The Afghan government is planning to phase out most private security companies and replace them with its own forces over the next 12 months, according to Afghan and international officials.
The timeline appears to end months of turmoil over how quickly the companies would be pushed out, and it should clear the way for projects that had been delayed by security concerns to resume development.
The plan allows foreign embassies and organizations with diplomatic missions to continue using private security companies at their discretion. Other entities, including the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and the United States Agency for International Development, could continue to contract with the companies over the next 12 months.
At the end of that period, the Afghan Public Protection Force and the Ministry of Defense would take responsibility for securing NATO supply convoys and protecting international development projects, according to details of the plan released late Tuesday.
Whether 12 months is long enough to meet that goal is an open question, said Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, a group that represents companies doing business with the American government around the world, including Afghanistan. “But at least this now gives us some time to work toward that goal without some arbitrary, short-term deadline,” he said.
The extensive use of private security companies by the United States and other foreign entities has been a source of tension in Afghanistan and Iraq for years, fueled by high-profile episodes involving civilian deaths, excessive use of force and corruption.
In August, President Hamid Karzai issued a decree banning most private security companies, with the Afghan Public Protection Force replacing them. NATO welcomed the move, but how quickly the companies would be ushered out was unclear. Many development groups that rely on the companies worried that the government would replace them before Afghan forces were trained or numerous enough to take on the work.
The government appeared to back off in December when it agreed that the companies would be gradually replaced when enough government guards were recruited and trained to take their place. But Mr. Karzai ordered a secret investigation into the companies. It concluded that more than 80 percent of the 52 licensed companies had committed some offense, including 16 cited for “major offenses.”
The serious offenses included such violations as the illegal use of weapons, illegal hiring, vehicle offenses and tax evasion. The investigation raised concerns among Western officials that Mr. Karzai was trying to hasten the departure of the companies, while the companies privately fretted that the list was a kind of shakedown by the government, which the government denied.
The Ministry of Interior said that all but 7 of the 52 companies would be allowed to continue operating in the country, but urged them to settle their “security and legal violations” within 90 days. The remaining seven, mostly local companies, were ordered disbanded for having ties to government officials.
Lt. Gen. James Bucknall, deputy commander of the NATO-led force, said in a statement that the “one-year bridging strategy” ensured that the transition to Afghan security forces would “take place in an orderly and measured way without prejudice to security of the agencies involved.”
The plan also should allow new development projects that had been threatened to move forward, including the construction of military bases and police stations for Afghan forces over the next two years at a cost of more than $10 billion.
In another area that has raised tensions with the Afghan government, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of American and allied forces in Afghanistan, ordered an investigation on Wednesday into a NATO airstrike that killed two children in Kunar Province on Monday. Local officials said the children — two brothers, ages 11 and 17 — were watering their family’s field when a helicopter fired on them.
It was the latest in a string of cases involving civilian casualties this month that have aggravated relations between NATO forces and Mr. Karzai. Last week, a cousin of Mr. Karzai was killed in a night raid in Kandahar Province. And on March 1, NATO helicopter gunners mistakenly killed nine boys collecting firewood in Kunar Province, believing that they were insurgents. Both episodes are under investigation.
NATO suspended the ground force commander and grounded the helicopter crew involved in Monday’s killings while the investigation into them continues.
“I cannot overstate how seriously we take all instances of civilian casualties,” General Petraeus, who was in Washington testifying before Congress, said in a statement. “We will take all necessary steps to get to the bottom of this. We know we cannot succeed if we harm the people.”
Also on Wednesday, 12 oil tankers carrying fuel for NATO bases were destroyed in a fiery blast after a motorcycle loaded with explosives detonated while it was parked next to them in Tarin-Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province, local officials said. Two men believed to be drivers were killed and six others were wounded, said Ahmad Milad Mudasir, a provincial spokesman.
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