Military

DATE=12/17/02

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=YEARENDER: AFGHANISTAN SECURITY

NUMBER=5-52747

BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE

DATELINE= KABUL

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Two-Thousand-Two was a remarkable year for the people of

Afghanistan. Freed from the grip of the Taleban and al-Qaida, Afghans

saw a transitional government take shape and a new national army and

police force established. Still, as V-O-As Jim Teeple reports,

factional fighting and terrorism persisted in Afghanistan in 2002,

raising long term concerns about security in the country, and prompting

a major shift in coalition military activities.

TEXT: /// ACTUALITY OF POLICE RADIOS, UP AND UNDER ///

German troops belonging to the International Security Assistance Force

were taking no chances one night last September -- stopping cars to

conduct spot identity checks and search for weapons.

The I-S-A-F troops are responsible for security in Kabul. The troops --

like the residents of the city they were patrolling -- were on edge. A day before, a car bomb had killed more than two dozen Afghans. Hours after the bomb blast, President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the southern city, Kandahar.

Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah warned darkly of terrorism resurfacing in Afghanistan.

/// ABDULLAH ACTUALITY ///

The terrorist groups will try and make a few attempts in order to show

they are not gone, that they are still there. They do this to attract

attention. I think their aim is from one side to attract attention and

destabilize the situation inside Afghanistan. Their other aim is to

show the campaign against terrorism has been unsuccessful. This is

their strategy. While the leaders of terrorist organizations such as

al-Qaida and the Taleban are in hiding and on the run and struggling for

survival, they are also trying to show their organizations are not

totally destroyed. We also believe this. We believe terrorists and

terrorism is not eradicated from Afghanistan, or from the region.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Foreign Minister Abdullah's comments came just weeks after President

Hamid Karzai had been sworn in as transitional president, following the

conclusion of a historic Loya Jirga or grand council meeting of many

of Afghanistan's traditional leaders. Afghanistan, it seemed, was about to enter a new era of political stability and reconstruction.

Alex Thier is a former U-N official in Afghanistan, who now works as a

consultant to organizations involved in conflict resolution efforts.

He says extremist groups with ties to the Taleban and al-Qaida were

bound to re-group in Afghanistan. Mr. Thier says although terrorist

attacks -- like the car bombing in Kabul and the attempt on Mr. Karzai's

life -- are dangerous to Afghanistan's stability, factional fighting is a far greater threat.

/// THIER ACTUALITY ///

The greater threat to Afghanistan's future is factional fighting at the

moment. It is not only from the forces that were controlling the

country before, like the Taleban or al-Qaida. The danger now is that

you have (political) fault lines (problem areas) in the north, you have

problems in the south. There was shooting recently south of Herat.

There are obvious significant problems to the south of here, in Gardez

and Khost areas. If any of those conflicts break out in a large scale

way, it is going to force the international community reckon with the

seething conflicts that exist in Afghan society, right now.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

/// OPT /// Alex Their says the remnants of the Taleban and al-Qaida

know they will not be able to retake control of Afghanistan. He says

the best they can hope for is to destabilize the country. He says the

challenge for the eight-thousand strong U-S-led coalition force in

Afghanistan is to deploy enough force to prevent that from happening

without alienating the local population. /// END OPT ///

U-S military authorities say they are attempting a delicate balancing

act in Afghanistan: hunting the remnants of the Taleban and al-Qaida,

and trying to establish security, while at the same time avoiding

entanglements with Afghan factions, that could draw U-S and coalition

forces deeper into the nation's factional fights.

Late in the year, there was a major restructuring of coalition

military activities in the country, shifting emphasis away from combat

operations towards reconstruction efforts. On a visit to Afghanistan in

November, General Tommy Franks, the commander-in chief of the U-S

Central Command, said the shift will mean modifying combat operations, so that more security can be provided for reconstruction efforts in

Afghanistan.

/// FRANKS ACTUALITY ///

What we know we need to do is that, we need to continue to set security

conditions inside Afghanistan, so that the Afghans themselves can get this country under control. That is not new news to us. It is a matter of focus for us. I stay away from terms like nation-building, or

peacekeeping or peacemaking. We are talking about simply changing, or

modifying, the focus, that we put into kinetics (combat operations),

which we are going to continue to do in this country, as long as we need

to, and how much we are going to put into reconstruction.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

The policy change is controversial, with some development organizations

saying they do not want to see a blurring of lines between humanitarian

workers and soldiers, and others saying the military should stick to

what it does best, fighting the remnants of the Taleban and al-Qaida.

But U-S military authorities defend the shift, saying Military-backed

reconstruction projects can have an immediate effect on an area, and

also help to create the stability that Afghanistan so desperately

needs. (Signed)

NEB/JLT/FC