Departing U.N. Envoy Urges Political Solution in Afghanistan

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By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA

KABUL, Afghanistan — The departing head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, warned Thursday that if negative trends were not reversed, there would be little that could restore peace in the country, and he called for balancing the military strategy with political efforts.

Speaking at his final news conference as the United Nations special representative in Afghanistan, Mr. Eide also cautioned against excessive militarization of international efforts here, a long-standing concern that has taken on greater significance as the American-led military operation grows and includes more nation-building.

Mr. Eide also warned that military operations against insurgents needed to be waged in a manner that did not impede efforts to negotiate a peaceful solution with them.

Mr. Eide’s comments came as thousands of troops from the United States, Britain and Afghanistan began to work to restore civilian services after finishing the huge combat phase of its effort to retake the Taliban stronghold of Marja, in the southern province of Helmand.

Mr. Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, announced late last year that he would step down from his post in Afghanistan when his contract expired. His one-and-a-half year tenure was marked by rising bloodshed and criticism of his handling of the fraud-plagued presidential elections in August.

His former deputy, the American diplomat Peter W. Galbraith, accused Mr. Eide of covering up fraud that helped President Hamid Karzai. Mr. Eide vehemently denied the allegations and said he had followed Afghan law. Mr. Galbraith was dismissed last autumn.

On Thursday, Mr. Eide said he would spend his few remaining days in Afghanistan pressing Mr. Karzai over recent moves that gave the president more control over the electoral process. Mr. Karzai recently gave himself the authority to name the five members of a purportedly independent electoral monitoring commission that reviews citizen complaints, and he has refused, so far, to make changes in the country’s other major electoral body, the independent election commission. Its members oversee election procedures and many Afghans view them as biased in favor of the president., who appoints them.

Mr. Karzai’s move to appoint the election complaint commission himself, removing the requirement that it have United Nations-appointed members, would reduce international oversight of future elections, and could undermine their credibility in the eyes of Afghans as well as foreign countries.

Mr. Eide said he had made “some progress” with Mr. Karzai in negotiations over the complaint commission’s panel, but offered no details. Previously, the United Nations had included foreigners on three of the seats of the commission, with the other two posts held by Afghans.

Mr. Eide, who is set to leave Afghanistan on Sunday, said 2010 would be the “most challenging” year since the American-led invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001, and it would be a critical period for the international community’s efforts in Afghanistan.

“It is a year where negative trends have to be reversed or they will become irreversible,” he said, but added that the world needed to have realistic expectations: “Decisive success within a year or two in a country marred by conflict is unachievable.”

Last year was the deadliest since 2001 for members of the NATO-led military coalition and Afghan civilians. Saying that “clocks in foreign countries tick faster” than change can occur in Afghanistan, Mr. Eide called for international patience with the slow pace of progress. He said that any resolution to the conflict needed to balance military and political approaches.

“I believe that a political process is indispensable for finding a solution to this conflict,” he said. “I believe the focus is too much on military side and too little on political side and civilian side, and our strategy has unfortunately been too much military-driven.”

In his time in Kabul, Mr. Eide tried to carve out a more important role for the United Nations mission, aiming to coordinate international assistance and act as the main international interlocutor with the Afghan government. He also sought to distance his mission from NATO military operations and to assist the Afghan people more, taking a strong stand on investigating civilian casualties and human rights abuses.

Yet his efforts have not always succeeded, and the agency itself has become a target. Five United Nations staff members were killed when gunmen attacked a guesthouse in central Kabul last year, just days before a second round of elections.

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Kabul, and Jack Healy from New York.