Paris, 5 June 2008 – The Assembly called on the Paris Conference on Afghanistan, due to be held on 12 June 2008, to focus on the need for a single uniform strategy for achieving a full return to the rule of law and civil peace in that country.

The Assembly was informed in a report submitted on behalf of the Political Committee by Mr Detlef Dzembritzki (Germany, Socialist Group) that six years after the fall of the Taliban regime, the Government of Afghanistan was faced with ongoing rebellion and at the same time being undermined by “warlordism”, corruption and a shortage of properly trained officials. Afghanistan is the world’s fifth poorest country and largest opium producer. Foreign aid accounts for 90% of the country’s budget.

Acknowledging the abusive use of military force that goes on, the obvious failure to stamp out or control the drug trade, poor management of governance reform and a piecemeal approach to political dealings with the Taliban, the report considers that international aid is being withheld on account of the manifest lack of a common strategy and that it is vital for the new United Nations Special Representative to take responsibility for the coordination and integration of the whole range of initiatives being taken, all too often willy nilly, in the areas of security, reconstruction and governance.

As well as the development of a coherent, comprehensive European civil and military strategy, the Assembly recommends working closely with the United States and the United Nations, on the understanding, in the wake of the decisions taken at the NATO Bucharest Summit, that the international community’s involvement in the rebuilding of Afghanistan is to continue for many years until security, stability and the rule of law are eventually restored to the whole country.

The Assembly is also advocating a common approach towards drawing Afghanistan’s neighbours more closely into the quest for genuine and lasting peace.

The presentation of the report was followed by an address from Mrs Karin Kortmann, Parliamentary State Secretary to the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, who gave an account of the action being taken by her country, one of the main contributors to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. In her view, the aim of the forthcoming conference on Afghanistan was less to raise more funds than to improve coordination of the various inputs and strengthen the hand of the Afghan authorities. She also emphasised the need to look beyond the Kabul region and go out and meet the Taliban head-on in the areas along the borders with Iran and Pakistan. It was impossible to sideline the Taliban and the former warlords. The only option, she maintained, was to hold out the hand of friendship if they showed willing to engage in building democracy in Afghanistan. The tribal chiefs and their followings were key to that process.

Lastly, Mrs Kortmann denied that no progress had been made in Afghanistan. Time was needed for present action to pay off. If the West withdrew now, the country would collapse.