Iraq and Afghanistan could both benefit from leaders of Nelson Mandela’s calibre as they struggle with bloody internal strife and years of war, says South Africa’s Nicholas (Fink) Haysom, deputy special representative for the UN in Kabul.
Haysom, an anti-apartheid activist and chief legal adviser to Mandela when he was president, spent a year with the UN in Iraq, helping to draft that country’s constitution, and was appointed to his latest post in Afghanistan by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon in March.
He is no stranger to trouble-shooting, having also been involved in peace processes in war-torn nations such as Somalia, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
But he has a hard road ahead of him as the UN tries to stabilise this central Asian nation before Nato’s 130 000 troops pull out by the end of 2014, 13 years after a US-led invasion toppled the hardline Islamist Taliban regime.
Sandbags
“Absolutely,” Haysom said during an interview in his office in the UN’s heavily fortified Kabul compound – which is surrounded by sandbags, blast walls and numerous guarded checkpoints, and where the UN staff also live – when asked whether a leader with Mandela’s style and stature could make that job easier.
“It makes you increasingly appreciate what Mandela brought to the table – which was somebody who was bigger than the divisions in society, and the absence of a unifying figure in either Iraq or Afghanistan is noticeable.
“But it’s also a chicken and egg situation. There may be such a person, but in a very divided country they wouldn’t look for a unifying personality.”
Haysom – who was born in Johannesburg and studied law at the universities of Natal and Cape Town – said he chose the Kabul posting after several years as Ban’s political affairs director in New York, because he wanted to get back into the field, and saw it as a challenge.
Because of the dangerous nature of the job, Haysom moved to Kabul alone and returns to see his family in New York when he gets rest and recreation breaks.
“There are some UN missions that are really phasing out, whereas this one is going to face quite considerable challenges over the next two years as the international community withdraws,” he says.
“Really the future is very opaque… A lot of it depends on the capacity of the Afghan security forces to step into the vacuum, and I think it also depends on your assessment of the Taliban as well.”
Some analysts worry that the Taliban – who ruled the country from 1996 until they were ousted for harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington – could retake power after 2014.
Haysom is not among them.
“I think that while undoubtedly the Taliban have the capacity to disrupt, and even have areas of support, I wouldn’t exaggerate either their military or their political weight in the country… I don’t think there will be a Taliban takeover; it’s not going to happen. But a protracted civil war is a really debilitating prospect.”
Afghan president Hamid Karzai has sought peace talks with the Taliban, and Haysom believes negotiations are the country’s best bet.
He says presidential elections in 2014 will be critical in establishing whether Afghanistan moves forward or once again sinks into a lengthy and bitter conflict.
Do his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan make the democratisation process in South Africa look easier?
“I don’t glibly apply South Africa’s experience elsewhere. In South Africa, there really was an underlying willingness to find a mutually acceptable situation, even though people may have had different views on what was mutually acceptable. But in many other countries there’s a fundamental lack of will to find a compromise,” he says.
What does he think of South Africa now?
“I think there’s an acknowledgement of the leading role South Africa plays in the affairs of Africa, and an expectation of its leadership… and an expectation that as a democratic country they’ll support democratisation,” Haysom responds.
However this is not always the case. South Africa has a chequered record when it comes to voting in the UN General Assembly.
“There was some tension between the position of the UN and the South African position on Libya and Cote d’Ivoire last year. In fairness, there were some important points South Africa was right to make in terms of international interventions, but there were also important issues of transition from autocratic rule.”
Comparing the Mandela years, often seen as the golden age of South Africa’s nascent democracy, to the situation in the country now, Haysom is cautious.
“They were different times. Let me just say that I was engaged with President Mandela in the project of implementing a new dispensation and in many senses it was a Camelot period… But you know, those who followed had to deal perhaps with more enduring challenges.”
Haysom’s also met his fair share of other South Africans while living in Iraq and Afghanistan… some UN staffers, some in development, some pilots, and some mine clearance professionals, as well as some of South Africa’s many private security operators.
And while during a certain period of South Africa’s turbulent history, many of the older ex-South African Defence Force contractors he comes into contact with in Afghanistan would have been on “the other side”, Haysom believes that South Africans in security here are highly professional and do their jobs well.
“They’re compatriots. Obviously, we share some experiences.
“Many of them are regarded as pretty professional and they cope admirably with the challenge of diversity, working with people from all around the world.”
One South African who Haysom first met while in Iraq is now with him in Afghanistan.
Chris du Toit, who spent time in both the old SADF and new SANDF, is chief security adviser to the UN mission.
“He’s regarded as one of the most experienced hands in the UN, having been security adviser in Sudan and Sri Lanka as well as Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Does Haysom see any hope for the future of Afghanistan, believing as he does that the constitution in Iraq fell short of the mark, and having witnessed the continuing daily violence there?
The major problem, according to Haysom, is that it is going to be tough going for the poverty-stricken and heavily aid-reliant country economically as international forces leave.
However, the donor money Afghanistan receives still dwarfs the amount received elsewhere, he adds.
“I’m also aware as an African, that Afghanistan is a beneficiary of really quite considerable resources from the international community, which many African countries would marvel at.”
But mostly, Haysom is hopeful.
“I’ve been involved in many situations which were predicted as insoluble, and that includes South Africa in the 1990s,” he says, acknowledging however, that optimism is perhaps “an occupational hazard”. – Daily News Foreign Service