Fight On. Because There Really Is No Other Choice

The job isn't finished in Afghanistan. Canadian Forces have already sacrificed much to help Afghans overcome a deadly insurgency that tramples on human rights and murders at will. In the Embassy Magazine, Lee Berthiaume explains why Canadians should stay committed militarily until the mission's objectives are won. An excerpt:

Liberal and Conservative members of the Commons' Special Afghanistan committee have been feeling out public opinion on the idea of deploying several hundred military trainers to Kabul to continue helping Afghan security forces get ready to take over responsibility for their security in 2014. The government has remained mum on the idea.

Meanwhile, by next year, Canada will have fulfilled its pledge to contribute $1.9 billion over 10 years for Afghan reconstruction and development. There has been growing criticism that Canada will fail to finish three signature projects or achieve many of the benchmarks it set for itself following the Manley Panel report in 2008. Some have used this as justification for leaving in 2011.

However, in an exclusive interview last week, Sima Samar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, strongly opposed the idea of Canada cutting its losses and leaving.

"Canada should evaluate when it went to Afghanistan, its objectives and how far they reached those objectives and goals," she said. "In my view it's reason enough to stay in. I believe that an incomplete job doesn't help Afghanistan, doesn't help Canadians. And the reputation of Canada, they have to leave a good example of their support in Afghanistan."

At the same time, Ms. Samar encouraged Canada to act upon the idea being vetted by Liberal and Conservative MPs to deploy more military and police trainers to the country, as security and law enforcement are two of the most important steps to ensuring progress.

"I hope they really focus a lot on training of national security forces in Afghanistan or Afghan security forces in order to hand over the responsibility to them," she said.

Human rights violations continue

Following Tuesday's Kabul Conference, Mr. Cannon acknowledged in a statement President Hamid Karzai's commitments in January to address security and governance, protect human rights and fight corruption.

"Today, we have seen the efforts made by the Government of Afghanistan to respond to that call," Mr. Cannon said.

However, Ms. Samar had a much more cautious assessment of the situation. She said while some progress has been made, "there's still a long way to go to free the people from the fear that they have." Security is "deteriorating," she said, and corruption remains a major problem.

According to a recent report from Afghanistan Rights Monitor, 1,074 civilians were killed between January and June of this year, which represented a slight increase from the previous year.

It's estimated that insurgent attacks are responsible for the vast majority of those, particularly since strict rules on when NATO forces can call in airstrikes were introduced. The UN says 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed last year, compared to 2,118 in 2008.

"[The] lack of security or deterioration of security in the country...really has a direct impact on basic human rights," Ms. Samar said.

Another related problem is the lack of proper law enforcement, corruption and impunity, she said.

"There are still some people who are above the law and act above the law," she said. "The majority of the people do not trust the judicial system.... This all ends up with the culture of impunity, unfortunately. The culture of impunity continues in this country. That is itself reducing a lot of confidence with the public on the government and state institutions."

A major step towards progress would be bringing several high-profile actors to justice for illegal activities, she said. Another would be a concerted effort to really build up the Afghan National Police into a quality force that can be counted on.