[A-List] Afghanistan: NATO expands role

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Nato plans wider role for Afghan security force

Ian Black in Brussels
Friday September 19, 2003
The Guardian

Nato began taking steps last night to extend its Afghan peacekeeping mission
to areas beyond Kabul in an attempt to tackle tribal warlords and improve
security and reconstruction efforts.

Military experts are to report next week on how to strengthen the
5,500-strong International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in line with the
demands of the Afghan government and the UN.

"We'll be asking the military authorities to look at the security situation,
report on how to fill shortfalls in the current force and examine options
for extending support for the government's security efforts beyond Kabul," a
diplomat said.

A bigger Nato force is needed to protect provincial reconstruction teams
operating in remote areas and speed up the demobilisation of militias. It is
also expected to help reduce the burden on the 11,500-strong force under US
command fighting remnants of al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Afghanistan is still a sensitive issue for Nato's 19 member states. France
and Belgium are reluctant to get more deeply involved.

Germany, playing a key role, wants to deploy a reconstruction team of
several hundred civilians protected by 230 military personnel in the Kunduz
region. But it will only do so if it is linked to the UN-mandated Isaf
mission.
Nato took command of Isaf last month: its first military mission outside
Europe and North America. Its leaders say the operation is a sign that it
has moved beyond its old cold war role and is taking on truly global
security missions.

The UN mandate limits Isaf's activities to the capital, helping the Afghan
authorities maintain order and training the local security forces.

But aid agencies say Afghanistan will never recover unless the outside world
provides more reconstruction funds and improves security beyond the capital.

The EU's special envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell, said this week that
"a few thousand" extra western troops were needed to extend security beyond
Kabul and prevent next year's elections turning into a fiasco.

The decision to expand the mission needs the approval of the UN security
council, but diplomats in Brussels say that should be a formality if Nato
members agree on the plan.
Thirty-one countries currently contribute to Isaf, with the leading roles
played by Canada, with 2,100 personnel, and Germany, with 1,800.