Their morning commutes involve dodging roadside blasts and suicide bombers. They work in compounds surrounded by high walls and guarded by armed policemen. If the road home looks bad, they stay overnight or call for a military escort.
When they do leave their headquarters to talk to constituents, their security teams tag along, too.
They are district leaders in violent southern Afghanistan, the so-called eyes and ears of President Hamid Karzai's fragile government, attempting to maintain a federal presence in a region where the Taliban are waging a fierce insurgency and littering the roads and ditches with deadly makeshift bombs, ambushing police checkpoints and sending suicide bombers into crowded markets and military convoys.
As the insurgency grows in strength and confidence, a siege mentality has set in among some local leaders in this province, reinforcing the belief that Karzai's central government has limited reach outside Kabul.
Last weekend, the district leader of Ghorak, a rugged, sparsely populated rural area north of Kandahar, said his office compound was overrun by insurgents who later set fire to the buildings.
"The area is controlled by the Taliban now," Mohammed Azim said in a telephone interview from Kandahar city. Late last week, he called for a U.S. military helicopter to ferry him to the city. "If we stay, they will kill us," he said.
A week earlier, Azim said, he and his staff were holed up in the district compound, unable to venture outside. Insurgents had been firing on the district buildings for months and police were fleeing. They hadn't been paid in months. By last week, there were only 25 police left in Ghorak, Azim said.
"We need food, we need everything," he said. "We are hostages in our buildings. We are too afraid to go out to get petrol." In interviews with eight of Kandahar province's 17 district leaders, all but two said they traveled to work with armed security patrols.
But one leader, who said he drove solo to work, said he changed his vehicle every day and returned home to Kandahar city in the evenings.
The eight district leaders interviewed were from the most populated regions around Kandahar city. They included Zhari, Panjwai, Maywand, Ghorak, Neish, Arghestan, Dand and Daman. None of the eight interviewed felt safe enough to venture outside the compound without security guards.
Despite the presence of thousands of coalition troops in southern Afghanistan, many local residents, elders and parliamentarians are losing faith in the government's ability to secure their districts. Many are fleeing to Kandahar city.
"Only the district (leader) and some 20 to 25 soldiers are actually securing and patrolling the district compounds," said Khalid Pashton, a parliamentarian from Kandahar. "Nobody is there.
"Actually, they (police and soldiers) are not allowed, or they don't have the courage, to come out of the compound because they are not enough to fight the Taliban. So, outside ... the district compound, the country is in the hands of the Taliban."
Canadian officials, who are working with local leaders to assert Afghan government control in the countryside, have defended the district leaders. Corey Anderson, the Department of Foreign Affairs political director with the Provincial Reconstruction Team, said district leaders take pains to connect with constituents, most holding weekly meetings to hear residents' concerns. They also meet regularly with police and army officials and serve as a conduit between the governor and residents.
"The people who take these posts should be recognized for the risks and challenges they are prepared to take," Anderson said. "Despite very valid security concerns ... they are able to get out to the districts to work."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Canadian clients may not useMust credit Toronto Globe and Mail(All currency U.S.)
Post new comment