DTN News: Afghanistan TODAY September 5, 2009 ~ NATO Raid Kills 90 In Afghanistan, World Urges Probe Into Incident

DTN News: Afghanistan TODAY September 5, 2009 ~ NATO Raid Kills 90 In Afghanistan, World Urges Probe Into Incident

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) BRUSSELS, Belgium - September 5, 2009: World leaders call for a NATO probe into an air strike in Afghanistan, which resulted in 90 civilian causalities, as the incident could trigger a backlash against foreign troops.

A German KZO drone, or unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle, takes off from the German base outside Kunduz, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. NATO jets blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban outside Kunduz, setting off a huge fireball Friday that killed up to 90 people, Afghan officials said.

"I am very concerned by the reports we have seen this morning of casualties among civilians from an air strike against stolen trucks in Aliabad district of Kunduz Province," deputy UN envoy in Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith, remarked.

The United Nation official went on to add, "As an immediate priority, everything possible must be done to ensure that people wounded by this attack are being properly cared for and that families of the deceased are getting all the help they need."

This is while the Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday described the loss of civilian lives in any form as 'unacceptable'.

He underscored that representatives from the Interior Ministry and National Directorate of Security are commissioned to investigate how the incident took place. Moreover, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also pledged to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the lethal attack.

"The Afghan people should know that we are clearly committed to protecting them and that we will fully and immediately investigate this incident," Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for an 'urgent investigation' into the NATO air strike that killed as many as 90 people in Kunduz.

Afghan security forces stand guard near a burnt fuel tanker in Kunduz, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. NATO jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, setting off a huge fireball Friday that killed up to 90 people, Afghan officials said.

"It's important that we are very open and clear about what happened and make sure that it doesn't happen again," Miliband told reporters in Stockholm.

If the civilian deaths are confirmed, the incident could reignite outrage against foreign troops in war-battered Afghanistan. Under new orders issued in July by the ISAF commander,

US Army General Stanley McChrystal, aircraft can only open fire if they can confirm no civilians are in danger or that the lives of coalition forces are not at stake.

DTN News: United Nations TODAY May 12, 2009 - David Miliband, Foreign Secretary Of The United Kingdom At United Nations Headquarters

DTN News: United Nations TODAY May 12, 2009 - David Miliband, Foreign Secretary Of The United Kingdom At United Nations Headquarters

(NSI News Source Info) NEW YORK - May 12, 2009: United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon, right, meets David Miliband, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Monday, May 11, 2009 at United Nations headquarters.

Pakistan Facing Internal ‘Mortal Threat’: Miliband

Pakistan Facing Internal ‘Mortal Threat’: Miliband

*By M.Ziauddin Dawn News Pakistan

(NSI News Source Info) LONDON - March 7, 2009: Alluding to the on going tussle between Zardari and Nawaz Foreign Secretary David Miliband told BBC Radio’s Today programme on Friday that politicians must unite to face a ‘very grave situation’ that was worsening. Britain Foreign Minister David Miliband. He fingered Lashkhar-e-Taiba for the Lahore attack without directly accusing it of carrying out the bloody attempt. He said that Pakistan was facing a ‘mortal threat’ from internal militancy. According to Miliband Pakistan's internal instability was ‘a grave situation and... it has got worse’. Miliband urged politicians to unite, saying: ‘I think that the degree of political disunity that exists at the moment is only contributing to the problem.’ He added that country's economic decline in the global credit crunch was also a major factor. ‘You’ve got the combination of a political crisis precipitated by the recent Supreme Court judgment, so democratic politicians are not coming together to fight terrorism. Secondly you've got massive economic uncertainty; this is a country now with a massive IMF loan. And thirdly, you've got a security challenge on a number of fronts. The western frontier that you referred to, the 2,400 kilometre border with Afghanistan; but also the attacks in the centre of Pakistan, those that claimed the life of Benazir Bhutto as Frank Gardner said, and obviously the most recent attack. So this is a very grave situation, and it's intimately linked to the situation in Afghanistan.’ He fingered Lashkhar-e-Taiba for the Lahore attack without directly accusing it of carrying out the bloody attempt. ‘I think one of the issues that I've been raising in my four visits to Pakistan, is the need for central and local government in Pakistan to work to replace those Lashkar-e-Taiba or at least their front organisations, welfare and educational organisations, with the arms of the Pakistani state. And this goes to, what I think is a core issue. Pakistan is a country that for 60 years, over the last 60 years, it's had about 31 years of military rule. At the same time, it spends less than half the amount of money on education as it does on the military. And there you have a recipe for people seeking a better life for their kids turning to madrassas and turning to extremism. I think that is the combination that needs to be taken on in the Punjab.’ ‘Now the problem is you've got a central government in Islamabad and a local government in Lahore, who are now at loggerheads as the result of the Supreme Court judgment I mentioned. And that's why we are putting so much emphasis on democratic politicians coming together in Pakistan, because we worked hard alongside many Pakistanis for the restoration of democratic rule. It's now vital that whatever the political differences between President Zardari, between Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the opposition, his brother who's the leader of the Punjab, or was the leader of the Punjab until last week, come together to unite against the mortal threat that Pakistan faces which is a threat from its internal enemies, not its traditional external enemies.’ When told that President Musharraf was holding or seem to be holding the line, but this (Zardari’s) government was failing Miliband disagreed and said: ‘I don't accept that, because a military rule cannot hold the line if it loses the confidence of its people, and I think that is what had happened in... especially in the later years of President Musharraf's rule; he'd lost the confidence of his own people, and you cannot fight a counterinsurgency if you do not have the confidence of the people.’

Miliband Criticized Outgoing US President Bush's Foreign Policy - Unwarranted Remarks / Miliband: War On Terror 'Misconceived'

Miliband Criticized Outgoing US President Bush's Foreign Policy - Unwarranted Remarks / Miliband: War On Terror 'Misconceived'

(NSI News Source Info) January 20, 2009: The British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, says that the 'war on terror' has brought "more harm than good" for the West. In an article published in the Guardian, Miliband called on the global community to respond to future attacks by "championing the rule of law, not subordinating it."

Criticizing outgoing US President George W. Bush's foreign policy, Miliband went on to say the misuse of the phrase 'war on terror' had brought "more harm than good" for the West. Following the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, President Bush used the 'war on terror' as a pretext to attack Afghanistan and "defeat" terrorism by capturing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, destroying his terrorist cell and removing the Taliban regime.

"Seven years on from 9/11 it is clear that we need to take a fundamental look at our efforts to prevent extremism and its terrible offspring, terrorist violence," Miliband wrote. London was one of Washington's main allies in attacking Afghanistan and Iraq.

The British diplomat added that the 'war on terror' was misconceived and that the West cannot "kill its way" out of the threats it faces. "As [US] General [David] Petraeus said to me and others in Iraq, the coalition there could not kill its way out of the problems of insurgency and civil strife," he wrote.

While thousands of British troops are set to withdraw from Iraq, hundreds of others are still locked in an eight-year fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Miliband attempted to distance the British government from the Bush administration by saying that Britain has not used the phrase 'war on terror' since 2006.

"The idea of a 'war on terror' gave the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda," he continued. Miliband urged the incoming US administration to shut down the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison and start a new era of "democratic opportunity" instead of "fear and oppression".