Military

DATE=4/3/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=AFGHANISTAN / HUMAN RIGHTS (L O)

NUMBER=2-301716

BYLINE=DALE GAVLAK

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A United Nations expert on Afghanistan says the country needs sustained financial and political support from the international community if security and human rights are to take root. VOA's Dale Gavlak has this report from Geneva.

TEXT: The U-N special investigator for human rights in Afghanistan, Kamal Hossain, has warned the international community not to forget the central Asian nation.

Mr. Hossain told the U-N Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva that insufficient funding for Afghanistan could jeopardize the development of such groups as the army and police, which are important to ensure stability. He adds that a cut in funding could also hinder advances made in the human rights field after years of Taleban abuse.

/// HOSSAIN ACT ///

Afghanistan should not be neglected at this very critical stage in its transition -- where it is halfway down the road and the next half is the really tough part of it. Constitution, elections, establishment of representative institutions and security. Without security you have the minimum concept of a state delivering what is expected of it -- which is the security of life, property, people. This can only be done with the capacity for security to build up -- police, army, national institutions.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Hossain says Afghanistan has 17-hundred soldiers but requires a 70-thousand strong army. And while it has hundreds of trained police, he says, it needs thousands more to properly police a country of 25-million people. The absence of enough security forces, he says, emboldens warlords in far-flung areas of the country to harass different ethnic tribes and to roll back educational opportunities for women and girls.

/// 2ND HOSSAIN ACT ///

Some of these violations that we hear about against local ethnic groups or against women is by armed people -- people who work under local commanders. In order to enforce and protect human rights, you need capacity in order to deal those who are the violators.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Hossain says the Afghan interim government, headed by Hamid Karzai, would like to arrest those responsible, but it lacks sufficient force.

The U-N special investigator welcomed Afghanistan's signing on to the International Criminal Court. He says warlords who commit future atrocities can now face prosecution by the court.

So far Afghanistan has received almost two billion dollars out the four-and-a-half billion-donors pledged by the international community. The World Bank says it needs more like 15-billion dollars. While the country's finance minister says 20 to 30 billion dollars are needed for rebuilding over the next five years. (Signed)

NEB/DG/KL/MEM/FC