Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KABUL2471
2006-05-30 12:58:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Kabul
Cable title:
PRT/PAKTIKA Q JOURNEY TO WAZA KHWA Q
how-toVZCZCXRO1435 OO RUEHDBU RUEHIK RUEHYG DE RUEHBUL #2471/01 1501258 ZNR UUUUU ZZH O 301258Z MAY 06 FM AMEMBASSY KABUL TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0560 INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//JF/UNMA// RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC//J3// RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL RUMICEA/JICCENT MACDILL AFB FL RHMFIUU/COMSOCCENT MACDILL AFB FL RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2588 RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 2741 RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 6015 RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1410
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 002471
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE SIPDIS
STATE FOR SA/FO (JGASTRIGHT),SA/A, S/CR, SA/PAB,
S/CT, EUR/RPM
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN, KAMEND
OSD FOR BREZINSKI
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76, POLAD
REL NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF
E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER AF
SUBJECT: PRT/PAKTIKA Q JOURNEY TO WAZA KHWA Q
PROJECTS, AND GOVERNANCE IN SOUTHERN PAKTIKA
KABUL 00002471 001.2 OF 002
(SBU) SUMMARY: An early May overland journey from
PaktikaQs capital Sharana through the districts of
Khair Kot, Jani Khel, and Wasa Khwa in southern
Paktika province revealed districts bereft of
improved roads, infrastructure, and effective Afghan
government influence. END SUMMARY.
2. (SBU) PRT Sharana conducted a eight day
overland trip to remote districts in southern
Paktika to meet key leaders, conduct medical
assistance visits and inspect ongoing building
projects. The trip, while providing medical care for
over 1200 people, also gave the PRT DOS
representative the opportunity to meet local leaders
and the PRT engineer the opportunity to inspect five
building projects in Khair Kot, Jani Khel, and Waza
Khwa districts. The medical side of the trip
provided positive medical and dental service to the
Afghan people, many of whom had likely never before
seen a qualified medical professional. The leader
engagements revealed significant shortages of
resources and staffing for the district government
offices, and project inspections demonstrated
deficiencies in nearly all the construction
projects.
Government Reach Stretched
3. (SBU) The Afghan government lacks capacity in
PaktikaQs southern districts. Waza Khwa district
center, reached after a hot and dusty seven hour,
seventy mile, bone jarring ride from Sharana over
unmarked desert tracks, is a small mud town of
little distinction aside from the small American
military outpost located on its outskirts. Situated
in an important border province in AfghanistanQs
southeastern Pashtun homeland and along infiltration
routes from Pakistan, the desert district of Waza
Khwa is typical of many remote districts in south
and central Paktika. Perhaps most revealing of its
remoteness from central governmentQs influence was
the discovery that the main currency in exchange in
Waza KhwaQs market was the Pakistani rupee. Afghan
currency was not in evidence and only U.S. dollars
or rupees were accepted in most shops. Discussions
with the two resident Afghan government leaders, the
district commissioner Kadirgul Zadran and chief of
police Ahmed Wahid Watak revealed the reach of the
Afghan government to be quite limited in this remote
area. With only two operational Toyota pickups, no
telephones, no radios, no electricity, and
functioning with only rudimentary offices in mud
buildings, the chief of police and district
commissioner are at best able to control only a
small part of their district. Support from the
central government is nearly nonexistent and what
has been made available suffers greatly from
inefficiency and apparently corruption.
Project Inspection Reveals Lack of Oversight and
Likely Corruption
4. (SBU) In projects in Khair Kot, Jani Khel, and
Waza Khwa districts, contractors were observed using
KABUL 00002471 002.2 OF 002
inferior materials including weak concrete block and
poorQuality concrete columns and beams. The use of
substandard materials and incorrect mix ratios
produced concrete which is extremely weak, crumbly,
and completely unsuitable for its intended
structural purpose. This is especially true in the
construction of the new government center buildings
in Waza Khwa, which the Afghan government is
supposed to be funding and supervising. These
Afghan Stabilization Program (ASP) buildings under
construction for well over a year are nowhere near
completion and are so poorly constructed that they
likely pose a real danger of collapsing on any
future occupants.
5. (SBU) Comment: Waza Khwa, Khair Kot and Jani
Khel are remote and undeveloped districts. The
district commissioners and chiefs of police, usually
the only representatives of the Afghan government in
the districts, lack the resources to effectively
govern. The planned construction by U.S Army
engineers this year of a road from Sharana to Waza
Khwa will help to open up these remote districts.
However, the lack of resources for the local
government agencies and the apparent government
negligence and likely corruption in the construction
of the ASP government center project in Waza Khwa is
disturbing. Despite these problems these districts
are not in imminent danger of falling to
Taliban/insurgent forces. Rather they are simply not
going to make much forward movement until the Afghan
government commits sufficient resources - both
manpower and materiel - to provide good governance
and to decisively dominate the environment. These
districts need reliable telecommunications and roads
to tie them to the rest of Afghanistan. They also
need honest professional administrators, equipped
with proper offices and equipment, committed to
extending the reach of the Karzai government and the
rule of law. Until this commitment is made these
districts will remain frontier regions where KabulQs
rule will remain weak. End Comment.
