Lithuania/Afghanistan — PRT military personnel conducted an air patrol

April 11, mil­i­tary per­son­nel of the Lithuan­ian-led Provin­cial Recon­struc­tion Team of Ghor com­plet­ed an air patrol in the dis­trict of Do Lainah of Ghor.

The patrol was attend­ed by Com­man­der of the Mil­i­tary Ele­ment Col Eligi­jus Senulis, Head of the Civil­ian Ele­ment Jur­gis Stanaitis, and a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the Unit­ed States Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment (USAID).

In the set­tle­ment the del­e­ga­tion met with the elder of the dis­trict, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of local police and secu­ri­ty agen­cies. The elder expressed his delight about the inter­na­tion­al community’s projects com­plet­ed or under­way in the dis­trict. It was accen­tu­at­ed that police forces deployed in the region ensure order and sta­bil­i­ty effec­tive­ly. PRT Com­man­der Col E. Senulis asked the elder and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of local author­i­ty what they saw as the key aims and pri­or­i­ties of the vil­lage. The elder point­ed out lack of edu­ca­tion facil­i­ties for chil­dren as the main prob­lem. PRT Com­man­der stressed that this year the Gov­ern­ment of Japan fore­sees build­ing over 20 new schools in the province of Ghor, and it is expect­ed that sev­er­al of them will be built in the dis­trict of Do Lainah as well. 

The PRT del­e­ga­tion togeth­er with local author­i­ties toured the mar­ket of the vil­lage, accord­ing to local rep­re­sen­ta­tives, it is one of the biggest mar­kets in Ghor. The del­e­ga­tion also vis­it­ed two schools estab­lished next to one anoth­er – a reli­gious and a sec­ondary one. In the end of the vis­it the del­e­ga­tion toured the Health­care Cen­tre where USAID fund­ing helped installing solar ener­gy bat­ter­ies sev­er­al years ago. The sys­tem is ful­ly func­tion­al and ensures full pro­vi­sion of elec­tric­i­ty power. 

Before leav­ing PRT Com­man­der Eligi­jus Senulis accen­tu­at­ed that US and Japan were mak­ing great efforts to devel­op and improve every­day lives of Afghan peo­ple. Changes in the vil­lage are obvi­ous and can be appre­ci­at­ed by any­one. He also stressed that mil­i­tary bar­racks were being built for the Afghan Nation­al Army Bat­tal­ion which will be in charge of secu­ri­ty through­out the province. 

On the 4th of Jan­u­ary, 2012, the town of Chaghcha­ran and the sur­round­ing area were approved to join the trans­fer of respon­si­bil­i­ty process in Chaghcha­ran. Respon­si­bil­i­ty of local secu­ri­ty forces, i.e. ANA units and police, for the secu­ri­ty in their coun­try is grad­u­al­ly increased since then. The key role of Lithuan­ian-led Chaghcha­ran PRT is train­ing of the Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Forces with a focus on instructions. 

Cur­rent­ly approx­i­mate­ly 250 troops of the Lithuan­ian Armed Forces are deployed with the Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force’s oper­a­tion Afghanistan. They serve in the province of Ghor, Kab­ul and Her­at ISAF com­mands, Kan­da­har Air­field, and the south of Afghanistan. The 14th rota­tion of the Lithuan­ian-led PRT is cur­rent­ly deployed in Ghor. 

Release by PIO for PRT-14 1st Lt Tomas Pakalniškis. Pho­tos by 1st Lt Tomas Pakalniškis 

Source:
Min­istry of Nation­al Defense Repub­lic of Lithuania