When NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan the Afghan National Army (ANA) took control of Helmand Province, an extremely dangerous region where attacks by Taliban fighters are the order of the day.

The directors of Tell Spring Not to Come This Year accompanied an ANA company during a year of frontline duty in Helmand. The soldiers are paid irregularly, there are not enough supplies and their equipment is substandard. Saeed Taji Farouky’s cinemascope images lend an epic dimension to the soldiers’ daily lives. The private moments and bloody battles feel like a metaphor for the fate of this war-torn country.

In off-screen interviews, the protagonists talk about their doubts, their hopes and their dreams. At the same time the film shows the absurdity of the conflict from the point of view of these Afghan soldiers, in a country whose government is fighting an enemy that even NATO troops did not succeed in defeating in almost thirteen years.

Tell Spring Not to Come This Year received its world premiere at the Berlinale in February 2015 and was awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights award and the Audience Award for best documentary.

Directed by Michael McEvoy and Saeed Taji Farouky
Duration: 87′
Year: 2015

In a week that’s seen three “green on blue” attacks in Afghanistan, a divided panel came together to unpick the finer details of the country’s impending challenges. With foreign troops preparing to leave in 2014, the spectre looming over Afghanistan is a return to civil war. The expert panel debated whether the Afghan National Army would be able to prevent this outcome.

The guests were united in their belief that security would be the major challenge for Afghanistan post-withdrawal. It was stressed that foreign forces would not be abandoning Afghanistan as the Soviets had done when they withdrew in 1989. The audience heard that $4.1 billion would be spent each year to support the army and that NATO would offer continuing support until 2024 albeit behind the scenes.

“This is not a Soviet style abandonment of Afghanistan. In this case there are many strategic partnership agreements with the US so the idea is that at least some US forces will stay maybe 10,15 up to 20,000 for another 10 years. There are strategic partnership agreements with UK, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Turkey. These, the government thinks will keep Afghanistan together and keep institutions running. If this happens I think the future is bright.” 

Questions were then raised about the ethnic groups that make up the ANA. It was stressed that the army roughly represented the country’s ethnic groups proportionally and that recruitment from the Pashtun south had increased 10% last year. However it was stated that men from this region, which has been a fertile ground for Taliban recruiters, were under represented in the ANA and currently make up only 1% of the force.

The debate moved on to reconciliation. Whilst the panel agreed that it was a requirement to prevent ethnic strife, they split when it came to defining what reconciliation meant. One view given was that for the US, it seems that reconciliation means splitting and undermining the Taliban rather than including them in meaningful peace talks. A robust approach to dealing with difficult groups was offered by another speaker, considering how to deal with governors that don’t want to engage with western forces. 

“It’s not about empowering absolute winners or absolute losers. The time now is for compromise, not for protecting fiefdoms and avoiding making difficult decisions that are in the longer term interest of Afghans.”

It emerged during the night that Afghanistan would need more than just a strong army to prevent civil war from engulfing the country. The experts agreed that robust civil institutions as well as a respect for the rule of law and human rights are required to make the nation sustainable after 2014.

“It’s important to make a balance between support to the Afghan national security forces, to the civilian causes, development and support to civil society including women’s rights groups. Unfortunately the biggest concern among many Afghans is that much focus will be drawn to the security.”

The panel concluded that it’s critical for Afghanistan’s future that the voices of ordinary Afghans are heard.

As the United States begins to prepare to leave Afghanistan, the message being portrayed by the media is that the Afghan National Army (ANA) is taking control and running operations.

But when foreign troops have gone home can Afghanistan depend on the ANA to keep the country from civil war?

In 2014 America’s longest war will be over but what will become of the Afghan people? Join us as we ask whether the country is destined to see a repeat of the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

Chaired by Nick Fielding, former Sunday Times journalist and editor of Circling the Lion’s Den, a blog on Afghanistan. He is the author of Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and the War on Terror and Capture or Kill: The Pursuit of the 9/11 Masterminds and the Killing of Osama bin Laden.

With:

Horia Mosadiq, Afghanistan Researcher at Amnesty International.

Brigadier James Chiswell CBE MC, MOD Head of Overseas Operations.

Dawood Azami, visiting scholar and award winning broadcast journalist working for the BBC World Service in London. Until recently, he was the BBC World Service Bureau Chief and Editor in Kabul, Afghanistan. Before joining the BBC in London in 1999 he worked as the head of an educational & training institute in Pakistan, mainly for Afghan refugees.  He was selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum in 2011. He won Global Reith Award for Outstanding Contribution, (the lifetime achievement award given by the BBC Global News Division in 2009).

Jonathan Steele, a Guardian columnist, roving foreign correspondent and author of Ghosts of Afghanistan. Since 9/11 he has reported from Afghanistan and Iraq as well as on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Leo Tomlin, Cabinet Office Deputy Director Asia and Russia, and former Deputy Head of Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Picture credit: isafmedia