Dutch lawmaker: NATO should appoint Afghan reconstruction inspector

Dec 16, 2008, 8:59 GMT

Amsterdam - Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen should convince NATO to appoint an independent inspector-general to supervise Afghanistan's reconstruction, Dutch legislator Femke Halsema said in the Dutch parliament on Tuesday.

If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization does not want to appoint such an official in Afghanistan, then the Netherlands should appoint an inspector-general itself, Halsema said.

The leader of the Greens Party was speaking following the recent report in the US daily The New York Times citing a draft US federal government document as saying the (as of mid-2008) 117-billion-dollar reconstruction of Iraq has failed.

Halsema said the situation with reconstruction in Afghanistan was more complicated than that in Iraq as more countries were involved and greater coordination was needed.

The various countries that are active in Afghanistan have committed themselves to donate some 18.29 billion euro in aid, of which 11 billion has already been given.

But, Halsema said, the Afghan authorities were financing 90 per cent of their own expenditures with the money intended for reconstruction.

Humanitarian aid organizations also noted previously much of the funding intended for the country's reconstruction is in practise used for political and military goals.

A total of 1,200 Dutch troops have been stationed in Afghanistan as part of NATO's International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) since March 2006.

The Dutch military are predominantly located in the southern province of Uruzghan, with some troops being deployed in Kandahar and Kabul. The Dutch are set to stay in Afghanistan until the summer of 2010.