tonight on "worldfocus-- a u.s. military official says the situation in afghanistan is serious and getting woe. and 've got shocking images of taliban searchingfor people who voted in last ek's election. kpautive greek firefiters battle arod the clock to coain massive wildfires north of athens. when flames threaten a monastery,eventhe ns joined e fight. scotland continueto face unlentless criticism for its release of lockerbie bombing as scottish leaders deterne what donext. and estonia, on a mber of the soviet bloc, nowart of natoit has joined the battle in afghastan. tonight, we look at that country's w role as american ally. >> from the world's leading reporters and analys, here's what's happeningrom around the world. this is "worldfocu" de possible in part by the following funders mar support has also been provided by the peter g. petersonoundation dedicated to promoting fiscal respoibility and addressing keyconomic challees facing america's future. od eveni, i'm martin sadge. the wain afghanistan. d tonight we want to ta a deeper look at thatonflict there from several rspectives you might not havseen, even though president obama has ordered 21,000 aitional troops to afghanist, america's military commanders are now ying that may not be enough to fight eectively against the taliba sterday, the cirman of the joint chiefs sa the situation is serious. and it deterrating. that assessment came st days ter afghastan's presidential election, whic continues to generate widespread allegations of fraud and intimidation as votes are counted for americans, voting freely and without pressures all but taken for granted, that is not the case if afghanisn. and toelp you unrstand tht, in tonight's "lead fos" we want to gi you a firstland look what e someafghans faced just for voting in remarkable piece of reporting of james ba al jazeera englis >> reporter: t taliban said th'd find the people who defied their ords and took part in the election. they are livinup to their word these ctures showed impromptu checkpoint, they stopbuses, carsnd taxis. and asked to see peoe's fingers. is man's claim he didn vote on electn day indelible nk wa used to make sure no one vote twice. others, though, clearly did participate in the pls. indfolded they're made to walk line. and they're then asked to show their inked fingerto the camera. >> translator: you should know that youre standing in line with the jews and your fingers prove this. you are the ones that are stngtheninghe jews. >> reporter: tse taliban fighters say ey will probly paon their captives becaus this is the ho month of ramadan. however, taliban spokesman told al jazeera that when they find peoe who vod, they wl be given appropria punishnt. e first stage was filmed further up th road. the main highway between kabul and kandahar. it not only demonstrates ho the taliban intendo de with those that vot in the election, it also show the contro they hav sometimes they on the most iortant route tohecountry. james bays,l jazeera you've seen the taliban's intimidation ofvoters up close. now we want to give you a sense of the other side. how coalitionforces are tryin to crackdown on taliban rebels who carry out schntimidation and violen and have created a chilling eect on ordinary people. for th, we go to oras gan province. where sally sara in abc australia is embded with austraan forces. >> reporter: australianroops sh their way thugh the greenry, hunting forhe taliban. they stay off thepathwa because of the danger of improvised elosive devic. rockets wereired at a polling station and stralian troops not far from here. now the arch is on for the surgents who carried out the attack. the vilgers y they're scaredto go out because of the taliban. yog australian lt nant asked residents about the information about the taliban. his soldie keep a clo watch forny insurgents this is dangerous territory. the nteraction with the locals is ucial. >> nine ints patrolli through the ar. not talking tthe locals because yore defeating yoself because they'll think that you're arrogant walkg out into the flds so you he to get wn and ta to them all thtime. >> reporr: handed to insurgents two daysbefore the election. >> shold keep out on the pla ofelection. >> repter: it warns villagers to be aware of taliban offensive. it's part of thentimidation campgn against civilians. this manays no one could read itso they took it to the local teacher. the austraan troops searc for weapons,ut the taliban are elusive. their hit-and-run tactcs make the task more difficult for alition official the holy month of ramadanas just started. it'snclear whethe that will mean an increa or dcrease in taliba attas. the calition forces remain alt. as the politicalncertainty continues in e capitalabul, australian and clition troops are trying to maintain secity. say sa, abc news, oruse ga. for moreon afghanistas ection, we are joined by eric bjnlund the cfounder of democracy internationa an organization at helps developi countes conduct election mr. borne lunds ju returned from monitoring the vo in afghanistan. welcome to the proam. >> thank youor having me. >> how difficult was it to conduct this elecon, and how difficult wa it for yougroup to monitort? >> well, it was extremely diicult to do bot it was very difficult to organi an election in a time of war a given the level violce and