Agence France-Presse,
KABUL: NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called Thursday for more international commitment to the fight against the Taliban, saying extremists were intent on destabilising the West as well as Afghanistan.
Countries contributing to a 50,000-strong NATO-led force in Afghanistan must also rid themselves of the notion that the mission is failing, the alliance's secretary general said after talks with Afghan leaders.
Scheffer visited Afghanistan with 26 NATO ambassadors and other alliance officials amid tensions over contributions to the NATO-led force fighting Taliban and some countries hinting at pulling out.
“This is not considered by NATO as a mission of choice,” he told reporters after talks with President Hamid Karzai. “It is a mission of necessity.”
“The spoilers are not after destabilising the Afghan society, killing the Afghan society, but also ruining our societies,” he said, referring to Taliban insurgents and other rebels in a violent campaign against the government.
“It is essential that not only NATO but also the other members of the international community are fully committed to Afghanistan,” he said.
There have been calls from the main contributors to post-Taliban Afghanistan — notably Britain and the United States — for more “burden-sharing” in the gruelling fight against the rebels.
About a dozen countries are represented in the south, the violence hotspot where opium cultivation is flourishing, and taking heavy casualties that are feeding public dissatisfaction at home.
Others choose to operate in more stable areas, such as the north where Germany is in command.
The United States is sending more than 3,000 soldiers — combat troops and trainers — into Afghanistan in April to deal with a traditional surge in violence around spring.
It has been calling on other nations to give more support to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Scheffer said ISAF had swollen by 8,700 soldiers over the past year to number about 50,000 and he was confident of more support in the coming year.
He said the perception in many countries in the ISAF force that “things are going wrong in Afghanistan or that the country is going downhill, is not true.”
There has been much progress, notably in health, education and construction. “Of course we are not failing but I am ambitious. We can do better,” he said.
