Afghan Warlords Threaten Reconstruction

by Brian Kenety

"Our message must be clear: reconstruction efforts by the international community will only take place in those parts of Afghanistan where local players provide security and stability," said Poul Nielson, European Union commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, at the opening of a two-day donors' conference last week.

Led by the EU, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States, the conference is assessing how to coordinate the massive amount of aid needed to support the interim government in Kabul to rebuild the impoverished country.

"Afghanistan is and will remain for some time a sort of war zone. Roads between Kabul and main provincial cities are not considered safe yet," said Nielson.

"This widespread insecurity results from the combined effects of pockets of inter-ethnic rivalry, banditry, unexploded ordinance, mines -- but also, and more worrying than anything else, the attitude of the warlords who continue to block or loot the humanitarian aid convoys," he added.

With millions of Afghans dependent on the delivery of emergency relief for their survival, the international community delivery of humanitarian aid for the winter and beyond will continue with a high level of activity.

Nielson said donors must remain vigilant and continue to advance the peace process with an equal measure of understanding and firmness.

"With regard to the warlords, I believe that the international community and the Afghan regime have to associate them with the peace dividends as a means to secure their full cooperation," said Nielson.

"Everything we do, plan and decide needs to be done in real partnership with the emerging government. Building the government is as important as building bridges. We need donor discipline," he said.

Delegates from nearly 100 countries, international bodies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the conference are assessing funds and identifying the most urgently needed schemes, but will not make any large-scale financial commitments.

Those will come at a pledging conference to be held Jan. 21-22 in Tokyo.

The EU commissioner is advocating a "strict policy" of working only with tried and tested partners among the scores of non-governmental organizations expected to set up operations in Afghanistan.

"With the progressive return to peace, it is very likely that there will be an important flow of new humanitarian organizations into Afghanistan...these new organizations may not have the same degree of professionalism and competence as those, which are already active," cautioned Nielson.

The EU Commissioner for External Affairs, Chris Patten, said the looting of aid convoys by local warlords was among the most worrying aspects of the task ahead.

"The military operation against terrorism is close to accomplishing its objective to rid Afghanistan of the Al Qaeda menace. But we must win the peace. This will be an awesome task," he told the conference.

"We are dealing with a failed state, a state with no working institutions, its infrastructure in ruins, many of its best brains in exile," said Patten.

Two small "fast-track" donations were pledged yesterday, one for $2.25 million from the European Commission and one for $1 million from the U.S. for the interim authority that took power last week.

While aid has been earmarked to establish governing institutions and human rights commissions, the lion's share of funds has yet to be allocated. And a steering committee is to identify the most urgent aid schemes to help Afghans cope with a continuing drought and prepare for the harsh winter to come.

The European Commission estimates over two billion euros could be needed every year for the next five years to rebuild cities and transport systems, boost the crippled farming sector, restart public institutions and clear the estimated 5-10 million landmines in Afghanistan that kill or maim 10 people every day.

Patten noted that in Timor, the World Bank Trust Fund was the most important financing mechanism, but said that for a number of reasons a single all-encompassing Trust Fund was unlikely to be the choice for Afghanistan, particularly in this initial phase.

Major donors are likely to opt for bilateral funding as the channel for much of their financial assistance.

"A Trust Fund could have an important part to play in financing the fundamental needs of a state under construction, the ones which remain after the low hanging cherries like education and health have been picked. The police, the tax collectors and the sewage system: the essential services that we take for granted here in Brussels but which the citizens of Kabul and Mazar and Herat have been doing without," he said.

For his part, Andrew Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said donors must send the warlords a clear message that reconstruction will only take place in return for stability and security.

"Our political message to (Afghan) ethnic groups and leaders is that we cannot help them if a civil war starts again," he said. "If you keep peace, we will help."