A Helping Hand, Not Handout ("provincial reconstruction teams" in Iraq)

A Helping Hand, Not Handout
By Julian E. Barnes

KIRKUK, IRAQ--When Iraqis approach soldiers of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division asking about reconstruction projects, the Americans are supposed to listen. But the U.S. military commanders no longer decide which projects to approve--that's the job of local government. To help the fledgling government make those decisions, the U.S. State Department and military are establishing provincial reconstruction teams, modeled on those operating in Afghanistan.

One of the first two is up and running in this northern Iraqi city. The PRTs bring together military officers, State Department officials, and outside contractors. "In Afghanistan, there was no government, so the PRTs took power and consolidated it," says Maj. Victor Vasquez, a civil affairs officer in the 101st Airborne Division. "But in

Iraq we are trying to do the exact opposite." The new PRT is not supposed to collect grant money and take charge of tasks like rebuilding sewers. Rather, Maj. Curtis White, another civil affairs officer, encourages local leaders to set priorities and choose projects themselves. "People are not used to making decisions," White says, "and taking responsibility."

It is not an easy lesson. Kirkuk's new leaders are used to orders coming from Baghdad. And many tribal sheiks and political bosses would prefer the PRT just hand out money, rather than make them go to the provincial council for project approval. Ethnic tensions complicate matters further. Last month, for example, Kirkuk's education director, an ethnic Turkmen, switched the instructional language in several city schools to his native tongue, prompting the Kurds on the provincial council to cry foul. "They turned to me to ask what to do," says civil affairs officer Capt. Cathy Curtis. "But that is not our job; my job is to coach, to ask them: 'Did they take the issue to the council chair?' " The Kurds got the hint, and for now, the language change has been successfully ensnared in legislative red tape.

Michael Knowles, a former British Parliament member brought into the PRT to coach budding Kirkuk politicians, notes the difficulty in establishing a functional local government. "For over 5,000 years there has been top-down administration from Baghdad here," Knowles says. "And when all initiative is stifled, and the penalty for initiative is death, well, that slows things down."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20051210/ts_usnews/ahelpinghandnothandout