KABUL, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Military gains made by troops in Afghanistan are being eroded by a lack of justice for ordinary people under a corrupt and weak government, a report said on Thursday, as a U.S. review reported progress in the war.
Afghans who lose their land to corrupt officials, see family members detained without cause, or suffer as their tribal group is excluded from power by better-connected rivals are joining or supporting the Taliban in response, the report said.
"No Shortcut to Stability: Justice, Politics and Insurgency in Afghanistan", published by the Chatham House think tank, came out on the day U.S. President Barack Obama published a long-awaited strategy review of the war. [ID:nN16182656]
The White House said that NATO-led forces are making headway against the insurgency but serious challenges remain; the report on justice warned the treatment of ordinary Afghans is one of them, and should be considered a major strategic risk.
"Justice and rule of law cannot be dismissed as just matters of morality and human rights. They are critical issues of strategic self-interest," said co-author Stephen Carter.
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Failure to provide justice directly bolsters militants, the report added, citing research in the Taliban's southern heartland and a northern province where insurgents have been more active.
"The Taliban have played on the deep desire of Afghans for security and rule of law, and nostalgia in some quarters for the 'harsh, but just' period of Taliban rule -- a nostalgia which exists despite the Taliban's many abuses," said Kate Clark, the report's other co-author.
Civilian and military casualties reached a record high in Afghanistan this year and the Taliban-led insurgency has expanded to once quite peaceful parts of the north and west.
The White House review said the United States was on track to begin drawing down its troops and putting Afghan forces in the lead in 2011, even as it cited hurdles to progress including the difficulty of rebuilding Afghanistan.
But the West is creating only "short-term fixes" to stability challenges, the Chatham House report said, supporting local strongmen, building up a police force that is more paramilitary than civilian and overlooking governance problems.
"Political marginalisation has pushed many into supporting the Taliban, while corruption has reached a point where parts of the state have been co-opted by criminal interests," it said. (Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison, Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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