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Afghanistan

UN special envoy expresses concern over Afghan security

KABUL, Jul 10, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The special envoy of the UN Secretary General to Afghanistan Tom Koenigs on Monday expressed concern over the security situation in the post-Taliban nation and called on international community to boost it.


"The security sector reform is more needed than ever. The effort has to be increased," he told a press conference here.

He made this remarks amid increasing security incidents particularly in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Uruzgan, where a U.S.-military led huge anti-Taliban operation the Mountain Thrust has been going on since mid May to root out militants.

Taliban-linked insurgency has been almost on constant increase as six bomb explosions that rocked Afghan capital Kabul over the past two weeks, leaving at least one person dead and over 40 others wounded, including 39 personnel of the country's Defense Ministry.

The UN top diplomat in Afghanistan also described the security situation in the southern region as fragile and emphasized for boosting security forces there.

Security situation in the south makes it obvious that the support is more needed than ever. To support the security sector reform, the police reform, the Afghan National Army needs to be strengthened, he said.

"One policeman on every 1,500 is not enough. In Switzerland they have three times more. Unfortunately the south of Afghanistan is not Switzerland," he said while referring to the shortage of and insufficiency of police in the post-war Afghanistan.

More than 1,000 people, including militants, Afghan and the U.S. -dominated foreign troops as well pro-government social figures, have been killed in Taliban-linked insurgency since the beginning of this year.