Rules of disengagement in Afghanistan

As the Czech Republic boosts its 2011 military troop deployment by 30 percent in the NATO mission in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai is suggesting very different ideas on the future of foreign forces in his war-torn country.

In a speech at the Munich Security Conference Feb. 6, Karzai called for the withdrawal of "parallel organizations and mechanisms that bypass the state," which he said includes private security firms, provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) and contractors. He also called for ending "spending of resources through channels other than the Afghan government," adding that he wanted "Afghan responsibility for security" by 2014.

NATO officials were quick to counter Karzai's statements, insisting PRTs - units consisting of military, diplomatic personnel, police trainers and civilian experts from the United States and ISAF nations - contribute to the goal of strengthening the central government. But the president's speech highlighted the cracks in agreements on the country's future reached at the Kabul Conference in July 2010 and raised questions from some coalition states about their willingness to contribute through the central government as opposed to through individual PRT groups.

"We can only justify our engagement, which costs our German taxpayers and other taxpayers of the alliance enormous amounts of money, if we know and can be assured that this is something that is really for the people," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said at the conference.

The Czech Republic is one of the only countries to boost troop levels for the ISAF-NATO mission this year, increasing deployment to 720 troops stationed in the Logar province, and has earmarked 82 million Kč in for "reconstruction and development assistance," according to Vladimír Lukovský, a Defense Ministry spokesman.

"The Czech Republic, in addition to its on-the-spot activities like the PRTs and military presence, provides direct financial support to Afghanistan," through mechanisms like the Afghan National Solidarity Program and several trust funds, Lukovský said. Czech PRTs have undertaken 149 different projects, ranging from agriculture and water management projects to milk collection centers and diagnostic veterinarian labs for livestock.

"It is quite natural that the donors like to see their money spent in a transparent way," he added. "We are sure the government understands the importance of that as demonstrated by commitments taken at the Kabul conference."

The Kabul Conference was meant to set conditions for ending foreign deployments, according to Lieutenant Colonel Gary A. Rosenberg, a U.S. Army War College fellow at the George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies and who served in Afghanistan for 30 months over a span of six years.

The conference defined "essentially three pillars of Afghan development," including the security of a region, how security forces are performing there and socioeconomic development including infrastructure and the quality of life of people, Rosenberg said.

"It's irrefutable that the PRTs and other security foreign forces as part of ISAF as we know it will go away. That's a fact. So the question is not 'Should we pull out of Afghanistan?" he added. "The question is one of timing."

NATO officials would not offer a more concrete timeline, but insisted their goals are in line with Karzai's.

"I would have to look through a hugely blurry crystal ball to try and tell you what the timeline is," said a NATO official speaking to The Prague Post on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject. "We see a transition process starting to take shape in 2011, and we'll be looking to evolve the provincial reconstruction teams into a more developmental supporting role."

Political observers say it is unlikely Karzai's statements will significantly sway policy in ISAF countries or Afghanistan.

"It's wishful thinking," Nik Hynek, a researcher for the Institute of International Relations Prague, said of Karzai's calls for withdrawal. "But it will have an indirect effect to make the political mandate for the transformation of ISAF forces a little bit quicker."

While the idea of transition dominates the rhetoric of military officials and defense experts, it remains contested how much of a role foreign forces should play. Making Afghanistan into an independent and stable country, some say, requires the centralization of policy and increased flow of money through the central government.

"Just imagine any country where you have foreigners deciding what and what not to build," said Abubakar Siddique, a senior correspondent covering Afghanistan and Pakistan for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. "Foreign powers are sponsoring aid projects, but they had also sponsored militias and local strongmen during the past 10 years, and that's a key problem. That's what Afghans are most weary of.

"There are local warlords who were pushed out by the Taliban in the 1990s. But after 9/11, they have been transformed into powerful figures made into paper tigers, though in reality they have very little support."

However, the transparency of Karzai's administration is in question and has recently been dogged by corruption investigations involving senior officials as well as Karzai himself. That has boosted the PRT concept among contributors of building "from the bottom up," which in turn allows monitoring of how their money is spent.

"I think they need the oversight, especially financially," said one U.S. Army officer deployed to Afghanistan last year. The officer declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak publicly on the subject. "If you give the money 'hands-off,' it disappears. I would say less than half the money makes it down to where it's supposed to be."

The officer's involvement included dealing with local officials on small-scale infrastructure projects in addition to providing training for Afghan security forces.

"There was one time where we were working on a district level, and when going to build a foot bridge the money just disappeared," he said. "Another time, a contract got approved for $5,000, and the money was handed out before the project was completed to buy materials. The guy just disappeared. Oversight is really low."

PRTs are helping build the infrastructure that will allow Afghanistan to become independent, according to some officials, and, in doing so, train and empower locals.

"In my experience on the ground, the pros outweighed the cons," Rosenberg said. "The results are they are improving lives, and the local government and the people are really thankful," he said, citing specifically a press conference in early February where Logar Province Governor Shujahudin Shujah thanked the Czech Republic for its contribution.

Nevertheless, Siddique argues that perhaps that money and the oversight it brings aren't actually necessary.

"The idea that we would lose international resources is in a way a very condescending view that Afghanistan is a poor third-world country and that it can never run without Western aid dollars," he said. "If you go to Afghanistan and live with Afghan people, they are a very resilient and hardworking people; I'm sure no other nation in the world would have survived through such hardship and tragedy, but they did, and what I feel is missing from this whole discourse is that it's simply a lame bureaucratic thing to say that 'if we don't give them these aid dollars, they won't survive.' "

Cat Contiguglia can be reached at
ccontiguglia@praguepost.com