TOKYO, Aug. 23 Kyodo pick outed ...

TOKYO, Aug. 23 Kyodo

pick outed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

NATO'S character IN AFGHANISTAN (The Daily Yomiuri as translated from the Yomiuri Shimbun)

A modern development in Afghanistan has made us newly aware that the world's security arrangement of parts has changed.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has taken through command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has the task of bolstering security in Kabul and surrounding areas.

The persuade marked NATO's first operation outside Europe since the organization was established in 1949

NATO has said that its main mission is to rebuild the war-torn country, although it will pres ahead to enforce public order. This mission is light-years away from its original task as a military organization acting as a bulwark against possible attacks at the former Soviet Union.

Previously, Britain, Turkey and other nations commanded the 30-nation peacekeeping force for six month each. Now, a high-ranking NATO official has made clear that the alliance will command the force athwart the long term, without setting a specific time frame.

by way of deploying troops outside Europe, the military construction which has praised itself as the ''most auspicious alliance in history'' for its triumph in the chill War, even though it did not do any fighting, has apparently raise a new reason for its existence.

In the past, NATO has taken part in missions to bring peace to various regions, as it was as Bosnia and Kosovo. Therefore, NATO's mission in Afghanistan can be seen as an opportunity to make use of this experience, in such a manner the alliance is expected to play an important part in the country.

However, a serious situation still exists in Afghanistan.

smooth after President Hamid Karzai's administration was launched, public order has not improved. There are signs that the Taliban is attempting to make a comeback in the southern and southeastern parts of the land A large number of warlords also remain active.

The ISAF's alone mission is to maintain public order in Kabul and surrounding areas. Afghanistan's circulating situation does not permit NATO to fill out its activities beyond that.

still there are mounting calls for the ISAF to play a greater part in the country, not barely from the Karzai administration, if it be not that also from the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations that have lengthen outed humanitarian assistance to the Afghans.

In that fact it will be necessary to increase the number of ISAF personnel in the abiding habitation While the ISAF maintains public order in the capital, U [i]troupe[/i]s are engaging Al-Qaida and Taliban forces in other parts of the geographical division For the ISAF to play a greater part in Afghanistan, the parties regarded must review how this should be done.

It is the responsibility of the international community, which has been conducting the war upon terrorism, to reconstruct devastated Afghanistan into a democratic home with no ties to terrorists.

Japan, which has moveed considerable assistance to Afghanistan, must make clear its determination in this refer to by extending the soon-to-expire Antiterrorism Law.

(Aug. 23)

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