Military

DATE=1/31/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N / AFGHANISTAN / BRAHIMI (L-O)

NUMBER=2-299066

BYLINE=JENNY BADNER

DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS

INTERNET=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A U-N official has told the Security Council he is encouraged by improvements made in Afghanistan during the past year. But V-O-A's Jenny Badner reports, there is concern about future support to continue the progress.

TEXT: Special Representative to the U-N Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, told the Security Council (Monday) that Afghanistan has made "remarkable progress" in the past year in establishing its government under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai.

Despite steps forward, Mr. Brahimi says, Afghanistan faces many serious problems, and Afghans worry the county's plight will be overshadowed by international crises elsewhere.

/// FIRST BRAHIMI ACT ///

While the international community faces a number of new challenges, the challenges in Afghanistan have not yet been overcome. Afghans are watching closely, developments elsewhere with some sense of fear that they will be forgotten again.

/// END ACT ///

The Brahimi report reiterates the need to move forward with rebuilding a national army and reforming and training Afghanistan's police force. By the end of the year, he says, seven-thousand soldiers will have completed basic training and some Afghan units are now being deployed.

Mr. Brahimi says that inter-factional fighting and sporadic terrorist activity continues, especially in the northern part of Afghanistan. /// OPT /// The most recent incident occurred in the southwest of Kandahar (Friday), when at least 18 people were killed as a bus detonated a landmine. /// END OPT ///

Mr. Brahimi says crime is high in and around Mazar-e-Sharif, and points to serious human rights violations recorded in a series of human rights reports.

He says ethnic conflicts and human rights abuses against women and girls, especially in rural areas, remain a serious concern.

/// SECOND BRAHIMI ACT ///

Human rights abuses are so endemic, after the decades of war and state collapse, that real change in the human rights situation will require systematic reform.

/// END ACT ///

As in past reports, Mr. Brahimi emphasized the need to rebuild Afghanistan's economy. He says, one of the highest priorities will be to absorb more than one-million refugees expected to return to Afghanistan this year.

/// OPT ///

Although progress has been made in creating new work for Afghans, Mr. Brahimi says, many citizens have turned back to poppy cultivation, refining and transportation for income.

/// THIRD BRAHIMI ACT // OPT ACT ///

In the past in Afghanistan, these profits have been used to nurture a war economy. It is crucial, during this transitional period, that such an economy not be allowed to regain its former proportions.

/// END ACT // END OPT //

Mr. Brahimi says that the Afghan people worry that, without continued international commitment, the progress that has been made since the fall of the Taleban could easily be reversed.

NEB/JB/RH/TW