KABUL, Afghanistan — The international community renewed its commitment to Afghanistan on Tuesday, in exchange for a pledge by President Hamid Karzai to implement promised legal, electoral and economic changes within specific timelines.
Few new initiatives were presented during the day-long gathering in the Afghan capital, held under tight security amid threats of a Taliban attack. Instead, a communique agreed to by the Afghan government and representatives of about 70nations reiterated a long list of anti-corruption measures and governance improvements to be implemented within three months to two years.
Karzai gained international endorsement for his pledge to have Afghan forces take security responsibility throughout the country by 2014, a promise he first made in his inauguration speech last year.
“This is a national objective we have to fulfill and we must,” Karzai said after the conference.
With violence and coalition casualties surging thisyear, and public sentiment flagging among many of the countries with troops in Afghanistan, NATO officials have been vigorously debating the pace and scope of the hoped-for transition. But they had little concrete to offer in Kabul on Tuesday. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the transition would be determined by “conditions, not calendars. ... Our mission will end when - but only when - the Afghans are able to maintain security on their own.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who called the conference “a real turning point,” made the only public mention of President Barack Obama’s stated intention to begin a drawdown of troops from Afghanistan in July 2011, saying that the date “captures both our sense of urgency and the strength of our resolve.”
“The transition process” to Afghan security control “is too important to push off indefinitely,” Clinton said. But she said it would be the “start of a new phase, not the end of our involvement.” TheUnited States, Clinton added, has “no intention of abandoning our long-term mission of achieving a stable, secure, peaceful Afghanistan. Too many nations - especially Afghanistan - have suffered too many losses to see this country slide backward.”
In his opening speech to the conference, Karzai spoke only briefly about reconciliation with insurgent groups, noting that his government has “framed the terms on which we must reach out to those of our armed opponents who will be willing to accept our constitution and renounce ties to al-Qaida’s network of terror.”
The communique emphasized that peace, under those conditions, was open to “all Afghan members ofthe armed opposition and their communities.”
Karzai said he recognized that Afghanistan’s army and police must also improve their performance in the eyes of their own people.
“The legitimacy of the state requires that the use of force be framed within the rule of law,” Karzai said. “Historically, abuse of force ... has alienated people from the government.”
Karzai has won international agreement to funnel at least 50 percent of all economic assistance through his government within two years, a pledge that will require significantly more confidence in the government’s honesty and competence. The United States has put in place a “ certification” process through which Afghan ministries can be deemed qualified to directly receive American aid.
Clinton held a private meeting Monday night with Karzai after arriving from a two-day trip to neighboring Pakistan. On Tuesday morning, she met with a group of Afghan women who expressed concern that any political settlement with the Taliban risked gains made for women’s rights.
The Kabul gathering, jointly hosted by the Afghan government and the United Nations, followed a January conference in London in which Afghanistan’s foreign backers put Karzai on notice that he needed concrete plans to address corruption and poor governance as well asissues such as reconciliation and reintegration of willing Taliban fighters. The government subsequently drew up a weighty document of priorities, plans and deadlines for achieving them.
Meanwhile, NATO reported Tuesday that two American civilians and two Afghan soldiers were killed in a shooting on a northern Afghan military base. An Afghan soldier who trained others at the base outside Mazar-e-Sharif started shooting during a weapons exercise, the international military coalition said in a statement.
Information for this article was contributed by Deb Riechmann, Rahim Faiez, Mirwais Khan and Amir Shah of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/21/2010