Law prime concern for Afghans

Law prime concern for Afghans
June 2003

Times of India

Raminder Singh is the last person who should be complimenting the Taliban. The regime forced him to flee to India from Afghanistan and he finds himself homeless and jobless on his return.
Yet, he feels that there was greater security under the Taliban. “This government does not have full control. There are gunmen running around. They settle issues using the gun. President Hamid Karzai had promised he would disarm these people in six months. Nothing has happened. The forces of the international community stay at checkpoints on the main roads, they do not come inside our narrow lanes to enforce order,” he says.
In recent months, there has been a deterioration in the law and order situation in some parts of the country, especially in the south. Following the killing of a Red
Cross official in Kandahar province in March, several NGOs have stopped visiting the districts.
The mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is limited to Kabul, the fledgling Afghan police force and the national army are still under training, and the coalition forces led by the US have shifted their focus
to civil and humanitarian affairs.UNHCR chief of mission in Afghanistan Filippo Grandi terms the “underfunding” of the security sector by the international community “a scandal”. He says that while large parts of the country have no security problems, factional fighting, like between the troops of Rashid
Dostum, the independent warlord in Mazar province, and other militias does affect the average Afghani. Also, the work of the NGOs is hampered by terrorist elements of the Taliban and Al-Qaida who have been regrouping in the south and are bent on destabilising the government by targeting aid workers. Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah says the Al-Qaida still has the capacity to carry out operations despite being on the run, but he dismisses as an exaggeration recent reports that there has been a reversal in the overall security situation.