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Contributions from
the Column Viewpoint
Afghanistan: Cooperation
between donors needs to improve
Protection for the poor,
not for patents
01/2003
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Interview with Bernt Glatzer
Afghanistan: Cooperation
between donors needs to improve
The international conference held in early December at a hilltop
palace near Bonn was supposed to deliver new stimuli for the future
of Afghanistan. And new stimuli are something the country desperately
needs, says Bernt Glatzer, who was in the Hindu Cush shortly
before the conference took place, conducting a study into the security
situation for GTZ and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Glatzer is
on the staff of the InWEnt Development Cooperation Training
Centre in Bad Honnef and is chairman of the Afghanistan Research
Group. A close observer of the country for more than 30 years, he
has also spent several years of his life working there.
President Hamid Karsai said at the
Petersberg conference that, in a year’s
time, there should be no more soldiers
in Afghanistan except those in the
national army. Is that realistic?
No, it can’t be done in a year. The country
is crawling with militia. Every provincial
police chief is trying to build up his own
private army.
How can that be stopped?
First of all, Karsai’s government needs to
be more than just a municipal administration
for Kabul. In the hinterland, the government
has virtually no power. In fact,
large parts of the population don’t even
acknowledge its legitimacy.
So broadening the government’s
power base is more than just a technical
problem?
That’s right. We’re now seeing how much
manipulation went on at the Loya Jirga in
the summer. The powerful representatives
of the Panjshiris – Defence Minister
Mohammed Fahim, Foreign Minister
Abdullah and the present Schools Minister
Yunis Qanuni – form a triumvirate
that dominates the government and at
the same time has established a network
of contacts among police, army and
secret service chiefs in the provinces.
That is simply not acceptable to the population
outside the Panjshir Valley. And
Karsai is not in a position to keep those
people under control.
The prospects of stabilising Afghanistan
are pretty bleak, then.
Yes. I don’t see any easy solutions.
Maybe the outside world needs to put
on a lot more pressure than it does at
present to smash the mafia-like structures
in the state administration.
But the outside world has interests
of its own …
I think most of the foreign players
are interested in stability – especially the
Americans, who want access to the
oil and gas in the countries north
of Afghanistan …
The Americans are vigorously
re-arming the militias as allies in the
fight against terrorism.
That’s right, United States policy is
contradictory. On the one hand, the Americans
are giving support to Karsai,
on the other, by cooperating with the
warlords, they’re undermining
the last remnants of authority his central
government still possesses.
What has a year of international
development cooperation done for
Afghanistan?
The achievements can mostly be seen
in the cities. A great deal is being accomplished
there, through private initiatives
as well. At the same time, though, there
are a great many rural refugees, who see
no prospects for themselves in their home
province. Across the country, there’s
simply too little being done. The aid workers
have ensconced themselves in Kabul,
seemingly loath to venture farther
afield because of what they see as lack of
security in the hinterland.
And are they wrong? Only last
November, two German aid workers
were attacked.
Yes, but that was more or less within
Kabul. In Western Afghanistan, for
example, the security situation is much
better than in Kabul. Even so, hardly
anyone goes there. But that’s changing
as well. Next year, there’ll also be
German development cooperation in
the provinces.
The German government
seems satisfied with its aid effort
for Afghanistan.
Are you satisfied too?
One sees signs of German cooperation
everywhere, of course. One sees that
schools have been built and hospitals
made operational. But when I see the
schools, I wonder who is going to pay the
teachers needed to give lessons in them,
who is going to train them. When you talk
to teachers, you hear that they wait for
months to be paid, and when they do
receive money it’s not enough to live on.
Did nobody give any thought
to the question of teachers’ pay?
Officially, there’s an international
division of labour. It’s sensible having
Germany focus on schools. But another
country is needed to ensure that
schools can be used to deliver a regular
education. I don’t see that working.
German aid will in future be
confined to the sectors drinking water,
energy and promotion of private
enterprise. But wouldn’t it be a good
idea - given the respect Germany
commands in Afghanistan - to channel
German assistance into political
restructuring. Into administrative
reform, for example, or institution
building?
Yes, I think it would. The Germans
had the three sectors pretty much thrust
upon them at the Tokyo donor
conference last year and were then
urged to accept them by the Afghan
government. I think Germany should have
had more say in the way assignments
were distributed. But a great deal
can be achieved in the sectors we’ve
been assigned – provided that cooperation
between donors improves. If it doesn’t,
we’ll leave an awful lot of white
elephants in Afghanistan as monuments
to our incompetence.
The interview was conducted by
Tillmann Elliesen.
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