By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 1, 2003; Page A12

MELAN, Afghanistan--Glistening with fresh paint applied by U.S. troops, the refurbished schoolhouse is a small symbol of an ambitious strategy that Afghan and foreign officials in Paktia province said they hope can set an example for other provinces trying to fend off violent inroads by the Taliban and other Islamic extremist forces.

But when the school's principal, neatly dressed in a Western suit and tie, rose to give his thank-you speech last week at the reopening ceremony in this southeastern Afghan village, he was careful to keep his message as politically neutral as possible.

"I said nothing about the Taliban, and nothing about democracy," Shahjahan Ahmadzai said Sunday in the parlor of his mud-walled home, which was crammed with books. "We have no security here, and there are many uneducated people who are easily deceived. Someone could always come in the night and kill you."

The people of Paktia, despite such understandable nervousness, have largely escaped the anti-government sabotage, threats and recruiting by the revived Taliban militia and its allies that have spread across southeastern Afghanistan in the past several months, leaving victims, converts and new allies in its wake.

A year ago the provincial capital, Gardez, was a sullen ghost town governed by ineffective civilian leaders, dominated by abusive police and army troops, and threatened by warlords. Today the bullies are gone and the town is abuzz with energy. New restaurants and hotels are under construction, and even a few foreign charities have returned.

"The more work there is, the weaker the bad elements become, and the more it helps those of us who want to come back and rebuild our country," said Mohammed Wazir, a businessman who recently returned from 20 years in Pakistan and is building an 80-room hotel on the main street.

The source of this success has been a combination of professional military muscle, strong tribal tradition and deft political maneuvering -- all coordinated among central Afghan authorities, U.S. military officials and U.N. advisers.

Foreign officials said they hope it can serve as a role model for nearby provinces such as Paktika and Zabol, where criminal and political activities by the Taliban and its sympathizers have skyrocketed since midsummer. In Paktika, two districts are now reported to be entirely under Taliban control.

Caption goes here. (Photographer - Source here)

"We all agree this is a model. The basic security problems have been gradually addressed, there is a semblance of normalcy in Gardez and only a few islands of instability remain," said Sebastien Trives, a U.N. official in Gardez. "By Afghan standards it's a great success, but it is only a stopgap measure, and we need much greater resources to apply it in other places."

The most dramatic change in Paktia has been at the top. About six months ago, President Hamid Karzai, a leader known more for diplomacy than boldness, replaced the governor with a trusted tribal adviser, and the police chief, now in U.S. custody on various criminal charges, with a professional retired officer.

Soon thereafter the provincial military commander, a northern militiaman accused of corruption and abuses, was also recalled. A former regional ally in the U.S. anti-Taliban campaign, he was allowed a graceful exit to Kabul with a dignified "change of command" ceremony. His idle troops soon disbanded.

In their place, a contingent of about 150 U.S.-trained troops from the new Afghan National Army has been stationed on the outskirts of Gardez, from where they conduct routine patrols and periodic anti-terrorist raids alongside U.S. troops. Local Afghans said their behavior, as well as that of the new police, is far more professional and disciplined than that of the old militia forces.

"I don't like to boast, but before I came here only the city was safe. Outside, there was stealing at checkpoints and the tribes were harassed," said Gul Hai Sulaimankhel, 58, the new police chief. "It took a month and a lot of help, but now my predecessor is in prison, the previous troops are gone and the province is quiet. The Taliban try to make problems every day, but we don't give them the chance."

A U.S. military assistance center set up last year near Gardez -- the first of eight such Provincial Reconstruction Teams being established across the country -- has brought foreign protection and goodwill to an insecure region that had been abandoned by most international aid groups as too dangerous for fieldwork.

The program was controversial among civilian aid groups and poorly understood by Afghans at first. The U.S. troops and specialists rarely ventured outside their isolated base, which is still periodically attacked with rockets and missiles. But last summer, they opened a more accessible storefront operation next to the governor's office, brought in diplomats and aid officials and stepped up civilian projects such as the rebuilt school in Melan, near Gardez.

"This has put a human face on the American presence," said one U.S. official. Recently, reconstruction team officials helped mediate a violent dispute between two Paktia tribes, building further rapport. "Despite our name, we're not really here to do reconstruction," he added. "We are here to reinforce Afghan authority, to be an honest broker, to create a security bubble for whatever needs to be done."

Perhaps the most crucial element in the operation to deprive the Taliban of a base, however, has been Paktia's unusually cohesive tribal system and a sustained, high-level effort to reach out to its leaders. In some southeastern provinces, Afghan and foreign officials here said, weak or warring tribes have created opportunities for extremist forces to establish alliances and pockets of power. But in Paktia, cooperation among several major tribes has created what Trives called a lock that the Taliban and other anti-government forces have so far been unable to break.

"Paktia has a special tradition. It is a province of meetings, where everything can be solved by negotiations," said Sulaimankhel, a former police official in the Communist-led government of the 1980s, who also comes from a prominent Paktia clan. "We have worked hard to bring in the tribes, and their support makes all the difference."

All day Sunday, turbaned tribal elders jammed the waiting rooms outside the office of the governor, Asadulah Wafa, waiting to present a variety of complaints and disputes for him to resolve. In one case several elders complained that the police had collected some weapons and then lost or possibly sold them. Wafa sharply reprimanded a nervous policeman who stood at attention before him, and the elders left satisfied.

"Things are much better now," said one of the waiting tribal visitors, a farmer named Mohammed Amin. "The governor prays a lot and does not take bribes. There are no more thieves at the checkpoints, and the new army troops do not insult us."

There are two exceptions to the generally peaceful portrait of Paktia: the town of Zurmat near the border with Paktika, where Taliban forces reportedly are active despite repeated raids by U.S. and Afghan troops, and the southwestern tribal region controlled by Bacha Khan Zadran, a militia leader and former governor who has refused to recognize the central government.

Officials said both pockets are potential avenues for deeper inroads by Taliban forces, who have long drawn their strength from the country's southern Pashtun region. But local Afghans said Zadran remains ardently anti-Taliban, and that the problems in Zurmat can be addressed by strengthening cooperation among local tribes.

It is far from clear, however, whether Paktia's model for security-building can be replicated beyond its borders. The new Afghan army is small and overstretched; no U.S. military assistance team is planned for the surrounding provinces; and the political loyalties of local tribes, civilian authorities and military officials vary widely.

"We want to sustain the momentum and apply it to other places like Paktika, but we need more troops, more resources, more international determination and more Afghan government capacity," said Trives.

"There is a real possibility that this process can run out of steam," he added. "The Taliban haven't run out of steam at all."