Bonn meeting a milestone, says minister

As another international conference on Afghan reconstruction took place on Monday in the German city of Bonn, Sayed Makhdom Raheen, Afghan information minister, told IRIN in the capital Kabul that the world should look to the achievements that had been notched up over the past year. The conference, which was attended by the United States, Russia, China, European nations and countries neighbouring Afghanistan, as well as UN senior special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, took place in the same hotel outside Bonn, the former German capital, where a historic gathering last year promised to rebuild the war-ravaged nation. "Most of the Bonn accords and decisions were implemented and accomplished," Raheen said, pointing to freedom of the press, the uprooting of terrorist networks, the formation of a transitional government, the nucleus of a national army and police force and three million children in school as proof of how far Kabul had come since the original Bonn gathering. Organised by Germany to refocus world attention on the enormous reconstruction task, the one-day conference addressed the fact that billions of dollars pledged to rebuild Afghanistan had still not reached the country. At a key reconstruction meeting in Tokyo in January, donors pledged US $5.2 billion for Afghanistan between 2002-2006. Of this year's US $1.8 billion, only about half has materialised. However, many donor countries remain concerned about committing large amounts of money while security remains tenuous outside the capital. Extending the central government's authority over the whole country is considered critical for delivering the billions in pledged aid and providing the backdrop for planned countrywide elections in 2004. Speaking at the conference, which brought together top Afghan officials and government envoys from 31 countries, Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed a plea for enhanced security beyond the Kabul by reportedly saying: "Security is the top priority of our people." His comments come less than a week after the United Nations Security council voted to extend the mandate of the international security force in Kabul but not to expand it outside the capital. However, a weekend of violence in Afghanistan underscored the deteriorating security situation in parts of the country. A powerful car bomb exploded near Khowst airport in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday morning, no casualties were reported. The airport has been frequently targeted since the fall of the Taliban regime late last year. Faction fighting continued for a third day on Monday between rival warlords in the west. The clashes have left at least 11 fighters dead and as many wounded. Ammanullah Khan accused his adversary Herat governor Ismail Khan of ordering a massive attack on Saturday on his forces with tanks, artillery and rockets. On Sunday, US special forces patrolling near the town of Shindand, 150 km south of Herat, came under fire from unidentified Afghan assailants, prompting them to call in the first reported air strike from a US B-52 bomber since the summer. But according to Raheen, implementing some of the Bonn agreements had been a slow process, blaming the warlords and the lengthy international aid process for ongoing difficulties in Afghanistan: "The international community should accelerate aid so that the Afghans who have guns because of poverty and other problems should share the rehabilitation of the country." Despite being more vocal of late about slipping Western commitment to his country, Karzai kept away from criticism of donors, outlining the way forward. "Our task now is to meet the key goal, that of creating the institutions of a state that would be bound by the rule of law, designed to meet the needs of the people and to create the enabling environment for prosperity," he told the meeting. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer reportedly told delegates that rebuilding Afghanistan was critical in the war against terror. "At stake is nothing less than the fight of the civilized world against international terrorism, irrational fanaticism and inhuman crime," he said.