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PrintEmail http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_afghanistan_plan_120109/
news/2009/12/ap_afghanistan_plan_120109
Marines to be first wave in Afghanistan plan
By Darlene Superville and Steven R. Hurst - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 1, 2009 19:11:29 EST
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is dispatching 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, accelerating a risky and expensive war buildup, even as he assures Americans that U.S. forces will begin coming home in July 2011. The first new Marines will join the fight by Christmas.
Obama was to unveil Tuesday night his plans in a long-anticipated, high-profile speech broadcast from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in what could become a defining moment of his presidency and a political gamble that may weigh heavily on his chances for a second White House term.
It represents the beginning of a campaign to restore support for the war effort among an American public grown increasingly pessimistic about success — and among some fellow Democrats in Congress wary of or even opposed to spending billions more dollars and putting tens of thousands more U.S. soldiers and Marines in harm’s way.
“The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 the fastest pace possible so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers,” Obama was to say in his prime-time speech. The White House released excerpts in advance.
The increased troops, Obama said, “will increase our ability to train competent Afghan security forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight. And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans.”
A new survey by the Gallup organization, released Tuesday, showed only 35 percent of Americans now approve of Obama’s handling of the war; 55 percent disapprove.
The escalation — to be completed by next summer — is designed to reverse significant Taliban advances since Obama took office 10 months ago and to fast-track the training of Afghan soldiers and police toward the goal of hastening an eventual U.S. pullout. The size and speed of the troop increase will put a heavy strain on the military, which still maintains a force of more than 100,000 in Iraq and already has 68,000 in Afghanistan.
NATO diplomats said Obama was asking alliance partners in Europe to add 5,000 to 10,000 troops to the separate international force in Afghanistan. Indications were the allies would agree to a number somewhere in that range. The war has even less support in Europe than in the United States, and the NATO allies and other countries have about 40,000 troops on the ground.
Looking to America’s experience in Iraq, Obama said a U.S. withdrawal would be executed “responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground.”
“We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan’s security forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul. But it will be clear to the Afghan government and, more importantly, to the Afghan people that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country,” Obama said.
Obama also leaned heavily on NATO allies and other countries to join in escalating the fight.
“We must come together to end this war successfully,” the president said. “For what’s at stake is not simply a test of NATO’s credibility. What’s at stake is the security of our allies, and the common security of the world.”
Obama’s nationally broadcast speech ends three months of exacting deliberations that won praise from supporters and criticism from opponents. Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Obama was “dithering,” too inexperienced to make a decision on the troop buildup requested in September by commanding Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
Senior officials said Obama would underscore his commitment to stabilizing Afghanistan and scouring corruption out of the government of President Hamid Karzai. Obama has vowed to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a safe haven for al-Qaida boss Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization.
Most of the new forces will be combat troops. There will be about 5,000 dedicated trainers in the 30,000 troops, showing the emphasis on preparing Afghans to take over their own security. And the president is making clear to his generals that all troops, even if designated as combat, must consider themselves trainers.
Announcing a start to a U.S. withdrawal by July 2011 does not tie the United States to an “end date” for the war, officials said. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because the speech had not been delivered.
Even before the president spoke, his plan was met with skepticism in Congress, where Sen. Russ Feingold and liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives threatened to try to block funding for the troop increase.
Sen. Carl Levin, the Democrat who chairs a military oversight panel, said he didn’t think Democrats would yank funding for the troops or try to force Obama’s hand to pull them out faster. But Democrats will be looking for ways to pay for the additional troops, he said, including a tax increase on the wealthy although that hike is already being eyed to pay for health care costs.
Meanwhile, Republicans said that setting a timetable for withdrawal would demonstrate weakness.
“The way that you win wars is to break the enemy’s will, not to announce dates that you are leaving,” said Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and Obama’s campaign rival in last year’s presidential race.
The main mission of the new troops will be to reverse Taliban gains and secure population centers in the country’s volatile south and east. The addition of some Marines before year’s end would provide badly needed reinforcements to those fighting against Taliban gains in southern Helmand province.
Obama briefed dozens of key lawmakers Tuesday afternoon, before setting off for West Point.
