VANCOUVER, CANADA – Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), says that Afghanistan needs international cooperation to overcome the challenges the country faces.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General outlined the challenges Afghanistan poses to the international community, including instability, terrorism, opium production, and refugee crises. She said that the country needs to address these challenges comprehensively for long-term sustainability.
“It has been the source of instability, terrorism exported to the rest of the world, the source of 85 percent of the world’s opium production, the home of millions of refugees who have been driven to make their home in neighbouring countries, and millions more who have chosen to make their home faraway where their sons and daughters can be educated.”
Ms. Otunbayeva told the council that the current stability in the country must be acknowledged. “The relative stability that exists now should be appreciated, as well as the significant efforts that the de facto authorities have made to reduce the cultivation of opium and to combat Daesh. But if the other issues I have mentioned are not addressed these achievements will not be enough to assure long-term sustainability.”
The outside world has repeatedly quoted the decline in military violence as a major improvement in Afghanistan. Critics, however, say the lull in conflict is partly because the major instigator of violence, the Taliban, are now in power. Also, the group rules through the barrel of the gun, cracking down on any form of political resistance.
Additionally, concerns grow that Afghanistan could once again become a hotbed of international terrorism given the Taliban’s deep ties with regional and global terror networks.
The head of UNAMA also warned about the existence of terrorist groups in the region, saying, “there are well-founded concerns over the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan. It is not only Daesh that constitutes a threat, but also TTP, a major concern for Pakistan which has seen an increase in terrorist activity.”
Previously, the UN Security Council’s sanctions monitoring committee had reported that groups such as Al Qaeda are deeply embedded within the Taliban ranks and files.
Otunbayeva stressed the importance of aligning efforts with the objectives outlined in Security Council Resolution 2721, emphasizing the establishment of a peaceful Afghanistan integrated into the global community.
According to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, the central goal of international cooperation is ensuring full compliance with international obligations, including safeguarding the complete participation of Afghan women.
On the ground, however, the Taliban have done everything but honoring Afghanistan’s commitments to international treaties and human rights conventions. Today marks the 900th day since the regime banned girls’ secondary education, a reminder of the country it attempts to create.
The UN envoy also acknowledged the Taliban’s disregard for human freedom, dignity, and the principle of equality.
“What we are seeing in Afghanistan is precisely the opposite: a deliberate disinvestment that is both harsh and unsustainable. The denial of women and girls’ access to education and work, and their removal from many aspects of public life, have caused immense harm to mental and physical health, and livelihoods.”
Ms. Otunbayeva also enumerated the substantial financial support the world has provided to Afghanistan despite the Taliban’s atrocities, manifesting the West’s dilemma in dealing with the unorthodox regime in Kabul.
It is not clear if the world, as disunited as it is, will be able to find a constructive way to amend the Taliban’s repressive governance. The group’s brutality is rapidly on the rise while the international attention dwindles, exemplified by the rapid decline in contribution to the UN’s humanitarian appeal for the starving country.
Even if the world were to find common grounds with the regime, will that translate to any improvement in the well being the population is an open question.
Naseer Ahmad Faiq, Chargé d’Affaires of Afghanistan Permanent Mission to the United Nations, a diplomat from the former government who does not work with the Taliban, said that achieving a peaceful Afghanistan which can be integrated into the international community is only possible through national legitimacy.
“This approach is necessary to reverse the current negative trajectory and set Afghanistan on the path to stability.”
