Afghan security forces are undergoing a serious security crisis. NATO and the US lost thousands of troops, and spent half a trillion dollars to build a strong army, but now they seem unwilling to address the exponentially growing corruption culture in the Afghan armed forces. The army that was nurtured under foreign tutelage is dependent on American and NATO stipendiary, and it now depends on the US army how to use them, where, against whom, and for what purposes. But one thing is clear that the Afghan army has lost the support of civilian population.
Civilian causalities rose to a record level as the Taliban retrieved sophisticated weapons from their allies within the army headquarters. Desertion and retention have become a persistent challenge for ANA commanders as thousands of soldiers and officers joined either Taliban or Daesh terrorist groups. The Afghan defence ministry is losing as many as 5,000 soldiers and officers every month in cases of desertion and casualties, while only 3,000 soldiers have been recruited.
In February, the ANA arrested and disarmed 30 cops with alleged Taliban ties, including the police chief of Helmand’s Sangin district. Drug trafficking is another serious challenge where, according to the Russian Narcotics Agency report, almost a third of the ANA officers turned to drug trafficking. Army generals and officers are deeply involved in drug trafficking and kidnapping for ransom. The question of merited appointment yet remains to be addressed as the military headquarters and the interior ministry have done nothing to select or appoint officers on merit or to provide oversight to ensure merited promotions. However, last week, dozens of army officers complained about irregular promotion.
Those who fought against insurgents during the last 15 years are removed from their posts and those who enjoyed a comfortable life in Kabul are promoted to the rank of general. The ambassador of the European Union to Afghanistan expressed his dismay that the number of Afghan army generals exceeded several times than those in Britain, Italy, Germany and France. Spokesman for the Defence Ministry General Dawlat Waziri told the ToloNews that Prime Minister Gul Buddin Hekmatyar, President Burhanuddin Rabbani and President Hamid Karzai promoted hundreds of their political allies to the rank of general. Having sensed the flow of troubled waters, the Afghan president took serious notice of the issue, and warned that anyone who interferes in the selection process would be considered a criminal.
On 11 October 2016, President Ashraf Ghani sternly criticised appointments of unprofessional officers and soldiers within the ranks of the Afghan armed forces. The law on personal affairs of commissioned and non-commissioned ANA officers states that promotion of an officer takes place when there is a vacant post. This way of unmerited promotion created uncontrollable corruption within the force as the military headquarters turned into a wholesale market, fixing the price for promotion of every single officer and soldier.
President Ghani once stated that promotions must not be delayed. He also stressed the need to bring about professional reforms within the ANA infrastructure. “The problem we saw in Kunduz, Uruzgan, Helmand and the rest of the country over the past two years shouldn’t mean our officers and soldiers do not have the ability to fight the enemy, but it is because of assigning duties to those who were not professional in their job but assigned to posts without considering skills and qualifications,” Ghani said.
When the cases of involvement of military officers and soldiers in corruption, drug and weapons smuggling were reported in newspapers, First Vice President General Rashid Dostum warned that any officer and soldier found involved in mismanagement and negligence would face legal action. “We implement the law on all military personnel, no matter who they are,” Dostum said. However, newspapers also reported a verbal clash between the police chief and military commander, Abdul Jabbar Kahraman over war management in Helmand.
On 15 October 2016, a number of MPs in the lower house of parliament also warned that the lack of war strategy resulted in the exchange of districts between ANA commanders and Taliban insurgents. “Our political leaders both on higher and lower level failed to manage war against insurgents,” MP Saleh Muhammad said. In view of these misgivings, President Ghani asked ANA commanders to stay committed to the security of their country and stay aloof from politics. In fact, President Ghani has no control over his government machinery, and is helpless to dismantle clandestine links between ministers, parliamentarians and war criminals with terrorist groups in all 34 provinces.
The news of collaboration of police and ANA commanders with Taliban in Helmand, Wardak, Jalalabad, Kunar, Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces recently appeared in Afghan media, which prompted misunderstandings about their war management strategies. Last week, in Helmand, more than 100 soldiers were killed, 33 wounded and the rest joined the Taliban, but the Unity government remained tight-lipped. However, the Russian envoy to Kabul, Alexander Mantytskiy, also expressed concern over the failure of American and NATO mission to ensure security and stability in Afghanistan. The exponentially growing security challenges, internal turmoil, kidnapping, attacks on religious places, universities, sexual abuse, rape and bomb attacks have become common and rampant.
In September 2016, the Pajhwok News reported killing of more than 2,000 people by terrorists across the country in September alone. Now as the case further complicates, the US government received a stark warning that the culture of corruption within the Afghan armed forces may well undermine their efforts to establish a professional army. However, as a result of dysfunctional security and defence sector, war criminals and military commanders plunder natural resources across the country. The Integrity Watch Afghanistan in its July 2016 report warned: “Afghanistan loses USD 100 million from illegal mining and USD 1 billion from uncollected customs revenues annually, in part due to a combination of corruption, an associated sense of impunity and lack of professionalism. In addition, corruption has made the armed forces inefficient and difficult to sustain… More importantly, corruption in the armed forces has undermined the legitimacy of the state.”
The matrix of the Islamic State is expanding towards the northern parts of the country. Terrorist groups are pledging allegiance to Daesh’s struggle to establish their units in the Jalalabad province. In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News Agency, NATO spokesman Brigadier General Charlie Cleveland confirmed the existence of more than 1,000 Daesh fighters in the Jalalabad province. On 19 April 2016, Russian diplomat, Zamir Kabulov warned that more than 10,000 trained terrorists of the Islamic State were preparing to enter Central Asia. Last week, Abdul Rashid Dostum expressed the same concern and warned that some internal (government) and foreign circles want to transport more than 7,500 Daesh fighters (Chechen, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Iraqi, Syrians, Lebanese, and Libyans) to parts of Northern provinces.
The writer is the author of Fixing the EU Intel Crisis, and can be reached at [email protected]