[R-G] Plans for Canada's Afghan reconstruction base stretch to 2015: insider

[Anthony Fenton]

Plans for Canada's Afghan reconstruction base stretch to 2015: insiders

December 12, 2007 - 17:04
http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=n121269A

Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - The Foreign Affairs Department has developed plans to keep a  
Canadian provincial reconstruction base in Kandahar until at least  
2015, say federal officials.

The department has also started recruiting diplomatic staff to fill  
posts at the base for one-year assignments that stretch beyond  
Parliament's self-imposed February 2009 deadline for an end to the  
military mission.

Sources within the department told The Canadian Press the two  
diplomatic openings currently being filled run from the fall of next  
year to the fall of 2009.

The provincial reconstruction base, nestled in an old fruit canning  
factory in a Kandahar suburb, was set up in 2005. It functions as the  
headquarters for Canada's reconstruction efforts, giving development  
officials, the RCMP and correctional officers a secure location from  
which to help Afghans rebuild their shattered country.

The base, while protected by the Canadian military, is entirely  
separate from the combat units, located at Kandahar Airfield, NATO's  
principal base in southern Afghanistan.

Contingency plans for a long-term Canadian diplomatic and development  
presence in the war-torn city were initially drawn up in the spring  
of 2006, not long after the Conservatives came to power and at the  
same time an extension to the military mission was proposed, said  
diplomatic sources.

The proposal apparently has so-called "off-ramps" that would allow  
Ottawa to withdraw, or hand over the Kandahar base to another  
country. But the first opt-out date is not until 2011, the same year  
an international agreement to rebuild Afghanistan expires, the  
sources indicated.

Coincidentally, 2011 is the same year the Conservative government  
chose in their throne speech as an extension for Canada's military  
commitment.

The Foreign Affairs Department did not respond to requests for comment.

This fall, Prime Minister Stephen Harper assembled a panel of eminent  
Canadians, headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, to  
study Canada's future role beyond the expiry of the current mission.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, appearing before the Commons  
foreign affairs committee Tuesday, made a distinction between the  
military and development efforts.

"The mandate of development and reconstruction is a commitment until  
2011 under the (Afghanistan) compact with other countries," Bernier  
said, responding to a question from Bloc Quebecois defence critic  
Claude Bachand.

"Mr. Manley's mandate just has to do with the military mission."

Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who was at the committee meeting, said his  
ears perked up after hearing that statement and wondered whether the  
Conservatives would use an extended development commitment as a  
pretext to keeping troops in the country.

"We all know development can't proceed without security, at least  
that's what they keep telling us," McTeague said Wednesday.

"This is troubling and the government needs to explain to Canadians  
precisely what its intentions are for the PRT (provincial  
reconstruction team) in Kandahar. I, like many Canadians, was under  
the impression Mr. Manley was looking at the whole mission.

"We've all been focused on the combat mission. Since we can't have  
development without security, I think the government needs to explain  
clearly to Canadians how long it sees our development commitment  
running until. Is it 2011, 2015, or some time longer?"

Later in the Tuesday hearing, Bernier emphasized that the  
Conservatives don't believe that Canada "should simply abandon the  
Afghans in 2009."

The terms of reference for the Manley review panel suggest Canada's  
diplomatic and development efforts in Kandahar will continue,  
regardless of the combat commitment.

One of the options set out by Harper proposes a focus on  
reconstruction, leaving forces from another country to handle  
security at the base.

Another proposal - one already deemed unacceptable by the Tories -  
suggests withdrawal of all Canadian military except a "minimal force  
to protect aid workers and diplomats."

A third option under consideration by the independent panel is to  
shift Canadian security and reconstruction efforts elsewhere in  
Afghanistan.

The final proposal involves what Harper described as the status quo,  
essentially a continuation of the existing military and development  
mission with emphasis on training the Afghan army.

Canada is planning to invest a total of $1.2 billion in aid and  
development by 2011, 80 per cent of which is being funnelled to  
national institutions.