Visiting Kunduz, a Taliban Target, Afghan Leader Urges Security Overhaul

By MUJIB MASHAL in The NY Times, Nov 27, 2015
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday visited Kunduz, the first Afghan city in 14 years to fall, briefly, under Taliban control, and used his visit to call for major security changes in the city and surrounding province. Mr. Ghani announced the dismissal of the provincial intelligence chief and an overhaul of the security leadership. And he delivered what he said was a final warning to the illegal militias in the area, whose long history of abuses turned Kunduz Province into fertile ground for the Taliban.
Though government forces retook the city of Kunduz last month, Taliban fighters still control large stretches of territory, including positions as close as two miles from the city gates. Illustrating the danger, officials said that five to nine rockets landed in the city on Thursday, with one falling about 450 yards from the auditorium where Mr. Ghani was holding a tense meeting with residents.
Tribal elders and local officials repeatedly warned Mr. Ghani during the meeting that the insurgents could storm the city again, using the government vehicles and ammunition they looted during their brief stay. A recent government fact-finding mission found that the Taliban took about 37 Humvees and 1,000 weapons with them when they withdrew.
“The people’s concern is from the heavy weapons and the Humvees of the security forces that fell to the Taliban,” said Hamdullah Danishi, the interim provincial governor. Aminullah Aimaq, a tribal elder, told Mr. Ghani that if those vehicles and weapons were not destroyed, the Taliban could “march them back into the city.”
Mr. Ghani said that the embarrassing fall of Kunduz to the Taliban was mainly because of an intelligence failure, not treachery as some have claimed. “The fact-finding mission found that it wasn’t a conspiracy, but it was failure in different sectors,” Mr. Ghani said.
In addition to the intelligence chief, officials said later that more than a dozen intelligence officials and 20 police officials would be replaced, and that some would be questioned by judicial authorities. The former provincial governor has already been dismissed and an army commander has been detained.
Mr. Ghani left behind a senior delegation in the city, led by his minister of transportation, to assess the civilian administration in the province and present recommendations within two weeks.
Mr. Ghani’s warning to illegal militias in Kunduz was met with loud applause by the crowd of about 500 at the meeting, watched closely by the presidential guard. Rival militias, some of them loosely supported by the government, have been preying upon residents for years.
“Nobody can extort the people of Kunduz — what is going on here?” Mr. Ghani said. “They are extorting our farmers, extorting our shepherds. Let’s speak honestly: This is not acceptable.”
Mr. Ghani said the government-sponsored Afghan Local Police militias, which have often acted as the personal armies of local strongmen, would be reformed to bring them under state control.
“Illegal armed people, this is my last warning to you: Come to the government framework to defend the people, or we will use force against you,” Mr. Ghani said.
But many found his statement at odds with his own government’s recent move to expand the Afghan Local Police under loose control in areas where there is active fighting. Such units would be hard to distinguish from the illegal militias Mr. Ghani assailed on Thursday.
Before the president spoke, Hajji Shereen Agha, who campaigned for Mr. Ghani in the election last year, said he was frustrated that the province has remained so anarchic since he took office.
“I am ashamed of having urged people to vote for Ashraf Ghani,” he said. “There was no government here, there is no government, and if the state of corruption and abuse continues, there will be no government.”
He noted that there had been fewer kidnappings in the area in the last two months, but that it was out of fear of the Taliban, not the government.
After Mr. Ghani’s address, Mr. Agha said that he was happy with what he heard, but that he was waiting to see how much of it would actually be done.
“It is not the first time we have been promised measures, and no action has taken place,” he said.
Mr. Ghani brought his wife with him to Kunduz on Thursday, despite the volatile situation, and Faisal Noori, a civil society activist in Kunduz, said her presence gave the city’s morale a boost, particularly for women who were targeted by the Taliban.
Emotions ran high in the auditorium during the meeting, which lasted nearly four hours. Many of those who spoke were sharply critical of the government’s response to rising insecurity, lack of employment, and a wave of migration out of the country.
They were also unhappy with the rebuilding efforts since the city was retaken from the Taliban. Along the road from the airport to the provincial governor’s compound, a number of government buildings showed considerable damage from weapons fire, and one — as it happens, the city’s Construction Ministry — appeared completely wrecked.
“The governor’s office has no cars — the cars that came to pick up your officials today were gathered from the people,” said Qumandan Mirzad, a tribal elder. “Good thing you flew in a helicopter, Mr. President.”
Though Mr. Ghani is known for his short temper, he listened patiently on Thursday and urged calm. His remarks were frequently interrupted by people in the crowd rising to object or to commiserate. Guards had to intervene several times to restore order.
The gravity of the situation in the province, Mr. Ghani said, was summed up in the story of one woman who has had to rebuild her house three times after it was destroyed by the fighting.
“We will not allow this to happen again,” he said. www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/world/asia/visiting-kunduz-a-taliban-target-afghan-leader-urges-security-overhaul.html?ref=asia