Troops to leave Afghanistan in August: Dutch PM

[From CTV News]

Netherlands’ Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende talks to the media to announce that the second largest party in his three-party alliance is quitting, in The Hague, Netherlands, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010. (AP / Evert-Jan Daniels)

The 1,600 Dutch troops in Afghanistan will begin leaving the war-torn country in August, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Sunday, a day after his coalition government collapsed over opposition to extending the country’s mission beyond its scheduled end this summer.

Appearing on Dutch television Sunday, Balkenende said the Netherlands will pull out of Uruzgan province, where 21 Dutch soldiers have died since they were first deployed there in 2006.

“Our task as the lead nation ends in August this year,” he said.

A marathon cabinet meeting Saturday ended when the Dutch Labour Party, the second largest partner in the coalition, walked out.

Balkenende had wanted the government to agree to a NATO appeal for the Dutch troops to stay in Afghanistan in a scaled-down role for another year, mainly to help train the Afghan army and police force.

The Labour Party insisted Dutch troops leave Afghanistan in August as planned and accused Balkenende’s Christian Democratic Alliance party of reneging on a 2007 agreement to bring the troops home this year.

When asked about the deployment Sunday, Balkenende said his caretaker government was bound by an earlier decision to give up the command position in Uruzgan as of Aug. 1.

The pullout will take as long as three months, with the last of the Dutch soldiers leaving the volatile province by December.

Balkenende’s centre-right Christian Democratic Alliance party plans to operate as a caretaker government until an election, which will likely be held in May.

Under the Dutch system, a caretaker government does not have the power to take actions that lack consensus. The Christian Democratic Alliance holds only 47 of the Dutch parliament’s 150 seats.

The Dutch troops have been stationed in Uruzgan province since 2006. The initial two-year mission was extended and slated to end this August.

Speaking with The Associated Press Sunday, Uruzgan’s provincial Gov. Asadullah Hamdam said the Dutch play an important role in the dangerous southern province.

“We need the Dutch force in Uruzgan. The Dutch are very active in reconstruction, and strengthening the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police,” Hamdam said. “The Afghan army and police are not enough. … Our force is still not standing on their own feet. We are requesting the Dutch to stay.”

Hamdam worries the Taliban fighters being pushed out of Marjah in an ongoing NATO offensive will move north to his province once the Dutch leave.

Most of Australia’s 1,500 troops in Afghanistan are also based in Uruzgan, but Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters Sunday that Australia has no plans to take the lead in that province if the Dutch leave.

There are more than 44,000 non-U.S. troops from NATO and partner countries in Afghanistan, compared with more than 74,000 U.S. soldiers.

The departure of the Dutch troops will come as NATO struggles to fill a quota of 10,000 additional troops. As the U.S. increases its commitment in Afghanistan, sending in 30,000 more troops, some European nations have been reluctant to boost their troop levels.

The Canadian mission in Afghanistan is scheduled to end next year.

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