The murder of Mr. Abdul Qadir, the vice president of Afghanistan, has heightened fears that the country is sliding once again into chaos. No suspects have been caught in the brazen midday attack, but speculation about the cause runs from a tribal vendetta to an attempt to undermine the government. The government must find his killers if the danger of renewed ethnic violence is to be averted. Just as critical is the international community's commitment to nation-building. Forcing the Taliban from power created a power vacuum -- like the one following the Soviet withdrawal in the early 1990s. The post-Soviet interlude gave the world the Taliban. That mistake must not be repeated.
Afghanistan faces extraordinary challenges. Average life expectancy is 44 years, 25 percent of children under the age of 5 will die and one mother in 12 dies in childbirth. The literacy rate is 31 percent. According to the World Food Program, 70 percent of the population is malnourished. There are more than 1 million refugees, and more than one-third of the population depends on emergency aid to survive. The United Nations Development Program estimates that the country has more unexploded ordnance than any other country, including some 10 million land mines. Infrastructure is nonexistent. Less than a quarter of the population (23 percent) has safe water, and only half of that (12 percent) has adequate sanitation.
Those problems would overwhelm any country, yet the difficulties are compounded by Afghanistan's deep divisions. Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group, make up 38 percent of the population; Tajiks comprise 25 percent; Hazara, 19 percent; and Uzbeks, 6 percent. The remainder is made up of smaller groups. There is an equally deep religious divide between Sunni Muslims (84 percent) and Shiite Muslims (15 percent).