NGOs in war zones face an increase in violence

By ANNA HUSARSKA

This fall was not a good time in Afghanistan and Pakistan. On both sides of the border violent attacks by insurgents targeted not only the local civilian population but also the local and foreign staff of the United Nations. The tragedies happened at the World Food Program office in central Islamabad and at a guesthouse used by U.N. staff in central Kabul. The death tolls were terrible: respectively five U.N. staff killed in Pakistan (four Pakistani) and eight in Afghanistan (three Afghan).

It is no accident that the targets represent staff of the United Nations. The killers wanted to attack international personnel (or “expats” as they are called) in the hope that their organizations — emblems of the wider international community — will leave.

One life is not more important nor more valuable than another, but when foreigners — who do not “blend in” — are targeted, they do have a place to go back to; a “return ticket” is always an option. Kill enough foreigners and the result is an evacuation.

National staff, with extensive family and clan connections, have the protection (and sometimes, the curse) of being part of the local society. As the body count shows, if foreigners are explicitly targeted, their local hires often bear the brunt of the casualties. Extremists often charge them with working with foreigners, with international organizations, a serious accusation in their eyes.

After a recent series of suicide attacks in Pakistan and the extremely vicious storming of the Kabul guesthouse, the United Nations decided to evacuate all non-essential staff from North Western Frontier Provinces and FATA region in Pakistan; a few days later a similar decision concerned 600 U.N. staff in Afghanistan.

It is noteworthy that while the nongovernmental organizations, the aid groups that work in Afghanistan and Pakistan to assist the local population by delivering humanitarian assistance, have also seen their capacity to respond somewhat reduced, the bulk of our programs are operating.

In the case of the organization I work for, the International Rescue Committee, and a few similar groups with a long history of working in the region, the worsening violence does mean more attention, time and funds have to be channeled now toward security arrangements. Staff movements are more restricted and we are forced to adopt innovative modus operandi (about which I will not be giving details). Indeed the scaling back of U.N. activities may mean that the need for personnel from private aid groups to carry out assistance programs will only increase.

The reason for this paradoxical situation resides precisely in the citizenship of those employed. About one-fifth to one-quarter of the U.N. staff in Afghanistan and Pakistan are expats, so a horrific incident like the Kabul attack requires a vast rethinking of how to protect these foreigners. The first, logical impulse is to send many of them out of the region and to add protection to their quarters: Hesco antiblast barriers, concertina wires, armed guards, etc.

Expats

It must be mentioned that the United Nations is an international governance body whose tasks and objectives are different from those of an NGO. Thus the nongovernmental organization’s employment structure is different too: in both Pakistan and Afghanistan only 1 percent of IRC’s staff are expats, and we tend to nationalize the positions as more qualified local staff becomes available. (This is the unsung success of a few decades’ work by NGOs in the region — focused capacity-building; our many nationals form a rather impressive roster of skilled professionals.)

The main nongovernmental organizations in both countries rely extensively on community acceptance as a security approach. Having such a large proportion of local staff facilitates good relations. The “nationalization” of our programs is a deliberate choice, suited to the type of services an NGO delivers. As we carry out our programs, we do not need to invest in learning the cultures, acquiring the languages or getting to know the local population where we work — our staff is already part of it!

X Anna Husarska is senior policy adviser at the International Rescue Committee (www.theirc.org), a nongovernment organization that helps people uprooted by crisis to survive and rebuild their lives. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.