Dutch NATO troops take Koran on Afghan patrols

TIRIN KOT, Afghanistan, July 21 (Reuters) Dutch NATO troops taking over military operations from the United States in southern Afghanistan later this month are going out of the way to persuade sceptical locals they are on their side.

''The Dutch will still focus on security but we want to win their hearts and minds,'' Captain Miriam Grandia told reporters on a visit to volatile Uruzgan province today.

''We will go out on patrol with the Afghan National Army and will hand out Korans to show we are not against Islam,'' added Grandia, one of a 1,400-strong Dutch contingent in the town of Tirin Kot.

The Dutch approach, which also includes running a local radio station, is a radical departure from that of the U S troops they replace who concentrated on hunting down Taliban insurgents.

Not only did the U S tactic run the risk of alienating local public opinion, but it also meant that crucial reconstruction work and efforts to install good local governance took second place.

Uruzgan is one of the strongholds of the Taliban, the place where Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the hardline Islamist group, was born and where Pashtun tribal code often supplants national law.

Yet along with the Canadian and British troops spearheading NATO's move into the south around July 31, the Dutch say their job will not be to go out to hunt and kill the Taliban.

Instead, their main challenge is to prove to a sceptical Dutch public that they are in Afghanistan simply to help the impoverished Muslim state get back on its feet.

It is part of a wider gamble by NATO countries that, even under precarious security conditions, they will kick-start reconstruction enough to win over the Afghans and finally wrest away any lingering support for the Taliban.

''This is going to cost us 400 million euros over two years. You want to get the reconstruction right for that sort of money,'' said a Dutch political source who asked not to be identified.

TALIBAN THREAT From next month, the Dutch will launch a series of ''quick impact projects'' in Uruzgan concentrated on improving local schools, clinics and administrative offices.

As well as taking over fledgling reconstruction projects initiated under U S protection, their biggest single project is to oversee the building of a 23 million dollars segment of a main road eventually hoped to connect much of the country.

''At the moment we are doing the reconnaissance. Then there will be tender process we will be working with local contractors of course,'' said Grandia.

But the main question for the development effort is: Will the Taliban let them? Uruzgan is listed by NATO as one of the least secure provinces in the country and reconstruction efforts have been held back by trouble. On Monday, a coalition soldier was killed and 11 others wounded in an attack in Tirin Kot district.

''Tirin Kot itself is not too bad. But whenever we go out, we will need protection,'' said Grandia.

Alliance diplomats acknowledge that the violence across the south will inevitably mean any progress in rebuilding infrastructure will be painfully slow.

''It is a tremendous challenge when the first conditions for reconstruction and development are not yet met,'' said one envoy.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after inspecting the Dutch base today that he was convinced it would be possible to take the first steps on development even amid the upsurge in attacks.

But on the same trip he also acknowledged there would be a limit to what NATO could do while the violence persisted.

''For farther-reaching reconstruction to take place, it is advisable to have the basic conditions of security,'' he said.

REUTERS DKA VV1723