Afghan security commission plans meeting to address recent skirmishes, UN reports

A key Afghan security commission will convene an "extraordinary meeting" on Monday to address problems in the Dara-i-Suf District, which has been the scene of recent skirmishes, a United Nations spokesman reported today.

The announcement comes on the heels of additional moves last week by the Mazar Multi Party Security Commission to promote stability. On Wednesday, the Commission decided that all factional commanders who have been recalled to Mazar-i-Sharif from the districts of Sholgara and Dara-i-Suf must report daily to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The next day, one Jamiat and nine Jumbesh commanders from Sholgara as well as two Jamiat commanders from Dara-i-Suf turned up at UNAMA for registration, while an additional eight members of Jamiat came on Saturday. Based on past directives, a total of 37 commanders are required to report to the UN mission.

"Although the registration process has so far not yielded the results sought, it is a start and at the very least will provide one way for the Commission to ascertain which commanders have remained in Mazar," UN spokesman David Singh told the press in Kabul. "It will also help to prevent some of these factional elements from returning to the two regions until the Commission can deal with the issues which have contributed to the recent spate of tensions and fighting in the two areas."

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, today left Kabul for a three-day visit to Tehran, where he is scheduled to meet with a number of senior government officials before proceeding to New York for briefings.