Ten nations pledge to help build Afghan army


	April 5, 2002	atimes.com

Central Asia/Russia

Ten nations pledge to help build Afghan army
By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS - Afghanistan has received pledges from 10 countries to help create a new military force that will include 60,000 soldiers, an 8,000-strong air force and 70,000 personnel in a paramilitary role.

Kabul has earmarked about US$235 million for military spending in 2002, primarily to buy weapons and pay soldiers' wages, said Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN's special representative in Afghanistan. The money will also be used to replace infrastructure such as military barracks, which were destroyed during the 22-year period that included the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the civil war that followed, he said.

The 10 countries - the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran, China and Turkey - will provide arms and military training to a virtually lawless, war-ravaged country.

The United States will provide $278 million for military and security in Afghanistan for the current fiscal year, said Ambassador James Dobbins. That is in addition to the $290 million Washington pledged for the reconstruction of Afghanistan at a donors' conference in Tokyo in January. Other donors at the Tokyo conference included Iran, which pledged $560 million, Japan ($500 million) the European Union ($495 million) and Saudi Arabia ($220 million). The pledges cover the period until 2007.

Such contributions will not compromise Afghanistan's independence on security issues, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told reporters. "We all know we cannot continue to rely on the presence of multinational forces in Afghanistan forever. The contributions do not contradict the interests of the interim government or the people of Afghanistan," he added.

Dobbins said this year's pledge will include about $60 million for law enforcement and counternarcotics activities, $50 million for military training, $20 million for salaries and maintenance and $40 million for additional reconstruction assistance. The United States will also provide $80 million for demobilization of former combatants and $28 million for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) currently policing the capital, Kabul.

A number of "preliminary pledges" have come from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran, China, Turkey and Britain for training and equipment, and in some cases for money to support the military and the police, added Dobbins. For example, Britain, which leads the 4,500-strong multinational ISAF, has already agreed to provide about $250,000 for communication and other basic equipment to the police force.

After a request from the Interim Administration, Dobbins said, the United States has agreed to take the lead on military training. Germany will assist the police force, Britain will focus on counternarcotics, Italy on the justice sector and the ISAF will lead the demobilization. "It is not surprising that the richer countries are looked at to make the larger contributions, but all the neighbors and friends of Afghanistan have shown willingness to participate in the process of creating new national institutions," said Dobbins.

Last month, US military officials said that the first battalion of about 3,000-4,000 troops could be in place by the middle of this year. Creation of a full-fledged Afghan army, they said, could take at least two years. Meanwhile, the ISAF has already undertaken to train a National Guard battalion of some 600 soldiers.

Brahimi told the Security Council in early February that ongoing clashes between competing warlords demonstrated that peace in Afghanistan remained fragile. "In the medium and long term, however, it is the creation of a truly national police and army that will be critical to improving and stabilizing the security situation in Afghanistan," he told delegates.

Last month Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy to Afghanistan, said Washington is proposing to increase and accelerate security assistance to the Interim Administration because of threats from "multiple armies" in Afghan provinces. Among the options Washington is considering, Khalilzad said, are a possible expansion of the ISAF and the provision of military advisers. While the United States does not want Afghanistan to become a "security welfare state", said Khalilzad, "we are committed to helping".

(Inter Press Service)