PRT TARIN KOWT - SHURA HELD IN CAHAR SINEH,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 06 KABUL 005695

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SUBJECT: PRT TARIN KOWT - SHURA HELD IN CAHAR SINEH,
URUZGAN PROVINCE

Classified By: DCM RICHARD NORLAND FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) Summary - Uruzgan Governor Monib convened a shura of
Cahar Cineh
District residents in late September to exhort those
supporting the Taliban to work
with him to resolve issues peacefully, stop growing poppies,
and support efforts to
establish security in the province. The governor also used
the event to publicly
fire the local strongman and district police chief for
corruption and poor
management and announce his replacement. The shura was an
obviously staged
event and engendered little spontaneous participation.
However it did lead to a
significant development when elders from traditionally
Taliban-dominated
villages called on GOA and international forces to help rid
their villages of the
Taliban. Now the Governor must follow up by holding a new
shura that includes
these elders and work with donors to provide programs
demonstrating to residents
the Governor's intent and ability to deliver government
services to the people of
this insecure, isolated and long-neglected district. To
convince the skeptics, he
will need to produce a concrete, practical plan to provide
trained and equipped
police, initiate water and road projects and expand service
at the medical clinic
started by U.S. Special Forces (USSF). Donors should look to
provide small
amounts of assistance that support the thus far successful SF
efforts to use their
civil affairs projects to create and expand a security bubble
in and around Osey.
The Dutch PRT has followed up on this visit by providing
assistance in the health
sector and will be encouraged work with the GoA to ensure
that trained ANP and
ANAP are deployed to the area. USAID is doing the same
through Cash for
Work road and water projects. This should go a long way in
convincing residents
of Taliban-controlled villages in the vicinity that GOA
represents a positive
alternative to the Taliban . End Summary.

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The Shura
--------------


2. (SBU) Uruzgan Governor Abdul Hakim Monib held a district
shura on
Thursday, September 21 at the district center in Osey village
in Cahar Cineh.
Joining Monib were Provincial Council President Mullah
Hamdullah, Police
Chief General Mohammed Qasim, Director of Health Almar
Achmadzai, Director
of Education Melem Ramatullah Kahn, Director of
Reconstruction and Rural
Development Engineer Mohammed Hashim and the new Cahar Cineh
District
Chief Haji Said Ali, who assumed his duties in Osey at the
beginning of
September. PRT Commander Lt. Col. Nico Tak, PRTOFF and US
military
representatives also attended. About 150 local residents
attended the shura; most
were from Osey. Few if any were from the Taliban-controlled
villages that
encircle Osey and dominate much of the district. Monib last
held a shura in Osey

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in late May.


3. (SBU) The Governor told the audience that he wanted to
reach out to local
residents supporting the Taliban. Promising that none would
be captured or
harmed, he urged them to tell Taliban supporters to come and
talk to him or the
District Chief and to seek a peaceful resolution to their
grievances. By contrast,
he pledged to take the fight to those who refused to lay down
their weapons. He
also urged residents to refrain from cultivating poppy. He
recognized that local
farmers needed help growing other crops. Last year, he
pointed out, the security
situation prevented attempts to deliver seed and fertilizer
to Charchine and Khaz
Uruzgan districts (Note: Seed and fertilizer was distributed
to all other districts in
Uruzgan.). He then noted that if residents would work with
him and the Afghan
security forces to make those districts secure, he would see
that they also received
seed and fertilizer this year. Governor Monib also told the
audience that he would
fight against corruption and ensure people benefited from
government services
and investment. Specifically, he said that he had
implemented a plan to build
wells throughout the province. He also announced that
construction would begin
shortly on a road from Tarin Kowt to Osey, omitting that this
road would be
funded by the USG and built by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. (Note: On
28 Sep, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $25 million
CERP-funded
project to design and construct 40km of road improvements in
Uruzgan. The
contract duration is 720 days. In 2006 post's Alternative
Livelihood's Program
(ALP/S) worked closely with the Department of Agriculture to
distribute wheat
and corn seed and fertilizer to 6, 300 farmers in central
Uruzgan. In Spring 2007,
ALP/S will implement a vegetable seed program to benefit
another estimated
9,000 farmers in Uruzgan. In addition, ALP/s will upgrade or
set up veterinary
field units (VFU) in the districts of Dirawud, Khas Uruzgan,
Chora, Kijran,
Shahidi Hassas and Siabghal. Each VFU will be supported by a
trained para-
veterinarian and have a sustainable vaccine, medicine,
equipment supply and
distribution system. End note.)


