Print

Mail

wiki links

Canada votes to extend mission in Afghanistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, speaks during a press conference while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper looks on at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 22 last year. PHOTO: AFP

Parliament voted to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan to 2011 if NATO supplies more troops and equipment to back up its forces in the volatile south.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has been under growing pressure to withdraw Canada's 2,500 troops as the death toll has mounted, now at 80 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat. The mission was set to expire in February next year.

But the minority Conservative government and opposition Liberals agreed last month to vote together on the motion, which passed 198 to 77 on Thursday. Liberals backed the extension after Harper promised the mission would increase its focus on training and reconstruction.

Conservatives had declared the motion a confidence vote, which would have triggered early elections if it failed.

US Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins applauded the vote and said the NATO ultimatum is appropriate.

The extension of the mission is conditional on NATO providing 1,000 troops, helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft to back up forces in southern Kandahar Province, a former Taliban stronghold.

Militants stepped up their attacks last year, making it the deadliest year in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime. The violence has placed civilians increasingly in the line of fire and posed a challenge to NATO efforts to stabilize the country.

Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the US have borne the brunt of the resurgent Taliban, with support from Denmark, Romania, Estonia and non-NATO Australia.

Harper has reached out to several key NATO allies to get more soldiers for the south, but the refusal by some major European allies to send a significant number of troops has opened a rift within NATO.

Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said the vote will be well received by NATO allies.

France is considering a Canadian request for more troops to reinforce its position in the south, though previous French policy is to keep its forces in more peaceful regions of the country.

Wilkins could not say whether the US military would step up if no other NATO country agrees to provide the 1,000 additional troops. He said the US had joined Canada in their efforts to secure more troops from other NATO countries.

"We're certainty doing what we can to persuade others to do that," Wilkins said. "We admire and appreciate the heavy lifting that they are doing."

While lawmakers voted, about two dozen demonstrators chanted "End it, don't extend it" in the upper public gallery of Canada's House of Commons.
This story has been viewed 549 times.