Afghans ask allies: "Why do you not fight our enemies?" (Feature)

By Can Merey Jul 13, 2010, 13:31 GMT

Kunduz, Afghanistan - There is no other part of Kunduz Province, in northern Afghanistan, where the Taliban are more dangerous than Char Dara.

Militant attacks on the resident German forces, there as the lead nation from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), are a near-daily occurrence.

District Governor Abdul Wahid Omarkhel is frustrated at what he sees as German soldiers' reluctance to engage the Taliban.

'You know these are our enemies. These are your enemies. Why don't you fight against them?' he asks.

For many years, the German military, or Bundeswehr, were bound by some of the tightest rules of engagement of any NATO nation in Afghanistan, rules laid down by a parliament wary of seeing Germany embroiled in a full-scale war.

The US army is now moving into the region with 800 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division to take the fight more aggressively to the Taliban.

Apart from the 10th Mountain Division, special forces have killed numerous Taliban leaders in night operations during the past weeks.

'Since the Americans arrived they have almost completely defeated the first line of the enemy, the provincial head of the secret service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), General Daoud, says.

'The Americans are doing a much better job than the Germans.'

This was, however, not the fault of the Bundeswehr itself, Daoud continues.

'From my point of view, the German soldiers are very brave. It is a problem of the parliament,' he says. He thinks that German troops could achieve a lot more if parliament in Berlin gave them more freedom of action.

The frustration of Afghans with the encroachment of the Taliban into their region comes up again and again in conversations with locals in Kunduz city.

Mohammad Asif, who works for an Afghan relief organisation, says that announcements by the authorities that the security situation was improving were nothing but 'propaganda.'

'Kunduz used to be a symbol of peace but the situation gets worse every day,' he says.

'The Germans are not useless', Asif says. 'But they are not at all perceived as a military force, rather as a social welfare organisation' - as a group which mainly looks after the reconstruction of the country.

'People are glad that the Americans are here in order to take over the real fighting,' he says.

Frustration over the continued deterioration of the security situation during the army's more than 6-year deployment to Kunduz can also be felt among German soldiers.

'For many of my men the question is no longer why this engagement makes sense,' says Captain Jan. His company lost three soldiers in a Taliban ambush in April. 'The only question now is, what have we achieved? And that is a good question.'

The German military have succeeded in 'retaining hard-fought areas against an ever stronger enemy,' the company chief from Seedorf in Lower Saxony says, shortly before the end of his 4-month long mission.

'But among the men frustration persists. We have neither weakened the adversary in a sustainable manner nor greatly expanded our zone of influence.' The soldiers had 'the feeling that you cannot make any real progress here.'

While Kunduz has become more and more insecure the economic situation has improved considerably since the arrival of the German civil-military Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).

Dirt roads have become tarmac roads on which more cars than horse- drawn carriages are rolling. Houses are being built, the bazaar is full of goods, irrigation channels provide for stable harvests.

However the mantra that development in turn boosts security has proven wrong in Kunduz.