Afghan insurgency ruthless and changes needed: U.N.

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Afghan insurgency has been much worse than expected and a sharper U.N. mandate is needed if international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan are to succeed, a top U.N. official said on Wednesday.

"We face an insurgency that has proven to be more resilient than we expected and more ruthless than we ever imagined," U.N. under-secretary-general for peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno told the Security Council at an open debate on extending the U.N. mandate in Afghanistan.

He also told the council that governmental institutions in Afghanistan remained fragile, partly due to widespread corruption. Illicit opium trade continued to flourish and has undermined the government by helping fund Taliban insurgents.

"The international community, while both committed and generous, has also been, too often, insufficiently united on key issues of policy," Guehenno said, adding that the United Nations deserved some of the blame.

Despite these problems, Guehenno said there was no need to expand the powers of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA. Rather the mandate needed to be "sharpened", he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his latest report to the Security Council that militant attacks in Afghanistan had increased dramatically last year, with civilians accounting for nearly a fifth of people killed.

Ban recommended increased coordination between the international community, Afghan government and NATO-led ISAF forces, and expanding U.N. activities across Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's U.N. Ambassador Zahir Tanin urged the council to extend the U.N. mandate. He also said it was true the Taliban had changed tactics and was attacking civilians, schools and religious figures.

"These attacks, which have come by 'hit and run' tactics, should not be seen as a sign of the enemy's strength, but rather of their frustration resulting from the inability to engage in direct battles," he said.

MORE COORDINATION NEEDED

Italy has drafted a Security Council resolution and circulated it to council members. It is expected to be put to a vote on March 20, three days before UNAMA's mandate expires.

At the center of the draft resolution is a description of a strengthened role for the new top U.N. Afghan envoy, a post Ban asked Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide to fill. The draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for "more coherent support" for Kabul, a wider U.N. presence and better cooperation with ISAF.

One of the problems in Afghanistan, Western diplomats say, is that the most high-profile international figures in the country have until now been military commanders and not the civilian head of UNAMA, currently Tom Koenigs of Germany.

As the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, diplomats said Eide would have to take on a more active role than Koenigs did in coordinating international civilian, military and aid activities and in working with the government.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Eide said: "Coordination issue is really the most urgent issue and I think there is a strengthened mandate to work on that."