Afghanistan - Current Issues

Afghanistan is still far away from general peace. Karsai’s government has been criticized for not being able to defeat the Taliban in the south-east, nor being able to fully control the warlords in the north. Problems can be identified as follows:

1. The country is supposed to have the highest density of landmines still active, which caused according to ICRC the death of 409 people in 2002 decreasing to 205 in 2003. In response to this an Anti-Personnel Mine & Ammunition Stockpile Destruction (APMASD) was initiated in 2006 as part of the Afghanistan’s New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) and is paid for by the Canadian government.
   
   
2. Another big problem is that Afghanistan is the biggest producer of illegal opiates in the world. The cultivation increased from 7,600 cultivated hectares in 2001 a comparably low figure due to the war, to 104,000 hectares in 2005. (Source: UN Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report 2006). The money earned by the production and trafficking of opiates has negative effects on peace and stability within the country. Drug money is used by the Taliban and warlords to finance weapons and troops, leading to a prolonged civil war.
   
   
3. The long history of wars and civil wars in Afghanistan created a society with huge stockpiles of conventional weapons and great numbers of militia members and soldiers. Even though these problems have been tackled since 2001 by the Afghan government, the stationed NATO troops and the international community many arms and soldiers remain capable of de-stabilizing the country. The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program, part of the Afghanistan’s New Beginnings Programme (ANBP), in a report from 2006 claims that at least the disarmament and re-integration of members of the Afghan Military Forces (AMF) has been completed.
   The DDR program is to be replaced by a UNDP and ANBP follow up program to insure the sustainability of the project and the demobilization of illegal armed forced. This Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) program tries to reach “1. Effective disarmament and disbandment of the majority of illegal militia groups leading to an environment more conducive to stability and development and 2. Enhancement of socio-economic development in communities that will contribute to the sustainability of the livelihood of disbanded groups, and improvement in community level governance.”
   
   
4. The government in Kabul up to this points heavily depends on the US-American troops on the one side as well as the NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to secure a certain level of peace and stability; yet both have in recent years been attacked more and more effectively by the Taliban as well as other groups. The increasing number of attacks and fatalities (Rubin 2006: Afghanistan’s Uncertain Transition From Turmoil to Normalcy. The Center for Preventive Action) makes it growingly difficult for the states that have sent troops to Afghanistan to continue their involvement. Furthermore due to the ongoing armed conflicts in Iraq the US has supposedly reached their maximum capacities for the deployment of military. A draw back of these forces would further destabilize the country.
   
   
5. Afghanistan has in his history often been influenced and directed by its neighbors. The strong support of Pakistan for the Taliban in the 1990s and their continuous incapacity or some also call it unwillingness to eliminate Taliban bases on their territory negatively effects stability in its neighbor’s state. For this the Afghan-Pakistani relationships are now at a very low level. All other neighbors seem to be respecting the Afghan government’s sovereignty, but might be interested in widening there influence, should the government fail to install its rule over the entire territory of the country.