Progress and Pitfalls of “Peace-Building”

in Afghanistan continues...

Waves of displacement, both internally and beyond, have placed additional pressure on communities that have been compelled to accommodate large numbers of newcomers or returnees.

Disputes arise when returnees seek to reclaim their land or other property, and social and cultural difficulties are caused by the fact that many returnees acquire different attitudes or mindsets as a result of their experiences overseas.

Some four million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan since 2002, and communities could be placed under more pressure if the host countries pressurise them to return.

The production and trafficking of opium, and the responses to this, can also be highly destabilising for Afghan communities.

In particular, aggressive eradication timetables or the provision of development assistance, which is conditional on counter-narcotics progress, can result in a breakdown in relations between key local actors. The impact is

particularly severe where there is a failure to provide genuine alternatives,

especially in licit agriculture.

Heavy-handed interventions risk causing

hardship and resentment among the ordinary people, and strengthening

the hands of local warlords, thus forcing poor people to suffer while powerful traffickers are unaffected.

The issue of anti-personnel landmines (APM) and explosive remnants of war (ERW) continues to be a significant threat to the Afghan population and an impediment to recovery, with over 700 square kilometres of land suspected of containing landmines or other munitions in 2008. “All but one of the … provinces is impacted.” Out of 329 districts, 259 districts are infested with APMs. Out of 30 million population, over 4.2 million are living in APM/ERW infested areas. The

most prominent resource blockages caused by landmines are pasture, rain-fed cropland, roads and irrigated cropland.

Thus the developmental and economic activities face potential blockage by landmines. According to the Landmine Impact Survey, till 2005, 38 percent of the flat land is mine contaminated. In terms of access to resources, the survey clearly brings out the reasons for the impoverished condition of the Afghan

population.

To be continued...