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Afghans shouting "Death to Canada" and other slogans blocked a main road in the hotly disputed Zhari District of Kandahar during a protest Wednesday against the rule of President Hamid Karzai and a house-to-house search operation by foreign forces that the demonstrators said had resulted in the death of two brothers who were mullahs.

One of the allegations against the Canadian troops leveled by the demonstrators was that they had walked into a house on Tuesday night in the town of Sanzarai and had opened fire on those inside without saying anything. The Canadians were also blamed for several arrests. The operation was unfounded because there were no Taliban in the town, villagers told Afghan television crews which recorded the protest. [...]

Al-Jazeera put the number of demonstrators in Sanzarai at more than 1,000, but other sources and videotape evidence suggested that 300 to 400 men and boys had participated and that several mullahs had incited the crowd in what appeared to be an orchestrated event.

"Foreign forces must co-ordinate operations with Afghan forces in order to avoid misunderstanding," Habib Sanzarai, the Zhari district chief, told Al-Jazeera. "If these actions against ordinary people are not stopped, more people will pick up arms and will fight the government and its foreign allies for justice."

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Another protester specifically blamed Canadians for wrongfully handing him over to local authorities.

"The Canadians arrested me last week," he alleged to CTV News. "They handed me over to Afghan police, who put me in a cell with no electricity and no water. I am just a farmer." - CTV

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Originally posted by M. Spector:
Sounds like they may have found one of the missing detainees!

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Now now, let's not blindly believe all these anti-Western whiners. This man comes from a region which contains a country which contains a tribe which contains some members who may or may not have shown sympathy to the Taliban (800 million of whom have been defensively killed in battle by heroic foreign missionaries, according to my latest tally from NATO battlefront dispatches).

Do you really expect him to be telling the truth?

CBC:

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and another top insurgent, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, for peace talks.

Karzai told reporters on Saturday he would also allocate some government posts to the Taliban if Omar and Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader, enter negotiations.

However, Karzai rejected a long-standing Taliban demand that he order foreign troops out of Afghanistan before talks begin.

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Originally posted by Coyote:
Karzai offers to talk with Taliban:

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I'd be very surprised if the Taliban accept that invitation. I believe they have a policy of never negotiating with terrorists.

[ 29 September 2007: Message edited by: unionist ]

That said, this does appear to be posturing on Karzai's behalf: offer peace knowing it will be rejected, gain some political capital. Makes sense.

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Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the Taliban will have to renounce violence and accept the NATO mission in Afghanistan if it wants to work with the Afghan government. [...]

Speaking at an enrolment ceremony for new military personnel in Halifax, MacKay says any co-operation must include the preconditions that Karzai has laid out.

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Originally posted by unionist:
I'd be very surprised if the Taliban accept that invitation. I believe they have a policy of never negotiating with terrorists.

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Seems I was correct:

Taleban shun Karzai talks offer

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A spokesman for Taleban militants in Afghanistan has rejected another offer for talks by President Hamid Karzai.

Spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said the Taleban would never negotiate with the Afghan authorities while foreign troops remained in the country. [...]

"Taliban are not interested in government posts - ministries or anything. We want the withdrawal of foreign forces and we stand by our position," Qari Yusuf Ahmadi told news agencies.

"As long as they have not withdrawn, we'll never talk with the Kabul administration."

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The Harper government yesterday brushed off allegations Taliban members captured by Canadian troops and handed over to Afghan authorities had been tortured, saying the militants often made false claims of mistreatment. [...]

The three suspected Taliban members said they had been captured by Canadian soldiers, given a document that said torture was no longer used in Afghanistan and then transferred to the Afghan secret police.

"The people from the secret service tore it (the document) up and threw it in my face. They tortured me for 20 hours. I protested and said the Canadians had promised that nothing would happen to me," La Presse quoted one of the three men as saying.

"They replied: 'We're not in Canada, we're at home. The Canadians are dogs!' " he said.

La Presse said it had conducted the interviews in Sarpoza prison in the southern city of Kandahar, where Canada's 2,500-strong military mission is based.

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Même si Ottawa a conclu une entente avec le gouvernement afghan au printemps, les prisonniers capturés par les soldats canadiens sont encore torturés dans les locaux des services secrets à Kandahar.

Frappés à coups de brique, privés de sommeil, ongles arrachés, chocs électriques. Certains détenus doivent rester debout, les bras en l'air, pendant deux jours et deux nuits. Leurs pieds deviennent tellement enflés que leurs menottes ne peuvent plus bouger.

D'autres ont les bras attachés dans le dos et sont suspendus à un mur, puis frappés avec des câbles électriques.

J'ai visité la prison de Kandahar, Sarpoza. Trois prisonniers capturés au cours des derniers mois m'ont raconté qu'ils avaient été torturés.

Un des hauts responsables de la prison, qui ne veut pas être identifié mais qui était présent lors des entrevues, a confirmé. «Oui, a-t-il dit, les détenus sont torturés par les services secrets avant d'être emmenés chez nous, à Sarpoza.»
...

«En août, a raconté l'un d'eux, des soldats sont entrés chez moi, le soir, et ils m'ont arrêté avec six autres personnes. Ils nous ont accusés d'être des talibans.»

Les soldats les ont emmenés au quartier général des Forces spéciales américaines à Kandahar avant de les transférer à la base militaire de l'OTAN où sont stationnées les troupes canadiennes.

«Nous avons passé 12 jours dans la prison de la base militaire, a précisé le détenu. Les soldats nous ont interrogés une seule fois et nous avons été bien traités.»

Mais les choses se sont gâtées lorsque les prisonniers ont été transférés aux services secrets, le NDS (National Directorate Security).

«Les Canadiens nous ont dit de ne pas avoir peur, a poursuivi le prisonnier. Ils nous ont donné un document qui affirmait qu'il n'y avait plus de torture en Afghanistan. Les gens des services secrets l'ont déchiré et ils me l'ont jeté à la figure. Ils m'ont torturé pendant 20 jours. J'ai protesté, j'ai dit que les Canadiens m'avaient promis qu'il ne m'arriverait rien. Ils m'ont répondu: On n'est pas au Canada ici, on est chez nous! Les Canadiens sont des chiens! Les services secrets n'écoutent personne, ni Karzaï ni le Canada.»

Un autre prisonnier, qui a aussi été torturé, a lancé: «C'est vous, les Canadiens, qui êtes responsables de la torture parce que vous nous livrez aux services secrets qui agissent comme des sauvages!»
...

«Environ le tiers des prisonniers sont encore torturés et l'OTAN le sait, a affirmé un porte-parole, Shamuldin Tanwir. Les Canadiens nous donnent une enveloppe scellée avec les noms des prisonniers capturés. Le problème, c'est que cette liste ne correspond jamais à celle des services secrets.»
....

«J'ai souvent demandé aux Canadiens de nous aider, mais ils ne font rien, s'est plaint un des hauts responsables de la prison. Ça fait deux ans qu'on les supplie de nous installer des vitres aux fenêtres pour nous protéger du froid. L'hiver s'en vient et le Canada n'a encore rien fait.»

Les Canadiens ont refusé de réagir aux allégations de torture. J'ai demandé une entrevue au responsable des services correctionnels posté à Kandahar. La relationniste m'a dit d'appeler Ottawa. Ce que j'ai fait. Réponse: pas de commentaire.

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