tonight on "worldfocus" -- a u.s. military official says the situation in afghanistan is serious and getting worse. and we've got shocking images of taliban searching for people who voted in last week's election. exhausted greek firefighters battle around the clock to contain massive wildfires north of athens. when flames threaten a monastery, even the nuns join the fight. nd continues to face unrelenting criticism for its release of lockerbie bombing as scottish leaders determine what to do next. and estonia, once a member of the soviet bloc, now part of nato, it has joined the battle in afghanistan. tonight, we look at that country's new role as american ally. >> from the world's leading reporters and analysts, here's what's happening from around the world. this is "worldfocus." made possible in part by the following funders -- major support has also been provided by the peter g. peterson foundation dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america's future. >> good evening. i'm martin savidge. it may emerge as the defining issue of the obama presidency, the war in afghanistan. and tonight we want to take a deeper look at that conflict there from several perspectives you might not have seen, even though president obama has ordered 21,000 additional troops to afghanistan, america's military commanders are now saying that may not be enough to fight effectively against the taliban. yesterday, the chairman of the joint chiefs said the situation is serious. and it is deteriorating. that assessment came just days after afghanistan's presidential election, which continues to generate widespread allegations of fraud and intimidation as the votes are counted. for americans, voting freely and without pressure is all but taken for granted, that is not the case if afghanistan. and to help you understand that, in tonight's "lead focus," we want to give you a firsthand look what the some afghans faced just for voting in a remarkable piece of reporting by james bays of al jazeera english. >> reporter: the taliban said they'd find the people who defied their orders and took part in the election. they are living up to their words. these pictures showed impromptu checkpoint, they stop buses, cars and taxis. and asked to see people's fingers. this man's acclaim he didn't vote. on election day indelible ink was used to make sure no one vote twice. others, though, clearly did participate in the polls. blindfolded they're made to walk in line. and they're then asked to show their inked fingers to the camera. >> translator: you should know that you are standing in line with the jews and your fingers prove this. you are the ones that are strengthening the jews. >> reporter: these taliban fighters say they will probably pardon their captives because this is the holy month of ramadan. however, a taliban spokesman told al jazeera that when they find people who voted, they will be given appropriate punishment. the first stage was filmed further up this road. the main highway between kabul and kandahar.bs it not only demonstrates how the taliban intend to deal with those that voted in the election, it also shows the control they have sometimes they, on the most important route to the country. james bays, al jazeera. you've seen the taliban's intimidation of voters up close. now we want to give you a sense of the other side. how coalition forces are trying to crackdown on taliban rebels who carry out such intimidation and violence and have created a chilling effect on ordinary people. for that, we go to oruzgan province. in central afghanistan where sally sara of abc australia is embedded with australian forces. >> reporter: australian troops push their way through the greenery hunting for the taliban. they stay off the pathways because of the danger of improvised explosive devices. rockets were fired at a polling station and australian troops not far from here. now the search is on for the insurgents who carried out the attack. the villagers say they're too scared to go out because of the taliban. young australian left tenet travis pete asked residents about the information about the taliban. his soldiers keep a close watch for any insurgents. this is dangerous territory. but the interaction with the locals is crucial. >> nine points patrolling through the area. not talking to the locals because you're defeating beuse they'll think that you're arrogant walking out into the fields so you have to get down and talk to them all of the time. >> reporter: one man hands over a letter which was handed over to insurgents two days before the election. >> should keep out on the place of election. >> reporter: it warns villagers to be aware of a taliban offensive. it's part of the intimidation campaign against civilians. this man says no one could read it, so they took it to the local teacher. the australian troops search for weapons, but the taliban are elusive. their hit-and-run tactics make the task more difficult for coalition forces. the muslim holy month of ramadan has just started. it's unclear whether that will mean an increase or decrease in taliban attacks. the coalition forces remain on alert. as the political uncertainty continues in the capital kabul, australian and coalition troops are trying to maintain security. sally sara, abc news, oruzgan. for more on afghanistan's election, we are joined by eric bjornlund, the co-founder of democracy international. an organization that helps developing countries conduct elections. mr. bjornlund has just returned from monitoring the vote in afghanistan. welcome to the program. >> thank you for having me. >> how difficult was it to conduct this election, and how difficult was it for your group to monitor it? >> well, it was extremely difficult to do