Irish and British officials expelled from Afghanistan

AN IRISH senior EU official and a British UN representative left Afghanistan yesterday after the government ordered their expulsion, accusing them of holding talks with the Taliban and for paying cash to the group.

Irishman Michael Semple and Briton Mervin Patterson, have lived and worked in Afghanistan for more than a decade, even during the rule of the Taliban that was toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.

The expulsions have caused a diplomatic row between the government and key aid agencies who fear the loss of two such experienced Afghan hands could hinder muilti-million-dollar reconstruction and development efforts.

UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said Mr Patterson had left yesterday morning on a regular charter flight to neighbouring Pakistan. Diplomats in Kabul confirmed Mr Semple, the mission’s acting head, had been on the same flight.

Both are fluent in local languages and considered experts on the customs, rivalries and politics of Afghanistan’s various tribal and racial groups.

The Afghan government declared the pair personae non gratae after accusing them of meeting Taliban officials last week in the southern province of Helmand, a bastion of the insurgency and the main drug-producing region of Afghanistan.

EU and UN officials insist the pair were meeting only local elders and the whole affair was a “misunderstanding”.

“As part of our efforts in Helmand province we need to be speaking to people on the ground,” said Mr Siddique.

“We are dealing with a very complex situation here in Afghanistan. Tribal communities and tribal relationships are a very complex web.”

Afghan officials stood by the expulsions on Thursday.

“We are acting on the basis of our national interest. The two sides [EU and the UN] have agreed that they should go,” said one official.

The UN spokesman said officials from all parties were meeting to see if the row could be resolved, but there were no plans at present to get UN chief Ban Ki-moon to appeal directly to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The governor of Helmand province, Assadullah Wafa, said yesterday Semple and Patterson had met insurgents who were organising suicide attacks.