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Afghanistan Freezes Ties With Regional Security Group

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  • Afghanistan Freezes Ties With Regional Security Group

    AFGHANISTAN FREEZES TIES WITH REGIONAL SECURITY GROUP

    RIA Novosti
    17:30 | 15/ 09/ 2008

    MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - Afghanistan has had virtually
    no contact over the past year with a regional security group on the
    post-conflict settlement, the head of the Collective Security Treaty
    Organization said on Monday.

    The CSTO is a security grouping comprising Armenia, Belarus,
    Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

    "There has been no cooperation with the Afghan side over the past
    year. A year ago, the Afghan side stopped all diplomatic contacts
    with CSTO representatives on the issue of a post-conflict settlement,"
    Nikolai Bordyuzha.

    He added that the behavior could be linked to "big brother giving
    the Afghans appropriate instructions."

    The CSTO group of the post-conflict settlement in Afghanistan was
    established in 2006 and includes national coordinators from all the
    CSTO member states. It was meant to provide assistance to Afghanistan's
    law enforcement, drug-control and other security agencies.

    Moscow continues to permit non-military supplies for NATO troops
    stationed in Afghanistan to pass through Russian territory, despite
    suspending in August all peacekeeping operations with NATO for at
    least six months.

    Russia made the decision to continue supporting NATO operations in
    Afghanistan over concerns about the worsening military and political
    situation in the Central Asian country amid a rise in extremist
    attacks and heroin production.

    Since the Taliban regime was overthrown in the 2001 U.S.-led campaign,
    Afghanistan has become the world's leading producer of heroin.

    Afghanistan's opium production increased from 6,100 tons in 2006
    to 8,200 tons in 2007, according to the UN. The narcotics trade has
    become an acute problem for Russia and the Central Asian republics
    due to a continual flow of illegal drugs from Afghanistan.

    NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has about
    53,000 troops operating in the country under a UN mandate to help
    give security support to the Afghan government and stop the flow of
    drugs from the country.

    However, despite international efforts, the Taliban, ousted from
    power after a U.S.-led military operation in 2001, have stepped up
    their operations over the past year with an increase in suicide and
    other attacks.

    On Sunday two UN doctors and a driver were killed, when a suicide
    bomber rammed into their vehicle in southern Afghanistan. And in a
    separate incident, around six children died with 12 others wounded
    when a roadside bomb detonated outside of the country's capital Kabul.
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