ANALYSIS: Symbolic Afghanistan commitments now need delivery

By Subel Bhandari and Helen Maguire Dec 5, 2011, 19:28 GMT

Bonn/Kabul - While Monday's Bonn conference on Afghanistan was critical in garnering continued support from the international community, work is now needed on the delivery, analysts said.

More than 1,000 delegates from 85 countries came to the former German capital to lend their support to Afghanistan with financial aid and political commitments after 2014, the deadline for 130,000 NATO-led forces to withdraw from the country.

In his opening remarks, Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked for 'steadfast support' until 2024, 'to make our success certain and our progress irreversible.'

Countries including the United States and Germany, as well as the United Nations, all pledged their commitment. However, analysts noted that, apart from promises, the one-day conference did not yield concrete results.

'Agreements on the future of Afghanistan so far have lacked precision and detail,' said Bahar Jalali, a politics professor at the American University of Afghanistan.

'The conference made a commitment, in general terms, that the transition of responsibility to Afghanistan by 2014 is not going to mean abandoning the country,' she said.

'But what matters to Afghans is how these commitments are going to be implemented. In the past, donors failed to make good on many pledges made during conferences,' Jalai added.

Oxfam policy advisor Louise Hancock said the Bonn conference had not lived up to people's hopes.

'We all would have liked to see firm commitments being made,' Hancock said in Bonn. 'More concrete solutions are required for the problems in Afghanistan.'

Hancock said it was 'important that the Afghan people know that the international community will not abandon them.'

'What was promised in Bonn will hopefully translate into concrete action, whether its women's rights or aid money,' she added.

Kabul-based political analyst Waheed Muzhda said the Bonn conference was just another symbolic event, and would have no effect on Afghanistan.

'The first Bonn (conference) in 2001 paved the ground for foreign soldiers to come into Afghanistan and after 10 years, the second Bonn conference - on the same day and location - is merely paving the ground for foreign soldiers to leave this country,' Muzhda said.

He criticized the fact that the Afghan delegation did not include opposition parties, meaning it 'did not cover the (whole) Afghan spirit.'

The absence of officials from Pakistan, another key player in the region, was also noteworthy.

By not inviting Taliban representatives, the conference was repeating mistakes made in Bonn 10 years ago, Muzhda said.

Taliban insurgents, who have waged a decade-long bloody battle against the Afghan government and international forces, did not comment on the conclusions reached in Bonn.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Monday had pushed for 'political reform and a reconciliation process' with the Taliban, but said this was a task for the Afghans to carry out.

Professor Jalali agreed that reconciliation with insurgents - which was not a key focus of the conference - had to be made a priority to bring peace and long-term stability to the war-torn nation.

Nevertheless, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an association of 57 Muslim states, considered the meeting a success, as it showed 'an emerging consensus on helping Afghanistan.'

'The international community has committed its continuing support,' said OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

No numbers were discussed at the conference, either by Karzai or the leaders of international community.

A day earlier, the Afghan leader had proposed a figure of 5 billion dollars annually until 2024, to build up the police, army and state institutions.

But Bonn was 'not a pledging conference', noted the OIC's Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. 'It is about political support.'

Financial commitments to support Afghanistan beyond 2014 will not be made before 2012, NATO's Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan Simon Gass told dpa.

'This conference is not yet about very hard specifics. This is about establishing the principles which then become more specific through 2012,' Gass said.

'What the people of Afghanistan are getting from this conference is the firmest yet commitment to Afghanistan's future, in what is described as a decade of transformation,' the NATO representative added.

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