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A Week in the War: Afghanistan, March 15-21, 2011
Private Security Firms
The contentious issue of private security contractors (PSCs)
returned to the fore March 15when the Afghan government issued a
directive to immediately dissolve seven PSCs and calledfor most or
all of the remaining licensed operators to shut down within 12
months. They are tobe replaced by the fledgling Afghan Public
Protection Force (APPF), which is under the controlof the Afghan
government. The 12-month deadline is intended to provide the APPF
time togain the capacity to meet the large demand for PSCs to
protect diplomats and embassies, escortInternational Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) supplies, and provide security for aid
and
development workers, among other roles.
With regard to PSCs providing security to diplomats and
diplomatic facilities, the March 15announcement is said to be
consistent with the 1961 Vienna Convention on DiplomaticRelations,
though this merely means that Kabul has agreed, for the moment, to
observe theconvention. It still has to approve every individual
request for a foreign national to serve adiplomatic security
function before they are able to enter the country.
This is a longstanding issue for Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
As in Iraq, PSCs are deeplyunpopular with the locals, in part
because of actual and perceived abuses by PSCs in the courseof
their duties. This makes PSCs a powerful domestic political issue,
regardless of the accuracy
of allegations leveled against them. Aside from these charges,
other aspects of the PSCspresence in the country also irritate
Kabul. It has been a monumental task for the Afghangovernment
simply to attempt to track down, register and license the field.
There are alsoaccusations, likely not unfounded, that some of the
best-trained Afghan soldiers are recruitedaway by better pay and
better conditions to work for PSCs, which exacerbates the
alreadyprofound problem of attrition by denying Kabul both rare,
high-quality soldiers and ones inwhom they have already heavily
invested.
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This is a significant longer-term problem both for Kabuls
efforts to establish its writ across thecountry and for the basic
rule of law. As the ISAF prepares to begin its drawdown in July,
theservices that PSCs provide will continue to be important to free
up combat forces toconcentrate on the larger operational effort to
weaken the Taliban. The ISAF does not havespare forces to dedicate
additional combat troops to route security and certainly not to
deal with
flare-ups of irate, armed PSCs along its lines of supply when
they are perfectly willing tomaintain the status quo for cash.
In addition, not all development and aid workers and other
visitors are going to be satisfiedwith the skills the APPF has to
offer. At the moment, the APPF lacks either the capacity
orcapability to take over from PSCs in all cases, much less the
confidence of clientele that hascome to understand what various
PSCs can and cannot provide. Indeed, there are risks that
aninadequately prepared APPF could give rise to a black or gray
market for protective services,undermining what regulation Kabul
has put in place. And there is the related concern that alack of
good options for protective services could have a chilling effect
on the scale and scopeof the deployment of international aid and
development-community workers so critical to
economic development in the country not to mention the corporate
and businesscommunities that will be necessary if Afghanistan is
ever to progress toward economicviability.
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