In Afghanistan, Taliban Taking Cut of Reconstruction Funds

Mirahmad has a very important job to do: he is the mirab, or water regulator, in his native Pushtrod district of Farah province. It is Mirahmad who ensures that the villages under his control receive adequate water for their fields.

When the state-sponsored National Solidarity Program (NSP) gave Pushtrod 200,000 Afghani (40,000 U.S. dollars) to clean out the Nawbahar canal irrigation canal, he was overjoyed.

"But then the Taliban asked for 40 percent of the money," he told IWPR. "Otherwise they were not going to let us do the work. So we had to buy them a four-by-four."

While the Taliban drive around in their new vehicle, Mirahmad is trying desperately to stretch the remaining funds to complete the project.

"We are worried about the budget," he said. "It may not be enough to do the job. We will have a lot of problems with water."

In district after district of the remote and volatile Farah province, the Taliban are taking control. But rather than chasing out the remnants of government authority, they are seeking to profit from them, by demanding a healthy portion of donor-funded assistance projects.

First and foremost among these are projects under the auspices of the NSP, a nationwide reconstruction initiative, launched in 2003 by the ministry of rural rehabilitation and development with funding from the international community.

One of the central missions of the NSP -- which has dispensed millions of dollars since it was launched -- is to foster good local governance by helping communities identify and implement projects that are in their interests.

But in Farah, at least, a substantial cut of the funding is being seized by the Taliban, who are demanding a share of the funds for protecting the projects -- from themselves. They then use the money they have extorted from the government to buy guns and ammunition.

Faced with the prospect of funding its own enemy, the local government is fighting back.

"We have received numerous complaints regarding [the Taliban taking NSP money]," said Shah Mahmoud, the deputy chief of the rural rehabilitation and development department in Farah. "So we have stopped sending money to some projects. We will not send a penny until serious steps are taken to solve the problem."

The result has been an unwelcome slowdown of NSP projects in the districts affected.

"There has been a 20 percent decrease in implementation of NSP projects in Balabuluk, Pushtrod and Khak Safed districts of Farah province," said Mahmoud. "Some projects have been stopped in the middle."

According to Mahmoud, the problem could not be resolved by the military; rather, his organization was seeking to negotiate with the Taleban, using the offices of tribal elders and local authorities.

"We hope to get influential figures from the area to mediate the problem quite soon," he said.

The Taleban are taking quite a hard line on the issue, and are defending their right to the money.

"This money is the spoils of war," said Mullah Shah Mohammad, a senior Taliban representative in the Khak Safed and Pushtrod districts. "It was given to these people by the infidels. It is our absolute right to take this money and continue our jihad, and the people are cooperating with us on this."

But for the residents of Farah, the Taliban's actions are closer to robbery than to jihad, and they want it stopped.

"In all of Khak Safed district there is only one school, and it is closed," Haji Abdul Basir, a representative of the village of Dewal Surkh, said. "There are 800 families here. So we decided to use our NSP money to build a school, but Taleban gunmen stopped us."

Basir does not agree with the government's solution -- to halt funding until the problem is resolved. He prefers a more nuanced approach.