June 12, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1428

KABUL, June 11: Weapons smuggling into Afghanistan is increasing, the United Nations representative said on Monday, expressing concern about violence in the country.

Tom Koenigs said he did not know where the arms came from and where they went but said they were an ‘expression of insecurity’.

“I have got some information that the weapons smuggling into Afghanistan is increasing,” he told reporters. “We have already far too many weapons in this country even without this smuggling.”

“It is certainly one expression of the insecurity in this country that people turn to weapons,” he said.

Insecurity would be a key focus of a July 2-3 conference in Rome that Mr Koenigs said he wanted to produce ‘clear, realistic priorities’. “The era of lawlessness, corruption, unprofessional police and (an) unreliable judicial system must end,” he said.

The UN representative said he was concerned when “actors, in power or off power, turn to violence, whether it is fistfights, beating up each other, throwing bottles in parliament or somewhere else.”

Attorney-General Abdul Jabar Sabet says he was beaten up on Friday by warlord-allied commander Din Mohammad Jora’at, a former general in the interior ministry, and his men.

Mr Koenigs said he was saddened by the murders in the past week of two women journalists. There have been some arrests but it is not clear if the killings were related to the women’s work or linked to family feuds.

“This must stop. Women must be protected and their role in the society respected,” he said.—AFP