Karzai Talks Tough in Helmand

By IWPR trainees in Helmand (ARR No. 248, 29-Mar-07)
Afghan president Hamed Karzai gave a blistering tongue-lashing to the residents of Helmand on March 29, accusing them of perpetuating the violence and insurgency in their province.

“I am not blaming Pakistan and other countries - I blame you, the local people,” he thundered, addressing approximately 2,000 hand-picked representatives in the central mosque of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

“You are making problems. You do not want security in your province.”

This was Karzai’s first visit to Helmand, arguably the most troubled of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

Over the past year, bombings, kidnappings, and killings have multiplied as the Taleban have shifted their focus from neighbouring Kandahar.

Helmand is also the centre of the poppy industry, supplying well over 40 per cent of Afghanistan’s harvest. This makes Helmand alone the world’s largest producer of opium, the raw material from which heroin is made.

In February, the Taleban overran the town of Musa Qala, the site of a controversial agreement brokered between the Taleban, the village elders and British forces last October. The British agreed to withdraw, and in return the elders promised to keep the town free of insurgents.

But after a NATO strike that killed a prominent commander in Musa Qala district, the Taleban ejected the elders from the town centre and ran up their flag.

Residents have been braced for weeks, waiting for the government’s response.

On March 29, it finally came. “I do not want to take Musa Qala by force,” said Karzai. “I want to solve problems through negotiations with all sides. I am asking the Taleban to stop attacking. I say to them, ‘why are you killing your own people?’”

In Lashkar Gah, security was tight for the visit, which was not announced in advance. All the roads were blocked to traffic, and shops and offices were closed down. Jets and helicopters roared overhead for most of the day,

The president brought his own guards with him, who carefully checked the crowd at the mosque. The invitees included mullahs, elders, students, as well as the local media.

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