Afghanistan's Abdullah: Will world return to business as usual?

Davos, Switzerland - Former Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah told the World Economic Forum that the global powers involved in his country needed to make sure there was not a return to "business as usual" following this week's conference in London. "Is London just a small bridge to pass and then it's back to business as usual?" he asked in Davos.

Though saying he supported the building of state institutions over the last eight years, including the police and army, "at same time there has been an increase in the insurgency," the Afghan politician noted.

Expressing the need to work with the people of the troubled country, he said: "In an insurgency if we lose the people we lose the war."

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the powers in Afghanistan were aiming to support the government.

"The delivery in Afghanistan is to be done by Afghans, and we will support them when they do the right and necessary things," he said, later adding sarcastically that matters needed to be handled at "slightly better standards."

Representing the local leaders in Kabul, Ashraf Ghani said the government knows "it needs to act or it will lose, both international support and lose domestic support."

Using business language he said Afghanistan was a "high-risk, high-reward" scenario.

While Bildt insisted he did not base his policy on popular opinion but on the parliamentary majority his government controlled, David Milliband, the British foreign secretary, noted that it was also the public in the West that needed to be considered.

"There is a great deal of concern in the UK about the losses we are bearing ... The burden being borne by the UK," the foreign minister said.

He said the "red line" for cooperation of Western powers with local forces in Afghanistan would not only be al-Qaeda-related figures, but also those that did not respect the Afghan constitution, including equality issues between men and women.

Leaders at the London Afghanistan conference on Thursday mapped out a way for Western forces to begin leaving the country, as they approved a grand strategy aimed at strengthening the Afghan government in the fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

NATO countries will step up training and funding to increase the manpower of the Afghan security forces to over 300,000 by the autumn of 2011.

A 140-million-dollar fund was established to pay for a scheme to entice lower-ranking Taliban fighters to leave the movement.

But in return for international aid, the Afghan government will have to take drastic steps to root out corruption and improve the lives of the population, speakers at the London conference said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/306607,afghanistans-abdullah-will-world-return-to-business-as-usual.html.