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Expelled senior UN and EU officials leave Afghanistan

The second most senior EU official in Afghanistan and a top UN political adviser left the country yesterday after being expelled by the government for posing a threat to national security.

The two men, a British and an Irish national, were on Tuesday declared persona non grata amid claims they had made contact with Taliban insurgents.

The UN insists the affair is a result of a misunderstanding arising from a visit the men made to the southern town of Musa Qala, a former Taliban stronghold recaptured by Afghan and British troops this month.

"Our discussions and negotiations are ongoing with the government of Afghanistan so we can see the return of these vital members of staff," UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said after the men flew out on a UN plane.

The government has not expanded on the allegations against the men -- Irishman Michael Semple, acting head of the EU mission, and Briton Mervyn Patterson.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office has said only that the men "posed threats to the national security of Afghanistan."

But officials have said on condition of anonymity that the men are alleged to have been talking to Taliban, and perhaps even supplying them with cash and weapons.

"They really did something wrong and beyond their mandate," one government official said, but refused to elaborate.

The Taliban reportedly denied it had links with the men.

Semple in particular was a "spy and a big enemy of Taliban and allegations of his links with Taliban is totally false," the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said, quoting from a statement it received from the rebel group.

The men had gone to Musa Qala to talk to "disaffected communities to help reconnect them back to the government of Afghanistan," Siddique said.

"They were talking to people on the ground to understand what their needs are, their concerns, what their opinions are about the government of Afghanistan -- good and bad," he said.

Meeting with locals is part of a strategy to stem support for a Taliban-led insurgency that was its bloodiest this year since the hardliners were driven from government in late 2001 by a US-led coalition that included Britain.

"It is somewhat surprising to us that these efforts seem to have been misconstrued and that is what we are working to rectify," Siddique said.

He said there had been no talks with the Taliban and that "we don't pay terrorists money."

A European diplomat said the matter was being dealt with at the highest levels -- between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Karzai.

Another Western official in Kabul said the matter would not be resolved until Karzai returned from a state visit to Pakistan later yesterday.

It appeared that people who did not like what the diplomats had been doing had "got the ear of Karzai" before the matter could be properly explained, he said.
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