International Security Assistance Force senior leaders visit Regional Command - West

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

01.29.2009

Courtesy Story

International Security Assistance Force HQ Public Affairs

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By the International Security Assistance Force - Afghanistan Public Affairs Office

KABUL, Afghanistan - Lt. Gen. J.B. Dutton, UK Royal Marines, current International Security Assistance Force Deputy Commander, and Rear Admiral Matthieu Borsboom of the Royal Netherlands navy, ISAF's Deputy Chief of Staff for Stability, visited Italian army Brig. Gen. Paolo Serra's area of responsibility as Commander of Regional Command - West, Jan. 23-25.

"The purpose in coming here is that I am still fairly new in the theatre so I am still going around looking at all the areas that I haven't been to yet," stated Gen. Dutton. "What was impressed upon me the most about RC-West was the size of the area and the very limited number of troops. But there is a lot of extremely good work being done by the Provincial Reconstruction Teams here in Herat and Farah. They are clearly getting on extremely well with the local governance systems and working together in partnership to improve the facilities."

The first stop on the three-day visit was Herat's downtown PRT commanded by Italian army Col. Luca Covelli. The team met with Herat's newly appointed Governor, Dr. Ahmad Yusef Nuristani, representatives from UNAMA and other key leaders. The PRT team escorted the envoy to development and reconstruction projects throughout the city.

The next day, the team flew to Farah PRT to meet with U.S. Navy Commander Ben Nicholson, Farah PRT commander, and other officials there to discuss security issues and construction of new and completed projects in the province.

That evening Gen. Dutton departed and Admiral Borsboom remained to participate in the RC-West news conference with local and international media.

"This [news conference] was a good opportunity for local journalists to meet ISAF high-level authorities to get information about their activities and future planning for the rest of the country," said Ahmad Quraishi, chief reporter for Pajhwok Afghan News and director of Herat's Centre to Support Journalists. "We have one of the most affected areas of militant activities within the last year so this is a good way of contact and getting information about what ISAF is doing. We need to be in touch and get information from reliable sources."

On day three, Adm. Borsboom travelled to Baghdis province to assess the situation and discuss issues facing the local population. He walked through the streets of Bala Murghab to the newly built bridge over the river Murghab. The admiral spoke to locals about development and security and took in the local perspective on issues facing turbulent Baghdis province. After the visit to the bridge, Adm. Borsboom and Gen. Serra met with Bala Murghab's district manager and mayor during a shura at Forward Operating Base Columbus to discuss their needs and the critical nature of the insurgency.

"We hope that by helping elders in Bala Murghab by discussing with the people we will have better security in the future," stated Haji Rahmatullah, district manager for Bala Murghab. "We are glad that the Afghan national security forces and coalition troops are in Bala Murghab; they are helping us and the poor people of our area. The people here are very poor, there is no work here for them so they sometimes go to Pakistan or Iran and are faced with encouragement to go back to Afghanistan and fight against progress here."

That afternoon, Adm. Borsboom attended a meeting in downtown Qala-e-Naw with the governor of Baghdis province, Mohammad Ashraf Naseri, and discussed the security and development issues facing the people of Baghdis.

"We can only achieve the mission if we, in parallel, work on security, development and governance," stated Admiral Borsboom. "In the end it is in the hands of the Afghan people with the Afghan government, they should take the lead and we should support. These visits are very well planned, we ask to not only meet the PRTs but also to meet the government, UNAMA if they are present and also line ministries if they are represented at the lower level. By doing this we start to build a triangle, Afghans, UNAMA and ISAF; we need to have that at all levels. We would rather have security arranged by shuras than by shooting."