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Tales and travails from Afghanistan
By Todd W John
The strife in
Iraq and the problems faced by coalition troops working
to keep the tenuous peace there, which is riddled by
daily attacks, has become far more prominent in news
headlines than the situation in Afghanistan. However,
that blighted country remains an integral piece of the
foreign policy puzzle for the Bush administration.
Not only do the short-term attacks - mostly by
the resurgent Taliban - which are characterized as
"terrorist" acts, constitute a problem, also the
long-term solution itself remains an issue that America
has yet to resolve definitively. Many people in the
international community are looking to Afghanistan as a
barometer to test the solution in the far more volatile
Iraq. Afghanistan will be a litmus test of sorts for
United States and coalition efforts to rebuild and
reorganize the troubled Middle East.
Therefore,
reconstruction, education and the creation of a stable
political body are some of the foremost goals of the US
and coalition forces. Much of this work falls to the
skilled and experienced hands of the United Nations,
non-governmental organization (NGO) and humanitarian aid
organization workers who dodge bullets and endure
endless hardships and danger to undertake their work.
"Afghanistan is a wasteland, there is nothing.
[We] have worked in Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda, Northern
Ireland, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Serbia, Kenya, Kosovo, Sudan
and now Afghanistan, but I can say there is nothing," an
aid worker told Asia Times Online on the basis of
anonymity. "Everybody wants to help, donations and
funding are good back home. The problem is the very
structure of the nation we are trying to help," the
European-based aid worker added.
Afghanistan has
historically been a central force in the production and
distribution of poppies - from which heroin is derived.
It is a cash crop that earns nearly US$2 billion in
annual profits worldwide. Afghanistan is reported to
control an overwhelming 76 percent share, or more than
$1.2 billion, of this worldwide market, according to a
June 25 UN report. It is this ominous connection to
opium production that remains a tightly woven thread in
the fabric that is Afghanistan today.
Rebuilding the wasteland
Asia Times
Online recently met with a group of aid workers from
several organizations working in Afghanistan for an
exclusive interview, subsequently giving this writer a
look into their lives, their work and Afghanistan during
the attempts to rebuild the nation. They proved to be a
resourceful, intelligent and dedicated group of people,
from various parts of Europe, who among them have wide
experience working in some of the harshest places in the
world.
Through their respective organizations,
these aid workers work with local leaders and the
population itself to rebuild schools, roads, irrigation
systems and bridges. They work to educate people,
rebuild infrastructure, and in some cases, to advance
human rights. "Building tangible things is rewarding -
actually working with the community to make positive
changes for the future. Creating clean water systems is
promoting greater standards of health, it is a great
contribution to health and sanitation," says one aid
worker.
"We work in northeastern Afghanistan,"
adds another. The northeast remains somewhat more stable
and generally safer than the southern Afghanistan, where
the workers say the violence is still ripe as the
Taliban battle to regain control. "The Taliban are
moving in, they control over 10 percent of the country
already - and that is just what is said officially - it
is actually much more. The south, southeast and the
southwest, I will not go there," the NGO worker said.
Security is a constant issue for the aid
workers, but they also struggle with more down-to-earth
problems in their work. "Human resources is a real
problem," a female aid worker says. "The project that I
am working on now has nearly 40 staff, but we had nearly
450 applications. It turned out one woman was totally
illiterate. Her husband filled out the application for
her and we hired the husband too." Usually the husbands
of qualified female applicants are hired also to make it
easier to transport the women to work, as Afghan women
are not supposed to travel alone. "The economic pressure
to get work is a real issue for these people who need
money and work, even though she was illiterate we kept
her on and found something else for her to do."
Financial strains on their projects are also a
problem for NGOs, not just in Afghanistan, but also back
in the home countries where the aid organizations are
based. "We are under pressure from the donors. So if we
actually fire a person we are likely to fall behind
dealing with administrative problems and retraining new
staff." Pressure also comes form the National Solidarity
Program and World Bank, which the aid workers think
should be more realistic regarding timelines,
accomplishments and goals. "The pressure they put on us
is just not reasonable for the region."
World
Bank representative and Afghanistan external affairs
Officer Abdul Raouf disagrees that undue pressure is put
on NGOs, telling Asia Times Online: "[The] facilitating
partner NGOs have entered into contracts with the MRRD
[Afghanistan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and
Development] regarding the targets in terms of villages
covered that they are supposed to reach during the first
year of implementation of the NSP [National Solidarity
Program], and have planned accordingly in terms of
staffing and logistics. Within the one-year time frame,
the facilitating partner can plan the social
mobilization and preparation of sub-project proposals,
as they deem most appropriate. Thus, some facilitating
partners base their planning on three batches of
villages with a four-month social mobilization and
sub-project preparation time, others on two batches and
a six-month social mobilization and sub-project
preparation time. Community development programs
elsewhere in the world have demonstrated that quality
community projects can be developed within an even
shorter time frame." Raouf concludes that the amount of
time is adequate and the hardships faced in Afghanistan
are not unlike those faced elsewhere.
Cultural differences
Sensitivity to the
culture is a requisite requirement to operate
effectively as a foreign aid worker in Afghanistan.
"They will treat you like a king, but the people are
like tigers that can turn on you at any moment. One day
being treated as a brother, and the next as an enemy, it
can be very hard to understand," one aid worker
surmises.
For this reason, aid workers must
avoid basic sarcasm, playful joking and anything that
might be taken as inappropriate behavior or
misunderstood by their hosts. Aid workers are also
working to advance human rights in the very sensitive
area of women's rights, a task that can lead to very
dangerous situations. This is evident with the violent
death of a female French aid worker Bettina Goislard,
29, in southern Afghanistan in the town of Ghazni, who
was shot dead at point blank range on November 17. The
French aid worker was said to be a champion of women's
rights. "It is possible that she may [have] pushed too
hard, but we don't know," one aid worker says sadly.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
representative Maki Shinohara, who talked to Asia Times
Online for this story, said, "[Goislard] was well liked
and well known in the Afghan community, but this could
have also led to her demise. Sometimes one feels you can
never win in this country," Shinohara said, obviously
frustrated.
"The mullahs and elders that we work
with don't like to talk to female aid workers," one
female aid worker laments. For example, a powerful
mullah in their region of operations that they would
name only as "Syed", (a name that is said to be given to
descendants of the prophet Mohammed), commands immediate
respect. "But talking to him is hard as a woman. It
seems to go in one ear and out the other. I felt like I
was invisible, he didn't even look at me. It is very
difficult and frustrating as a women," said the worker.
Support of the local leaders and elders is
essential, and in the case of Syed, it actually saved
one of their projects. After receiving the important
blessing of Syed to build a school, the aid organization
was directed to the Ministry of Education for final
approval, where it was met with a torrent of red tape.
Frustrated, they returned some days later to Syed and
told him of the problem, and he told them to "just build
it". "Some time later interim President Hamid Karzai
sent along officials to look into the unapproved
construction project, Syed essentially told them, 'piss
off, we're fine'. And they did," the aid worker said
with notable satisfaction.
That aid worker felt
it important to convey that even with the security
concerns and cultural divides, they like working with
the Afghan people, whom they characterize as patient,
self-disciplined and resourceful. "Afghan coping methods
are amazing, the harsh environment, and the way that
they have survived the last 23 years of war has to be
complimented," one aid worker said, and speaking to
their patience he added, "In Sudan they would take the
food and supplies at gun point with AK-47s, in Uganda,
the trucks with supplies would be mobbed and overrun,
but Afghans are disciplined and patient and we have
never encountered those situations in Afghanistan."
The security concerns sometimes win out, though.
Gunfire and sporadic bombings are still prevalent and
the aid workers abide by curfews for their own safety.
Often in the evenings the sound of gunfire will shatter
the silence and the awkward relationship between the aid
workers and their Afghan hosts becomes evident. "I asked
him [his Afghan interpreter] 'what the hell was that?'
He spends a few minutes chatting back and forth on a
radio to get situation reports in Farsi [a Persian
dialect widely spoken in Afghanistan] and then assures
me 'it was just a wedding celebration, no problem',"
said the aid worker, "But the next day you find out that
a guy died in a gun battle down the street. They simply
don't want to tell you the truth because they are afraid
that we will get scared and leave, and they will be left
with no job and no money."
Money of course is
essential in their work to rebuild the nation. However,
the absence of a formal and centralized banking system
in Afghanistan, coupled with the fact that the country
leads the world in opium production, leads to some
dubious funding issues for the humanitarian
organizations. "The National Solidarity Program and
World Bank use Adam Smith economics. This basically says
that we just dump money into a society and it will be
spread to the community. But it is no coincidence that
the local leaders and the mullahs are getting this money
and using it to buy peace just before elections. They
[NSB and World Bank] are too process-oriented and just
think in terms of trickle down effect," one aid worker
says with frustration.
