Huge battle to rebuild Afghanistan made harder

Hamid Karzai

LONDON - The conference on Afghanistan ended yesterday, with Hamid Karzai's Government receiving just a fraction of what it claimed was needed to rebuild the country.

At the same time there were fresh warnings over the dangers that British forces being sent to Afghanistan will face, and confusion over how to tackle the country's massive opium trade.

The Afghan Government had said that a minimum of US$20 billion ($29 billion) was needed over five years. But the total promised aid at the end of the summit was $10.5 billion. However, since 20 per cent of that was "old pledges", the real figure was $8 billion.

The US was the biggest contributor, with an offer of US$4 billion over five years, while Britain said it will give US$885 million. Another $1.2 billion will come from the World Bank.

The Foreign Office minister Kim Howells declared the conference - co-hosted by Tony Blair, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and President Karzai - a "great success".

But the Afghan Finance Minister, Anwar al-Haq Ahady, expressed disappointment that the total amount of funding on offer fell short of his government's expectations.

Ahady said he was confident the money pledged would be delivered, but privately officials are concern about delays. One official said: "How soon it arrives will be extremely important.

"We have had elections and we have to persuade the people that democracy works. It would be very, very bad if we cannot deliver our promise, especially now as we face the biggest extremist threat since the war."

General Abdul Rahim Wardak, the Afghan Defence Minister, warned that the 6000-strong British task force would be on the front line of the threat.

The British force will be mainly deployed in Helmand to counter a new offensive by a resurgent Taleban and al Qaeda, which has seen a hundred Americans killed in the past few months, many in suicide bombings - hitherto rare in Afghanistan.

Wardak said: "We are facing a new phenomenon. They used to be mainly foreigners but now there are some Afghans. They are religious fanatics."

The general said there was widespread infiltration from across the "porous" border with Pakistan.

The Afghan Government had reported a steady stream of foreign nationals allegedly linked to the Iraq insurgency infiltrating the border.

Yesterday Afghan forces reported the arrest of an Iraqi and three Pakistanis at Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province in the south.

This week, five Bangladeshis were arrested in the same area. The provincial governor, Ghulam Dushtaqir Azad, said they had links with the Taleban.

The British Government has announced that British troops will be engaged in tackling Afghanistan's opium crop - the largest in the world. But the soldiers will be under a Nato mandate, which does not include eradicating poppies.

The Senlis Council think-tank is ascertaining whether the destruction of poppy fields by British forces would be in breach of international law.

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said that British troops would support Afghan anti-drug operations but would not engage directly.

He said eradication without providing new sources of income for farmers would "breed resentment and anger towards Nato and the Afghan Government".

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