Rangina, the daughter of Kabul mayor Ghulam Hadidi was blunter. “Where are they (the Canadians)? What do they do? We never see them; they sit in their fortified camp.”
By Nicholas Aplin
True North Contributor
Recently, Quebec’s largest French-language daily newspaper La Presse, published a series of articles by Michèle Ouimet the daily’s correspondent in Kabul, The series was titled, Afghanistan: The Failings of the Canadian Mission.
Here are some excerpts.
Ouimet reported that the Afghan captives that the Canadian military turned over to Afghan police and military continue to be tortured. This is in spite of an agreement that Canada says it reached with Afghan authorities last May when torture allegations surfaced once again and put the war’s advocates on the defensive.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded to the allegations the following day with a simple, “not true,” and, “Taliban propaganda.” Presumably, the government feels that such denials are not very costly politically. All parties in parliament agree on a continued Canadian military presence in the country. The NDP distinguishes itself by calling for an end to “combat operations” in Kandahar province.
Ouimet then wrote that Canadian officials cannot account for 3 million dollars that Canada says it has contributed to the main public hospital in Kandahar, Mirwais Hospital. The Red Cross administers the hospital and does not provide accounts of expenditure.
The Red Cross also prohibits foreign journalists from entering. Ouimet entered incognito. She reported horrific conditions inside, similar to those reported by the Senlis Council and other journalists earlier this year —unsanitary conditions, lack of basic medications, very few medical personnel, and so on.
In the October 31 edition of La Presse, Ouimet looked at a couple of projects in Kabul that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) says it is funding. One is an $85,000 project to clean up garbage and debris in the city. The project was contracted to a local Afghan businessman. CIDA says he hired 200 people and successfully completed it.
Kabul mayor says work not done
CIDA also says it funded a project to install 340 pre-fabricated cement roadside drainage surfaces.
“Not true,” says the mayor of Kabul, Ghulam Hadidi. He says no one told him about the clean-up project nor any of the others.
“I have never seen anyone picking up garbage, and the city is as dirty as always. So I ask the question, what happened to the money?”
The city looked into the cement claim and found the number installed was less than claimed, only 138. The mayor says the city needs 3,800. It found that the cement used met the minimum structural standard. But it cost $20 per piece. The mayor says it could have purchased them for $4 each.
“It’s not easy to work with the Canadians,” the mayor told Ouimet. “Their personnel changes all the time.”
The mayor’s daughter, Rangina, was blunter. “Where are they (the Canadians)? What do they do? We never see them; they sit in their fortified camp.”
Ouimet talked to the governor of Kandahar province, and he added his views. “Their bureaucracy is so heavy,” he said. “The international community does not listen to us. We never succeed in resolving problems.”
Ouimet reports of An Administration Corrupt to the Bone.
She says an aide to President Hamid Karzai told her, “The international community has injected $19 billion into Afghanistan. About 95% of that leaves the country. Non-governmental organizations employ 540 foreigners who earn from $5,000 to $35,000 per month.
“The last elections cost $395 million. It was the foreigners who organized them, and kept the money for themselves.”
The editor of the Kabul Weekly, Mohammed Dashty is harsher. “The UN is a government within a government…Look at their expenditures, the salaries they pay to their employees, their 4 x 4 vehicles that cross the city, their travel abroad. I call that legal corruption.”
Ouimet’s report sketches the vast scope of corruption within the foreign-imposed Afghan regime.
War effort faltering as Kandahar slowly surrounded
Meanwhile, the war effort itself is faltering. Canadian and international news agencies frequently report huge human losses by Afghan forces in clashes with the U.S./NATO forces in Afghanistan. Yet the city of Kandahar, the second largest in the country and the location of a major Canada/NATO base, is slowly being encircled, according to the November 1 Globe and Mail.
Thousands of refugees from the countryside surrounding Kandahar are streaming into the city as a result of growing military clashes.
Paradoxically, antiwar protests in Canada are growing smaller as the
failure of the U.S./NATO war and occupation becomes more apparent. A national day of protest against the war in Afghanistan was held across Canada on October 27. The rallies and marches in Vancouver and Toronto drew 750 or so. Rallies in Montreal and Ottawa drew 200 and 150 respectively.
In its speech opening the new session of the Canadian Parliament on October 16, the government said it would end the military mission in Afghanistan by 2011. This extends by two years the date set by the preceding Liberal Party government. The Liberals said they could support the new date.
But the head of Canada’s military, Richard Hillier, complicated the farce when he declared that he considers 2017 as the earliest possible date for a withdrawal. He has been told by the government to keep his mouth shut.
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