U.N. to keep force in Kabul another six months
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The U.N. Security Country voted unanimously Thursday to keep international troops in Kabul for another six months, but rejected pleas from Afghanistan’s leaders to expand the force throughout the war-battered country. The U.S.-sponsored resolution extends the authorization for the nearly 4,500-member International Security Assistance Force after its initial six-month mandate ends on June 20. It also welcomes the transfer of its command from Britain to Turkey, expected around the same date.
After initially asking for the force to be restricted to Kabul, Afghanistan’s interim government led by Hamid Karzai urged the council to expand the force throughout the country, saying it would signal a global commitment to a country brutalized by 23 years of war and neglect. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan backed the request.
But there were no offers of troops for an expanded force from the international community – including the 15 Security Council members. Instead, the international community is focusing on rebuilding and reforming Afghanistan’s army, police force and judicial system so the country can take charge of its own security.
While declaring that “the situation in Afghanistan still constitutes a threat to international peace and security,” the resolution adopted by the Security Council says “the responsibility for providing security and law and order throughout the country resides with the Afghans themselves.”
At an open council meeting before Thursday’s 15-0 vote, U.N. Undersecretary-General Kieran Prendergast said security, particularly outside Kabul, “remains a major concern.” He singled out the “fragile” situation in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
“We cannot expect a sustained reconstruction process to be launched in Afghanistan without real improvements in security outside Kabul and its environs, said Prendergast, who is in charge of U.N. political affairs.
The international force conducts day and night patrols in the capital and is currently training Afghan troops to guard the loya jirga, the grand council of 1,501 men and women that will meet next month to choose a new transitional government for Afghanistan. The multinational force will guard the outside perimeter.
Prendergast called the loya jirga “the most important political event in Afghanistan” since the interim government was established in December under a U.N.-brokered agreement, a view backed by many of the two dozen nations that spoke during Thursday’s council meeting.
That agreement, signed in Bonn, Germany, on Dec. 5, called for a multinational security force and asked the Security Council to authorize it to give it international legitimacy, even though the force does not operate under U.N. control.
The council authorized the force on Dec. 20 to provide security for six months, but limited the contingent’s operation to the Afghan capital, at Karzai’s request. The current force has troops from nearly two dozen countries, with the largest contingents from Britain and Germany.
Two months later, Karzai’s government changed its mind, but it got no international support for a larger force, amid concerns of troops getting bogged down in another Afghan war.
The United States and other council members made clear that they did not believe the current security situation warranted expanding the force.
U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Williamson said the United States and its coalition partners, who are fighting remnants of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network and Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers, believe “efforts to address the security imperatives beyond Kabul have been successful to date.”
“We continue to envision potential security concerns outside of Kabul being addressed as necessary by coalition and Operation Enduring Freedom forces,” he told the council.
Afghanistan wants about $420 million to create a national army and air force, a border guard service, and a police force to try to reign in competing warlords and ethnic factions.
The United States is in charge of training the army and has promised about $70 million under a bill making its way through Congress. France has volunteered to help with training.
Germany is taking on the lead role in reforming and rebuilding the police, while Italy is leading efforts to reconstruct the legal and judicial system. Japan and the United Nations will help in the program to demobilize fighters and provide funds.