The Taliban yesterday leveled a stinging verbal attack on the UN, which is relocating 600 foreign staff in Afghanistan after the militia attacked one of its guesthouses in Kabul.
In a statement on its Web site, the Taliban accused the UN of “suppressing and oppressing” Muslims while supporting “arrogant invaders.”
The UN decision to temporarily withdraw 600 foreign staff — more than 50 percent of the current total — comes in response to a Taliban attack on a hostel nine days ago in which five UN employees and two Afghans were killed.
Referring to a pledge by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to bring the perpetrators to justice, the Taliban accused the world body of “horrendous” crimes in the eight years since the Islamist regime was pushed from power.
“They have their share in the mass murders of the Afghan people and are the cause of the tragedies and sufferings of the Afghans,” it said. “During the past eight years, never a day has passed without the Americans and Western brutal forces committing crimes, murder or torture against our people or encroaching on our national and religious values.”
More than 100,000 foreign troops are in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and US President Barack Obama is mulling a request by his commander on the ground, General Stanley McChrystal, for tens of thousands of reinforcements.
In Kabul alone, around 100 civilians have been killed in suicide attacks in recent months for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.
Many more civilians than foreigners, including troops fighting under US and NATO command, are killed in Taliban attacks across the country.
Life in Kabul for the hundreds of UN staff has never been especially comfortable or glamorous. The pipes of their crumbling homes freeze in winter and power cuts require regular trips to the generator.
But life is about to get worse. One foreign worker said: “One of the beauties of Afghanistan is we have such an interesting operating environment and some sense of normalcy where we can live with friends and go out in the evening.”
Several days before the UN announced its plan to relocate foreign staffers, workers in Kabul had been told to give up their shared homes and move into hotels and compounds secured by foreign security guards. UN security managers know that many approved homes were even less secure than the Bekhtar guesthouse where five workers were killed by suicide bombers.
New rules will force UN staff to find accommodation in buildings with room for defensive positions for armed guards, probably foreign guards, preferably Gurkhas, who cost vastly more than Afghan guards. Some UN staff say they have been told a team of Gurkhas would cost £150,000 (US$249,000) a year to protect one building.
Jean-Luc Lemahieu, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, said such a cost could not be justified: “We have to look at ways to keep our security costs down by pooling people into larger buildings. If most of your money goes to your security then there is something wrong with your presence here.”
UN security officials said they were still finalizing plans for the construction and expansion of large and well-fortified compounds, an option which horrifies staff loath to live a “barracks lifestyle.”
The work of large agencies, such as the UN Development Program, is likely to be hit hard, with only a skeleton international staff left in place to run multimillion-dollar projects managed by dozens.
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