Security Situation Still Precarious in Afghanistan
(Negroponte says al Qaeda still poses a threat) (1278) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The U.N. special representative in Afghanistan urged the Security Council July 19 to give more consideration to authorizing the expansion of the international peacekeeping force to other areas of the country and warned that nations which pledged funds to rebuild the country must "translate the commitments into concrete contributions." In his first meeting with the Security Council since Afghanistan held its Loya Jirga or Grand Council in June, Lakhdar Brahimi, special representative of the secretary general for Afghanistan, said, "so far, the peace process is on track. To be sure, it is a fragile peace, which must be handled with great care so that it does not unravel." Brahimi attributed the dramatic improvement in security in Kabul in the past six months to the presence of the 4,500-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). But he stressed that in many regions of the country security remains precarious, citing lawlessness in the north, where a female aid worker was gang raped last month. The new national army being trained by the United States and France is not yet a viable alternative, Brahimi said. In the absence of a national army and police force, "a real security void exists in the country, leaving many Afghans feeling vulnerable and uncertain about their own and their country's future," he said. Brahimi, other U.N. officials, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have appealed to the Security Council to ask the international community to provide more peacekeepers for areas outside of Kabul, but the council has failed to do so. A mixture of optimism and anxiety was evident in the council's discussion of the situation in Afghanistan during the daylong open meeting on the 19th. Brahimi, the 15 members of the council, and the representatives of other nations praised the work that had been accomplished since December but also showed a keen awareness of the problems that could still plunge the country back into civil war. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said that the focus of U.S. efforts is centered on the war against terrorism and destroying the remnants of the al Qaeda terrorist organization. The 8,000-troop U.S.-led coalition force defeated the Afghan regime that harbored the al Qaeda network and killed or captured "about half of the top 30 or so al Qaeda leaders," Negroponte said. Nevertheless, "al Qaeda is still dangerous and active and still poses a threat." "Afghanistan's long-term stability is the best guarantee that the country does not once again become an outlaw country that provides sanctuary for terrorists," he said. Negroponte said "the core solution to the Afghan security problem lies with the Afghans themselves." The Afghans must work together to prevent a recurrence of violence in the north and such incidents as the rape, and the assassination of the vice president of the Transitional Authority, he said. The backbone of Afghanistan's security apparatus must ultimately be the Afghan national Army, the ambassador said. "The Transitional Authority must create a representative, multi-ethnic and apolitical Ministry of Defense and National Army that works on behalf of all Afghans." "The development of a comprehensive plan for demobilization or regional militias and the absorption of some of those soldiers into a national army is a critical step," Negroponte added. The ambassador said that "the United States has focused on the challenges of building an accountable and effective security apparatus in that country, of fostering Afghanistan's internal governance, and of providing humanitarian and development assistance." French Ambassador David Levitte said that the discussion of expanding ISAF is "academic" because "no country in this room is ready to dispatch thousands of troops to the provinces." Nevertheless, Brahimi argued, "we continue to believe that the expansion of ISAF would have an enormous impact on security and could be achieved with relatively few troops, at relatively little cost, and with little danger." Pressing the council to "at least renew consideration of (expanding the force) into the north," the special representative said he "felt certain" that it would not require more than 5,000 troops and would not put the peacekeepers in danger. "Afghans know the difference between armies that come as help, and those that come to conquer," he said. Brahimi said that the assassination of Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir "serves as a reminder that whatever successes we may have witnessed so far in Afghanistan, a single act or event can send fear down the spines of the most powerful people in Afghanistan and has the potential to seriously destabilize the situation." "So far we have been lucky, for there have been few such events," he said. But he warned that as the peace process moves forward "we must be prepared for further setback and perhaps even crises, for a situation as complex as Afghanistan defies quick and easy resolution." Brahimi, who also heads the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told the Council "there is still a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and this crisis is likely to persist for some time." "We are facing funding shortfalls, but refugees are returning in record numbers and the services that would allow them to resettle and reintegrate in their own towns and villages, instead of flocking to already overcrowded and overburdened urban centers, are mostly absent," he said. "Meanwhile, the drought continues and household food security is at risk." But recovery and reconstruction help has been slow to materialize and the pledges made at the Tokyo Afghanistan assistance conference have not yet been translated into concrete improvements in the lives of ordinary Afghans, Brahimi said. At the Tokyo conference donors pledged more than $4,500 million over the next five years. Brahimi said that the U.N.'s role in Afghanistan during the next 18 months will be to help the Afghans build national agencies and governmental institutions so that international assistance will be able to go directly to the Afghan government. "The challenge before us now is to prove to the people of Afghanistan that we will not disengage until we have made good on our promises to them, and that we will not allow setbacks to reverse our course," he said. "We owe this to the Afghan people, and to regional and global security, for we know all too well that instability in that remote part of the world can have grave repercussions far beyond the borders of Afghanistan." (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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