In the days leading up to the speech, Obama has been discussing his Afghanistan strategy with other world leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Late Monday, the president spent an hour on a video conference call with Karzai. The White House said Obama told the Afghan leader “that U.S. and international efforts in Afghanistan are not open-ended and must be evaluated toward measurable and achievable goals within the next 18 to 24 months.”
On Tuesday Obama contacted Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to tell him the United States wanted to open a long-term commercial and security relationship. Obama also had planned to speak of a need to help Pakistan stabilize itself from the threats it faces not only from al-Qaida but Taliban forces that are increasingly behind terrorist bombings in that country, officials said.
The United States went to war in Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorist attacks on the United States.
Bin Laden and key members of the terrorist organization were headquartered in Afghanistan at the time, taking advantage of sanctuary afforded by the Taliban government that ran the mountainous and isolated country.
Taliban forces were quickly driven from power, while bin Laden and his top deputies were believed to have fled through towering mountains into neighboring Pakistan. While the al-Qaida leadership appears to be bottled up in Pakistan’s largely ungoverned tribal regions, the U.S. military strategy of targeted missile attacks from unmanned drone aircraft has yet to flush bin Laden and his cohorts from hiding.
———
AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven and National Security Writer Anne Gearan contributed to this report.
PrintEmail Julie Jacobson / The Associated Press Marine Lt. Joe Cull of Golf Company, 2nd Batallion, 3rd Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, II Marine Expeditionary Force, provides cover for Afghan National Army soldiers, who were ushering local residents of Dahaneh, Helmand province, into a compound to keep them out of the crossfire from Taliban and Marine forces.
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An Afghan construction worker places mud on a wall for a new building in a school in Taloqan, east of Kundus, April 23, 2009. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)
USAID: Understaffed and overwhelmed in Afghanistan
Share on FacebookStumbleUponAdd to RedditPrint VersionEmail ArticleMost popular:
Obama's peace prize visit brings guns, snipers to Oslo
Opinion: Where in the world is Osama bin Laden?
Cappadocia — strange, beautiful, relevantObama's troop surge fails to address how to improve delivery of aid.
By C.M. Sennott - GlobalPost
Published: December 11, 2009 06:36 ETWASHINGTON — Understaffing combined with unwieldy budgets on rushed schedules in an active war zone have severely undercut the U.S. Agency for International Development’s ability to deliver nearly $10 billion in aid for development projects in Afghanistan.
A new report by USAID’s inspector general raises serious questions about how U.S. taxpayer dollars are being spent — or misspent — in Afghanistan on the construction of roads, bridges, schools and other projects.
A dramatic shortage of program officers as well as auditors and investigators and poor security conditions on the ground have all conspired, the 128-page report concludes, to “significantly impair” the objectives of USAID’s mission, which is to provide economic development and humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and around the world.
The summary report is based on numerous individual audits and at least 14 active investigations, but it offers few specific details on the fraud, bribery, extortion and kickback schemes which involve at least $150 million in taxpayers’ money.
The failure of USAID to effectively monitor the development projects threatens to undermine the U.S. military’s new counterinsurgency strategy and troop surge, which is built upon the effective delivery of aid in the struggle against the Taliban for hearts and minds.
“We are sending too much money, too fast with too few people looking over how it is spent,” said one official knowledgeable of the USAID inspector general’s auditing process for the $9.4 billion obligated to Afghanistan in the last seven years.
“We end up not knowing where the money is going,” added the official, who is pushing for a deeper investigation into alleged abuses by contractors and subcontractors and widespread corruption from the highest levels of the Afghan government to the lowest level of subcontractors in the field.
That push for a further investigation is joined by the House Foreign Affairs Committee which is examining the delivery of foreign aid and the need for more USAID auditors and investigators to be assigned to the field.
The committee's interest was spurred in part by a special report by GlobalPost that highlighted how USAID funds are going to Afghan subcontractors who are allegedly paying protection money to the Taliban.
Following the GlobalPost report on how subcontractors are purportedly being extorted by the Taliban, the USAID inspector general’s spokeswoman Dona Dinkler said the agency was conducting a probe into those allegations. In a recent briefing, she declined comment on the status of what she described as an “active” investigation.
