[16/March/2010]

UNITED NATIONS, March 16 (Saba) -- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said low- and mid-level insurgents who want to be reintegrated in the political process in Afghanistan must lay down their arms and respect the will of the majority of Afghans, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

"Those who choose to reconcile must respect the achievements made since 2002 (fall of Taliban) and accept the aspirations of the majority of Afghans to a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan," Ban wrote in a report to the Security Council on Afghanistan.

Another challenge facing Afghanistan, he noted, is to make Afghan sovereignty real. The only way to do so is to make the Government and all Afghans responsible.
This process, he warned, could be undermined if the international community were to bypass the Government.

"It is therefore essential that we promote a new mindset that shows greater respect for Afghans' own understanding of their country," he said.

In a veiled criticism of the Obama Administration, Ban said achieving the transition to sovereignty in Afghanistan will also require a balance between military and civilian efforts.

"While I have welcomed the additional international military forces, I must at the same time caution against a militarization of the overall effort in Afghanistan. As many civilian tasks as possible must be handed over to Afghan civilian institutions," he urged.

"The temptation to achieve short-term results from unsustainable projects aimed at meeting political deadlines in troop-contributing countries must be resisted. And the tendency to allocate the distribution of aid according to where donors' troops are most heavily focused - must begin to give way to a more coherent, nationally based assistance strategy," he said.

He criticized the fact that "too little information about donor activities still reaches the Government," whether those activities are performed by military or civilian actors.

"There is a prevailing tendency to implement projects without sufficiently consulting Afghans or working through their institutions. In doing so, we miss opportunities to obtain their full support for projects carried out in their name and to gain the benefits of their own knowledge of their country," he added.

Saba