When it comes to what’s wrong with the war in Afghanistan, Remmelt Hummelen isn’t exactly lost for words. A former national church staff person, he thinks Canada’s approach is causing problems instead of solving them, focusing on the capital when it’s the country’s 31,000 villages that hold the answers to lasting peace.
“A lot of conflict there today is totally unnecessary,” he told a group at church offices in July. “Donors are rushing in and ‘fixing’ things that they know nothing about, so you end up with the wrong prescription.”
Hummelen lived in Islamic countries, including Afghanistan, for 20 years as a United Nations program advisor and a conflict mitigation specialist for United States Aid. As such, he has seen the effects of the war in Afghanistan, and listed three things about Canada’s presence there that should change:
- Demilitarize: “Our current military operation there is not appropriate. Our military is not trained to work in such places.” He said following the U.S.’s police-style operation—to hunt down the Taliban—is the wrong approach. He noted that outsiders must be knowledgeable about Islam and the tribal system, and appropriately trained; if this is the case, they can be indispensable for asking questions and challenging villagers, and can help get decisions and compromises made.
- Stop focussing on Kabul; focus on villages instead: “We can make all the laws we want in Kabul, but they are irrelevant in small villages. They don’t care! And they do what they want …. When mothers have to give opium to their babies because there’s no food on the table, who cares about what’s going on in Kabul?”
- Current methodologies are inappropriate for development; they don’t work for societies in conflict, and they exclude people. Once again, Hummelen stressed the need to work with villagers. Central to the local/tribal governance system is the jirga, meetings of tribal elders that make decisions and solve problems. Because everyone present is allowed to speak and consensus is required for change, a jirga can go on for days or weeks. Any decision for development, therefore, should take this system into account. “We have to change the work plan, otherwise, we’re creating problems.”
While living in Afghanistan, Hummelen conducted a survey and found that 70 per cent of both men and women would like outsiders to talk to them before taking any action.
“Canada can make a contribution,” concluded Hummelen, “and it should, but we don’t have our ducks in a row.”
