Ambassador denies UN is 'moving slowly'

Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations today denied the UN was moving too slowly in Afghanistan.

Colonel Bob Stewart, commander of the British UN forces in central Bosnia during the Balkans conflict, said the UN was moving ‘‘at the speed of a striking slug’’.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock acknowledged the situation in Afghanistan was a worry but said the UN had to work with ‘‘legitimacy’’ and that it would take a few weeks to set up a transitional government.

Col Stewart said: ‘‘The United Nations always moves slowly. In this case it’s been moving at the speed of a striking slug.

‘‘Most certainly it should have had representations actually in Kabul.

‘‘Fundamentally the United Nations should have moved much faster and got people on the ground there.

‘‘In consequence there is a huge political vacuum in Kabul and it’s a political vacuum that might be filled by differing warlords.

‘‘And for that reason of course the United Kingdom is trying to send some troops in just to actually maintain reins, to actually stop the situation developing into a catastrophe.

‘‘It’s a situation that’s moving so fast in Afghanistan and yet the United Nations seem to be suggesting well perhaps we’ll bring people together in a conference somewhere, we’ll have this conference and then we’ll try and get some kind of consensus.

‘‘It’s not that sort of situation. It’s the sort of situation where the UN representative has got to get on the ground, actually get round there in person and impress on those people that actually he has the political responsibility and the authority of the world to try and bring some kind of order out of chaos.

"That hasn’t happened and it should have done.’’

Sir Jeremy said he didn’t think the criticism was fair, adding: ‘‘You’ve got to remember the UN is only a few people. It’s Lakhdar Brahimi (the UN special envoy to Afghanistan) and a small team.

‘‘The UN relies on its member states to give it the resources it needs to carry out the job it has to do. It’s a collective job.

‘‘You can’t just move in behind a load of warlords and start taking over a capital city belonging to another country.

‘‘It all has to be done with legitimacy, with the support of the security council and these things take a few days to organise. Against the standards we’ve actually moved rather fast.’’

Sir Jeremy agreed that the situation in the country was a worry, adding: ‘‘I think it’s all happened quicker than we thought. We didn’t realise the Taliban were such a house of cards.

‘‘And it’s very difficult to follow, obeying the rules of international legitimacy, the kind of political steps that need to be taken.’’

He said he thought it would take a couple of weeks for the first stage, to get a council together for a transitional government.

It would then take a few months to have a grand consultative assembly which would lay the constitutional basis for a new stable government.

‘‘In the next few weeks and months it’s Band Aid on the humanitarian front, very good Band Aid, it’s been put together remarkably fast and a sort of parallel Band Aid on the political front but one that’s got to have some local and international legitimacy.’’