 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Militants announce new hostage talks as Afghan govt hopeful on release
Wednesday November 10, 3:08 AM AFP
Islamic militants holding three foreign UN workers said they expected to hold fresh talks with the Afghan government while President Hamid Karzai expressed hope the trio would be released "very soon".
"We expect another meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) at around 10:00 am (0530 GMT)," Sayed Khaled, who claims to speak for Jaishul Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), told AFP.
Talks began Sunday in southern Kandahar province between Afghan officials and the group, which has links to the hardline Taliban regime ousted in late 2001.
The group, which has set and broken a series of deadlines for the killing of its captives, handed over a list of 26 prisoners it wants to swap for the hostages.
A second round of negotiations had been due on Tuesday.
"If this (Wednesday) meeting results and we reach an agreement the prisoners will be released afterwards but it would be premature to comment on things that have not happened," Khaled told AFP late Tuesday.
Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Habibi from Kosovo, and Angelito Nayan, a diplomat from the Philippines, were snatched from their vehicle in busy lunchtime traffic in Kabul on October 28.
They had been overseeing the war-battered country's first-ever presidential election, won by US-backed incumbent Karzai.
Speaking to CNN in an interview late Tuesday, Karzai said his government was working hard to secure the release of the hostages and he was hopeful the efforts would succeed.
"We're working very hard to have the safe and secure release of the UN workers who have helped us in Afghanistan tremendously," he said.
"We are working on it on a minute-to-minute basis, day and night," he said, declining to go in details.
"Let's hope that they will be free very soon. Let's hope that will happen," Karzai said.
His spokesman earlier said progress had been made towards freeing the trio and two of them had been allowed to call their families overseas.
"Based on indications, based on information that we have, there is hope that the case would be resolved, Inshallah (God willing)," spokesman Jawed Ludin told a regular news conference.
"I received information indicating that progress has been made in this regard," he added, declining to give further details because of the "sensitivity" of the case.
Officials confirmed comments by Habibi's brother in Kosovo late Monday that she had managed to call a friend in her home town to say she was fine and hoped to be reunited with her loved ones soon.
"Shqipe said that she is in good health and asked us not to be worried about her. She said that the kidnappers are not maltreating her," her brother Agim told journalists.
Ludin said Habibi and Flanigan had been allowed to contact their families but gave no details.
However he expressed concerns about the health of Nayan, who reportedly suffers from a kidney problem.
The Philippines said it was coordinating with the United Nations and the Afghan government over the case, while Nayan's family appealed to the kidnappers to free him.
Karzai said the kidnapping was "very un-Afghan."
"The Afghan people have become very angry at it. Some Afghans have actually volunteered to be taken hostage in place of the UN workers."
A Kabul businessman and five family members offered Tuesday to swap places with the hostages or pay a ransom if necessary, the interior ministry said.
"We appreciate his feeling. We ask the kidnappers to respect the feeling of these brave Afghans and release the hostages," said ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal.
On Monday four Afghan journalists aged between 25 and 28 offered to swap places with the hostages.
Two of the three UN hostages in Afghanistan able to call home
Tuesday November 9, 9:20 PM AFP
Two women among three UN workers taken hostage in Afghanistan nearly two weeks ago have been able to contact their families, a government spokesman said.
"The hostage who is from Kosovo has contacted her family as well as the hostage from Ireland, Annetta, who has also contacted her family," presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin told reporters without giving details.
The brother of Kosovo Albanian hostage Shqipe Habibi said late Monday in Pristina that she had called a friend in her home town to say she was well.
"Shqipe said that she is in good health and asked us not to be worried about her. She said that the kidnappers are not maltreating her," her brother Agim told journalists.
She and Annetta Flanigan of Northern Ireland and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan were seized by gunmen on October 28 on a busy Kabul street.
They are being held by a Taliban splinter group called Jaishul Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) and are likely to be somewhere near the capital Kabul, according to a source close to the investigation.