4. (SBU) Gen. Qasim also spoke, urging residents to join
Afghan security forces
and the international forces whose representatives sat before
them to protect their
homes and establish security in the district. Noting recent
comments made by
Pakistan's President Musharraf equating the Taliban with all
Pashtun peoples, he
exhorted them to resist the Taliban and prove the President
wrong.


5. (C) A local resident seated next to the governor was the
only resident to speak.
He delivered a loud, dramatic speech to the Governor
purportedly on behalf of
members of the audience pledging to bring their Taliban
neighbors to the table
and not grow poppy if given seeds and fertilizer. Well-known

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to US military
forces operating in the district, the speaker, Haji Razik
Khan, recently lost his
position as village elder in Shamashad and was forced to move
to the village of
Doane. He is assessed to now have little credibility with
local residents, but
appears to have maintained his relationship with Governor.
The Governor's
spokesman provided information to the BBC about the shura,
which ran a story
portraying Razik Khan's statement as a pledge made by area
farmers not to grow
poppy in exchange for access to assistance in farming other
crops.


6. (SBU) When Razik Khan finished speaking, the district
chief told the governor
that residents had met in preparation for the shura and were
invited to submit lists
of services or government projects they requested. One by
one, about five men
rose and gave the governor their lists. According to the
MRRD Director, these
lists included requests from Osey residents for canals for
water management and
irrigation, a water storage tower and a permanent medical
clinic.


7. (SBU) In an apparent attempt to drive home his message of
reconciliation to
Taliban supporters in the region, Monib announced at the end
of the shura that
several elders from the Taliban-controlled village of Yakhdan
were in attendance.
They could not, he claimed, meet with him in public for
safety reasons.
Therefore, he would retire to a conference room where he
would meet them in
private. We were not able to verify his claim that these men
were indeed from
Yakhdan, but the provincial MRRD director told PRTOFF later
with great
certainty that all attendees were from Osey, the Taliban
having prevented
residents from other villages from attending.

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District Chief of Police Fired
--------------


8. (SBU) Drama was breathed into the event when the governor
announced he
was replacing district police chief and local strongman Naim
Khan and introduced
his placement, Salem Jon. The fireworks started at a small
meeting prior to the
shura attended by provincial and district officials as well
as PRT and US
representatives. Having gotten wind of what was to come,
Naim Khan delivered
the opening blast claiming that he hadn't received money for
salaries in the five
months since the last shura at the end of May. He claimed
this was the reason
police operating in the district had not been paid. Monib
and Gen. Qasim
disputed this assertion, forcing him to admit that he had
indeed received funds on
two other occasions. Caught, Naim extracted from Qasim an
admission that the
latter had not paid him funds for food allowances for six
months. Qasim
countered weakly that he could not get sufficient cash to
make those payments.
Naim also made unanswered accusations that Qasim forced him

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to sign for more
weapons and ammunition than he had received.


9. (SBU) Despite having asserted his dedication to fight
corruption, Governor
Monib made no reference to the accusations against Naim Khan
at the shura itself.
He simply thanked Naim for his service, then introduced the
new district chief of
police, Salem Jon. At that moment, about ten men rose to
protest Naim's firing --
the only spontaneous reaction from the audience. During the
lunch for the
Governor, Naim's militia arrived and gathered at several
points outside the district
building compound; the few ANP present left their post. PRT
force protection
watched as the deputy police chief defused the situation and
talked militia
members into going back to their normal posts. (As is the
case throughout the
province, there are only a handful of ANP in Cahar Cineh, and
security is
provided largely by militia forces under the command of local
leaders like Naim
Kahn.) Governor Monib later remarked that he had paid Naim
an unspecified
sum of money and that Naim no longer presented any danger.

--------------
Osey: Island of Safety Encircled by Taliban
--------------


10. (C) Osey is relatively secure and supportive of the GOA.
U.S. Special Forces
(USSF) members operating at Forward Operating Base (FOB)
Cobra walk
through the village with no protective gear carrying only
side arms. However,
they reported to PRTOFF when they travel more than a few
kilometers in
any direction they regularly come into conflict with Taliban
and other anti-
coalition military forces (ACM). The lack of Afghan security
forces in the district
further complicates their task. There are currently only 22
ANP and 20 ANA in
the district. Moreover, Osey and neighboring villages of
Lower and Upper Doane
and Shamadshad are paying dearly for their cooperation with
the GOA and USSF.
Taliban occupy the village of Yakhdan that lies at a cross
roads on the only road
wide enough to permit jingle (cargo) trucks to travel from
the provincial capital
Tarin Kowt and points south. They halt nearly all trucks
passing through
Yakhdan from traveling to Osey. Those they do let pass are
owned by ACM
sympathizers which travel to smaller Taliban-controlled
villages to the north and
east of Osey. As a result, the Osey bazaar is nearly
deserted and devoid of goods.
The few goods that are for sale, according to the local
population, are too
expensive to buy.


