PARIS — Richard Holbrooke and 26 other international envoys face a touchy task in meetings today in Paris: how to rescue their costly effort to rebuild Afghanistan, after elections marred by alleged fraud and amid mounting bloodshed.
Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, joins counterparts from Britain, Germany, Russia, China, Japan and other countries for talks about how to deal with ballot-stuffing charges tarnishing Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the man who once embodied the world’s hope for the country and its democracy.
The allegations, along with low turnout in the violent south, could strip the election of legitimacy and prove a big embarrassment to the United States and other countries that have staked their Afghan policies on support for a credible government to combat the Taliban, corruption and the country’s huge drug trade.
The Paris meeting will aim to try to “unify positions” after the Afghan presidential elections Aug. 20 and push to hand more responsibility for the country’s security and development to Afghans, according to the French host, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
The talks come as an explosion today east of Kabul ripped through a crowd of government officials inaugurating a mosque, killing the country’s deputy intelligence chief and 22 others.
Afghans bristled at the foreign envoys’ meeting in faraway Paris, even as the final ballots are still being counted.
“This is not good for foreigners to make any commitment about an important issue such as the election in Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Qasim Akhgir, political analyst and chief editor of newspaper 8-AM. “I wish this meeting could be held inside Afghanistan, so we as Afghans could find a solution for our problems.”
Vote tallies released Monday based on almost half of the voting stations showed Karzai leading with 45.8 percent, ahead of challenger Abdullah Abdullah with 33.2 percent. Karzai needs 50 percent to avoid a runoff.
Accusations of voter intimidation and large-scale ballot-stuffing have poured into the Electoral Complaint Commission, which must investigate before final results can be announced.
Abdullah raised the stakes today with new accusations suggesting the Independent Election Commission was cooperating in the alleged fraud.
In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif today, an official with Abdullah’s campaign warned that his supporters could take to the streets if there is a perception that fraud is being overlooked.
“Dr. Abdullah is meeting with foreign embassies and regional partners to try to find a solution,” said Zalmai Younosi, the campaign chief for six provinces. “After that, if there is no result, then it is protest and violence.”
Such warnings illustrate the quandary for the international community.
Holbrooke has played a key role in managing the election fallout, but he and many other international officials have refrained from taking a public stance so far.
“The election results are still being counted, it’s a process very much like there is in the United States, France and other democracies. That process is still unrolling, let’s see what happens,” he said on France-24 television.
The election dilemma comes as rising U.S. and NATO casualties are undermining support for the war in some countries with forces in Afghanistan. August was the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces — at least 49 deaths. Another died Tuesday, just one day into September. President Barack Obama committed 21,000 new American forces to Afghanistan this year, bringing the total U.S. commitment to 68,000 by the end of the year. A record 100,000 U.S. and NATO troops are stationed in Afghanistan.
The envoys in Paris are expected to look at what their troops and money are doing in Afghanistan. today’s meeting is the latest in a series since Paris hosted a donors conference for Afghanistan a year ago that garnered pledges of more than $21 billion.
The top U.N. official in Afghanistan says the international community has wasted years in Afghanistan by not coordinating efforts.
“The piecemeal approach is not going to get results,” said Kai Eide, who is taking part in today’s talks. Foreign governments tend to fund small, relatively easy projects rather than major missions such as overhauling the transport network.
The question of a possible second round of elections — reportedly supported by Holbrooke — is likely to come up at today’s talks.
But a runoff would be costly and entail high security risks, and is looking “more and more improbable,” said Karim Pakzad of the French Institute for International and Strategic Relations.
“We’re in a paradoxical situation. Karzai is the product of the international community … and now he is telling the Americans ‘I’m the one who holds the cards,’” Pakzad said.
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