Afghan recovery team draws on 200 city troops
Their role: guarding aid workers, diplomats
Jim Farrell
The Edmonton Journal
Thursday, June 23, 2005
EDMONTON - A group of soldiers practised rescuing aid workers from a hostile and threatening crowd Wednesday at Edmonton Garrison to prepare for an unprecedented new mission in Afghanistan.
In a month, 200 local soldiers will begin flying to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar to take on a new role as the security force for a Canadian-led reconstruction team in the area.
Most are members of 3 Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. They will be joined by members of Edmonton Garrison's 1 Combat Engineer Regiment, local support and logistics soldiers and 50 soldiers from other Canadian bases who will provide specialized skills such as satellite communications.
A majority of the Edmonton-based soldiers will leave for Kandahar after July 18, and all troops will be there by the first week of August, said contingent leader Col. Steve Bowes, a former commander at Camp Gagetown, N.B.
It will be the first time for Canadians operating a reconstruction team, which plays roles in defence, diplomacy and development.
The local soldiers will be providing the defence.
The diplomatic section, from Foreign Affairs Canada, will help local Afghan officials rebuild local government.
If they're successful, it is hoped they will boost the legitimacy of Afghanistan's central government.
The development work of the reconstruction team will be done by representatives of the Canadian International Development Agency, or CIDA, who will oversee local aid projects; by Mounties who will help local police forces; and by non-governmental organizations that will take on aid projects.
As the security force for the team, Edmonton soldiers will also work with the Afghan army, Bowes said.
"When we go outside the city we will link up with and embed the Afghan army and they will go with us so the coalition will be seen to be in support of them."
During its operations outside Kandahar, the Canadian team will also work with representatives of Afghanistan's ministry of the interior.
Working alongside Afghan officials will help put a local face on the team's activities and boost the stature of their country's central government, Bowes said.
Some of the Canadian staff will operate out of the American military base at Kandahar Airport, where soldiers from 3 Battalion PPCLI were based three years ago.
The remainder of the team will operate out of a former fruit factory in Kandahar, a facility currently used by an American reconstruction team that the Canadians are replacing.
The Canadian team will operate throughout Kandahar province as the U.S. moves its reconstruction activities into other areas of the country.
Canada's assignment represents both an expansion in duties for the country and a greater security challenge, Bowes said.
"The Kandahar environment is more dynamic than others so we have had to focus on that in our training.
"There has been an escalation of activities associated with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in that area this spring, but we have also seen that kind of increased activity in Kabul and in northeastern Afghanistan."
In February, more Edmonton troops will arrive in the Kandahar area as a new rotation begins and Canada moves its Afghan contingent south from Kabul.
By the time that move is complete, an extra 600 to 700 Edmonton soldiers will be in the Kandahar area as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
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