Briton to head NATO's civilian efforts in Afghanistan (Roundup)

Jan 26, 2010, 16:12 GMT

Brussels - Britain's current ambassador to Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, is to head NATO's civilian reconstruction efforts in the country and try to improve coordination with other bodies such as the United Nations, NATO's secretary general said Tuesday.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is among the organizations set to attend a major conference in London on Thursday aimed at strengthening the Afghan government, defeating the Taliban-led insurgency and improving the coordination between military and civilian support to the country.

Sedwill 'knows the country, the Afghan people and the Afghan government very well' and is therefore 'well-equipped for this job,' NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told journalists as he made the appointment.

'There is a great deal to do in Afghanistan over the next year to bring together the military, political and civilian efforts in support of the government of Afghanistan, to really turn around the country,' Sedwill said.

Sedwill, whose official title will be NATO Senior Civilian Representative (SCR), will have to improve the coordination between NATO's civilian Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), which work to set up basic infrastructure in Afghanistan's regions.

He will also have to improve the way those PRTs work with other international players such as the UN, and help the Afghan authorities improve their own governance and management, Rasmussen said.

Sedwill said that 'we have to help those authorities develop the capability to deliver real governance, strong and fair justice, jobs and other economic development on the ground, out there in the villages and towns, particularly in the South and East.'

In August, the commander of the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, General Stanley A McChrystal, set out a new strategy for the campaign, calling for a major troop boost and a massive increase in civilian 'hearts and minds' efforts.

The London conference is intended to pull those efforts together, targeting challenges such as corruption, economic development and the re-integration of lower-ranking militant fighters.

NATO, as a primarily military body, is keen to see other organizations put much more effort and money into the civilian push under the overall lead of the UN.

'We fully respect the UN leadership in civilian reconstruction and development ... but we would very much like to improve our engagement with the international community,' Rasmussen said.

In particular, Rasmussen and Sedwill urged Afghan President Hamid Karzai to live up to earlier promises to crack down on corruption.

Karzai has 'committed himself strongly to a determined fight against corruption. ... I feel confident that he will live up to his pledges,' Rasmussen said.

Sedwill has been Britain's ambassador in Kabul since April. A career diplomat with 21 years' service, he served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq in 1996-97 and as Britain's deputy high commissioner in Pakistan from 2003-04, among other postings.

He becomes NATO's fifth SCR, following Italy's Fernando Gentilini, who served from May 2008 to January 2010.

The appointment is also a nod to the British government, which is hosting the London conference on Thursday, and which is coming under increasing pressure from voters to set a deadline for pulling out of the deeply unpopular Afghan mission.

Britain has supplied the second-largest contingent of soldiers to ISAF, with an official tally of 9,500. The United States is the largest contributor, with almost 46,000 troops.

At the same time, Britain has seen 250 soldiers killed in action since the Afghan mission began in 2001. In 2009 alone, 109 British soldiers died in Afghanistan.