helicopters and Afghan police, destroyed four drug laboratories and nearly one tonne of heroin in a raid this week.

Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Kabul, said the counter-narcotics raid, which was also announced by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, came as US and Nato are calling for Russia to play a more supportive role in their war against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
"There seems to be an effort where Nato is requesting Russian support in the ongoing conflict with the Taliban," he said.

The Afghan interior ministry counter-narcotics police led the operation with DEA, Nato and Russian personnel playing a supporting role, the US embassy in Kabul said in a statement, referring requests for details to the Afghan government.

Karzai's condemnation

In the statement released by his office, Karzai said: "No organisation or institution has the right to carry out such military operations inside the territory of our country without permission and agreement from the Islamic Government of Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan condemns this act by Nato and announces that such unilateral operations are a clear violation of Afghan sovereignty as well as international law, and any repetition will be met by the required reaction from our side."

A Russian official, however, said Karzai was "misinformed" in saying the operation went ahead without permission from Afghan authorities.

The representative in Kabul of the Russian anti-drugs service, Alexey Milovanov, told the AFP news agency it was an Afghan operation.

"It was an operation conducted by the Afghan ministry of interior, not by us," Milovanov said.

"We have simply acted as advisers, according to an agreement between our two countries permitting the presence of Russian advisers during a drug raid."

He said that four Russian anti-drug officials were present at the operation.

Heroin labs destroyed

Russian media quoted on Friday the head of Russia's anti-drugs service, Viktor Ivanov, as saying that Afghan officials had been involved in the raid.

Ivanov travelled to Washington last week to discuss co-operation in fighting drug trafficking, and accused the US of failing to destroy heroin laboratories and crack down on poppy-growing landowners.

Russia frequently criticises what it describes as the inadequate anti-drug policies of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, which it says lead to an increased flow of drugs into Russia through Central Asia.

Russian drug control authorities have estimated that 30,000 Russians died in 2009 from using Afghan heroin, and that a million have died in the past decade.

Russia already assists in the training of counter-narcotics officials outside Moscow to combat the Afghan heroin trade.

Afghanistan produces about 90 percent of the world's opium in an industry estimated to be worth almost $3bn a year, which helps fund the Taliban-led campaign.

Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies


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Topics in this article People

• Hamid Karzai
• Alexey Milovanov
• Viktor Ivanov

Country

• Russia
• Afghanistan
• United States

City

• Washington
• Kabul
• Moscow

Organisation

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Afghan police
• Taliban
• US Drug Enforcement Administration
• US embassy in Kabul
• Islamic Government of Afghanistan
• Mujahideen
• Afghan government

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[ComradePashtun]

Afghanistan Complains About Russians In Drug Raid

by The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan October 30, 2010, 11:57 am ET

Afghanistan's president said Saturday he had not been informed in advance of Russian participation in a NATO-led drug raid that netted $56 million worth of heroin and morphine, and his administration demanded a formal apology from the alliance.

Hamid Karzai's complaint was the latest evidence of his strained relationship with the U.S.-led coalition. It also underscored lingering sensitivities over Russian involvement in Afghanistan, which was invaded by the former Soviet Union in 1979.

Russian counternarcotics agents teamed up with U.S. and Afghan forces Thursday to seize four drug labs in an unprecedented joint raid in Nangarhar province, near the Pakistani border, officials said. The action came less than a week after Russia's anti-narcotics chief accused the U.S. of failing to dismantle such labs and slow down the flow of heroin into Russia.

The level of cooperation between U.S. and Russian forces was significant and suggested an improvement in relations between the former Cold War foes, two decades after U.S.-financed Afghan militias chased the Soviet military out of the country.

But it irked Karzai. The Afghan president stressed Afghanistan and Russia also have friendly relations but said no country should carry out military operations on Afghan soil without permission.

Moscow's anti-drugs chief Viktor Ivanov confirmed Friday that Russia had provided coordinates for the raid and had two agents involved, but a Kremlin official downplayed Russia's participation following Karzai's criticism.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said "we were in favor of the operation being conducted, but technically, we did not participate in it." He would not comment on why Ivanov and the U.S. claimed it was a joint operation. Some observers suggested officials may have overstated Russia's involvement to boost ties with Washington.

