October 26, 2003	Sunday	Sha’aban 29, 1424

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UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25: The United Nations has suspended operations in four southern Afghan provinces due to increasing violence and concerns that aid workers could be seen by local militants as targets, a top UN official has announced.

UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno told the UN Security Council on Friday that the decision had been made because many of the fundamental causes of insecurity in Afghanistan “remain unresolved.”

He added that Taliban forces were retaking parts of Afghanistan as the post-war government shows “signs of weakening”.

Mr Guehenno said the insecurity came from extremist attacks, factionalized government ministries and the weakening of the political compact that supports the provisional government.

“Many fundamental, structural causes of insecurity remain unresolved,” Guehenno noted, even as the final and most important stages of the Afghan internal peace process move ahead.

He cited a tank battle between two rival Afghan factions earlier this month, but said “the primary source of insecurity remains terrorist attacks and continued sizable cross-border infiltration by suspected Taliban, Al Qaeda and Hizb-i-Islami insurgents.”

According to him, every border district in the country except one has been labelled “high risk” by the UN security coordinator.

The announcement coincided with a report by Afghan state television that 10 civilians, including five women and two children, had been killed in a “terrorist” ambush in northern Afghanistan.

UN peacekeeping staff have noted that attacks against government, military and humanitarian personnel are “steadily increasing,” especially against Afghans working with international organizations, the UN undersecretary general pointed out.

Such attacks, he said, “seriously jeopardize the safety of personnel and limit the ability to conduct reconstruction and political activities.”

“The trend towards targeting civilians supportive of the central government and peace process supports the view that the UN must also be seen as a target,” Mr Guehenno said.

The undersecretary general pointed to “worrying signs” that the political compact that helps support the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, “may be weakening.”

He added that further reforms are needed in national security ministries and all other government ministries, which remain influenced by factional and ethnic interests.

“Over the past few weeks, the division between those that would turn the corner of Afghanistan’s past, and those that would preserve their entitlement appear to have deepened,” he stressed.

Donors have pledged more than four billion dollars in aid over five years but as much as six billion dollars annually could be needed to get the country back on its feet, according to UN officials.

The Security Council, which last week authorized international peacekeepers to deploy outside the capital Kabul in a bid to help restore order, is expected to send a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan next week for a first-hand look at the situation.

NORTHERN GOVERNORS: In a related development Afghan President Hamid Karzai is to remove two strong northern rulers and several other key officials as part of an effort to extend his authority outside the capital, a northern commander said on Saturday.

The shake-up, the most extensive since Mr Karzai came to power in 2001, affects commander Ustad Atta Mohammad, Uzbek warlord Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum and governors and police chiefs of four provinces loyal to them, Atta Mohammad said.

The move follows this week’s security meeting in Kabul and intense fighting between Atta and Dostum’s supporters in the north earlier this month.

Afghan officials said on Saturday they had arrested 21 Taliban and their supporters in the eastern province of Ghazni and another 15 Taliban from a southern district in Kandahar province in anti-rebel operations in the last three days.

Atta Mohammad, whose Jamiat-i-Islami faction comprises ethnic Tajiks, is the commander of a military corps; while Gen Dostum has been serving as Karzai’s adviser in security and military affairs.

Commander Atta and Gen Dostum, whose forces have intermittently fought each other since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, would be given positions in the central government, Mr Atta said.

The governors and police chiefs of Sari Pul, Balkh, Samangan and Jozjan provinces may also be given new positions, he said.

“The first move will be to replace the governors and police chiefs... Those who have good record will be given new positions,” Mr Atta said and added: “We will be moved to Kabul. We will be based in Kabul, but it is not yet clear what positions we will be given.”

Mr Atta said he welcomed Mr Karzai’s decision, but Gen Dostum was not available for a comment. Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali is due to travel to the north on Sunday for talks with Dostum, Atta said.—AFP/Reuters