The probe comes amid an overall rethinking in Washington of how the restructuring of USAID has left the agency vastly ill-equipped to deal with the challenges it faces, particularly in Afghanistan.
1 2 3 Next > Last >> Comments:
2 Comments.
Login or Register to post comments
Posted by david wayne osedach on December 11, 2009 08:53 ET
Bribery and extortion are a way of life in Afghanistan. I wouldn't be surprised if a full half of the USAID funds went to graft.
Posted by scottdavene on December 11, 2009 23:21 ET
Everybody knows that the only reason our troops are there is to keep the opium fields in full productions. Until we remove all our troops from the middle-east, and do something to solve our problems at home, our reputation in every country is ruined. If I could afford to go anywhere after the damage the neoconservative war/profit-mongers have done to our economy, I would definitely say I was from Canada. I invite you to my pages devoted to raising awareness on these important issues: http://pltcldscsn.blogspot.com/
Recent on Afghanistan:
Latest
Opinion: Obama defines the use of war in an age of terror
C.M. Sennott - Worldview - December 10, 2009 11:43 ET
Obama's Nobel acceptance speech was a self-effacing and deeply personal exploration of "just war."
Opinion: Where in the world is Osama bin Laden?
Michael Goldfarb - Worldview - December 9, 2009 06:48 ET
Do we even want to know? Is it possible that limbo is the easiest place for him to be?
Reactions to Obama's Afghan surge vary on the ground
Ben Gilbert - Afghanistan - December 3, 2009 08:47 ET
As the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan arrives in the restive south, troops there express mixed feelings on a now-expanded mission.
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A fateful decision for the land that will pay the greatest price on a troop increase.
Opinion: Not enough troops for counterinsurgency
C.M. Sennott - Worldview - December 1, 2009 23:15 ET
Obama's Afghanistan speech did not convince counterinsurgency experts and did not give enough details.
Opinion: It's really about Pakistan
HDS Greenway - Worldview - December 1, 2009 22:33 ET
Obama's speech hints at the ultimate strategic importance of Pakistan, rather than Afghanistan.
Opinion: Obama has a hard sell on Afghanistan troop increase
C.M. Sennott - Worldview - November 25, 2009 19:19 ET
Will a commitment to "finish the job" end up ringing just as hollow as "mission accomplished?"
Afghanistan's only pig quarantined? Must be bad
Jean MacKenzie - Afghanistan - November 23, 2009 12:06 ET
Swine flu has sent one of the world's most unflappable populations into a panic.
Agriculture as peacemaker in Afghanistan
Douglas A. Wissing - Afghanistan - November 20, 2009 14:30 ET
America's farmer-soldiers in Afghanistan
Douglas A. Wissing - Afghanistan - November 20, 2009 14:30 ET
An elite Indiana National Guard unit is patrolling Khost Province, helping Afghan farmers to help themselves.
Afghanistan: Waiting for the dust to settle
Finbarr O'Reilly - Afghanistan - November 12, 2009 16:45 ET
Troops' deaths shatter trust in Helmand
Jean MacKenzie and Aziz Ahmad Tassal - Afghanistan - November 8, 2009 15:13 ET
Afghans and Brits alike fear that the deaths of 5 British troops at the hands of a police colleague have tipped an already tense working relationship into outright distrust.
Afghanistan: The fog of war
Finbarr O'Reilly - Afghanistan - November 5, 2009 10:51 ET
Video: Embedded with Canadian troops, photographer Finbarr O'Reilly captures the confusion and chaos of a worsening conflict.
Why Poland has soured on Afghanistan
Jan Cienski - Poland - November 4, 2009 06:46 ET
A recent poll found 77 percent of Poles want their troops withdrawn.
Greek aid worker held by Taliban
Iason Athanasiadis - Afghanistan - November 3, 2009 06:44 ET
A schoolteacher from Athens was the only Westerner living in the valleys on Pakistan’s mountainous frontier.
