I like Canada - always have. But this is just idiotic. Please DO NOT turn this into a blame Canada thread.
Wednesday » May 7 » 2003
<b>Canadian troops in Kabul have no guns
Require German chaperones until paperwork is done</b>
Chris Wattie, with files from Sheldon Alberts
<a target=new href="http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id=C2A5FDDA-5B72-423F-ABDB-F03AF81002AD"> National Post</a>
(John) McCallum
An advance party of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan is walking the streets of the capital unarmed because the government has not yet signed a routine agreement under which NATO peacekeeping troops are allowed to carry weapons.
The Canadians are being guarded by German soldiers while they are in Kabul.
The 25 officers and men of the Canadian Forces' "theatre activation team" have been in the Afghan capital since last month, preparing the way for the almost 2,000 Canadian troops who are to join an international force there this summer.
A spokeswoman for the Department of National Defence said they cannot carry weapons because Canada has not signed the "Military Technical Agreement," a deal with the interim Afghan government under which the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operates.
"So the authorization to carry weapons has not been given to Canadians," Lieutenant Hollie Ryan said. "It will be forthcoming ... we don't know when, but in the meantime ISAF members are providing security."
Opposition critics called the revelation that Canadian troops were defenceless "a national embarrassment."
The opposition critics also demanded that the Liberal government sign the agreement allowing them to bear arms immediately.
"It's a screw-up," said Leon Benoit, the defence critic for the Canadian Alliance. "Afghanistan is an extremely dangerous place and it's going to get even more dangerous. By leaving our soldiers without the ability to defend themselves, the government has put them in danger."
John McCallum, the Defence Minister, dismissed the criticisms as "nonsense" and said the Canadian team in Kabul is well protected by their German escorts.
"I think this is a total non-issue," Mr. McCallum told reporters. "It is a small group of reconnaissance people. They are very ably guarded by German troops, our partners, who are obviously armed. It is a question of getting the diplomatic agreement signed.
"When the Canadian army is in Afghanistan, it will of course be armed."
Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, a former commander of peacekeeping troops in Bosnia, said the 25 Canadians are likely the only adults in Afghanistan who are not "armed to the teeth."
"With what's going on in Afghanistan right now, especially with the ambushes of Westerners, I would want them to at least be able to defend themselves," he said.
"The good news is they could probably buy whatever weapons they need on the nearest street corner, with all the ammunition, too."
Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie said there is no usual practice for arming reconnaissance parties sent in advance of peacekeeping missions, but added that during the mission to Bosnia he commanded in the 1990s, "everyone was armed to the teeth."
The 22-nation force, which is limited to operating in Kabul, is sanctioned by the UN, but under NATO command.
Its mission is expected to be a hazardous one. Former Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters have been increasingly active outside of the capital and attacks on Western civilians and soldiers have become more frequent in recent weeks.
At least 14 ISAF members have died in the past year, half of them in a German helicopter crash, and its troops have come under sporadic but increasing attacks from a resurgent Taliban and loyalists of rebel warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
The wife of one of the soldiers now in Kabul, who did not want to be identified, told Global National the government had put her husband in danger without allowing him any way to protect himself.
"I don't expect a professional soldier to go on the street without a weapon and I don't expect a professional soldier to be sent into a war zone without a weapon," she said.
"If someone were to run at him ... what's he going to do? [Say]: 'Stop, I'm Canadian, go away, don't hit me, don't shoot me'?"
A Canadian battalion and a headquarters group will join the NATO-led security force in Afghanistan by August, the Defence Minister announced earlier this week.
After months of negotiations over Canada's specific role in the mission, Mr. McCallum said on Monday the 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) and the 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group and Signals Squadron, both based in Petawawa, Ont., will form the first six-month deployment of troops.
A second rotation of troops will be sent next February, in what Canadian defence officials are calling Operation Athena.
Earlier yesterday, NATO's secretary-general thanked Canada for offering to lead the Kabul mission early next year. Canada had asked NATO to take overall command of the ISAF force because it lacked key capabilities to fulfil the task. But Ottawa has asked NATO to name a Canadian officer to lead the mission for a six-month period beginning next February.
"What I can say is that we are deeply grateful for Canada for making the commitment and for serving in ISAF and for making the suggestion that from now on this is a full NATO mission," said Lord George Robertson, who met on Parliament Hill with Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister.