On December 12, 2003, the UN was considering leaving Afghanistan for security reason, as they have left Iraq already. Since March 2003 until now eleven aid workers have been killed.
On August 18, 2004, the United Nations' Secretary General Kofi Annan called for an urgent increase in international forces in Afghanistan to address the deteriorating security situation in the country. In a report to the UN Security Council, Annan welcomed NATO's move to increase its troop strength. He expressed hope the new soldiers would arrive in time for the presidential election campaign starting next month.
Following the bombing of a U.N. election office that injured six policemen, a UN staff association suggested the world body should consider withdrawing staffers from the embattled nation. The union noted that other recent attacks on election workers have highlighted the danger. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed that violence has increasingly been aimed at U.N. staff and offices in Afghanistan. Police have detained four security guards, two Afghans working for the United Nations and a U.N. security guard for questioning. It was not clear who was behind the attack. U.N. workers escaped injury, but several security personnel were injured.
On August 22, 2004, the United Nations officials are distancing themselves from a request by a U.N. staff union in New York to withdraw election workers. The UN remains committed to Afghanistan and its presidential elections just weeks away.
On August 27, 2004, an UN committee reported that the sanctions imposed against al-Qaida and the former Taliban have had little impact on the groups' operations. The UN required its members to freeze assets of any person or group linked to al-Qaida or the Taliban, and also ordered them to arrest all suspects and prevent them from obtaining arms or funding. Although assets linked to al-Qaida have been already formally frozen, the report said it had "been hard to tell what this means".
On August 31, 2004, we were told that more than 300,000 Afghans have returned home from Pakistan this year under the UN Refugee Agency's Voluntary Repatriation programme, bringing the total assisted to return since 2002 to more than 2.2 million. All Afghans wishing to return can request UNHCR assistance, which consists of a travel grant ranging of $3 to $8, plus a cash grant of $8 to help the re-integration into Afghanistan. Nearly 1.6 million Afghans returned home from Pakistan during 2002 in the initial enthusiastic phase that followed the removal of the Taliban government. UNHCR assisted another 340,000 Afghans to return last year. The Voluntary Repatriation programme runs until March 2006. Nearly a million Afghans have also returned from Iran during the same period, including 340,000 this year. Of the total, 667,000 left with UNHCR assistance and the rest returned on their own. In recent weeks, up to 4,000 Afghans a day have made the journey home. If the current trend continues, UNHCR estimates that another 200,000 Afghans will have gone home by the time the voluntary repatriation ends.
On September 6, 2004, an UN and the Afghan's Independent Human Rights Commission's report, asserted that insecurity and voter intimidation are plaguing the Afghanistan presidential election campaign. It found both voters and candidates are likely to face threats and intimidation. A lack of information about democracy is said to be exposing voters to manipulation and generating a climate of uncertainty for political parties. It also said that the control of local rebels over communities had the potential to distort free voting.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Thursday September 9, 2004, condemned an attack earlier this week against a nongovernmental organization (NGO), and urged the afghan government to do more to protect all international staffs working in the country. Some ten NGO personnel were injured during a violent demonstration in the town of Faizabad in Badakhshan province, northern Afghanistan. Several hundred demonstrators marched to the offices of FOCUS, an NGO. They turned violent, destroying computers and a generator, and stoning NGO vehicles.