Why Stephen Harper prefers US news
Sandro Contenta - Canada - November 2, 2009 20:08 ET
Questions over Canada’s role in the Afghanistan war and unflattering polls have the prime minister eyeing the exits.
Karzai declared winner by default
Jean MacKenzie - Afghanistan - November 2, 2009 12:26 ET
The Afghan president gains a second 5-year term but there are questions about the legitimacy of his win.
Abdullah withdraws from Afghan election
Jean MacKenzie - Afghanistan - November 1, 2009 11:23 ET
Can runoff race be valid with only President Hamid Karzai?
Taliban attacks on both sides of the AfPak border
Jean MacKenzie - Afghanistan - October 28, 2009 10:34 ET
In Kabul and Peshawar, nearly 100 dead, among them UN staffers.
Watch GlobalPost videos:
Chatter: What we're hearing
Mugabe issues warning on elections.
A Briton wins Miss World (well, sort of).
Champagne found to be good for the heart.
An Afghan construction worker places mud on a wall for a new building in a school in Taloqan, east of Kundus, April 23, 2009. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)
USAID: Understaffed and overwhelmed in Afghanistan
Share on FacebookStumbleUponAdd to RedditPrint VersionEmail ArticleMost popular:
Obama's peace prize visit brings guns, snipers to Oslo
Opinion: Where in the world is Osama bin Laden?
Cappadocia — strange, beautiful, relevantObama's troop surge fails to address how to improve delivery of aid.
By C.M. Sennott - GlobalPost
Published: December 11, 2009 06:36 ETWASHINGTON — Understaffing combined with unwieldy budgets on rushed schedules in an active war zone have severely undercut the U.S. Agency for International Development’s ability to deliver nearly $10 billion in aid for development projects in Afghanistan.
A new report by USAID’s inspector general raises serious questions about how U.S. taxpayer dollars are being spent — or misspent — in Afghanistan on the construction of roads, bridges, schools and other projects.
A dramatic shortage of program officers as well as auditors and investigators and poor security conditions on the ground have all conspired, the 128-page report concludes, to “significantly impair” the objectives of USAID’s mission, which is to provide economic development and humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and around the world.
The summary report is based on numerous individual audits and at least 14 active investigations, but it offers few specific details on the fraud, bribery, extortion and kickback schemes which involve at least $150 million in taxpayers’ money.
The failure of USAID to effectively monitor the development projects threatens to undermine the U.S. military’s new counterinsurgency strategy and troop surge, which is built upon the effective delivery of aid in the struggle against the Taliban for hearts and minds.
“We are sending too much money, too fast with too few people looking over how it is spent,” said one official knowledgeable of the USAID inspector general’s auditing process for the $9.4 billion obligated to Afghanistan in the last seven years.
“We end up not knowing where the money is going,” added the official, who is pushing for a deeper investigation into alleged abuses by contractors and subcontractors and widespread corruption from the highest levels of the Afghan government to the lowest level of subcontractors in the field.
That push for a further investigation is joined by the House Foreign Affairs Committee which is examining the delivery of foreign aid and the need for more USAID auditors and investigators to be assigned to the field.
The committee's interest was spurred in part by a special report by GlobalPost that highlighted how USAID funds are going to Afghan subcontractors who are allegedly paying protection money to the Taliban.
Following the GlobalPost report on how subcontractors are purportedly being extorted by the Taliban, the USAID inspector general’s spokeswoman Dona Dinkler said the agency was conducting a probe into those allegations. In a recent briefing, she declined comment on the status of what she described as an “active” investigation.
The probe comes amid an overall rethinking in Washington of how the restructuring of USAID has left the agency vastly ill-equipped to deal with the challenges it faces, particularly in Afghanistan.
1 2 3 Next > Last >> Comments:
2 Comments.
Login or Register to post comments
Posted by david wayne osedach on December 11, 2009 08:53 ET
Bribery and extortion are a way of life in Afghanistan. I wouldn't be surprised if a full half of the USAID funds went to graft.
Posted by scottdavene on December 11, 2009 23:21 ET
Everybody knows that the only reason our troops are there is to keep the opium fields in full productions. Until we remove all our troops from the middle-east, and do something to solve our problems at home, our reputation in every country is ruined. If I could afford to go anywhere after the damage the neoconservative war/profit-mongers have done to our economy, I would definitely say I was from Canada. I invite you to my pages devoted to raising awareness on these important issues: http://pltcldscsn.blogspot.com/
Recent on Afghanistan:
Latest
Opinion: Obama defines the use of war in an age of terror
C.M. Sennott - Worldview - December 10, 2009 11:43 ET
Obama's Nobel acceptance speech was a self-effacing and deeply personal exploration of "just war."
Opinion: Where in the world is Osama bin Laden?
Michael Goldfarb - Worldview - December 9, 2009 06:48 ET
Do we even want to know? Is it possible that limbo is the easiest place for him to be?
Reactions to Obama's Afghan surge vary on the ground
Ben Gilbert - Afghanistan - December 3, 2009 08:47 ET
As the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan arrives in the restive south, troops there express mixed feelings on a now-expanded mission.
Analysis: The view from Afghanistan on Obama's speech
Jean MacKenzie - Worldview - December 2, 2009 11:37 ET
A fateful decision for the land that will pay the greatest price on a troop increase.
Opinion: Not enough troops for counterinsurgency
C.M. Sennott - Worldview - December 1, 2009 23:15 ET
Obama's Afghanistan speech did not convince counterinsurgency experts and did not give enough details.
Opinion: It's really about Pakistan
HDS Greenway - Worldview - December 1, 2009 22:33 ET
Obama's speech hints at the ultimate strategic importance of Pakistan, rather than Afghanistan.
Opinion: Obama has a hard sell on Afghanistan troop increase
C.M. Sennott - Worldview - November 25, 2009 19:19 ET
Will a commitment to "finish the job" end up ringing just as hollow as "mission accomplished?"
Afghanistan's only pig quarantined? Must be bad
Jean MacKenzie - Afghanistan - November 23, 2009 12:06 ET
Swine flu has sent one of the world's most unflappable populations into a panic.
Agriculture as peacemaker in Afghanistan
Douglas A. Wissing - Afghanistan - November 20, 2009 14:30 ET
America's farmer-soldiers in Afghanistan
Douglas A. Wissing - Afghanistan - November 20, 2009 14:30 ET
An elite Indiana National Guard unit is patrolling Khost Province, helping Afghan farmers to help themselves.
Afghanistan: Waiting for the dust to settle
Finbarr O'Reilly - Afghanistan - November 12, 2009 16:45 ET
Troops' deaths shatter trust in Helmand
Jean MacKenzie and Aziz Ahmad Tassal - Afghanistan - November 8, 2009 15:13 ET
Afghans and Brits alike fear that the deaths of 5 British troops at the hands of a police colleague have tipped an already tense working relationship into outright distrust.
Afghanistan: The fog of war
Finbarr O'Reilly - Afghanistan - November 5, 2009 10:51 ET
Video: Embedded with Canadian troops, photographer Finbarr O'Reilly captures the confusion and chaos of a worsening conflict.
Why Poland has soured on Afghanistan
Jan Cienski - Poland - November 4, 2009 06:46 ET
A recent poll found 77 percent of Poles want their troops withdrawn.
Greek aid worker held by Taliban
Iason Athanasiadis - Afghanistan - November 3, 2009 06:44 ET
A schoolteacher from Athens was the only Westerner living in the valleys on Pakistan’s mountainous frontier.
Why Stephen Harper prefers US news
Sandro Contenta - Canada - November 2, 2009 20:08 ET
Questions over Canada’s role in the Afghanistan war and unflattering polls have the prime minister eyeing the exits.
Karzai declared winner by default
Jean MacKenzie - Afghanistan - November 2, 2009 12:26 ET
The Afghan president gains a second 5-year term but there are questions about the legitimacy of his win.
Abdullah withdraws from Afghan election
Jean MacKenzie - Afghanistan - November 1, 2009 11:23 ET
Can runoff race be valid with only President Hamid Karzai?
