KARSAI'S DEMANDS

FOR a change there is some good news on the military front in Afghanistan where a 12'000 strong Nato force is said to be in the ascendancy against the Taliban in the important Kandahar province. “If you have a peaceful Kandahar, you will have a peaceful Afghanistan” is an old Afghan saying. However, from Kabul has come the frustrating news of President Karsai's insistence that foreign private security companies must withdraw from the country by the end of this year -- a deadline he has recently advanced by twelve months. There are least 60 companies in the country at the moment providing security for US non-military development projects that range from road-building to agricultural support programmes. The foreign civilians undertaking this work will not do so without professional security backing and Karsai's demands therefore threaten progress on projects with budgets totalling abut two million dollars.

Perhaps unfairly, American private security firms have acquired a bad reputation in Afghanistan as they did in Iraq but the fact remains that the essential work they do cannot be undertaken by an overstretched military or passed on to Afghan security forces whose reputation is not high. Karsai sees the foreigner companies as “a serious threat against national sovereignty and security” and says he will not change his mind despite a meeting he has had with General Petraeus on the subject.