11. (C) Until recently, even the town of Osey was not a
permissive environment
according to the U.S. Special Forces (USSF). Rather than
retreating into their
FOB, the current unit-which arrived in mid-August - routinely
patrolled Osey and
other potentially friendly neighboring hamlets. Their medics
reopened the village
clinic and offered treatment there three times a week. USSF

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support local
education by paying Osey's only teacher, giving him school
supplies and
supporting his wife's efforts to educate girls. They are
working with USAID to
expand Cash For Work activities which will include water
management projects
and roads, among others. This collaboration between USAID
and Special Forces
has helped to tip the balance of power in this small area
towards the GOA and
Coalition - a partnership that is currently working to expand
its influence in
Uruzgan province. U.S. Special Forces also give the new
district chief, local
mullahs and the teacher airtime on the small FM radio on the
small radio-in-a-box
that they operate from a station near the FOB. This station
has a reach of 18 km
and extends the reach of moderate and pro-GOA messages into
Taliban-controlled
villages in the area. While there, PRT members witnessed the
powerful effect
achieved from small amounts of assistance and FM broadcasting
of public service
messaging. The medics took advantage of the presence of
female PRT members
to invite local women to come to the clinic for treatment.
Women are rarely seen
on the streets in this area, and the USSF medics had only
treated two women to
date and then only for dire medical emergencies. The
invitation message was
broadcast over the FM radio the night before the shura. The
next day, more than
50 women appeared for treatment. They had come on foot, some
from villages as
far as 9 km away.

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Comment
--------------


12. (C) While the governor managed to attract positive
coverage of the shura in
the international press, it was initially difficult to assess
the success of the event in
attracting support from the local population. Much of the
shura appeared to have
been inexpertly staged. Supposedly spontaneous occurrences
such as the speech
of the local elder and the meeting with Yakhdan residents
failed to engender any
public demonstration of support for the governor. And while
local leaders
routinely plead for greater security and both the Dutch and
USSF support Naim's
removal, it is unlikely that firing Naim and replacing him
with an illiterate
outsider with no formal police training will lead to any
improvement. Naim will
remain in the area presumably maintaining control over his
own militia and is
likely to continue to be a factor despite having lost his
formal position.


13. (C) Recently it became clear that the shura and Monib's
behind-the-scenes
work, together with USSF efforts, have produced results. At
the end of October, a
delegation of elders from a number of villages traditionally
allied with the Taliban
from Keshay through Yakhdan and north towards the Uruzgan-Dai
Kundi border
showed up at FOB Ripley. They told the ODA that they no
longer wanted

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Taliban presence in their villages and asked for help from
international forces and
the GoA to throw them out and provide security and
development to their people.
The PRT and USSF worked together to encourage Govenor Monib
to lead the
response to this overture. We helped him draft a radio
response that was
broadcast over the FM station located near FOB Cobra, and we
hope to make it
possible for him to return to hold a follow-on shura in Cahar
Cineh in the coming
weeks.


14. (C) We are also looking for ways to creatively and
selectively use
development assistance to respond to this call from the
people and multiply the
effects already being achieved by the USSF unit at Cobra, to
expand the bubble of
security they have created in and around Osey. The Dutch PRT
is looking for
ways to support and expand the reach, sustainability and
Afghan ownership of the
medical clinic the USSF is now running. The Cash For Work
program has been
extended in Uruzgan until December 2007 to the tune of $2
million USD. To
date, the project has provided USD $569,087 in wages to 3,100
Afghan laborers
for a total of 133,238 labor days. Cash For Work activities
provide the labor
needed to rehabilitate and repair arterial roads, irrigation
canals and construct
dikes for flood protection of family farms in Tarin Kowt,
Chora, Dirawud,
Shahidi Hassas and Khas Uruzgan districts. To date, ALP/S
has completed 54
Cash For Work activities, including rehabilitation of 31
kilometers of irrigation
canals/karezes and 10 kilometers of arterial roads. These
activities not only inject
much needed income into the local economy, but are also
essential to the success
of agribusiness and improved access to markets leading to
reduced operational
costs. Additionally, programs are expanding into
agriculture. USAID has already
completed one radio station and plans to construct at least
one more this year and
will provide programming and technical assistance.


15. (C) Due to the security situation in the region, USAID
has struggled to
engage many remote areas in Uruzgan. However, through a
growing relationship
with Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan
(CJSOTF-A),
ALP/S has been able to reach and engage areas like Shahidi
Hassas District with
significant results. USAID will continue to work in tandem
with CJSOTF-A to
design short and long term community and government
empowerment strategies
to combat the efforts of the anti-government elements.
NEUMANN