thehreat of violenceit was --t was very difficult for election officials to organize theolls in my parts ofhe country and for voters turn out. and by the same tokeit was very difcult fors to organize election obsvation in this kd of aecurity enronment. >> whais exactly election obseation? i mean, wh would you o? how did you perate? >> we brght large number of international perts on elections in afghanist to afghanistan and deployed them around country to observe the process d learn about what's going on at a local level. this includ long-term observers that were ere for a number of weeks, beginning in july. and short-term observers that arrived in the days before the electi and spread o around cotry joining in some cases the long-term observs. an they collected informion from local officials and learned about the -- learned out the press, bringing thr own expertise to what they could -- what kind of information they couldgather. >> wellwe heard a lot of reports of fraud. we aso heard ofthreats of violen. what kind of pblems did you obsee? >> well, it' hard to say. i think that it's too soon for us to be judging this eltion. there re administrative oblems reported in parts of the count, but we don't think that thoseere anything dierent from what we've seen in other countriesnd don, by themselves, threaten te credibity to vo. ere were really two different electis. in parts of the country, not much of an eleion was able to take place becau of the threat of violence. and there have been allegations of fraud in those places. and i think we need to wait to let the internationa-- the independent election cmission and the electoral complaints commission comple the vote count an investigate those allegations. >> did you or anyone in your group witns something firsthand? >>e witnesd low tuout in some placesnd we, of cose, witnessed problems. but we still need to waitin order toee how systematic and widespread those proems were. >> given t difficulties of hoing this first round of voting, if i's necessary to ve a second round, runoff election, uld that be even re difficult? >> well, itould be. i mean, ifthere's going a second round becse neither candate won 50% o vote, there will probably beess focus on the problems of this eleion. but it does ise the stakes for the next round and makes it important get in place some checks that were n in the first roun one thing is some kind of faster release of results from the independent election commissi and we would encourage indepeent groups perhs the domestic elecon monitoringroup in afghanistan torganize its oarallel vote tabulation to collec the votes independently from sample of pling stations in order to provide some tegrity -- to provide some verication of the vote count >> eric bjornlund, just back from mon, to the vo from afghanistan. thank you very mu. >> thank you. with public suppor the war in ahanistan decreasing, as that cflictintensifies more than halfof the americs in a poll byhe "washiton post"/abc news sayt is not wortfighting. that bngs to to our new segmt "how you see it." r question for youtonigh shou the united states commit even more troops to the war, as some in the military are now suggesng? let us know d give us your though by going to our website, worldfocus.org, ere you'll find the "h youee " section. we'll report ba here on wha you think. and then later in the program, we'll take another look at how one vy small cuntry is making a b contribution and sacrifice. prt of the international force in afghanistan this is w it looke earlier today. not in califoia, where wildfires are a commonroblem at that time of year, but in grce, where firefighters batt for a fourth day to contain huge fires buing in several parts of the couny. firefighters fm spain, france, italy, turkey and cyps all helping in that effort. e most intense fires were north of athens, wher huge areas forest and brush hav been destroyed a thousands have been fced to leave their home although fefighters seem be making some progress, the battle's bee intens the pictures othe fires are impressive but wai util you see who wasattling bravely on the front lines of one fire at a monastery as we hear in is repo of itn. >> reporter: the skylin northet of athe this morning, and the fires seem to retrting. fles from france, cyprus and italy are helping gek teams drop water on th flames. ernight lull in the gail-fced winds alwed firefighters to rece the danger spots to fur main fronts and they may have saved t histic town of marhon. but as theinds are predicted to pick up latr, a there coerns about flair ups from previously dormantlames. in the earlyours of this morning, fires surrounded the monasty of st. -- close t the wn. the nuns joined fefighter in the battle agnst the ames. but re unle to save all of th monasty ilding. there are amg hundreds of lunteers lping the emergency services itheir struggle to gain control of theregion. nearly 200 firefights, the army, and the red oss are involvedn the rescue mission. >> translar: there are about 200 members of the redross in the fi ars. at this ment, we are orating opation with the firebrigade. we are priding many of their ucks with drivers and wee also proving the army with drivers. >> reporter: since saturday, over 90ires have threatened the ty's northe suburbs destroying nearly ,000 acres of land. tens of thoands of