Kabul, Jan 23 : I am
looking out the window as men in grey turbans run from my building out onto the
highway, their AK 47s at the ready. "There's been an accident," my Afghan guide,
Danish calmly tells me. "Someone was just killed in the plaza here."
I am
in Faryab province in northwest Afghanistan, which had been considered among the
more peaceful areas. "Was someone hit by a car?" I ask. Danish pauses. The "Oh
yes, she's American" look passes quickly over his face before he replies,
"Somebody was shot."
Within a few minutes we get a report from the
secretary of Abdullah Masoumi, the governor of Khoja Sabz Posh District, in
whose office we've been waiting for some time. It was the Taliban, he tells us,
and the victim was Commander Czhulam, a leading member of the governor's
security team and a former commander under General Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of
the country's most powerful warlords.
With the close of 2012, the
Pentagon has revealed a disturbing trend in Afghanistan: Taliban attacks
remained steady, or in some cases increased, over 2011 levels. I experienced the
Taliban surge firsthand this past November, and can offer a cause not cited in
the Pentagon's report: oil and gas.
I was there as part of a three week
investigation into the growing efforts of both the US and Afghan governments to
develop Afghanistan's oil and gas sector. I prepared my itinerary to include
what are supposed to be among the safest regions, and was traveling alone with
just a local guide and driver, my only "safety-gear" the local clothing and
black head covering I wore. As long as I kept my mouth shut, with my dark hair
and Middle-European heritage, I regularly passed for a local. I was tracking an
oil and gas trail across Western and Northern Afghanistan. But so too, it became
increasingly apparent, are the Taliban.
I was to interview Governor
Masoumi because his district sits atop fields of natural gas in one of the most
energy-rich provinces. As in virtually all of Afghanistan, none of the fields
are marked because almost no natural gas or oil operations are taking place. I
know the fields are there because I am following a map of Afghanistan's oil and
natural gas riches produced by the United States' Government's US Geological
Survey (USGS).
My journey has uncovered a largely hidden battle being
waged for control of Afghanistan's fossil fuel resources. The Afghan and US
governments hope these resources will attract international oil companies and
raise badly needed income. The Taliban appear increasingly bent on denying the
fruits of the sector to their rivals, be they local, national, or
international.
As we leave Faryab, Danish warns, "If the Taliban catch
us, throw your camera out the window and pretend to be my deaf mute
mother."
Two days later I'm in Jowzan province to the north of Faryab,
waiting at the gates of the Khoja Gogardak natural gas treatment plant, a few
miles from Sheberghan city. A lone guard sits nearby. Old, thin, and short with
a small grey turban and stark white beard, his AK-47 is casually slung across
his shoulder while two small "guard puppy" dogs relax at his feet, enjoying the
calm afternoon sun in the heart of General Dostum's territory. His lackadaisical
attitude is both quaint and oddly reassuring.
Suddenly, Mir Hasan, head
engineer of the facility, appears and ushers us quickly inside. "There is a
recent security situation which is not good and the military will be here in a
few minutes," Danish translates.
Hasan had received word a few minutes
earlier that his employees working at a natural gas field behind the facility
and just in the distance (he points, we look) were attacked by the Taliban.
"Right here?!" I ask. "Yes," Danish confirms. Hasan politely reassures me that
he is happy to give me the tour of the facility, 90 percent of which is outdoors
and in full view of the just-attacked field, but we'll have to be quick about it
as the Afghan military is on its way. "This just happened?!" I ask. "Yes,
exactly," Hasan responds. "Has this happened before?" I ask. "Mostly their
attacks take place during the night," he explains. "This is the first time that
they have attacked during the day."
I quickly recall that on the road out
of Mazar-i-Sharif, the city General Dostum calls home, Danish had been shocked
to see a man on a motorbike brazenly wearing the telltale-black turban of a
Taliban and brandishing his weapon in the middle of the day. It was the first
time either Danish or our driver had seen such a display in over ten
years.
"I think we better go," Danish tells me. I try to stall, hoping to
be there when the Afghan military arrive, but the men are anxious. Engineer
Hasan cannot yet report any details other than that when the Taliban began
shooting, his men got into their vehicles and fled the area without apparent
injury. "You are not very lucky," Hasan tells me, as we say goodbye to him at
the gate.
How right he was. I am standing in the middle of the street in
Sheberghan City waiting for Mohammad Chaari, commander of security for the Amu
Darya oil contract area awarded in 2011 to the China National Petroleum
Corporation (CNPC) in partnership with Afghanistan's Watan Group. With two
facilities operating in Sari Pul Province south of Jowzan and east of Faryab,
theirs is the only oil production in Afghanistan -- although they currently ship
their entire product to Turkmenistan. Almost a week earlier, I had been given a
secret tour. (The Chinese no longer allow press onto the facility, so I was
snuck in.)
While we wait for Chaari, we overhear a conversation between
him and two CNPC engineers from Sari Pul. There has been a Taliban attack near
the facility, "large enough to call in air support." No one would say more when
asked, but Commander Chaari does tell me that his security detail are about to
be significantly increased.
We begin crossing oil and gas fields off my
itinerary, deeming them too "insecure" to visit, including oil fields very near
to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif and the entire province of Kunduz. "Insecure," I
have quickly learned, is code for "Taliban." As the director general of the
Afghan Oil and Gas Survey tells me, "There is nothing else causing
insecurity."
The US Pentagon is the de-facto lead US agency pushing the
development of Afghanistan's oil and gas sector. Jim Bowen, a Houston oilman
hired by the Pentagon to guide a November 15 international oil and gas contract
tender process, confirmed for me that these attacks are in fact on the rise.
"Certainly, as the [oil and gas] sector develops, the sector is creating
targets, there is no doubt about that," Bowen tells me. "But exactly how one
defines 'Taliban' is open to interpretation."
Sitting in Kabul shortly
before my departure, I speak with Javed Noorani, extractive industries monitor
for the Afghan NGO Integrity Watch. He confirms Bowen's analysis: As the oil and
gas sector draws increasing public attention, so too have Taliban attacks grown.
But identifying who is supporting those Taliban, "be they Pakistani, Iranian, or
homegrown, is not so simple."
The result is clear, and far from unique to
Afghanistan: As development of the oil and gas sector has risen, so too has
violence and insecurity.
Ends
SA/EN
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