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Afghans upbeat, army, police still need help: poll

09 November 2010 18:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. More Afghans think their country, torn by three decades of war and civil unrest, is moving in the right direction but overwhelmingly think security forces still need foreign help, a newly released survey said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
In a 2010 gauge of the national mood, The Asia Foundation survey found 47 percent of Afghans believe their country is on the right track, up from 42 percent the year before.
Thirty-eight percent of those who were upbeat about the progress their country was showing cited better security, as well as reconstruction and more schooling for girls.
Lack of security topped the national problem list, with 37 percent citing it. Violence has reached its deadliest levels since the Islamist Taliban were forced from power in 2001.
"It is not our objective to interpret the results, it is an opportunity for Afghans to express themselves ... (Interpretation) we leave up to our readers," Richard Smith, the foundation’s country director, told a news conference.
Eighty-three percent of Afghans support talks with insurgents and reintegration of armed groups, according to the survey, up from 71 percent last year.
The government of President Hamid Karzai has said it has made preliminary contacts with insurgents as Afghan, U.S. and NATO officials look for ways to resolve the conflict.
The survey comes ahead of a NATO summit on November 19 and 20 in Lisbon where Afghanistan will head the agenda. Many European NATO members are under pressure at home to justify their continued commitment to the increasingly unpopular war.
U.S. President Barack Obama will review his Afghanistan war strategy next month. He has pledged to begin a gradual troop withdrawal from July 2011.
ARMY POORLY TRAINED BUT RESPECTED
The Afghan army is the most respected national institution, with 92 percent of those surveyed saying they had confidence in it, the Asia Foundation said. Police were second on 79 percent.
However, 69 percent said the army and police could not operate alone and still needed foreign help, the same level as the last three years. More than half of respondents believed both the army and police were unprofessional and poorly trained.
Among national problems, joblessness remained in the number-two spot, at 28 percent. Corruption was in third place at 27 percent of respondents, up steeply from 17 percent last year.
The jump "may be due to the increased focus, particularly by the international community, on corruption as a key dimension in bad governance," the report said.
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International ranks Afghanistan as one of the world’s most corrupt countries, equal with Myanmar and ahead of only Somalia out of 178 nations.
The survey interviewed 6,467 Afghans over 18 years of age and was carried out from June 18 to July 5. The poll was the foundation’s sixth in Afghanistan since 2004 and the margin of error was 4.4 percent.