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Afghan polls unrealistic amid NATO failure: think-tank
Ottawa (AFP) Feb 6, 2008 NATO's failure to secure Afghanistan has made aspirations to hold presidential elections in early 2009 "wholly unrealistic," the Senlis Council think-tank said Wednesday. "If the current security situation in Afghanistan does not improve dramatically, it will be impossible to hold the next presidential election, which would be tantamount to conceding control of southern Afghanistan to the Taliban," said the group's Canadian chief Almas Bawar Zakhiwal. Seemingly, NATO countries as a whole do not have the political will to resolve Afghanistan's multifaceted security problems, Zakhiwal said at the release of a report on the security situation. "Just four countries are involved in dealing with the Taliban in Afghanistan: the US, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands," he said. Zakhiwal urged that the issue of stabilizing Afghanistan be brought back to the UN Security Council to increase the forces deployed in the country and provide sufficient security to hold elections in April or May 2009. The Senlis Council, an international policy think tank, has itself been harshly criticized by NATO, the government of Hamid Karzai and aid groups for taking controversial positions on issues affecting Afghanistan, such as its defense of illegal poppy farming, saying it should be adapted for medical uses. Zakhiwal also recommended the troop size in Afghanistan be increased to 80,000 and all national caveats restricting troop movement to the troubled south be removed "to have any chance of defeating the insurgency." As well, NATO special forces should be deployed in Pakistan's northwest tribal areas to support the Pakistan army in launching systematic raids on Taliban elements linked to the Afghanistan insurgency, the Senlis Council said. "The depth and breadth of militant extremism (there) is now beyond question," said Zakhiwal. The Senlis Council was formed in the French town of the same name in 2002. It groups politicians, academics and non-governmental organizations and searches for new initiatives on drug policy. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links News From Across The Stans
'Real test' for NATO in Afghanistan: Rice
London (AFP) Feb 6, 2008NATO is facing a "real test" to defeat militants in Afghanistan but is making progress and working to deny them a new safe haven in neighboring Pakistan, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday. |
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