JOHN COSTELLO / Inquirer
Tom Koenigs, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: The Forgotten War
Audio Interview | U.N. diplomat Tom Koenigs
Tom Koenigs, a German diplomat, took over in February as head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. As the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, Koenigs has encouraged the international military coalition here to focus more on development and diplomacy rather than a pure military victory over the resurgent Taliban. Koenigs previously served the world body in Kosovo and Guatemala. Before that he was active in regional and municipal politics in Germany.
“Every day we see 80, 70, 60, 20, 120 Taliban killed. What force, what organized normal military force would sustain that? If, from a battalion, 20 percent are killed, the battalion is over. Nobody would ever fight again. But here they multiply.”
The view of the insurgency, which was underestimated: WMA version. (1:15)
The state of the government and police, post-conflict: WMA version. (1:00)
Casualties and its effect on the Taliban: WMA version. (0:40)
