Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/30/AR2008033001844.html
New Joint Effort Aims to Empower Afghan Tribes to Guard Themselves
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2008; A15 [Afghanistan] [hydra] [Pakistan became the clear staging area for operations into Afghanistan during 2007] [tactics previously unseen in Afghanistan appeared as the insurgency ramped up] [the winter lull is upon the region?] [UN activities and reports reflecting the deterioration] [followup] [2007 as a turning point whereby jihadis and insurgents re-emerged] [coalition and NATO’s unity] [****]
Afghan, British and U.S. officials have launched a new security initiative to empower tribes and other residents -- including former Taliban -- to guard their communities [****] [see Holbrook oped in today’s societal] in southern Afghanistan against insurgents and criminals.
The controversial multimillion-dollar program, approved last month by President Hamid Karzai and a group of senior Afghan and foreign officials, will provide radios, phones and cash to village and tribal elders, [****] [we know how this story ends] [badly] [***] [every villager caught with a phone, etc., will be cleansed by Talib as they move through] who in turn agree to work with government forces and deny haven to insurgents. The program would also promote reconciliation by vetting and integrating former Taliban.
"You can call them night watchmen or home guards. They are not a formed militia, and there is no net increase in weapons. . . . It is simply creating an antibody to the Taliban in these communities," [****] a senior Western official said. "Taliban commanders and their fighters have come over to us and say they want to work with the government . . . so this is already happening." [unless they a) have a larger political stake and b) are encouraged to rat out corruption that’s rampant, they will die or become part of the corruption machine] [*******]
The initiative, called the Afghan Social Outreach Program, [****] is partly a response to the troubled Afghan police force, which is widely viewed as predatory, officials said. It is part of a broader governance effort lead by Jelani Popal, head of the six-month-old Independent Directorate of Local Governance, which reports to Karzai. "There is a problem of corruption . . . warlordism and the drug mafia," Popal said.
Popal has been assessing governors and district leaders, and, with Karzai's authority, removing ineffective or criminal ones. He is also helping districts and provinces create their own development plans.
"The most important change in Afghanistan on the civilian side in 2007 was the removal of responsibility for local government from the flawed Ministry of Interior," said U.S. Ambassador William Wood.
British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles said, "We've got to do it the Afghan way . . . by empowering communities."
Others warn the initiative could backfire. "If you begin to lean solely to local security solutions, you may inadvertently re-empower some old power brokers," said Gen. Dan K. McNeill, head of the International Security Assistance Force.
© 2008 The Washington Post Company