At the invitation of General James Jones, NATO's most senior general (SACEUR), Tobias Ellwood visited Afghanistan this week to hold meetings with President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan ministers for policing and defence as well as International development organisations. Tobias visited Kabul, Kandahar and British troops in the Helmand Province.

Commenting on the visit Tobias said:

"Much progress has been made since my visit to the country a year ago. NATO is expanding its operations into areas in the west and north where there has been no international presence. Provisional reconstruction teams (PRTs) have now been established and the local Afghan people are beginning to take their first steps towards stability.

Rivalries still exist between the numerous Afghan tribes. The thriving poppy trade which has increased steadily over the last 10 years and the absence of any border controls with Pakistan mean international efforts to help the country are limited to selected towns and villages in a country the size of France. Troops also face the obstacle of hunting down the Taliban and Al-quada insurgents in large parts of the country which are inhospitable mountain or desert territory.

In the Helmand province, an area twice the size of Wales, there are approximately 1,500 combat troops (excluding support units) in and around the town of Lashkargah. They are progressively winning over the hearts and minds of the local population and working closely with the 500 strong local police force. There are no troops within 150 miles of the southern boarder and not a single soldier in the neighbouring province of Nimruz. Illegal export of poppy crops goes largely unchecked. NATO needs more troops to plug the gaps and Pakistan needs to commit itself to identifying war lords south of the border who pay local Afghanis to grow poppies. Pakistan also needs to establish a firm presence in the border region to locate and destroy active terrorist training camps.

I also share General Jones' concern over the lack of co-ordination between the international development and reconstruction organisations. Helmand PRT is making steady progress with its development projects but these are organised in complete isolation of a national, co-ordinated programme. In other parts of the country organisations compete with each other, projects are duplicated or delayed due to caveats imposed by a country's embassy. There is no proper organisational plan to tackle the poppy trade.

Excluding numerous Afghan bodies the EU, the UN, DfID, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, NATO, ISAF, US Aid, the Counter Narcotics Trust, the PRTs and an organisation called the Inter-Agency Operation and Co-ordination Committee (not to mention the NGOs') all play an active and often overlapping role in development. These bodies are spending literally £ millions on projects which have had little impact on reducing the poppy trade (last year's crop was estimated to be 4,000 tonnes, the largest ever estimated).

I believe a 'Paddy Ashdown' type coordinating role is essential if we are to affectively harness the goodwill of the people and funding that is currently being wasted. A head of international development is needed with the authority to direct a strategy and choose how international funds are spent and the power to overrule individual agencies. President Karzai agreed that this task remains the responsibility of the International Community as the Afghan Government does not presently have the experience or logistics.

The large costs of retaining NATO troops in Afghanistan means the umbrella of security created will not be there for ever. The window of opportunity for the reconstruction and development agencies will be wasted unless urgent action is taken to co-ordinate activities and spending."

Tobias also took the opportunity during his visit to investigate the idea of operating a pilot scheme to legalise the opium trade in the Helmand area of Afghanistan. There is a shortage of opium world wide and legitimising Afghanistan's crop would prevent the terrorist war lords from making financial gains as well as reducing the quantity of heroin arriving on UK shores. At present there are 250,000 people involved in the poppy growth and over £400m has been spent combating the trade to little effect. General Jones and President Karzai agree that this is a worthwhile proposal.

Tobias Ellwood MP

House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

Tel:
0207 219 4349
Email:
ellwoodt@parliament.uk