“We must bear in mind that Afghanistan is a long-term mission”

“To ensure that frustration does not win out in Afghanistan, we must bear in mind that this is a long-term mission”. These are the words used by Pablo Yuste, Coordinator of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation in Afghanistan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, to express the commitment of Spain and the international community to the Asian country, at the seminar Afghanistan under debate, which was organised by the CIDOB Foundation in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI) and Casa Asia. In order to analyse the situation in Afghanistan ─ and paying particular attention to the role played by Spain and the international community ─ the seminar brought together leading representatives from Spanish overseas action groups, high-ranking international officials, members of international civil society and representatives of the Afghan government and society. The participants presented some of the main advances that the country has experienced during the past five years. 

They placed emphasis on aspects such as the progressive consolidation of institutions, the maintaining of international commitment and the persistence of local support ─ the latter being a key element which, in the opinion of the seminar participants, must always be taken into account and without which international presence would not be possible. As for the most important challenges, speakers highlighted the need to make progress in the consolidation of institutions and to “Afghanise” the process as much as possible, with significant numbers of Afghans already participating in the Armed Forces. The speakers also emphasised the need to make an improvement in the functioning of state structures (and particularly the new EU mission to strengthen the police force) and to strengthen the regional dimension of the task within Afghanistan. To achieve this aim, the speakers proposed entering into closer negotiation with Pakistan, Iran, China, Russia and the countries of Central Asia. The participants also touched on unresolved issues such as corruption, poverty and the fight against drug trafficking. Furthermore, it was proposed that a high-ranking international representative be appointed who could give greater visibility to the political and civil mission in Afghanistan. 

The speakers agreed that this new figure would help to maintain existing links and agreements and would attract greater attention ─ at an international and a local level ─ to the complexity of the work that remains to be done, and which must also be understood to be a long-term project, without raising false expectations or establishing unreal timescales. Meanwhile, on the subject of military intervention, the speakers stressed the need to avoid civilian deaths through armed action against the Talibans, as well as highlighting the interdependence of security and development, to which end reference was made to the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT). Furthermore, speakers mentioned the error of vision that had been made in international deployment, as the main focus of intervention had initially been political institutions, and insufficient attention had been paid to the good functioning of administrative structures, while neither an effective disarmament nor the deployment of the International Security Systems Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) beyond Kabul had been achieved. At the same time, the EU Special Representative Francesc Vendrell rejected the moral authority of most of the European states to criticise the USA. In Vendrell's opinion, the countries that are making these criticisms are not the ones that are taking responsibilities and risks in the southern regions of the country where there is, in turn, presence from the US, the United Kingdom, Canada and Holland. Vendrell also stressed that the situation is one of conflict, and not of post-conflict, as has sometimes been claimed. Even so, the journalist Ahmed Rashid considered that it was naive to try and minimise the risks of the international mission, given that an army should not be asked to go somewhere that it is not needed. Rashid also compared European countries’ failure to give information on their role in Afghanistan with the idea that it is inconceivable that fire-fighters would refuse to go to a fire. It was also claimed that the excessive rotation of international personnel represents an added difficulty, and it was stressed that the final responsibility lies in the hands of the Afghans. The speakers from Afghanistan added that the lack of any global strategy and insufficient coordination among the different international agents also represents a serious problem and creates the risk of lowering morale amongst the population. 

Finally, major advances in health conditions were mentioned, important challenges to the achievement of the rule of law and human rights were expressed, gaps were detected in the people’s general knowledge of their principles as well as major shortfalls in the areas of education, justice and health; women, children and the disabled were cited as being the most vulnerable groups. In addition, advances were mentioned in women’s growing awareness of their rights, though the serious violence and lack of protection that persists in this Asian country was condemned. >> See complete programme