Taliban attacks on both sides of the AfPak border
Jean MacKenzie - Afghanistan - October 28, 2009 10:34 ET
In Kabul and Peshawar, nearly 100 dead, among them UN staffers.
Watch GlobalPost videos:
Chatter: What we're hearing
Mugabe issues warning on elections.
A Briton wins Miss World (well, sort of).
Champagne found to be good for the heart.
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PEACEBUILDER: CPAU
PROJECT: Farza Peace Council
COUNTRY: Afghanistan
RUNNING COSTS: £9,000 p.a
“Just outside Kabul, Farza was declared the most peaceful district in Afghanistan in 2005.”
Info Photos Map news
Peace Direct’s newest partner is the Coalition for Peace and Unity in Afghanistan (CPAU). For the last few years they have supported the Farza Peace Council which amid almost daily reports of death and destruction, deals with the ordinary day to day disputes. The council has resolved local conflicts from marital problems to unpaid debts which could so easily escalate into violence in this volatile country.
CPAU’s Story
Peace Direct is continuing its support of CPAU in Afghanistan by providing core funding for the Farza Peace Council. Farza is a district outside of Kabul and in 2005 was declared the most peaceful district in Afghanistan. Originally, the council was supported by the Centre for Peace and Afghan Unity (CPAU) and CPAU continues to be closely involved with the councils and Peace Direct.
Traditionally, the council has acted as a local resource for resolving disputes, from marital problems to issues of unpaid debts. Whilst these disputes may appear small in comparison to what is reported in the news from Afghanistan, the absence of such high levels of violence is partly due to the council not allowing smaller disputes to escalate to blood feuds. This stability is important to resist the encroachment of armed militias into areas nearer Kabul.
The future
Peace Direct will fund the council with £9,000 to help prepare local communities for the August elections peacefully. With the support of CPAU trainers, 6 workshops will be held for the peace council and local people focusing on conflict resolution and advocacy training.
Research project
Peace Direct is supporting CPAU to conduct research for DfID to investigate why young men are joining armed groups and what kind of support they receive from their communities. The findings of this study due in 2009, will provide CPAU, DfID and Peace Direct with a greater understanding of the situation in Afghanistan and shed more light on the role of the peace councils.
This project is currently fully funded until 2011 by a group of Scottish philanthropists.
Peace Direct’s newest partner is the Coalition for Peace and Unity in Afghanistan (CPAU). For the last few years they have supported the Farza Peace Council which amid almost daily reports of death and destruction, deals with the ordinary day to day disputes. The council has resolved local conflicts from marital problems to unpaid debts which could so easily escalate into violence in this volatile country.
CPAU’s Story
Peace Direct is continuing its support of CPAU in Afghanistan by providing core funding for the Farza Peace Council. Farza is a district outside of Kabul and in 2005 was declared the most peaceful district in Afghanistan. Originally, the council was supported by the Centre for Peace and Afghan Unity (CPAU) and CPAU continues to be closely involved with the councils and Peace Direct.
Traditionally, the council has acted as a local resource for resolving disputes, from marital problems to issues of unpaid debts. Whilst these disputes may appear small in comparison to what is reported in the news from Afghanistan, the absence of such high levels of violence is partly due to the council not allowing smaller disputes to escalate to blood feuds. This stability is important to resist the encroachment of armed militias into areas nearer Kabul.
The future
Peace Direct will fund the council with £9,000 to help prepare local communities for the August elections peacefully. With the support of CPAU trainers, 6 workshops will be held for the peace council and local people focusing on conflict resolution and advocacy training.
Research project
Peace Direct is supporting CPAU to conduct research for DfID to investigate why young men are joining armed groups and what kind of support they receive from their communities. The findings of this study due in 2009, will provide CPAU, DfID and Peace Direct with a greater understanding of the situation in Afghanistan and shed more light on the role of the peace councils.
This project is currently fully funded until 2011 by a group of Scottish philanthropists.
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View Afghanistan in a larger map
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SEARCH Call to Action
TOOLS OF PEACE
How peacebuilders use local knowledge and everyday items to build peace and develop understanding.