On September 13, 2004, the United Nations withdrew dozens of staff from the western city of Herat a day after mobs ransacked their offices. The mob violence came after President Hamid Karzai fired the city's governor, a warlord. His successor later ordered a 9 p.m. curfew. The United Nations welcomed the replacement of Herat's strongman, Ismael Khan, as a positive change. Ismael Khan has been frequently accused by human rights activists of violating human rights, particularly the rights of women. The dismissed strongman of the western province rejected the accusations. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned today's attacks against United Nations offices, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the Independent Human Rights Commission in western Afghanistan's Herat province. He pledged the UN's firm commitment to support the Afghan peace process "in all fields - humanitarian assistance, reconstruction, democratisation and institution-building." The statement also called on all concerned, including Afghan and international security forces, to help create a safe environment for Afghanistan's upcoming election for which over 10 million Afghans have registered to vote.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said Tuesday September 14, 2004, that it was forced to suspend operation in western Afghanistan following attacks against its offices over the weekend. All international staff members and a number of national employees have been flown out of Herat and relocated to Kabul. They will return to Herat as soon as the security situation has improved. Preliminary assessments indicated that the UN office in Herat was completely looted by a crowd of hundreds of people on Sunday morning. Windows were broken and doors smashed. Four people were killed and more than 50 others wounded after demonstrators attacked UN buildings to protest against the sacking of Ismael Khan. The UNHCR is now in talks with the new governor of Herat province to ensure that incidents such as this one do not happen again, and that the safety of staff is guaranteed.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees announced Wednesday September 15, 2004, that it had resumed repatriations of Afghan and Iraqi refugees from Iran following a suspension due to violence in the two countries. UNHCR was forced to suspend its operations to repatriate Afghan refugees from Iran following an attack on its offices in the western city of Heart, a key transit and assistance point for around 95 percent of Afghan refugees returning home from Iran. In recent weeks, repatriations have risen as high as 4,000 people a day, but around one million Afghans remain in the Islamic republic.
The United Nations Security Council on Friday September 17, 2004, urged world governments to contribute troops and other resources to the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, which is going to hold general elections in early October. The council unanimously adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the NATO-led force (ISAF) for another 12 months. The resolution "recognizes the need to strengthen the International Security Assistance Force, and in this regard calls upon member states to contribute personnel, equipment and other resources" to it. It also recognized the constraints upon the full implementation of the Bonn peace agreement resulting from concerns about the security situation in parts of Afghanistan, in particular in the light of the upcoming elections. Currently, ISAF has more than 8,000 troops in Afghanistan and the US-led coalition has more than 15,000 troops in the country tracking down Taliban and al-Qaeda elements.
Former Afghan militia commanders have been urged to disband their military units and hand their arms to the UN-backed disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme. The UN devised a new scheme that offers commanders and senior officers of the Afghan Militia Forces (AMF) units a Financial Redundancy Package (FRP) in return for the disarmament and demobilisation of their units. The multi-million dollar Afghanistan's New Beginning Programme (ANBP) is designed to disarm more than 50,000 former fighters. Over 20,000 members of the militia forces have already been decommissioned since disarmament was launched last October. The process had been expected to meet the target of 40,000 disarmed soldiers before the 9 October 2004 presidential elections. UN officials are now optimistic that through "accelerated DDR and FRP plans" the commanders will accept and complete the disarmament process by next spring.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, on February 16, 2005, said that more than 1 million Afghan refugees are likely to return to Afghanistan within two years as security is improving within the country.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced on March 7, 2005, the completion of heavy weapons collection in the Panjshir Valley, declaring the area free of all known working or repairable arms. Nationwide 8,630 arms have been handed-in. About 60 heavy weapons are still circulating in Shindand and Farah, while the Kunduz region has 160 to 165 of them. The New Beginnings Programme plans to tackle those areas in the coming weeks.
The UN Security Council unanimously agreed on Thursday March 24, 2005, to extend the mandate of the UN mission in Afghanistan for another 12 months through March 24, 2006. Resolution 1589 requests the donor community to promptly make available the funds promised.
On April 25, 2005, after intense pressure from the United States, the UN's top human rights investigator in Afghanistan has been forced out just days after he presented a report criticising the US military for detaining suspects without trial and holding them in secret prisons. Since his appointment a year ago, Cherif Bassiouni had needled the US military repeatedly trying, without success, to interview alleged Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners at the two biggest US bases in Afghanistan, Kandahar and Bagram. Bassiouni's report highlighted America's policy of detaining prisoners without trial and lambasted coalition officials for barring independent human rights monitors from its bases. Prisoners captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region are held at US bases, often before being shipped to Guantanamo Bay.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan on June 13, 2005, expressed "relief and pleasure" at the release of the Italian aid worker, Clementia Cantoni a staff member of the non-governmental organization (NGO) CARE, who had been kidnapped in Kabul three weeks ago. The UN mission also voiced its gratitude to the Afghan people, who, it said, expressed their "clear outrage at her kidnapping and offered widespread public support for her safe release."
