Global Policy Forum

By Thalif Deen

Amid a resurgence in factional and tribal fighting in a virtually lawless Afghanistan, the United Nations is pushing for the early creation of a new national army in the war-devastated country.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan, says the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), currently maintaining the peace in Kabul, has undertaken to train a National Guard battalion of some 600 soldiers. The training, which will begin this week, is a "most welcome initiative" that will illustrate that helping Afghanistan form a national army is possible, he adds.

Brahimi has appealed to the international community for assistance - including training, salaries and equipment - both for the proposed new army and the police force. Britain, which is leading the 4,500-strong multinational ISAF, has already agreed to provide about US$250,000 for communication and other basic equipment to the police force. A German delegation, which visited Kabul last month, has made a preliminary assessment of the security and military needs of the police and the army. US military officials are quoted as saying that 3,000-4,000 troops could be in place only by the middle of this year. The creation of a full-fledged Afghan army, however, could take at least two years.

The United Nations, which has expressed serious concerns over the security situation in Afghanistan, wants the process expedited. Addressing the Security Council early this month, Brahimi said that the ongoing clashes between competing warlords demonstrate that peace in Afghanistan is still "fragile".

"In the medium and long term, however, it is the creation of a truly national police and army that will be critical to improving and stabilizing the security situation in Afghanistan," he told delegates. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan, told reporters on Sunday that Washington is proposing to increase and speed up security assistance to the US-backed Interim Administration in Kabul because of threats from "multiple armies" in Afghan provinces. The battle between warlords is also threatening to destabilize the Interim Administration headed by the strongly pro-US Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

Among the options under consideration, Khalilzad said, is a possible expansion of ISAF, the provision of military advisers and accelerated American military aid for the proposed Afghan army. He said that while the United States does not want Afghanistan to become a "security welfare state ... we are committed to helping". Addressing the Security Council last month, Karzai said he would like to see the ISAF expand its military presence to other major cities "signaling the ongoing commitment of the international community to peace and security in Afghanistan".

Francesc Vendrell, the outgoing UN deputy envoy to Afghanistan, said last month that the ISAF may have to be beefed up to a strength of about 30,000 troops to stop the fighting between rival factions. "The international force needs to be deployed beyond Kabul and the Afghans want it - even the warlords want it," he said.

Created by the Council in late December, the ISAF consists of about 4,500 troops troops from some 18 countries, including Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Jordan, the Netherlands and Turkey. Britain has said that at the end of its six-month mandate in June it will hand over ISAF leadership to Turkey. Last week, British troops, numbering about 2,000, came under hostile fire in Kabul.

US President George W Bush, who has pledged to help Afghanistan set up its own army, has already turned down a request from Karzai for American participation in the ISAF. But while visiting Kabul last month, US Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, insisted that the United States should be part of the ISAF. "Security is the basic issue in Afghanistan. Whatever it takes, we should do it. History will judge us harshly if we allow the hope of a liberated Afghanistan to evaporate because we failed to stay the course," he said.

Karzai also reminded reporters in Washington that Afghanistan had a full-fledged national army before the Soviet invasion in 1979. "The army broke up after the Soviet invasion," he said, adding that he had asked Bush for assistance so that Afghanistan can have one of the best-trained armies.

Meanwhile, according to preliminary estimates prepared jointly by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the UN Development Program, Afghanistan needs about $10 billion over the next five years for rebuilding and reconstruction. In the first year of reconstruction, however, the biggest chunk of money, amounting to about $270 million, will be earmarked for security, including landmine action and drug control. The second-largest allocation of $260 million is for public administration and economic management, followed by an additional $260 million for social protection, health and education, and $170 million for infrastructure building, bringing the total to $1 billion during the first year.

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