National Defence Committee on March 22nd, 2007

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much for coming back. It's nice to see you again and to get the update from you.

I want to follow up on Mr. Cannis's question about the surface-to-air missiles and where the weapons are coming from. I think it leads into your mentioning briefly that you thought we were making minor inroads or some inroads with the Pakistan situation.

I want to ask you about the cross-border activity. Has that improved, or is it still a situation where the Taliban are able to flow back and forth across the border relatively easily? Is that how you feel the surface-to-air missiles are entering the country? Please clarify the whole issue of this new turn of events with the weaponry the Taliban are using.

[BGen A. J. Howard]

Most certainly. One of the big challenges we have anywhere in the world where we're operating is the movement of illegal arms. This is not a new, unique problem in Afghanistan. It is everywhere.

Through the intelligence forces of most NATO nations and certainly within region south, we are working together tightly to understand when and where these weapons will come in. So we have to remain vigilant, and we have remained extremely vigilant.

I really can't get into the specifics of some of the successes we've had in preventing other arms from coming. I think this would be a great question when General Hillier comes. He's just recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan and he was in Pakistan and met all his counterparts over there. They had a very good dialogue by trying to say okay, let's stop yelling at one another and let's work together to solve this problem.

Certainly from our perspective we are a lot more upbeat on what's occurring up and down that border. Both from a partnership with Pakistan and our own ISAF forces, there is more effort being applied to understand what is going on in the border region.

For example, a minor example, the Americans have helped the Pakistanis build some fencing in certain areas, in really known routes, so that we can have better control and see what's going on. Over time, certainly if you'd asked me six months or seven months ago—We have made progress in that area, but we need to remain vigilant.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

So many analysts--and Gordon Smith recently, who is a former deputy minister—have written that if that issue with Pakistan is not resolved, then it's impossible to really solve the security situation in Afghanistan.

I also want to ask you about the IDP camps, the internally displaced persons camps. Have you any information on that? I don't remember if it was General Howard or another one of our witnesses who told us there were 10,000 families in one IDP camp just outside Kandahar. I'm wondering if you have any information on the success of people being able to return to their homes and leave these IDP camps.

[BGen A. J. Howard]

What I'd like to do, if you don't mind, is the next time I come back I will address that issue specifically for you.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Yes, I'd appreciate that.

[BGen A. J. Howard]

Because they need to do a bit of analysis. We know there are refugee camps throughout the region. This has to be a key bit, to get them to come back.

Let me go and get a bit of a snapshot and bring that back for you.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

We were told there were 10,000 families just outside of Kandahar and that there were more IDP camps in the province, so I'd really like to get some kind of sense about how large that is. We were also told that there wasn't enough food getting in.

When you talked about the ANA and the ANP, we also had information when we were in Afghanistan about the ANP being about seven to eight years behind in the development that was planned after the Bonn Agreement in terms of developing an Afghan national police force. Have you seen substantial progress?

When we were there, we saw that not only were Canadians working with the ANP, but the Americans were there as well in Kandahar, and also private contractors. How does that work with the ISAF people working on developing the ANA and ANP? With the American forces, I know that comes under the NATO banner, but how do the private contractors fit into the picture?

[BGen A. J. Howard]

The private contractors I cannot address specifically because I don't know. But certainly within the constructs within Afghanistan, there is a headquarters called the Combined Security Transition Command. It's U.S.-led, but we have Canadians in there. We actually have a brigadier-general. They're responsible for the army and the police development. So again, how about I bring that one back next time with a little bit more detail on that issue?

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

I'd appreciate that. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Thank you, Ms. Black.

You're going to have a full briefcase when you come back next time, sir.

[BGen A. J. Howard]

At least I'll be able to provide the committee something they want, so I'll certainly address that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Okay, we'll finish up with the questions with the government.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, General, for coming here today.

It's kind of delicate, but when the last rotation was happening in the fall of 2006, we had witnesses who came before the committee and testified that there were some elements of psychological warfare that the Taliban was employing through our media and so on insofar as the timing of their attacks right around when the rotation was happening, trying to discourage the new troops who were coming in, and trying to send the ones coming back home feeling a little bit down as well.

I notice that this most recent rotation has probably gone a lot more smoothly than the last one insofar as attacks are concerned. I'm wondering, is this indicative of the progress that is being made against the Taliban, or is this a seasonal type of thing? What would you attribute the seemingly fewer number of incidents to, which your slide had indicated? What would that be attributed to? Would it be the timing of the year, or would it be the progress that's being made?

[BGen A. J. Howard]

Thank you for your question.

Predicting what the Taliban is doing and attributing that is a bit like guessing what the weather is up to. It's multi-faceted and sometimes almost impossible to predict.

Traditionally what has occurred in Afghanistan is what I would call a winter lull. Some people like to use the word “spring offensive”. I call it a winter lull. You think things have gone a little bit quiet, and then they tend to sometimes ratchet up again.

What I think you are seeing is ISAF success in disrupting Taliban activity.

They like to make lots of claims in the newspaper, and I don't wish to demean them or anything like that, but we certainly are very happy with the deployment rotation that just occurred. It's great to be able to do the rotation without a lot of military activity occurring, so we have considered that a great success.

The success that we have enjoyed outside of Kandahar City in the Zhari-Panjwaii area points to the work that the troops have done, the soldiers from Canada, if I can trumpet them. The hard work that they've done to establish contacts with the locals have made that whole region just a little bit safer now.

We're encouraging our British colleagues, who will attempt to do the same in Helmand.

As peace breaks out in this southern province, as we can establish more and pile on more of the development work, we need to see this trend move forward.

I would be a fool to sit in front of you here today and suggest to you that all of the challenges are done, but there is certainly reason for optimism—and you need to have optimism in looking at this, but it is tracking the right way. What it needs is a lot of time. To stick in with the Afghans and to try to get this one in the end zone, if you will, is going to be a matter of time. But specifically right now, we are quite content with what's going on in Kandahar province.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Without being terribly specific, when you talk about the ability of the ISAF forces to disrupt the Taliban, that would indicate we are in some way winning some of the hearts and minds in Afghanistan, because you wouldn't be able to do that without some intelligence. You would obviously get this intelligence from communicating with a lot of the local people and various other sources. Would you say that the battle for the hearts and minds is going a lot better?

[BGen A. J. Howard]

In Operation Baaz Tsuka, we asked a governor in Kandahar province to get more involved. We said, “Please speak with the local elders. We need to understand what their needs are. We also need to understand if they know where weapons caches and the like are.” We're seeing a lot better communication. I think local Afghans now understand what Canadians are here to do and help with. It's something that moves along every day for gaining trust.

The Taliban will do everything they can to disrupt that. But we have certainly seen the return of families to the Zhari–Panjwaii area. With the governor's involvement and our ability to bring international partners to help with reconstruction, I don't want to be over the top here, but I think there is some optimism. We are succeeding on that path.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Thank you, sir. We look forward to your next visits.

[Proceedings continue in camera]