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DE RUEHBUL #0454/01 0371035
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FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5408
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY 0061

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 000454 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PCON PBTS PGOV PINR PK AF
SUBJECT: AFGHAN BORDER AND TRIBAL AFFAIRS: MINISTER IN 
SEARCH OF PORTFOLIO 
 
KABUL 00000454  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Acting Minister for Border and Tribal 
Affairs, Arsala Jamal, says he is attempting to transform a 
demoralized and weak ministry into one that will play an 
important and creative role both in developing the poorer 
border regions and in encouraging reconciliation and 
reintegration.  He describes his primary challenges as lack 
of human capacity (both in the ministry itself and in the 
provinces), poor information technology and communications 
capability between the ministry and its agents, and minimal 
inter-ministerial coordination and cooperation.  He has asked 
for assistance in developing a professional cadre of civil 
servants, training and mentoring for one civil servant to 
improve interagency coordination and communication, an 
embedded advisor, and funding in support of the new Khushan 
Khan secondary school campus, established for the benefit of 
students from the poorer border regions. END SUMMARY. 
¶2. (SBU) Deputy Pol-Mil Counselor, Human Rights Officer and 
Border Coordinator met with Jamal 2 February to discuss his 
vision of his portfolio and to clarify the purview of the 
Ministry of Border and Tribal Affairs.  Jamal explained that 
the ministry was originally established 84 years ago to 
maintain security in the border areas around the Durand Line 
and to counter attempts by its eastern neighbor to interfere 
in Afghanistan affairs.  Today, responsibility for border 
security has clearly devolved to other ministries, in 
particular, the Ministry of Interior and its fairly new 
Afghanistan Border Police. The Ministry of Border and Tribal 
Affairs is viewed as having been sidelined and is now 
considered primarily a social affairs ministry. Jamal 
recognizes the weaknesses of the ministry and the vagueness 
of its mandate, but appears determined to carve out a niche 
for himself and the ministry. First, he says he wants his 
ministry and its provincial agents to serve as liaison 
between the tribes and the central government, eliciting 
tribal needs, occasionally advising the tribes on what they 
should ask for, and trying to meet those needs equitably. 
Second, he argues that his ministry should be directly 
involved in the GIRoA reconciliation and reintegration 
effort. 
¶3. (SBU) Jamal clarified that while in its early history the 
ministry was focused almost exclusively on the Durand line, 
currently it has responsibility for social development in all 
border areas and among tribes on the northern and southern 
border. He added that, unfortunately, most of his provincial 
agents are concentrated on the central and south eastern 
border, and some provinces remain unstaffed. 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
Bridge Between the Central Government and the Tribes 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶4. (SBU) Although the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of 
Health, and the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and 
Development have responsibility for providing to the citizens 
of the border areas schools, health services, and 
infrastructure, Jamal thinks that his ministry and its agents 
in the provinces can ensure that the tribal needs in these 
areas are met and that their requests for improvements in 
their villages are informed and effective. He complained that 
Ministry of Border and Tribal Affairs provincial agents do 
not sit on or even participate ad hoc in the provincial 
development committees.  Their participation would not only 
inform them of the types of projects being considered, but 
would allow them to convey to the committee what the tribes 
really need.  He also said that he wants to ensure that the 
Ministry provincial representatives travel and meet more 
frequently with the tribes. 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Reintegration, Reconciliation and Defense: It takes a Village 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
¶5. (SBU) Jamal seemed eager to insert his ministry into the 
reintegration and reconciliation process.  Young men in the 
poor border areas, especially the east, are prime candidates 
for the Taliban.  If his ministry can help improve 
infrastructure and provision of services and increase 
economic opportunity in the tribal areas, not only will it 
deter young men from joining the insurgency, but it will also 
help create a sense of village solidarity against the 
insurgents.  Non-ideological young men currently with the 
Taliban will begin to see that there is more opportunity in 
the village than with the Taliban. 
¶6. (SBU) While agreeing that schools and clinics and wells 
are important, he pointed out that each village may have 
different needs that once met can increase stability and 
security.  He suggested that &a village fund8 could help in 
some cases.  When asked if there were not a risk that corrupt 
village leaders would keep the funds for themselves, he 
dismissed the idea.  He admitted that if two tons of flour 
comes to the village, some leaders may provide a little more 
for their families ) this is considered normal ) something 
that everyone would do; but village scrutiny will ensure that 
 
