Afghans feeling less secure since last year, says survey

Afghans feel that the security situation in their country has deteriorated compared with last year, a US-funded survey revealed today.

About 46% of the 6,200 adults surveyed nationwide feel security is the biggest problem afflicting the country, while 29% think it is unemployment, according to the survey for the US Agency for International Development.

"In the 2006 survey, it was unemployment first, followed by security and corruption, and this time around it is security first followed by unemployment and poor economy. This further underlines the deterioration in security in the eyes of the common Afghans," the survey says.

Despite the rise in violence, about four in 10 responding to the survey said they felt the country was heading in the right direction - roughly the same as in last year's survey. Half of those surveyed said they were more prosperous today than during Taliban rule in the late 1990s.

Afghanistan is experiencing its worst bout of violence since the Taliban were removed from power in a US-led invasion in 2001. More than 5,200 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year.

"Insecurity is the main reason for the people to believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction," the survey said.

"Almost half of the people of Afghanistan (49%) think that their families are more prosperous today than they were during the Taliban regime," the survey found. "However more than one-quarter of the people (28%) think they are less prosperous today."

Over 80% of the respondents said they have confidence in the Afghanistan's National Army and the country's troublesome police force, while over half said they do not trust the formal justice system and would rather rely on traditional forms of justice - decisions by local councils - to settle their disputes.

About 80% of the people felt that cultivation of opium poppies was wrong. Afghanistan accounts for over 93% of the world's supply of opium, the main ingredient in heroin, a lucrative trade whose proceeds in part fund some of the Taliban-led insurgency.

The drug trade also has a corrupting influence on local government officials.

The survey was conducted in all 34 provinces and was the largest comprehensive opinion poll ever conducted in Afghanistan.

Some 6,263 people aged 18 years and over were interviewed in person by a team of 494 trained interviewers between June 11 and June 22 this year.