OTTAWA: Half of 17,000 men surveyed in April in southern Afghanistan “chillingly” said they believe the Taliban will triumph against Nato forces, a think tank said in a report on Monday.
Eighty per cent of respondents also said they are preoccupied with trying to feed their families in the war-torn nation, according to the poll by The Senlis Council, an international think-tank.
The Taliban's “very clever propaganda” tells young Afghan men that Nato does not care about them, and is only concerned about waging their own war, said Norine MacDonald, founder and lead field researcher for the group.
Afghans are “worse off (now) than under Taliban” rule, she said at the opening of the council's Canadian office in Ottawa.
“The Afghan people, five years after the international community has come to Afghanistan, despite our best intentions, are suffering,” she told reporters.
Southern Afghanistan is facing serious food shortages which could play into the hands of the country's hard-line former leaders the Taliban, she said.
Growing civilian injuries caused by Nato-Taliban fighting, and a US-led poppy eradication programme have also heightened local villagers' frustration with Nato forces.
In a critical report, the think tank said the situation is “undermining military efforts” in Afghanistan.
The organisation, an international policy group with offices in London, Paris, Brussels and Kabul, based its research on testimony from Afghans, and had videos showing injured civilians with poor healthcare and dozens of refugee camps in Kandahar province where Afghans line up for food scraps.
According to the organisation's poll, 50 per cent of men in Afghanistan said they believe the Taliban will defeat international forces.—AFP
