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| Afghanistan waits for peace five years after fall of Taliban |
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| Written by Administrator | |
| Sunday, 12 November 2006 | |
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KABUL- Five years after US-led forces drove the Taliban from Kabul, peace remains a distant dream in Afghanistan with militant attacks at an all-time high, a despondent population and widespread corruption. The violence, in its bloodiest phase since November 2001 with some 1,000 civilians killed this year, results from "the failure of international intervention to stop the cycle of decades of conflict," says the International Crisis Group, a leading think-tank. "The primary error of the Americans and their allies has been to not grant enough troops and resources, which has allowed the return of the Taliban, and resulted in the disillusionment of the people and the unpopularity of the government," added Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani expert on Afghanistan. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had only 4,500 members in 2002, all deployed around Kabul. The alliance now commands some 31,000 troops, boosted by 10,000 troops from the US-led coalition that ousted the Taliban five years ago. By comparison Kosovo, which is around 60 times smaller than Afghanistan, played host to 40,000 NATO soldiers after the 1999 bombing campaign against Serbian forces. ISAF's chief, British General David Richards, has himself said that current troops numbers are insufficient to counter the violence that has effectively doubled since 2004 and is now marked by a previously alien phenomenon here -- suicide bombings. The international community's other mistake, according to Rashid, is its failure to press Pakistani authorities to stop allowing their territory to serve as a "refuge for the Taliban". "The Americans were more worried about Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan than they were about the Taliban. But the lack of pressure by Pakistan means that the Taliban have reorganised with the help of Al-Qaeda," Rashid said. The United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to track down Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Faced with US air raids and the oncoming Northern Alliance forces, the Taliban abandoned Kabul on the night of November 12, around a month after the operation started. But the Al-Qaeda chief remains at large, as does the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Much-needed reconstruction has stopped in several areas because of combat or the withdrawal of Afghan and foreign aid workers, "calling into question some of the modest gains achieved since 2001 such as the return of children to school, especially girls," says US-based Human Rights Watch. To meet the needs of this destitute country, the NATO forces have embarked on building bridges, schools and clinics but "without a state capable of keeping them up, it is pointless," says Joanna Nathan, a Kabul-based analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG). The group has called for reforms in the Afghan government and for a campaign against endemic corruption to stop disillusioned Afghans from swelling the ranks of an insurgency that the ICG says "is going to last for years". In the eyes of many Afghans the situation is worse than it was five years ago: the cost of living has increased, infrastructure remains deficient and security is still not assured, according to the non-governmental organisation Action Against Hunger. The insurgents are not the only source of violence, according to experts who also point to local warlords who are often implicated in drug trafficking. Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium. The situation is particularly bad in the south of the country where the Taliban insurgency and the drug trade are both concentrated. "You would not be able to grow massive poppy fields in regions that were under the control of the central government and foreign forces," Nathan said. by Sylvie Briand Source: AFP |
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