15 September 2008: Zee News
New York, Sept 15: Asserting the extremely troubling situation in war-torn Afghanistan, a senior Western envoy has reportedly alarmed "precarious" fallout if the rising food and fuel costs, deteriorating security and the lack of an international response are not addressed properly in time.
The conditions in Afghanistan have become worst since 2001, Francese Vendrell, a Spanish diplomat with eight years' experience in the country was quoted by a newspaper as saying.
He, the paper said, urged for a concerted American and foreign response even before the new administration in Washington takes over to avoid "a very hot winter for all of us”.
Vendrell, who recently stepped down as the European Union envoy in Kabul, especially criticised the growing number of civilian deaths in attacks by American and international forces.
Those deaths have created "a great deal of antipathy" and widened the distance between the Afghan government and citizens, he said in Geneva at an annual review of global strategy organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The United States military is investigating an assertion by villagers in western Afghanistan that some 90 men, women and children died in a missile attack on August 22.
The Afghan government and a United Nations investigation have backed that assertion, but American officers have said that only seven civilians were killed.
Vendrell, the paper said, warned that the situation was precarious among the Pashtun tribes who live mainly in southern Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan. He also said that the Taliban-led insurgency had spread not only to the east but also close to Kabul and, in pockets, to the north and west, hitherto relatively peaceful.
While only a minority of Pashtuns actively support the Taliban, most Pashtuns "are sitting on the fence to see who is going to be the winner," according to the report.
He urged that Afghan authorities and foreign agencies follow up any military successes against the Taliban with concrete assistance to convince local citizens that Westerners and the Kabul government can deliver security and at least some well-being.
Vendrell bluntly recited what he called a long series of foreign mistakes in Afghanistan.
While he played a leading role in the conference in Bonn, Germany, that set up the post-Taliban government, he said yesterday that the "first great mistake" made in 2001 was holding that conference.
By the time the Bonn talks took place, he said, Northern Alliance warlords and their allies already controlled two-thirds of Afghanistan, making their rule a "fait ccompli”.
In addition, he said, the United States and its allies placed too much faith in President Hamid Karzai and did too little to ensure that his government had a monopoly of force, with a strong police force and other institutions.
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