As the stomach turns….. So we go from disbanding the companies by December, to banning them in stages, to now allowing the aid folks to use PSC’s until their contracts expire? What’s next, start over and pretend this never happened? lol
Another factor that might be driving this decision, besides the obvious ones brought up in the beginning, are the latest moves of some aid companies. That they are now making deals with the Taliban in order to do their thing.
So what is worse, these groups hiring security or making deals with the Taliban to not attack them? Even if we were to believe that they are not paying the Taliban, the Taliban are still getting some great PR out of the deal. They look like the ones who are in charge here, and not the Karzai government or coalition. Just one more reason why banning PSCs based on some time line was a bad idea. Instead, get rid of those ‘horrible’ PSC’s through the simple market mechanism called ‘a lack of demand’ and progress in the war effort.-Matt
Afghan official: Government allows aid projects to employ private guards till contracts expire
By Heidi Vogt
23/11/2010
KABUL – Afghanistan will allow armed guards employed by private security companies to continue protecting aid and economic development projects in the country until their current contracts expire, a government official said Tuesday.
The decision comes despite an earlier order that all security companies disband by mid-December.
It also clears up uncertainty that had been hanging over large companies involved with ongoing aid and development projects for the U.S. and other foreign governments since a presidential decree to disband them was issued in August.
Many of the companies had said they would have to cease operations in volatile provinces in the south and east if they could not use private security guards to protect their workers and their projects.
But the Interior Ministry official in charge of overseeing security firms, Gen. Abdul Manan Farahi, said Tuesday that all existing contracts to guard aid and development projects would be allowed to continue until they are completed.
“When they finish that contract, they should move,” Farahi told The Associated Press.
President Hamid Karzai has said the existence of dozens of private security firms undermines the Afghan security forces — creating private militias that often flout Afghan laws and regulations.
There are about 30,000 to 40,000 armed security guards working in Afghanistan, about 26,000 of them employed by the U.S. military or government, according to Afghan and U.S. officials.
Karzai said in October that he would review development projects on a case-by-case basis for exemptions.
Farahi said the government has a record of every contract entered into by registered security firms, so it will not be difficult to make sure that only existing contracts are given an exemption.
Farahi stressed that those contracts will not be renewed. But when asked what will happen if Afghan police are not ready to take over security once the contracts expire, he said the government would have to consider its options if that happened.
Permanent exemptions have been granted to diplomatic missions and to guards for NATO bases, but the plan is for all other employers of private guards to gradually start using a special police unit called the Afghan Public Protection Force.
That unit is still small — somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 officers, according to Farahi. It hopes to have enough officers to fully take over from the private security guards within six months to a year, he added.
Those private guards who continue to operate after the Dec. 17 deadline will be held to stricter regulations than previously, Farahi also said. They will not be allowed to have their headquarters inside Kabul, nor carry weapons in the city. In addition, they will need police permission to move from guarding one site to another, both within the city and throughout the country.
U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment, though Farahi said they had been supportive of the plan for development projects in meetings on the subject.
Story here.