MESSAGES OF PEACE
We asked peacebuilders to mark International Day of Peace by sharing messages of peace
Insight on Conflict
Providing information on local peacebuilding organisations in areas of conflict. Send an organisation an email of support this September.
COOK FOR PEACE
Food has always brought people together, we asked peacebuilders to share recipes from their countries.Peacebuilders
Dishani Sri Lanka
YAPE Nepal
Envision Zimbabwe
Ashima Kashmir
CPAU Afghanistan
Henri D.R. Congo
Asha Somalia
RRF Kenya
Truce 2020 London
Escuela Colombia
Where We Work
Map
Peace Direct on FacebookFinding.Funding.Promoting.
PEACEBUILDER: CPAU
PROJECT: Farza Peace Council
COUNTRY: Afghanistan
RUNNING COSTS: £9,000 p.a
“Just outside Kabul, Farza was declared the most peaceful district in Afghanistan in 2005.”
Info Photos Map news
Peace Direct’s newest partner is the Coalition for Peace and Unity in Afghanistan (CPAU). For the last few years they have supported the Farza Peace Council which amid almost daily reports of death and destruction, deals with the ordinary day to day disputes. The council has resolved local conflicts from marital problems to unpaid debts which could so easily escalate into violence in this volatile country.
CPAU’s Story
Peace Direct is continuing its support of CPAU in Afghanistan by providing core funding for the Farza Peace Council. Farza is a district outside of Kabul and in 2005 was declared the most peaceful district in Afghanistan. Originally, the council was supported by the Centre for Peace and Afghan Unity (CPAU) and CPAU continues to be closely involved with the councils and Peace Direct.
Traditionally, the council has acted as a local resource for resolving disputes, from marital problems to issues of unpaid debts. Whilst these disputes may appear small in comparison to what is reported in the news from Afghanistan, the absence of such high levels of violence is partly due to the council not allowing smaller disputes to escalate to blood feuds. This stability is important to resist the encroachment of armed militias into areas nearer Kabul.
The future
Peace Direct will fund the council with £9,000 to help prepare local communities for the August elections peacefully. With the support of CPAU trainers, 6 workshops will be held for the peace council and local people focusing on conflict resolution and advocacy training.
Research project
Peace Direct is supporting CPAU to conduct research for DfID to investigate why young men are joining armed groups and what kind of support they receive from their communities. The findings of this study due in 2009, will provide CPAU, DfID and Peace Direct with a greater understanding of the situation in Afghanistan and shed more light on the role of the peace councils.
This project is currently fully funded until 2011 by a group of Scottish philanthropists.
Peace Direct’s newest partner is the Coalition for Peace and Unity in Afghanistan (CPAU). For the last few years they have supported the Farza Peace Council which amid almost daily reports of death and destruction, deals with the ordinary day to day disputes. The council has resolved local conflicts from marital problems to unpaid debts which could so easily escalate into violence in this volatile country.
CPAU’s Story
Peace Direct is continuing its support of CPAU in Afghanistan by providing core funding for the Farza Peace Council. Farza is a district outside of Kabul and in 2005 was declared the most peaceful district in Afghanistan. Originally, the council was supported by the Centre for Peace and Afghan Unity (CPAU) and CPAU continues to be closely involved with the councils and Peace Direct.
Traditionally, the council has acted as a local resource for resolving disputes, from marital problems to issues of unpaid debts. Whilst these disputes may appear small in comparison to what is reported in the news from Afghanistan, the absence of such high levels of violence is partly due to the council not allowing smaller disputes to escalate to blood feuds. This stability is important to resist the encroachment of armed militias into areas nearer Kabul.
The future
Peace Direct will fund the council with £9,000 to help prepare local communities for the August elections peacefully. With the support of CPAU trainers, 6 workshops will be held for the peace council and local people focusing on conflict resolution and advocacy training.
Research project
Peace Direct is supporting CPAU to conduct research for DfID to investigate why young men are joining armed groups and what kind of support they receive from their communities. The findings of this study due in 2009, will provide CPAU, DfID and Peace Direct with a greater understanding of the situation in Afghanistan and shed more light on the role of the peace councils.
This project is currently fully funded until 2011 by a group of Scottish philanthropists.
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