Italy Stands By Afghan Pledge

Via ANSA.it:

(ANSA) - Brussels, July 27 - Italy on Monday said it would stick to its international peace-keeping commitments in Afghanistan despite mutterings from a junior government partner that it was ''time to bring everyone home''.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said peace missions were ''Italy's calling card to the world'' and that he intended to reiterate the country's commitment in Afghanistan when he meets the United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, at a private dinner in Brussels on Monday. ''I will confirm Italy's desire to always be a protagonist in the stabilisation of Afghanistan, to work for credible elections there and to contribute to the security strategy for the country,'' Frattini said.

The foreign minister said a review of Italy's mission in Afghanistan would be possible only after the August 20 presidential elections. Until then, Frattini explained, it was ''absolutely necessary'' for Italian forces to remain to combat ''the escalation of violence by the enemies of democracy''. ''We want these elections to be credible and to represent the will of the Afghan people, which can only happen if they go to the polls,'' he added.

Frattini's remarks came after several members of a government coalition party, the devolutionist Northern League, said Italy should pull its troops out of Afghanistan, the Balkans and Lebanon. Among them was Northern League leader and Reform Minister Umberto Bossi, who later recognised that the presence of Italian troops abroad was a decision which would have to be made by the government as a whole and that he would respect this decision.

However, another Northern League minister, Roberto Calderoli who has a portfolio to simplify and streamline Italian laws, said in a newspaper interview on Monday that it was time ''to bring everyone home''. Calderoli told Rome's La Repubblica that ''the vast majority of Italians agree with Bossi'' and that ''sooner or later the West is going to have to admit that you can't export or impose democracy''.

''I used to be an interventionist myself but I've repented. We need to ask ourselves whether our intervention has made things better. Europe and the West need to rethink their strategy because I don't think we're going to get the results we wanted,'' Calderoli said. Nevertheless, the Northern League House and Senate whips, Roberto Cota and Federico Bricolo, stressed that there was ''no disagreement within the majority'' and that the League would continue to support the commitments made by the government.

Asked to comment on Calderoli's observations, Frattini said ''we are working in Afghanistan also for Italy's security and thus Calderoli's as well''. ''Public opinion should be helped and directed, not excited by saying that since being there is dangerous we need to go away. Of course it's dangerous, but it's necessary to defend Italy's security,'' he said.

Italy has 2,795 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, most in the western area of Herat and in the capital Kabul. An additional contingent of 500 men was recently sent to Afghanistan to help bolster security for the August elections, bringing the total to some 3,200. This meant that Italy now has the fourth-largest contingent there after the United States (28,850 men), Britain (8,300) and Germany (3,380). Fourteen Italian soldiers have been killed since Italy's mission in Afghanistan began in 2004, the most recent victim a 25-year-old paratrooper who died in a roadside bomb two weeks ago.

The ISAF mission is made up of over 61,000 men from 42 countries. It is divided into five theatres of action: Kabul, operated by France; Kandahar in the south, the command of which is rotated between Canada, the Netherlands and Britain; Herat in the west, which Italy commands; Mazari-Sharif in the north, the responsibility of Germany; and Bagram in the east, run by the US.