Peace in Afghanistan will take more than 'quick fixes'

Afghanistan risks deteriorating into civil war if government leaders meeting in Bonn resort to “quick fix” measures, Christian Aid has warned.

Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle opened the conference in the western German city this morning with a promise to Afghanistan that it will “not be abandoned”.

The conference will focus on the international community’s involvement in Afghanistan up to and beyond the 2014 withdrawal of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Christian Aid’s Afghanistan country director Serena Di Matteo is looking to government leaders to take “concrete steps” towards a long-term commitment that ensures a transparent peace process and includes a focus on poverty in the distribution of aid.

“A lasting peace that allows Afghans respectable standards of living, human dignity, free from conflict and grinding poverty can only be guaranteed if the Afghan people trust the process,” she said.

“A quick fix political deal will risk another civil war.”

Priority measures include the improvement of access to good quality healthcare, education and other basic services.

An adequate reconciliation process must also be put in place to adjudicate past human rights sufferings and abuses suffered by Afghan civilians, the development agency said.

Ms Di Matteo stressed the need to involve women in the peacebuilding process.

“Security across the country will not be achieved unless there is successful reconciliation between all parties to the conflict and political groups as well as meaningful participation by all social and ethnic groups including women - not only talks with the Taliban insurgency.”

She added: “If women’s rights are not enshrined in the peace process then the whole ten years of the international community’s engagement will be in vain.”