UN Special representative to the country, Staffan di Mistura, said the visit will come at a “crucial period” after the recent “peace jirga”, or conference, in Afghanistan, which produced a 16-point resolution that included a call for removing militant leaders from the list.
The envoy made his comments on a day a Polish soldier was killed by an improvised bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, becoming the 28th Nato soldier to die in a particularly violent week for the country.
Taliban insurgents also killed four Afghan policemen on Saturday in two separate attacks in Kandahar, officials told a news agency.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged patience with the war as Nato’s International Security Assistance Force estimated the 142,000 soldiers in Afghanistan are set to increase to 150,000 by August as part of a troop surge. Gates admitted Afghanistan had been neglected by Washington after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, with too few troops deployed, and that a “long and difficult” fight lay ahead.
This month’s “peace jirga” advised the government to seek the removal of names – including Mullah Mohammad Omar – from the UN Security Council blacklist compiled after the September 11 2001 attacks on the US.
The list designated as terrorists Taliban and al Qaeda leaders who were based in Afghanistan at the time, and helped to provide a UN-sanctioned justification for the US-led invasion of the country in November 2001.
Mistura was among 1,600 delegates, including around 200 diplomats, who were invited to the three-day jirga, held in a giant tent on the outskirts of Kabul. At the end of the gathering delegates drew up a declaration which urged all parties in the Afghan conflict to disarm and reconcile.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 13th, 2010.
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