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LONDON (AlertNet) - Aid agencies have expressed concern that their staff in Afghanistan are being put at risk by soldiers operating out of uniform, with or without weapons, and sometimes claiming to be on humanitarian missions.
Relief groups in the United States, Britain and elsewhere in Europe say the soldiers in either casual Western clothes or traditional Afghan dress are confusing local people, blurring the crucial distinction between the military and the humanitarian, which may also prevent access to those in need.
Leading members of InterAction, the U.S. umbrella group for relief and development groups, have written to President George W. Bush's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
They urge her to "review the continued use of armed or unarmed military dressed in mufti to conduct humanitarian operations" which "significantly increases the security risks of every humanitarian aid worker".
They add that this practice could bring "confusion between military and humanitarian personnel precisely where security risks to our international and local staff members often are most threatening".
Copies of the letter were sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, General Tommy Franks -- the U.S. officer in charge of the military campaign in Afghanistan -- and Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
It also quotes a February 2002 USAID needs assessment report: "The use of U.S. military in civilian dress for humanitarian assistance service deliveries is confusing to local populations and creating tensions that have potential security consequences for international and national humanitarian staff."
The letter echoes concerns raised by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the members of the British Agencies Afghanistan Group (BAAG) that aid workers could be attacked or kidnapped by hostile Afghans who believed they were soldiers or spies, or that some communities might refuse aid workers access to those in need because of similar suspicions.
PARTIALLY-CONCEALED MACHINEGUN
In an article entitled "Identify Yourselves" published in the British newspaper the Guardian in February, MSF international president Morten Rostrup and nurse Michelle Kelly said they spotted a Western soldier near Kandahar town wearing a T-shirt and with a partially concealed machinegun.
"This turned out to be no isolated event," they wrote. "Time and again the Médecins Sans Frontières team in Kandahar has observed military personnel from the international coalition force in civilian clothes, with or without concealed guns, driving civilian cars. We have also met other special forces, probably British, in civilian clothes carrying guns, who claim they are on a 'humanitarian mission' to assist NGOs."
Since the Geneva Convention usually requires clear distinctions between combatants and non-combatants, they ask why this is not the case in Afghanistan and noted that one point the United States used to deny detainees the status of prisoners of war was that they were not properly identified.
Quoted in the newsletter of staff support group People In Aid, BAAG said: "While we accept that the Geneva Convention allows for soldiers to be in civilian clothes in exceptional circumstances, we feel that the distinction we have strived to maintain of the neutrality and impartiality of aid workers is at serious risk.
"Now that soldiers of the Alliance forces, including those from the U.K., are to be used in a clearly military capacity, in addition to being peacekeepers and engaging in projects with a humanitarian component in Kabul, we believe that there is an even greater likelihood of the blurring of roles.
"The consequent danger to aid workers should not be underestimated nor the risk that access to those most in need will be jeopardised if neutrality and motives are questioned."
HEADS OF 16 AGENCIES
The InterAction letter was signed by the heads of 16 agencies: International Medical Corps, Concern Worldwide, Refugees International, CARE, World Relief, Gifts in Kind International, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, International Rescue Committee, Save the Children US, Church World Service, Oxfam America, Relief International, Adventist Relief and Development Agency, Women's Edge, and World Vision.
There has been no formal U.S. military response, although the Washington Post quoted an unidentified Pentagon official as suggesting that civilian dress was for military advantage and soldiers' safety: "They don't stand out as much."
The British Ministry of Defence dismissed aid agency concerns: "There is always a risk for any Westerner in Afghanistan who isn't a member of the International Security Assistance Force."
Beyond the role of undercover special forces, both U.S. and British forces have added to the potential for confusion by undertaking relief and development work, from helping with relief after the earthquake in March to rehabilitating schools.
While British forces are competing with aid agencies for funds from the British Department for International Development, InterAction's director of disaster response, Jim Bishop, said that U.S. troops had even appealed to aid agencies for additional funds for their work.
He added: "We urged them to use their comparative advantage and rebuild roads and bridges -- they have all the heavy equipment, we don't -- but instead they are doing work aid agencies can do, such as repairing schools and clinics."
Aid agencies have insisted that no military force can claim to operate as humanitarians, since they fail all three vital tests, being neither independent, impartial nor neutral.
The military have long factored in low-level psychological operations -- media-friendly hearts-and-minds projects designed to have an impact on local and home audiences.
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A security escort vehicle followed by a truck load of supplies drive past Khayber pass November 17, 2008. Pakistani security forces escorted a truck convoy carrying supplies for Western forces in ...
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