Taliban 'terrorist activities' slammed at UN meeting

UNITED NATIONS: Participants at a UN-sponsored high-level meeting on Sunday condemned increased "terrorist activities" by the Taliban in Afghanistan and urge Kabul to do more to spur good governance and root out corruption and drug trafficking.

A joint communique issued here at the end of the three-hour meeting "unequivocally condemned terrorist and other illegal activities, which hindered the establishment of the rule of law, the provision of basic services to the Afghan people."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who co-hosted the meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said participants expressed hope that Afghan leaders "will continue to focus their efforts on good governance and eradicating corruption, drug trafficking."

Eighteen countries took part in the meeting which focused on "the increase in violent and terrorist activities by the Taliban, al-Qaeda, illegal armed groups, criminals and those involved in the narcotics trade."

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have waged a bloody insurgency which has claimed thousands of lives since their ouster from power in late 2001 by a US-led invasion following the September 11 terror attacks.

Asked about direct talks between Kabul and the ousted Taliban, Karzai recalled that his government was already in contact through a peace and reconciliation process with those Taliban who were not part of "foreign terrorist networks" such as al-Qaeda.

The communique also "expressed great concern at the expansion of poppy cultivation, as well as heroin production, over the past year, underlining the link between the production and trafficking of illegal drugs and the financing of terrorist activities."

Participants reviewed progress toward implementing the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year development blueprint launched in January 2006 by Kabul and some 70 foreign partners.

Under the deal, Afghanistan promised to take specific steps in the areas of security, governance, rule of law and human rights, and economic and social development in return for military and economic support.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the level of international aid to his country, Karzai replied: "If you are asking whether we will ask for more, we are grateful for what has been given to us already. If more is given, of course we will be very, very grateful."

Participants also welcomed recent initiatives to promote border management cooperation in drug control between Afghanistan and its neighbors.

Joining Karzai and Ban at the talks were the foreign ministers of France, India, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and the United States.

Also attending were delegations from Britain, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Spain as well as representatives from the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, the European Commission, NATO and the World Bank.

Afghanistan was in tatters after the 2001 fall of the Islamist Taliban regime, which led the world community to spend billions of dollars on development and send in tens of thousands of troops to fight a growing Taliban insurgency.

Voicing concern about increased violence and terrorism in Afghanistan, the UN Security Council Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to extend for one year the mandate of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The UN-mandated ISAF is, at 39,000 people from around 37 nations, its most powerful since 2001, even though original estimates of troops and equipment requirements still have not been met.

New York, Monday, AFP