NGOs in Afghanistan fear backlash over NATO’s humanitarian role

KABUL: Nongovernment groups in Afghanistan are worried about the growing role NATO forces are playing in reconstruction, fearing people will not differentiate between soldiers and aid workers as security deteriorates.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is putting a lot of emphasis on "civilian military" projects, such as the building of bridges and schools or distribution of aid, in what is as much a hearts and minds campaign against the Taliban insurgents as a military one.

But their efforts "put aid workers in danger", says the head of the Afghan mission of the French NGO Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger), Thomas Loreaux.

"People cannot tell the difference between aid workers and soldiers," he told AFP. "And that challenges our neutrality and independence."

The confusion is dangerous as the Taliban direct most of their attacks against troops, although scores of aid workers have also been killed in the increasingly deadly insurgency launched after hardliners were toppled in 2001.

Loreaux says his group treasures its neutrality because "we are here to help people and if we need to negotiate with the Taliban, we will."

This year at least 14 Afghans working with NGOs have been killed, most of them in the north of the country which does not see as much of the Taliban violence that is gripping the south, although banditry and territorial rivalries are rife.

The Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR) last week closed a district office in the eastern province of Paktia after unknown gunmen attacked the premises, killing a security guard.

"The security situation is always getting worse and, in this context, we are rather worried about NATO humanitarian projects," says the DACAAR head of mission, Erik Toft.

"They should put all their efforts on security," he says.

Such concerns have also been raised among NATO nations, such as France and The Netherlands, where there have been calls for humanitarian work to be the sole responsibility of groups such as the United Nations and European Union.

But ISAF says it is in a race against time to rebuild, in order to stem a growing tide of public discontent. Water, electricity and other essential services are, for many, still but a wish in a country devastated by more than 20 years of war.

On top of this is a crippling drought which is affecting the harvest and the 65 percent of the population working in the agriculture sector. According to the United Nations, two million Afghans are facing food shortages.

"We are conscious of concerns of the aid workers," an ISAF spokesman says.

"But we act on the same map and with the same aim: to quickly obtain concrete results for the population," he says, adding that the soldiers are often in areas where the NGOs are absent.

Many foreign NGOs have little presence in the volatile southern provinces like Kandahar, the heartland of the Taliban movement that was in power between 1996 and 2001, and which sees regular attacks and clashes between insurgents and ISAF.

Others, like Oxfam, have adapted to the threat by only employing Afghans who dress like the locals to avoid attention, says an Oxfam security official who did not want to be identified.

Mohammad Kadir, Kandahar province director for Afghan Health and Development Services group, says security is "every day becoming worse."

"In all of Afghanistan it is like this, not only Kandahar. In some areas where the situation is more serious, maybe we will leave."

One of the group’s employees, a pharmacist, was kidnapped at gunpoint Thursday in the province’s Panjwayi district which has seen some of ISAF’s most intense battles.

The man was released a few hours later but the incident was still a major scare for the group, which had four employees killed in the same area four years ago.