U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and key Western powers are seeking a new U.N. envoy to Afghanistan to help lead the "civilian surge" U.S. President Barack Obama has promised, U.N. diplomats and officials said, Reuters reported.
Ban's current special envoy in Kabul, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, is expected to step down by the end of January -- around the time of a major conference on Afghanistan in London -- after less than two years on the job, U.N. diplomats said.
When Eide was appointed in March 2008, expectations were high he would unite the disparate civilian aid and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. But his tenure has been marred by charges of ineffectiveness and allegations he played down the extent of fraud in August's chaotic election.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, Western diplomats from NATO member states with troops in Afghanistan and U.N. officials said there were also plans to appoint a separate civilian representative for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
They said two leading candidates to replace Eide were Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura, a senior official at the U.N. World Food Program and Ban's former special envoy to Iraq, and Jean-Marie Guehenno of France, who ran the U.N. peacekeeping department from 2001 to 2008.
"They're hoping that a decision will be made by the end of the year," a Western diplomat told Reuters.
At stake, diplomats said, is the scope of the United Nations' role in implementing the "civilian surge" Obama sees as a vital part of his new Afghan strategy. The new policy, which Obama announced in a speech last week, includes the deployment of 30,000 new troops to fight the Taliban.
STRONGER U.N. MANDATE
A U.S. official said several options were being explored to improve coordination of the civilian effort, including a plan to strengthen the mandate for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
U.N. officials in New York said there was some disagreement at U.N. headquarters and among major world powers on just how large a role UNAMA should be playing at the moment.
The head of U.S. Central Command, General David Petraeus, said on Wednesday that violence in Afghanistan would likely rise in the short term as the United States and its allies go on the offensive against the Taliban, who ran the country until a U.S.-led invasion toppled their Islamist government in 2001.
One U.N. official said he feared the U.N. envoy would end up playing a secondary role to any ISAF representative. Another official said taking a back-seat role might not be a bad idea at a time when an increasing amount of blood will be spilled.
The United Nations is already a target for the Taliban and other militants as a recent attack on a U.N. guesthouse that killed five U.N. workers showed.
Diplomats said another idea under discussion is a single U.N. envoy who could also act as a civilian liaison with ISAF.
The option of a "super envoy" was floated early last year but rejected by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who feared the top candidate for the post, former British politician Paddy Ashdown, would have wielded too much power.
"This idea is a possibility but it would have to be someone who got along with Karzai," a U.N. official said. "It could not be someone like (Richard) Holbrooke, whom Karzai doesn't like. I expect we'll see separate U.N. and ISAF envoys."
