Hazara Nation

By JONATHON HOWE
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Afghanistan's Bamiyan City is home to over 60,000 people, the Bamiyan budhas and from April a contingent of Linton soldiers.

Colonel Darryl Tracy will command the 138 New Zealand soldiers going to Afghanistan next month.

Concerns have been raised about the rising Taliban threat in the war-torn country, but Col Tracy said the Taliban were not active in Bamiyan.

"As of yet we haven't seen the Taliban or insurgents operating in the Bamiyan province. But there are certainly criminally motivated groups operating."

But the potential for the Taliban or al-Qaeda to enter the province was always there, he said.

"We are not out there hunting Taliban, that's not our mandate. Our mandate is to assist the Bamiyan local authorities across all spectrums. Part of that mandate does have security."That's just one part of the New Zealand Defence Force's continual monitoring of that situation, to make sure that we can appropriately meet some of those threats, if they eventuated up in Bamiyan," Col Tracy said.

He would not comment on the coalition's handling of Afghanistan, but did confirm the rise of insurgent activity there.

"That activity is predominantly in the southern provinces, which is not an area where we operate."

Bamiyan's Hazara populations were well-disposed towards the New Zealand soldiers, he said.

"The Bamiyan province is fairly homogenous in being Hazara. They have been one of the more exploited cultures of the Afghanistan wider population, so they are very much enjoying the security. They want their children to have education, they want to have medical facilities, they want to be able to work and raise their children in relative peace."

Col Tracy will be leaving behind his wife Tracy and their three sons Sean, Luke and Michael.

"It's never an easy thing to separate from your wife and children for a period of time."

The troops will deploy from the Ohakea Air Force base on April 9.