IN A darkened room just outside the town of Musa Qala, three Afghan elders are discussing a price. Finally, after several minutes, they come to a conclusion and lean over a table filled with half-drunk glasses of tea and bowls of sweets, and tell the translator their decision: $300 (£151) is what they want.
Not for them, but for a young man who confessed to having been hired by a member of the Taleban to murder the town's chief of police, and has now become a star witness in the recruiter's upcoming trial.
The bearded British man on the other side of the table nods. "We can pay him that allowance to send to his home – if you can protect him." The men nod back in agreement. They can.
This is the latest way of doing business for British government operatives trying to win the much-discussed "hearts and minds" battle in Helmand Province.
It is a new initiative whereby, if it is deemed appropriate, those who give information about suspected Taleban are financially rewarded.
Justin Holt, stabilisation adviser to the district of Musa Qala and to Mullah Salaam, its governor, says: "The reward scheme is just a week old. People are too intimidated to come here and give us information. They used to be able to phone, but the mobile phone network is down so they can't do that any more either."
The fact that the targeted chief of police is one of the three elders at today's "justice" shura – the term for an Afghan tribal council where most of the community's decisions are made – may just have sealed the young man's deal. Indeed, he points out to Mr Holt, "He saved my life."
The other two men attending today's shura are one of the town's senior prosecution elders and the deputy head of the Musa Qala district shura.
"Everything in Afghan society is dealt with in a shura," explains Mr Holt. "The challenge is trying to get them to know the limits of what they can do. There is a formal justice system, but it is very nascent."
There is a long way to go. Negotiations are slow and protracted. Mr Holt, a former marine and one-time Fettes student whose family lives in Edinburgh, is out here for 12 months, working six weeks on and two weeks off. He has grown a beard to earn the elders' respect and treats them kindly and with deference.
"When I came here, everyone was bearded. It's a sign of religion, it gives you some gravitas. You have to apply a very light touch here. The key is transparency and probity." But he's under no illusions: "This is 13th century England with mobile phones."
The shuras have been less regular in Musa Qala recently, following intelligence reports that a suicide bomber was targeting them. If the would-be bomber had been successful, it would have devastating effects on the community. Musa Qala, which was only retaken from the Taleban in December, has had a difficult relationship with its elders in recent years.
There was a British presence in 2006, but under a deal to hand back the town to its elders, the British withdrew, only to see it collapse ten weeks later, as the elders let the Taleban creep back in. When the town was recaptured last December, the elders went on the run.
"The shuras were slightly rudderless at first," says Mr Holt. "They weren't really functioning. My job is to make sure there's a process." The business of the justice shura is almost at a close. The men have sorted through seven prisoners, most of them suspected Taleban, and decided their fates. Most will go to trial. Some will stay in the local prison until more evidence is gathered.
"We've just got to use our judgment," says Mr Holt. "And not play God."
Everyday life is hard and gritty for the British troops serving in the Afghan desert Picture: Ian Rutherford
BACKGROUND
THE use of hard cash at a local level to smooth the path of Nato forces is not a new thing.
The US military's commanders emergency response programme is an initiative which places control of sums of money into the hands of relatively junior American officers.
The money is used for a wide diversity of purposes, from compensating Afghans for damage done to their properties, funding the building of wells and paying for employment training.
The money is given out entirely on the basis of the officers' assessment of local needs.
The initiative has financed more than 9,000 projects across the country since its inception.
New CO ready to rise to the challenge
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL Nick Borton spoons up a piece of bacon and smiles wryly as he remembers the moment he told his wife about his new job.
"She was upset over the fact that Colonel Richmond had been shot in the leg, as he is a good family friend. Then she asked me who was taking over. I told her I was. There was something of a pause."
Forks have run out at the small district centre at Musa Qala, where Lt-Col Borton, Commanding Officer of 2 Scots and, as of three weeks ago, acting commanding officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 5 Scots Battalion, is having a quick alfresco breakfast before flying off to oversee operations in Now Zad in north-west Helmand.
Still, he makes the best of a bad situation, wolfing beans, bacon and reconstituted scrambled egg with the gusto that only a soldier who has spent four months in the Afghan desert could manage.
Lt-Col Borton may just be the busiest man in Helmand province. When Lieutenant-Colonel David Richmond, Commanding Officer of 5 Scots, was shot during a firefight three weeks ago, the most senior British officer to be wounded in the seven years of the Afghan conflict, and airlifted back to Britain for treatment, it was Lt-Col Borton, 38, who stepped up, despite already having his own battalion, the Royal Highland Fusiliers 2 Scots, to command.
"It was a bit of a challenge to come up, suddenly, into a strange situation. But the Argylls have looked after me exceptionally well, treated me as one of their own, and I've had no difficulties whatsoever in integrating myself into the battle group and getting on with the Jocks. At the end of the day, we've all got the same badge on our arm and our tam-o'-shanters on, so it's no problem."
Still, it can't have been easy for the Stirling University graduate, taking over only to lose a man – Corporal James Johnson, 31, who stepped on a "legacy" mine in Lashkar Gah – in his first fortnight.
"The mood was initially sombre, but not shocked," he says. "People have been here long enough now to know there have been a lot of casualties in other battalions, so there was a certain sense of inevitability that it was going to catch up with us eventually."
What he wasn't entirely prepared for, however, was the impact on him personally. "When Cpl Johnson got shot, (the soldiers] all turned to me and I realised I was commanding officer of 5 Scots. They've got to have that fatherly figure."
Lt-Col Borton's men are spread out all over this area at the moment, engaged in some of the fiercest fighting Helmand province has seen.
On Wednesday, just as the sun was setting over a range of mountains the soldiers call Crocodile Ridge, I flew into Forward Operating Base Edinburgh, 7km north of Musa Qala, to meet some of them.
There were several hundred Scots in residence on Wednesday night, from the Mastiff Company of 2 Scots to the Warrior tanks of 4 Scots, all of whom had driven up from Camp Bastion that morning.
Saltires and Lion Rampants flew everywhere, while a sign denoting the area swung in the breeze, the words St Giles' Cathedral etched on it.
In the food tent, Andy Murray's drubbing by Rafael Nadal played out on the television. The soldiers floated off early to their camp-beds under the stars, knowing they had an early start.
And, indeed, before first light, the Mastiffs and Warriors were on the move again.
I travelled in a Mastiff, one of the new armoured vehicles built to withstand attacks by improvised explosive devices, down the hill to Musa Qala. It was a painstaking trip, with the ten Mastiffs in the convoy stopping every few minutes so that soldiers with detecting equipment could get out and search for mines.
At one point, the shout went up that they had found something, but it turned out to be a metal pole.
Not long afterwards, the convoy pulled into Musa Qala District Centre, where the army has set up operations in a tumbledown concrete hotel, and as the colonel prepared to fly out, the soldiers leaped from their vehicles and headed off for their breakfast.
Fortunately, most of them had brought their own forks.
The US defence department yesterday extended the combat tour of 2,200 US marines in Afghanistan after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit will stay an extra 30 days and come home in November rather than October, Marine Colonel David Lapan confirmed.
Robert Gates, the defence secretary, repeatedly said he would not extend the US marines' tour, or replace them, calling their deployment an extraordinary one-time effort to help damp down the increasing violence.
