VZCZCXRO9275
OO RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK
DE RUEHBUL #4368/01 2681701
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 251701Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2780
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHMCSUU/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFIUU/JICCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFIUU/COMSOCCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2868
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 3000
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 6329
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1678

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KABUL 004368 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/FO (DAS GASTRIGHT), SCA/A, S/CRS, 
SCA/PB, S/CT, EUR/RPM, PRM/ANE 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/CDHA/DG 
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN 
OSD FOR BREZINSKI 
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76, POLAD 
REL NATO/AUST/NZ/ISAF 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PREF AF
SUBJECT: PRT/Jalalabad: Afghanistan Returnees Create 
Success 
 
KABUL 00004368  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: The Tangi returnee settlement is an 
excellent example of what can happen in a barren 
desert when an organized group of people decides to 
build a home for themselves.  With only minimal 
assistance from international and local donors and 
their own government, a group of former Afghan 
refugees forced out of Pakistan in 2005 found a 
location, built homes, got their children into tent 
schools with community members as teachers, and are 
on the verge of gaining recognition for their self- 
built village as a part of Jalalabad City and 
Nangarhar Province.  The achievements of this 
community serve as a model of what can be done in 
Afghanistan with good leadership, tenacity, 
optimism, and hard work.  The part played by the 
Jalalabad Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) 
provides an example of how PRTs can make a 
difference, even in the absence of major funding. 
End Summary. 
 
A Camp in the Desert 
-------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Tangi returnee settlement is like a lot of 
other settlements throughout Nangarhar Province, and 
probably throughout Afghanistan.  It is located a 
few kilometers northeast of Jalalabad City in a 
rocky, barren valley between two rows of hills, with 
no visible water or vegetation.  A group of over 
2000 Afghan refugees, originally from Kunar 
Province, moved to this location after they were 
forced to leave a refugee camp in Pakistan in the 
late summer of 2005.  Tangi was not an officially 
recognized returnee area, but the group was 
permitted to settle temporarily in this spot because 
no one else was there or seemed to want the land. 
 
¶3. (U) Shortly after their arrival in country in 
April 2006, the Civil Affairs Team from the 
Jalalabad PRT visited Tangi.  They found small tents 
and one-room shelters that had been put up with the 
assistance of UNHCR to allow the returnees to get 
through their first winter.  Although unsuccessful 
in an attempt to dig their own well, the settlement 
benefited from several wells with hand pumps that 
were put in with international and Afghan NGO 
assistance. 
 
The Desert Transformed 
---------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) When spring came, the returnees got to work 
in earnest, and the visitors in April saw the early 
stages of layout and building of standard Afghan 
walled compounds.  The village had received iron 
beams and wooden door and window frames from UNHCR. 
Using those resources and, mud hauled by tractor 
from the Kunar River seven kilometers away, the 
residents were building extensions to the one-room 
shelters and additional buildings to be used as 
homes.  The team was impressed with the energy and 
positive attitude of the elders and inhabitants of 
the settlement, and decided to return with 
humanitarian supplies. 
 
¶5. (U) The Civil Affairs Team returned to the site 
in June with a load of humanitarian materials that 
included school supplies for teachers and students, 
 
KABUL 00004368  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
hygiene and health supplies, wash basins and tool 
kits.  During this visit, team members who had 
visited in April were amazed at the transformation. 
While UNHCR tents were still visible, most now were 
inside fully or partially completed walled 
compounds, while many more mud brick and kiln brick 
buildings were completed or under construction.  A 
small white-painted mosque, complete with separate 
washroom, had been built with funding by an unnamed 
donor, and the area was beginning to look like an 
organized Afghan village. 
 
