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Arnault said the Afghans are " frustrated with the civil administration…with the police and they are immensely frustrated with the justice system".
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Similarly,
the UN Special envy to Afghanistan also drew Thursday a bleak picture
of Afghanistan ahead of the milestone elections.
"I
think that the collapse of the democratic experiment will come sooner
from the popular disappointment with the lack of dividends from
democracy before it comes from the fact that there is not enough money
to go around," Jean Arnault told Agence France Presse (AFP).
He
warned that Afghanistan's transition to democracy is threatened by the
frustration of ordinary Afghans.
"They
are frustrated with the civil administration. They are frustrated with
the police and they are immensely frustrated with the justice
system," said Arnault.
A
key source of anger in the vastly underdeveloped nation is that the
road and power network remains in poor shape despite the billions of
dollars of aid.
There
are also concerns about corruption and government inefficiency, with
many officials said to have links with local warlords, drug barons, or
both.
"A
top priority is the creation, at local level, of state services that
deliver in a manner that is not corrupt or biased," Arnault said.
He
underlined that a key future challenge will be coping with the
withdrawal of dozens of international organizations that moved into
the country to help with post-Taliban reconstruction.
More
attention must be paid to "issues of sustainability so that in
three, five or 10 years, when the international community begins to
disengage, it doesn't leave behind it something which is bound to
collapse under the weight of the wage bill."
The
international community in March 2002 pledged 8.2 billion dollars for
post-Taliban reconstruction, far short of the estimated 27 billion
dollars necessary to rebuild the war-shattered country's
infrastructure.
Climate
of Fear
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Four years after Taliban ouster, Afghans complain little progress has been made. (Reuters)
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In
a related development, the Human Rights Watch said the elections will
take place in a climate of fear.
"The
Afghan people are clearly eager to participate in elections that will
help them move away from the rule of the gun," said Sam Zarifi,
deputy director of the group's Asia division.
"But
they are disappointed that the government and its international
partners haven't done more to prevent warlords and rights abusers from
dominating Afghanistan's political space."
The
New York-based watchdog found in a new survey that there was "an
underlying climate of fear" among voters and candidates,
especially in remote, rural areas.
"And
many Afghans are deeply concerned that alleged war criminals and human
rights abusers are candidates and that others retain significant power
behind the scenes as party or faction leaders," it said in a
statement.
It
cited Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoi, a parliamentary candidate from Khost
province who served as a senior minister overseeing the brutal police
force in the Soviet-backed Afghan government in the 1980s.
Some
high-level officials from the Taliban regime are also in the running,
including Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil, the foreign minister, and Qalamuddin,
the minister of the department of vice and virtue.
The
rights group said some of the nearly 5,800 candidates had also
censored themselves during campaigning -- too afraid to challenge
local commanders or warlords in case of retaliation.
"When
we give a speech, we don't name these people, or criticize them, we
just make veiled references to them, and to warlordism," one
candidate told Human Rights Watch.
"If
the central government cannot stand up to them, will not stand up to
them, how can they expect the people here who live with these
bloodthirsty commanders every day to vote against them?"