KABUL 00000454  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
leaders cannot take it all, and they would be obliged to make 
sure that everyone in the village is taken care of.  In the 
village, unlike in Kabul, everyone can see what happens, and 
this transparency limits the scale of diversion of 
assistance. 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
Request for Support for the Secondary School for Rural 
Students 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
¶7. (SBU) Jamal showed himself very proud of the new 
facilities being developed for the Khushan Khan school for 
rural students.  The new campus will sit on 18.5 acres in 
Kabul and will serve both as class rooms and dormitory for 
students coming from the various border areas. According to 
Jamal, many of these are students who cannot attend school in 
their home villages because of security concerns.  Currently, 
only three of some dozens of buildings have been completed. 
Jamal said that the Ministry of Education is responsible for 
the establishment of the facility, but his Ministry is 
responsible for selection and accommodation of the students. 
He asked whether the U.S. might be able to help in some way 
support the students or the development of the new 
facilities. (NOTE: We promised to discuss Khushan Kahn with 
USAID and get back in touch with him.) 
 
------------------------------------------ 
The Need for Inter-ministerial Cooperation 
------------------------------------------ 
¶8. (SBU) Jamal readily admitted that his ministry is not 
directly involved with hard security or border management and 
that he has not seen any coordination with the Ministry of 
Interior or Ministry of Finance (for customs issues) or even 
with ministries such as Education or Rural Rehabilitation and 
Development which would normally be most involved in services 
and infrastructure for the border areas. He stressed the 
importance of improved coordination, but said that lack of 
human capacity was an impediment. He said he hopes that he 
can create a position within his ministry expressly to 
coordinate with other ministries that deal with the border 
and asked for U.S. mentoring/assistance in setting up the 
position, specifically and embed adviser. 
¶9. (SBU) We noted that the GIRoA Office of the National 
Security Council (ONC) had recently played an important role 
in coordinating different ministries to deal with the 
cross-cutting issue of banning ammonium nitrate in 
Afghanistan. (NOTE: Ammonium nitrate is the primary raw 
ingredient used in home made explosives for IEDs that have 
killed thousands of Afghan civilians as well as Coalition 
Force and Afghan National Army personnel. The successful ban 
of its use in Afghanistan is a success story for the Afghan 
Government. See Septel END NOTE) 
------------------------ 
Biographical Information 
------------------------ 
¶10. (SBU) Minister Jamal speaks excellent English with a 
perceptible, but slight accent. Although reports say that he 
is a Canadian citizen, he admitted only to having paid a 
&short visit8 to Canada. He visited one brother who lives 
in Phoenix, Arizona, and referred to another who lives in the 
UK. He grew up in Paktika province. When he was a youngster, 
his village had no school and opposed, on the basis of 
&tradition,8 sending boys ) much less girls -- to school. 
Nevertheless, Jamal,s father, one of the prosperous men of 
the village, sent him and his brother to a neighboring 
village for schooling.  Jamal expressed sympathy for women,s 
rights, schooling for young girls, and fighting corruption, 
but he was doubtful that progress in these areas could be 
made quickly. 
 
-------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
¶11. (SBU) Jamal has some clear ideas of the role he wants to 
carve for himself and his ministry, but the ministry itself 
currently plays a negligible role in the border areas. 
Ministries such as Finance, which holds the customs portfolio 
as well as the government purse, and Interior, which is 
responsible for border management up to fifty miles inland 
from the border, will be preeminent in defining a 
Comprehensive Border Strategy from the security perspective. 
Others, such as Commerce and Industry and Rural 
Rehabilitation and Development, will be important planning 
and implementing the economic development of the border 
areas.  Jamal seems committed to the idea of 
inter-ministerial cooperation, however, and, because the 
Ministry has at least a formal remit to work with on tribal 
issues throughout the country, we will further explore 
reintegration issues with him. 
Eikenberry