AFGHANISTAN: New UN envoy calls for end to attacks on schools

KABUL, 23 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - The United Nations' new top envoy to Afghanistan has called on militants to stop attacking educational institutions, following a series of attacks on schools and teachers in the restive south of the country.

"I cannot understand why anyone would target schools and teachers. These attacks amount to a denial of the human right to education for Afghanistan’s children,” Tom Koenigs, the UN Special Representative to Afghanistan told reporters during his first briefing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday.

“I can only appeal to those who apparently disagree with the development Afghanistan takes, 'Leave Afghanistan's children alone’,” Koenigs noted, adding that the UN would help the government to boost the war-ravaged country's educational system.

"The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will help to reopen schools which have been attacked as soon as possible," Koenigs maintained.

Suspected Taliban militants, battling US-led coalition and government forces, have recently launched numerous attacks on schools and teachers in the southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces, with militants setting fire to at least 15 schools in Helmand alone since last year. According to officials, around 200 other schools have been closed in the southern provinces of Zabul, Kandahar, Helmand, and Urozgan due to insecurity.

Koenigs, 62, who had previously worked on the same post in Guatemala and also served as a senior official with the UN mission in Kosovo, replaces Jean Arnault, who had been UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative in the Central Asian state since early 2004.

Commenting on the insecurity in the post-conflict country, the UN chief said it was proving one of the main obstacles to development in Afghanistan, which is still recovering from a quarter century of conflict.

"The security situation changes everyday...one of the main problems for economic and social development is the security situation," Koenigs noted.

But he also expressed optimism and hope over the country's future. "People on all levels have to understand security is most needed for all other development,” he said, adding: "I do hope and I am always optimistic that those who disagree pronounce disagreement in a peaceful form, because the election [say which and when?] has given the possibility of opposing in a democratic and peaceful form."

Insecurity remains a major problem for Afghanistan, where about 1,600 people were killed last year in militant violence, making 2005 the deadliest year since the collapse of the hardline Taliban regime in 2001.

The UN special representative said that the UN would soon form a monitoring committee to overlook the implementation of the recently agreed upon Afghan Compact, a document outlying a basic framework for development for the country and international participation for the next five years. It was finalised at a donors’ conference on Afghanistan in London in January.

[ENDS]