NEUMANN
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE SIPDIS
STATE FOR SA/FO (JGASTRIGHT),SA/A, S/CR, SA/PAB,
S/CT, EUR/RPM
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN, KAMEND
OSD FOR BREZINSKI
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76, POLAD
REL NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF
E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER AF
SUBJECT: PRT/PAKTIKA Q JOURNEY TO WAZA KHWA Q
PROJECTS, AND GOVERNANCE IN SOUTHERN PAKTIKA
KABUL 00002471 001.2 OF 002
(SBU) SUMMARY: An early May overland journey from
PaktikaQs capital Sharana through the districts of
Khair Kot, Jani Khel, and Wasa Khwa in southern
Paktika province revealed districts bereft of
improved roads, infrastructure, and effective Afghan
government influence. END SUMMARY.
2. (SBU) PRT Sharana conducted a eight day
overland trip to remote districts in southern
Paktika to meet key leaders, conduct medical
assistance visits and inspect ongoing building
projects. The trip, while providing medical care for
over 1200 people, also gave the PRT DOS
representative the opportunity to meet local leaders
and the PRT engineer the opportunity to inspect five
building projects in Khair Kot, Jani Khel, and Waza
Khwa districts. The medical side of the trip
provided positive medical and dental service to the
Afghan people, many of whom had likely never before
seen a qualified medical professional. The leader
engagements revealed significant shortages of
resources and staffing for the district government
offices, and project inspections demonstrated
deficiencies in nearly all the construction
projects.
Government Reach Stretched
3. (SBU) The Afghan government lacks capacity in
PaktikaQs southern districts. Waza Khwa district
center, reached after a hot and dusty seven hour,
seventy mile, bone jarring ride from Sharana over
unmarked desert tracks, is a small mud town of
little distinction aside from the small American
military outpost located on its outskirts. Situated
in an important border province in AfghanistanQs
southeastern Pashtun homeland and along infiltration
routes from Pakistan, the desert district of Waza
Khwa is typical of many remote districts in south
and central Paktika. Perhaps most revealing of its
remoteness from central governmentQs influence was
the discovery that the main currency in exchange in
Waza KhwaQs market was the Pakistani rupee. Afghan
currency was not in evidence and only U.S. dollars
or rupees were accepted in most shops. Discussions
with the two resident Afghan government leaders, the
district commissioner Kadirgul Zadran and chief of
police Ahmed Wahid Watak revealed the reach of the
Afghan government to be quite limited in this remote
area. With only two operational Toyota pickups, no
telephones, no radios, no electricity, and
functioning with only rudimentary offices in mud
buildings, the chief of police and district
commissioner are at best able to control only a
small part of their district. Support from the
central government is nearly nonexistent and what
has been made available suffers greatly from
inefficiency and apparently corruption.
Project Inspection Reveals Lack of Oversight and
Likely Corruption
4. (SBU) In projects in Khair Kot, Jani Khel, and
Waza Khwa districts, contractors were observed using
KABUL 00002471 002.2 OF 002
inferior materials including weak concrete block and
poorQuality concrete columns and beams. The use of
substandard materials and incorrect mix ratios
produced concrete which is extremely weak, crumbly,
and completely unsuitable for its intended
structural purpose. This is especially true in the
construction of the new government center buildings
in Waza Khwa, which the Afghan government is
supposed to be funding and supervising. These
Afghan Stabilization Program (ASP) buildings under
construction for well over a year are nowhere near
completion and are so poorly constructed that they
likely pose a real danger of collapsing on any
future occupants.
5. (SBU) Comment: Waza Khwa, Khair Kot and Jani
Khel are remote and undeveloped districts. The
district commissioners and chiefs of police, usually
the only representatives of the Afghan government in
the districts, lack the resources to effectively
govern. The planned construction by U.S Army
engineers this year of a road from Sharana to Waza
Khwa will help to open up these remote districts.
However, the lack of resources for the local
government agencies and the apparent government
negligence and likely corruption in the construction
of the ASP government center project in Waza Khwa is
disturbing. Despite these problems these districts
are not in imminent danger of falling to
Taliban/insurgent forces. Rather they are simply not
going to make much forward movement until the Afghan
government commits sufficient resources - both
manpower and materiel - to provide good governance
and to decisively dominate the environment. These
districts need reliable telecommunications and roads
to tie them to the rest of Afghanistan. They also
need honest professional administrators, equipped
with proper offices and equipment, committed to
extending the reach of the Karzai government and the
rule of law. Until this commitment is made these
districts will remain frontier regions where KabulQs
rule will remain weak. End Comment.
NEUMANN