World Bank's Raouf again
disagrees with the aid worker, saying, "The National
Solidarity Program requires a social mobilization
process that involves election of community development
councils based on a methodology which - if followed -
would ensure that the council is inclusive in terms of
socio-economic divisions, ethnic/tribal sub-groups
[quam], and has representation of women either
directly or through a parallel council. The validity of
the electoral process and the inclusiveness of the
council is one of the appraisal criteria that have to be
fulfilled to make sub-project proposals eligible. The
process and the sub-project eligibility criteria are
clearly laid out in the NSP operational manual, which
facilitating partners are contractually obligated to
follow."
Without a fully-functional banking
system the aid organizations are forced to turn to the
hawalla method - unlicensed international money
transfer operations - to get their aid money into the
country. "The World Bank said that money would go to the
banks in the local community. We asked, 'What banks'?"
said one aid worker. Instead, the workers simply confirm
their budgets, and find out what funds are available in
their home countries. They then approach hawallas
for a "loan", sometimes as much as $100,000 at a time.
Then the home office transfers the funds to banks in
Dubai at the hawallas' direction. "We are
indirectly laundering opium money. Taking it and using
it in the community and cleaning their money by sending
it to the banks in Dubai."
In this instance
Raouf agrees, "While the risks of using hawallas
are recognized, the National Solidarity Program will,
where required, use hawallas as a provisional
measure until a functioning banking system is
established at the provincial level." However, he notes,
"The NSP will only use hawallas registered with
the Central Bank, authorized to deal in foreign
currencies, and having a record of work for other
reputable organizations [eg NGOs and UN agencies]." Most
aid organizations must use this system, with only a few
exceptions. "The hawalla system is the only
system. The only ones that don't use it might be USAID
[US Agency for International Development] and the UN,"
an aid worker says.
Only by having the
infrastructure and security to get cash into the country
can larger organizations bypass the system, but smaller
and medium sized aid organizations do not have this
option. Press officer Harry Edwards of USAID was
contacted regarding comment to this article and
responded with a wealth of information regarding
Afghanistan's fledgling central banking system supported
and utilized by USAID. The materials state that,
"International funds transfers via SWIFT [Society for
Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications] have
been available since May 2003, mainly through the
Central Bank. Banks currently operating in Afghanistan
are also offering international funds transfers using
the Central Bank's capabilities. Domestic transfers can
be arranged throughout 32 provinces in Afghanistan
through the National Payment System," the USAID
documents state. The new system seems to offer an
alternative to the hawalla system, but is not in
use by all organizations working in Afghanistan.
The possible laundering of opium money in
Afghanistan could well have negative effects for the
ultimate solution that the coalition is seeking there.
The economic factor of millions of dollars of drug money
being cleaned and deposited into Dubai bank accounts for
later use by business leaders and possibly warlords for
political gain remains an issue. Bundles of drug money
that previously were "stuck" in the country are now
easily transferable and could be used for any number of
sinister deeds, including funding international
terrorism.
"There is a certain fear that we will
do more harm than good, but we have to temper that with
the good that we are trying to do for these people," an
NGO worker explains. "There is no other choice. I know
what I want to do, but this is what I have to do. I have
to be a pragmatist. I have the choice to do something
that I feel is inadequate or doing nothing at all."
The modern day laboratory of democracy that is
Afghanistan will continue to lurch forward with or
without outside assistance, it is only the outcome that
is uncertain. An appropriate conclusion was drawn by one
of aid worker who said, "I can honestly say that I don't
know the future for Afghanistan. While the outside
influence I think is positive, it will hinge on the
Afghan ability to function independently. From the war
with the Soviets to mujahideen to Taliban to war with
the West, they have survived time and again. The country
has been besieged. Afghanistan has and does deserve a
future and they should find it on their own, with the
help and support of the international community, not the
intervention of the international community. They must
be able to determine their future themselves, for the
first time in a long time without outside pressure.
Afghanistan will survive, but the form of its survival
and existence is the question; they have survived
unimaginable hardship, they will survive this, but the
question is whether the international community will
dedicate itself to supporting that future rather than
simply trying to drive it."
(Copyright 2003 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
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