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Bloomberg June 30, 2006 June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan's former child soldiers will return to fighting unless the United Nations is able to keep operating training projects to bring them into civilian society, the UN Children's Fund and the World Food Program said. "Instead of self-sufficient tailors and carpenters and mechanics helping to boost the development of their communities, and the nation as a whole, there will be thousands of poor hungry and frustrated former child soldiers," Richard Lee, a WFP spokesman, said yesterday in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to the UN. They will be the ``perfect recruiting pool for insurgents and other armed groups." The WFP will be forced to end its support for young trainees in the second half of this year unless it receives additional donations, Lee said. He didn't say what funds the agency needs. Afghanistan emerged from more than two decades of civil war, involving war lords and militia groups, with the ousting of the Taliban regime in the U.S.-led war on terrorism in 2001. Taliban fighters have stepped up their attacks in recent months as forces of the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan army expand their operations into southern and eastern provinces. More than 60,000 former militiamen surrendered in Afghanistan under a UN-supported program that began after 2001. "As long as there is a steady supply of new young recruits, the conflict will go on," Lee said. Unicef's programs include teaching and training young people in skills such as carpentry, weaving and sewing, the UN said. The WFP's monthly food aid ration for trainees and their families is a "powerful incentive" for Afghans to attend classes, it said. Rice Visits The Taliban is stepping up its military efforts in the south and east, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier this week. Rice visited Pakistan and Afghanistan June 27-28 to discuss the fighting. "We're not talking about the resurgence of the Taliban as a political force," Rice told reporters on her way to Pakistan. "We're talking about them as a force that is trying to be destructive in a somewhat vulnerable part of the country." Rice won assurances from President Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan will add 10,000 soldiers to the 80,000 its has helping control security on the mountainous border with Afghanistan, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said June 27. The U.S. plans to withdraw about 6,500 of its 23,000 soldiers now in Afghanistan as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Afghan security forces assume a larger role. NATO will take control of military operations in the south by the end of next month. The Afghan National Army has about 34,000 soldiers and the police have about 64,000 officers. There are also 8,000 troops from other countries in the U.S.-led coalition. URL: page url |
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