| | Afghans fear aid group exodus in wake of violence Canwest News
08/16/2008
By Scott Deveau
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD - Those benefiting from development work in Afghanistan are urging foreign aid agencies to stay the course in the war-torn region despite a rash of targeted killings against Western aid workers in recent months.
Earlier this week, four aid workers, including two Canadians, were gunned down in a brazen midday attack on a dangerous stretch of road outside of Kabul.
The aid workers were in the country with the New York-based International Rescue Committee, which has been doing development work in Afghanistan since 1979, just weeks after the Soviet-led invasion of the country.
It was the second time in a little more than year that IRC workers had been targeted in such an attack, and the aid group said it would cease its operation temporarily in the country in order to better assess the security situation here.
That has some in Afghanistan worried that other aid agencies will pull out of the country as well.
The escalating violence has already forced the closure of a number of schools and hospitals in the south and has hindered the development of new projects in other regions.
But local aid officials said it would be a mistake to let the Taliban's intimidation tactics gain traction.
"The enemy is always trying to stop aid projects by targeting aid worker(s), either through killings or intimidation," said a spokesman for the Afghan-Canadian Community Center in Kandahar. "If the donor countries decrease or stop aid projects it means the enemy has succeeded."
Most of the NGOs operating in the country refuse to hire security firms to protect their workers because they want remain neutral in the conflict and they feel that travelling with armoured guards might attract attacks.
The Taliban, however, has begun targeting these unarmed aid workers in its ongoing effort to undermine development work in the country and, in turn, the Karzai government's ability to bring stability to the region.
The murders this week add to the 19 other NGO workers that have already been killed this year by insurgents - more than were killed in all of 2007.
"Most people believe that these are a terrible things carried out by Taliban," said Ghulam Haider, a teacher in Kandahar, whose school receives foreign aid from Canada.
"It's a big loss for ordinary Afghans people who benefit from those aid projects."
Mohammad Hashim Mayar, deputy director of Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief, said there also is a lot of concern that the security situation in the country is rapidly deteriorating. "Areas that were secure last year are no longer secure," he said.
ACBAR represents more than 100 NGOs operating in the Afghanistan, and Mayar noted that insurgent attacks against civilians and foreign workers hit their highest point in July since the major offensive began in 2001.
Mayar said it is no longer safe for aid workers to travel further than 35 kilometres outside of Kabul, which poses a serious challenge to the much-needed work they are doing in rural areas.
A Taliban spokesman was quick to take credit for Wednesday's attack, saying they "don't value" the aid projects in the country and accused Western aid workers of training spies in the country.
While the attacks have forced some agencies, like IRC, to scale back their operations or move them to less volatile areas, Mayar said it is unlikely that most agencies operating in the country will abandon their efforts altogether.
"This is not the first time they have been attacked. All NGOs have been making sacrifices," he said. "This year has been worse, but aid agencies will continue their work in Afghanistan."
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