Serving the Profession in Afghanistan Reconstruction, rigours and rules Beside Pasad Village, cimic officers return to defensive position after a foot patrol to conduct battle damage assessment. After clearing fields of fire – targeting hidden Taliban members – Canadians assess damage in order to compensate Afghans, who were evacuated prior to the mission. “ I Dr. Denis Tondreau has been a member of the Canadian Forces for the past 23 years.He holds the rank of Master Warrant Officer and has served as a combat engineer and bomb disposal technician with several army regiments in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. n October of 2006, the Taliban murdered five Afghan medical staff. It is their belief that all government employees are traitors to Islam.” Dr. Denis Tondreau, a chiropractor from Orleans, Ont., can relate this directly as a result of his experience as a civil-military co-operation (cimic) officer with NATO, trained and deployed to Afghanistan from March 2006 to March 2007. Dr. Tondreau was based at Camp Nathan Smith as a member of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT). He was initially a team leader of a KPRT detachment and was responsible for the Zharey District, approximately 40 kilometers to the southwest of Kandahar City. In January of 2007, Dr. Tondreau took over as the operations officer and was responsible for co-ordinating the reconstruction efforts of all the KPRT detachments. RECONSTRUCTION AND THE KPRT Reconstruction involves three primary enabling objectives: sector security reform, confidence in government and government infrastructure, and finally, rehabilitation or reconstruction of society infrastructure. Cimic-specific tasks encompass the full spectrum of kinetic (combat) and non-kinetic (non-combat) operations. This involves, but is not limited to, the following tasks: conflict resolution, mitigation of the effects of combat operations, area infrastructure assessments, distribution of material assistance, resettlement of displaced people, facilitation of medical outreach programs, liaison with Afghan Health Development Services to improve public access to health care, rebuilding of schools and medical clinics, medical supplies and equipment acquisition for outpatient clinics and hospitals, the excavation of drinking wells and instruction on biosand filters for water purification, reforestation initiatives with the Ministry of Agriculture, advising the Afghan National Police and the Afghan National Army on security issues, training and logistics, irrigation canal restoration, battle damage assess- ment, remuneration for expropriation of land, capacity building of government agencies, contractors and small business, solar power equipment distribution, liaison with non- governmental organizations (NGO) to harmonize efforts, equipment acquisition for the Kandahar Technical College and Kandahar University and key leader engagements. The KPRT is a “whole government approach” to reconstruction and is comprised of various organizations such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), the United States of 10 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | DECEMBER 2007 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Denis Tondreau, DC feature
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