UNCLAS STATE 152304

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM MOPPS UN AF
SUBJECT: INSTRUCTIONS (PART TWO) FOR THE RESOLUTION ON
"THE SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN" IN THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY



1. This is an action request. Below continues the
resolution text of the resolution "The Situation in
Afghanistan" from PART ONE of this instruction sent by
separate cable. USUN is also instructed to use the points
in para 3 in making our Explanation of Vote.


2. Continue resolution text:


27. Urges the Government of Afghanistan to continue to
effectively reform the public administration sector in
order to implement the rule of law and to ensure good
governance and accountability at both national and local
levels, and stresses the importance of meeting the
respective benchmarks of the Afghanistan Compact, with
the support of the international community;


28. Welcomes the formal establishment of the Senior
Appointments Panel and the finalization of the revised
Public Administration Reform framework and encourages
the Government of Afghanistan to ensure appointment of
officials as required by the Afghanistan Compact;


29. Encourages the international community, including all
donor nations, to assist the Government of Afghanistan in
making capacity-building and human resources development a
cross-cutting priority;


30. Encourages the Government of Afghanistan to
vigorously pursue its efforts to establish a more
effective, accountable and transparent administration at
national, provincial and local levels of Government
leading the fight against corruption in accordance with
the Afghanistan Compact, and notes with concern the effects
of corruption with regard to security, good governance,
combating the narcotics industry and economic development;


31. Stresses once again the need for further progress on
a comprehensive judicial reform in Afghanistan, and
urges the Government of Afghanistan and the international
community to devote resources also to the reconstruction
and reform of the prison sector in order to improve
respect for the rule of law and human rights therein,
while reducing physical and mental health risks to
inmates;


32. Urges the Government of Afghanistan to address,
with the assistance of the international community, the
question of claims for land property through a

comprehensive land titling programme, including formal
registration of all property and improved security of
property rights, and welcomes the steps already taken by
the Government in this regard;

(Economic and Social Development)

33. Notes the progress achieved in the elaboration of the
Afghanistan National Development Strategy, underlines
the need to finalize the Strategy by early 2008, and urges
the international community actively to support this
process;


34. Urgently appeals to all States, the United Nations
system and international and non-governmental
organizations to continue to provide, in close
coordination with the Government of Afghanistan and in
accordance with its national development strategy, all
possible and necessary humanitarian, recovery,
reconstruction, financial, technical and material
assistance for Afghanistan;


35. Urges the international community, in accordance
with the Afghanistan Compact, to increase the proportion
of donor assistance channelled directly to the core
budget, as agreed bilaterally between the Government of
Afghanistan and each donor, as well as through other
more predictable core budget funding modalities in which
the Government participates, such as the Afghanistan
Reconstruction Trust Fund, the Law and Order Trust
Fund and the Counter-Narcotics Trust Fund;


36. Invites all States, intergovernmental and
nongovernmental organizations providing assistance to
Afghanistan to focus on institution-building in a
coordinated manner and to ensure that such work
complements and contributes to the development of an
economy characterized by sound macroeconomic policies,
the development of a financial sector that provides
services, inter alia, to micro enterprises, small and
medium-sized enterprises and households, transparent
business regulations and accountability;


37. Encourages the international community to support
the local economy as a measure for long-term stability
and countering narcotics, and in this respect explore
possibilities for enhancing local procurement;


38. Calls for strengthening the process of regional
economic cooperation including measures to facilitate
regional trade, to increase foreign investments and to
develop infrastructure, noting Afghanistan's historic role
as a land bridge in Asia;


39. Reiterates the necessity of providing Afghan children
with educational and health facilities in all parts of the
country, welcomes progress achieved in the sector of
public education and recalls the National Education
Strategic Plan as a promising basis for further
achievements;


40. Recognizes the special needs of girls, strongly
condemns terrorist attacks on education facilities, and
encourages the Government of Afghanistan, with the
assistance of the international community, to expand
these facilities, to train professional staff and to
promote full and equal access to them by all members of
Afghan society, including in remote areas;