¶6. (U) The settlement leaders expressed appreciation 
for U.S. efforts.  These included USAID-funded 
repairs to the road through the village that 
connects it to Jalalabad, a project which also 
provided jobs for many residents.  They were also 
grateful for the humanitarian and school supplies, 
but asked for assistance in building a school for 
the children and a clinic for health care.  The PRT 
explained that it could only undertake building 
projects if the land had been formally allocated to 
the returnees.  One leader noted that they had not 
been given or even promised the land, but it 
belonged to the Government of Afghanistan, and they 
were Afghans who were making significant 
improvements, so he was confident they would be 
allowed to stay. 
 
Procedural and Political Obstacles... 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (U) Despite the settlement leadership's 
confidence, neither the U.S. nor other international 
donors or agencies were in a position to proceed 
with fixed structures or substantial assistance 
until the land issues were resolved, or there was at 
least a firm statement of intent by Afghan 
authorities to allocate the land.  Given the obvious 
self-reliance and hard work of this group of 
refugees, the PRT decided to try to help resolve the 
land issues.  After talking with several Afghan 
officials and making little progress, the PRT 
invited and transported Governor Sherzai to the 
site.  Impressed by what the returnees had 
accomplished, the Governor assured both them and the 
PRT that the land would be theirs. 
 
¶8. (U) Unfortunately, the Governor does not have the 
authority to carry out such actions without support 
from others.  Jalalabad Mayor Stanikzai and Deputy 
Governor Ishaqzai expressed reservations, noting 
that the area might already be designated for 
another purpose.  On August 6, the PRT transported 
the Deputy Governor and the Mayor -- both well-known 
contacts -- out to the site.  Lacking either a 
school building or government-provided teachers, the 
group had managed to acquire several large tents 
from UNICEF through the Ministry of Education, 
identified their own teachers, and using school 
supplies provided by the PRT, a Swedish NGO, and 
others, the almost 450 young children in the 
community had started back to school -- earlier than 
their compatriots in other Afghan schools to make up 
for lost time.  The Deputy Governor, who happens to 
be a teacher, reveled in interactions with the 
children.  The Mayor noted that his municipal 
engineer was doing preliminary work in the next 
 
KABUL 00004368  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
village toward Jalalabad and he would be pleased to 
send his experts to Tangi to help them with their 
planning. 
 
¶9. (U) On the land issue, the two officials remained 
hesitant, primarily because there are two other 
officially sanctioned returnee locations near 
Jalalabad (Sheikh Misri and Gamberi) where 
Nangarharis either are or will be living.  The 
officials were concerned that if they moved too 
quickly on the unofficial Tangi settlement, they 
would face complaints that they were helping 
"outsiders" -- people from Kunar -- before helping 
their own. 
 
...Possibly Overcome 
-------------------- 
 
¶10. (U) The UNHCR Representative, whom we had also 
invited to join us, informed the group that a 
substantial amount of international donor money 
available to the Ministry of Refugees and 
Repatriation for projects, including township 
planning, remained almost untapped. He promised that 
if the Nangarhar authorities applied for some of 
this money for all three settlements at the same 
time, he would work to get the applications approved 
and funded.  This would avoid the perception of 
putting one group ahead of the others.  He also 
offered a plan by which donors could provide 
assistance while the land allocation issues were 
being resolved.  Nangarhar authorities could work 
with Sheikh Misri and Gamberi first, as they were 
currently doing, and take action on Tangi after the 
others were well underway.  For now, they had only 
to provide written notification of the intention to 
allocate the land to the Tangi community, and that 
would be enough for donors to proceed. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶11. (U) After the successful August 6 excursion, the 
PRT and UNHCR are confident that the formal 
allocation of land, or at least the notification of 
intent, will move forward fairly quickly.  (The PRT 
Commander followed up with provincial officials on 
Sept. 25 and he remains optimistic approval for the 
land allocation will come soon.)  The Tangi returnee 
settlement is an example of what motivated and hard- 
working Afghans can do in their own country, and it 
is also an example of how a PRT can make a 
difference -- even when project money is tight or 
non-existent.