UN pushes for Afghan security

Militiamen loyal to local warlords threaten security

The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Mary Robinson, says security has to be improved in Afghanistan to ensure human rights of all citizens are protected.

There are still far too many guns in the hands of dangerous people

Mary Robinson

On her first visit to the Afghan capital Kabul, Mrs Robinson is examining reports of human rights violations in post-Taleban Afghanistan.

She will visit the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif where the minority Pashtun community is reported to have suffered at the hands of the local Uzbeks.

Robinson - a 'time of hope' for Afghanistan

Mrs Robinson says Afghan warlords and their militias need to be disarmed, and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) sent to other parts of Afghanistan to ensure security.

"There are still far too many guns in the hands of dangerous people in the towns and villages of Afghanistan", she says.

Human rights

On Friday, Mrs Robinson attended a rally in Kabul to mark International Women's Day and said it was a "great new beginning for Afghanistan, a time of hope."

Women at the rally recited verses from the Koran, an unusual event in that Afghan women do not recite solo at public gatherings.

The UN wants to secure cities outside Kabul

Afghanistan's Interim leader Hamid Karzai, and Women's Affairs Minister Sima Samar, reinforced Mrs Robinson's message.

But securing rights for Afghan women is just one aspect of her visit.

On Saturday, she will chair a seminar on human rights education, a proposed Afghan Human Rights Commission, and what she called "transitional justice".

In an interview with the BBC, she also mentioned a recent report issued by Human Rights Watch on the abuses suffered by the Pashtun minority in northern Afghanistan.

She will visit Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday.

"I want to see the situation directly myself", she says.

Security

Mrs Robinson says improving the security situation is the key to Afghanistan's future.

Ethnic minorities have suffered abuses

She says the UN has to persuade powerful countries like the US to focus on this need.

"We must not let this window of opportunity go; we must not have a slide back into what Afghanistan suffered before", she said.

Mrs Robinson said she was struck by the intense desire of Afghan men and women to build a new future for themselves and their country.

But they could not do it if they do not have basic security, she said.