INTERVIEW: Afghanistan needs 30-year commitment, EU envoy says

By Alvise Armellini Jan 26, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Brussels - The international community - including increasingly hostile public opinion in the European Union - needs to face the fact that Afghanistan will need support 'for the next 30 years rather than 30 months,' the bloc's envoy to Kabul has said.

Under a target set by President Hamid Karzai and backed by NATO, Afghanistan is expected to take care of all of its own security by the end of 2014, while US President Barack Obama said that a gradual drawdown of US troops is to begin in mid-2011.

But while recognizing that 'the military footprint will change and will be reduced overall,' EU Special Representative Vygaudas Usackas warned that 'we should not speak about 30 months, but probably think in terms of 30 years.'

'We have to be honest with ourselves that there are no quick solutions in this country,' the former Lithuanian foreign minister told the German Press Agency dpa in a telephone interview from Kabul on Tuesday.

The security handover is expected to start in the country's quieter provinces over the next few weeks, but with Afghan authorities having taken four months to agree on the inauguration of parliament following deeply flawed elections, doubts linger about their capacity to fend for themselves.

'We are seeing a gradual increase of the capacity, but again, it won't happen overnight, and we really need to help the Afghans to get on the driving seat,' Usackas said.

Hopeful signs over the last year include 'much stronger and greater professionalism at the ministry of finance' and a 'much greater sense of teamwork approach' within government ministries, he added.

While most of its member states are present in the NATO military mission, the EU itself has pledged to contribute with a police training mission, EUPOL. But its credibility has been undermined by chronic understaffing and underfunding.

Usackas acknowledged that 'there were unfulfilled promises,' but vowed that things were getting much better, with more focused action and staffing numbers reaching 350 against a target of 400, up from 250 last year.

EUPOL is to concentrate on 'niche' civilian police training, while vastly better funded US and NATO instructors are to focus on frontline military police training.

The EU envoy maintained that even the former NATO commander in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, who made disparaging remarks about Europe's contribution in an infamous Rolling Stone interview that forced his resignation in June, would recognize the progress.

'If Stan was still here, he would certainly subscribe to NATO military commanders' acknowledgements of the EU police mission's increasing role,' the ambassador said.

Over 2011, the EU is planning a civilian police college in Kabul and a training centre for both male and female officers in Bamiyan, and is 'contemplating' setting up public administration schools in several key cities 'to produce a new generation of functionaries,' Usackas said.

Read more about Afghanistan Conflict

Read more about EU