Sherard Cowper-Coles

HEAT AND DUST AND HELMAND

Written Transcription

(Sherard) Hi, I'm in Lashkar Gah in Helmand with Mark Malloch-Brown, Lord Malloch-Brown, the Minister for Asia at the Foreign Office, with David Slinn, the head of our Provincial Reconstruction Team, and the Chairman of the Helmand Provincial Council, and some of the counsellors and I'm going to ask Mark Malloch-Brown to say a few words for the blog.

(Mark Malloch-Brown) Well, this is a very important meeting because we've been hearing from the elected representatives of Helmand about their concerns, their concerns about security, their concerns that there isn't enough development, that there are not proper alternatives to opium, to poppy production, a list of very important problems which, if we are to succeed here in Helmand, and by we I mean the Government of Afghanistan and the international community, we need to hear these problems and work out through the mechanism of the PRTs and our coordination committees with the Afghan authorities how we're going to address them.

(Sherard) Good. I'm just going to ask the Chairman of the Council just to say a very quick word for the Foreign Office blog. Would you like to say something?

(Translator) The Provincial Council Chairman just addressed a warm welcome to the honourable guest, Minister and David Slinn from PRT and Ambassador from Kabul down in Helmand and said thank you for coming to our office to know what's going on in Helmand and to discuss issues going on in Helmand; and once again we would like from the British Government to bring a different or diversities into their military formations and coordination with Afghan counterparts at provincial levels and also at country level.

This week has been Malloch-Brown week.  Our new Minister for Asia (and therefore Afghanistan), former Deputy Secretary General of the UN, former head of UNDP, came to town, on his first official visit as a British Minister.  Mark Malloch Brown's previous two visits to Afghanistan were on behalf of the UN, in 1989 (when President Najibullah had sat unconcernedly through incoming mujahideen rocket fire during a meeting with Mark), and in 2001, before the fall of  the Taleban.  So the Minister noticed more than a few changes for the better.

After a day or so in Kabul, we always try to take our Ministerial visitors down to Helmand, to see what the Task Force and the Provincial Reconstruction Team are about.  In this case, the visit was particularly useful for me, as a new Brigade (52, from Edinburgh, with the Castle on their shoulder flashes), and Brigadier (Andrew Mackay, also from Scotland), have just taken over, and it was good to hear their appreciation of the situation.  Before leaving Kabul, Lord Malloch-Brown had called on President Karzai, but had also met the Governor of Helmand, Asadullah Wafa, at my house.  In the province itself, the PRT team leader, the redoubtable David Slinn (ex-Pristina, ex-Pyonyang) took  the Minister to meet the Helmand Provincial Council (filmed for the blog by Gina Popat, Mark's Assistant Private Secretary), and for an equally lively exchange with local journalists.  The latter included a representative of the BBC Pashto Service, which, with its Dari equivalent, is the most trusted source of news for Afghans, with 60% audience penetration.  

We returned from Lashkar Gah via the big British base at Camp Bastion in Helmand, where we had a wonderful military supper in a new canteen  (why is Army food SO much better than ours in the Embassy?), surrounded by Danish soldiers of the Royal Danish Lifeguards, who are about to take over as Battle Group Centre in Helmand. A serious contribution from a country which understands what needs to be done here, in both military and civil terms.  And Mark Malloch Brown ended the day by visiting the British military field hospital at Bastion: along with good food (and prompt mail deliveries), good medical care is vital for morale.  And the Royal Army Medical Corps, with contributions from the Royal Navy and the RAF, surpass themselves in Helmand, with successful treatment rates better than the NHS.  But the most moving sight was a tiny little Afghan girl, who cannot have been more than three, sitting on her bed in one of the wards, recovering from burns suffered in a suicide bomb attack.  That, and a short visit to the new memorial at Bastion to the British soldiers, sailors and airmen, who have fallen in Helmand, put it all in perspective.

Posted at 17:23 18 October 2007 by Sherard Cowper-Coles  |  Comments[1]