A United Nations driver and an Afghan police officer were injured after a UN convoy was ambushed in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, on Monday August 1, 2005. The ambush took place on Sunday in the Sangin district of Helmand. The two wounded people are not in life-threatening condition.
Faced with a shortfall of millions of dollars, Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary elections slated for September may be postponed unless donors take action now, the United Nations warned on Monday August 1, 2005. UNAMA (The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) is concerned about the US $31 million shortfall in funding for Afghanistan's upcoming elections. If these funds do not become available very shortly it will hamper essential preparatory work such as voter education, the establishment of thousands of polling facilities and the hiring of over 140,000 polling staff.
The Security Council voted unanimously on September 13, 2005, to extend the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan for a year until October 2006 and called upon United Nations Member States to commit more personnel, equipment and funds so that the force can work more effectively. ISAF was established in December 2001, initially for six months, to assist the Afghan Interim Authority in maintaining security in Kabul and surrounding areas, so that the members of the Authority and UN mission personnel could work in a safe environment.
The two-day London Conference on Afghanistan ended on Wednesday February 1, 2006, with pledges to provide 10.5 billion U.S. dollars for rebuilding the country over the next five years. The provision was to help Afghanistan fight poverty, improve security and crack down on the drug trade. The United States pledged 1.1 billion dollars in extra funding for Afghanistan in the coming year. One billion dollars were pledged by the Asian Development Bank, 855 million dollars from Britain, 480 million dollars from Germany and 450 million dollars from Japan. China pledged 80 million RMB (nearly 10 million US dollars) in aid to Afghanistan in 2006. Envoys from nearly 70 nations and international bodies, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, attended the conference. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing also attended the meeting.
The new head of the United Nations Mission Assistance in Afghanistan (UNMA) arrived in the country on February 16, 2006.
Two Afghan UNICEF workers were killed and another seriously wounded in a rocket attack Friday May 12, 2006, in Karoahk, Herat province, northwestern Afghanistan. It is not known what group was responsible. The surviving UNICEF worker was taken to a nearby hospital, where his leg was amputated.
Here is a chronology of NATO's presence in Afghanistan up to July 24, 2006.
- October 7, 2001: US-led forces begin bombing Afghanistan to root out Osama
bin Laden's al Qaeda group, which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on New
York and Washington, and its Taliban protectors. Washington does not take
up NATO's offer of help concerned the consensus-based alliance would slow
it down.
- August 2003: NATO takes command of the UN-mandated ISAF force in Afghanistan
in the alliance's first mission outside the Euro-Atlantic area. Its presence
is initially limited to the capital, Kabul.
- December 2003 ISAF expands north with a pilot provincial reconstruction
team (PRT) under German leadership in Kunduz.
- October 13, 2004: Transatlantic differences emerge over NATO's role in
Afghanistan as France and Germany reject a US proposal for an outright merger
of ISAF and the US-led coalition fighting remnants of the Taliban.
- September 14, 2005: A new US bid to deepen NATO's role is thwarted as
France, Germany and other European members block ISAF from taking part in
counter-terror missions to hunt insurgents.
- May 31, 2005: After months of delays as it struggles to find volunteers
for the move, NATO expands to the west with four bases in Herat, Farah,
Chagcharan and Qala-i-Naw.
- December 8, 2005: Washington continues to advocate a greater NATO role.
The alliance prepares a future move into the south and east by approving
tougher rules of engagement, allowing troops to deal more aggressively with
the enemy.
- June 29, 2006: Amid rising violence, ISAF commander Lieutenant General
David Richards said the world underestimated a resurgent Taliban largely
because of the Iraq war.
- July 10, 2006: Britain announces it will send 900 extra troops and additional
helicopters to southern Afghanistan, bringing its total deployment there
to some 5,500.
- July 31, 2006: Expected date for formal transfer of authority from the
US-led coalition forces in the south to NATO.
- Late 2006: US troops in eastern Afghanistan are expected to join ISAF,
effectively putting the whole of foreign military operations in the country
under ISAF command.