The kidnappers, who had threatened to kill the three unless certain demands were met, held talks with government negotiators on Sunday at which they presented a list of Taliban prisoners they want released.
Another round of talks was due Tuesday.
Afghans indicate unwilling to meet kidnap demands
KABUL, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The Afghan government indicated unwillingness on Tuesday to meet the demands of a militant group holding three U.N. workers, despite a threat to kill one of the hostages if an afternoon deadline was not met.
"We know about their ultimatum and our response is that we hope they free the hostages on the basis of the decree of the Ulema and appeals from Afghans and the international community," said Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi, when asked if the government would meet the demands.
The Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) said earlier it was giving the government until 3:00 p.m. (1030 GMT) to respond to its demand for the freeing of 26 Taliban members as part of a deal to release U.N. workers Filipino Angelito Nayan, Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland and Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo.
Last week, Afghanistan's council of clerics, or Ulema, said hostage-taking was un-Islamic and demanded the unconditional release of the workers who were abducted in Kabul on Oct. 28.
Afghan officials say no lists of prisoners received from hostage-takers
The Associated Press 11/08/2004
KABUL - Afghan government ministries searching for three kidnapped UN workers have yet to receive a list of prisoners that Taliban-linked militants want released in return for the hostages' lives, officials said Monday.
Spokesmen for Jaish-al Mulsimeen, or Army of Muslims, said Sunday they had handed a list of 26 prisoners, some possibly in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to government negotiators. But two government officials said Monday they had no word on any contact with the kidnappers and had not received any such list. "If they contact us directly, then we will consider it," one official said on condition of anonymity. "Unless we have direct correspondence, we can't act."
The officials didn't rule out that a handful of ministers and top aides were negotiating in secret. Annetta Flanigan of Northern Ireland, Angelito Nayan of the Philippines and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo were abducted 11 days ago when armed men halted their marked UN vehicle in downtown Kabul.
The kidnapping was the first of foreigners in the capital since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and has fanned fear Afghan insurgents are copying their Iraqi counterparts.
Ishaq Manzoor, one of several men claiming to speak for the kidnappers, said a list of the 26 was handed to Afghan officials during talks at a secret location Sunday afternoon. A government delegation asked for two days to find out whether the prisoners were in Afghanistan or elsewhere, Manzoor said.
Kabul has secured the release of several foreign hostages kidnapped in the troubled south using tribal chiefs and former militant leaders for behind-the-scenes negotiations.
Last November, a Turkish engineer was freed after a month in captivity following the release of two Taliban prisoners. Kabul denied any link and insisted no ransom was paid.
Manzoor didn't identify any of the prisoners the group wanted released but it has said previously some may be in U.S. custody in Guantanamo or in U.S.
and Afghan jails in Afghanistan. It has also demanded the United Nations and British troops withdraw from Afghanistan.
It was unclear which of the demands could be eased and none of the militants' claims could be independently verified. A spokesman for the U.S. military said it was ready to help the Afghan government and the United Nations in seeking the hostages' release but indicated it had not yet been asked to free anyone on the purported kidnappers' list.
"I'm just not going to speculate on whether they (the Afghan government) will ask us or not," Maj. Scott Nelson said. "Everything related to this issue is very, very sensitive."
The militants have said the three hostages are suffering from stress, cold and a diet of little more than cookies but have offered no evidence of their condition.
UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said Sunday the concern of relatives, friends and colleagues is increasing "every day, every hour and every minute that goes by."
A wealthy Kosovar businessman claiming to speak for a group of friends and relatives of Hebibi is also in Kabul with his own initiative to seek her freedom.
Behgjet Pacolli, who runs a company based in Switzerland, said he was seeking to contact the kidnappers via factional and religious leaders and already had "a very, very convincing indication" she is alive.
He said he believes the three are being held separately in the Kabul area but would not elaborate. He insisted he is not offering money to secure Hebibi's release.
Kidnapping In Kabul: By Whom And For What?
Amin Tarzi / Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty / November 8, 2004
Unidentified gunmen in Kabul on 28 October abducted three foreign nationals working for the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB). The abductees included two women from Northern Ireland and Kosova and one Filipino. JEMB spokesman Sultan Ahmad Bahin told Hindukosh News Agency on the same day that the kidnappers have not contacted the election body. Reports indicated that five kidnappers, dressed in military uniforms, stopped the UN vehicle carrying the workers at mid-day and, after beating the driver, took the three with them.
Sayyed Mohammad Akbar Agha, claming to be the head of a group called Jaysh al-Muslimin (Army of the Muslims), said on 28 October that his fighters kidnapped the three foreign election workers because of their participation in organizing Afghanistan's 9 October presidential election. Akbar Agha initially did not make any demands for releasing the three workers.
Relations With Neo-Taliban
Ishaq Manzur, claiming to speak on behalf of Jami'at Jaish-e Mujahedin (Society of Mujahedin Army), told AP on 28 October that the kidnapped workers were transferred to a "safe place," adding that the group was "checking their identities and we will demand that if their countries have forces in Afghanistan they should withdraw them."
Information about the breakaway faction of the neo-Taliban called Taliban Jami'at Jaish-e Muslemin (Muslim Army of the Taliban Society), which is led by Mullah Sayyed Mohammad Akbar Agha, emerged in August (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 12 August 2004). Another group, using the Arabic name Jaysh al-Muslimin al-Afghani (Afghan Army of the Muslims), in September claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Afghan Transitional Administration Deputy Chairman Ne'amatullah Shahrani in northern Afghanistan (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 24 September 2004).
Mufti Latifullah Hakimi, purporting to speak on behalf of the neo-Taliban, told the Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) on 28 October that while his group had no information regarding the kidnapping in Kabul, it admired the action. When asked by AIP what the neo-Taliban would have done had they kidnapped the workers, Hakimi said that possibly they "would have demanded that their supporters be released from [the U.S. detention center in] Guantanamo [Bay, Cuba]...and would possibly have killed them [the hostages] once their demands had not been met."
In another twist, Abdul Latif Hakimi, also claiming to speak for the neo-Taliban, told AFP on 28 October that he doubted that Jaysh al-Muslimin was responsible for the kidnapping "because they are a very limited number of people and they don't have access to Kabul to carry out operations."
Further complicating the links between Jaysh al-Muslimin and the neo-Taliban and intra-neo-Taliban relations, Hamid Agha, also purporting to speak on behalf of the neo-Taliban, told Reuters on 31 October that the group was not involved in the abduction of the UN employees. "We have no comments about the issue. It is their [Jaysh al-Muslimin's] work and we are not involved in it," Hamid Agha claimed.
Commenting in August about Akbar Agha's group, Hamid Agha had indicated that the organization was not "the Taliban" as all "Taliban commanders are united under the leadership" of Mullah Mohammad Omar (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 12 August 2004). Confirming Hamid Agha's views, Abdullah Laghmani, the intelligence chief in the southern city of Kandahar told AFP on 28 October that there is a split in the ranks of the Taliban, "one is the group of Mullah Omar and one group is the group of Sayyed Akbar Agha, the chief of Jaysh al-Muslimin." According to Laghmani, Akbar Agha's men have been operating in southern Afghanistan in cells of two or three individuals, a statement that corresponds to Abdul Latif Hakimi's views regarding the Jaysh al-Muslimin composition and areas of operations.
On 31 October Mullah Mohammad Ishaq -- most likely the same individual as Ishaq Manzur -- claiming to speak for Jaysh al-Muslimin, told AFP, "Our demand is [that] the invader countries that these people belong to should withdraw their troops from Afghanistan and rethink their policies towards Afghanistan." Otherwise, "we will kill the hostages," he added. When Mohammad Ishaq was informed that neither Serbia and Montenegro nor the Philippines had any troops in Afghanistan, he said that those "countries should condemn the invasion [of Afghanistan] by other countries." The same day, a video released by Al-Jazeera television showed the three UN employees kidnapped in Kabul. According to Al-Jazeera, the kidnappers have demanded that the United Kingdom pull its forces out of Afghanistan, that all of the Afghan detainees in U.S. custody be released from Guantanamo Bay, and that the UN should leave Afghanistan and it should declare "Britain and American's meddling in Afghanistan illegal."
