19 December 2002
2003 Will Bring Shift from Combat to Reconstruction in Afghanistan
(Defense Department report, December 19: Afghan stability briefing)
(650)
The top U.S. defense official in charge of relief and reconstruction
efforts in Afghanistan says the new year will bring a transition away
from combat to stability operations.
Joe Collins, deputy assistant secretary of defense for stability
operations, told reporters at the Pentagon December 19 that security
remains the first priority because "You can't have reconstruction
without security and, in the end, you won't have security without
reconstruction." While there are still major security problems in
eastern and southeastern Afghanistan as well as in some urban areas,
he said some 26 out of 33 provinces are considered to have
"moderate-to-good security."
The United States is the lead nation in helping rebuild the Afghan
National Army. Collins said the fifth Afghan light infantry battalion
will graduate at the end of this year. Then in 2003, he said, there
will be efforts to train and equip a heavy brigade as part of the
Kabul Army Corps. It will consist of a few battalions, he said, and
its 2,000 personnel will be equipped with tanks and armored personnel
carriers -- mostly from the Soviet era.
Security also means developing an Afghan police force which Collins
says the Germans are focused on. The Japanese, the United Nations and
a number of other nations are working on how to demobilize former
rebels. The British and the United Nations are also leading
counternarcotics efforts. Since drug money is a "very great corrupting
influence," he said the British are preparing a second
counternarcotics offensive in the spring.
Collins also said that 2003 will see the current balance between
humanitarian assistance and reconstruction shift "very strongly in
favor of reconstruction." One of the key projects needed to cement
this shift will be the completion of a ring road project around the
capital of Kabul. The road project, he says, will spark "a tremendous
gain in meaningful employment for Afghan males."
In providing an economic, political and security assessment of
Afghanistan, Collins said another trend for the coming year will be a
shift away from channeling financial aid through non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and aid agencies to the Afghan Finance Ministry.
Doing so, he said, will mean that "the development budget of the state
of Afghanistan will in fact become the governing budget for
reconstruction." The official, who was in Afghanistan in November,
said: "Increasingly, the Afghan government is calling the shots."
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State
Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration are the two
entities leading economic reconstruction in Afghanistan, according to
Collins, and one of their main projects for 2003 will be a series of
maternal health clinics. In the past year, he said, they have been
responsible for the existence of 600 schools, 10 million textbooks,
7,000 metric tons of seeds and supplying around $200 million for
Afghan refugees.
U.S. Army civil affairs specialists, meanwhile, have built another 127
schools, dug 400 wells, built 26 medical clinics, and refurbished the
National Veterinary Center and the National Teachers' College in
Kabul, according to Collins.
The Defense and State Departments and USAID are working together with
six United Nations agencies, he said, and 150 NGOs in leading
Afghanistan back from 23 years of war.
On the political side, Collins pointed out that there will be a
constitutional Loya Jirga in December 2003 "where the people come
together and re-establish their constitution." Then in June of 2004,
he said, there will be the first nationwide elections. "All of that
seems to be very much on track at this time," the official added.
By 2004 and 2005, Collins said he hopes the main story in Afghanistan
will no longer be reconstruction and will be, instead, business
development and free trade.
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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