New U.N. envoy to Afghanistan visits Washington

  Kai Eide, the new U.N. special envoy to Kabul, will face more than the Taliban, a weak and corruption-ridden government, rampant poverty and illiteracy and the world's biggest opium poppy crop in pursuing his ambitious mission to better coordinate international aid, governance and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
  The veteran Norwegian diplomat will also have to deal with U.S. and NATO officials and commanders who may resist his vision of a new approach in which civilian aid and reconstruction efforts receive equal billing with military operations.
   "We have to bring this together, and in particular the relationship between the civilian and military," Eide said in an address today at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It can't be the military carrying out a campaign and then asking the civilians, "Where are you now."
   Most experts agree that the Bush administration and some of its NATO allies have placed way too much emphasis on the use of force - which has claimed large numbers of civilian casualties, aiding Taliban and al Qaida recruiting and souring many Afghans on President Hamid Karzai and his foreign supporters - and have not invested nearly enough time, energy or money in helping Kabul win hearts and minds through reconstruction of ravaged infrastructure and non-functional law and order system, or fighting the country's endemic crime, poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and disease.
   Eide acknowledged that bringing civilian programs into sync with U.S. and NATO military operations will be a "difficult challenge."
   But, he said he has noted in talks with American and European officials since his appointment last month "a readiness" to support his goal of improving cooperation and coordination in international civilian and military operations.
   "I do feel I have the full confidence of the international community," said Eide. "I feel I have the strong confidence of the Afghan leadership."
   He's going to need both.
   Recent reports put the level of violence in Afghanistan at or above last year, which was the bloodiest since the 2001 U.S. intervention that ousted the Taliban and al Qaida.
   NATO members have failed to fill a request for more troops, including trainers, and helicopters, and there are deep concerns that infiltration of militants from Pakistan will rise because of peace deals the new government in Islamabad is forging with Islamic extremists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
   Eide, who I knew in Zagreb in the early 1990s as a dogged negotiator in international efforts to end the  Belgrade-backed insurrection by Croatian Serbs, is under no illusions about what he faces in Afghanistan.
   In his frank remarks, he acknowledged the poor coordination of international aid efforts in Afghanistan, the inadequacies of the Karzai government, the security challenge, rising food prices, the need for more international reconstruction funds and the graft that saps money and popular support from aid programs.
   His immediate priorities, he said, are putting more effort into rebuilding the country's police and court system, helping improve governance in Kabul and at the provincial and district levels and seeing what can be done to improve agricultural production.