February 01, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 12, 1428

BERLIN: Afghan calls for a bigger role in spending billions of dollars of aid flowing into the war-scarred country look likely to fall on deaf ears as a reconstruction conference ended here on Wednesday.

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta complained at the start of the two-day meeting of donors in the German capital that the Afghan government was being “bypassed” in the process of rebuilding the country after 25 years of conflict.

“Unfortunately, the Afghan government continues to be bypassed by donor countries.

“Trusting Afghan institutions will be an important step towards breaking this cycle.

“Terrorists will exploit this situation if the government is unable to provide services to its people.”

The meeting is aimed at assessing progress made since a conference in London last year when the international community launched a five-year plan, or “compact”, to coordinate financial and military support to Afghanistan.

Twelve months on, many regions are still ravaged by violence and the Western-backed President Hamid Karzai is unable to extend his authority into much of the country.

The international monitoring group Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday that little had been achieved in the past year in providing Afghans with security, food and healthcare.

It said more than 1,000 civilians were killed last year, mostly in attacks by extremist Taliban fighters.

More than five years after a US-led coalition invaded the country and toppled the Taliban government, Afghanistan continues to receive significant international aid.

The United States said last week it planned to commit an additional $10.6 billion over two years and keep over 3,000 troops there for an additional four months. It has already spent around $14 billion.

The EU has also confirmed it will contribute $777 million over four years, with special efforts being made to bolster the judiciary in order to fight corruption.

The US ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald Neumann, said before the meeting that he understood the calls from the Afghan government to have a greater say in where aid money was spent.

“There is a clear need to run more money through the Afghan government,” he told journalists, but he could give no promises that that would happen.

There was a problem with the way the money could be distributed because of a lack of skilled bureaucrats, Neumann said.

Better coordination between the civilian and military operations – one of the main themes of the conference – was required, the ambassador said.

The pledges of aid come as the Nato-led forces in Afghanistan have warned that the Taliban is expected to mount a fresh wave of attacks when the weather warms up.

Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs, said however he was optimistic that 2007 would be a “turning point” for Afghanistan.

“I think we look at this year and say that we are better set than last year,” Boucher said.

The Afghan army and police was in better shape than last year, he insisted, but formidable problems remained in coordinating the military and civilian efforts.

Afghanistan produces 92 per cent of the world’s opium, which is used to make heroin.—AFP