*EPF214 06/29/2004
Karzai Thanks NATO for Troops, Requests Quick Deployment
(Says Afghanistan is challenged by terrorists, militias, drug trade) (350)

Istanbul, Turkey --- In giving the keynote address to the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council at the NATO Summit June 29, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai appealed for quicker deployment of more NATO troops in his country.

"I welcome very much your decision yesterday to send us security forces to help us with the elections," he said, but "we need security forces today in Afghanistan to provide a secure environment for elections for the Afghan people and beyond."

One June 28, NATO announced it would send more troops to the country and would establish more Provincial Reconstruction Teams but would undertake the deployment in stages, with most of the expansion occurring in the north of the country. With the nationwide election scheduled for September, NATO intends to increase its force level from 3,500 to 10,000 over the next three months.

"I would like you to please hurry ... come sooner than September and provide the Afghan men and women with a chance to vote freely without fear, without coercion," he said, explaining that his country was challenged by terrorists, private militias and the narcotics trade.

The United States also has 20,000 troops in the country, with Operation Enduring Freedom forces seeking members of al-Qaeda and the former Taliban regime.

At the summit, NATO called upon the Afghan authorities to "energetically pursue the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration process, and particularly the withdrawal of military units from Kabul and other urban centers." The final communiqué also noted the problem of narcotics trafficking and promised appropriate support against it.

Afghanistan is marked as the alliance's key priority. "NATO's aim is to assist in the emergence of a secure and stable Afghanistan, with a broad-based, gender-sensitive, multi-ethnic and fully representative government, integrated into the international community and cooperating with its neighbors," the communiqué states.

Karzai noted that NATO troops were making a difference with Kabul now "a very safe place for Afghanistan."

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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