[R-G] [Potemkin] villages around Kandahar aim to render Taliban 'irrelevant'

[Anthony Fenton]

also:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090520.AFGHANVILLAGE20ART2154/TPStory/National

'Model' villages around Kandahar aim to render Taliban 'irrelevant'

19 hours ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada's reconstruction mission in treacherous  
southern Afghanistan is poised to embark on a new phase in the coming  
weeks with efforts focused on normalizing small population centres on  
the five main approaches to Kandahar, the country's second-largest city.

The aim is to create "model villages" where normal daily and economic  
activity can flourish in a secure environment and the reach of the  
central Afghan government is felt, unlike in so many of the existing  
communities that dot war-ravaged Kandahar province.

"We can't be everywhere at once," said Lt.-Col. Carl Turenne, who  
commands more than 400 soldiers at Camp Nathan Smith, the compound at  
the edge of Kandahar city that houses Canada's civilian-led  
reconstruction team.

If successful, Turenne said, the approach would render the insurgency  
"irrelevant."

The idea is simple: identify suitable small villages on the main  
thoroughfares in and out of the city where coalition support is  
strong, establish a secure perimeter and then embark on a concerted  
information campaign to win over the hearts and minds of local  
villagers.

"This is a recognition that population centres are more pivotal," said  
Cory Anderson, who is currently in charge of the 60 civilians working  
with the reconstruction team.

Indeed, a similar approach is being applied within Kandahar city  
itself, 10 districts totalling between 500,000 to 800,000 people where  
the aim is to identify population "pockets" amenable to rejecting the  
Taliban in favour of a positive alternative, Anderson said.

The Canadian government has been signalling a shift in strategy in  
recent months ahead of its commitment to end Canada's combat mission  
in 2011. Outposts have been dismantled as reinforcement U.S. troops  
arrive in the region and take over more of the hard-edged military role.

In his visit earlier this week, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said  
Canadian forces no longer wanted to take and end up "holding swaths of  
land."

The new initiative is very much in line with that thinking, Anderson  
said.

Still, making even small centres safe in the face of a violent and  
determined insurgency may be easier said than done.

With the ongoing influx of thousands of U.S. soldiers into the  
country's restive southern regions, there's little doubt there will be  
more "spectacular attacks" in the months ahead, Anderson said.

As has been the case from the beginning, the health and competence of  
Afghanistan's national police force - still widely viewed with  
suspicion and skepticism by locals - remains vital to the success of  
the shifting mission.

Confidence in the force, one of the high-profile casualties of the  
Taliban insurgency, remains low among Afghans, who view the officers  
as corrupt, ill-equipped, poorly trained and ineffective.

Canadian officers from the RCMP and other forces across Canada have  
been mentoring their counterparts here in an effort to bring their  
Afghan counterparts up to a higher standard so they might be better  
equipped to maintain order once coalition forces leave.

The effort is paying off, with an "off-the-chart" improvement in their  
level of competence, said Anderson, whose stint as acting director of  
the provincial reconstruction team comes to an end this week.

In some parts of the city, Afghan officers are now doing real police  
work, he said.

"The policing issue is so important to Canada, if not the most  
important," Anderson said. "They are the face of the (Afghan)  
government."

The cost to Afghan police, however, continues to be high.

Late Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the city's northern  
Arghandab district near the local police detachment, killing three  
officers and injuring nine others, the district chief said.

The area's chief of police, who was walking with his men when the  
attack occurred, was among the injured.

- With files from A.R. Khan