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April 26, 2005

Afghanis in the Driver’s Seat: Rina Amiri addresses Afghanistan’s current status

Shortly after the fall of the Taliban in early 2002, Fletcher student Rina Amiri decided to leave Cabot Hall for an opportunity to work in Kabul. She was determined to devote her energy to helping Afghanistan establish a durable and lasting peace. Actually getting into Afghanistan at the time, however, proved difficult. Amiri had to travel through Pakistan, where she offered UNESCO ten days of free consulting in return for a seat on a UN plane bound for Kabul.

While back in Medford last week, Amiri spoke with a group of Fletcher students, offering her assessment of the ongoing peace-building process and a firsthand glimpse into life in Afghanistan.

When she arrived in Kabul, Amiri joined up with the U.N. Assistance Mission (UNAMA). She was surprised at the small number of foreign assistance workers in the country. “What has been termed the ‘light footprint’ approach,” Amiri explained, “has in some cases actually been an ‘anorexic’ footprint.”

Amiri cited three principal factors which she says have limited international involvement in Afghanistan: Afghan wariness of a foreign presence because of the history of British and Soviet incursion, recent lessons learned from Kosovo and East Timor, and the ongoing U.S. war against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

She explained that the “light footprint” approach has largely been a success. UN officials have insisted that foreign nationals working in different branches of the government and civil society do everything possible to “work yourself out of a job.” In other words, Amiri explained, “our job is to find an Afghan who we can transfer our positions to as soon as there is the capacity.” According to Amiri, this approach grew out of the lessons of the East Timor experience, where the task of building competency in the local population was overlooked, resulting in a weak bureaucratic structures and insecurity after the UN mission left the country.

Amiri said that while the “light footprint” approach has often helped place Afghans back in the driver’s seat very quickly, foreigners have remained “very loud backseat drivers.” To Amiri, however, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The international community has established a ‘lead nation’ program to assist the various sectors of government. The US has taken over the training of the military forces, the Germans are in charge of enhancing police capabilities, the British are specializing in counter-narcotics, Italians are working to improve justice and the rule of law, while the Japanese are at work on disarmament. While the ‘lead nation’ approach has been effective in many cases, the segmentation has led to a disaster on other fronts. The Italians especially, Amiri noted, “have not been up to the task” of establishing a working justice system. Unfortunately, other countries have been wary to step in for fear of stepping on the Italian’s turf. “Inertia is also a problem,” Amiri explained. “If it’s not officially your job, you just don’t do it.”

The limited size of the foreign presence has presented significant challenges. At UNAMA, Amiri explained, there were only 11 people working to facilitate the 2004 elections for the entire country. She was one of two in charge of five large southern provinces. While this shortfall of foreign experts has necessarily returned Afghans to significant positions of authority, Amiri explained, it also put limits on what could be achieved in terms of making the elections widely representative. And with the achievement of many of the original milestones in the Bonn agreement Amiri said she fears certain countries will try to use recent success as an excuse to withdraw their support.

“All we have right now is a skeleton of a government, a skeleton of a peace process, and ministries that are still very factional.” It is hardly the time, she said, to declare victory and head home.

Amiri devoted much of her talk to the security issues facing Afghanistan. Afghans fought a bloody civil war for 23 years; the ‘light footprint’ approach, she explained, should never have extended to the security sphere. US officials, however, have been perpetually worried that a large peacekeeping mission would disrupt the ongoing battle against Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in the south. The international community has also been less than enthusiastic in its commitment of troops. As a result, the 6,000 strong ISAF force and the 50-100 man Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) have only been able to make a small dent in confronting the violent factionalism that poses a constant threat to Afghanistan’s stability.

Fielding questions from the assembled students, Amiri ended the discussion by focusing on the positive. The greatest success of the ‘nation rebuilding’ effort, she explained, has been its inclusiveness.

Despite a number of security failures, a lack of coordination in the international community, and a need for more monitoring and accountability, Afghanistan’s civil society has undergone a triumphant rebirth. Afghans are running their own newspapers and NGOs, investment in the private sector is exploding, and women have seized the opportunity to become leaders. The Afghan people are now choosing to hold their own government--not the international community--accountable.

“Afghans really don’t feel that this is an occupation—they have sovereignty and ownership over the situation. They believe it is their own process.”

Article by Nat Hoopes, MALD '05

Posted by jessica at April 26, 2005 01:04 PM