By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States and the international community are working to facilitate Afghan national elections in September, demilitarize Afghan militias, and eradicate opium poppies as part of their commitment to the country's post-Taliban success.

Ambassador William Taylor, the U.S. coordinator for Afghanistan, said it is important to succeed in rebuilding Afghanistan because success will demonstrate the viability of an Islamic democracy and the value of the international community's support.

"This is going to be very important for stability in the world. It's very important for the United States. It's crucially important for the people of Afghanistan," he said May 25 at a conference sponsored by the Middle East Institute in Washington.

Taylor described Afghanistan as "a potential success" that would require a long-term commitment by the United States and the international community.

Currently, the United States and other coalition partners are helping President Hamid Karzai's government demobilize tens of thousands of militiamen as part of the demilitarization, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) program.

He said the United States and its partners also are expanding efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation.

"We are going to a phase where we are actively out in fields in several parts of Afghanistan knocking down poppy plants. We are actually using tractors to turn over fields" so that the flowers cannot be harvested and turned into narcotics, he said.

Thirdly, the international community, through the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), is registering Afghan voters for the country's planned September elections for a president and a lower house of parliament. So far, 2.5 million out of a possible 8 to 10 million eligible voters have been registered, he said.

"We're doing three big things at the same time ... any one of which would be a challenge. But to try to do all three of them at the same time is a major challenge," said Taylor.

The September elections will decide Afghanistan's president and lower house of parliament for the next five years.

The ambassador said there remain certain ambiguities concerning the ultimate makeup of the parliament, which will consist of 249 seats, divided among 34 provinces. Those seats are to be allocated according to the population of the provinces, but without a national census, it remains unclear how many delegates will come from which province, he said.

Also, the need for an average of two women representatives from each province will affect the composition of the final delegation, he said.

Ambassador Taylor said security poses one of the most important concerns for the election.

"We know right now that the Taliban are not interested in seeing these elections take place. They are interested in seeing the efforts to both register and then poll the electorate in Afghanistan fail. They have made this clear in their statements. They are also making it clear, unfortunately, in their actions," he said.

The situation presents a major security challenge for Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, Taylor said. He stated several lines of defense, comprised of Afghan police, the Afghan National Army (ANA), the International Security Force for Afghanistan (ISAF), and ultimately the coalition partners themselves, are working to assure security.

Germany has taken the lead on training the Afghan police, Taylor said. He said there would be 20,000 members of the national police force trained by summer 2004 to help provide security for approximately 4,600 polling places throughout the country. He added that the national police would be assisted by local police.

The second line of defense, the ANA, will be on call to respond to challenges or disruptions at polling stations, he said, followed by ISAF, which is currently led by Canada but will be under European control starting in August.

"It would be good, we are suggesting, if the Canadians can stay on an extra month [and] if the Europeans could get there on time in August, so that in September you have an overlap," said Taylor. He said that would double the number of ISAF troops for the elections.

The last line of defense will consist of coalition forces, which had previously provided security for Afghanistan's Constitutional Loya Jirga in December 2003 and have undertaken military operations against Taliban and al Qaeda forces.

All four security elements are cooperating to put together a comprehensive security plan for the election.