S/PV.6194
6194th meeting
Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 10.25 a.m.
New York
The situation in Afghanistan
Mr. Dabbashi (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (spoke in Arabic): At the outset, I wish to join you, Madam President, and the other colleagues who spoke before me in expressing my thanks and appreciation to Ms. Norma Chan, who was always an indispensable reference-point for my delegation. I truly appreciate her efforts, and in particular her unflagging assistance, especially on Libya’s first day as a member of the Security Council, when we assumed the presidency. Certainly, we will miss Norma in the Council. We regret her departure, but wish her good health, happiness and success — here or elsewhere.
I would like to thank the Secretary-General for the comprehensive and detailed report (S/2009/475) before us, and Mr. Kai Eide for his briefing to the Security Council. I welcome His Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan to the Council, and I thank him for joining us.
I would like to commend the United Nations Mission of Assistance in Afghanistan for its outstanding efforts to rebuild the country despite the many security challenges and the various problems that the Mission has faced in obtaining the funding it needs.
Once again, we are considering the situation in Afghanistan, which has not changed greatly from when NATO forces drove the Taliban from power. Unfortunately, the Afghan people continue to experience a lack of security and the unjustified killing of civilians. Most regrettably, that killing is by both sides — by the international forces on the one hand, and by the Taliban on the other. Both have offered justifications. The international forces either claim that there were mistakes or say that the intended targets were Taliban elements. For their part, the Taliban say that they are fighting the foreign forces and their collaborators. However, the innocent Afghan people are always the victims.
Once again, the Secretary-General’s report reaffirms the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and the increasing number of civilian casualties owing to attacks by armed groups and air strikes by the international forces. We should like to reiterate our deep regret over the killing of civilians, in particular by international forces, who, we believe, can clearly avoid this. However, it continues unabated despite appeals both from within and from outside Afghanistan.
We are also greatly concerned to read in paragraph 5 of the report of the Secretary-General that “Efforts undertaken over the past several years to increase the number of national and international security forces have failed to stem the insurgency”. War planners in Afghanistan have attempted to achieve military victory regardless of the number of civilian casualties, and therefore the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan has increased in the past few months. However, the result has been only an increasing number of both civilian and military casualties.
At the beginning of this meeting, Mr. Eide stated that the present security situation is the worst since 2002. Mr. Eide added that many Afghans have joined the insurgency owing to a sense of political and social marginalization. I would add another reason: the occasional atrocities committed by foreign forces against Afghan civilians.
That leads us to something that my delegation has constantly stressed in the Security Council: that the solution is not related to the number of forces or to the amount of equipment provided to them. On the contrary, it requires a comprehensive review of the situation, ranging from national reconciliation to sustainable development. We agree with paragraph 8 of the Secretary-General’s report, which mentions the calls of some political forces in the country for a ceasefire with the Taliban as a first step towards stability in the country.
The international community’s ultimate objective is to help the Afghan people to build a democratic, stable and prosperous State in Afghanistan. The war against the Taliban and others is not an objective in itself, especially since the use of force alone will definitely not achieve stability or security. Those can only be achieved through a dialogue that seeks national reconciliation among all sectors of the Afghan people and all those who are ready to renounce violence and to accept dialogue, and by fighting corruption, drug trafficking and other ills.
We therefore believe that the international community must adopt programmes that enable Afghanistan to fully shoulder its responsibilities as a sovereign country capable of ensuring security and a dignified life for each and every one of its citizens and that create the conditions for the withdrawal of foreign forces as soon as possible. We believe that to be a fundamental condition for national reconciliation, without which security and stability will not prevail.
Some previous reports of the Secretary-General have mentioned the conditions of those held in various detention centres in Afghanistan. The report before us today states in paragraph 52 that the Special Representative visited several detention centres, including the detention facility at Bagram, run by the international forces, but makes no assessment of the conditions in those detention centres or of respect for international humanitarian law and human rights there. I would ask Mr. Eide to tell us, however briefly, about the conditions in those detention centres.
