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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

AFGHANISTAN: NATO to take over command of ISAF

ISLAMABAD , 17 April 2003 (IRIN) - The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) - a 19-member military alliance of Western states - will take over the command of the UN-mandated 4,500-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan in late summer.

"We have been asked by nations who have been ISAF lead nations before to help in overcoming the growing problem of a continued search every six months to find new nations to lead the mission," a NATO spokesman, Yves Brodeur, told IRIN from the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Thursday. He said countries heading ISAF had requested the role for NATO.

The peacekeeping force has up to now been under a six-month rotation command system, which forced each nation leading ISAF to look for a new country to lead the force before its term expired. "This means that every six months a new headquarters had to be put in place and there is was no continuity between the different missions," Brodeur said.

The United Kingdom and Turkey headed ISAF over the past year, with Germany, Canada and the Netherlands currently commanding the force, which provides security and protection to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

"We see this as a measure to improve enormously the efficiency of ISAF, and will make it easier for ISAF to play its role," Brodeur said, adding that countries contributing to the multinational force could henceforth persevere in discharging their responsibilities without worrying about the contingencies such as deploying headquarters, finding another nation for command replacement and providing guidance to a successor lead nation.

NATO stated that neither ISAF's name nor its mission would change. Its operations would continue being implemented under a UN mandate, and the alliance would welcome non-NATO contributors. The alliance has already been playing a significant role in support of ISAF, with NATO members providing 95 percent of the troops involved. Alliance member nations have led ISAF to date.

Welcoming the move, Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told IRIN in Kabul that Afghans were happy with ISAF's performance. "This will create continuity in command as long as ISAF has the mandate of the [UN] Security Council," he said.

While NATO has agreed to take over the ISAF command, there are mounting calls for ISAF expansion, with its forces deployed beyond the confines of Kabul. The spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, Manoel de Almeida e Silva, reiterated this call. "For a long time, the Afghan leadership, people and the United Nations have asked the international community for an international military presence to help with security all over Afghanistan," he told IRIN in Kabul, adding that this would give a further boost to the ongoing peace process in the country.

Paul O'Brien, an advocacy coordinator with the international NGO, CARE, told IRIN that CARE remained concerned over the fact that most of Afghanistan was still a security vacuum. "For more than a year, we have been calling for the expansion of peacekeepers beyond Kabul, and we would still like to see that [as being deemed to be] essential until you have a functioning Afghan national security force with both police and the army functioning effectively," he said.

Many observers believe that the central government has little control beyond Kabul, a vast area where warlords rule and international peacekeepers are needed for bringing about improved security. "In our view, it is naively optimistic to expect that we will not see increased violence and insecurity around the country until we have that kind of force," O'Brien stated.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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