Denmark at the front line in Afghanistan

While Danish soldiers are putting their lives at risk in Helmand Province, advisors and NGOs are helping the Afghan government to rebuild the rest of the country. »We are deeply grateful for the Danish effort,« says Afghanistan’s former Ambassador to the Nordic countries, Jawed Ludin

By Charlotte Aagaard

Danish soldiers discussing wheat prices with Afghan men at a checkpoint between Musa Qala and Gereskh.
Photo: Charlotte Aagaard

Denmark is at the front line, both in terms of confronting the Taleban and rebuilding Afghanistan. In the troubled Helmand Province in the south, more than 700 soldiers are fighting alongside British, American and Afghan security forces to ensure that the Taleban does not reimpose its Middle Age version of Islam on the Afghan population. At the same time Danish advisors are working hard to help the Afghan government and the population, especially in education, human rights and combating poverty.

The sound of hope
One of those who is benefiting from the Danish effort is 58 year old farmer Yar Mohammed, who lives with his wife and three children in the mud-built village of Joe Duktar, a hundred kilometres northwest of Kabul. Here in the foothills of the majestic Hindu Kush mountains he makes a living from growing wheat, maize and apricots on the family’s single hectare of land. Most of what they grow, they eat themselves. The rest they sell in order to be able to buy tea, sugar and other basic necessities.

There is no wealth here, but Yar Mohammed is full of hope.

Below his house on the steep hillside, you can hear the sound of shovels and pickaxes, and see fifty men bathed in sweat and slogging away at the stony ground. That is the sound of hope. Soon a three kilometre long irrigation channel carrying melt water from the mountains will be completed, and Yar Mohammed hopes that next year his fields will produce a much bigger yield.

»It is wonderful that I no longer need to fetch water for my fields. Next year I hope to grow so much wheat that I can sell it on the market.«

The irrigation channel for Joe Duktar and six other villages in the Ghorband Valley of Parwan Province is one of many agricultural projects run by a Danish NGO, the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR). With support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the two-year project is now almost complete. At least 50 workers are staggering about in the midday heat, casting joints and putting the last cement pipes in place.

The irrigation channel has been built on steep mountain slopes and has required many man-hours, but the daily wage of AFN 250 (DKK 25 or USD 5) is good by Afghan rates of pay. When the farmers in Joe Duktar are not busy tending their fields they join in the work, and the rest of the time they pay half of the workers’ wages. That gives them ownership of the entire project and helps ensure that the irrigation channel remains a success in ten or twenty years, says Abdullah Behzad of DACAAR.

From one cow to six
Shawzia is another of the Afghans who benefits from the Danish efforts. She lives in the village of Khawaja Gian, about thirty kilometres north of Kabul, together with her husband Abdel Mohammed, their ten children and six cows.

The cows belong to Shawzia. She bought them with Danish-financed microloans of AFN 10,000 (DKK 1,000 or USD 200), which have changed both her life and that of the rest of the family. Shawzia started by buying one cow, but today she has six – enough to provide her family with milk, yoghurt and cheese, with a sufficient surplus of milk and cheese that she can sell every day to several shops in the village.

Shawzia and her family’s living room is cosy with pink curtains, oriental rugs, thick cushions, a TV and a roofed-over atrium laden with bunches of grapes, evidence that the family is doing well.

»I am very satisfied with my life,« she says with a big smile.

»I earn money every day. It means that I can pay back my loan and send my children to school, both boys and girls. They no longer need to work during school hours,« she says.

And also between Shawzia and her husband the cows have led to big changes.

»Do I have more say in things? Yes, certainly! Today my husband and I take the decisions together. We didn’t do that before, but now it is me who has the money,« she says with a cheerful smile.

Security first
In Helmand Province, where most of the Danish soldiers are stationed, the security situation is not yet stable enough for large rebuilding projects. But Denmark has nevertheless taken part in building everything from water towers, bridges and schools to a hospital and a teacher training college. The province authorities have also received further training and in the Department of Education, Danish educational advisors are collaborating closely with Afghans to prepare educational plans for the province.

Together with the British, the Danes have a hydroelectric plant on the drawing board, but security is not yet sufficiently good to implement the project. The hope is that the major military offensive, which Danish, British, American and Afghan forces are carrying out during the summer and autumn 2009, will change this.

In those areas where there is still considerable insecurity, a fair number of smaller projects are also being carried out which the military help to initiate, including water pumps, small bridges, repairing destroyed roads, houses, mosques and small dams, so that the farmers’ fields are not flooded in spring. The aim of the rebuilding is to convince the local population that there is an alternative to the Taleban.

Maulavi Mildin is one of those who support the presence of the Danish forces in Helmand. He is one of the leading imams in Gereskh, the main city in the central part of Helmand, for which the Danish forces are responsible.

