Activist attacks U.S. military relief effort in Afghanistan

A top activist for the relief group Child Fund Afghanistan said Tuesday that provisional reconstruction teams set up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan earlier this year have failed to provide much-needed assistance to the war-ravaged country.

Alex Klaits, a program manager for the relief group who has been stationed in the northeastern Afghan province of Kunduz, spoke at an event sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington think tank, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan, federal grant-making organization.

Klaits said that nongovernmental relief organizations such as Child Fund Afghanistan oppose the provisional reconstruction teams, which were established in several Afghan regions earlier this year, because they put military forces in charge of relief work. "Many of the NGOs are going bankrupt but the military has lots of funds," he said. "We believe the NGOs are capable of doing this work."

More practically, Klaits said that the military teams, which are made up of Army special operations soldiers, regular ground troops and Army personnel trained in reconstruction, have failed to tap local resources and have botched construction projects.

The teams have hired Afghan construction companies to rebuild schools and hospitals, he said, but don't have engineers on staff capable of overseeing the work. "The schools being built are already falling down," Klaits said. In addition, he said, the teams have wasted money by failing to call for community volunteers and for allowing the Afghan construction firms to overcharge for their services.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz touted the teams last January in a visit to Kabul. He said that the government was planning to have eight teams of 40 to 60 people up and running by the end of the year, and said that they would provide the security necessary for relief organizations to operate outside the Afghan capital.

But Klaits said that security has not been a serious problem, as least for the Child Fund Afghanistan workers. Calling the situation a "rough peace," Klaits said fear of American bombers has kept Afghan warlords in check. Aid workers have faced far greater difficulties, he said, in obtaining funding to further their work. He said that $3 billion has been spent on Afghan reconstruction since the U.S.-led war, but that progress has been slow in improving the quality of housing, water sanitation, education, and healthcare.