Calls for expanded international security presence

A senior UN official said on Thursday that war-ravaged Afghanistan needed a larger international security force to be deployed throughout the unstable nation. "It is important for the international security force, which has started doing good work in Kabul, to expand," Francesc Vendrell, deputy to the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, told IRIN in Kabul. "The participants of the Bonn conference were very clear that they wanted this security force to go beyond Kabul into other areas," he added. Although UN-mandated, the international security force has a different role from standard UN peacekeepers. Currently about 2,000 strong, it is made up of troops from Britain, Germany, the US and other countries to ensure that the interim government can establish itself in an atmosphere of law and order. Working alongside local security forces, the international deployment is due to reach a strength of 5,000 soldiers. Vendrell, rounding up his assignment at the United Nations Special Mission for Afghanistan (UNSMA), said a larger force across the country would help facilitate neutrality during the selection of members of the Loya Jirga (grand council) - the next step in the Bonn process. He declined to give an exact number of international troops that would be required for such a daunting and risky task. "It is obviously going to be much larger than 5,000," he said. "Everybody I have talked to in Afghanistan since then (Bonn agreement), particularly in the last two weeks, are unanimous. They want the expansion of this force," Vendrell said. He added such a force could prevent regional feuds, which had brought massive destruction to the country in the past. Agreeing with Vendrell was Batin Shah Safi, a former professor at Kabul University who told IRIN from Peshawar in northern Pakistan, that the "Afghan army should be raised." He stressed that the bitterly hostile warring factions should not dominate the new army. "Security is paramount, peacekeepers are needed in all major cities and towns," he said. "Many neutral Afghans, particularly the ex-army men from all over the country need to be involved in the urgent task of rebuilding a force to guarantee security," Safi explained. Asked who should train the Afghan security force, he maintained that neutral countries under UN auspices should carry out the task. However, he opposed the idea of neighbouring countries being involved in the exercise. "We have bitter experiences with such patronage," he said.