Der er opdaget store forekomster at værdifulde mineraler i Afghanistan og mange håber, at de kan være med til at få landets økonomi til at vokse. Men ny lov, der skal regulere minedriften, vil snarere skade end hjælpe landet, mener NGOen Global Witness.
DUBAI, 28 August 2014 (IRIN): A new law designed to regulate Afghanistan’s nascent mining sector could increase corruption, lead to forced displacements and even allow armed groups to take control of the sector, transparency groups have warned.
The law, passed by parliament earlier this month, is likely to lead to the signing of several key deals to extract the country’s newfound minerals – estimated to be worth as much as three trillion US dollar (16,5 billioner DKR).
Yet the transparency organization Global Witness warned that the law “does not include basic safeguards against corruption and conflict”, a view supported by a key Afghan NGO. Government officials deny the claim, saying that further protections are to be written in later.
A question of law
Afghanistan’s discovery of huge reserves of key minerals in recent years has raised hopes of a bounty of deals that could potentially help the country’s economy grow, and stabilize the country, following the pullout of US troops at the end of 2014.
Yet the bids have been delayed by what were perceived as an unfriendly legal framework for business. Sayed Hashemi, legal director at the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, said a previous law signed in 2010 was seen as too tough on companies as it did not allow them to turn exploration licenses into exploitation.
“No investor was interested to come into Afghanistan,” he told IRIN. As such, the ministry designed a new law to cover the mining industry, with Hashemi saying they wanted to make investing easier.
Yet critics charge that the new law is open to abuse and actually worse than its 2010 counterpart. Stephen Carter, Afghanistan campaign leader at Global Witness, said Afghanistan’s law falls far short of many of these standards.
He said anti-corruption measures, protection for those affected by the mining, and basic safeguards for the allocation of licenses were missing from the law.
“Afghanistan already sees a lot of the revenue it should be getting from mining disappearing due to bad governance. This [law] is likely to make it worse,” he said.
Javed Noorani, a senior researcher at Integrity Watch Afghanistan, argued that the law failed to protect the sector from armed groups. Without new protections, he said, the already fierce competition over minerals was likely to increase conflict.
“[Contracts] will go to the powerful mafia, insurgent groups operating in provinces. The sector will be completely captured. The bidding process will be as non-transparent as possible,” he said. “We may relapse into a conflict over natural resources. The revenue will go to pockets and that will take a flight out of the country.”
A lack of transparency
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