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... out with the old
By Robert
McMahon
NEW YORK - As Afghanistan nears the end
of its first year free of Taliban rule, there is growing
recognition in the international community that its
security needs require greater attention.
But
there is little chance for an expansion of the
4,800-member International Security Assistance Force, or
ISAF. The UN Security Council authorized the force one
year ago to provide security to the Kabul area while the
first institutions of a representative government were
being formed.
The current commander of the
force, Turkey's Major General Hilmi Akin Zorlu, says
that any expansion of the force is unlikely because of a
lack of support from troop-contributing countries. But
Zorlu credited the ISAF with bringing calm to the
capital. He said that the force was involved in
activities ranging from the training of Afghan soldiers
to scores of reconstruction projects in the city.
He said that pockets of Taliban and Al-Qaeda
fighters did continue to pose a threat and that arms
remained widely available throughout the country. "In
all places of Afghanistan it's full of mines, explosive
material, rockets, missiles. You can buy rockets or
missiles all over the country if you need."
Zorlu said that international assistance must be
accelerated on political, economic and technical levels
to keep the process of reconstruction moving forward. He
said that there must be a sustained international
commitment to back the fledgling transitional
authority's efforts at building a democracy.
Otherwise, he said, other factions would be
capable of returning to seize power. "Ordinary Taliban
soldiers, [it] seems to us, have left the Taliban
leadership and come back to their villages, their
cities, but if the international community will again
leave Afghanistan alone, it might be possible to see
another - either Taliban or any other - faction as a
power."
US officials last week announced plans
to expand military and civil affairs units throughout
Afghanistan to support reconstruction efforts and
improve security. There are currently 600 US civil
affairs soldiers among the thousands of forces in the
US-led antiterrorism coalition in the country, which
operates separately from the ISAF. US officials have not
said how many more soldiers it will commit as part of
the new security policy, but the new deployments will
take place early next year.
Zorlu called the US
initiative a "worthy plan" and it has been well greeted
by UN and Afghan officials.
Turkey is scheduled
to command the 22-nation ISAF until December 2, but it
could lead the force until February before transferring
command to Germany and the Netherlands. The joint
German-Dutch unit already deployed in the ISAF will be
expanded by the time the leadership is transferred.
Although the Security Council has extended the
authorization of the ISAF for one year, Germany plans to
lead the force for only a six-month period. Afghan
President Hamid Karzai has asked visiting German Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer to extend Germany's leadership
role beyond six months. Fischer expressed doubts about
his country's ability to fulfill that request.
Ishaq Nadiri, a professor of economics at New
York University who also advises Karzai's government,
said that it was a crucial time for the international
community to show it is committed to Afghanistan's
security and reconstruction. He told RFE/RL that the new
US plan for civil affairs soldiers as well as the ISAF
renewal would have symbolic and practical importance for
Afghans. "The general public will see it as a commitment
of the international community not only to Kabul but
throughout the country, and also this will have a
psychological as well as substantial impact on behavior
of different forces in different parts of the country."
Nadiri said that security was especially
important to help revive what he said was a once-vibrant
private sector in Afghanistan. He said that there were
many Afghan businessmen in Europe, the United States and
the Middle East who would invest in the country if it
was able to strengthen its institutions and rule of law.
It is Afghans themselves, Nadiri said, who were
most capable of rebuilding their country. He said that
the fledgling public sector now had to develop programs
to make sure the private sector would take the lead on
reviving the economy. "This country is so destroyed that
it's only its people as a whole [who], brick-by-brick,
can build it. Nobody else can and that is a different
perception. The international community should provide
the means to do that."
Karzai is expected to
join Fischer in Bonn on December 2 for a conference on
political development and reconstruction in Afghanistan,
one year after the first Bonn agreement. The conference
will review the international community's contribution
to peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Copyright (c) 2002, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC
20036
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