Ahead of their departure in December, foreign troops are said to be destroying most of their equipment before selling the scraps for cheap, much of which goes to Pakistan.
the fate of the equipment and tools once used by the troops are being sold before the NATO pullout. While visiting the stores for the equipment, Amini reports that most of it is destroyed before being sold.
The equipment in a camp in Logar that Amini visited were purchased by an Afghan trader.
"We purchased these equipment from Logar province, at an American base and brought it here," Muhammad Haneef said. "There are different items, such as containers, vehicle parts and other material, which have purchased based in tons. But this equipment was all destroyed by laser and is not usable."
Important parts of the equipment is first destroyed and then sold as scrap metal for $400 USD per ton. "I sell car parts and I have come here to buy car parts and sell it in my shop," one buyer name Shah Muhammad said. "There are home appliances as well."
Earlier it was said that the equipments and tools would be handed over to the security forces, but much of the for-sale goods have made their way into the Pakistani market.
ISAF has said that "equipment that is no longer needed and/or is cost-prohibitive to transport will be offered to the Government of Afghanistan if the equipment meets the needs of Afghan Forces, or to other international partners on an "as-is, where-is" basis."
"If there is insufficient interest from international partners, the equipment will be disposed of in Afghanistan," according to the international coalition. "The DoD performs any required demilitarization or mutilation on equipment and then sells the scrap to local vendors. Local contractors come to the forward sites, pay for the base value of the scrapped items, and haul it away at their expense."
NATO Equipments Transfer Commission from government of Afghanistan has said the following: "In the agreement with the government of Afghanistan, it has been stated that ISAF can only sell equipments lists as White equipments, which can only be sold once its list has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance for taxation purposes.
"We have asked them again and again not to sell the items and instead should give it government of Afghanistan," said Ameen Habeeb, the head of the equipment transfer process.
Handing over such equipments is thought to be helpful for the Afghan forces, but a number of analysts have speculated that recent tensions between the government of Hamid Karzai and the U.S. are partly to blame for the new approach.
"In my opinion, this is due to weakness in the transition process and President Karzai's not signing the Bilateral Security Agreement, and his irresponsible reaction against the international community," Jawed Kohistani told TOLOnews. "This has unfortunately resulted in them not giving us the equipment, even though we need it."
In a report gathered by TOLOnews
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/2401