Beef up security or lose Afghanistan, UN chief warns

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned member states that “we may lose Afghanistan” unless they pull their weight to improve security there.

Annan strongly backed the concerns of the top UN envoy in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, in an Associated Press interview last Friday.

“He sounded a serious alarm that we need to deal with the security issue, and if we do not deal with that, we may lose Afghanistan,” the secretary-general said.

”I think that it was legitimate that he sounded the alarm, and I urge member states to pay attention to it and help us in improving security in Afghanistan, so that we can get on with our work.”

In the AP interview, Brahimi warned that the United Nations – already forced out of Iraq by suicide bombers – may have to abandon its two-year effort to stabilise Afghanistan because of rising violence blamed on the Taliban.

He said his team could not continue its work in this war-torn nation unless security improved. Brahimi also called for more foreign troops to halt attacks that have killed at least 11 aid workers across the south and east since March.

Annan renewed the UN call for governments to contribute troops to an expanded international force that would operate beyond Kabul, and for countries with influence on Afghanistan’s warlords to use it “to calm them down” so the United Nations and others could work in a relatively ”risk-free environment”.

“Without security, you cannot have reconstruction,” Annan stressed at a year-end news conference.

"Without security, you cannot travel around the country registering people for the elections. Without security, candidates cannot move around and campaign freely.”

The international force in Kabul, now led by Nato, is focusing on sending teams to provide security to humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in the provinces, as the Germans are doing in the northern city of Kunduz. But the United Nations says the teams are no substitute for an expanded security force.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested this month that Nato could take over all military operations in the country – including combat missions now run by the US-led force.