Ashdown withdraws from Afghanistan envoy contest

By David Clarke

LONDON (Reuters) - British politician and former soldier Paddy Ashdown on Sunday withdrew from the contest to be United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan after Kabul said it favored a British NATO commander for the post.

Violence in Afghanistan over the past two years has been the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces ousted the Islamist Taliban and there have been calls for a high-level envoy to coordinate with the Afghan government and bodies such as NATO and the European Union.

In New York, diplomats said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had initially been happy with the choice of Ashdown but had later become increasingly uneasy over the extensive political role he had played in Bosnia.

Karzai was concerned a powerful "super-envoy", particularly one from former colonial power Britain, might make his government appear weaker than it already is.

"The Afghans were worried he'd come to Afghanistan with similar powers of bossing the government round," said one Western diplomat.

"This job can only be done successfully on the basis of a consensus within the international community and the clear support of the government of Afghanistan," Ashdown said in a statement on Sunday.

"It is clear to me that, in Afghanistan at least, the support necessary to do the job effectively does not exist."

On Saturday, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations, Zahir Tanin, said Kabul wanted a British NATO commander, General John McColl, to become the U.N. envoy rather than Ashdown.

On Sunday, Afghanistan's Foreign Minister, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, said the government favored either McColl or Turkish politician Hekmat Cetin for the post. Cetin served as NATO's civil envoy for the country in recent years.

"The government's disagreement on Ashdown is not regarding his nationality but is about his authorities and responsibilities," Spanta told a news conference in Kabul.

The Western diplomat in New York said another possible candidate being mentioned at the U.N. was Norway's former ambassador to NATO, Kai Eide, who also worked for the U.N. in the Balkans.

A Western source close to talks over the post said earlier this month that Ashdown, the former U.N. High Representative and EU special envoy for Bosnia, had agreed with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take the job.

URGENT NEED FOR ENVOY

Ashdown said there was an urgent need for proper coordination of the international effort in Afghanistan for it to stand a chance of success and was withdrawing reluctantly.

He said last year that unless a new position were created, the West would lose the war in Afghanistan, risking a regional conflict that could match the magnitude of previous world wars.