NATO-Led Force Setting Stage for Afghanistan's Recovery
31 October 2006
Officials highlight U.S. support for Afghan counternarcotics efforts
Washington -- By helping to build stability in Afghanistan, the 37 member states of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) seek to set the stage for reconstruction and economic development, says NATO’s top commander.
“There's only one choice, I think, in Afghanistan, and that's the choice of freedom and security and opportunity for the children of Afghanistan who want and deserve better than they've had in the past,” Marine General James Jones, supreme allied commander in Europe, told reporters in an October 28 press conference at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Jones said NATO’s recently completed assumption of nationwide international security duties, as well as a major tactical victory against Taliban remnants in Kandahar, represent watershed moments for the alliance. (See related article.)
As recently as 2003, he said, “Afghanistan was not on the mission list of NATO.” For the alliance to take over ISAF and extend its influence from the capital took nearly three years of work at raising political support among alliance members and gradually building the force, he said. (See related article.)
But, Jones said, military activity alone will not rebuild Afghanistan. Although NATO can work with the Afghan government to set the stage, the international community must redouble its efforts to help the Afghan people support the country’s recovery. (See related article.)
“We must do as much as we can in the international spectrum and the international community to make sure that cohesion and focus is brought to those areas of reconstruction and development that are in most need of our attention,” he said.
More than 31,000 troops from 37 countries participate in ISAF, including troops from NATO’s 26 member states, as well as troops from Albania, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Finland, Ireland, Macedonia, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland. The United States has dedicated more than 13,000 personnel to the ISAF mission, as well as an additional 8,000 pursuing al-Qaida and training Afghan security forces. (See related article.)
SUPPORTING AFGHAN COUNTERNARCOTICS EFFORTS
Among the most pressing challenges to Afghanistan’s future, Jones said, is the influence of the criminal cartels that have taken advantage of the country’s decades of instability to make it the leading global exporter of opium and heroin. (See related article.)
Joining the general was Karen Tandy, administrator of the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), who said her agency will continue its long-standing effort to train and mentor Afghan law enforcement agencies to conduct effective criminal investigations to identify the top traffickers and to build a strong court system to bring them to justice.
After a long hiatus as civil war and Taliban rule closed the country to U.S. aid, the DEA is “back in full force” to help Afghanistan’s newly created National Interdiction Agency enforce counternarcotics laws developed by the Afghan government less than a year ago, Tandy said.
Under these laws, about 100 of the country’s notorious drug traffickers have been prosecuted in Kabul courts, illustrating the progress of the country’s new criminal justice system. In addition, Tandy said, two other drug kingpins with ties to the Taliban have been extradited to the United States, where one already awaits sentencing by a U.S. federal court after pleading guilty to heroin trafficking.
While opium production is concentrated in only five of the country’s 34 provinces, Tandy said that it remained deeply entrenched after decades of disarray and would be difficult to bring under control.
Based on previous eradication successes in other countries, she said, the Afghan government, which leads poppy eradication efforts with support from the United Kingdom, should expect intensive operations for as long as 10 years to 20 years, she said.
A video link to the briefing is available from the Department of Defense Web site.
For more information on U.S. policy, see Rebuilding Afghanistan.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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