Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 26 / Trend , E.Ostapenko/
If there is no effective, a clean administration in Afghanistan, then the Afghan people would have no incentive to support the state and they would rather incline in the direction of the insurgency, EU Special Representative in Afghanistan, Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi believes.
"If the state is not in a position to offer those basic services that every state should offer from security to justice, job creation etc., some other will offer those services. And those are Taliban," Sequi said in his interview with Trend .
During the incumbent Afghan President Hamid Karzai's reign since 2001, the level of the narcotics trafficking has increased compared with the period of the Taliban rule. He failed to suppress the armed resistance of the Taliban and the real power in the country remains in the hands of warlords.
Over the past 20 years, the country has been mired in corruption. West blames Karzai for it, who, in their opinion, during its stay in power, was unable to build an effective model of administration, capable of pursuing economic and democratic reforms.
The government instability can be countered by the ever-growing influence of radical Islamist Taliban movement, which has a strong presence in the south and south-east of the country. According the London-based international think-tank Senlis Council, the military presence of the Taliban in 2007 covered 54 percent of Afghanistan's territory.
The ambassador believes the reason why Commander of the NATO forces, General Stanley McChrystal is suggesting in his review an increase of number of troops to 40,000 is simply because it needs to buy time in order to do something that is very important - to "afghanize" the security. It means to put the Afghan army and the Afghan police in a position to be the masters of their own security, Sequi said.
At present, there are almost 68,000 soldiers and officers of NATO in Afghanistan, a third of them - the U.S. military. In addition, 36,000 soldiers are under the direct command of the U.S.
In order to promote governance it is necessary definitely to fight very actively against corruption and to straight promote a new generation of Afghan administrative, the ambassador said, noting the EU's great contribution to the fight against corruption in Afghanistan.
"As far as civilian reconstruction is concerned the European Union has spent already more than eight billion euros from 2002 until now. The EU is contributing in a police review which has a special program in order to address the corruption in police," Sequi said.
A school of public administration for the capacity building that means clean, effective, transparent administration will be lounged shortly, the ambassador said.
The other priority can really be economic development of Afghanistan, Sequi said.
Despite billions of dollars-assistance by the international community, Afghanistan is almost the poorest country in the world. According to the UN, the country ranks fourth from the end in the world in terms of economic development and welfare.
Twelve million Afghans live below the poverty line and about three million of them comprise children and about 2.4 million - nursing mothers, reported the Afghan Ministry of Health. According to approximate data of the UN, about 26 million people can live in Afghanistan.
"To really win half a mind of Afghans we need also to win their stomach to show there is a hope for a better and more prosperous life," the ambassador said.
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