The issue regarding suspected Taliban prisoners in U.S. custody was made by Latifullah Hakimi on 28 October when he had said that if the neo-Taliban had been involved in the kidnapping, they would have asked for the release of their supporters. The fact that Jaysh al-Muslimin eventually included the release of the Taliban prisoners in its list of demands may indicate a link between Jaysh al-Muslimin and some members of the neo-Taliban. Another possibility is that Jaysh al-Muslimin was not sure what to demand for the hostages and was inspired by Latifullah Hakimi's comments.
Shifting Deadline
Akbar Agha initially said that the deadline for his group to make its final decision on the fate the hostages was 3 November. But Saber Mo'min, identified as a Jaysh al-Muslimin military commander, rejected reports that the group set a deadline of 3 November. "We have set...next Friday [5 November] as the final deadline for our demands to be met. If our demands are not met by then we will kill these three people," AIP quoted him as saying on 1 November. However Mo'min qualified the deadline by adding, "If the Americans for the Afghan government start talking to us then the deadline set by us could be extended."
Mo'min also told AIP on 1 November that Jaysh al-Muslimin has formed a four-man delegation to negotiate the fate of the hostages. "If the Americans for the [Afghan] government want our delegation [to contact them]" the delegation "can go anywhere for talks," he added. The same day, Ishaq Manzur told AP that the group had separated the three hostages to thwart any potential rescue attempt, threatening that if a rescue attempt is made to release one of the hostages, the other two will be killed in reaction.
On 2 November Mullah Ishaq Manzur reconfirmed 3 November as the group's deadline for killing their hostages if its demands are not met. Jaysh al-Muslimin's leader, Akbar Agha, on 3 November told AIP that the deadline remained 3 November, confirming Manzur's warning. Neither Akbar Agha nor Manzur commented on Mo'min's claim that the deadline was 5 November. Akbar Agha said that his group does "not regard the hostages as UN workers but the citizens of their respective countries." Adding, "Britain has committed aggression in our country and one of the hostages is a citizen of that country, which we regard as an aggressor. Our final deadline is midnight tonight [3 November] and there will not be any change to it," Akbar Agha told AIP. According to Akbar Agha the group has received a call from unspecified "authorities," AP reported on 3 November. "We want the Afghan government and the UN to officially declare that they are in contact with us," Akbar Agha demanded.
The current incident is Afghanistan's first case of an Iraq-style kidnapping of foreign hostages that includes displaying the hostages on video. In light of recent reports that some former members of the Taliban regime may be seeking reconciliation with Kabul, it is very likely that the incident may be an outcome of struggles within the fragmented groups formerly belonging to the Taliban regime. Alternatively, the initial uncertainty about the demands made by Jaysh al-Muslimin for freeing their hostages and their ever-shifting deadline indicates that the group may not be politically motivated and have taken the hostages in hope of receiving a ransom.
Karzai defends prisoners' release
Tuesday, November 9, 2004
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has defended a Cabinet decision to release about 200 prisoners from Afghan jails, despite the possibility some may be terrorists.
The prisoners were being held without a trial, following the U.S.-led Afghan War, which began after the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to the newly elected president.
A human rights report from the United Nations indicated that holding the prisoners was "very bad," he told CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour.
"I put that to the Cabinet and we decided for humanitarian reasons to release them all," he said..
"Now, if out of 200 or 300 people one or two of them have said that they will fight back, it's only natural and possible. We're not bothered with that.
"The majority of those people were people that went back to their homes and have resumed their lives as citizens of this country. The two or three who have made those statements will be considered terrorists, and if they come across us again, we'll arrest them and put them in jail again."
The U.S. military launched the war in Afghanistan to rout the Taliban regime, which was harboring al Qaeda terrorists.
"In my opinion, and also in the opinion of many, many Afghans, events in Afghanistan has proven that terrorism has no place in here, that it's defeated, that it's gone," Karzai said.
However, three U.N. workers were kidnapped in Afghanistan in late October.
According to the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera, the militants holding them threatened to kill them unless the United Nations pulled out of the nation.
The captors also demanded the release of Afghan and non-Afghan prisoners in Afghanistan and at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Karzai said Afghans were angry over the kidnappings, and some volunteered to be taken hostage in their places.
"We're working very hard to have the safe and secure release of the U.N. workers."
Karzai did not say whether the prisoner release was part of any deal to get the workers released.
"I can't go into the specifics, obviously," he said.
Last week, Karzai, who had been serving as president, was declared the winner of Afghanistan's first direct presidential election with 70 percent of the vote.
Asked Tuesday how he would secure the countryside, Karzai said he would keep warlords who deal in Afghanistan's lucrative opium trade out of the government.
"Warlordism and private militias will not be tolerated at all. They'll have to go away," he said.
"They run counter to the making of the Afghan state. So will be the case with narcotics. Narcotics will have to go away from Afghanistan."
Afghans Need More Help as Next Elections Near -UN
Tue Nov 9, 5:30 PM ET By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The world must not neglect Afghanistan now that its presidential election is over because upcoming parliamentary and local elections will be far harder to manage, a top U.N. official said on Tuesday.
"While Afghans have shown a remarkable political maturity, they must still be able to count on full backing -- economic, financial, political and military -- of the international community," U.N. Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno told the Security Council.
The central Asian nation's many local militias and its burgeoning illicit trade in opium are among the potential obstacles that threaten the next round of voting, due to take place by May 20, he said.
"These elections will inevitably be more affected by local tensions and more susceptible to fraud and intimidation than the presidential elections were," Guehenno said.
"For this reason, the influence of local commanders, the widespread and tangled web of narcotics and arms, and the absence of an efficient local administration continue to constitute serious obstacles to holding legitimate parliamentary and local elections," he said.
Afghans chose Hamid Karzai as their president in a historic Oct. 9 election that took place in a relatively calm atmosphere and with few serious irregularities. Some 8.1 million ballots were cast and Karzai won 55.4 percent of the vote, according to local election officials.
But security remains a big problem, as witnessed by the Oct. 28 kidnapping in Kabul of three U.N. workers who had helped run the presidential elections, Guehenno said.
For the parliamentary and local elections to succeed, a large contingent of Afghan police will be crucial to supplement the work of international security forces, he said.
"No other force has the reach needed to secure close to 400 district elections in which tensions brought about by the electoral competition may be the rule rather than the exception," he said.
Following the meeting, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, the council president for November, said council members expressed hope the coming elections would occur "as peacefully and successfully as the presidential election" and pledged to keep providing "unwavering support" to the Afghan government.
Karzai: Afghanistan Has Beaten Terrorism
Karzai Declares Afghanistan Has Banished Terrorism, Even As Taliban-Linked Militants Hold Hostages
The Associated Press
Nov. 9, 2004 - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that his country had banished terrorism even as Taliban-linked militants held three U.N. hostages and threatened to kill them.
Karzai told CNN in an interview that his government was working around the clock to free the hostages whose kidnappings had so angered ordinary Afghans that some even offered to trade places with the foreign captives.
The newly elected president said he was not concerned about the spillover of "copycat terrorism" from Iraq.
"In my opinion, and also in the opinion of many, many Afghans, events in Afghanistan have proven that terrorism has no place in here, that it's defeated, that it's gone," he said.
"The remnants of terrorism that might come and try to explode bombs or assassinate people, that's something that we will have to fight for a long time in Afghanistan and in the region and in the rest of the world."
Karzai acknowledged his country would need international assistance "for some time to come" to build up its security infrastructure, especially the police and the army.
Nevertheless, he said the massive turnout for the historic Oct. 9 elections which made him the country's first democratically elected leader was a vote of confidence that his country was moving in the right direction.
"We are very happy about that," he said.
In the interview, Karzai also pledged to impose the rule of law and do away with warlords, disarm private militias and crush Afghanistan's highly lucrative drug trade.
"Warlordism and private militias will not be tolerated at all," he said. "They'll have to go away. They run counter to the making of the Afghan state. So will be the case with narcotics ... We will do everything in our power to stop it."
Karzai said authorities were working "on a minute-to-minute basis day and night" to free the hostages, but he said he could not go into specifics.
"We are working hard to have the safe and secure release of the U.N. workers. They have helped us in Afghanistan tremendously. And it's a shame that this has happened in our country. Our people condemn it."
The three hostages, Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo, British-Irish Annetta Flanigan and Angelito Nayan of the Philippines, all helped organize Afghanistan's landmark election.
Karzai said their kidnapping 12 days ago had enraged the Afghan people.
"And some Afghans have actually volunteered to be taken hostage in place of the U.N. workers a few weeks ago. And just today an Afghan businessman offered to be taken hostage, together with his family, by these hostage-takers in place of the U.N. workers."
Karzai defended a decision to release several hundred prisoners held without trial, saying he had done it on humanitarian grounds after a U.N. human rights report criticized their conditions.
He dismissed statements by some of the released prisoners that they would resume violence.
"Now, if out of 200 or 300 people, one or two of them have said that they will fight back ... we're not bothered with that," Karzai said. "It was worth it to release them."
Armitage says US to work more closely with Pakistan
Tuesday November 9, 8:36 PM AFP
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Pakistani leaders that the Bush administration would work more closely with Islamabad during its second term in office, officials said.
Armitage, making his first trip to this key US anti-terror ally since President George W. Bush was re-elected on November 2, reaffirmed "America's commitment" to building strong ties with Pakistan, the foreign ministry said.
At a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf he said the priorities of the Bush administration for the next four years included "further broadening the bilateral relations with Pakistan in economic and security fields," it said.
Accompanied by US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca, Armitage earlier met with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and held formal talks with Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar.
The discussions focused on the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq and peace moves between Islamabad and New Delhi.
"The US government would not only maintain continuity in its policy towards Pakistan but strive towards enhancing US-Pakistan relations in economic and commercial spheres," Armitage was quoted as saying in a Pakistani foreign ministry statement.
The United States was looking at ways to accelerate its interaction with Pakistan, the statement said.
"Pakistan and the US as coalition partners, would continue to cooperate in the war against terrorism," it added.
Khokhar conveyed Pakistan's desire to promote "a solid, broad-based and long term relationship with the US encompassing cooperation in areas of investment, trade and defence."
The two sides also discussed progress in peace talks between Pakistan and India, and peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan after last month's landmark presidential polls.
Armitage said Musharraf's proposal to consider various options to resolve the long-standing, thorny Kashmir dispute with India was a "way forward".
"I think he has caused a great deal of thinking both in India and Pakistan about the way forward," Armitage told state-run television.
The foreign ministry statement said Armitage expressed satisfaction at the engagement between Pakistan and India.
Armitage flew to Islamabad late Monday on a two-day visit, his second to Islamabad this year after one in July.
Foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan said Monday Pakistan wanted "stable, durable and longer-lasting relations with the United States."
He said Bush's re-election allayed "concerns and apprehensions" in Pakistan about the continuation of its relationship with Washington.
Al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States prompted a foreign policy turnaround by Musharraf.
He abandoned Afghanistan's Taliban rulers within days and gave Pakistani air bases, corridors and intelligence to US forces to help overthrow the hardline regime which had sheltered Al-Qaeda.
Musharraf's army has since arrested more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects and handed over a majority of them to the United States, including prized trophies Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Ramzi bin al Shaibh and Abu Zubayda.
This year it arrested some of the new generation of key Al-Qaeda leaders.
Some 70,000 Pakistani troops remain in the border region and rugged tribal belt on the Afghan frontier hunting down Al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants.
Washington has rewarded Islamabad with debt cuts, massive aid boosts and trade privileges.
The appreciation has gone beyond the economy to apparent tolerance of the sweeping powers wielded by Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
Pakistani army kills six Al-Qaeda-linked militants near Afghan border
WANA, Pakistan, Nov 9 (AFP) - Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed six suspected Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in raids on several militant hideouts near the Afghan border, the military said Tuesday.
Two soldiers were also killed in the operation which started late Monday in an area northeast of Wana, the main town in the restive South Waziristan tribal district, Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.
Troops faced resistance and both sides traded fire intermittently until Tuesday morning, the military spokesman said.
'We have killed six miscreants in the latest offensive against terrorist elements in the region,' Sultan said.
Residents said they saw helicopters firing at targets in Karwan Manza and Gotkai areas, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Wana.
Sultan said the army was using all 'available resources' to destroy the militants' hideouts.
The operation was the latest in a series this year by Pakistani troops trying to flush out Al-Qaeda-linked foreign militants believed to be hiding in the rugged region with the support of local tribal allies.
Officials have said the counter-terrorism campaign was focused on areas inhabited by the dominant ethnic Pashtun Mahsud tribe.
The commander of the tribe, one-legged former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Abdullah Mahsud, became one of Pakistan's most wanted men after he masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in South Waziristan last month.
Army commandos rescued one Chinese but the other was killed during the raid, in which all five abductors were shot dead.
Hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives poured into the lawless region from Afghanistan in late 2001 when a US-led military offensive toppled the Taliban regime, which had sheltered Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda fighters.
Since March this year the army has killed around 250 local and foreign militants while the security forces have lost more than 170 troops, officials have said.
Afghans need a more reliable sort of aid: ASHRAF GHANI
Financial Times
The first battle for a stable Afghanistan has been won: registering and voting peacefully in massive numbers, the Afghan people demonstrated their readiness for democracy. The vote for President Hamid Karzai was a call for stability and prosperity. Having lost Dollars 240bn between the communist coup of 1978 and the fall of the Taliban in November 2001 (a World Bank estimate of war damage and opportunity cost), Afghans now have high expectations for infrastructure and services. With international aid pledges amounting to Dollars 8.2bn for the next three years, our task is to make sure that those expectations are not disappointed. That means taking innovative approaches to make the aid system work better.
Our aim is to use aid as a magnet for trade and investment. We have sought to avoid the classic pathologies of aid recipients (carrying out limited reforms, backtracking on commitments, claiming short-term needs, borrowing piecemeal and then begging debt forgiveness). Since 2002, our priorities have been clear: to develop the human, physical and legal infrastructure that will nurture private sector growth.
So far we have done well. The economy has grown at an average of 20 per cent a year over the past two years. We have met all the benchmarks set by the International Monetary Fund, as well as the programme loan conditions of the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. We have reformed the currency, the banking system, tariffs, customs and the treasury. The national budget is now accepted as the main instrument for channelling donor support. The transport and construction sectors are attracting sig-nificant private Afghan and regional investment.
These achievements testify to a successful multilateral partnership between the government, international financial institutions, donors, multilateral agencies, the United Nations and non-governmental organisations since January 2002. For much of that time, emergency thinking was necessarily predominant. Now the government has both a seven-year reconstruction plan and an electoral mandate. It is time for the aid community to put the Afghan government in the driver's seat in order to ensure sustainable growth.
No investment is more indicative of the transition from emergency funding to real development aid than investment in infrastructure. In Afghanistan's case, there are three main sectors that will require significant resources in the next few years: roads, power and water.
If repair of Afghanistan's main highway system were funded today, it could in five years' time yield Dollars 300m-Dollars 400m annually in toll revenues from international transit. Afghanistan would become a land-bridge between central Asia, south Asia and the Gulf.
