The Taliban's demand for France to pull out its troops or for Kabul to free prisoners in return for the release of one French and three Afghan aid workers has raised concerns about a trend in kidnappings for political reasons rather than financial gain.

A French woman being held with them was freed Saturday.

The government's release in March of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian hostage has had an "encouraging effect on these kinds of problems," said Handicap International country director Arnaud Quemin.

"We observe a global warming of the situation in the country so we are more careful about how we manage our movements," said Quemin, who has 250 staff -- 10 of them expatriates -- working with people with disabilities.

"The risk is statistically becoming higher, either to be taken in fire between different forces or because of bombing in the cities. So we try to decrease the risk of exposure to such things by limiting our movements."

The group does not keep its expatriate staff in the southern province of Kandahar for security reasons, he said.

Last month it suspended work in parts of adjoining Helmand province when NATO-led and Afghan forces launched Operation Achilles, intended to wrest back control from the Taliban and drugs lords.

"There was a risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

However the Agency Coordinating Body For Afghan Relief (ACBAR), an umbrella body of nearly 100 Afghan and international non-governmental organisations, is not seeing NGOs pulling out of the volatile south.

Rather, "people are very much tuned into what is happening and adjusting their operations," said director Anja de Beer.

"Their area of operations has shrunk considerably and people keep a watchful eye on where to go and when."

They also keep international staff down to a minimum, and foreigners rarely move outside the comparative safety of Kandahar city, which was struck by a rash of suicide bombings last year.

The paucity of expatriate personnel "makes it difficult sometimes to comply with the monitoring and evaluation demands of donors," De Beer said.

The general situation means "you cannot serve the community as well as you would like," she said, commenting on a recent surge in attacks in the once-calm north.

Mercy Corps copes in Kandahar by staffing the office only with Afghans who wear local dress and travel in ordinary cars or taxis when they visit projects.

Some districts are even a no-go for certain Afghans, with only staff from those areas allowed there "because they are part of the community," agriculture advisor Atiqullah said.

The Afghan Development Association, an NGO involved in reconstruction and development projects in the south and southeast for 15 years, relies largely on its community links to keep its staff safe.

"Security is one of our biggest concerns -- it affects travelling from one location to another, the movement of our staff, logistics," director Esmatullah Haidary told AFP.

"We take careful measures. Sometimes we delay projects. We are all the time approaching community structures, the beneficiaries. They travel with us," said Haidary, whose group employs about 890 staff, all Afghans.

Organisations still in the south "have been there a long time and know how to operate down there," a Western security analyst said on condition of anonymity.

He does not expect many kidnappings in that area as most foreigners avoid the roads, travelling by plane from hub to hub.

"Generally in the south, no one is getting out -- they are all stuck in the centres," he said.

Problems were likely to arise in other regions "where they get out and do what they want, where they don't adhere to security procedures," he said.

There was also a certain degree of naivety among people who "think they are invulnerable because they are aid workers and here to save the world."

"Attacks are increasing countrywide.... We are picking up more static of threats to NGOs and aid workers."

The analyst expected security to plummet in the relatively calm north in the coming months, with the Taliban's release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in exchange for prisoners sending a bad message. The reporter's Afghan driver and translator were beheaded.

"It has just opened the door for everyone (to be kidnapped) -- Afghans and foreigners," he said.

Email This Article

Related Links
News From Across The Stans
News and analysis about the Global War Against Terror at SpaceWar.com