41. Expresses its appreciation to those Governments that
continue to host Afghan refugees, acknowledging the huge
burden they have so far shouldered in this regard, and
re-minds them of their obligations under international
refugee law with respect to the protection of refugees,
the principle of voluntary return and the right to seek
asylum and to allow international access for their
protection and care;


42. Urges the Government of Afghanistan, acting with
the support of the international community, to continue
and strengthen its efforts to create the conditions for
the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return and
reintegration of the remaining Afghan refugees and
internally displaced persons;


43. Welcomes in this regard the Tripartite Agreements
between the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, the Government of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan and the Governments of the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran respectively;


44. Calls for the provision of continued international
assistance to the large numbers of Afghan refugees and
internally displaced persons to facilitate their
voluntary, safe, dignified and orderly return and sustainable
reintegration into society so as to contribute to the
stability of the entire country;

(Counter Narcotics as a Cross-Cutting Priority)

45. Expresses concern about the second successive
increase in the cultivation of opium, notes that opium
cultivation, the related drug production and trafficking
and the increasingly strong nexus between drug trade
and terrorist activities by the Taliban, Al-Qaida and
other extremist groups pose a serious threat to security, the
rule of law and development in Afghanistan, urges the
Government of Afghanistan, supported by the international
community, to work to mainstream counter-narcotics
throughout all the national programmes, and ensure
counter-narcotics is a fundamental part of the
comprehensive approach, commends the efforts of the
Government in this regard, and urges it to increase its
efforts against opium cultivation and drug trafficking,
with the support of the international community;


46. Welcomes the efforts to date of the Afghan
Government to carry out the National Drug Control
Strategy and urges the Government of Afghanistan and
the international community to take decisive action, in
particular to stop the processing and trade in drugs, by
pursuing the concrete steps set out in the Strategy and in
the Afghanistan Compact and through initiatives such as
the Good Performers Initiative established to provide
incentives for governors to reduce cultivation in their
provinces;


47. Calls upon the international community to assist the
Government of Afghanistan in carrying out its National
Drug Control Strategy, aimed at eliminating the
cultivation, production, trafficking in and consumption of
illicit drugs, including through increased support for
Afghan law enforcement and criminal justice agencies,
agricultural and rural development, demand reduction, the
elimination of illicit crops, increasing public awareness,
building the capacity of drug control institutions and
creating alternative livelihoods for farmers;


48. Encourages the international community to
increasingly channel counter-narcotics funding through
the Government of Afghanistan's counter-narcotics trust
fund;


49. Urges the Government of Afghanistan to promote the
development of sustainable livelihoods in the formal
production sector as well as other sectors, and to
improve access to reasonable and sustainable credit and
financing in rural areas, thus improving substantially the
lives, health and security of the people, particularly in
rural areas;


50. Supports the fight against the illicit trafficking in
drugs and precursors within Afghanistan and in
neighbouring States and countries along trafficking
routes, including increased cooperation among them to
strengthen anti-narcotic controls to curb the drug flow;


51. Recalls the outcome of the Second Ministerial
Conference on Drug Trafficking Routes from Afghanistan,
organized by the Government of the Russian Federation
in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, held in Moscow from 26 to 28 June 2006,
within the framework of the Paris Pact initiative, and
therefore calls upon States to strengthen international
and regional cooperation to counter the increasing threat
to the international community posed by the illicit
production of and trafficking in drugs;


52. Welcomes recent initiatives to promote border
management cooperation in drug control between Afghanistan
and its neighbors;

( Coordination and Monitoring/ UN)

53. Stresses the central and impartial role of the United
Nations in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan
by leading the efforts of the international community,
and endorses the key principles for cooperation between
the Government of Afghanistan and the international
community as referred to in the Afghanistan Compact;


54. Acknowledges the central role played by the Joint
Coordination and Monitoring Board in facilitating and
monitoring the implementation of the Afghanistan
Compact, stresses the role of the Board to support
Afghanistan by, inter alia, coordinating international
assistance and reconstruction programmes and welcomes
further efforts to provide appropriate high level
political guidance and promote a more coherent international
engagement;


55. Commends the continuing efforts of the signatories of
the Kabul Declaration on Good-neighbourly Relations of
22 December 2002 to implement their commitments under the
Declaration, and furthermore calls upon all other States
to respect and support the implementation of those
provisions and to promote regional stability;


