U.S. PONDERS RELIEF FOR DEVASTATED AFGHANISTAN. After bearing the multibillion-dollar cost of the war in Afghanistan, the Bush administration is now questioning how much it will contribute to the UN reconstruction effort in that country, the New York Times (p. B5) reports.
Officials said the administration was considering paying less than the United States has customarily contributed to postwar reconstruction costs in other countries, but members of Congress and the State Department are arguing to keep the American contribution as generous as possible. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has underwritten large parts of peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts in the Balkans, Cambodia, Mozambique and many other countries. But the cost of fighting the war in Afghanistan has already cost tens of billions of dollars.
"We will look at Afghanistan in its entirety - the fact that we've made a uniquely large contribution so far - and we will contribute appropriately," a senior White House official said. He added, "We do have a role to play - we do not want to be the people who do the bombing and leave the reconstruction to others."
The price, by World Bank estimates, could be more than $10 billion for the first five years alone, to rebuild schools and roads and communications systems, create a health system, attack the narcotics problem and underwrite the new government, especially the police and justice system to ensure the rule of law.
Typically, the United States contributes one-fourth of a peacekeeping mission's costs and has contributed up to one-third of reconstruction costs. Senior European and UN officials said they had assumed that the United States would pay up to one-third of the reconstruction costs, with Europe paying one-third and the rest of the world, led by Japan, picking up the final third.
After 20 years of war, notes the story, the country is so threadbare that the United Nations put together an emergency $20 million fund to underwrite the interim government, providing desks, computers, telephones and salaries. "This is all part of a broader political message, that however long it takes, we are committed to a stable, democratic government," said Mark Malloch Brown.
Separately, the Japan Economic Newswire reports U.N. special envoy on Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi has been soliciting funds from potential donors, including Japan, to help start up the Afghan interim authority to be launched in Kabul on Saturday, Japanese government sources said Tuesday.
Brahimi has been sending letters to prospective donors, explaining it will cost an estimated $15 million to $20 million for the process, including setting up an office, purchasing items such as computers and desks and paying civil servants, the sources said.
The contributions will be kept in a fund set up Friday in the UNDP and be used for expenditures involved in launching and operating the interim administration, which is envisioned to exist for up to six months, Brahimi was quoted as saying in his letter. The Japanese government, slated to host a ministerial-level conference on Afghan reconstruction in late January, has reportedly begun seriously thinking about Brahimi's request.
Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor (p. 2) reports despite the difficulties ahead, Gareth Evans, a former Australian foreign minister who now heads the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based organization that works to prevent conflicts, says his discussions with administration officials indicated the US "accepts that a figure like $10 billion is in the real world, and they intend to join the other donors in this for the long haul." Separately, the Christian Science Monitor (p. 7) reports the UN votes this week on the makeup of peacekeeping forces.
In related news, Thüringische Landeszeitung and Frankfurter Neue Presse (both Germany) reports that after returning to Germany from her trip to Afghanistan, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul stressed that it is now particularly important that the Afghan people experience the advantages of peace. She said the military operation was necessary and the fall of the Taliban regime was perceived as a liberation by most Afghans. In talks with the designated head of the Afghan government, Hamid Karsai, and other members of the future transitional government, she got the impression that they are seriously committed to peace. In contrast to experiences from the past, donor countries will have to make sure that their commitment is a long term project, Wieczorek-Zeul said.
AFP, meanwhile, reports the rebuilding of Afghanistan is getting a virtual boost from an Internet site set up by Afghan exiles living in Silicon Valley. Virtual Nation (www.virtualnation.org) is becoming a crucial link between established organizations seeking manpower for programs in Afghanistan and thousands in expatriate communities scattered across the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany who want a hand in the rebuilding process. Working with five Afghan non-governmental groups and organizations like the World Bank, Virtual Nation is compiling a database listing potential opportunities in areas like construction, engineering, education, telecommunications, health care and finance.
The news comes as a Financial Times editorial (p. 16) says the US-led coalition has done a remarkable job in routing the Taliban and al-Qaeda supporters in Afghanistan with a minimal loss of life. It has also sent a powerful message to other rogue regimes that global terrorist networks will be uprooted wherever they are found. It is now vital that the coalition shows a similar level of determination in helping to stabilize Afghanistan, the editorial says. The outside world has a self-interested responsibility to ensure the country is never again so destitute as to become a haven for terrorists. The rapid deployment of inter-national peacekeeping forces is an essential means to this end.
Separately, the Asahi Shimbun (12/17) notes in an editorial that while the noose is tightening around Osama bin Laden and his top aides in the al-Qaida terrorist network and the U.S.-led military campaign against them in Afghanistan is nearing its climax, international initiatives, public and private, are being undertaken to rebuild the shattered country.
After a working-level meeting in Washington in November among aid donor nations to discuss ways to help the Afghan people recover from the ruins of war, an international conference was held in Tokyo last week on the issue among nongovernmental organizations.
The meeting was organized by the Japan Platform, a humanitarian aid-coordination group created by Japanese nongovernmental organizations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Keidanren, the Federation of Economic Organization. About 200 delegates from around the world were present, including representatives of 27 Afghan civic groups. It was the first time so many Afghan groups were involved in a Japanese conference on aid to their country. Those present issued a statement called the Comprehensive Appeal, which argued that Afghan nongovernmental organizations actively involved in humanitarian relief there should have a leading role in the reconstruction process and urged a sustained, consistent commitment of support from the international community.
Rebuilding Afghanistan will be a colossal, long-term task that could not possibly be achieved by anything less than serious, tenacious effort by the international community.