people have had to fe their mes, many tang refuge inhe capal. the wildfires ar the worst hithe region since theummer of 207, when nearly 70 people lost their lives. no caslties have beenreported in the blaze this year,ut it is bng termed an ecologal disaster. >> eventually, those greek orthodox nuns, doze of them, had to be scued afte what what w parently a futile attempt to beat ba the flames. nd at our websi "worldfocus."org youan share your stories from greek blgers. anothe story that ntinue toeverberate todayoth here in eure, and the release of the lockere bomber from scland in that triumpnt homecoming he got libya. saidoday that reception showed no compassion orensitivity the milies of the 0 victimsf the bombing, mos of them amicans, with the outrag aimed at scotland and to some extent the british goverent, we thoht it would be useful to see how britain's it covered this storywith theeport from johnparks filed yesterday. >> repter: the scottsh governme is unaccustomed to the international spotlight, the intensitof lentless criticism,nd today iwas coming from l sides. >> i think thet. of scottish -- toelcome a convicted bombeto libya has damad the reputation of scotla, it's damaged our justice stem and brought sha to our country. >> reporter: in washington, d.c., big names in american politics lined up to condemn the early release of thean convicted of the lockerbie bombing, abdelbaset ali al megri. >> convictedn act of ungross justice re. shared no compahis victims and give a compassionate release was wrong. >> rorter: the decision by the scottish authorities to release ali al megrahi on compassionate grounds, t former libyan agent, has terminal ncer, has perplexed the erican president. he clled it highly objectionable and u.s. policians, too, the country's top soldier also waded into e ul. >> thiis obviously a political decision which is outf my lane. but just personal ias appalled fwlie cision. >> reporr: it follow little the unprecedented intervenon byhe head of the fbi, robert mueller, who stated in a tter that the sottish governnt's decision made a mocke of the law and effeively rewards a terrorist. >> he may live sooner, he may live long. i can only ba mydecisionn the medical advice i have before . >> reporter: m mccaskill says he followed the very leer of scott's w, but clearly stunned by t criticism, the scottish government source td this program that the minister received a letter from the u.s. embassy earlier this month. it was quite different in tone, said the source, reading "the u.s. posion is that conditionarelease on coassionate grounds would be a far preferabl alternativeto prisoner transfer,hich we strongly oppos" that view wasexpressed before almegrahi's triumphant homecoming which was widely covered arnd the world. gered the victs who died in the locker beam bombing. scotland h taken much of the blame. a number of website have popped , urging a boycott of scotland and scottish products. and brish governnt's not in the clear eher. in washington, they want to know whethecommercial interests, the wisher of brish oil companies, for example, we tan into account when the convicted murderer was released. we don't have all o the details, butf it tur out that the britishovernment encouragedhis releaseto gain anoilcontract, shame,shame, shame on them. >>eporter: the justice secretary will have to justi his decision tomsps. the big thing the reputation of e country he serves,may esent a greater challenge, hover. >> john spar of itn. there is another upar inlving libya, this one in swzerland, after the swiss government apologized to libya's leader moaar gadhafi for the arrest of hi son and daughter-in-w last yr. hannibal gadhafi and his wife were arrested on crges of mistating two domesticm ployies at swiss hotel. the chaes redropped. veral months later after a selement with the dhafis. but libya cut oil supies to switrland, and withdrew more than $5 million from swiss banks. the apogy by switzerld's presidenclears the way for a return to normal rations. from china tonight, there is word that authorits will put more than 200 people on trial this week for alleged involvement in the worst ethnic vience in that cntry in decades. this summer's violence involved muslim uighurs and han chinese, the country's dominant ethnic group. almost 200 pele were killed d 1,700 injured. most of those going on trial are said to be han chine. finally tonight, our "signature story." we want to return to afghanistan where a military officials reported theeaths ofanother american in the southernart of the cotry, as well as the loss of two troops from estonia, killed by roadside bomb. thatiny country in the baltic sea has now lost s soldiers since it joined the war fort in afghanian seven years ago and thatot us thinking again about a sto that we first broughyou last march about estonis commitment to the war. since then, the nuer o estonian tops in afghanistan ha almostoubled to89. but just whys estonia in the fight? "worldfocus" rrespondent dole daley wall went there to find out. >> reporter: scrambling throh the ruins of an abandoned soviet rocket base,0 estonian soldiers are training fowar. 15 years ago when russn troops finally went home, eston built an army of i own. but this is not aining to fight an o enemy. these soldiers are headed to afghantan to fight alongside new allies. >> where -- but we're also o meer of nato. >> reporter: lieutent is preparing for h scond tour of duty a part of the nato coition forces. watching the men under his command practi seahing for suspects and weapons. litenant knows fro experience that some of what lies ahead fighting the taliban can'tbe learned in these snowy woods. >> ctural differces and the clime, nothing compare to our culture. >> reporter: eonia first sent troo to afghanist i 2002. in 2003 they joid the coition of the willing in iraq. it'sood to do work side by si with americans, by brit jiesh 150 estonian troops are now in afgnistan. it may seem like a small number until you realizthat this is a country with total population of 1.3 million, about the same size as san aonio, texas. >>relatively speaking, estonia is mad a cnsiderable contribution. >> reporter: minister of defense, says at while other countries put restrictionon where and when their troops will serve, tiny eston puts no conditio on its soldier's deployment. >> we have -- i'mooking for a ce, quiet places around. much rather try make thin happen. that means sou offghanistan andithout cadiats. >> repter: he says that military commitment is in rt, repaymenfor americs support wh estonia broke free from 50 years of soviet rule. event the couns prme minister anrus calls a miracle. >> estonia occupiednd then not so ma countries supported fr reblic of estonia a that time. but the united states of amerca ansome other untries, they never recognized the ilgal operation free baltic stat. >> reporter: estonians also see a connecti between their long historof occupation and oer nations desire of frdom. you can see the edence of the etermined to honto an iependent identity a around t capital city of tallin. the wall that suounds the ancient city of talent is a remier of just how hard tis untry has sruggled against vasions. in the lt century ale, both germany d the soviet uon have occupied estonia. >> all the people know that freedom notree. we got huge help whe the help was neede for estonia and this our moral duty toelp others. >> reporter: theillingness to fight for freedomeans compulsory milary service for ung men. rvice overseas is alwys vontary. even so, the mission in afghanistan is unpopular. a dense ministry surve in 2007 foundthat more than half of estonians are opposed to sending their soemers out of th country. th survey was taken notong after a deadlyaliban attack killed two eonian sdiers and wounded three others serving in afghanistan. yona gle, an army nurse, was one othe injured. >> the next thing i remeer that i'm lying down on the ground. and this hot rocketn my back. and then i started to think, i wasn't here. i was in -- how got here? >> reporte >> two fellow soldiers lost their live a public ceremony attended by the president and the pme minister. engle is still grievingor the men who died the day she was inred. >> the d bore this cident, we flaunt our vacion because after three months we're going to hav these ten days in estoni and we ma -- the day before and the next day. no vacation. plans. no frien. >> reporter: the first-ever amputtee in estonia's military engle was able to get her prosetic leg at walter reed ar medical center in washingtond.c. toda she's back on activeuty onhe same base ere estonian soldiers traid the du in afghanistan. a combat missionade more urgent by russia's invasionf georgia, another former soviet republic last year. >> for example,if russia is going attack us, nobody knows when it's going to happen. it happens beforend it can happen, ke in georgia. who stopped them? body. only ameri. >> repter: so while estonian soldiers tin to fight the taliban, they, too know they need allies and partners to hold on to their independence. >> we now know we need to work our own land. >> repter: lieutenant will be back in afghanist in may, weing the flag has faer's neration and his country's leaders cod only dream would fly over a freeestonia when they were his age in esnia, i'm dajihaliwal reporting for orldfocus." >> t battle to break free of the soviet union reached a critic point in estonia. and yesterda estonians thuani thuanians. on aust 24rd, more than 2 million people holding hands a singing fmed auman chain across theirountries danding an e to 50 yearsf soviet occution. emotional ceremonies in the country's capitals, conces, church se bonfes brought tother veterans the protest movement. and a new generation that has never known communi in the now freeations. >> it was the war tt was settled by three nations. that we want to be free. >> it was not until two mons afr the people of t baltics stood togetheror freedom th the berlin wall came down. inging an end to the cold war and to th existenc of the soviet union. d that's "worldfocus" for a monday evening. you can find a lo more news an tell us whas on yo mind at worldfocusrg. i'm martin sidge in new york. as aays, thank you very mh for joining usnd we'll look for you back here again tomorrow and anytime on the w. until then, go night. "worldfocus" imade possible ipart by the folling funders -- "worldfocus" imade possible ipart by the -- captions by tac -- wwvitac.com >>major support has also been provided by the per g. peterson fndation dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibity and addressi key economic chlenges facing america's future.