[R-G] Alliance feeling strains over Afghanistan

[Sid Shniad]

Globe and Mail April 4, 2009 

NATO SUMMIT 

Alliance feeling strains over Afghanistan 

Canadian Foreign Minister calls on Afghan President to explain move to enact laws that would undermine women's rights 

Brian Laghi and Doug Saunders 

Strasbourg, France -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai's move to enact new laws that would undermine women's rights darkened the mood of the annual meeting of the NATO military alliance today, exposing deep frustrations with the progress of the Afghanistan war and the leadership of NATO. 

"If the media reports are true, this is extremely alarming and it's troublesome for a lot of the allies," Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said after arriving at the 26-nation summit. "I'm calling for President Karzai in the very first opportunity to be able to come forward and give the explanations [of this] presumed piece of legislation." 

The prospect of an increasingly fraught military alliance lending its support to an Afghan government whose proposed legislation would legalize rape within marriage underlined deep schisms within the alliance as it marks its 60th birthday this weekend. 

Those divisions dimmed U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to build a larger fighting force in Afghanistan and exploded efforts to select a new NATO chief yesterday in meetings in Strasbourg, on the French-German border. 

Those meetings were attended by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other heads of state and government, who had been pressured by Mr. Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to decide on new leadership. 

But the selection of a new secretary-general, which the United States and Germany had expected to be made by universal, secret vote last night, was held up over yet another dispute between the Islamic world and the West. 

The government of Turkey, NATO's only Muslim-majority member, objected strongly to the preferred candidate, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, because the Danish government had not censured its newspapers for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, an event that led to riots in Muslim countries. 

"The Turks were adamant that Anders Fogh could not get the job because of the Mohammed cartoons, and they would not be moved on this," said an official familiar with the working dinner that extended into a lengthy debate over the secretary-general position. 

This opened the possibility that Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who had appeared to be campaigning for the secretary-general position earlier this year, may still have some chance as a second-choice candidate, especially if Mr. Obama insists that NATO members resolve the leadership question by the summit's close this afternoon. 

Mr. Obama is seeking to mend fences with the Muslim world in the wake of the deep divisions over the Iraq war, and officials say he does not want to create an anti-Muslim image in NATO with a protracted defence of Mr. Rasmussen's candidacy. 

Mr. Obama was also attempting to get European nations to lend more troops to the United Nations-mandated NATO war in Afghanistan, an effort that may also prove to be at least partly in vain. 

NATO commands 56,000 troops in the country, with the United States set to add 21,000 later this year as part of an "Afghan surge" promised by Mr. Obama. 

British officials travelling to the summit with Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters aboard his plane that Mr. Brown will offer to send more troops to Afghanistan provided others do, too. Officials said the number would likely be in the "mid to high hundreds." 

As the conference opened, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is the co-host along with Ms. Merkel, pledged that his nation would send more police trainers and civilian aid. 

"We totally endorse and support America's new strategy in Afghanistan," Mr. Sarkozy told a joint news conference with Mr. Obama. 

France is joining the command structure of NATO for the first time since Charles de Gaulle partially withdrew from the alliance in 1966. However, there is no indication whether more French troops would be added to Afghanistan, or whether France would abandon the caveats that prevent most of its troops from fighting in the south, where the Taliban presence is strong. 

Ms. Merkel also met with Mr. Obama and said Germany wanted to bear its share of the responsibility in Afghanistan, but offered no specifics. 

This opened the possibility that Mr. Obama could come away nearly empty-handed from an initiative in which he had hoped to attract at least 10,000 extra NATO troops. 

Mr. Obama also encouraged a skeptical Europe to support his revamped strategy for rooting out terrorism suspects in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and said Europe should not expect America to send combat troops by itself. 

"This is a joint problem," Mr. Obama said, "and it requires a joint effort." 

The concerns over Mr. Karzai's backing for the law limiting women's rights became an overwhelming issue of concern at the summit, much to the dismay of leaders who had hoped to send a more upbeat message about the alliance's future.