Good morning...
ISAF's Operation Medusa continues in our, and more importantly, the future of Kandahar's, favor. We have updated you daily and will continue to do so as we finish the job and make the all-important move from combat to bringing in aid and development. The combined post-combat effort in Panjwayi will focus first on immediate aid for those displaced to resettle, then on the groundwork for getting crop levels, school attendance and employment to pre-Taliban levels.
ISAF-related operations in the capital and elsewhere in Afghanistan illuminate what can and must happen more widely in the South. In Kabul, ISAF troops in the last week delivered more than 7,000 notebooks, 308 school supply kits and 50 first aid kits to schools in Police District 10. Leaders from ISAF's Capital Region Command finalized plans with the NGO Afghan Health and Education Organisation for mobile dentist clinics, a literacy campaign and a chicken breeding instructional programme.
ISAF's Regional Command West in the past week helped experts from UNAMA, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organisation initiate action to stem the effects of drought and to start the work necessary for winterization. Related is the German Development Bank's announced plan to install deepwater wells and water storage tanks to cover 95 percent of Herat Province. That means fresh water for 800,000 Afghans and an infrastructure investment of 5.5 million euros, a move we applaud and will fully support.
Provincial Development Council meetings are occurring regularly across the West and North. Here's an example of the concrete results these councils are delivering. Last week's meeting of the Ghor PDC produced for Qal-e-Naw and nearby townships a program that will pay teenagers to collect rubbish, a contract for critical power generation repairs, and a project to illuminate the main mosque.
Another example. In Baghlan Province, ISAF is in regular contact with 45 communities that either already have, or are forming, development committees to take their rightful place in the process. This is the way ahead for Afghans, their government and its international partners for security and development working amongst the people for progress. Contrast that with the insurgents' work amongst the people, which seems exclusively limited to producing fear, death and darkness.
A grim example to end on, but one that illustrates the point, is the reality behind insurgent-inflicted suicide bombs. From available data, and reports from Monday's despicable act in Paktia, 151 of the 173 killed by suicide bomb attacks are Afghan (many children). That amounts to more than 87 percent. Such blatant disregard for human life and potential, undertaken by insurgents who callously ask to be called "mujaheddin", cannot be more clear or pointed out too often.