56. Welcomes efforts by the Governments of Afghanistan and
its neighbouring partners to foster trust and cooperation
with each other, and looks forward, where appropriate, to
increasing cooperation between Afghanistan and all its
neighbouring and regional partners against the
Taliban, Al-Qaida and other extremist groups and in
promoting peace and prosperity in Afghanistan, in the
region and beyond;


57. Welcomes the holding of the Afghan-Pakistani Joint
Peace Jirga in Kabul, 9-12 August 2007 and the collective
determination expressed at the Jirga to bring sustainable
peace to the region, including by addressing the terrorist
threat;


58. Welcomes the Ankara Declaration issued following
the Trilateral Summit of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey
held in Ankara on April 29-30, 2007, and expresses support
to the continuation of this process;


59. Also welcomes the joint statement adopted by
Foreign Ministers of the G8 with the Foreign Ministers of
Afghanistan and Pakistan in Potsdam, 30 May, 2007 on
the promotion of cooperation and assistance through
mutual consultation and agreement, including follow-up
projects in areas such as refugees repatriation and
economic development;


60. Appreciates the efforts of the members of the
Tripartite Commission, namely Afghanistan, Pakistan, the
United States of America and ISAF to continue to address
cross-border activities and to broaden its cooperation,
welcomes the participation of the Assistance Force, and
calls upon the international community to support those
efforts;


61. Emphasizes the need to maintain, strengthen and
review civil-military relations among international
actors, as appropriate, at all levels in order to ensure
complementarity of action based on the different mandates
and comparative advantages of the humanitarian,
development, law enforcement and military actors present
in Afghanistan, bearing in mind the central and impartial
coordinating role of the United Nations;

(Procedural References)

62. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the
General Assembly every six months during its sixty-
second session on developments in Afghanistan, as well
as on the progress made in the implementation of the
present resolution;


63. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its
sixty-third session the item entitled "The situation in
Afghanistan".

End Resolution Text.


3. Begin discussion points:

-- The United States is pleased to join the other member
states who have co-sponsored this resolution on The
Situation in Afghanistan. This resolution details the
progress the Afghan people and the international community
have made in the process of freeing Afghanistan from the
oppressive Taliban regime and its terrorist allies who
held the country hostage.

-- We join in recognizing the Afghan government, the
Secretary General, his Special Representative, the staff

SIPDIS
of UNAMA, and all of the forces participating in the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and
Operation Enduring Freedom. Every element of the combined
effort to support the Afghan people in their quest for
peace and prosperity is essential.

-- This resolution also underlines the significant
challenges that remain in completing Afghanistan's
transition to a prosperous self-dependent state. Foremost
among those challenges are the security threats posed by
Taliban and Al-Qaida forces wishing to reimpose their
tyranny on the Afghan people. These security threats have
been recently exacerbated by the growth of the narcotics
trade, which fuels continued terrorism and criminal
violence.

-- In light of these continued threats, we call on the
international community to maintain its commitments to
Afghanistan, in particular to implementing the Afghanistan
Compact, and, as appropriate, to increase contributions to
NATO's ISAF mission.

-- Effective governance will play a pivotal role in
achieving stability. In particular, the United States is
turning its focus to sub-national governance. We must
help the Afghan government to deliver services, security
and good governance at the local level, where most Afghans
interact with their government.

-- Despite enormous efforts by the Taliban and Al-Qaida,
the international community has succeeded in helping
Afghans establishing representative government. The
Afghan economy shows continued signs of improvement.
Afghan police and military forces are increasingly taking
responsibility for establishing security for their own
people. The Afghan government has restored the basic
human rights of millions of Afghans previously held
virtual hostage by the Taliban, notably women and
children. Afghanistan is playing a constructive role in
the region of South and Central and Asia with the
potential to serve as a bridge in regional economic
integration.

-- The government of Afghanistan and the international
community will succeed in establishing stability and
prosperity if we maintain our commitments to the Afghan
people. They deserve no less, having made their choice
for freedom and against terrorism and oppression.

End Points.
RICE