VZCZCXRO0448
RR RUEHIK RUEHPOD RUEHPW RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #1523/01 1741251
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221251Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4453
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 001523 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, EUR/RPM 
NSC FOR WOOD 
OSD FOR WILKES 
CENTCOM FOR CG CSTC-A, CG CJTF-101 POLAD 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER ECON AF
SUBJECT: ZABUL PROVINCE: SECURITY IMPROVES, ALLOWING MORE 
DEVELOPMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION 
 
REF: A) Kabul 1030, B) Kabul 1137 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Security in Zabul is improving thanks to the 
Focused District Development (FDD) program, but an unintended 
consequence of better-trained police is that they are attractive to 
other employers.  With improved security comes a focus on road 
building, training and other development projects.  Governor Arman 
is hopeful that a business park currently under construction will 
attract businesses and the international community to Zabul. 
 
Governor Arman Leads the Way 
---------------------------- 
¶2. (SBU) Zabul Governor Delbar Jan Arman, now in his fourth year 
leading the province, has begun to see his vision of "putting Zabul 
on the map" take shape.  At the same time, perhaps because of 
improved security, governance, and reconstruction, he has become 
impatient with central government ministries that seem to impede his 
vision of making Zabul an agricultural and commercial powerhouse 
with a modern provincial capital city.  His most serious conflict is 
with the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), which has increasingly 
asserted its right to direct all police operations in Zabul without 
guidance from, or coordination with, Governor Arman.  (NOTE: 
Currently, Afghan law does not provide for a clear division of 
authority between the governor and the MOI when it comes to the 
police.  Parliament's lower house is considering related amendments 
to the 2005 Police Law.)  The Governor has also found himself at 
odds with some members of the Provincial Council, who criticize him 
for not delivering more visible progress in reconstruction.  These 
accusations may be based on a shift in development focus from 
quick-impact projects to less visible community-led programs and 
capacity-building in the provincial government. 
 
SECURITY: POSITIVE RESULTS FROM FDD 
---------------------------------- 
¶3. (SBU) Zabul's three Highway One districts (Shajoy, Qalat, and 
Tarnak-wa-Jaldak) were in the first FDD cycle.  FDD improved highway 
security, eliminating illegal tolls collected by some Afghan 
National Police, particularly the so-called Afghan Highway Police, 
and by others.  Both anecdotal and formal survey data show that the 
population in all three districts has a much improved view of the 
ANP (ref A). 
 
¶4. (SBU) Despite FDD's success, serious problems remain with Zabul 
ANP.  ANP patrolmen and NCOs are resigning at an alarming rate (at 
least 90 have resigned in the past four months), and there are many 
fewer ANP on duty in Zabul than the MOI's Tashkil (staffing plan) 
specifies.  ANP are resigning in an orderly fashion, turning in 
their weapons and uniforms, and there is no indication that they are 
going over to the enemy.  Rather, according to interviews with a 
number of ex-ANP, they are taking advantage of their training and 
experience to obtain better-paying jobs with the ANA (8000 versus 
5000 afghanis per month, or USD 160 versus 100) or private security 
firms, which pay up to 18,000 afghanis (USD 360) per month. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The previous U.S. Army Police Mentor Team (PMT) that 
oversaw FDD implementation in Zabul was primarily concerned with 
teaching the FDD graduates small unit infantry tactics needed to 
conduct patrols.  The new PMT that took over in April has focused on 
leadership, management and accountability.  It is an open secret in 
Zabul that there are no more than 800 active ANP personnel, while 
over 1400 collect salaries.  (NOTE:  The Afghan Year 1387 Tashkil, 
approved in May 2008, authorizes 2,082 ANP, including 836 Afghan 
uniformed police and 854 border police.)  The ANP leadership, who 
rarely leave provincial police headquarters, do not know how many 
ANP are active at any given post.  The new PMT is trying to rectify 
ANP salary discrepancies, and recently the provincial Chief of 
Police (COP) arrested three of his headquarters staff officers for 
embezzlement.  To the great annoyance of the COP, PMT and Governor, 
the MOI told the COP to release the suspects - despite clear 
evidence against them - apparently because one of them is the 
Minister of Interior's cousin.  The Governor and COP resisted, and 
the officers remain imprisoned.  The ANP housecleaning process will 
be painful and somewhat destabilizing, but is a necessary step to 
create a professional, reasonably honest police force in Zabul. 
 
