Govt not to collapse after Nato departs: UN, MPs
10 October, 2012
KABUL: The United Nations and Afghan lawmakers on Tuesday discounted a warning from the International Crisis Group (ICG) that the government in Kabul could collapse after the 2014 withdrawal of foreign troops.
"There is a real risk that the regime in Kabul could collapse upon NATO's withdrawal in 2014," Candace Rondeaux, the ICG senior Afghanistan analyst, warned in the report, titled Afghanistan: The Long, Hard Road to the 2014 Transition.
The Afghan army and police were overwhelmed and underprepared for transition, believes Rondeaux, who said another botched election and resultant unrest would push them to breaking point.
Asked for comments on the group's dark assessment, Ján Kubiš, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan, told journalists in Kabul: "I don't think it will happen." He believed the country, stoutly supported by the world community, would successfully come out of the crisis.
During a recent UN Security Council session, the global fraternity recently reiterated its commitment to Afghanistan, despite its concerns at bad governance, corruption, insecurity and drug smuggling, the diplomat said.
Separately, the Meshrano Jirga also spurned the report as far from reality. A senator from Daikundi province, Ali Akbar Jamshedi the ICG document had impinged on the Afghans' morale.
"Although the organisation asserts its independence, it's in no way autonomous. Linked to the US administration, the group has released the report to please the American authorities," the public representative observed.
Senator Gulalai Akbari from Badakhshan denounced the document as plain interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs. "Such reports that boost insurgents' morale should not be released." She urged the government to ask ICG to refrain from painting a grossly negative picture of the country.
First Deputy Chairman Mohammad Alam Ezedyar, who chaired the session, remarked that the "baseless" report would add to the problems facing the country. He also urged the government to come with a strong reaction.
Also on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior accused the group of painting a diametrically opposite of the situation in Afghanistan. Ghulam Siddique Siddiqui said: "The authors have failed to strike a balance between perceptions and realities."
At a joint news conference with NATO's civilian spokesman Dominic Medley, Siddiqui said since the launch of the transition process, Afghan forces had been in control of the security situation and were growing in strength with each passing day.
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