Taliban gets hands on some U.S. aid

By FETRAT ZERAK

FARAH, Afghanistan — Mirahmad, who like many Afghans uses only one name, was delighted when he learned that the state-sponsored National Solidarity Program was about to provide $40,000 to dredge an irrigation canal.

As the official in charge of regulating the water supply in the Pushtrod district of his native province of Farah, the money would help Mirahmad ensure that local farmers had enough water to irrigate their fields.

His joy was short-lived, however.

“The Taliban asked for 40 percent of the money,” he said. “Otherwise they were not going to let us do the work. So we had to buy them a new four-wheel-drive truck.”

So, while the Taliban are driving around in their new vehicle, Mirahmad is trying desperately to stretch the remaining funds to complete the project.

In district after district of remote and volatile Farah province, located in the western part of the country near the border with Iran, the Taliban are taking control.

But rather than seeking to oust local government, they are seeking to extort some of the millions in foreign assistance that has been provided to local authorities for reconstruction projects.

First and foremost among these assistance programs is the NSP, a nationwide reconstruction initiative, launched in 2003 by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development with financing from the United States, as well as other members of the international community.

One of the central missions of the NSP — which has handed out hundreds of millions of dollars over the past six years — is to foster good local governance by helping communities identify and implement local development projects.

But in Farah, at least, a substantial portion of that money is going to the Taliban, who use the cash to buy guns and ammunition.

Two bad choices

Local officials say they’re left to either give in to the Taliban’s demands or halt reconstruction projects entirely.

One official has decided he’d rather do without than share foreign financing with the Taliban. “We have received numerous complaints regarding [the Taliban taking NSP money],” said Shah Mahmoud, deputy chief of the rural rehabilitation and development department in Farah. “We will not send a penny until serious steps are taken to solve the problem.”

That means that some projects have been left half-finished, a situation that infuriates many local residents.

“In all of Khak Safed district there is only one school, and it is closed,” said Haji Abdul Basir, a representative of the village of Dewal Surkh. “There are 800 families here. So, we decided to use our NSP money to build a school, but Taliban gunmen stopped us.”

But Basir disagrees with the government’s solution of cutting off financing altogether. “If they give us additional funding, we can always bargain with the Taliban,” he said. “But if the money is cut, then what future do our children have?”

For their part, the Taliban take a hard-line approach.

“This money is the spoils of war,” said Mullah Shah Mohammad, a senior Taliban representative in the Khak Safed and Pushtrod districts. “It was given to these people by the infidels. It is our absolute right to take this money and continue our jihad, and the people are cooperating with us on this.”

But some residents call it robbery.

“What the Taliban are doing is illegal,” said Basir. “This is the people’s money, and it should not be used for the goals of one specific group.”

Many, however, take a pragmatic view of the situation.

“It’s OK to give the Taliban some money,” said Abdul Jabar, a resident of the village of Dukin in Pushtrod. “On the one hand, you give them some assistance, and on the other, it allows us to complete the projects very easily. No one dares to create any problems.”

Toza Gul, a resident of the village of Narmakai in Pushtrod, said that while residents and the Taliban often clash, for the most part they are able to negotiate their differences. And some think local residents will eventually tire of having to pay tribute to the Taliban.

X Fetrat Zerak is a reporter in Afghanistan who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.