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10/02/2003: "Kandahar Chronicles #20 - 30/09/2003"

With our PC attending Country Management Team meetings in Heart, I attended the weekly NGO security meeting. I hadn’t been to one of these since Bertein and I made up the entire expat team back in June. This week it was at the Tear Fund offices on the far side of town. Representatives from twelve organizations were there as well as the new agent for ANSO, the Afghan NGO Security Organization. ANSO is funded by ECHO, the European Community Humanitarian Office, and serves to act as an intermediary body between security advisors and forces and the various NGOs. The primary purpose of these meetings is to inform everybody about each other’s security measures as well as to discuss any issues that have occurred over the past week. I can’t write about what was discussed for obvious security reasons but it now seems that besides MSF, very few organizations are still willing to operate out of the city.

These meetings tend to last about an hour and can be either lively or boring, depending on the mood of group and the general state of the security situation. This week it was quite sober, in large part due to the brutal murders of two VARA national staff workers by unknown assailants a few hours drive out of town. This is the latest in what is becoming a sad trend for NGOs as other organizations have suffered similar loss. Tension is growing among the aid community here but there is a determination to carry on. I’ll attend the big weekly security meeting Thursday afternoon at UNAMA where I can also hear from the Coalition forces and the UNSECOORD spooks. The Coalition people are always good for a laugh no matter how serious the situation. They refer to the Taliban as “the bad guys” and say things like “we’ll execute a stationary vehicle positioning” instead “we’ll park the car.” They’re nice enough people and have a tough job here, but are also always good for a few catch phrases until the next week.