FOREIGN INTERFERENCE PREVENTS PEACE IN AFGHANISTAN: UN

By Anwar Iqbal

The news: Pakistan Jan 5, 1996

ISLAMABAD: Foreign military assistance to warring Afghan factions is a major factor for continued fighting in Afghanistan, which has made it difficult to a negotiated settlement to this 18-year old dispute, says an end of the year report presented by the UN Secretary General to the Security Council.

The report says that foreign military support to the Northern Alliance and Taliban has "continued unabated throughout 1997." Reliable eyewitnesses reported many sorties of military deliveries in unmarked aircraft to bases of the Northern Alliance and numerous deliveries by truck caravans of arms, ammunition and fuel to Taliban-controlled territory, the report says.

"United Nations employees also reported an encounter with an unidentified foreign military training unit of several hundred persons near Kabul." The report describes these activities as "blatant violations of General Assembly and Security Council resolutions which call for a halt to foreign military intervention."

Such violations, says the report, seriously undermine UN peacemaking efforts and serve to prolong the Afghan conflict. "They also raised suspicions and worsened relations among the countries in the region." The report says that all foreign providers of assistance to warring Afghan parties "enthusiastically proclaim their support to UN peacemaking efforts."

At the same time, the report points out, they "continue to fan the conflict by pouring in arms, money and other supplies to their preferred Afghan factions. These countries unanimously denounce 'foreign interference,' but are quick to add that arms are delivered only to the other side."

Strongly condemning foreign military support to Afghans, the report says "these external players may have their own reasons for continuing to support their respective Afghan clients, but they must be held responsible for exacerbating the bloody conflict in Afghanistan."

"They must also be held accountable for building a fire which, they should be aware, is unlikely to remain indefinitely confined to Afghanistan," the report warns. "Indeed, the fire is already spreading beyond the borders of Afghanistan, posing a serious threat to the region and beyond in the shape of terrorism, banditry, narcotics trafficking, refugee flows and increasing ethnic and sectarian tension."

"The supply of arms and other materials from outside provides the essential wherewithal for the continued fighting in Afghanistan. It is apparent, in the light of the evidence collected so far, that large quantities of war-making materials are entering Afghanistan," says the report.

"It is hard to accept the argument that the Afghan warring factions are able to sustain the current level of fighting using only those weapons and ammunition left by the Soviet troops. Neither is it credible that, with their limited financial capacity, these Afghan factions could afford to procure massive amounts of weapons on the black market and smuggle them into Afghanistan on their own." The report, which covers various aspects of the Afghan conflict, is signed by the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan.