Super envoy's feet on the
ground By Tarjei Kidd Olsen
OSLO - The United Nations has given
Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide an ambitious new
mandate to coordinate the international
community's much criticized military and civilian
efforts in Afghanistan. "For me it will be
important to work in a closer dialogue with the
Afghan leadership," the "super envoy" told Inter
Press Service.
The new mandate, passed by
the United Nations Security Council on March 20,
is intended to help improve the coordination of
international actors such as the UN, the European
Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO).
Following the 2001 terrorist
attacks on New York, the United States invaded
Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban government
it accused of harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin
Laden. Today
reconstruction efforts by
the international community continue alongside
NATO and US offensives against a resurgent
Taliban.
Crucially, the new mandate
envisages improvements in the difficult
relationship with the Afghan government. Afghan
President Hamid Karzai reportedly vetoed the UN's
original choice for envoy, the British diplomat
Paddy Ashdown, because he feared that Ashdown
would threaten the president's authority.
"Without showing respect for the Afghan
government as the authorities of the conflict, and
without showing respect for the Afghan people,
there is no way to make this function usefully.
That really is a key to whatever I will do," said
Eide, who was nominated to be the new "special
representative" for Afghanistan by UN secretary
general Ban Ki-moon on March 7.
This view
is supported by senior researcher Astri Suhrke at
the Chr Michelsen Institute in the Norwegian city
of Bergen.
"It is very important that the
international actors don't behave in a vice-regal
fashion, because as Hamid Karzai certainly
understands, that will undermine the authority of
his government, and what we are trying to do is to
strengthen the authority of his government," she
said.
Afghanistan has welcomed the
appointment of Eide, but he faces a series of
daunting challenges in his new job. The
international actors have been criticized for
being inefficient and wasteful in their
humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, while the
Taliban-led insurgency has been gaining strength
despite NATO's offensive.
More than 60
countries have economic assistance programs in
Afghanistan, while 40 countries are contributing
about 40,000 soldiers to NATO's combat and
reconstruction efforts.
"Coordinating all
this is enormously difficult. There are challenges
on all levels, dealing with the international
actors, dealing with the Afghans, and dealing with
the insurgency," Suhrke said.
"The main
international actor is the US, which is difficult
to coordinate because they have a big military and
economic presence, and they think that that
entitles them to a strong voice. Then there is
Afghanistan itself, a divided country with many
different interests. And there are the militants -
you have an insurgency which has increased rather
than decreased in the last five years," she added.
Kai Eide was the UN envoy to Bosnia and
Herzegovina from 1997 to 1998, to Kosovo in 2005,
and has held several positions in the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He was
Norway's NATO representative from 2002 to 2006.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed has
said that they do not trust Eide because of his
NATO links, and expect him to fail. When
confronted with this Eide insists that, while his
previous engagements will make it easier for him
to talk to the different players, he does not
represent NATO in particular.
"I am not a
representative of any regional organization. I am
a representative of the international community in
the sense of the global community, and that will
be reflected in the way in which I proceed with my
work. Everybody will have to judge me based on
what I say and do," said Eide.
He added
that "in the end we cannot have purely a military
approach. We have to emphasize much more strongly
the political dimension of what we are doing. This
is certainly also the view of the Afghan
government.
"And we have to emphasize the
developmental side, where it has been demonstrated
over and over again that we need to exploit our
resources much better. We have also underestimated
the humanitarian requirements on the ground for a
long time. None of this is new, but it is a
question of emphasis, and of being more efficient
than in the past."
Eide does not want to
say what his first actions as "special
representative" will be. "It would be wise of me
to set my feet on the ground in Kabul and to
consult with the Afghan president and his
government before I set any priorities."
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