Our overall approach to reconciliation—and I'm sure both Mr. Mulroney and Mr. Brodeur have mentioned this before—is obviously Afghan-led, particularly at the national level.
As it cascades down to us at the provincial level, it's about trying to find opportunities. One of the things we've focused on, in the first instance, is supporting the provincial council. The provincial council is one of those forums that brings together various segments of society to have conversations on a regular basis about issues that are of concern to communities. That's a key forum. And we've spent time reinforcing both the infrastructure for the provincial council, so there's actually a proper place where people can meet--as you know, this is an important part of these processes--but also the management of the provincial council.
The second area that we've spent some time working on was the governors-led jirga process. Governor Raufi and Governor Wesa both indicated an interest in establishing a jirga process that would bring together the tribal elders. Governor Raufi had a more expansive vision for it. He wanted not only the “usual suspects” of tribal elders, but he also wanted to bring in teachers and religious leaders to really have a broad-based conversation. We monitored the process, but also supported him. We supported him personally, in terms of being a sounding board for him, but also being willing to provide resources out of the Kandahar Peace and Security Fund to make it happen, help them get a venue and have food, in order to have these meetings take place. A lot of what we do in reconciliation is not terribly sexy. It's about actually creating the opportunity and conditions for those conversations to occur.
Then there are other things we would do. We provided some modest support a while back to the Peace through Strength program for the office, so the office could function. Then we've done a variety of other things, including a project we've been funding with the Tribal Liaison Office that is about mapping. It's helping Afghans better understand what the lay-down is and what some of the grievances are so that they can develop conversations about these things over time.