BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Afghan woman minister warns UN

Samar warned Afghanistan is still under threat

Afghan Minister of Women's Affairs, Sima Samar, has appealed to the UN Security Council to authorise the expansion of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul and across the country.

The mere fact that a female Afghan minister could address the UN Security Council would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.

But it is a sign of Afghanistan's progress that Mrs Samar, one of the most senior women in the transitional Afghan administration, was able to come to New York and to speak to the diplomats who backed the UN's plans for nurturing peace and stability in the country.

Warning

Mrs Samar thanked the Security Council members for their help.

But she also warned them that all that has been achieved in Afghanistan could come under threat, if the international community continues to ignore calls to expand the ISAF.

"We are told that an expansion of peacekeeping forces is too expensive," she said.

"But another cycle of war will pose an even greater expense to the world. It will be costly in terms of the loss of human life (and) another period of violence will also risk the money and support that has been invested already in support of the peace process."

History, she said, should not be allowed to repeat itself in Afghanistan.

Although council members are well aware of the precarious nature of Afghanistan's peace, few troop-contributing nations have shown any appetite for expanding the role of foreign armies.

Instead, they are hoping it will be possible to train Afghans to do the job themselves.