New York Times: Pakistan safe haven for terrorists attacking Afghanistan

August 15, 2006

In Afghanistan, Lamenting Refuge for Militants Across Border

By CARLOTTA GALL

SHARANA, Afghanistan, Aug. 11 — In the memorial garden at the American military base in this dusty provincial town, the names of four Afghans — a soldier, two policemen and an intelligence officer — were recently added to the list of American soldiers who have died here since 2002.

The names are a sign that Afghan government forces are now bearing more of the burden for security in this eastern province, Paktika.

But they are also an indicator of how, in the nearly five years since Al Qaeda and the Taliban were chased from Afghanistan, the groups have continued operating from bases just across the border in Pakistan.

While the terrorist scare in London last week provided a fresh reminder to the United States and its allies of the threat from militant groups that have made Pakistan their home, the soldiers here did not need reminding. That threat has been constant, and it has largely frustrated American efforts to rebuild the country and bring peace and stability.

In Paktika itself, there are a few remote places where the Taliban have a foothold. Most of the insurgents filter across the border repeatedly from Pakistan, military commanders here said.

[On Sunday, five soldiers of the Afghan National Army were killed and six wounded in fierce fighting on Paktika’s border, the United States-led coalition reported. The clash, with a group of up to 20 insurgents occurred at Bormol, a frequent crossing point for insurgents.]

“The enemy is fighting hard, and we have to fight harder,” the commander of the American-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, told a unit of Afghan National Army soldiers on Friday as he toured their new, half-built barracks here.

“Since the fall of the Taliban, things have got better, but they are still hard,” he added. “In the next 10 years things will get better, but things will still be hard.”

Military and government officials in Afghanistan say they are resigned to the fact that establishing security and defeating the insurgency is going to take years, partly because the insurgents continue to enjoy a refuge in Pakistan’s turbulent tribal areas. Pakistani government efforts to combat them have largely failed.

“There is deep concern about the cross-border insurgency among Afghans and the international community,” said Samina Ahmed, the director of the International Crisis Group in Pakistan, an independent policy analysis group.

For their part, Afghans see that they still have much left to do, such as setting up and improving government administration in the rural areas and furthering reconstruction and security. But they also want to see more pressure on Pakistan, Ms. Ahmed said.

The issue has created tensions between Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, and Pervez Musharraf, the leader of Pakistan, who accuse each other of not doing more to contain militants in the region.

General Eikenberry would not comment on the cross-border problems because of the political nature of the issue.

During a day visit by helicopter to Sharana, the provincial capital, he pushed the mixed strategy that has been the hallmark of his two years in command in Afghanistan: encouraging American and Afghan soldiers who are doing the fighting and training, while urging Afghan government officials to do a better job in serving their people.

As much the politician as the military commander, he brought a group of Afghan ministers and communications officials with him. He shook hands and chatted with shopkeepers in the bazaar and spoke at the opening of a new government communications department.

“Now there is a cellphone service, you should ask the ministers here for their telephone numbers so that you can call them directly,” he told assembled elders during a visit to Sharana, the provincial capital. “But make sure you get the correct telephone numbers.”

“In four years the amount of change here is extraordinary,” he told them. He promised continued American commitment to bringing security and development to the province, which is one of the most impoverished in Afghanistan.

In an interview afterward, he conceded that one of Paktika Province’s 22 districts still remained outside government control, and that Taliban insurgents had the run of remote mountain areas where the rugged terrain and lack of roads have made it virtually impossible for the government to establish a presence.

“Where there are no roads, and no current funding, that is exactly the area where the Taliban is,” he said.

The provincial governor, Muhammad Akram Khapalwak, 35, in the job for only five months, said that two months ago things were far more perilous. American military units had been diverted to Helmand, new Afghan army units were rotating in and the police were still weak.

“We suffered a lot of problems two months ago,” he told General Eikenberry in a meeting. “Now we are stronger. We are able to attack the Taliban.”

There are other provinces in the south where the government’s hold remains precarious, General Eikenberry conceded.

Taliban insurgents have swarmed in large numbers into neighboring Ghazni, which lies just three hours from the capital, Kabul, and in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan, where newly arrived NATO forces have taken casualties from a stronger-than-expected insurgent force.

“In those hard-to-get-to areas, we need a security presence and then good governance,” General Eikenberry said. The money, men and time needed to bring just this one province to order are significant, he said.

“But ask me, ‘Is the government of Afghanistan winning?’ I’d say ‘Yeah, there is steady progress.’ ”