Page 31 - Phonebox Magazine October 2006

Out and About with Mark Lancaster
Our local MP
To contact Mark please call or write to: Mark Lancaster TD MP
13a High Street, Newport Pagnell, Bucks MK16 8AR
Tel: 01908 615757 Fax: 01908 618433
Phonebox Magazine 35
sitting in camp in the middle of Helmand Province, as I prepare to come home from my 6-week spell serving with the army in Afghanistan. By the time you read this I will, with luck, be back. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't looking forward to coming home, because I certainly am, but my time here has been a remarkable experience. Whilst I have a history of operational service in my role as a member of the Territorial Army, this has been by far the most memorable and I am afraid not necessarily for the right reasons.
I have certainly had my fair share of excitement; be it being rocketed by the Taliban or within 300 yards of
the largest car bomb Kabul has ever seen. I will certainly never forget that shockwave passing through my body or indeed the dreadful smell in the air that followed. I have also had my fair share of grief; witnessing the repatriation ceremonies of too many fallen soldiers on their last trip home such as Pte O'Donnell, one of nearly 40 British Servicemen to have been killed in Afghanistan. But probably my overwhelming memory will be of our servicemen and women carrying out their day-to- day activities here, demonstrating their dedication, professionalism and sheer courage. From what I have seen of the press at home, there simply doesn't seem to be the recognition that our troops have been engaged in the longest period of sustained and very real combat (some of it literally hand-to-hand) since the Second World War. It really has been a tremendous honour to serve alongside them.
I have been fortunate that in my role of helping to co-ordinate the Reconstruction and Development Plan of the country, my focus has not been on fighting but rebuilding. I have travelled to every corner of Afghanistan; from Herat on the Iranian border, to Helmand province in South, Mez-a-Sharif in the North and Kabul in the East. Everywhere I have been I have witnessed the horror and devastation that nearly 40 years of war brings, matched only by the hope of a nation that truly believes there must be a better future.
There is no doubt that progress here is bitterly slow. There is simply a dearth of individuals in the Government here to provide the skills necessary to deal with the monumental task before them. There are very few people in authority with any experience or running anything; such was the purge of the middle classes under the Taliban. Money is not a problem, as donations and grants from nations and international organisations continue to flood in. However, the problem is that there is little if any co-ordination of projects. The focus is on "Quick Impact Projects", there to please national politicians with quick results, but the result is that the eagerness of organisations to help may result in two wells being built in one village and none in another. The village that has two wells then finds that the water table drops and the ancient 'Karza' or water channel that the community has relied on for hundreds of years runs dry.
However, there is hope. Provincial Councils have begun to evolve and with them Provincial Development Plans. At first, these plans are little more than wish lists of projects for the community; be it roads, schools, hospitals or wells. However, the key is that it is a central, co-ordinated list; a list that can be delivered and, most importantly, seen to be delivered by central Government. In doing so, the Government can demonstrate that it is more powerful than the warlords and that it, not the Taliban, represents the future.
here has been the report that opium production has increased, not decreased, over the last year. Subsistence farmers in Afghanistan do not grow poppies because they want to; they need to. Such is the climate and terrain it is one of the very few things that do grow here. Too late, there has been a realisation that there is no quick fix to this problem. Probably the only two crops that can genuinely compete with poppy growing and provide an income that competes are vineyards and orchards, many of which have been destroyed by 40 years of war. The problem is that they take at least seven years to establish and so much of the funding available to farmers is short term such is the desire to see immediate results. Finally the message seems to be getting through to organisations such as DFid that if we are really to make a difference then farmers need support over the long term if we are really to offer an alternative livelihood.
So has my journey here been worth it? I leave with a frustration that I have not been able to do more, that my contribution will have been but a drop in the ocean as to what is required, but as a Member of Parliament who spends far too much time in the splendid isolation of Parliament it has been an invaluable and frankly moving experience. If there is one thing I have learned then it is that we have probably the best armed forces in the world, capable of being a combat soldier one minute, followed by diplomat and community liaison worker and reconstruction engineer the next.
Like it or not, the international community is going to have to stay in Afghanistan for many years to come. I only hope that the international community has the will to stick it out and having started the job, does not desert this country in its hour of need. d
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Iam writing my article this month Perhaps one of the most depressing pieces of news while I have been