US envoy criticises civilian effort in Afghanistan
* US envoy distances self from calls for high representative
* Clinton says will discuss situation with European allies
By Timothy Heritage
BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The civilian operation to rebuild Afghanistan is disjointed and needs to be coordinated better, U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke said on Wednesday.
Holbrooke signalled his concerns over efforts involving the United Nations and scores of foreign aid and development agencies before a meeting at which U.S. and European ministers are expected to discuss how to improve the reconstruction drive.
The criticism, hours after U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, could stir tension between Holbrooke and the U.N. over the leadership of the civilian operation.
"The facts are very simple," Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters in Brussels.
"We have a unified military command but we have an 'un-unified' international effort that involves the United Nations, individual countries, hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands, of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and other international institutions."
"We believe that we need to coordinate that civilian effort better," he added.
Holbrooke did not say how these efforts should be improved but distanced himself from any proposal that would involve creating a high representative similar to a post created to oversee Bosnia after the 1992-95 war in the Balkan country. "We are talking about internal coordination, not a high representative, which implies a kind of person who goes on behalf of the international community to pressure the government of Afghanistan," he said.
U.S.-EUROPEAN TALKS
Holbrooke was in Brussels before a NATO meeting on Thursday and Friday at which foreign minsters from the military alliance will discuss the conflict in Afghanistan, where NATO troops are battling a Taliban insurgency.
U.N. officials say privately it is not the first time Holbrooke has criticised the U.N. and other civilian agencies in Afghanistan, and that his relationships with U.N. special envoy Kai Eide and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are not easy.
But Holbrooke said he did not back any plan to bypass Karzai, saying: "He's the president of the country ... we're not going around him. We're helping his government and he's fully in favour of that."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers in Washington she would discuss with her NATO allies in Brussels how civilian work could be better coordinated in Afghanistan.
"How we coordinate and better hold accountable our civilian aid is a matter of great concern to all the contributing nations," she said, adding that the aim was to find a "coordinating mechanism" to meet the needs of all sides.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in New York the United Nations must continue to play a vital role in Afghanistan and the civilian component of Obama's new Afghan strategy was crucial.
Washington wanted to ensure the United Nations had the financial and other resources needed to improve security, she said.
The bombing of a U.N. guesthouse that killed five foreign U.N. staff in Kabul in October prompted the U.N. to move some of its staff out of Afghanistan temporarily.
Eide's tenure in Afghanistan has also been marred by a spat with a former deputy, U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith, who accused him of playing down reports of widespread corruption in Afghanistan's presidential election in August.
Eide denied the allegation and Galbraith, who was widely considered an ally of Holbrooke, was sacked. (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York and Sue Pleming in Washington, editing by Tim Pearce) ((timothy.heritage@reuters.com; +32 2 287 8632; Reuters Messaging: timothy.heritage.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Source: Reuters
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