Cablegate: Prt/Bamyan: Officials Make Nz Prt Scapegoat
VZCZCXRO2910
OO RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIK RUEHKUK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #3049/01 1891002
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 081002Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1239
INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 0268
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2674
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 6133
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1503
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 2818
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 003049
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, S/CR, EUR/RPM
NSC FOR HARRIMAN
OSD FOR BREZEZINSKI
REL NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: PGOV EAID MARR ECON SOCI AF
SUBJECT: PRT/BAMYAN: OFFICIALS MAKE NZ PRT SCAPEGOAT
FOR PACE OF DEVELOPMENT IN BAMYAN
KABUL 00003049 001.2 OF 002
Summary
--------
1. (SBU) Officials have begun their annual blame the
internationals for everything campaign, this time
focusing their ire on the PRT. Official carping about
the PRTs (mis)perceived lack of activity in Bamyan
has reached new heights, capped by recent caustic
remarks from WJ and PC members to the PRT Commander.
r.
Such self-serving comments betray the nervousness of
local officials about their inability to deliver
development to the people of Bamyan. End Summary.
The PRT Does Nothing for the People of Bamyan
--------------------------------------------- ---
2 (SBU) Local officials have gone out of their way in
recent weeks to snipe at PRT efforts. Refugee and
Repatriation Director Sayed Ramatullah Anwari accused
the PRT of letting children die. (Anwari was upset
that the PRT would not build an aqueduct up a 200m
cliff to a barren plateau where the Government wants
to build homes for 1000 returnee families.) Director
of Communications Azizullah Hamidi piled on, telling
NZ Planning Officer Meighan that the computer lab the
PRT provided was useless unless the PRT also
provided the fuel for the generator that will power
the computer network.
3. (SBU) Officials saved their harshest criticism for
PRT Commander NZ Navy Captain Ross Smith, however. PC
member Mohammad Hussain Wafayee accused the PRT on
T on
June 26 of bringing nothing to benefit Bamyans
people. (This came one week after Wafayee thanked
PRToff for the PRT development projects in Bamyan,
past, present and future.) The most scathing comments
came from WJ member Ustad Mohammad Akbari at a DIAG
meeting June 28. Akbari, in front of over 50 people,
including some former mujahadeen, said bluntly that,
the PRT is doing nothing for the people of Bamyan.
(Note: This follows comments by Sayad Mohammad Jamal
Fakori Behisti in Parliament that the US had done
nothing to help the people of Bamyan. Amb. Neumann
has sent a letter to Behisti outliningall the projects
completed and ongoing in Bamyan. End Note.)
4. (SBU) The worst may be yet to come. The
provincial government announced this morning that it
would hold a public forum for 400 people July 1 to
discuss security and reconstruction in Bamyan.
The PRT suspects that the forum will provide officials
another opportunity to attack the PRT. Commander
ander
Smith will meet with Governor Sarabi to express his
concerns about the wave of negative hyperbole.
Comment
--------
5. (SBU) Internationals-bashing is an annual rite by
the Bamyan government, as they try to shift the
publics attention away from their own inability to
secure government resources. Last year Governor
Sarabi led the charge, directing most of her
frustration at UNAMA. This year the PRT seems to be
the target of choice. The WJ and PC members, in their
first year as elected officials, may feel that
inability to deliver most keenly, and thus are most
outspoken in their invective. Governor Sarabis
silence says more about her own precarious political
KABUL 00003049 002.2 OF 002
position than it does for PRT efforts.
6. (SBU) The people of Bamyan, fortunately, are less
vitriolic in their criticism of assistance generally,
and the PRT specifically. Even so, it is widely
understood by the people that secure and stable Bamyan
Province receives lower levels of assistance than more
e
restive provinces in the South and East. This fact
has engendered increasing resentment and bitterness
amongst a Hazara population which continues to view
itself from a victims perspective.
7. (SBU) Officials finger-pointing is even more
inaccurate than usual this year, as NZAID and USAID
are engaged in one of the busiest construction seasons
in the PRTs history. Such unwarranted, if
understandable, criticism could not come at a worse
time for the people of Bamyan, as the NZDF currently
is evaluating its own medium to long term objectives
in Afghanistan.
NORLAND