U.S. Aid Effort Wins Over Skeptics in Afghanistan

The U.S. military is getting grudging praise for its humanitarian aid and nation-building efforts, even from critics who once considered such assistance a dangerous digression from its traditional fighting role.

Military units, called Provincial Reconstruction Teams, are responsible for delivering the help. They resemble the Army’s civil assistance teams that have always gone into war zones after the shooting has stopped; only the PRTs have more troops, more money and get projects such as schools, wells, bridges and roads rolling faster.

The idea behind the teams is to provide a security umbrella for aid projects in dangerous areas. The hope was that, reassured by the presence of armed U.S. troops, nongovernmental aid organizations would follow the military, working with the Army’s civil affairs specialists.

Just as importantly, the Army sees the teams as a way of conferring legitimacy on the weak central government of President Hamid Karzai. By acting in his name, the teams will give a boost to the Karzai development agenda in areas where his government is barely known or felt.

On Thursday, the Army opened its third PRT in this remote northeastern corner which, like most of this nation, was left in ruins by 23 years of warfare that ended with the U.S. victory over the Taliban. Similar bases have opened in Gardez and Bamyan in recent months.

The military hopes to have eight such teams up and running by the end of the year, each with 50 to 70 soldiers. Most will concentrate on reconstruction planning and contracting, while others will provide armed protection.

The military’s announcement in December that it was creating the teams was criticized by some who feared that they would inadvertently make life more dangerous for humanitarian personnel.

That’s because terrorists looking for a target would not distinguish between uniformed personnel and civilian aid workers if both were doing the same work, critics warned. Aid organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross always have distanced themselves from military forces to avoid such confusion and to maintain independence. The European Union, Care International and the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, or ACBAR, an umbrella group of the largest aid agencies operating in Afghanistan, expressed reservations about the PRT concept.

The PRT program has $38 million for reconstruction and operations, twice the Afghan civil assistance aid budgeted by the U.S. military the year before. It chose Gardez for its first base, the town in the unsettled southeastern portion of Afghanistan so racked by violence that it had become a no man’s land for aid agencies.

Since the PRT opened in Gardez with its special armed cohort of 20 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division, violent incidents have declined sharply. Their fears assuaged, half a dozen aid agencies have opened their doors in Gardez since the first of the year, U.S. embassy officials say.

So far, PRTs have been so successful, officials here say, that the program may be copied for reconstruction efforts in Iraq once the war there has ended.

Those successes have also lowered resistance in the aid community. Francesc Vendrell, the EU’s special representative to Afghanistan, said in a recent interview that he had overcome his initial doubts about PRTs, saying they may be the only way to deliver security to some areas.

“If they provide some level of safety to aid workers who have no other option for such protection, then they can’t be such a bad thing,” Vendrell said.

A top official at the United Nations assistance mission, who asked not to be named, said that the PRT presence keeps unruly local commanders and warlords in line.

“The pressure of the military presence makes some commanders or warlords think about the consequences before acting,” the official said.

The environment in Konduz is not as violent as in Gardez. There are no marauding remnants of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, and a single warlord, Mohammad Daoud, who is also commander of the Afghan military’s 6th Corps, is very much in charge.

But reconstruction efforts are hindered by a severe shortage of schools, irrigation and other public infrastructure. Local officials are looking to the Army for help.

“We’ve been to 44 villages to do needs assessments so far and they all want schools,” said Maj. Gregg Sponburgh, a civil affairs officer here. The Taliban destroyed many schools in and around Konduz.

Army troops already have planned and financed the rehabilitation of the Bibi Fahtima girls school, the largest in Konduz, that now serves 2,000 students in three shifts. Principal Mahaboba Haider said this week that the Army’s help had gotten hundreds of girls back in school for the first time in seven years.

Lt. Col. Bob Knight said the unit was sensitive to aid agencies’ objections that the PRT was usurping their functions. As a result, the U.S. is shifting to a strategy of taking on projects in which aid-givers have no interest, such as rebuilding police stations and other public buildings. The next major project the PRT will undertake here is the nation’s first provincial hospital, with 170 beds.

But the U.N. official said the PRT’s most important accomplishment would be in bolstering the Karzai government’s image.

“There is no chain of command between the local and federal governments. Some police officers and teachers haven’t been paid in months. There is no loyalty,” the U.N. official said. “So if they can rebuild the courts, a police station or two, it could be a start.”