Alleged Payment To Taliban By Italy - Dangerous For Britain, Italy Relations

Newspaper reports, the world over, help immensely in develpoment, but in a situation where they have no strong legs on which to stand, they obviously engender unnecessary tensions, especially when the news items are targetting activities of sovereign nations.

It cannot be proved yet as authentic, UK newspaper, the Times' report that Italy paid Taliban fighters in Afghanistan to ensure the prevalence of peace.

Peace Journalism must always play out in such news items. This report should have been suspended until detailed facts are gathered from credible sources ( authorities from both the Italian and Afghan governments). When you have credible information, your story will be published without any rebuttals, but the UK Times seems to have found itself at the other side of the normal Journalistic practice.

According to the BBC, the Times newspaper reports, quoting Western military officials among others that, "the policy was operated by Italian secret services in Afghanistan's Sarobi area, east of Kabul.

"Warlords as well as Taliban commanders were paid, with the amounts running into tens of thousands of dollars.

"An unnamed Afghan army officer also told French news agency AFP that Italy had paid the Taliban to avoid casualties.

"We knew that Italian forces were paying the opposition (fighters) in Sarobi so they would not be attacked. We have information on similar agreements made in the western Herat province by Italian soldiers under NATO command there."

The Times needs to resort to Peace Journalism to help ensure peace in Afghanistan, a country whose most important priority now, is PEACE and SECURITY.

Another aspect of the Times' report says " the US Ambassador had submitted a formal complaint after discovering Italians had been buying off insurgents in the far - west Herat province," but again, Italy denied it as totally false.

It will be advisable that the UK government enter into diplomatic talks with the government of Italy for an amicable settlement of the matter which has the potential of affecting negatively the excellent diplomatic relations between both countries. Who knows? Italy may even be thinking that the UK might be pulling strings as far as this story is concerned. It is about time both nations thread cautiously to avoid any confrontation.

This report may be a "malignant cancer," and it needs to be cured immediately before it grows into a full - blown disease.

Meanwhile, according to the BBC, the Italian government is planning to sue the Times newspaper over the claim.