Thousands more troops needed for vital security in Afghanistan - UN envoy

Speaking on a day when clashes and a bus bombing claimed dozens of lives in Afghanistan, the top United Nations envoy to that country told the Security Council today that thousands more international troops were needed to provide vital security if the political pacification process in the war-torn nation was to succeed.

Without specifying the exact numbers needed to expand the current 5,000-strong international security force (ISAF) beyond the limits of Kabul, the capital, Lakhdar Brahimi, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative, said he was not asking for anyway near the 40,000 troops that were sent to Kosovo, which has a population of less than half of just the 2 million Afghan refugees who returned home last year.

"I'm saying that politically it is necessary, I'm saying it is doable, I'm saying it doesn't need a lot," he told reporters after his closed-door briefing to the Council. "If, as I feel, the Council now agrees with me that it's politically correct, then we can decide whether we need 8,000, or 9,000, or 13,000, but it's certainly not in the scores of thousands that we're talking about."

Pressed whether he felt the international community was not giving enough support as Afghanistan enters a crucial stage in the political process with elections due by next year, Mr. Brahimi replied: "The international community must realize that…improving that support would be a very good investment."

He stressed that the Bonn process, the peace accords reached by the various factions in 2001, "is taking on very important and complicated and logistically heavy political processes, and for that security is again indispensable, and it's a source of worry for us."

A lot has been achieved in Afghanistan, "and there is every reason to think that this process can be taken to a very, very successful end in a relatively short time if we don't walk away or do things half way as it were," he added.

Asked about the Council's reaction, he replied: "I think there is certainly a great deal of understanding that what we are saying makes sense and deserves to be heard."

And he again stressed the security shortfall. "To organize a credible, free and fair election, there are a lot of other things that need to be done by the Afghan Government and by the international community, and we have invited the Council today in very clear terms to really take on the job of providing what we call the benchmarks that are needed in the security field, in the legislation field and in other fields."