both. it was very difficult to organize an election in a time of war. and given the level of violence and the threat of violence, it was -- it was very difficult fo the polls in many parts of the country and for voters to turn out. and by the same token it was very difficult for us to organize election observation in this kind of a security environment. >> what is exactly election observation? i mean, what would you do? how did you operate? >> we brought a large number of international experts on elections in afghanistan to afghanistan and deployed them around country to observe the process and learn about what's going on at a local level. this included long-term observers that were there for a number of weeks beginning in july. and short-term observers that arrived in the days before the election and spread out around the country joining in some cases the long-term observers. and they collected information from local officials and learned about the -- learned about the process, bringing their own expertise to what they could -- what kind of information they could gather. >> well, we heard a lot of reports of fraud. we also heard of threats of violence. what kind of problems did you observe? >> well, it's hard to say. i think that it's too soon for us to be judging this election. there were administrative problems reported in parts of the country, but we don't think that those were anything different from what we've seen in other countries and don't, by themselves, threaten the credibility to vote. there were really two different elections. in parts of the country, not much of an election was able to take place because of the threat of violence. and there have been allegations of fraud in those places. and i think we need to wait to let thnal -- the independent election commission and the electoral complaints commission cplete the vote count and investigate those allegations. >> did you or anyone in your group witness something firsthand? >> we witnessed low turnout in some places and we, of course, witnessed problems. but we still need to wait in order to see how systematic and widespread those problems were. >> given the difficulties of holding this first round of voting, if it's necessary to have a second round, a runoff election, would that be even more difficult? >> well, it could be. i mean, if there's going to be a round because neither candidate won 50% of the vote, there will probably be less focus on the problems of this election. but it does raise the stakes for the next round and makes it important to get in place some checks that were not in the first round. one thing is some kind of faster release of partial results from the independent election commission. and we would encourage independent groups, perhaps the domestic election monitoring group in afghanistan, to organize its own parallel vote tabulation to collect the votes independently from a sample of polling stations in order to provide some integrity -- to provide some verification of the vote count. >> eric bjornlund, just back from monitering the vote in afghanistan. thank you very much. >> thank you. with public support on the war in afghanistan decreasing, as that conflict intensifies, more than half of the americans in a poll by the "washington post" at "abc news" say it is not worth fighting. that brings to to our new segment "how you see it." our question for you tonight, should the united states commit even more troops to the war, as some in the military are now suggesting? let us know and give us your thoughts by going to our website, worldfocus.org, where you'll find the "how you see it" section. we'll report back here on what you think. and then later in the program, we'll take another look at how one very small country is making a big contribution and sacrifice as part of the international force in afghanistan. this is how it looked earlier today. not in california, where wildfires are a common problem at this time of year, but in greece, where firefighters battle for a fourth day to contain huge fires burning in several parts of the country. firefighters from spain, france, italy, turkey and cyprus, all helping in that effort. the most intense fires were north of athens, where hug areas of forest and brush have been destroyed and thousands have been forced to leave their homes. although firefighters seem to be making some progress, the battle's been intense. the pictures of the fires are impressive but wait until you see who was battling bravely on the front lines of one fire at a monastery we hear in this report of itn. >> reporter: the skyline northeast of athens this morning, and the fires seem to be retreating. flames from france, cyprus and italy are helping greek teams drop water on the flames. overnight a lull in the gail-force winds allowed firefighters to reduce the danger spots to four main fronts and they may have saved the historic town of marathon. but as the winds are predicted to pick up later, there are concerns about flare-ups from previously dormant flames. in the early hours of this morning, fires surrounded the monastery of st.e to the town. the nuns joined firefighter in the battle against the flames. but were unable to save all of the monastery buildings. there are among hundreds of volunteers helping the emergency services in their struggle to regain control of the region. nearly 2,000 firefighters, the army, and the red cross are involved in the rescue mission. >> translator: there are about 200 members of the red cross in the fire areas. at this moment, we are operating operation with the fire brigade. we are providing many of their trucks with drivers and we're also providing the army with drivers. >> reporter: since saturday, over 90 fires have threatened the city's northern