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Danish support slipping in Afghanistan

Posted on: Mon January 25, 2010

COPENHAGEN: Danes support for their troop presence in Afghanistan slipped below 50 per cent as the country suffers heavy human losses there, a poll published on Monday showed. Only 48.7 per cent of Danes want the Danish troops to stay in Afghanistan, 41.1 per cent want them to withdraw and 10.2 per cent are undecided, the Ramboell Analyse institute survey suggested. In a similar poll conducted by the institute in November 2008, 51 per cent of Danes said they wanted the soldiers to continue their mission, 43.5 per cent wanted them brought home and 5.5 per cent were undecided. Monday s survey questioned 1,010 people from January 11-14 and was published in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Some 750 Danish troops are taking part in Nato s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, most of them under British command in the restive Helmand province in the south. With 29 soldiers killed since deploying there in late 2001, the Scandinavian country of 5.5 million people has suffered more deaths than any other country proportionally to the number of troops it has in ISAF. The poll also showed that divided by gender, women appear to want a withdrawal, with 49.5 per cent in favour of the troops leaving the country compared to 37.5 per cent who want them to stay. Among men, 31.4 per cent said they wanted the troops called home and 61.8 per cent wanted them to stay. Monday s poll confirmed another survey from the Catinet Research institute in November, which showed that only 47.1 per cent supported the Danish presence in Afghanistan.

Courtesy : The News