No more UK blood for 'corrupt Afghanistan'

Published: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:45:00

In a week when seven UK soldiers died in Afghanistan, Gordon Brown has warned he will not risk British lives for a corrupt government. In a major speech in central London this morning the prime minister said the Afghan government had become a "byword for corruption". The UK is "not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm's way for a government that does not stand up against corruption", he said, following the re-election of Hamid Karzai this week.

Mr Brown said Afghanistan needed new corruption laws and an international adviser to oversee the process. "Croneys and warlords have no place in the future of a democratic Afghanistan," he said. Mr Brown brought forward a speech on Afghanistan after an especially bloody week for UK troops in Afghanistan that saw five die in a single incident when a 'rogue' policeman they were mentoring opened fire at a military checkpoint.

The deaths of Warrant Officer First Class Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford and Guardsman James Major, all from First Battalion the Grenadier Guards, and Acting Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith from the royal military police has led to fresh questions about the UK army's role in Afghanistan's restoration. In the days before Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid had been killed by an improvised explosive device he was trying to defuse, while an as-yet unnamed soldier died in a similar incident yesterday, taking the UK death-toll to 230. In his speech today Mr Brown laid out five areas that President Karzai's new administration must address: Security, governance, reconciliation, economic development and relationships with neighbouring countries.

"He needs to swiftly set out a positive agenda for his second term, creating a contract with the Afghan people so that Afghans and the international community can judge his success," he said. During conversations with President Karzai this week Mr Brown said he had repeated that a deployment of 500 extra troops, which would take the UK military presence to 9,500, was dependent on progress in these areas. But mentoring of the Afghan army and police would continue, he said.

He insisted that the international strategy that the UK was part of differed from previous interventions as it sought to empower Afghans; moving from "straightforward counterterrorism to more complex counter-insurgency" on the military side. But he said Britain "cannot, must not and will not walk away" from the eight-year conflict. The prime minister added that the UK soldiers based in Afghanistan would be remembered by future generations in the same way as those who fought in the first and second world wars.

"And just as in the past we learned of the bravery and sacrifice of British soldiers in the first and second world wars; in their fight to protect freedom both in our nation and the world; so our children will learn of the heroism of today's men and women fighting in Afghanistan - protecting our nation and the rest of the world from the threat of global terrorism," Mr Brown said.

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