Other events in Baltic States

Afghan war veterans urge Lithuanian politicians to follow the examples of the allies and withdraw its troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, writes LETA/ELTA.

"From our experience, we can state that foreigners will fail to bring their own order to Afghanistan. We think that Lithuania's participation in this mission is a big mistake and waste of financial and human resources. We therefore call on Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and MPs to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan and not waste taxpayers' money," says Rimantas Chmieliauskas, head of the Afghan war veterans' organization Mirazas in Klaipeda.

According to him, a number of countries, which are richer and more influential than Lithuania, have announced about their withdrawal from Afghanistan in the near future. The British withdraw 1,000 troops; Belgium and Canada have said they would pull out their troops by the end of 2011.