Global Policy Forum

By Edith M. Lederer

As sporadic fighting and lawlessness plague Afghanistan, the United Nations is hoping Washington will finally back the expansion of the international force in Kabul.

The world body is also promoting establishment of a national army and police force as the long-term answer to ending the reign of warlords and bringing security to the country.

The lack of security remains an overriding concern a year after the United States launched its war that toppled Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers and dispersed the al-Qaida terrorists they harbored. It is hampering efforts to rebuild the country and provide Afghanistan's 26 million people with a peace dividend after two decades of war. The top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that the new government headed by Hamid Karzai doesn't have the means or power to deal with the underlying problems that cause security threats.

So clashes among rival warlords and harassment and intimidation of civilians continue. Since August, a series of bombs have exploded in Kabul and several girls' schools outside the capital were attacked.

There is also concern that Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is trying to form an alliance with remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida to challenge the Karzai government, Brahimi said. Hekmatyar has urged Afghans to rise up against all foreign forces in the country.

Brahimi, a highly respected former Algerian foreign minister, said there will be no long-term security in Afghanistan until a well-trained, well-equipped, and regularly paid national police force and national army are in place.

But training a police force has only recently begun, and serious efforts to create an army haven't started. For immediate security, Karzai, Brahimi, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan have called for expansion of the 5,000-strong International Security Assistance Force, now confined to Kabul.

Initially, U.S. officials opposed any expansion of the force and the Europeans also grew cool to the idea of deploying more troops to key cities around the country. But Brahimi said in an interview on Thursday that the United States is rethinking its opposition.

"We hear their position has moved ... from saying 'no' it's not necessary to saying look we don't care one way or the other ... to saying 'yes' I think it's a good idea, but we can't do it because we have other things to do and it would be good if somebody else did it," Brahimi said.

"They haven't reach the stage of saying 'yes,' this is indispensable and it must be done," he said. That's what the United Nations would like.

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith said in September that the United States would be happy if other countries contributed resources to build up the international force.

"But we retain the view that we're not looking to base Afghan security on the fantasy of enormous numbers of international peacekeepers coming here and trying to create order," he said. The State Department said Saturday it had no further comment. Brahimi said he doubts the international force will be expanded anytime soon.

Nonetheless, he said, "the impression we have is not only the Americans but a lot of other people are now thinking, yes, something has to be done." In February, Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Abdullah backed a suggested force of about 20,000 troops in four or five cities.

Turkey now heads the international force, which includes military units from Germany, Britain and France, among others. Its troops are leaving in December and the Germans and Dutch will take over command. Brahimi said that with Germany as the lead nation, work is proceeding well in building a national police force. But despite U.S. and French training efforts, attempts to start building a national army have been unsatisfactory so far, he said.

One problem is that the warlords know a powerful national army would usurp their positions as regional powerbrokers and expand the authority of the central government.

Brahimi noted that all the warlords are on the country's Defense Commission and he insisted that establishing a national army is "absolutely doable." He said the commission has held serious consultations but it must now produce a plan that reforms the Ministry of Defense and commits all factional leaders to integrate their forces into a national army and agree that some will be disarmed and demobilized.

What's needed now, Brahimi said, is action by the warlords and financial support from the international community to support the formation of an army and a police force.

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