Sophia Magazine vol.4 / WINTER 2016

17/32

Higashi: From the peacebuilding perspective, there are on-going conflicts all over the world, including Afghanistan, where post-conflict peacebuilding has failed, leading to a continual state of civil war which generates refugees month after month, year after year.Oshima: The conflict there was triggered by air strikes con-ducted by a multinational force led by the United States based on the rationale that Afghanistan was sheltering Al-Qaeda, including the architects of the 9/11 attacks. Though the Taliban government fell after only two or so months, the country has remained mired in conflict ever since. I was newly appointed to the post of Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs at the time. The Taliban was still in power when I began visiting all the neighboring states to smooth the path for emergency humanitarian assistance for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Afghanistan and, after the fall of the Taliban, I continued to work on the overall organization of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.Higashi: I entered the country for the first time in 2008, as an academic researcher. The results of my work there were included in “Peacebuilding”, the book I published the fol-lowing year. My policy proposals were incorporated into the Japanese government’s Afghanistan policy — for example, the establishment of a reconciliation program that includes the Taliban in the political process. There was also positive response from the UN on my policy recommendation; I was appointed team leader for reconciliation and reintegration at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in late 2009. Mr. Oshima’s support at the time was invaluable.Oshima: During that period, when the country was under Taliban rule, I met with regional Taliban rulers to win their cooperation for humanitarian assistance. There were, of course, problems with the Taliban’s way of doing things, but these individuals also gave a strong impression of being staunch warriors in the region. Historically, Afghans have fought outside forces such as the UK and the Soviet Union and ultimately forced them out of the country. If a comparison is to be made: these were people who possessed the pride, fortitude, and uncommon bellicosity reminiscent of Japanese samurai of the Warring States era. I had that impression from negotiating directly with their leadership. That, combined with the forbidding nature of the land, gave me a gut feeling that it would be nearly impossible to over-come them with military might alone.Higashi: However, there was strong resistance on the ground to start political negotiations with the Taliban lead-ership. It took a year for us as the UN to finally put together a new reconciliation program and win an agreement from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on negotia-tion with the Taliban leadership at the time, 2010. Unfortu-nately, since then, political negotiations have not proceeded smoothly.Oshima: In Afghanistan’s case, there is no arguing that the politics of neighboring nations, including the India-Pakistan dispute, complicates the situation and makes peace more difficult to achieve. Yet there was naturally a role to be played by the UN, and there were instances of exceptional efforts by individuals such as Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi. As a part of the UN at the time, however, I felt that the American attitude at the time did not make the task easier. The U.S. tended to take the approach that UN involvement was unwelcome for serious issues related to national interest.Higashi: The UN aspires to an inclusive form of nation-building with participation from a number of ethnic and political groups, but the U.S. sometimes has different priori-ties. And just as with Iraq, the United Nations Peacekeep-ing Operations have no involvement in peacebuilding in Afghanistan, giving the UN less authority in the matter.The U.S. has ultimately chosen to start political negotia-tions with the Taliban, using Qatar rather than the UN as an intermediary, but this situation was viewed with distrust by the Afghan government that has suspicions about the mo-tives of Qatar. The situation demonstrates a significant challenge for the UN, taking into account the fact that despite each of the par-ties coming to a stage where they have the will to make a peace settlement, the UN is unable to act as a trusted third party to pull the other parties together and move things forward.Oshima: Of course, it should not be forgotten that there are a number of cases where the UN-deployed peacekeep-ing forces were brought in and the conflict subsided or was resolved—such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and East Timor.Higashi: There’s also the matter of the media dropping its coverage once things start going well, leading to an impres-sion that, across the board, UN actions are failing to achieve results. In particular, we need to encourage the younger generation — many of whom are eager to engage in interna-tional affairs in the future — to acknowledge the UN’s suc-cesses and challenges.1. Kenzo Oshima meeting with the regional Tali-ban leader in Kandahar in early 2001 2. Kenzo Oshima with Ko Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations21The War in Afghanistan: 15 Years and CountingThe Barrier to the UN Being Trusted as a Third Party17Special Talk

※このページを正しく表示するにはFlashPlayer10.2以上が必要です