suburbs destroying nearly 40,000 acres of land. tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes, many taking refuge in the capital. the wildfires are the worst to hit the region since the summer of 2007, when nearly 70 people lost their lives. no casualties have been reported in the blaze this year, but it is being termed an ecological disaster. >> eventually, those greek orthodox nuns, a dozen of them, had to be rescued after what what was apparently a futile attempt to beat back the flames. and at our website worldfocus.org, you can find stories from greek bloggers who share their anger and fear about those fires. another story that continues to reverberate today both here in europe and the release of the lockerbie bomber from scotland in that triumphant homecoming he got in libya. scotland's justice minister said today that reception showed no compassion or sensitivity the families of the 270 victims of the bombing, most of them americans, with the outrage aimed at scotland and to some extent the british government, we thought it would be useful to see how britain's itn covered this story with the report from john sparks filed yesterday. >> reporter: the scottish government is unaccustomed to the international spotlight, the intensity of relentless criticism, and today it was coming from all sides. >> i think the saint of scottish soldiles welcoming home a convicted bomber to libya has damaged the reputation of scotland, it's damaged our justice system and it's brought shame to our country. >> reporter: in washington, d.c., big names in american politics lined up to condemn the early release of the man convicted of the lockerbie bombing, abdelbaset ali megrahi. >> convicted an act of ungross justice here. >> shared no compassion for his victims and to give a compassionate release was wrong. >> reporter: the decision by the scottish authorities to release ali megrahi on compassionate grounds, the former libyan agent has terminal cancer, has perplexed the american president. he called it highly objectionable and u.s. politicians, too, the country's top soldier also waded into the raw. >> this is obviously a political decision which is out of my lane. but just personally i was appalled by the decision. >> reporter: it follow little the unprecedented intervention by the head of the fbi, robert mueller, who stated in a letter that the scottish government's decision made a mockery of the law and effectively rewards a terrorist. >> he may die sooner, he may live longer. i can only base my decision on the medical advice i have before me. >> reporter: mr. mccaskill says he followed the very letter of scot's law, but clearly stunned by the criticism, the scottish government source told 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. position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose." that view was expressed before al megrahi's triumphant homecoming which was widely covered around the world. and angered many of the relatives of the victims who died in the lockerbie bombing. scotland has taken much of the blame. a number of websites have popped up, urging a boycott of scotland and scottish products. and the british government'sck in the clear either. in washington, they want to know whether commercial interests, the wishes of british oil companies, for example, were taken into account when the convicted murderer was released. >> we don't have all the details, but if it turns out that the british government encouraged this release to gain an oil contract, shame, shame, shame on them. >> reporter: the justice secretary will have to justify his decision to msps. for fixing the reputation of the country he serves, may present a greater challenge, however. >> john sparks of itn. there is another uproar involving libya, this one in switzerland, after the swiss government apologized to libya's leader moammar gadhafi for the arrest of his son and daughter-in-law last year. hannibal gadhafi and his wife were arrested on charges of mistreating two domestic employees at a swiss hotel. the charges were dropped. several months later after a settlement with the gadhafis. but libya cut oil supplies to switzerland and withdrew more than $5 million from swiss banks. the apology by switzerland's president clears the way for a return to normal relations. from china tonight, there is word that authorities will put more than 200 people on trial this week for alleged involvement in the worst ethnic violence in that country in decades. this summer's violence involved muslim uighurs and han chinese, the country's dominant ethnic group. almost 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured. most of those going on trial are said to be han chinese. finally tonight, our "signature story." we want to return to afghanistan, where a military officials reported the deaths of another american in the southern part of the country, as well as the loss of two troops from estonia, killed by a rdside bomb. that tiny country in the baltic sea has now lost six soldiers since it joined the war effort in afghanistan seven years ago and that got us thinking again about a story we first brought you last march about estonia's commitment to the war. since then, the number of estonian troops in afghanistan has almost doubled to 289. but just why is estonia in the fight? "worldfocus" correspondent dalji dhaliwal went there to find out. >> reporter: scrambling through the ruins of an abandoned soviet rocket base, 30 estonian soldiers are training for war. 15 years ago when russian troops finally went home, estonia built an army of its own. but this is not training to fight an old enemy. these soldiers are headed to afghanistan to fight alongside new allies. >> whereas -- but we're also one