UN withdraws Afghanistan staff
Updated on 05 November 2009
The United Nations is pulling 600 of its international staff out of Afghanistan but insists the move is temporary after an attack in Kabul.
Eight people were killed last week when the Taliban raided a UN hostel last week.
The UN says the delivery of aid to Afghanistan will not be affected.
But it is the very presence of the UN in conflict areas that allows NGOs to work there too.
Channel 4 News correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, who is in Kabul, said: "Today there's another large question mark over this eight year occupation.
"The UN would be considered perhaps foolish to have done nothing and insist the withdrawal is temporary until they can consolidate more secure accommodation than the scattered guest houses where their staff now stay.
"But the impact of the announcement is huge: it means the biggest aid worker here is effectively leaving, for now. Every other NGO must now re-evaluate their presence - how many people they have here, where they work, what they do, who they work with.
"The effect on the aid community's nerves - if not their actions - could be significant, and this is at a time when they are being pushed ever harder to boost the "civilian surge" of development and reconstruction that sits at the heart of the new, as yet unveiled but broadly discussed, Nato strategy.
"In 48 hours: the military strategy, and the civilian strategy both take significant blows.
"And this is before the Obama administration have even announced their new troop levels.
"In Iraq, in 2007, the violence, the sense of collapse, was worse just before the surge, and the slow change in atmosphere it brought. But Afghanistan is not Iraq. It's not got a functioning society to look back to, just 30 years of war."
Speaking to Channel 4 News, Robert Watkins, the UN secretary-general's special representative in Afghanistan confirmed the UN will not be able to improve security as quickly as they would like to allow staff to return.
He said: "We are going to be temporarily relocating staff outside of the country between the next six-to-eight weeks.
"I believe that will provide us with the necessary time to upgrade security to the level we require.
"After two months, we hope it will be even better than business as usual.
"It's impossible to predict, these are uncertain times. We've gone through a very difficult election period and we certainly hope that now a president has been nominated that will bring increased stability to the country and that will allow us to operate in a more secure environment.
"We've taken a very hard look at what we consider are the most critical functions we're providing and that comes down to food, sanitation and water supplies. Those are going to continue and what we're rethinking the way in which we deliver that assistance.
"Things are at a turning point. We've really got to be able to turn things around and the terrible tragedy we suffered in the United Nations last week sends home signal that we must rethink how we deliver our programmes.
"We're going through a very critical moment right now and I hope we'll be able to turn it around but I cannot guarantee it.
"There are so many factors that are far beyond our control in the United Nations but we believe that by showing our determination in continuing to operate in the country, albeit under changed circumstances, that we will be allowed to provide the assistance that will help Afghanistan turn that corner.
"We believe that through this very strategic temporary relocation of staff, we will be able to perform much better in the future."
