Word: rietdijk
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...turned critical. "It was only when the tribes came to [local police chief Toor Abdullah's] aid that he was saved," he says. "People are calling the Dutch cowards." It's not the first time the Dutch have heard such criticism. But it's unfounded, says Lieutenant Colonel Wilfred Rietdijk, leader of the Provincial Reconstruction Team. "For months we've been fighting every week - planned and forced," he says. "We've heard all kinds of things: other coalition troops come here and say, You don't fight enough. The thing [I would say to them] is, Can you tell...
...governor, Assadullah Hamdam, that a major operation, Spin Ghar, was about to be conducted in the Baluchi Valley, 16 km north of Tarin Kowt. They dropped leaflets and broadcast messages telling villagers how to protect themselves during the operation, which involved Australian, Dutch, Afghan and British forces. Rietdijk says Spin Ghar uncovered many weapons caches without a single civilian casualty. But Australian SAS sergeant Matthew Locke was shot dead on a reconnaissance mission, and Dutch soldier Ronald Groen was killed by a mine. Rietdijk concedes that giving notice of the operation might have put troops at risk, but says...
...Taliban's treatment of civilians is "ruthless," says Rietdijk. Lieutenant Colonel Groen agrees: "The Taliban use very indiscriminate and total violence," he says. "It's a way of getting support. You can buy support, you can convince people, or you can terrorize people into giving you support...
...Dutch Lieutenant Colonel Rietdijk says that in the long term, the ISAF's mission is "not about how many people you kill. What counts is how many areas think they are better off staying with the government." He believes local people have little allegiance to distant Kabul; far stronger are their ties to clan and tribe. "If you convince a tribal leader to cooperate with the governor," he says, "then his people will do so as well...
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