»I use my Friday sermons to tell people that the foreign forces are here to help and rebuild, not to occupy our country. There are many who think the latter, but it is not so. You don’t want to take our country from us. You are here to help us build schools, health clinics, roads and electricity supplies,« says the 66 year old imam.

Denmark in Afghanistan

Denmark is in Afghanistan on a UN mandate.

The overall objective of the Danish effort in Afghanistan is to contribute to national, regional and global security by preventing the country again becoming a safe haven for terrorists.

At the same time, the Danish effort should encourage the growth of a stable and more developed Afghanistan, which can manage its own security, continue democratic development and advance respect for human rights. Afghanistan is thus supported by both economic assistance for rebuilding, and military effort.

The rebuilding is supported with a DKK 450 million, approx. EUR 60.5 million annual budget, primarily used for education, wages for school teachers, elections, human rights and general combating of poverty.

The aim of Denmark’s military presence in Afghanistan is to assist the Afghan government in spreading and exerting control over the country, so that conditions are created for stabilisation and rebuilding.

That task is carried out in close collaboration with the Afghan security forces, which Denmark is also helping to build.

There is broad support in the Danish parliament for a comprehensive Danish effort in Afghanistan up to 2012. As the Afghan security forces become able to maintain security themselves, Danish assistance will gradually be adjusted in a more civilian direction.

Source: http://www.um.dk

Afghan praise
The Danish effort is garnering considerable praise from the Afghan government, not least because Denmark is collaborating closely on rebuilding and at the same time risking the lives of its soldiers out on the front line. The Danish effort in Afghanistan has so far resulted in 26 soldiers losing their lives, most of whom have been killed in Helmand Province. If the loss is measured in relation to Denmark’s population, it makes Denmark the coalition country which has suffered the greatest casualties.

»The Danish effort is exemplary,« opines Jawed Ludin, former Ambassador to the Nordic countries and one of President Hamid Karzai’s closest advisors. »It is obvious that the USA and Great Britain will send their soldiers to the front, but when a small country like Denmark takes on one of the most dangerous tasks, it is something very special, and the Danes should know that we are deeply grateful for that.«

Jawed Ludin laments that so many Danish soldiers have lost their lives.

»It is deeply tragic, but the Danes are not on their own. Denmark is taking part in a historic mission and is helping Afghanistan to get back on its feet after decades of suffering because of the international conflicts that have been fought in our country,« he says with reference to the Cold War, where CIA-supported Mujahedin fought Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan.

The ambassador stresses that it is very positive that Denmark is so committed because a small country like Denmark does not have its own agenda in Afghanistan. »Denmark just wants to help us, and this can show Afghans that it is not an American occupation of our country,« says Jawed Ludin.

Soldiers per capita

Denmark contributes the second largest amount to the civilian rebuilding of Afghanistan, measured on a per capita basis. The top 10 contributors are:

1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. The Netherlands
4. Sweden
5. Canada
6. Great Britain
7. USA
8. Finland
9. Japan
10. Germany

Source: http://www.um.dk

Popular support
Despite the great losses, there is still domestic support for Denmark’s effort in Afghanistan. In the Danish parliament, only the left wing party Enhedslisten opposes Denmark’s military involvement.

A broad political majority agrees that Denmark should stay in Afghanistan for as long as there is a need. In the long term, the plan is for Danish involvement to gradually become more civilian and for the military to play a far less obtrusive role than today.

The Danish Minister for Defence, Søren Gade, has repeatedly said that Denmark is in Afghanistan to create security for the Afghan people and thus also security for Europe and the rest of the world. But that is not a project that will quickly deliver success, comments the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller. It will take some time before Afghanistan is able to handle its own affairs.

»Afghanistan has lived through decades of conflict and the country is thus still a delicate democracy. Developments are positive in many areas, but the situation is not yet stable, and the Afghan state has difficulty in providing sufficient security, good governance and basic services,« he says.

The Danish people also have great understanding of the effort in Afghanistan. An opinion poll in August conducted by Gallup shows that 62 per cent of Danes think the Danish soldiers should stay in Afghanistan until the task has been completed. And that is exactly what the Danish government intends to do.

»It will take time to reach the point when Afghanistan can stand on its own two feet, but the Danish government is prepared to maintain its major commitment. How long it will take depends on specific developments in Afghanistan«, says Per Stig Møller, who declines for the same reason to set a date.

Assistance per capita

Denmark has the second highest number of soldiers in Afghanistan, measured on a per capita basis. The top 10 contributors are:

1. Great Britain
2. Denmark
3. Estonia
4. The Netherlands
5. Norway
6. USA
7. Canada
8. Macedonia
9. Latvia
10. Croatia

Source: http://www.um.dk