Intrigue of expelled diplomats deepens

The intrigue surrounding the expulsion of EU acting representative in Afghanistan, Mervyn Patterson, and UN diplomat Michael Semple, is deepening. A London Times report over the weekend quoted Afghan government sources claiming that the two were trying to “turn” the brother of the late Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah.

Expelled British envoys tried to turn Taliban chief, by Dean Nelson (The Times), 6 Jan 2008: (Patterson and Semple) held secret meetings with Mansoor Dadullah - a thorn in the side of British military in Helmand province - to try to persuade him to break with the Taliban and form his own political party and militia, according to Afghan government sources.

If they had succeeded it would have been a coup for the western allies shoring up the government of Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Instead, Mervyn Patterson, a high-ranking UN official, and Michael Semple, the acting head of the EU mission to Afghanistan, were expelled after an Afghan national “confessed” to Afghan intelligence that he had accompanied the two to a secret meeting with Dadullah in Musa Qala.

In the days after the diplomats were expelled from Afghanistan, the Taliban announced it was dismissing Mansoor Dadullah for “disobeying orders” and conducting activities “against the Taliban's rules and regulations.” Mansoor Dadullah became an important Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan last summer after military forces killed his one-legged brother – the highest-ranking Taliban to be killed since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

The BBC’s Alastair Leithead says the entire episode is reminiscent of the 19th century “Great Game” between British and Russian intelligence officials in Central Asia, as the UK Foreign Office sends more political officers fluent in local languages to work in Helmand. Patterson and Semple were well respected for their cultural knowledge of the region and their fluency in Dari and both had lived and worked in the war-torn country for many years. The Afghan government claim that the two were involved in “unauthorized activities,” in Helmand and privately insist that they were paying the Taliban with contract promises and cash in return for their cooperation.

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