Military

DATE=4/11/02

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=AFGHANISTAN / U-S MILITARY ASSISTANCE

NUMBER=5-51418

BYLINE=ALISHA RYU

DATELINE=CHEHELTAN, AFGHANISTAN

INTERNET=

CONTENT=

VOICED AT=

INTRO: While U-S combat troops continue to hunt down al-Qaida and Taleban

fighters in Afghanistan, another group of soldiers is combing the country --

identifying humanitarian projects in dire need of attention. V-O-A's Alisha

Ryu reports that the U-S military's humanitarian deployment in Afghanistan

is the largest and the fastest since the United States began assisting

nations in the 1990s in such places as Haiti and Somalia.

TEXT: Cheheltan (PRONO: Chel' ton) sits in a valley just 15 kilometers

southwest of the capital, Kabul, but it is a world apart.

Like so many rural areas in Afghanistan, there is almost no infrastructure

in Cheheltan -- no running water or electricity. The thousands who live

here have known only war and hardship for more than two decades.

/// OPEN SOUND OF BOYS RECITING - EST. & FADE ///

Political instability and poverty have been particularly brutal to the children of

Cheheltan, who lost their only schoolhouse eleven years ago. It is unclear

why the school was demolished and who ordered its destruction. But there

has never been enough money to rebuild.

When teachers felt safe enough to begin classes again five years ago, empty

metal shipping containers from Pakistan were hauled over to the site where

the old schoolhouse once stood. The headmaster of the school, Amir

Mohammed, says turning the containers into classrooms was the only way to

keep a roof over the children's heads.

/// MOHAMMED ACT IN DARI - EST & FADE UNDER ///

He says he knows that containers are not the most comfortable place for

children to learn. But the students would otherwise have to sit outside and

bake under the sun.

The plight of the more than 600 students -- mostly boys but several dozen

girls as well -- gained the attention of the Coalition Joint Civil-Military

Operations Task Force in Kabul a couple of months ago.

The U-S led task force -- known by its acronym "chickmotif" -- joined the

non-governmental aid agency Hope Worldwide in finding local contractors and

securing funding. Late last month, construction began on the three-month

project to build a brand new schoolhouse for the community.

Chickmotif's Deputy Public Affairs Officer, Randy Duke, says the Cheheltan

school fits well into the mandate of the task force.

/// DUKE ACT ///

We've had projects that we've turned down because they were out of the realm

of the funding we can do. We are limited in scope in what we can build.

They must be public-type projects. We cannot do private industry.

/// END ACT ///

The American civil affairs team -- attached to the U-S Central Command

headquarters in Kuwait -- number about 200 and is made up of mostly of Army

reservists and some Special Forces troops. About 120 are in and around

Kabul working on some 15 earmarked projects. The rest are scattered in

other cities across Afghanistan, including Herat in the west, Mazar-e-Sharif

and Kunduz in the north, and Kandahar in the south.

Their budget for the year is a modest two-million dollars. But Chickmotif

says that amount will be enough to cover up to 130 public works projects,

which includes rebuilding roads, bridges, and hospitals, as well as schools.

Another goal of the team is to dig up to 100, 40 meter-deep wells throughout

the country to ease water shortage problems in many drought-affected

villages.

All together, the mission is by far the most ambitious rebuilding effort by

the U-S military since World War Two. It is also the first time the

military has been deployed for humanitarian work in the midst of an on-going

war.

Chickmotif officials say they had no choice but to deploy people quickly to

Afghanistan. A critical political goal of the operation is to shore up the

U-S-backed interim government of Hamid Karzai, which only has two more

months in power before a new government -- chosen by a council of tribal

leaders -- takes over.

But Chickmotif Project Coordinator, Kevin Oliver, says the mission is not

about nation-building, which implies near-permanent involvement in another

country's internal affairs. He says the mission to him is about doing a few

things right that could make a difference.

/// OLIVER ACT ///

We will be here a year to help them get started. The workers here are all

local labor. So, we are trying to help jump-start their economy and get

them off on the right foot.

/// END ACT ///

The soldiers here are doing good deeds. But they also know that their

efforts pale in comparison with those of large non-governmental aid

agencies. Those agencies were in the country before the Americans came and

will likely remain long after the Americans leave.

/// OPEN SOUND OF TRACTOR - EST & FADE ///

But as task force members watch a workman on a tractor laying down the

foundations of the new Cheheltan School, they say they cannot help but feel

proud of their contribution. (Signed)

NEB/AR/RH