NORWAY: Afghanistan Gets a &#39Super Envoy&#39

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tarjei Kidd Olsen

OSLO, Apr 1 2008 (IPS) - The U.N. has given Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide an ambitious new mandate to coordinate the international community&#39s much criticised military and civilian efforts in Afghanistan. "For me it will be important to work in a closer dialogue with the Afghan leadership," the &#39super envoy&#39 told IPS.

The new mandate, passed by the United Nations Security Council on Mar. 20, is intended to help improve the coordination of international actors such as the U.N., the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Following the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York, the United States invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban government it accused of harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Today reconstruction efforts by the international community continue alongside NATO and U.S. offensives against a resurgent Taliban.

Crucially, the new mandate envisages improvements in the difficult relationship with the Afghan government. Afghan President Hamid Karzai reportedly vetoed the U.N.&#39s original choice for envoy, the British diplomat Paddy Ashdown, because he feared that Ashdown would threaten the President&#39s authority.

"Without showing respect for the Afghan government as the authorities of the conflict, and without showing respect for the afghan people, there is no way to make this function usefully. That really is a key to whatever I will do," Eide, who was nominated to be the new &#39special representative&#39 for Afghanistan by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Mar. 7, told IPS.

This view is supported by senior researcher Astri Suhrke at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in the Norwegian city Bergen, about 480km south of capital Oslo.

"It is very important that the international actors don&#39t behave in a vice-regal fashion, because as Hamid Karzai certainly understands, that will undermine the authority of his government, and what we are trying to do is to strengthen the authority of his government," she told IPS.

Afghanistan has welcomed the appointment of Eide, but he faces a series of daunting challenges in his new job. The international actors have been criticised for being inefficient and wasteful in their humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, while the Taliban-led insurgency has been gaining strength despite NATO&#39s offensive.

More than 60 countries have economic assistance programmes in Afghanistan, while 40 countries are contributing about 40,000 soldiers to NATO&#39s combat and reconstruction efforts.

"Coordinating all this is enormously difficult. There are challenges on all levels, dealing with the international actors, dealing with the Afghans, and dealing with the insurgency," Suhrke said.

"The main international actor is the U.S., which is difficult to coordinate because they have a big military and economic presence, and they think that that entitles them to a strong voice. Then there is Afghanistan itself, a divided country with many different interests. And there are the militants – you have an insurgency which has increased rather than decreased in the last five years," she added.

Kai Eide was the U.N. envoy to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1997 to 1998, to Kosovo in 2005, and has held several positions in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He was Norway&#39s NATO representative from 2002 to 2006.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed has said that they do not trust Eide because of his NATO links, and expect him to fail. When confronted with this Eide insists that, while his previous engagements will make it easier for him to talk to the different players, he does not represent NATO in particular.

"I am not a representative of any regional organisation. I am a representative of the international community in the sense of the global community, and that will be reflected in the way in which I proceed with my work. Everybody will have to judge me based on what I say and do," Eide told IPS.

He added that "in the end we cannot have purely a military approach. We have to emphasise much more strongly the political dimension of what we are doing. This is certainly also the view of the Afghan government.

"And we have to emphasise the developmental side, where it has been demonstrated over and over again that we need to exploit our resources much better. We have also underestimated the humanitarian requirements on the ground for a long time. None of this is new, but it is a question of emphasis, and of being more efficient than in the past."

Eide does not want to say what his first actions as &#39special representative&#39 will be. "It would be wise of me to set my feet on the ground in Kabul and to consult with the Afghan President and his government before I set any priorities."