Clearing the way for peace By Peng Kuang and Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)

Clearing the way for peace
By Peng Kuang and Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-10

Clearing the way for peace

Two soldiers from the Afghan National Army practice removing unexploded ordnance from a bomb during training with the PLA in Nanjing, Jiangsu.

As young men growing up in Afghanistan, A. Moujoude Nahibzadah and Jawad Yakawlangi have already endured years of bloody conflict. Like most, they have witnessed the loss of many friends, colleagues and loved ones.

Yet as members of the Afghan National Army, they will bravely return home tomorrow to rejoin the fight against the Taliban after intense military training in China.

They are among 19 second lieutenants who yesterday completed a seven-week course in mine clearing with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province.

The PLA University of Science and Technology has run the biennial minesweeper program since 1999 and trained 300 troops from 15 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia.

However, the latest batch, which graduated yesterday, is the first to include personnel from Iraq and Afghanistan, where land mines remain a daily threat to soldiers and citizens.

Clearing the way for peace

An Afghan soldier gets instructions on how to diffuse a land mine from a Chinese PLA officer. Photos by Peng Kuang

Afghan army ordnance teams cleared 82,000 anti-personnel mines and 900 anti-vehicle mines in the war-torn Central Asian nation last year, although hundreds of minefields still remain, according to the United States Global Strategic Network.

"I've seen 14 comrades killed by the Taliban's remote-operated mines," said Nahibzadah, 21, one of more than 93,000 troops in the Afghan National Army, the country's government-led forces. Soldiers who attend the PLA college course are trained in detecting and dismantling mines, as well as how to deal with unexploded bombs and missiles.

"When we are back home, we will teach our fellow soldiers what we have learned here in China," added Yakawlangi, 20.

China has been active in the reconstruction of Afghanistan since the United States invaded the country following the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City and the Pentagon in Washington.

The China Metallurgical Group Corp and China's top integrated copper producer, Jiangxi Copper Corporation, in July started work in Logar, a province southeast of the country's capital Kabul, to explore and develop the vast Aynak copper mines. The $4 billion investment was the biggest in Afghanistan's history.

But as the war gets increasingly complex for the US and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, communities from across the globe have called for more involvement from China.

NATO and major politicians in Afghanistan have this year repeatedly urged Beijing to open its 91.5-km border with its Central Asian neighbor to boost logistical options to supply anti-Taliban forces. Meanwhile, Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has requested China to send troops into the war zone, an appeal firmly rejected by the Foreign Ministry here.

According to the Pentagon, headquarters of the US military, China agreed to work together with US to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, analysts say it is unlikely China and the US will secure any meaningful cooperation when it comes to Afghanistan.

Clearing the way for peace

"I think the only precondition for China-US cooperation on Afghanistan would be for Washington to end the war and pull its troops out," said Li Qinggong, deputy secretary-general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies. "The conflict is a no-win situation. It is too unique and the country's terrain is too hard to fight a war on."

Li said he backed Beijing's policy of non-military support for the Afghan people, such as mine clearance training in Nanjing.

US President Barack Obama is still deliberating whether to send the 40,000 extra soldiers requested by General Stanley McChrystal, the US forces commander in Afghanistan.

However, minesweeper Yakawlangi said a troop surge would have little effect on the war effort and added that his country was far more in need of new equipment and technological aids.

"The key to reviving Afghanistan is our country having a strong army, then rebuilding our country. No matter how many forces send troops, it will never be enough," he told China Daily. "What we need the most are weapons, ammunition, engineered technology like jets and tanks. Just sending more troops is no use."

Dong Manyuan, an anti-terrorism expert at the China Institute of International Studies, agreed and added: "There is only one situation in which China should send troops into the battlefield, and that is when there is a United Nations mandate.

"Sending more troops to the region would not work because the key to solving the problem is further development."

And while Sultan Baheen, Afghan ambassador to China, admitted the region does need more troops, he agreed it is "more important to strengthen the national forces so they can defend their country and fight terrorism".

"We need more civil and financial support with construction and big projects to create jobs," he added.

From the 1960s until the early 1990s, the Afghan National Army was trained by the Soviet Union. However, by 1992, the military was fragmented into regional militias under several warlords after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, paving the way for the Taliban to start seizing power in 1996. Following the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, the US military hit back against Al-Qaida terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban government - which by then controlled the majority of the country - after it refused to hand over Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind 9/11.

Clearing the way for peace

The Afghan army is now supported by the US and NATO member states, and is controlled by the nation's government, which is headed by recently re-elected president, Hamid Karzai.

Yakawlangi, one of 13 children born to a family in the central province of Bamiyan, enlisted in the army in 2003 when he was just 14 years old.

"Some countries may have strict age restrictions for new recruits, but not in Afghanistan. We are at war," said the son of an Islamic school headmaster.

In the past seven years, he has been posted in 31 of the country's 34 provinces. However, he criticized the performance of the US forces, claiming they often fled in dangerous exchanges with the Taliban and left Afghan troops unsupported.

"The US Army sometimes sends helicopters to withdraw troops but leaves Afghans in the field of battle," he said.

The Pentagon was unavailable for comment as China Daily went to press. However, in an exclusive interview with China Daily recently, Afghan Vice-president Mohammad Karim Khalili expressed his hope and confidence the West's military support would continue.

"Fighting terror is a shared burden," he said. "We appreciate the support we get from many NATO nations, but we understand they are not in Afghanistan simply to help our country. They are part of a worldwide effort to protect their people as well."

But for Yakawlangi, the conflict has shown the Afghan people that they can rely only on themselves to rebuild their nation.

The soldier received training from German, British and Turkish counterparts in Afghanistan before arriving in Nanjing in September, but praised the PLA course as the most "practical".

"If the Chinese trainers were talking about a specific kind of dynamite, they would show us a real sample. That never happened during previous training programs," he said.

Chinese analysts have already started to discuss how Beijing could increase its involvement in the anti-terror fight in Afghanistan, with many suggesting more assistance in helping the nation improve skill levels and technical abilities.

Roughly 400 Chinese are currently in Afghanistan, said Hu Yuanteng, economic and commercial counselor with the Chinese embassy in Kabul in August. Most are either employees of State-owned firms or traders, such as restaurant owners or construction material sellers, he said.

"China cares about what happens, and not just because of the investment it has made there," said Ye Hailin, an Asian studies expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "The US can leave anytime it wants and leave the mess for Afghanistan's neighbors to clean up.

"We are a neighbor, one of only six, and we cannot remain aloof. You can't sit on the sidelines while your neighbor's house is on fire."

China's influence in Central Asia is growing, thanks to its development and investment in the region, and officials in Kabul were the special guests when Beijing hosted a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit last month.

At the meeting, Premier Wen Jiabao met Afghan Vice-president Khalili and vowed to continue offering post-war reconstruction assistance to its neighbor.

"China will continue to encourage its capable and reputable domestic enterprises to invest in Afghanistan to intensify bilateral pragmatic cooperation in economic, trade and agricultural fields," Wen said.

He also told Khalili the nation would call on the international community to pay more attention to the Afghan people's livelihoods and help push forward desperately needed economic and social development.

Dong at the China Institute of International Studies insisted China should assist Central Asian countries in combating the Taliban and, due to the growing number of refugees, suggested the country should also increase its humanitarian aid.

"China could provide a platform for the Afghanistan government to negotiate with local warlords and even the soft-liners within the Taliban on a distribution of power," said Li, who is with the China Council for National Security Policy Studies.

"We can even send in anti-mine teams of our own when the war is over," Li said.

Clearing the way for peace

(China Daily 11/10/2009 page7)