Afghanistan:
On the Road to Recovery
By Horst Rutsch
 |
| WFP Photo/Khaled Mansour |
War-ravaged, drought-stricken and impoverished, Afghanistan has in the past months witnessed momentous historic changes. When five years of Taliban rule ended last year, it opened an unprecedented window of opportunity for peace and prosperity in the region. Yet, after decades of interminable instability, the challenges facing the country are daunting and still fraught with danger. The Afghan people, exhausted by armed conflicts that threatened the very existence of their nation, need the sustained support of the international community to successfully pursue the road to recovery. In assembling and coordinating that integrated assistance, the United Nations has been given a central role to play.
The structure of a future UN mission in Afghanistan has not yet been finalized. However, the United Nations and the various agencies in the field are close to a consensus on its configuration. Briefing the Security Council on 6 February, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, confirmed that an integrated mission that would operate with a “light footprint” was envisioned, giving Afghan institutions as much of a role as possible. The Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Mark Malloch Brown, is leading the early recovery effort, under the overall coordination of Mr. Brahimi. The recently appointed Deputy Special Representative for Humanitarian and Reconstruction Affairs, Nigel Fisher, is expected to play an important role in bringing together the different parts of the United Nations system engaged in relief, reconstruction and recovery work, and in ensuring that the agencies work in tandem wit!
h the Afghan authorities.
Besides working for peace, the United Nations has for years sought to provide humanitarian relief to the Afghan people and mobilize resources for the rehabilitation of the country. In response to the Soviet invasion, the General Assembly in January 1980 held a special emergency session on Afghanistan and adopted the first of a series of resolutions, calling for the withdrawal of all foreign forces and asking States to contribute humanitarian assistance. In 1988, the Secretary-General set up a “good offices mission” to monitor the withdrawal of Soviet troops and help Afghans find peace. The Assembly in 1992 welcomed the establishment of an Islamic State in Afghanistan and sought assistance for an emergency trust fund to support the country’s rehabilitation. However, subsequent hostilities among rival warlords and escalating religious, ethnic and tribal strife led to the breakdown of government authority, paving the way for the Taliban regime in 1996 to gain con!
trol over 90 per cent of the territory.
When in the following years reports of drug trafficking, the export of terrorism and grave human rights abuses under the Taliban rule mounted, the Security Council imposed sanctions against the regime, in resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1333 (2000), which included financial measures and embargoes on arms and travel. On 30 July 2001, adopting resolution 1363 (2001), the Council set up a mechanism to monitor the sanctions. In response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States and its allies on 7 October launched an assault on the Al Qaeda organization based in Afghanistan, leading to the disintegration of Taliban control over most of the country.
On 13 November, Mr. Brahimi presented a plan to resolve the crisis and rebuild the country, based on input from the Afghans themselves. Supporting the proposal, in resolution 1378 (2001), the Security Council on 14 November also gave Mr. Brahimi overall authority for United Nations humanitarian, human rights and political activities in Afghanistan.
On 6 December, in resolution 1383 (2001), the Council endorsed an agreement signed by the Northern Alliance and other Afghan groups, after nine days of UN-sponsored talks in Bonn, Germany, which named Hamid Karzai as provisional head of Afghanistan. That day, with the fall of Kandahar, the Taliban regime collapsed. Coming into force on 22 December, the Bonn Agreement laid down a temporary political arrangement for the war-torn country, establishing an Interim Authority to govern Afghanistan for six months, while an Independent Commission worked on convening by 22 June 2002 the Loya Jirga - a traditional assembly of provincial elders and leaders elected to form a transitional government. Inaugurated on 7 February, the 21-member Commission, determined under the auspices of the United Nations, confirmed it would consult widely within the country, to ensure that the Loya Jirga would be representative of all segments of the Afghan population.
Since the transfer of power on 22 December, the Chairman of the Interim Authority, Hamid Karzai, has been working to establish its administration as the central government in Afghanistan. Despite many obstacles, including the absence of trained personnel, the destruction of ministry premises, and the lack of equipment, telephones and other basic facilities, most ministries have started to carry out their daily responsibilities.
One of the most important achievements of the Interim Authority was the payment of civil service salaries on 22 January, enhancing its credibility. However, Mr. Brahimi on 6 February warned that a great deal more money would be required in the coming months to ensure that the Interim Authority could continue to pay salaries and provide the services routinely expected of governments.
Security remains the primary preoccupation of the population in Afghanistan. Tensions leading to a stand-off in Gardez and Mazar-e-Sharif in early February clearly demonstrated that the peace process is still fragile. The Security Council - acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows for the use of force - on 20 December adopted resolution 1386 (2001), authorizing for six months the establishment of an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under the command of Brigadier-General John McColl of the United Kingdom. By the end of February, ISAF’s troop strength stood at 4,500, drawn from seventeen Member States. States participating in the Force were urged to help the Interim Authority in the establishment and training of new Afghan security and armed forces.
 |
WFP Photo/Khaled Mansour |
Calling on the Afghan parties to “do all within their means and influence” to ensure the safety, security and freedom of movement of all United Nations and other international personnel, the Council urged them to withdraw all military units from Kabul. The Council’s authorization of ISAF to maintain peace and security in Kabul and surrounding areas was envisaged in the Bonn Agreement, which stipulated that such a Force “could, as appropriate, be progressively expanded to other urban centres and areas”.
On 6 February, Mr. Brahimi reported that the visible presence of ISAF troops in the capital had improved the security situation there and had led to “increasingly vocal demands by ordinary Afghans, members of the Interim Authority and even warlords” for the expansion of ISAF to the rest of the country. Addressing an open meeting of the Council, Hamid Karzai on 30 January said the Afghan people welcomed the International Force, as time was needed to build up and train a national police force and an army. “The extension of the presence of the multinational forces in Kabul and expanding their presence in other cities”, he said, “will signal the ongoing commitment of the international community to peace and security in Afghanistan”.
The Council, in a presidential statement of 30 January, noted that efforts to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan were “on the right track”. But it emphasized the importance of rapid and well-coordinated humanitarian assistance, stressing that the United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) “must be allowed to operate in security and with full freedom of movement, particularly in those areas most in need”. Warning that reconciliation and rehabilitation in Afghanistan should not be derailed by any outside pressure or intervention, it urged the different ethnic groups within the country to “forego their differences and invest in the reconstruction of a nation with sound democratic potential”.
The Council stressed it was “essential” for the future government to respect the human rights of all Afghan people, regardless of gender, ethnicity and religion, and welcomed the Interim Authority’s “bold steps” to promote the rights of women - including appointing female Cabinet Ministers - and control illegal narcotics, such as opium and heroin, in particular by banning the production of poppy.
On 16 January, the Council decided that all States should take measures to contain the menace of the Al Qaeda organization and the Taliban, including freezing funds, denying entry to its members and preventing the supply of arms. On 7 February, cautioning that the global fight against terrorism might weaken international laws meant to protect asylum seekers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, warned that Afghanistan would slide back into a “1992-like situation” if the security situation in the country continued to deteriorate.
On 27 September 2001, Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a US$584 million appeal to shore up UN humanitarian assistance to some 7.5 million Afghans. With the appointment on 25 January of Nigel Fisher as Deputy Special Representative for Humanitarian Affairs, relief efforts in Afghanistan have continued to expand their reach and impact, with access improving to several areas that had only recently been considered unsafe. Still, with northern Afghanistan in the grip of winter, the suffering of internally displaced persons, especially children, has worsened.
| “Spontaneous returns of Afghans from neighbouring countries have been gaining momentum.” |
|
 |
|
