Battle for upper hand in Marjah continues
By IWPR-trained reporters
Residents of Marjah, the focus of a major operation by North Atlantic Treaty
Organization-led coalition forces earlier this year to rid the Helmand district
of Taliban forces, have spoken of growing insecurity and fear the insurgents
could re-establish themselves there.
Some 15,000 foreign and Afghan forces took part in "Operation Moshtarak"
("together") in January, battling 2,000 Taliban fighters for control of the
area, a major drug production hub in Helmand. Though sporadic clashes with
Taliban fighters continue, international troops say Marjah is now stable and
point to significant improvements in the local economy and development.
But locals told the Institute for War and Peace Reporting that they
feel too frightened to go to work and are concerned that reconstruction
projects are failing.
Mir Wali, a shopkeeper in the Loya Chareh bazaar, complained that he had never
seen Marjah so insecure and he believes the Taliban will take over the area if
things don't improve.
"I saw with my own eyes sometime back that the Taliban attacked the governor
and Americans on this intersection," he said, referring to a triple suicide
bombing in the center of Marjah last month which targeted a visit by Richard
Holbrooke, the special United States envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Insurgents also shot at his flight as it prepared to land, although they failed
to injure his party, which included Helmand governor Gulab Mangal, US
ambassador Karl Eikenberry and General Stanley McChrystal, then commander of US
forces and the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF.
Other businessmen say they are too frightened to open their shops.
"I have not gone to my shop for 10 days," said shopkeeper Haji Abdul Samad.
"There, bullets drop like rain from the sky. The cattle and sheep die like
flies. I swear there is no humanitarianism or humanity."
Gul Ahmad, another Loya Chareh shopkeeper, said he had kept his premises shut
for a long time due to Taliban threats.
"The Taliban number has increased and they have worsened the conditions for the
people," he said. "They warn us to shut the shops. They are very cruel, and if
I do not shut the shop, they will beat me to death."
However, a US army spokesman said that the vast majority of the shops in the
town of Marjah were now open and functioning normally, a sign of what he
described as improved security.
"Two weeks after we initially entered Marjah, there were few, if any, shops
open in the bazaars," he said, adding that now more than 600 traders were
active in the various markets around the town, accounting for over 80% of all
businesses in the bazaars.
"The bazaars normally see several hundred locals shopping there daily, showing
significant trust in the security situation within the bazaars," he said.
While there were still clashes with insurgents in Marjah, these were "not to
the point where it [will] fall to the Taliban or that locals fear opening their
shops - as seen in the numerous shops open daily".
The US army spokesman also emphasized that coalition forces had numerous
projects underway within Marjah, including the construction of schools and
roads.
"We also conduct daily Quick Impact Projects, where locals clean the bazaars,
dredge canals, and numerous other small daily projects," he said.
Locals insist that development efforts have slowed down and that Taliban
attacks have deterred people from taking part in reconstruction projects.
Marjah resident Asadullah said he had been employed in a Cash for Work project
but abandoned it due to the threat of violence.
"I worked in a project for one month," he said. "We were cleaning the streams
and drains and they paid 250 afghanis [US$5] per day, but the number of Taliban
fighters increased so much that every day they were conducting attacks. The
attacks increased and I left the work.
"There are Taliban on every road and intersection, but few of them carry guns.
Some are monitoring the situation, collecting intelligence and information
about the movement of the American patrols. And some armed Taliban stay at home
and prepare for attacks."
An employee of the development organization the International Relief and
Development, IRD, said he had been working on the distribution of water pumps
to 300 farmers in Marjah district for the past two months.
Declining to give his name, he said that it was proving difficult to give the
equipment out. "The people are afraid," he said. "The Taliban burn the water
pumps and if they find them, they kill the farmers."
IRD spokeswoman Melissa Price said irrigation pump distribution in the
district, which began in May, had been "impeded by a persistent intimidation
campaign from the Taliban and concerns from the district government that the
distribution would not be adequately monitored due to security conditions".
However, the project had stepped up its efforts in July, and pumps would be now
be distributed from three separate locations in the district "in an effort to
alleviate farmers' security concerns during travel and pump transportation".
Helmand officials also accept that there are problems, but say the situation is
not as grave as some Marjah residents claim.
"No doubt there are problems in Marjah, we face Taliban attacks, but people
support us and there are improvements in Marjah," district chief Mohammad Zaher
told IWPR in a telephone interview. "The situation is not so bad. [The
negativity] is propaganda."
Dawood Ahmadi, spokesman for Governor Mangal, said the problems in Marjah were
evident elsewhere in the region as the Taliban's Quetta shura, its
Pakistan-based leadership council, had decided to focus its efforts on
increasing insecurity in the whole of Helmand.
"This is not only the problem of Marjah," he said, but insisted that "soon
everything will come under control".
After returning from a 10-day visit to Marjah where he consulted with local
elders, Helmand deputy governor Sattar Marzakwal said he had decided to create
a special police unit to combat Taliban intimidation of locals.
"The rapid response battalion consists of 200 national army, national police
and American army officers," he said. "They will get to any location in a few
minutes if people inform them of the presence of insurgents."
But Mohamad Aqa Takra, a former officer in the communist regime and now a
military specialist, said this initiative would not bring security to Marjah.
"If the Quetta shura puts its main focus on Helmand, as officials claim,
the Marjah district cannot be secured by 200 or 300 men - even 10,000 American
and Afghan soldiers couldn't do it," he said.
Jabir, a police officer in Marjah, said that the district was extremely
insecure, and feared the Taliban could soon be back in charge unless something
was done.
"Everything has changed here," he said. "We are afraid of every farmer, and
think that there might be a Taliban fighter behind every stone and every tree."
He said that the only way that Afghan police can patrol is with American
soldiers. "The Taliban are very audacious and brave. They have very new machine
guns and every day they conduct more than 10 attacks on us in Marjah. It is
completely horrifying."
The Taliban claim that their success is due to the help and cooperation of
local people.
Taliban spokesman Qari Usuf Ahmadi said the insurgents are very powerful in
Marjah and will never concede defeat to the US and Afghan forces. "People help
us, they give us food and support us and that is why our operations go so
well," he said.
But Marjah district chief Zaher maintained that the area would never come under
Taliban control again. "It is impossible to lose Marjah," he added. "Marjah
will never fall."
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