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Danish soldiers negotiating with Afghan Taliban: report
Copenhagen (AFP) Feb 16, 2009 Danish soldiers in Afghanistan have begun negotiating with the Taliban to try to break the deadlock there, a newspaper reported Monday, as a poll suggested most Danes considered the war unwinnable. Troops had holding talks with the Taliban as wiping out the insurgency was proving so difficult, a Danish officer told the Jyllands-Posten daily. "We have already held several meetings with local chiefs where the Taliban were represented," Lieutenant Colonel Bjarne Hoejgaard told the paper after a six-month mission in Afghanistan. "We cannot get around it. We must intensify the dialogue and the negotiations with the Taliban if we want to have peace in Afghanistan, because we cannot eliminate the enemy," he added. Hoejgaard insisted the meetings were not about negotiating a truce with the most extreme elements, but were aimed at creating more security for Danish soldiers by entering into dialogue with more moderate, local Taliban. "The more local Taliban we kill the more enemies we create," Hoejgaard said. The report came as a new poll showed that 55 percent of Danes believed the war against the Taliban insurgency could not be won. The poll of 1,000 people showed 22 percent of people thought victory was within reach, while 22 percent remained uncertain. The survey, carried out earlier this month by Capacent Epinion for Danish public broadcaster DR. It also showed that 48 percent of those questioned believed Denmark should maintain troops in Afghanistan, while 41 percent said the Scandinavian country should withdraw its soldiers. Denmark currently has 700 troops stationed mainly in the southern Afghan Helmand province under British command. It has lost 21 soldiers since it joined international efforts to remove the Taliban regime in Kabul in 2001 -- the highest per-capita death toll among coalition forces. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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