Afghanistan situation is still getting worse
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In the UN Security Council, Wednesday was a day of doom and gloom about Afghanistan, albeit sprinkled with a modicum of hope.
It was the time set aside by this month's president of the panel of 15, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui, to consider the latest quarterly report on the world organization's effort in the Central Asia nation.
Before the Council was a 13-page document prepared by UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and his Special Representative in Afghanistan Kay Eide. It was Eide's last report and last appearance before the Council since he has decided not to renew his contract.
Ban, in so many words, told Afghanistan to tidy up its house and for the international community to get its act together, pointing out an increase in military strength is not the solution despite an increase in violence. He called for greater cooperation between military and civilian efforts in the troubled nation.
"We are now at a critical juncture," Ban said in the report, which concentrated on last summer's presidential election, beset by fraud, and increased Taliban attacks since then that have hampered Kabul's ability to deliver basic services and the international community's ability to provide aid.
"The situation cannot continue as is if we are to succeed in Afghanistan," the secretary-general said. "There is a need for a change of mindset in the international community as well as in the government of Afghanistan. Without that change, the prospects of success will diminish further."
Ban called on the government and world community to make the best possible use of the coming months to focus on agreed priorities, with a reinforced international coordination structure under a UN umbrella that will meet the principal needs of delivering services to the Afghan people and developing an economy that can gradually carry more responsibility for the people's well- being.
But, he may encounter a problem there.
The Afghan government and its international partners will be in London on Jan. 28 for a high-level meeting to discuss the country' s agenda in the wake of the recent elections. It had hoped that by now a new government would be in place. The goal has proved elusive.
The Guardian newspaper said last month British Prime Minister Gordon Brown may be preparing to use the January conference to propose a team of a senior coordinator from the UN and another from NATO be installed.
Some analysts see the United Nations as reluctant to be in such a marriage with a military alliance, but also feel it could help for more coordination between civilian experts and the military which will have to protect not only them but Afghan civilians as well.
Ban cited insufficient resources as one cause of the current lack of the coordination he sought, but singled out a lack of political readiness in donor countries to adapt their thinking to meet these needs.
"If the international community were to continue along a course of substituting local capacity, rather than of capacity-building, the result would be entrenchment and ultimately failure," the secretary-general warned.
"If the negative trends are not corrected, there is a risk that the deteriorating overall situation will become irreversible," Ban said. "We cannot afford this."
He does not believe August's election, marred by fraud in the first round and by the withdrawal of President Hamid Karzai's main opponent Abdullah Abdullah in the second, was so flawed that it had condemned the state-building process to failure.
"This is incorrect. Rather, it is the weaknesses in the state- building process so far, including the ongoing culture of impunity, the still inadequate security forces, corruption and the insufficient pace of institution-building that undermined the electoral process," he said in the report.
"Despite the flaws, however, this is not a reason to abandon what has been achieved and what must now be built upon," he said, warning that the flaws and weaknesses must be corrected before the UN can engage in a similar supporting role for future elections.
Beginning in May, parliamentary, district and mayoral polls are to begin in Afghanistan.
However, if Karzai can't install a cabinet to form a government, how can he lead the nation?
Seventeen of the 24 cabinet appointments he submitted to parliament were rejected.
The Economist, a news magazine, reported this week even some parliamentarians seemed shocked at the rejection, even though many of them saw the appointments as political payback for some warlords and others who supported Karzai.
Now, it is delaying the political process even further.
It raises concern that if a government can not be formed how could Kabul even begin to clean up its act and how could additional military -- such as U.S. President Barack Obama's promised 30,000 more troops -- coordinate with civilians?
While the United Nations welcomed the extra troops, it said they must be accompanied by a coherent political strategy.
"For the military efforts to succeed, they must be led by a political strategy to build sustainable civilian institutions and begin a peace process under Afghan leadership and international partnership," a Kabul spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan told reporters earlier in the week.
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