Afghans are on the edge of chaos

WARDAK (Afghanistan): Two months after a gun attack, the bullet holes in the Datsun sedan have been patched and it runs beautifully. But water engineer Asil Kahn walks with a limp and he still has two bullets in his body, one of them half an inch from his spine.

The vehicle’s humanitarian logo made him a victim in the battle for Afghanistan’s future, where water engineers, mine- cleaners and humanitarian workers — people the country needs most — are prime targets for militants trying to destabilize President Hamid Karzai’s interim government.

The May attack on the Afghanistan Development Agency car in Wardak province, south of Kabul on the road to Kandahar, injured Kahn but killed the driver.

“They weren’t robbers or thieves,” said Kahn, 46. “They just wanted to kill us. They’re people against the government. They thought that maybe there would be some foreigners or some officials from aid organizations in the car. That’s why they shot us.”

US forces have their hands full trying to subdue attacks in Iraq. But with the slow buildup of a national Afghan army, an inadequate US and coalition presence and poor progress on reconstruction projects, Afghanistan is spiralling out of control and risks becoming a “narco-mafia” state, some humanitarian agencies warn.

Already the signs are there — a boom in opium production, rampant banditry and huge swaths of territory unsafe for Western aid workers. The central government has almost no power over regional warlords who control roads and extort money from truck drivers, choking commerce and trade.

If the country slips into anarchy, it risks becoming a haven for resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. And the point of US military action here could be lost — a major setback in the “war against terrorism”.

Money spent on the war may end up being wasted, and dragging the country back from chaos could be even more costly. America spends about $900 million a month on its forces stationed here, but little of the $3 billion authorized for aid in the Freedom Support Act has been spent.

US promises of a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan raised Afghan expectations, but security and reconstruction woes are undermining support for the coalition among ordinary Afghans. Their disappointment and disillusionment plays into the hands of anti-government militants.

Humanitarian agencies, calling for a big boost in international funds for security and reconstruction, contend that the commitment to Afghanistan is relatively low. A CARE International paper in January stated that postwar international aid spent in Bosnia-Herzegovina was $326 per capita, compared with $42 promised for Afghans up to 2006. For every peacekeeping soldier there were 48 Bosnians, compared with one for every 5,380 Afghans, the paper said. Yet Bosnia poses no appreciable terrorist threat.

There are 8,500 US military personnel leading the 11,500 anti- terrorist coalition forces in Afghanistan. An additional 5,000 international troops secure the capital city, Kabul. A key missing piece is an Afghan army, but with only 4,000 troops trained so far, it will take many years to reach the planned 70,000-strong force. It won’t be ready in time to ensure free and fair elections scheduled for June. Some of the 4,000 trained soldiers have already defected because of poor salaries and low morale.

The security vacuum outside Kabul has emboldened Taliban fighters, who constitute the bulk of anti-government militants. US officials say the Taliban controls part of the opium business, a rich source of funds to attract fighters.

As security worsens, there are sharp differences between the aid community and Western leaders on how to prevent a deepening slide.

Many in the international aid community in Kabul believe the coalition’s latest response to the security problem — small scale military teams tackling modest reconstruction projects — will have little impact and will put aid workers at more risk by blurring the line between them and soldiers.

About 40 per cent of the $5.2 billion pledged by the international community last year has been spent but with little progress on big reconstruction projects like the Kabul-to- Kandahar road. Much of the money has been eaten up by emergency relief — food, medicine, blankets and tents.

Haji Abdul Khaliq, 54, arrived in Kabul exhausted by 14 hours on the shattering, rocky track of a highway from Kandahar. It was inconceivable to him that $2 billion had been spent in his country since January last year.

“From what we can see, they didn’t spend more than a dollar,” he spluttered angrily. “There are no paved roads, no reconstruction of government buildings, no help for the people and no government salaries.

“I think at first people were very hopeful, (but) day by day they lose hope,” said Khaliq.

Khaliq said Taliban forces in the region were growing bolder. A June 30 explosion at a Kandahar mosque that injured more than a dozen was apparently aimed at the anti-Taliban mullah there. A day later another anti-Taliban mullah was shot dead in Nakobak village, six miles south of Kandahar.

A surge in trade by small businessmen after the Taliban’s fall is being slowly strangled by extortion and banditry.

A group of truck drivers sat wearily in the dust at Dashte Deh Sabz on the northern outskirts of Kabul, after their loads of gravel for the thriving brick industry were seized by a local commander named Maulana. They said he had taken over the gravel trade.

“He’s collecting from everyone. No one else can bring it into the city except for him,” said driver Khalifa Yakub, 21, who said he was beaten by checkpoint soldiers and jailed for three days when he tried to protest. His dream of running his own small gravel transport business has died. He’s become an employee.

“These people, they’re commanders, they’re dealers, they’re businessmen, they’re killers, they’re everything,” he said ruefully.

President Karzai has repeatedly called for the deployment of ISAF forces outside Kabul, a request echoed by UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan and international aid agencies, but resisted by US and European leaders. Last month an open letter from 80 aid organizations called for a national ISAF presence, warning that efforts to rebuild and hold elections were at risk.

Karzai has called for international donors to offer $20 billion over five years to help the country rebuild. CARE International called for at least $10 billion.

Playing down the security problem on a recent visit, Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs — military-civilian teams of 50-100 people deployed to rebuild infrastructure — would play a key role in improving security. Four are working, independent of ISAF, and eight are planned.—Dawn/The LAT-WP News Service (c) The Los Angeles Times.