THE UNITED Nations' top representative for Afghanistan has warned that Taliban insurgents in the country are likely to step up attacks in the coming weeks, before the onset of winter, but has praised the government's progress in curtailing opium cultivation and said the country is not doomed to failure.
Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday evening that the Taliban has made significant strides in recent months, expanding its operations from southern and eastern Afghanistan to positions around the capital, Kabul. Insurgent attacks for July and August were up 40 per cent over last year, making it the most violent two-month period since the defeat of the Taliban in 2001.
"We must expect that this number of incidents will continue over the next weeks," Mr Eide said, noting that the insurgents' targets now included humanitarian aid workers. He said he anticipated that the insurgency would conduct military operations throughout Afghanistan's winter months - a period in which Taliban fighters have reduced their activities in the past.
Mr Eide voiced frustration at the security council for assigning the United Nations ambitious new responsibilities in Afghanistan but failing to provide adequate financial resources. He said it can take as long as a year to secure finances to employ new staff at the UN mission in Kabul.
Despite the setbacks, he said he would "caution against the kind of gloom and doom statements we've seen recently" about Afghanistan. He said that many of the critics who say international efforts to support democracy in Afghanistan have failed are "people who scarcely put their feet on the ground" in the country.
Mr Eide cited three areas of progress that he said had been overlooked: an improvement in relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan following the election of Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari; the decision by Afghan president Hamid Karzai to reshuffle his cabinet following international criticism of government corruption; and a sharp reduction in Afghan provinces cultivating opium poppies.
Mr Eide's mixed account echoed recent assessments by top US civilian and military officials. US navy admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said violence would probably escalate in 2009 unless the US-led coalition altered its political, economic and military strategy.- ( LA Times-Washington Post)