Karzai has a tough task bringing warlords under control

Karzai has a tough task bringing warlords under control
June 2003

Times of India

Last week, Afghanistan’s Central finance minister Ashraf Ghani spent a week in Herat, the first cabinet minister to visit the province in two decades. Even more unusual was the task Ghani was attempting: to secure Governor Ismael Khan’s compliance with the directions of the National Security Council (NSC) to transfer Herat’s customs revenue collection to the Central government.
In the event, Ghani was able to secure a transfer of $20 million to the Central government’s coffers, though not before he had promised a hefty sum in funds to Herat for its “ongoing projects”. The provinces, under the control of the private armies of the independent warlords, have thus far stayed largely outside the ambit of the Karzai government’s authority.
Without the security apparatus to bring them under its ambit, the government has had an uneasy relationship with the virtually autonomous commanders who have to be persuaded, rather than ordered, to fall in with the Central government’s directives. Though Ghani asserted after his visit that the latest decision of the NSC on revenue collection was “not negotiable” and that the provinces had merely been “informed” rather than consulted about the decision, he admitted that the revenue collection was based on “recorded revenue”.
He said the Central government had no means as yet to determine the real revenue collection and that as yet, it had no assessments available for revenue generation in other parts of the country. While Ghani’s visit marks the slow and painful expansion of the Central government’s authority, the Karzai government cannot wait much longer. It has pledged to raise $200 million of its $550-million budget through internal revenue collection.
The Herat visit was indicative of the uphill task the government faces in spreading its authority throughout the country. Some analysts feel the slow process has eroded the gains of the momentum generated by the establishment of the Karzai government in Kabul. Others feel that the spread of control can only be gradual in a situation where the entire
state is being rebuilt from scratch.
Foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah described the Herat visit as a major step but agreed that the success of the government in extending its reach and authority was limited, terming it one of the “shortcomings” of the Karzai government.
Herat may have been a minor success but any optimism was dimmed by the much less successful attempt by the Afghan government this week to bring on board Rashid Dostum, the famously independent warlord of Mazar. Dostum’s forces continue to engage with other armed groups in the region, making the area perpetually unstable. Dostum reneged on an
earlier promise to relocate to Kabul as security adviser to the Karzai government.