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Multi-national force to move to interior Afghanistan

By K.K. Katyal

New Delhi: NATO, which has the responsibility for the International Security Force in Kabul, will soon move to main provincial centres and other areas in the interior according to information received here. With that, the external security presence in Afghanistan will get a new edge.

The International Security Force, the U.N.-mandated multi-national force, was earlier headed by one of the constituents, on a rotational basis but, later, its charge was given to NATO to ensure continuity. Its internal decision which, surprisingly, has not attracted media attention in India is expected to reach the implementation stage soon, after it receives specific authorisation by the U.N. and the names of the countries willing to contribute their troops for expanded operations are known.

The International Security Force is one of the two bodies engaged in maintaining peace in the strife-torn country, the other being the troops of the international coalition led by the U.S., which conducted operations for the ouster of the Taliban Government. The security force was conceptualised at the Bonn Conference, which chalked out the road map for peace and stability in Afghanistan. It, later, received the U.N. approval.

Going by initial signals, the NATO decision to move to provincial capitals and other areas in the interior is bound to evoke two conflicting reactions — on the one hand, it will be seen as marking an increase in the number of colonial outposts and, on the other, as the much-needed expansion of the external presence to contain anarchy and chaos and to prevent the return of the Taliban and extremists from Pakistan.

The case for a countrywide presence of a neutral armed force was made by some international organisations such as the International Crisis Group, an independent multinational, non-profit body based at Brussels. This is considered particularly important because the U.N. plans to initiate later this month the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme — which is intended to remove the support structure beneath senior commanders by disengaging lower-level troops through individual counselling, vocational training, job creation and placement.

The Crisis Group, which has taken considerable interest in Afghanistan, prepared three reports in the last two months, the latest published last week. As Afghanistan embarks on an ambitious programme to demobilise large numbers of commanders and fighters, it says, greater international engagement is essential. This disarmament, demobilisation and re-integration process, it is felt, must succeed if the shattered country is ever to achieve an acceptable level of stability.

In an earlier report, the Crisis Group called for efforts to see that the disarmament process does not remain hostage to factional politics and continued blockade of agreed reforms. It wanted key international actors, particularly the U.S., Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran to ensure that their actions and resources bolster reconciliation processes at both the national and local levels and end support to faction leaders.

At another stage, the I.C.G. noted that a key obstacle to enduring peace in Afghanistan was the perception among ethnic Pashtuns that they were not meaningfully represented in the Central Government, particularly in its security institutions. Ethnically targeted violence and displacement of Pashtuns, heavy-handed search operations and collaboration with abusive commanders by the U.S-led coalition, it was pointed out, had also contributed to a sense of alienation. It made a case for addressing Pashtun grievances and ensuring that a more representative Government emerges from the 2004 elections.

Although the Afghanistan President, Hamid Karzai, was a Pashtun, he was widely seen to have been unable to limit either the power of the supervisory council of the North or that of the commanders, irrespective of ethnicity, who wield power in other parts of the country.

In another damaging observation, the report said that "the south and east have had only a modest stake in the political and economic reconstruction process outlined in the Bonn agreement.

International assistance has been slow to materialise in areas outside of Kandahar and other major towns, while poppy cultivation has boomed.

Commanders with little or no popular legitimacy remain the principal military partners of the coalition and have used their power to consolidate their control over regional administrations and economies.

In Pashtun areas, this has led to the growth of patronage systems along sub-ethnic lines and fuelled tensions within communities, those Pashtun tribes that lack kinship ties to local authorities are marginalised politically and economically."

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