21 March 2002

Secretary General Unveils UN Mission for Afghanistan

United Nations -- Emphasizing that the process of healing in shattered Afghanistan must not be allowed to reverse itself, Secretary General Kofi Annan March 21 outlined the structure of a UN mission that would coordinate programs and ensure that all forms of UN assistance go toward supporting the peace process.

In a written report to the Security Council, the secretary general said that the participants in the Bonn conference set the formidable challenge of consolidating the peace process in less than three years.

"But it will take much more than 36 months to heal the wounds left by 23 years of war," he said. "The process of healing has started, however, and Afghans and members of the international community must be careful not to allow that process to reverse itself."

As much as it is a detailed explanation of how the UN intends to go about helping Afghanistan, the report also provided the secretary general with a means of addressing both the Afghan people and the international community on the urgent overall issues that must be tackled.

"Afghanistan is a desperately poor country and will remain so for the foreseeable future. However, it now has the chance at least to be a country at peace with its neighbors and itself," Annan said.

He warned that the threats to the peace process come not only from Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. "As a consequence of decades of war, mutual suspicion and mistrust continue to exist between old rivals," Annan said. "All must be made to understand that the only option in the new Afghanistan is patient and tolerant work to establish mutual trust and confidence so that all disputes are resolved through compromise and other peaceful means."

The secretary general warned that there must be no room for complacency and speed is of the essence.

"Let me further remind all concerned of the dynamics that plunged Afghanistan back into war in 1992," he said. "Where the symptoms of that bitter past have emerged, they must be dealt with rapidly. Where they have not emerged, they must not be allowed to do so."

In the 22-page report, the secretary general details the staffing, objectives and priorities for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) that would be headed by the UN special representative now in the country, Lakhdar Brahimi. UNAMA will bring together all the UN activities in the country into one unit. It would be headquartered in Kabul with regional offices in seven cities: Bamiyan, Gardez, Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif, and another yet unnamed city in the northeast.

If approved by the Security Council, UNAMA will deal with human rights and gender issues; promote national reconciliation and rapprochement throughout the country; and manage UN humanitarian relief, recovery and reconstruction activities working with the Interim Afghan Authority and successor administrations.

The political part of UNAMA's activities would include monitoring and reporting on overall political and human rights situations, especially relating to the convening of the emergency loya jirga; maintaining contact with representatives of the international community; and investigating human rights violations where necessary. About 30 to 40 international staff would be involved in that operation.

More than 50 staff would handle the relief, recovery, and reconstruction responsibilities for UNAMA. That staff would be responsible for responding to the immediate needs of the most vulnerable populations, develop assistance programs that give special attention to measures promoting women's rights and those of the most disadvantaged and under-served populations; and help the Interim Authority create an effective data and information management system.

The mission also would have about 100 international support staff. It would not have any uniformed personnel except for a few military and civilian police advisors and "a few lightly armed international personnel required to provide close protection," the secretary general said. The plan also envisions training local Afghans to replace some of the UN staff over time.

UNAMA's size and structure is "relatively lean," the secretary general said. "This is precisely so that the organization overhead costs do not consume too much of the overall aid destined for the people of Afghanistan, and so that the presence of too many international staff does not overwhelm the nascent Interim Administration by creating conflicting demands."

Annan placed particular emphasis on the security situation in the country pointing out that the Afghans themselves "are unanimous in considering security as their first and most important need." Referring to Afghan Interim Authority Chairman Hamid Karzai's call for an expansion of the International Security Assistance Force to other parts of the country, he said that whatever form of security assistance the Security Council and member states should decide to provide "at this, its hour of need, speed is of the essence."

UNAMA will not be able to carry out its functions effectively unless the security situation is addressed immediately, he added.

But the secretary general also said that Afghan leaders must not forget that donors and troop contributors will be more receptive to appeals for help if they are convinced Afghans are doing as much as they can to help themselves.

"I urge Afghan leaders to recognize that dialogue and compromise with political rivals does not require financial assistance from the international community," he said. "It requires nothing less and nothing more than the will and the courage to transcend ethnic and regional parochialism in favor of genuine national unity and lasting peace."