WEBSITE EXCLUSIVE: Lithuania viewed from Afghanistan

The Governor of the Ghor Province Ahmadi Baz Mohammad made a working visit to Lithuania Nov. 12-16 with seven delegates from his Ghor Provincial Recronstruction Team (PRT). He spoke exclusively to The Baltic Timesabout his impressions and hopes for the future.

How do you view Lithuania's involvement in rebuilding the province?
The Lithuanian PRT in our province really helps and we have good cooperation on security. As the name implies it should be more involved in the reconstruction side of the province. We aren't satisfied so we also want to talk about the issue with the President and parliamentarians.

Since this is your first time in Lithuania, what have you found most interesting?
This is the first trip for all of us. We foundLithuania a very beautiful country and the people are very hospitable. It's the cold season, and the kindness of the people can help us overcome the cold climate!

What are your most pressing needs in Afghanistan?
The needs are different from one province to another. In our province, more funding is needed in healthcare and agriculture but the top priority is road construction.

Why is that top of the list?
Road construction is the top priority because it opens the province to the other provinces in the country. What the poor people in our province have is agricultural products. They can find markets for such products so the roads would help to improve living standards of the people. When the roads are reconstructed, the people will be able to buy more [with the money that they are now earning] so prices will be lower and the standard of living will increase. People will have access to other provinces for marketing their products.

The construction of the roads also paves the way for other organizations, aid organizations and NGOs, to come to the province and do other development projects. The main point is they cannot access to the remote areas. They are not able to transport their equipment for projects so that's why they're not interested in implementing any projects in the provinces.

Another main point is that when there are critically sick people we don't have well equipped hospitals and clinics in our province. Roads connecting the provinces together would allow us to refer our patients to other provinces that have well-equipped hospitals and clinics. It would save lives.

The roads would help to maintain better security in the areas because security forces would then be able to have access to areas of criminal activity.

When you visit remote villages and schools, what are some of the observations you find from students and families?
Actually 15 to 30 percent of the schools in our province have school buildings. So it means that the rest are in tented schools or open air schools and the problem is that students are standing under the sun or sitting on the wet ground. You don't see enough books. We don't have professional teachers who have education in a particular subject. Also, we don't have any libraries for students to study for exams. But fortunately, the people in the area are really taking care in one issue - security - so that their children can go to open air schools without any fear of being attacked.

There was a rocket attack in your province recently. Fortunately no-one was seriously injured, but how safe is Ghor province?
Indeed our country has enemies. The fundamentalists, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, are trying to show that security is not good throughout our country. The explosion one month ago was the enemy's investment of a year. After a year of planning they succeeded in firing some missiles. Fortunately, there were no losses or damages. I don't have concerns about it, comparing Ghor with other provinces, especially other neighboring provinces; we are the safest because the people are not supporting the enemies of the government. We have tried to identify who were behind the explosions and will arrest them soon. All of these activities are planned and implemented by people not in Ghor province.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas said there is a possibility to train Afghan officers in Lithuania. What are some of the legal implications or funding necessary for such a move?
I'm not involved in that part of the issue. That will be under discussion with the Minister of Defense. But what we have suggested with our Lithuanian friends is that some Afghan police officers could be trained in Lithuania. Then, they can go back and train the police in Ghor. So it will be helpful.

Because we don't have well-trained police in our province, the main idea is that some of the officers, the talented ones, can go for a longer period of training for three to six months [in Lithuania] and then go back to the province and train the police.

What do you say to the growing unpopularity among Lithuanians of the missions in Afghanistan and Iraq?
So the situation in Afghanistan is different from Iraq. We have the international community in Afghanistan maintaining the security. We know that Al-Qaeda are not just enemies of our country. They are enemies of our world. Doing a mission in Afghanistan means that you're not only assisting us to maintain our security but somehow you are maintaining your security and taking part in world security. So hopefully, this Lithuanian mission will continue and they will assist us to maintain security and have a part in maintaining peace and the stability in all over the world.

The world is like a village. If there is a problem or insecurity in a corner of this village, it affects the whole village.

We have good cooperation, security and a long-lasting relationship but what is being done with reconstruction, we should have more activities as the name implies."