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U.N. Council delegation leaves for Afghanistan tour
New York, Nov 01: A UN Security Council delegation left New Yorklate last night for Afghanistan for a week-long review of thecountry`s security, humanitarian conditions and human rights.
New York, Nov 01: A UN Security Council delegation left New York
late last night for Afghanistan for a week-long review of the
country`s security, humanitarian conditions and human rights.
Ambassadors or other high-ranking diplomats from all 15 council
members are in the deletion, which intends to let Afghans know that
the interests of the international community in peace and the
reconstruction of their country is unbroken, the delegation`s
leader, German ambassador Gunter Pleuger, said before departure.
It also intends to met with warlords around Afghanistan to urge they support President Hamid Karzai`s interim government, Pleuger said.
The delegation was expected in Kabul on Sunday. After visiting the capital, it planned stops in Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif and talks with Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid and his Tajik rival General Atta Mohammed. Its return to New York was planned for November 07.
The trip came after it extended the mandate early in October for an international security force in Afghanistan beyond its previous limits of the Kabul area to the entire country in preparation for June elections.
However, earlier Friday, a Security Council member warned that remnants of al-Qaeda and Taliban forces remained active in Afghanistan and were increasingly threatening the Kabul provisional government as it prepares for the elections.
Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of Chile, head of the U.N. Sanctions Committee against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, said that Kabul is under constant threats from the two groups, which were uprooted by a U.S.- led military campaign two years ago.
Munoz said that factionalism, the influence of Afghan warlords, and the illicit production and trafficking of narcotics are also important challenges for the government of Karzai, who is expected to run for president next year. Munoz was reviewing the implementation of U.N. sanctions imposed against al-Qaeda and the Taliban by the Security Council before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, which were blamed on al-Qaeda. Those sanctions include an arms embargo,a travel ban and freezing of assets directed at leaders of the two groups and their families. Munoz`s responsibility is to assess its implementation.
Bureau Report
It also intends to met with warlords around Afghanistan to urge they support President Hamid Karzai`s interim government, Pleuger said.
The delegation was expected in Kabul on Sunday. After visiting the capital, it planned stops in Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif and talks with Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid and his Tajik rival General Atta Mohammed. Its return to New York was planned for November 07.
The trip came after it extended the mandate early in October for an international security force in Afghanistan beyond its previous limits of the Kabul area to the entire country in preparation for June elections.
However, earlier Friday, a Security Council member warned that remnants of al-Qaeda and Taliban forces remained active in Afghanistan and were increasingly threatening the Kabul provisional government as it prepares for the elections.
Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of Chile, head of the U.N. Sanctions Committee against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, said that Kabul is under constant threats from the two groups, which were uprooted by a U.S.- led military campaign two years ago.
Munoz said that factionalism, the influence of Afghan warlords, and the illicit production and trafficking of narcotics are also important challenges for the government of Karzai, who is expected to run for president next year. Munoz was reviewing the implementation of U.N. sanctions imposed against al-Qaeda and the Taliban by the Security Council before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, which were blamed on al-Qaeda. Those sanctions include an arms embargo,a travel ban and freezing of assets directed at leaders of the two groups and their families. Munoz`s responsibility is to assess its implementation.
Bureau Report