KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A handful of dirt poor, displaced Afghan farmers returning to their land west of Kandahar have arrived home to a somewhat rude surprise: a nearly completed road cutting across their property.
The farmers, in the Zhari district, north of the former Taliban hotbed of Bazar-e Panjwaii, are growing increasingly frustrated because unlike their brethren closer to the town, they do not have a land compensation deal.
Many of the landowners have been away from their homes for months, driven away by heavy fighting between Canadian-led NATO forces and Taliban militants last summer and fall.
They have only recently been allowed to return to their villages and arid pockmarked land, where many of them grow grapes, melons, wheat, corn and barley.
"There is frustration among the farmers, but I would argue it's not as much about Route Summit so much, as it was their inability to get back on to their land,'' said Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
"A lot of these folks have been living in displaced persons camps or with relatives in Kandahar City. They were unable to go back and lead a normal life.''
The 4.5 kilometre road, known to the Canadians as Route Summit, is very near completion after almost four months of construction and sacrifice. At least three Canadian soldiers died last fall defending road or construction crews.
Initially bulldozed through out of military necessity during the bloody fighting of Operation Medusa in September, these days the army is promoting its economic value to sometimes skeptical Afghans, who for centuries have been used to using an old narrow, winding dirt road to move their produce to the market town of Bazar-e Panjwaii.
Some farmers have grumbled no one consulted them and they didn't want the road, which is broken into three district construction sections; the area from the main highway to the Argandaub River; a bridge over the river and the last stretch, running south into the town.
In late December, after weeks of sometimes frustrating negotiations with tribal elders, officers at the Canadian provincial reconstruction base were able to strike a deal to compensate farmers on the southern stretch of Route Summit.
Those farmers already have cash in their hands, said Grant.
"That has gone very smoothly,'' he said.
Negotiations with tribal elders on the northern leg in Zhari, where Taliban attacks and fighting were taking place until just recently, have not concluded.
"Are there some who will be affected by Route Summit and their property has been damaged? Absolutely,'' he said.
"We will make sure we deal with them through the district council and make sure their recompensed for the damage.''
Part of the problem, Grant said, is that people are still returning to their homes and the army must figure out who owns individual plots of land and what damage has been done.
The actual construction cost of the road is being split three ways.
The Canadians have assumed roughly Cdn$500,000 for the design and building of the 1.4 kilometre portion running into Panjwaii. The Germans have agreed to spend the equivalent of $1.8 million for the northern portion in Zhari, while the Americans are expected to build the bridge over the Argandaub River.
Thus far, the cost of compensating farmers is estimated at $218,000. No figures were available for the number of farmers compensated to this point.
Of Afghanistan's 63 million hectares of land, only eight million is arable, with the remainder being high mountains or desert wasteland. At the same, farming is the source of roughly 85 per cent of the livelihoods in the country, according to a recent international survey.
Knowing that many of the people who took up arms with the Taliban last fall were poor farmers, Grant recognizes that keeping people happy and occupied on their land is something that's in the army's best interest.
"The biggest thing in my mind is that we're getting large numbers of farmers back on to their property at a key time: planting season,'' he said.