The Security Council on March 23, 2007, extended the mandate of the United
Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan by another year. The Council also
urged the Afghan Government and members of the international community to
do more to implement the Afghanistan Compact, five-year UN-backed blueprint
launched early last year which sets benchmarks for certain security, governance
and development goals.
On September 20, 2007, the United Nations authorized US and NATO forces
to stay in Afghanistan for another year.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide of Norway as his envoy to Afghanistan on Tuesday March 11, 2008. Eide replaces Tom Koenigs of Germany, who completed his assignment in December 2007. Previously, Eide served with the United Nations as Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to undertake a comprehensive review of Kosovo in 2005 and as Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997-98. He also served as Permanent Representative of Norway to the NATO and as the Norwegian Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), including as Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council.
The new UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan, former Norwegian Ambassador Kai Eide, visited Kabul, Friday March 28, 2008, and vowed to bring changes to help with rebuilding efforts in the war-torn country. He promised to improve coordination with the Afghan government and international donors on aid and development efforts.
The United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan is to outline on July 7, 2008, a new plan on spending foreign aid, amid fears that millions of dollars have been wasted. Kai Eide told the BBC that too much aid money was spent on salaries and goods in the countries that provided it. Mr Eide advocates spending aid money through the Afghan government in return for a crackdown on corruption. Last month, 80 countries pledged a further $22bn (£11bn) for Afghanistan.
Representatives from more than 80 nations, including the United States and Iran, are gathering Tuesday March 31, 2009, in The Hague for a key conference focusing on Afghanistan at a time when NATO and U.S. forces there are fighting a rising insurgency. Dutch Development and Cooperation Minister Bert Koenders, whose country is hosting the conference, says the meeting is not about dollars and soldiers, but about forging an international agreement on what to do in Afghanistan.
The UN said on Thursday November 5, 2009, it will temporarily relocate 600 of its international foreign staff based in Afghanistan. The personnel would return to work once security had been boosted at unsecured accommodation used by the UN. The transfer would not affect work such as aid delivery, as this was done by local Afghan staff, the UN added. The move follows a dawn raid by the Taliban last week on a hostel in the capital, Kabul, which left five UN workers and three Afghans dead. On Monday the UN halted long-term development work in north-western Pakistan, a region bordering Afghanistan viewed as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
The top United Nations official in Afghanistan, under criticism that he was not being tough enough with President Hamid Karzai over corruption, will not seek reappointment when his contract expires in March, the U.N. said Friday December 11, 2009. Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide is following through on his previous intention to leave when his two-year contract is finished.
The United Nations' top representative to Afghanistan met with Taliban officials earlier this month, amid heightened efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the eight-year-old conflict, we were told on January 29, 2010.
Diplomats declined to say how senior the Taliban officials were, however,
and said the overture by Kai Eide, who steps down as the U.N.'s envoy to
Afghanistan in March, appears to have been his alone.
The West has been pushing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to help build a
comprehensive plan to persuade Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.
But the Afghan government and its various sponsors have sometimes been at
odds over how to pursue reconciliation.
The new United Nations mission chief in Afghanistan arrived in Kabul Saturday March 13, 2010, to take up his post, after a difficult year that saw the mission plagued by divisions and violence. Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura promised to help improve the lives of the Afghan people, while respecting their sovereignty. He said the U.N. will focus on ensuring stability and socio-economic improvement, while remembering that the effort should be what he described as "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned."
Civilian casualties have surged over the past six months in Afghanistan. It is the insurgents who are mostly responsible, not the coalition. According to the UN, the number of civilians killed in the conflict in the first half of this year numbered 1,271, more than a 20 percent jump over the same period last year. Under stricter rules of engagement, coalition forces reduced civilian killings by 29 percent, while insurgents killed 48 percent more civilians than at the same time last year. Overall, insurgents were responsible for 72 percent of this year's civilian deaths.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on October 12, 2011, to extend
authorization of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan
for another year while continuing to transfer key responsibilities to the
Afghan government by the end of 2014. The resolution extends the mandate
for ISAF's 130,000-member force to October 13, 2012. The goal, the resolution
said, is to reach the point at which "self-sufficient, sustainable,
accountable and ethnically balanced Afghan security forces [are] providing
security and ensuring the rule of law throughout the country."