06/27/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09971

TURKEY AND THE I.S.A.F.

Turkey has taken over the job of leading the international security force in Afghanistan. As U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "In assuming command...Turkey has demonstrated yet again the solidarity of the U.S.-Turkey strategic partnership and Turkey’s resolve to combat terrorism."

The international force has played a critical role in providing security in Kabul. It will continue to ensure that the Afghan Transitional Administration just formed by the emergency Loya Jirga, the national council, can operate in a stable environment.

The force consists of four-thousand-five-hundred soldiers. They come from Austria, Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.

In the past six months, the force has removed more than two-million landmines and trained a battalion of the new Afghan National Guard. The force has also carried out humanitarian missions. They include providing assistance after an avalanche closed the Salang Tunnel, north of Kabul, and after an earthquake devastated northern Afghanistan in March.

Turkey is also involved in health and education programs. A team of Turkish experts recently returned from the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, where they studied possible water and irrigation projects.

However, security problems remain. There have been reports of factional fighting in Afghanistan and incidents of looting, beatings, extortion and other crimes. The U.S. is taking the lead in training a new Afghan national army. Germany is helping to reconstruct and reform the Afghan police. Britain is heading an effort to reduce illegal narcotics production and distribution. And Italy is working on reform of Afghanistan’s judicial system.

As David Johnson, the U.S. State Department's Afghanistan Coordinator, said, "Success in security is the key ingredient to being successful in any other aspect of the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan."