Brussels, 30/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - Francesc Vendrell, EU Special Representative in Afghanistan, considers that the country's security situation has not really changed and is the "same as in recent months" although "it is not all that bad for foreigners despite serious incidents recently". Since early June and the murder of 5 members of Médecins sans frontières, this organisation had suspended its activities. On Wednesday, the humanitarian association decided to leave Afghanistan considering the situation in the country to be still too dangerous.
Speaking to EUROPE, Mr Vendrell pointed out that "for the elections, it is very useful to have a larger number of NATO armed forces. It is important from the point of view of candidates' security, to prevent pressure". Although the deployment of additional NATO troops is likely to improve the situation during the elections, it will be too late for the EU to send a full electoral observer mission, Mr Vendrell confirmed. For security reasons, the choice of only sending a democratic support team had been made in June. "This group of experts will help us evaluate the electoral process, which is already important", Mr Vendrell insisted, without specifying how many people would make up the group. The voter registration process, which has speeded up over recent weeks, should theoretically be completed end July, but "I would not be surprised to find that it has been decided to extend this by several weeks to gain better geographical and ethnic representation among voters", Mr Vendrell confided. In his view, the registration percentage is lower in the south-eastern Pachtun region where the Taliban are more active, and the registration of women voters particularly low although they currently account for 41% of the total electorate. (See yesterday's EUROPE, p.5).