One vote, one casualty for UK troops in Afghanistan
Price of democracy in Afghanistan's embattled south equals one UK life for less than 40 votes, figures show
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Thursday, 27, Aug 2009 02:07
By Matthew Champion.
The price of democracy in some of the most embattled parts of Afghanistan equalled one British life for less than 40 votes, it has emerged.
Four out of ten of the UK soldiers who died during Operation Panther's Claw, designed to retake areas under Taliban control in volatile Helmand province, died in or around the former insurgent stronghold of Babaji.
But in Babaji, north of Lashkar Gah, just 150 votes were cast in last Thursday's presidential elections out of a total electorate of 80,000.
Thirteen polling stations were established in the area, but they attracted just 11 voters each.
Initial figures released by Afghanistan's electoral commission put the UK casualty to Afghan vote ratio as 1:1.
Speaking to journalists via video-link from Kabul this week, the British ambassador to Afghanistan Mark Sedwill reiterated the Ministry of Defence's view that Panther's Claw "was not specifically itself about the election"
"The clear phase of that operation only ended a couple of weeks before the election... there is a long road to go until that entire area is fully secure," he explained.
Early figures from last week's elections suggest incumbent Hamid Karzai is due to win a second term as president.
With about a third of votes cast he stands on 45 per cent to former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah's 35 per cent vote share. If accurate, the figures would necessitate a second round of voting.
In the last seven years the UK death-toll in Afghanistan has reached 207, with 70 soldiers dying in the last year alone.
2009 is also already the bloodiest year for foreign troops overall with 295 deaths.