PM: Canada To Leave Afghanistan South In 2011
Agence France-Presse, Ottawa
Published: 21 Feb 18:18 EST (22:18 GMT)
Canada will withdraw its 2,500 troops from volatile southern Afghanistan in 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Feb. 21, yielding to opposition demands for a firm exit strategy.
Previously, the opposition Liberals had agreed with the ruling Conservatives for the need to maintain troops in Afghanistan to 2011 only if NATO allies send reinforcements soon. But they differed on whether Canadian soldiers should continue hunting insurgents beyond their current mandate of February 2009, or stick to a non-combat role in Kandahar province.
The stalemate could have led to snap elections in March if opposition parties united to topple the minority Conservatives over their motion to extend the mission.
Now, "We both agree that Canada should continue the mission until 2011 and [that] we should leave operational decisions to our commanders on the ground in Afghanistan," Harper said in a speech to the Conference of Defense Associations. Thus, "Canada will end its presence in Kandahar as of July 2011, completing redeployment from the south by December of that year," he said.
A new so-called "bipartisan motion" is expected to be presented to Parliament for ratification shortly, before a NATO summit in April, he said. "It is not a position that is Conservative, nor Liberal. It is a position that is Canadian."
Liberal leader Stephane Dion was not immediately available for comment. His caucus was meeting in the afternoon to review the government's compromise offer, a spokeswoman told AFP.
Canada deployed 2,500 troops in Afghanistan's volatile southern Kandahar province as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force battling Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. Since 2002, 78 Canadian soldiers and a senior diplomat have died in roadside bombings and in melees with insurgents.
The government motion states Canada's objectives to 2011 will be tweaked, focusing hereafter on training Afghan forces and providing security for reconstruction, as requested by the Liberals. It is not clear, however, whether Canadian offensive operations would cease, as demanded by the Liberals.
The government motion states: "The ultimate aim of Canadian policy is to leave Afghanistan to Afghans, in a country that is better governed, more peaceful and more secure and to create the necessary space and conditions to allow the Afghans themselves to achieve a political solution to the conflict.
"In order to achieve that aim, it is essential to assist the people of Afghanistan to have properly trained, equipped and paid members of the four pillars of their security apparatus: the army, the police, the judicial system and the corrections system," it said.
As such, "firm targets and timelines for the training, equipping and paying of the Afghan National Army, the Afghan National Police, the members of the judicial system and the members of the correctional system" would be set.
However, if NATO does not send reinforcements, medium-lift helicopters and drones soon, as requested, Canada would pull out at the end of its current mandate of February 2009, the text affirms.
In recent weeks, the prime minister and Defense Minister Peter MacKay have pressed NATO allies to send 1,000 additional troops to bolster the Canadian forces in Kandahar. So far, only France and Poland have hinted they may send help.
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