VZCZCXRO2876
PP RUEHDBU RUEHIK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #1525/01 0951153
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 051153Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9415
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI 1534
RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//JF/UNMA//
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC//J3//
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUMICEA/JICCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFIUU/COMSOCCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2393
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 2591
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 5791
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1234

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 001525 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
RELEASABLE TO NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF 
 
STATE FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, SA/PAB, S/CT, EUR/RPM 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG 
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN, KAMEND 
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76, POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ASEC AF TC
SUBJECT: PRT/QALAT - KARZAI VISIT HIGHLIGHTS TRADE 
SCHOOL, IMPROVED SECURITY 
 
KABUL 00001525  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  President Karzai visited Zabul 
Province for the first time March 28, where he 
visited the PRT-run Trade School and the new 
hospital funded by the UAE. He also greeted people 
in the bazaar.  His "pressing the flesh" may improve 
Zabul's poor security image.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) After frequent postponements, President 
Karzai finally made it to Qalat on March 28. 
Minister of Health Fatemi and the UAE Charge 
d'Affaires (CdA) accompanied the President. 
Kandahar Governor Assadullah Khalid and the 205th 
ANA Corps commander General Raoufi drove up from 
Kandahar with about 10 elders.  The governors from 
Helmand and Uruzgan provinces were also invited, but 
were not able to attend.  Zabul ministry officials, 
office directors, a senator, Provincial Council 
members, and leading citizens participated in the 
visit's events, as did students.  The President's 
Chief of Protocol told PRTOff that neither President 
Karzai nor any other Afghan ruler had ever visited 
Qalat before, and added that the President likes to 
visit a different province about once a month. 
 
¶3.  (U) Immediately after landing at the PRT 
compound by helicopter from Kabul, President Karzai 
observed welding, carpentry, rug weaving, and 
emergency medical training (EMT) students at the PRT 
Trade School.  He also visited a computer class of 
youngsters and was amazed how much they knew, 
quipping that he himself did not understand what 
they were doing.  The Afghan instructors briefed 
him, with the PRT soldier-instructors in the 
background. 
 
¶4.  (U) The primary reason for the President's visit 
was the official ribbon-cutting for the UAE hospital 
in Qalat.  UAE has spent over USD 4 million to build 
and equip the 150-bed hospital.  Thirty-three 
students from the PRT female nursing class, which 
the PRT hopes will help staff the new hospital, met 
with the President.  President Karzai was impressed 
that so many female students from Zabul Province 
(which is backwards and illiterate even by Afghan 
standards) were now able to play a role in improving 
medical care and access for female patients. 
(Comment: The hospital is too big for Qalat, so 
Governor Arman is hoping to make it a teaching 
hospital with foreign doctors.  The PRT is spending 
about USD 100,000 to upgrade the electrical and HVAC 
systems to handle the new equipment.  The PRT is 
also training nurses, EMTs, and power/plumbing 
maintenance workers to support the hospital.  End 
comment.) 
 
¶5.  (U) The last stop on the President's itinerary 
was the new Governor's Compound, where there were 
speeches, a private meeting with key officials and 
visitors, and lunch with the crowd (several hundred 
people, of whom an estimated 40 to 50 were women or 
girls).  During the private meeting, the President 
asked the PRT commander to sit next to him to 
discuss the Trade School.  After lunch, he asked the 
PRT commander to stand next to him and the Governor 
 
KABUL 00001525  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
so he could publicly recognize the contribution of 
the PRT to Zabul Province. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) President Karzai's visit did not result in 
any deliverables or substantive policy discussions. 
However, it did mark the first visit by an Afghan 
President to this backward province.  The visit went 
very well and was a strong public show of support 
for Governor Arman.  Arman, who has been in office 
for almost a year, is an honest and effective 
leader.  One of his priorities is overcoming the 
province's poor security reputation.  Zabul 
admittedly has security concerns (it was the only 
province in the country where interviewers for an 
ABC News poll last October did not go due to 
security), but its reputation is worse than it 
deserves.   The Governor and the PRT have actively 
pursued getting the United Nations to return to the 
province, both for the intrinsic benefit of UN 
presence and also so that NGOs will follow. 
Hopefully, news footage of Karzai's visit and walk 
through the bazaar will help to improve Zabul's 
image problem.  An added benefit of the visit was 
the President's recognition of the role of the PRT 
and the exposure given the PRT Trade School, a model 
that can be replicated elsewhere. 
 
 
NEUMANN