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Security: In with the new
...
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK -
The Netherlands and Germany have formally offered to
lead the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan
for six months beginning February next year.
In
a joint letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi
Annan, the two countries said that they were offering
their services on the understanding that the
4,800-member International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) would be confined to the capital of Kabul and its
surrounding areas.
"The responsibility for
providing security and law and order throughout
Afghanistan continues to reside with the Afghans
themselves," the letter said. It was tabled at a meeting
of the Security Council, which decided on Wednesday to
extend the ISAF's mandate for an additional 12 months
ending December 2003. This has been done primarily
because of the delay in creating a new Afghan national
army.
Despite Afghan leader Hamid Karzai's
demand for the ISAF's wider military participation
outside Kabul, the Security Council has refused to
authorize the multi-national force to take on Afghan
warlords, who still reign supreme in the provincial
capitals.
During a meeting at the White House in
January, US President George W Bush also turned down
Karzai's request to enlarge the ISAF by the addition of
US troops.
The US has refused to participate in
the ISAF even though it takes a lead role in a separate
US-led military force fighting al-Qaeda rebels and
Taliban remnants in Afghanistan.
The US military
operation, codenamed Enduring Freedom, involves more
than 9,000 US military, along with about 1,200 troops
from coalition partners.
Bush did promise to
provide Karzai with a team of US military advisers to
rebuild the rag-tag Afghan army, and also to train
soldiers and provide used surplus weapons to the
proposed new armed forces.
Bush has also
resisted demands by US legislators, including the
outgoing chairman of the foreign relations committee,
Joe Biden, to expand the ISAF beyond Kabul. "After the
Soviet withdrawal in 1989, America turned its back as
the country disintegrated," Biden said in June.
"President Bush has promised not to repeat this
mistake."
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz told the committee that members of the ISAF
felt that Kabul itself was enough of a challenge. "There
aren't lots of people coming forward to volunteer for
this mission."
The Netherlands and Germany will
take command from Turkey, which, in turn, succeeded
Britain as the lead nation in ISAF. The two countries
have asked the Security Council to identify a successor
"at an early stage" to enable them to transfer
leadership when they finish their six-month stint.
Created by the Security Council last December,
the ISAF consists of troops from some 22 countries,
including Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Jordan, the Netherlands
and Turkey.
At a UN press conference on Tuesday,
the local ISAF commander, Major General Hilmi Akin
Zorlu, warned the international community not to pull
out of Afghanistan too early. If the ISAF left Kabul
before the creation of a strong national army - and
before all opposition forces were demobilized -
"Afghanistan would relapse into conflict", he added.
The international force had helped the Afghan
government maintain security and stability in and around
Kabul, Zorlu said. He also pointed out that it had been
heavily involved in rebuilding the war-torn country. He
said that the international force had treated all ethnic
groups with fairness and had avoided getting involved in
Afghan politics. Further, it had fully respected Afghan
customs, cultural values and religious beliefs.
Zorlu admitted that "no UN member states were
eager to provide either forces or funding for [ISAF's]
expansion".
Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN's Special
Representative for Afghanistan, has already warned that
the nation's inability to create a new national army is
threatening its security and stability. "There would be
no long-term solution to the security problem [in
Afghanistan] until a well-trained, well-equipped and
regularly paid national army and police force were put
in place," he said.
The failure to establish a
new military has been attributed to several factors,
including a shortage of resources and the widespread
presence of competing militias and warlords, who refuse
to renounce their military powers or surrender their
weapons.
In May this year, Afghan Foreign
Minister Abdullah Abdullah announced plans to create an
80,000-member army and a 70,000-strong police force, at
a cost of about US$300 million in the first year.
Additionally, the military would include an air force of
8,000 and 12,000 border guards.
But still there
are no signs that a full-fledged Afghan army is ready to
take over from the ISAF.
(Inter Press
Service)
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