THE BRITISH government will not be rushed into accepting the results of the Afghanistan elections until it is convinced that the outcome was fairly achieved, British foreign secretary, David Miliband has said.
The success of the Afghanistan mission depends on a government in Kabul acting in the interests of the country, not in lining the pockets of the people close to power, he said
“So, we will wait to get a credible election result, and we will not be rushed into a whitewash,” Mr Miliband told the final day of the Labour Party conference in Brighton.
The British government is likely to face calls to commit extra troops to Afghanistan, once the Obama administration in Washington completes its latest strategic review.
But the foreign secretary said countries besides the US and the UK will have to do more: “We came into this together. We see it through together,” he declared.
The 41-strong coalition, dominated by US and British troops, must win the confidence of Afghan people, particularly with the deployment of greater numbers of Afghan troops.
“The biggest problem in Afghanistan is that ordinary people don’t know who is going to win, and so don’t dare give us all the backing we need,” he said.
Delivering a message to ‘‘friends in Pakistan, fighting for their own future as a country, we say this: ‘we support you in defeating the threat to your country, and we need you to support us in defeating the threat to ours’’’.
Following Downing Street’s declaration that the UK is ‘‘open-minded’’ about sending more troops to Afghanistan, British prime minister Gordon Brown said the case for being there remains “as strong as ever”
“This is not a head-on fight with the Taliban,” he said. “We’ve got to get the public in Afghanistan to recognise it’s their country and we’re helping them take back more control of their own affairs.”
Responding to public anger about reports of equipment shortages, defence secretary Bob Ainsworth said extra troops would not be sent unless it can guaranteed that they are properly equipped.
The government, he said, ‘‘cannot allow the deployment of its troops to outstrip the supply of equipment which allows them to do their job and minimises the risks that they face.
“If we are to make a further contribution of troops, we have to make sure that we are absolutely certain it is done in line with our ability to make sure they are properly supplied with the kit and equipment that they need to do the job, and that we want them to have to keep them safe.
“The kit and equipment that they need to do this job does not come from Marks and Spencer. It has to come through a very complex [procurement] procedure,” he told the BBC.
Urging public support for the mission, Mr Ainsworth said: “For Britain to be secure, Afghanistan needs to be secure, Pakistan needs to be secure. The threat may be less visible but it is no less real.
‘‘The risks of leaving Afghanistan before the job is finished are stark. We would have lost our resolve in the face of adversity, with profound consequences for our international reputation.
“The terrorists would be characterised as the winners; we would be the losers,” he told delegates, who earlier applauded a British army officer who was badly injured in Afghanistan last year.
Mr Miliband told the conference the Tories’ new allies in the European Parliament “made him sick”. Tory MEPs, he said, now sat with a “collection of outcasts”, among them Latvia’s For Fatherland and Freedom party, which celebrated the Waffen SS every year.
The foreign secretary also criticised Polish MEP Michal Kaminski, chair of the European grouping which the Tories have formed, for his “anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi past”.
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said Mr Miliband had insulted the Latvian government, most of whose member parties have attended the commemoration of Latvia’s war dead.–