Development: Better Security Permits Road Construction 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
¶6. (SBU) Although plans and funding to pave roads connecting Qalat 
 
KABUL 00001523  002 OF 002 
 
 
City to the districts have existed for over two years, insecurity 
held up construction.  In the first half of 2008, security 
operations stopped enemy attacks against road workers.  Construction 
is moving ahead on "Route Duck", an asphalt road linking Qalat City 
to Shinkay scheduled to be completed in August 2009.  Construction 
on "Route Chicken," linking Qalat City to Mizan, is also 
proceeding. 
 
Capacity-Building in the Provincial Government 
--------------------------------------------- - 
¶7. (U) USAID's Local Governance and Community Development (LGCD) 
program came into full swing in the first half of 2008.  Six Afghan 
national trainers employed by Development Alternatives International 
(DAI) conducted workshops on office skills and public administration 
for Zabul line ministry departments.    The PRT supplemented this 
training by partnering civil affairs personnel with line ministry 
directors.  DAI and the PRT also provided direct mentoring to the 
Secretariat of the Provincial Development Committee to develop 
procedures for running efficient and productive meetings.  DAI 
conducted a one-week workshop on public administration for district 
administrators.  Feedback regarding this training has been uniformly 
positive, and every line ministry department now has in place at 
least rudimentary accounting and personnel systems.  Thanks to the 
recent arrival in Qalat of a highly capable Independent Directorate 
for Local Governance (IDLG) Advisor, the PRT expects even greater 
progress in capacity building in the line ministry departments 
throughout 2008. 
 
Agriculture at the Heart of the Economy 
--------------------------------------- 
¶8. (U) The addition of a USDA Advisor to PRT Qalat and a greater 
USAID commitment of funds to agricultural programs has led to 
tangible progress in the agriculture sector.  Under the supervision 
of the Agriculture Director and USDA Advisor, the previously 
moribund "tree nursery" in Qalat City has been transformed into a 
lush "Zabul Horticultural Research Station and Nursery."  The 
facility includes test plots for improved seed varieties and a test 
orchard.  Zabul's wheat harvest is above average thanks to the heavy 
snows last winter and extensive improvements in irrigation systems 
from World Food Program (WFP) food-for-work programs and CERP-funded 
well and irrigation projects.  The Agriculture Department, in 
collaboration with the USDA Advisor, USAID, Women's Affairs 
Director, and Social Affairs Director, are running programs that 
train and pay women to plant and care for seedling trees at the 
Horticultural Research Station and to raise chickens at their homes. 
 The poultry-raising program provides the women with a month of 
training in poultry care, and gives the women's families materials 
and training to construct chicken coops.  At the end of the 
training, each woman receives 15 pullets.  These programs address 
the Governor and PDC's plans for re-foresting parts of Zabul, 
increasing wheat yields, increasing production of income-generating 
export crops (especially almonds and pomegranates) that can be 
easily transported on Highway One, and establishing a profitable 
poultry industry. 
 
"Putting Zabul on the Map" 
------------------------- 
¶9. (U) Two crucial pieces of Governor Arman's vision for "putting 
Zabul on the map" are the completion of a 
government/education/commercial center in Qalat City (ref B) and 
intensive development of alternative energy solutions.  Arman, a 
trained hydro-electric engineer, is committed to implementing solar, 
wind and mini-hydro power and irrigation projects in Zabul.  The 
business park is partially built, but will require approximately 30 
million USD to complete.  Governor Arman hopes that the business 
park will draw NGOs, IOs, and businesses to Zabul, driving robust 
wealth creation and economic growth, supported by ongoing 
improvements in secondary roads and increased agricultural 
production.  But this will remain little more than a vision until 
funding can be found. 
WOOD