*KABUL – A new report has been released looking into the increasinglyambitious “parallel state” being run by the Taliban across Afghanistan.*

“Life Under the Taliban Shadow Government,” a detailed study publishedThursday by the Overseas Development Institute, describes a “sophisticatedsystem of parallel governance,” with commissions for each area of service,such as health, justice and finance, operating in numerous districts fullyor partly controlled by the insurgents. The study surveyed 20 suchdistricts across seven provinces.

The main conclusions of the report, written and primarily researched byAshley Jackson, are that the Taliban sets the rules in “vast swaths” ofAfghan territory but is far more concerned with influencing people. It haslargely shifted from outright coercion to “creeping influence” over Afghansthrough services and state activities, it is often part of the local“social fabric,” and it views itself as preparing to govern the country,not just to participate in political life, whenever the 16-year conflictends, the report says.

In many areas, the report finds, Taliban representatives interact almostroutinely with local government officials, aid agencies and other groups,negotiating terms in a hybrid system to deliver health care, education andother services. Taliban bureaucrats collect taxes and electric bills, andtheir judges hear civil and criminal cases — some traveling by motorbikebetween hearings.

Although the first Taliban shadow governments were established more than adecade ago, the report documents how widely they have spread, despite yearsof Afghan and foreign military resistance. It also shows how they haveevolved from using force and intimidation against local populations tobuilding carefully run, accountable systems that address people’s needs,which some residents say they find more honest and effective thangovernment control.

The report says Afghan and foreign officials are “worryingly unaware” ofhow assiduously the Taliban has worked to exert local control, makebargains and influence services. Today, its leaders view themselves not asinsurgents but as a “government in waiting,” the report says.

At a time of growing national hopes for a negotiated peace, theconsolidation of Taliban administrative control in numerous areas seems tochallenge the official argument that the insurgents might accept a role asjust another political force in exchange for giving up arms and settlingthe war.

Over time, the study found, Taliban policies in areas of control shiftedfrom repressive violence to cooperation and public relations. By 2011,Taliban leaders had signed agreements with 28 aid organizations, includingpermission to conduct polio vaccination drives. As NATO forces withdrew,Taliban professionalism grew.

“We could be less warlike,” one Taliban member said. Unlike the amateurTaliban rulers of 1996 to 2001, the insurgents now have a seasoned,“quasi-professional core of individuals” to run things, the report says.

One of the most dramatic areas of evolution in Taliban attitudes has beentoward education. In areas under its control, there is better teacher andpupil attendance, less theft and more order, although the Taliban vetoestexts on modern topics and may forbid English from being taught. On thewhole, a majority of people interviewed “felt that the Taliban hadimproved” how public education was run.

Source: The Washington Post