Web update: Harper announces $200 million more for Afghan aid

from The Winnipeg Free Press

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, faced with growing pressure to shift Canada's mission in Afghanistan more toward good works than military might, has committed another $200 million to reconstruction and humanitarian aid.

The new 10-year funding commitment is in addition to $1 billion Canada has already pledged to Afghanistan through 2011.

"Afghanistan is a long way from home, but the issues we are addressing here — building democracy, reducing poverty, fighting terrorism, celebrating pluralism — matter for the entire world," Harper said Monday.

"Global security hinges on success in Afghanistan. . . . Afghanistan is on the frontline of the international security challenge of the modern post-war world. We must build a successful alternative there in order to defeat extremism and terrorism everywhere."

That success depends on a concerted international effort over years, the prime minister said.

The new money will help pay the salaries of teachers, police officers and health workers. It will also finance de-mining efforts, road construction to promote cross-border trade, a micro-credit program for Afghan businesses, and efforts to counter the country's heroin poppy industry.
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Harper said the funds will go toward proven national programs, most of which are also supported by NATO allies.

Harper's announcement came as Foreign Minister Peter MacKay prepared to table a major report Monday on Canada's overall progress in Afghanistan.

Canada's sixth Afghan winter is drawing to a close and Canadian soldiers are preparing to combat another spring offensive by pro-Taliban fighters crossing the border from Pakistan.

Harper said Canadians based in Kandahar have helped secure a "fragile peace" that now extends over large parts of the country's volatile south.

"Now it's time to consolidate those security gains on the ground and use them to advance reconstruction because the long-suffering Afghan people desperately need hope for a better future for their families and communities," he said.

"That's what our announcement today is all about."

The battle to win the hearts and minds of Afghans has suffered while Canadian and other NATO troops have been preoccupied with the war to stop those who would stop aid efforts.

NATO's former commander in Afghanistan, British Gen. David Richards, has warned that Afghans could rebel en masse against foreign troops unless they see a tangible difference in their lives soon.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said last week that the military needs to work more closely with Canada's development workers and diplomats to make tangible progress in the Kandahar region.

Dion bemoaned that Canadian military spending in the south has outpaced its aid contribution by nine times, and that four-fifths of those aid dollars are being spent outside the Kandahar region.

He also announced that his Liberals would, if elected, withdraw Canadian troops at the end of the current mission in February 2009. The NDP wants Canada's 2,500 soldiers pulled out of Kandahar immediately.

The Conservative government says it has made no decision about what happens after 2009, but the Tories ridicule the notion that reconstruction is possible without a robust military presence.