UN's Top Man in Afghanistan Wants Out

(AP)  The top U.N. official in Afghanistan said Friday he will not renew his two-year contract when it expires in March.

Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, said he is not stepping down but has asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to start searching for a replacement.

"I'm not resigning," Eide told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It's a question of telling New York that I'm not renewing my contract."

CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan

Eide's tenure was tarnished by allegations from his American deputy, Peter Galbraith, that he was not bullish enough in curbing fraud in the August presidential election. Eide denied the charge and said controversy over the election was not linked to his decision not to renew his contract.

"The election controversy was between Peter Galbraith and the rest of the international community," he said, adding his plan when he took the job was to stay two years, as did his predecessors.

Afghan Whistleblower Peter Galbraith talks to Katie Couric

"Kai Eide is sticking to the timetable that he outlined when he took the job in March 2008," Dan McNorton, a U.N. spokesman in Kabul said.

Eide said he has proposed ways to make the international community cooperate more effectively in providing civilian assistance to Afghanistan but more needs to be done. NATO, which oversees military operations in Afghanistan, needs someone to coordinate work with provincial reconstruction teams and more expertise is needed from key donor countries, Eide said.

Speaking in Kabul where he said he was writing a paper, Eide lamented that civilian work remains too "fragmented," too "ad hoc," and expressed hope that future work done by the international community will be sustainable when foreign assistance declines.

He said he planned to stay until his contract expires but he wanted to give U.N. headquarters time to find someone to fill the job.

"I don't want there to be a vacuum," he said.

[SamRma]

The world needs to hear from the moderate Islamic communities. When the blasphemy laws are applied in countries such as Pakistan and non-Muslims are killed, are those keepers of the law being good Muslims or bad ones? The world needs to hear. When freedoms are so restricted in Islamic countries that no Muslim is allowed to disbelieve in Islam with impunity, is that a good Muslim law or a bad one? The freedom to believe -- or not -- is one of the most sacred privileges of the human mind. That freedom is taken away in the name of Islam. Statistics that indicate that Islam is growing are not an accurate reflection of the hearts of the people, because they really have no choice. Until those who are not Muslims are free to practice their faith in Muslim countries -- and those who seek to become Christians or choose another faith can do so with impunity -- Islam will never be free from the fear it can engender. I pray for such a day, when one's ultimate choice in life can be made without fear of terror and hate."

~Ravi Zacharias / Light in the Shadow of Jihad~

[thesevenveils]

Only with Islam are religious edicts recognized as laws and these laws were made what, over a thousand years ago? If the world recognizes these arcane laws then what about the arcane edicts and laws of religions from which Islam was spawned?

For a religious person, or even a person of no religion, to take violent action against another person is first and foremost a violation of that persons human rights.