Common Dreams / Published on Sunday, December 10, 2006 by the Sunday Herald (Scotland)
When US troops in the southern Afghan province of Ghazni handed out cash to village elders, they must have thought they were winning friends. The money, intended for bridges, wells, drinking water, irrigation systems and other infrastructure projects, was supposed to convince the locals that the foreign presence would benefit their country in general and them in particular.
After distributing the funds to villagers in Ghazni's Andar district in early October, the US soldiers left, having done their best to get Andar on side. This "hearts and minds" campaign formed part of a major anti-Taliban offensive - codenamed Operation Mountain Fury - which US-led coalition forces launched in mid-September in conjunction with the Afghan National Army (ANA).
The only problem was that the resources intended to combat the Taliban's influence ended up doing just the opposite.
Locals in several parts of Andar district have since told how almost as soon as the coalition forces left their villages, the money found its way into Taliban coffers to finance the jihad against the foreigners.
"American money is haram unlawful in Islam," said Abdul Jalil, an elder in one Andar village. "We could not use it to improve our lives, so we decided to give it to the Taliban. The most important thing we could do with this money was help the Taliban to pursue the jihad."
At a gathering in the local mosque after the coalition troops had left, mullahs exhorted the faithful to reject foreign blandishments and contribute to the insurgency, said Jalil. The elders agreed, so the Taliban were summoned and the money handed over.
An elder in the village of Lashko, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said villagers there were well aware they could not use the funds without Taliban consent.
"It's the Taliban who are with us in the night-time," he said. "They are powerful - they can enforce their rules and punish those who violate them.
"One day, the US troops gave us 50,000 afghani $1000 for a construction project, but the Taliban came to us that evening and asked us what we were going to do with it. We told them it was their decision. They took the money and left."
According to this man, US troops arrived a few days later to see what had been accomplished with their donation. At a loss to reply, villagers told them the Taliban had taken the money by force.
"The soldiers were angry and threatened that they would not help us against the Taliban," the elder said.
Cash disbursements and distribution of goods are part of a special drive carried out in the course of coalition-led military operations in areas where support for the Taliban has been strong. But in Ghazni, the fact that the aid was distributed by soldiers from an "occupying force" seems to have particularly angered the militants.
Reconstruction projects administered by donors and carried out by contractors have had more success - but in places such as Ghazni, these partners are becoming increasingly scarce, leaving assistance money and projects vulnerable to pressure from insurgents.
Asked about the military's cash handouts, Larry Falkenhausen, a spokesman for the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Ghazni, acknowledged there had been problems.
However, he claimed such incidents were few and far between. "The Andar district chief told us it happened in one village," he said.
This was not the case according to district chief Muhammad Rahim Disiwal. He suggested a number of villages were involved, but added that the aid money was extorted from the civilian population rather than given freely.
"We have received such reports from some villages," he said. "The Taliban have used force to take aid materials distributed to villagers, which shows how they are robbing poor people and won't even let other people help them."
There have been varying reports as to the level of force used by the Taliban to confiscate the aid supplies. According to some villagers, a combination of intimidation and persuasion seems to have been employed to get the residents of Andar district to refuse to cooperate with coalition forces.
Ghazni had turned into a hub from which militants would spread into other areas, and Andar found itself at the centre of Operation Mountain Fury, which was designed to combat the increased "Talibanisation" of southern Afghan provinces.
Government officials in Andar were unable to venture beyond their district centre, and police were afraid to turn off the main highways.
The Taliban fighters, who had developed a well-organised intelligence network with the help of local residents, would plant mines on secondary roads and target any government convoys travelling along them.
More worrying still, sympathy for the insurgency has been growing among villagers frustrated with the slow pace of reconstruction as well as government corruption and the deteriorating security situation.
The Taliban have made inroads in the province over the past few months, and now are beginning to bring back their own form of justice.
Ghazni has suffered a spate of armed robberies, and crime has been rife. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for eliminating one prominent bandit, Bismillah Khan, who was shot, along with several others, on the main Kabul to Kandahar road.
During the summer, the Taliban distributed so-called "night letters" in villages prohibiting residents from taking legal problems to government courts. Instead, they set up Taliban courts to hear disputes, and villagers in Andar say the results have been welcomed by locals.
Organising a shura, or council, in a mosque or home, a Taliban judge settles disputes according to Sharia law. Villagers see the process as quick, fair, free of corruption and enforceable, since the Taliban have armed men all over the area.
Operation Mountain Fury was supposed to rid the region of the Taliban, but in some cases it only made things worse, say Ghazni residents.
Some people complain that ANA troops deployed to protect them robbed their homes when they came to their villages. Reports of brutality against local residents by ANA men increased sympathy for the Taliban and hostility towards the coalition forces, who were seen to be in league with the Afghan government military.
Maulavi Abdul Hakim, an influential religious scholar in Andar district, delivered a blistering sermon on the Eid holiday in November condemning those who had accepted cash and goods from the coalition forces.
"Giving this aid to our people is intended to win our support and justify their invasion," Hakim told a crowd of villagers, after turning off loudspeakers so his lecture could not be heard from the road. "Those who help them are criminals God will not forgive."
While it is impossible to gauge with any certainty the level of support enjoyed by the Taliban, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is considerable.
During the hour or more that a reporter spent with a mid-level Taliban commander, the conversation was interrupted several times by phone calls, which the commander said were from ordinary people sharing intelligence.
This intelligence is invaluable to militia troops. When coalition forces enter a village, the commander said, local residents alert the Taliban by mobile phone. The Taliban then have time to stage an ambush or mine the road leading away from the village.
Andar residents said that while the American forces were visiting villages to distribute aid, the Taliban were conducting a shadow campaign to discourage people from accepting anything from the foreigners.
Nasrullah Khan, a resident of the village of Bakhshi, said the Taliban came to his village's mosque to warn the community that if they accepted money and goods from the soldiers, it would be their own fault if the militants conducted suicide attacks against the coalition troops in Bakhshi.
According to Khan, a group of Taliban would go to every village right after the US troops left, confiscating and burning any materials that had been given to the villagers and not yet divided up among people. They would make a public bonfire and destroy everything, he said. "No one could object or stop them."
Mullah Nasir Kakar, the Taliban's representative in one Ghazni district, with dozens of combatants under his command, said his men were harboured by villagers, and insisted that the cooperation was voluntary.
"We burn things the foreign soldiers have distributed to try and win people's sympathy," he said. "We also take the money given to them. This is by order of our leadership."
Kakar said the money was used to buy supplies such as weapons, explosives, motorcycles and mobile phones. "We are not allowed to keep a penny of that money for ourselves," he said.
Operation Mountain Fury is now over in Andar, and the Taliban boast that they have come through it largely unscathed. Many of them simply left the province at the height of the offensive. Since Ghazni is flat, without forests or mountains, they prefer to plant mines and stage hit-and-run attacks rather than face a well-equipped enemy head on.
But according to residents, the situation is now "normalising" - which means that, once again, the Taliban are regaining control.
Mirwais Atal is the pseudonym used by a freelance reporter in Ghazni. This article was published courtesy of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting
