MORE THAN a billion dollars worth of aid projects in Afghanistan will have to be cancelled by the end of the month if Hamid Karzai persists with his demand that all private security companies be disbanded by the end of the year, according to figures seen by the Guardiannewspaper.
Foreign contractors insist on private security companies to protect their staff, and warn that the presidential decree, first issued in August, will place workers in jeopardy. Now figures presented by companies running aid projects to the US embassy in Kabul show that the proposed revolution in the country’s security industry will “severely handicap the counter-insurgency strategy” in the country and “put in jeopardy substantial humanitarian and development efforts”.
The report, collated by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, a group representing the private sector but which works under the auspices of the US State Department, offers the best available guess of the effect on development work by 59 organisations that work on US-funded projects, including massive road-building programmes and agricultural support. The estimates suggest that of a total of $5.1 billion worth of US aid earmarked for spending by the 59 companies, 18 projects worth $1.4 billion would have to be shut down, starting at the end of this month.
Four more projects worth $484 million would have to be almost completely closed down, while other contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars would only continue on a much diminished scale. The figures were presented to the US embassy earlier in the week by the concerned companies.
Mr Karzai has long made clear his opposition to unpopular private security companies. He announced in November that they should be disbanded by late 2011, saying that only the Afghan army and police should have the right to carry weapons.
But there is widespread scepticism about his motives for suddenly bringing forward the deadline. “He needed something to get leverage on us after we started beating him up on [the need to end government] corruption,” said one US official. “Security companies is perfect because he knows we can’t function without them.” Other western diplomats have argued that the decision was more a sign of the president’s chaotic style of decision-making.
The US and the Nato International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) have publicly endorsed the president’s desire to rid the country of security companies, but believe he is trying to implement it far too quickly and have been frantically lobbying for concessions.
A senior ISAF officer said that it would “take years” to fully withdraw private security guards from Afghanistan. “There is only so many police and they are already needed somewhere else,” he said. “The people doing the job today are paid a much higher salary than the government can afford. I don’t think they are the ones hanging out for that job.” Gen David Petraeus, the commander of ISAF, has personally warned Mr Karzai of the debilitating effect the move would have on the aid effort.
So far the lobbying has prompted Mr Karzai to exempt companies that guard embassies, military installations and “depots used by foreign forces”. But the large number of foreign aid contractors who insist on providing armed guards for their expat staff have not been exempted.
– ( Guardianservice)