member of nato. >> reporter: lieutenant is preparing for his second tour of duty as part of the nato coalition forces. watching the men under his command practice searching for suspects and weapons. lieutenant knows from experience that some of what lies ahead fighting the taliban can't be learned in these snowy woods. >> cultural differences and the climate, it was nothing compared to our culture. >> reporter: estonia first sent troops to afghanistan in 2002. in 2003 they joined the coalition of the willing in iraq. >> it's good to do work side by side with americans, with british. >> 150 estonian troops are now in afghanistan. it may seem like a small number until you realize that this is a country with a total population of 1.3 million, about the same size as san antonio, texas. >> relatively speaking, estonia is made a considerable contribution. >> reporter: minister of >> reporter: minister of defense says that while other countries put restrictions on where and when their troops will serve, tiny estonia puts no conditions on its soldier's deployment. >> we have -- i'm looking for a nice, quiet places around. much rather try to make things happen. that means south of afghanistan eporter: he says that military commitment is, in part, repayment for america's support when estonia broke free from 50 years of soviet rule. an event the country's prime minister andrus ansip calls a miracle. >> when estonia occupied and then not so many countries supported free republic of estonia at that time. but the united states of america and some other countries, they never recognized the illegal cooperation of the free baltic states of the soviet union. >> reporter: estonians also see a connection between their long history of occupation and other nae of freedom. you can see the evidence of the people determined to hold onto an independent identity all around the capital city of tallinn. the wall that surrounds the ancient city of tallinn is a reminder of just how hard this country has struggled against invasions. in the last century alone, both germany and the soviet union have occupied estonia. >> all the people know that freedom is not free. we got huge help when the help was need for estonia and this our moral duty to help others. >> reporter: the willingness to fight for freedom means compulsory military service for young men. service overseas is always voluntary. even so, the mission in afghanistan is unpopular. a defense ministry survey in /# 2007 found that more than half of estonians are opposed to sending their soldiers out of t. the survey was taken not long after a deadly taliban attack killed two estonian soldiers and wounded three others serving in afghanistan. yona engle, an army nurse, was one of the injured. >> the next thing i remember that i'm lying down on the ground. and this hot rocket are on my back. and then i started to think, i wasn't here. how i got here? >> reporter: she lost her right knee. two fellow soldiers lost their lives. a public ceremony attended by the president and the prime minister. engle is still grieving for the men who died the day she was injured. >> the day before this accident, we flaunt our vacation because after three months, we're going to have this ten days in estonia. and we made plans the day before. and the next day, there was no plans. no vacation. no plans. no friends. >> reporter: the first-ever amputee in estonia's military engle was able to get her pr at walter reed army medical center in washington, d.c. today, she's back on active duty on the same base where estonian soldiers trained for duty in afghanistan. a combat mission made more urgent by russia's invasion of georgia, another former soviet republic last year. >> if, for example, if russia is going to attack us, nobody knows when it's going to happen. it happens before and it can happen, like in georgia. who stopped them? nobody. only america. >> reporter: so while estonian soldiers train 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 in our own land. >> reporter: lieutenant will be back in afghanistan in may, wearing the flag has father's generation and his country's leaders could only dream would fly over a free estonia when they were his age. in estonia, i'm dalji dhaliwal reporting for "worldfocus." >> the battle to break free of the soviet union reached a critical point in estonia. and throughout eastern europe in 19 9. and yesterday estonians, and lithuanians got to mark the anniversary of an extraordinary event. on august 24rd, 1989 more than 2 million people holding hands and singing formed a human chain across their countries demanding an end to 50 years of soviet occupation. in emotional ceremonies in the country's capitals, concerts, church services and bonfires brought together veterans at the protest movement. and a new generation that has never known communism in the now free nations. >> it was the war that was settled by three nations. that we want to be free. >> it was not until two months after the people of the baltics stood together for freedom that the berlin wall came down. bringing an end to the cold war and to the existence of the soviet union. and that's "worldfocus" for a monday evening. you can find a lot more news and tell us what's on your mind at worldfocus.org. i'm martin savidge in new york. as always, thank you very much for joining us. and we'll look for you back here again tomorrow and anytime on the web. until then, good night. "worldfocus" is made possible in part by the following funders -- "worldfocus" is made possible in part by the -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com major support has also been provided by the peter g. peterson foundation dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america's future.