Work to set up new Afghan governance in former Taliban stronghold of Marjah inches forward

Setting up new government in Marjah inches along

MARJAH, Afghanistan — The Afghan government’s drive to set up a new administration in Marjah is moving slowly — some say too slowly — in a place ruled by the Taliban just eight weeks ago.

President Hamid Karzai, with money and assistance from foreign forces and donors, is in a race against the Taliban to convince people to turn away from the insurgency. Already, the interim district government compound is decorated with poster-sized photographs of Karzai, symbolizing the new face of governance in Marjah.

The stakes are high. Failure in this dusty district of Helmand province would further weaken Karzai’s authority. It would also call into question the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy of mixing military force and promoting governance that’s already being replicated in neighboring Kandahar province.

If the strategy won’t work in Marjah, in southern Afghanistan, with about 80,000 people, it may not work in Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace, where support for the insurgency among the estimated 1 million population is stronger.

“We’re still moving forward more slowly than the people would like,” Mark Sedwill, NATO’s senior civilian representative, said on a trip to Marjah this week. “They would like to see more schools opened more quickly, repairs done to the bazaar more quickly.

Sedwill, the former British ambassador to Afghanistan, flew to Marjah to see if the rhythm of life had returned to the area that thousands of U.S., Afghan and NATO forces just wrested from Taliban control. He found it’s one step forward, one step back in this district, where fields of pretty pink poppies belie the danger and fear that still grips the townspeople.

“There is no security so far,” said Haji Soliman about a month after U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers seized the town. “The Taliban took my nephew because they claim his father was going to the government for support. He’s only 12. They say his father has to go to talk to the Taliban to get him. He’s somewhere out of Marjah.”

Violence continued in the volatile region Thursday morning. A local Taliban commander killed a Marjah tribal leader, his nephew and three others, said provincial government spokesman Dawood Ahmedi.

The tribal elder and his family had no known link to the Americans or the central government, and the motive for the killings was unclear, Ahmedi said.

The Afghan National Civil Order Police, sent in to replace a police force known for shaking down citizens, is gaining the confidence of local residents, officials said. But Taliban insurgents still carry out a murder and intimidation campaign against residents, threatening those who accept money from U.S. forces or cooperate with the government.

“There are one or two individual members of the Taliban going around unarmed on motorcycles seeking to intimidate people and telling them if they send their children to school, they’ll be punished, if they cooperate with the government, they’ll be punished,” Sedwill said.

There is progress in Marjah. According to a weekly progress report written by the Afghan Independent Directorate of Local Government: An estimated 7,000 farmers have received vegetable seeds and fertilizer — not the kind used for making bombs. Clogged irrigation canals are being re-dug. Bridges are being repaired. Residents are registering their land and promising to destroy their poppy crops in exchange for money to sow something else that won’t bankroll the Taliban or narcotraffickers.

Cash-for-work programs are attracting hundreds of laborers. Twenty-eight security checkpoints have been set up. Hundreds of mines have been found and defused. More than 900 families, about 30 percent of those that fled the fighting, have returned to their homes, the report said.

“Every time that I come here, I sense people are more relaxed, more open to speaking with us,” said Ghulam Jilani Popal, head of an agency seeking to boost effectiveness and capacity in local government. “The confidence is growing gradually.”

Afghan leaders agreed that Afghan intelligence needs to be more active in the area to identify insurgents trying to re-infiltrate it.

“In my opinion, the Taliban still have mental pressure on civilians,” said Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal. “We need better intelligence services.”

There is a rundown headquarters building, once used by the Taliban, surrounded by tents and small metal buildings used by representatives of ministries of the Afghan central government in Kabul. The Marjah prosecutor, a bearded man who proudly showed off his education credentials to visitors, just handled his first case: two suspects accused in a stabbing.

Down the road, a vacant high school needs to be rebuilt.

“My first priority is I need money to open the school and fix the irrigation system,” said Marjah’s sub-district governor Abdul Zahir.

Afghan men squatted in a line that snaked outside the headquarters building, hoping to receive compensation for property damage during the offensive. Several said they weren’t convinced the region is safe.

Amir Gul was in line to talk to the Marines about either leaving his field, or paying him rent.

“The people who live around the bazaar, around the center of the district are safer, but where I live, it’s not secure, said Gul, who lives about a 10-minute walk from the center of town.

Nazer Mohammad was one of 96 farmers who had come to the government compound during the past three days to register their land with the U.S. military and pledge to sow something else besides poppy, used to make opium. Marines registering farmers under a tent said the goal is to sign up 300 farmers for the program, which offers them $313 a hectare (2.47 acres).

“I want to grow something else, but without help, I can’t feed my family,” Mohammad said. “It’s all politics. If we had a good government, the Taliban wouldn’t bother us.”

Unfortunately, the money is being offered at the same time that farmers are getting ready to harvest and sell to the Taliban and narcotraffickers who lent them the money to plant the poppies in the first place.

“What the Taliban and dealers do is they go around and remind the farmers, ‘Hey, you took money from me to put your poppy crop in the ground last year. Remember? You owe us the tax,’” said Marine Col. Randy Newman. “Whether it’s 10 percent of the harvest or 20 percent, that farmer has to figure out how to pay that debt. That’s a big deal.”

Popal said he’s put his sights on breaking the cycle of poppy cultivation next year by making sure farmers don’t have to get loans from the Taliban.

Sedwill walked to the bazaar on a street that wasn’t safe to stroll just two months ago. Sedwill said he was struck by the lush wheat and poppy fields next to homes that didn’t hide the abject poverty of the area. He toured a rebuilt clinic where two teenage girls were being treated for facial injuries from a bomb blast earlier in the day.

The Taliban can provide order and their own version of a justice system, he said. But they can’t provide economic development, health or education. That’s where the government has an advantage, he said.

“What the government has to do is compete,” he added.