2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment
12.28.2010 Story by Maj. Robert Hoover ZABUL, Afghanistan- The Afghan Peace and Reintegration Program is a program to encourage and assist low level and mid-level Taliban and insurgents who wish to leave the fight and return peacefully to their communities to do so with honor and dignity. Provincial Governor Ashraf Naseri, met with Maj. Gen. Phil Jones, the IJC Chief of Reintegration, on Monday, Dec. 27, to talk about Zabul’s efforts and commitment in the APRP.
The governor stated that we should focus on military operations and the peace process. The reintegration process is a hard area for the president Karazai, Afghanistan and Zabul’s team.
“On the military side, we have killed more than 34 Taliban high level fighters with no civilian casualties. We are strongly committed to targeting financial resources in our area in the way of counter narcotics. We have reduced poppy cultivation to less than eight percent without revocation in this province. We have already damaged the financial resources [of the Taliban] in Zabul. We have also captured more than 2,500 kg of drugs by our counter-narcotics team,” said Naseri.
Afghan forces can play a big part on how to defeat the Taliban in Zabul. Zabul is working on
increasing the police tashkil, or manning, of the ANP and establishing local police in key areas to help the peace process. Training has been organized on teaching how to build capacity.
“This is one of the best programs to enable to Afghan forces to take the responsibility from ISAF. An example of this is that Afghan forces have taken over three districts in the province,” said Naseri.
Zabul has peace and reintegration shuras to explain the APRP to the people. The latest peace shura was held in Shah Joy. There will be more shuras planned as part of a mobile diplomacy initiative to improve the relationship with the Zabul government and the people of the province.
Jones thanked the Provincial Governor for hosting the meeting and the work that the Provincial governor and his team has done. He also stated the teamwork and stability operations are impressive and that the enemy is under pressure like never before.
“We at ISAF from the top to the bottom are support this really important mission. This is an Afghan government led process and the politics of peace must be led by the Afghans. Fighting is difficult and peace can be even more difficult,” said Jones.
Jones said,” Maintaining security pressure on the enemy is the key to maintaining peace. We must maintain pressure on the neighboring nations to support this process in every way- civil and military. The government must continue to improve its ability to support the people particularly through this process. This process must not be about paying people to stop fighting, it must be about politics, it must be about communities and it must be trying to generate realistic support to communities in these groups to rejoin the government.”
“My teams are committed to be really active in the implementation of the peace and reintegration process in Zabul,” said Naseri. “We have a strategy with the Afghan government and with the people to implement the peace and reintegration program.”
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