1. 24 APRIL 13 2008 SUNDAY CANBERRA TIMES www.canberratimes.com
SundayFocus
Economic
pushoffers
newhopeA bank, business school and weekend market are
helping rebuild a sense of community in
Afghanistan’s southern provence of Oruzgan, as
Defence Reporter DAVID McLENNAN writes
Major Robert, Chamber of Commerce chairman Hadji Aminullah and Captain Aldrik at the Tarin Kowt markets. Photo: DAVID McLENNAN
D
utch entrepreneur and
soldier Major Robert is
trying to put his motto
into action.
‘‘People with jobs don’t
fight,’’ he says.
Major Robert, part of the Dutch
Provincial Reconstruction Team,
has spent the past six months away
from his management consultancy
in the Netherlands helping Afgh-
anis in the southern province of
Oruzgan by effectively creating an
economy from scratch.
It is his second effort to rebuild
an Afghani economy and he is
translating lessons he learned in
the north to the south.
‘‘We have learned that when
people have a job and earn a
livelihood, they defend that instead
of fighting,’’ he says.
‘‘They are less likely to agree to
pick up a gun and shoot at govern-
ment or foreign soldiers in
exchange for a bread roll if they
can already feed their family.’’
Major Robert and Captain Ald-
rik, who takes over from him for
the next six months, are working to
make that the case for as many
local Afghanis as possible.
Oruzgan is about to get its first
bank, a business school will open
soon and the Dutch have taken
over and grown an Australian
introduction: a weekend bazaar at
the Tarin Kowt base.
‘‘Khaki tourists’’ – soldiers with
few things to spend their pay on
except souvenirs – are not just
helping to provide security in
Oruzgan but also giving locals an
income.
However, Major Robert says one
of the bigger problems is the
Australians are not bargaining
enough with the traders; most
simply accept the asking price.
The Dutch, he says, at least
haggle the price down, even if they
do pay closer to the original cost in
the end anyway.
‘‘We have to prevent them just
making a big buck, because it will
get the economy out of balance.
But we want them to spread the
word that [the International Secur-
ity Assistance Force] can be
trusted,’’ he says.
As well as the incomes it
provides, Major Robert says the
bazaar is also about ‘‘building
trust of us in them and of them in
us’’.
‘‘There are security concerns;
we have to do a lot of persuasion
[with base authorities], but there’s
a thorough search,’’ Major Robert
says.
All traders are registered with
the relatively new Oruzgan
Chamber of Commerce and the
bazaar averages about 55 stalls
each Sunday, but can handle up to
75 traders.
Locals spread their wares on
blankets, but Major Robert wants
real stalls built as the next stage in
developing the bazaar.
It is unlikely to grow as big as a
similar bazaar at Kandahar Air-
field, where the much larger base
means a much larger bazaar and a
wider array of goods.
However, there are fewer
Chinese-made pirated DVDs at
Tarin Kowt, leaving a greater
proportion of pashmina scarfs,
lapis lazuli jewellery, ornaments
and antiques – although questions
about authenticity sometimes
remain.
Stall owner Hayatullah, 24, and
one of his younger brothers work
at the bazaar, earning $100 to
$200 each Sunday – enough to buy
food for their family of 10 each
week.
He also runs a movie shop in
town and works as a security
guard for the Americans at the
base.
It gives him a comparatively
comfortable existence in poverty
stricken Afghanistan, although it
does not come without its risk,
especially when he wants to visit
family in nearby Kandahar.
‘‘The way is dangerous. It is very
dangerous when we want to go
home,’’ he says.
‘‘. . . They [Taliban] target and
stop cars and check people to see
who is working with the govern-
ment and the foreign forces.
‘‘They take you and kill you and
behead.’’
For Hayatullah, the benefit of
feeding his family outweighs the
risks from the Taliban.
‘‘It is very easy work and we
have [better] money than other
businesses in the city,’’ he says.
Oruzgan Chamber of Commerce
chairman Hadji Aminullah says
many of the people in his province
have little take choice but to take
the risk.
‘‘The people are poor. They need
to work and support their families.
They are jobless, they must do this
job,’’ he says through an
interpreter.
‘‘. . . If the person comes here
and works for one Sunday or one
week, that is enough for them, they
can support their family for a
week.’’
He also points out the traders do
not need to worry about their lives
only when travelling. There are
Taliban in the town of Tarin Kowt.
He does not know how many, but
says there are a lot.
The Taliban would arrest any
Afghanis they found to be working
with the International Security
Assistance Force, be it as
contractors or by selling goods at
the bazaar.
‘‘If they catch them, the Taliban
will kill them. This is the big
problem,’’ he says.
He recognises this means that if
the assistance force leaves and the
Taliban takes over again, he and
everyone who has helped the
foreigners will die.
However, he is confident the
Australians and Dutch are winning
the hearts and minds of the
Oruzgan locals.
‘‘The people are happy. They
know about the Australian people
working in different places and on
different projects, they are making
schools and building roads and
other projects,’’ he says.
The Australian Reconstruction
Task Force has built bases for the
Afghan army and police and dras-
tically improved the hospital and
schools, with much more work
planned.
Major Robert says the Inter-
national Labor Organisation is set-
ting up a business school in Tarin
Kowt to teach people how to set up
or improve a business.
It will be a relatively basic
service, doing things such as
teaching people the difference
between a product and a service,
and because of the high levels of
illiteracy, participants will not
need to be able to read or write.
He is particularly pleased that a
bank is coming to the province for
the first time.
The World Council of Credit
Unions has won the tender from
the Microfinance Investment and
Support Facility for Afghanistan to
set up an Islamic investment and
finance cooperative, its ninth in the
country.
The council obtains fatwas –
religious rulings – from local mul-
lahs to show the cooperatives are
Sharia (islamic law) compliant.
This means they offer financial
contracts instead of loans and a
‘‘mark up’’ instead of interest.
Similarly, there will be no loans
as such. Instead, the cooperative
becomes a third player between
buyer and seller, allowing people
to invest in their businesses.
‘‘The bank buys the machine
and sells it on, and the price
difference is the mark up and you
are able to pay the money in
instalments,’’ Major Robert says.
People in Oruzgan will also soon
have access to life insurance,
which will come from sacrificing
some of the mark up on their
savings.
Major Robert, Captain Aldrik
and the rest of Dutch-Australian
reconstruction teams hope they
will leave Oruzgan with a
functioning economy where the
locals no longer need to turn to the
Taliban for help.