Karzai said the raid breached Afghanistan's sovereignty and international law and ordered the interior and defense ministries to investigate the issue.

"While Afghanistan remains committed to its joint efforts with (the) international community against narcotics, it also makes it clear that no organization or institution shall have the right to carry out such a military operation without prior authorization and consent of the government of Afghanistan," his office said in a statement.

While Afghan forces were involved in the raid, Karzai's national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta insisted that NATO had not asked for permission to bring the Russians along. He said NATO had verbally apologized but Afghanistan wanted a formal declaration.

"We want a public apology," said Spanta, a former foreign minister. "The friendship does not allow a friend to do whatever he pleases in the house of the host."

American agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and NATO also participated in the raid. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said that three branches of Afghan law enforcement were also present.

The joint operation followed an interview Ivanov had given to The Associated Press a week earlier complaining that American officials were not acting on intelligence he had provided them on the locations on Afghan drug labs.

Russian involvement in Afghanistan is particularly delicate because the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and occupied the country until it was forced to withdraw nine years later by anti-communist mujahedeen forces.

These U.S.-backed rebels took power in 1992 when the pro-Moscow government collapsed. The Taliban eventually seized Kabul after a violent civil war, ruling with a strict interpretation of Islamic law until they were ousted by the U.S.-led invasion following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.

Russia and the United States occasionally cooperate on terrorism and drug issues, but Moscow has offered only lukewarm support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and has limited itself to providing its territory for U.S. military transit, turning down requests to provide helicopters and training for pilots or to train counter-narcotics police.

Nevertheless, the export of Afghan drugs is an issue of paramount concern to Russia, which now has 2 million opium and heroin addicts. Moscow had been urging the U.S. military to take action against Afghan drug labs, which process unrefined opium into heroin or morphine.

Relations between Karzai and the international community became strained after his re-election last year was criticized for widespread fraud. Most recently, he attempted to ban private security contractors from the country, arguing they contributed to instability. Diplomats had wanted exemptions for some development projects, but Karzai insisted he would simply extend the deadline.

In fighting Saturday, insurgents armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars tried to storm a combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, setting off a battle that killed 30 attackers and slightly wounded five coalition soldiers, NATO said.

The border area has long been a refuge for Islamist extremists from around the world and has been the target of numerous drone strikes. In recent months Afghan and NATO forces have been pushing into the south of the country, the traditional heartland of the insurgency.

Three NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan Saturday — two following insurgent attacks and one in an explosion.

Also in the south, a coalition force in Helmand province killed more than 10 insurgents and discovered bomb-making materials during a patrol early Saturday, NATO said.
———
Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Kathy Gannon in Kabul and David Nowak in Moscow contributed to this report.

[ComradePashtun]

Is Uncle Sam gone completely bonkers? What the hell does it think it is doing?

This is as desperate and stupid as it can get. How could they just by-pass the government? Is this rather a deeper dissonance of its political constrains?

There is absolutely no justification in to this in any possible sense. If I were the government of Afghanistan I should not let this get pass me easy. This is utter disrepect and violation of our sovereignty and anything less than a formal appology will be a disservice to Afghanistan and undermining its strategic interests.

[ComradePashtun]

Lets see what comes out of this and how Russia will justify its involvement and under what framework. This will be interesting and will reveal the nature of U.S. and Russia collaboration.

[ComradePashtun]

Oh I missed reading Milanovov's statement. Good. So this again another BS trumpeted by media. Furthermore Russian direct involvement doesn't make sense.

[ComradePashtun]

Why, Nazia?

[ComradePashtun]

As I read a little more in to this, althoguh the exact nature of Russian involvement isn't clear enough, but any direct non-civilian Russian involvement does not make sense from Russia's policy point of view. I think the media might have exaggerated this and Karzai angry with U.S. recently might have jumped the gun probably. I think rather than vetting the exact circumstance through his interior ministry etc., he might have over-reacted. I don't know.

[Abdul Haq]

That is very unfortunate the government is still not consious of its borders

[ayub]

maybe it's about time Afghanistan stops growing this disgusting crop which ruins millions of lives of individuals and their families.