Afghanistan’s crisis of trust

Too dangerous to help

The Koran-burning and its aftermath may have lasting consequences

THE nationwide protests and violence triggered by the burning of Korans at Bagram airfield more than a week ago have subsided, but the consequences continue. The most serious has been the withdrawal of hundreds of foreign advisers from Afghan government departments, after two American officers working in a joint-command centre at the interior ministry were shot dead in retaliation.

The pull-out, though temporary, has meant that the corridors of Kabul’s ministries no longer echo to foreign voices. The fleets of four-wheeled drives which ferry development experts and military officers through Kabul’s muddy gridlock have vanished. At a stroke the “civilian surge” which was designed to bolster the Afghan state has been undercut.

That surge is seen as critical to plans for the government in Kabul to take full control of the country after foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014. The idea was that as the NATO-led international coalition pushed the Taliban back, a more capable Afghan government would grow into the space left behind and win over its neglected citizens. But for the moment, instead of working side-by-side with their Afghan colleagues, those advisers are locked down in their guesthouses and national embassies. They continue to work, remotely; but in a culture where personal relations are crucial, many projects are in effect on hold.

The advisers do more than advise. A cadre of plausible-seeming foreigners reassures donors reluctant to finance Afghanistan’s corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy. “Without them monitoring and supervising their projects, with all the corruption we have, donors will reduce aid, I fear,” says Haroon Mir, director of Afghanistan’s Centre for Research and Policy Studies. Embassies are pushing for the return of the advisers as soon as possible.

Any return is likely to be accompanied by even more stringent security restrictions. Behind the peeling red paint of the counter-narcotics ministry, staff have been told that when their four international colleagues come back, they will be given extra bodyguards, and all other weapons will be banned from the compound.

Trust on both sides is at the lowest ebb many can remember. The careless desecration of their holiest text was a provocation too far for many Afghans already suspicious of foreign forces and cynical about broken promises of peace and prosperity. Profuse American apologies and assurances have done little to soothe tempers. A worrying number of Afghans no longer give the West the benefit of the doubt.

There is disillusion too among Western military advisers and soldiers, who increasingly fear being assassinated by the very people they have travelled across the world to help. Of 60 coalition people killed in Afghanistan this year, 12 have been slain by their Afghan comrades. NATO soldiers in Afghanistan were having to show “great restraint”, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the alliance’s secretary-general, conceded on February 28th.