PRT/BAMYAN: OFFICIALS MAKE NZ PRT SCAPEGOAT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 003049 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, S/CR, EUR/RPM NSC FOR HARRIMAN OSD FOR BREZEZINSKI REL NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958 N/A TAGS: PGOV EAID MARR ECON SOCI AF SUBJECT: PRT/BAMYAN: OFFICIALS MAKE NZ PRT SCAPEGOAT FOR PACE OF DEVELOPMENT IN BAMYAN KABUL 00003049 001.2 OF 002 Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Officials have begun their annual blame the internationals for everything campaign, this time focusing their ire on the PRT. Official carping about the PRTs (mis)perceived lack of activity in Bamyan has reached new heights, capped by recent caustic remarks from WJ and PC members to the PRT Commander. r. Such self-serving comments betray the nervousness of local officials about their inability to deliver development to the people of Bamyan. End Summary. The PRT Does Nothing for the People of Bamyan -------------- --- 2 (SBU) Local officials have gone out of their way in recent weeks to snipe at PRT efforts. Refugee and Repatriation Director Sayed Ramatullah Anwari accused the PRT of letting children die. (Anwari was upset that the PRT would not build an aqueduct up a 200m cliff to a barren plateau where the Government wants to build homes for 1000 returnee families.) Director of Communications Azizullah Hamidi piled on, telling NZ Planning Officer Meighan that the computer lab the PRT provided was useless unless the PRT also provided the fuel for the generator that will power the computer network. ¶3. (SBU) Officials saved their harshest criticism for PRT Commander NZ Navy Captain Ross Smith, however. PC member Mohammad Hussain Wafayee accused the PRT on T on June 26 of bringing nothing to benefit Bamyans people. (This came one week after Wafayee thanked PRToff for the PRT development projects in Bamyan, past, present and future.) The most scathing comments came from WJ member Ustad Mohammad Akbari at a DIAG meeting June 28. Akbari, in front of over 50 people, including some former mujahadeen, said bluntly that, the PRT is doing nothing for the people of Bamyan. (Note: This follows comments by Sayad Mohammad Jamal Fakori Behisti in Parliament that the US had done nothing to help the people of Bamyan. Amb. Neumann has sent a letter to Behisti outliningall the projects completed and ongoing in Bamyan. End Note.) ¶4. (SBU) The worst may be yet to come. The provincial government announced this morning that it would hold a public forum for 400 people July 1 to discuss security and reconstruction in Bamyan. The PRT suspects that the forum will provide officials another opportunity to attack the PRT. Commander ander Smith will meet with Governor Sarabi to express his concerns about the wave of negative hyperbole. Comment -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Internationals-bashing is an annual rite by the Bamyan government, as they try to shift the publics attention away from their own inability to secure government resources. Last year Governor Sarabi led the charge, directing most of her frustration at UNAMA. This year the PRT seems to be the target of choice. The WJ and PC members, in their first year as elected officials, may feel that inability to deliver most keenly, and thus are most outspoken in their invective. Governor Sarabis silence says more about her own precarious political KABUL 00003049 002.2 OF 002 position than it does for PRT efforts. ¶6. (SBU) The people of Bamyan, fortunately, are less vitriolic in their criticism of assistance generally, and the PRT specifically. Even so, it is widely understood by the people that secure and stable Bamyan Province receives lower levels of assistance than more e restive provinces in the South and East. This fact has engendered increasing resentment and bitterness amongst a Hazara population which continues to view itself from a victims perspective. ¶7. (SBU) Officials finger-pointing is even more inaccurate than usual this year, as NZAID and USAID are engaged in one of the busiest construction seasons in the PRTs history. Such unwarranted, if understandable, criticism could not come at a worse time for the people of Bamyan, as the NZDF currently is evaluating its own medium to long term objectives in Afghanistan. NORLAND