In an article in Human Rights Watch it is stated,
Unless the United States, the de facto leader of the international community in Afghanistan, develops and implements policies that take into account and protect the rights and well-being of Afghans, failure is a very real possibility.
So we have asked Stephen Twigg the following questions,
Nearly three years after the war on Afghanistan it is time to take stock.
Although it appears that things in Kabul have improved markedly since the time of the Taliban, the Afghan government controls little of the country beyond the capital. The opium trade, which the Taliban suppressed, is very much back in business, being the only way for many poor farmers to make a living.
In January 2002, Western governments and the International Financial Institutions promised $4.5 billion for Afghan reconstruction, of which the UK pledged £200 million.
Can you tell us:
- how much of the money pledged for reconstruction of Afghanistan has been delivered, both in terms of the UK's contribution and overall?
- what is being done to offer farmers an economic alternative to growing opium?
- to what extent have the rights of women started to be respected, and the education of girls to be provided?
- do you regard the efforts made by the West to put Afghanistan back together to be sufficient, given the devastation caused by our bombing and by 25 years of almost continuous warfare before that, and in the light of the promises we made?
Important questions. Again the Human Rights Watch article comments,
Long-term success in Afghanistan (as in other post-conflict situations) will mean protecting and expanding these developments until they become stable and sustainable. This is what Afghans hoped and believed the international community, led by the world’s lone superpower, would help them do. But key elements of the U.S. approach in Afghanistan—relying on regional power brokers (warlords) and their troops to maintain order, and downplaying human rights concerns—have in fact slowed the pace of progress and, in many instances, stopped or even reversed it. It is this failure to grasp the opportunities provided in Afghanistan that makes U.S. policies there more of a model of what to avoid than what to replicate.
See the Human Rights Watch article...
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