| 8 September 2010 |
| Church expresses concern over government decision to send again troops to Afghanistan |
SEOUL (APEN) -- A government decision to “re-dispatch” Korean troops to Afghanistan has been opposed by a Presbyterian church.
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“The Korean government is making decisions without considering the wider impact of such decisions,” the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) has said.
The Korean parliament on 25 March passed a bill approving the dispatch of troops to the war-torn Central Asian country.
The bill, passed in a 148-5 vote with 10 abstentions, approves the government plan to send some 350 troops to the Parwan Province, north of Kabul, where South Korean troops will be stationed to primarily protect the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).
Stating there is a difference in definition and perception of PRT, the Presbyterian church said that for the US it is a civilian team, while for the international and Afghan authorities it is part and parcel of the combatant troops.
The PROK alleged the Korean government of misleading the people, saying that the re-dispatch troops joining the PRT teams will do purely civilian functions.
It expressed “surprise,” over the decision and said that “two years ago the government promised is citizens and the international community to completely withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.”
The present decision amounts to “an active participation in the ‘War on Terror’ carried out by the United States of America for the last nine years,” said the PROK’s 24 February statement signed by Reverends Bae Tae-Jin, PROK general secretary, Kwon Young-Jong, and Na Haek-Jip, co-chairpersons of the Peace Community Movement Center of the PROK.
It regretted that the Korean government is sending the troops on a long-term basis, when many countries “have decided to withdraw its support to the US-led wars.”
The Presbyterian church said that “the key issues including the security of the Afghan people and the damage to the Korean people still remain unresolved,” and added that “Without resolving those key issues, the decision to re-dispatch troops in the long-term will worsen the image of South Korea in the international community and pose a serious danger to lives and safety of the Korean troops and the Afghan people as well.”
The PROK urged the government to “thoroughly investigate, study very carefully the possible impact of troop re-dispatch to Afghanistan.”
It also urged the National Assembly at all times to employ democratic processes in making decisions and always and put the safety of people on top of other interests.
South Korea withdrew its troops from Afghanistan after a five-year deployment in 2007, when 23 Korean missionaries were held captive by the Taliban.
It allegedly killed two of them and the rest were released.
South Korea has been providing only medical and vocational training by assisting the US, since the pull out.
Some 12 Korean volunteers work inside the US Air Force Base in Bagram, north of Kabul.
The government began to consider sending the troops again to Afghanistan to actively participate in the international efforts for supporting the stabilization and reconstruction operations of the war-ravaged country after the visit of Robert Gates, US defense secretary to Seoul in October 2009.
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