Afghanistan
Expected Council Action
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Kai Eide, is expected to brief the Council in mid-October on Afghanistan. The mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expires on 23 March 2009. The mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan was renewed on 22 September 2008 and now expires in October 2009.
The Council is also expected to adopt terms of reference (TOR) for a Council mission to Afghanistan in November.
Key Recent Developments
Civilian casualties (especially from airstrikes by the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)), continue to fuel public anger across Afghanistan and have escalated tensions between the UN and the coalition as well as between the Afghan government and its western allies. UNAMA reports a total of 1,445 conflict-related civilian casualties in the first eight months of 2008, an increase of 39 percent compared to the same period in 2007. The distribution of these civilian deaths was surprisingly even. Fifty-five percent were attributed to the Taliban and 40 percent to pro-government forces. (Two-thirds of the latter were attributed to airstrikes.) The remaining five percent was attributed to unknown agents.
Resolution 1833 of 22 September extended ISAF’s authorisation until 13 October 2009. Interestingly, it included stronger language on the protection of civilians. This followed a period of difficult discussions on a draft Russian press statement deploring civilian casualties caused by an OEF air strike in Herat province on 22 August 2008.
An Afghan government investigation into the airstrike found ninety civilians were killed. This was supported by the UN, but a separate US investigation found five to seven civilian casualties and thirty to 35 Taliban killed. In light of the discrepancies, the US has reopened its investigation. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates pledged that in the future, the US would apologise for civilian casualties and offer compensation while investigations were being carried out. Previously, the US resisted accepting any responsibility until investigations were concluded.
Deliberate Taliban attacks on humanitarian aid workers fueled concerns about neutrality being compromised by a blurring of military and civilian assistance. Three UN staff were killed in Kandahar on 14 September 2008, bringing the total number of aid workers killed in 2008 to thirty. Calls from NGOs and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to separate OCHA from the UNAMA mission structure were rejected leading to the resignation of the three international OCHA officers in Afghanistan. Humanitarian NGOs argued the neutrality of OCHA was compromised while it operated under the mandate of the UN integrated mission which had a clear political mandate to support the Afghan government.
On 9 September, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, pledged to work together to resolve long-standing tensions between their countries and to fight the rising Taliban insurgency on both sides of the border. The next day, Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was commissioning a “more comprehensive” strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan which would see the US military helping Pakistan remove the threat from insurgents in cross-border tribal areas.
Options
No formal Council action is expected at the briefing but Eide’s comments may lead to follow-up action and are likely to inform the content of the TOR for the planned mission.
Key Issues
A key issue for the Council is whether UNAMA is attracting the necessary expertise to lead and coordinate international civilian efforts. A further issue is whether it is making sufficient progress with the Afghan government on a comprehensive implementation plan to capitalise on the $20 billion pledged by donors at the Paris Conference in June. A related issue in this regard is whether the recent decision to restructure the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board will be effective in streamlining decision-making processes.
Another important issue is the growing number of civilian casualties as a result of coalition military activity. The Afghan Cabinet has called for a review of agreements governing the presence of international troops and for regulating their presence with a status-of-forces agreement. Ministers have reportedly demanded an end to airstrikes on civilian targets, uncoordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan citizens. A related question is the impact of the UN’s public rejection of the US assessment of civilian casualty figures in Herat.
An underlying issue is the deteriorating security situation and the resurgent Taliban. A related issue is the possibility of a complete overhaul of the OEF/ISAF configuration and unifying the command structure of ISAF and OEF under the UN mandate.
(Please see our September 2008 Forecast for further elaboration of key issues.)
Council Dynamics
Council members including Russia, South Africa and Indonesia were disappointed the Council could not reach agreement in August on a statement regarding civilian casualties.
During the ISAF authorisation negotiations in September, Russia’s proposal to strengthen the language used in the previous resolution on protection of civilians was supported by several members, including the US, UK and NATO members. However, there were differences over the strength of the wording and whether it should have an operative or preambular position in the resolution, and this delayed its adoption.
Russia also proposed introducing language into the operative section of the resolution on the need for ISAF to take a more active role in counternarcotics initiatives. A compromise was reached after some members expressed concern that the proposed text went beyond ISAF’s mandate. Consistent with the previous year’s negotiations, Russia also expressed concern about the inclusion of a reference to the maritime interception component of OEF, given this element operated outside the context of the UN. A compromise on this language was also reached.
It seems that negotiations on the ISAF resolution were affected by the current strained relations between the US and Russia.
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Selected Security Council Resolutions |
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Selected Presidential Statements |
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Selected Letters |
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Selected Reports of the Secretary-General |
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Special Representative of the Secretary-General and UNAMA’s Chief of Mission |
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Kai Eide |
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UNAMA |
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ISAF Military Commander |
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General David D. McKiernan (US) |
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ISAF |
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OEF |
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Troops in Contact: Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch, September 2008