Similarly, if its national grid were adequately funded, Afghanistan could transmit electricity from energy-rich central Asia to energy-poor south Asia within two years, earning tens of millions of dollars in revenues. As things stand, while less than 6 per cent of the country remains on a functioning grid, we can never achieve our health, education and industrial goals.
Finally, if we could begin work today on a network of strategically located small and medium-sized dams, in five years' time we could ensure that 30 per cent of our water came from regulated sources, reducing the risk of drought and increasing the productivity of the agricultural sector. At present, though this accounts for more than half our economy, yields are only one-eighth those in neighbouring countries.
Despite donors' generosity, these programmes are not making sufficient progress for three main reasons: we have not yet found ways to make aid sufficiently accessible, co-ordinated or predictable.
The aid system does not currently allow us to convert tomorrow's promises into today's capital investments. We need new funding instruments - trusts, endowments, loan guarantees - that could transform pledges of future funding into funds available to contractors today. We also need to co-ordinate our infrastructure efforts through a partnership of donors, government and contractors.
That way we can harmonise our engineering and planning needs to ensure that work is done in a cost-effective manner. Last, we need long-term, predictable funding that will enable us to manage our large-scale programmes over many years.
Afghanistan represents an important opportunity for the aid community.
But just as we do not want to repeat the mistakes of so many other aid recipients, so we cannot afford business as usual from the aid world.
The writer is Afghanistan's finance minister
Nation building effort tests US in Afghanistan
Simon Tisdall Wednesday November 10, 2004 The Guardian
Afghanistan was the first battleground in America's "war on terror". Now it has become the unlikely proving ground for a different struggle: nation building.
When George Bush ordered US forces to attack al-Qaida and topple the Taliban regime after 9/11, his aim was revenge, not reformation.
He was opposed to nation building in principle and had criticised the Clinton administration's efforts in the Balkans and Haiti. In his view it was a bad idea, best left to the UN and EU.
Three years on, what was a military operation backed by Britain has evolved into the sort of nation building Mr Bush scorned. And to its surprise, the US is part of a collaborative, multinational, UN-backed effort to transform one of the world's most backward countries.
An important stage in the process was reached last week when the result of the country's first democratic presidential election was confirmed.
The poll, won by Hamid Karzai, the pro-western interim president, was declared an outstanding success by the US and Britain.
But critics of the current policy say any move to declare mission accomplished would be grossly premature. The problems of Mr Karzai's limited authority beyond Kabul, heroin trafficking, renegade militia chiefs and grinding rural poverty must be overcome if nation building is to have a lasting impact, they say. And Mr Bush's long-term commitment is in doubt.
Tony Blair believes Afghanistan is a success story. The polls "demonstrate the scale of the transformation that has taken place", he said last week.
Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, addressing the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said this "remarkable progress" would bolster planned parliamentary elections next year.
Official bullishness is not confined to political ranks. Speaking in London last week, General James Jones, Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe, said threats to disrupt the elections had not materialised.
"There is no national insurgency in Afghanistan nor is there likely to be," he told the Royal United Services Institute. He said US combat troops and the international stabilisation force would soon merge under joint Nato command.
But the author Edward Girardet was less optimistic. He said as the terrorist threat diminished US resources would move elsewhere.
"The US is responding to its own immediate interests, channelling billions into combating terrorism rather than promoting stability and the rule of law," he wrote in the Financial Times.
Basic healthcare, education and agricultural development were being neglected.
Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state, said nation building had hardly begun. "Instead of the stability promised three years ago, Afghanistan continues to stumble along, barely one level above that of a failed state," she said in a signed article with Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary.
Particularly disappointing were this year's Berlin donor conference pledges, amounting to less than half the $27.6bn (£14.8bn) in reconstruction aid Mr Karzai had requested through 2011, Ms Albright said.
While the Bush administration's staying power is uncertain, Mr Straw's speech was more reassuring. There had been tangible successes, he said. More than 3 million refugees and 500,000 internally displaced people had returned home and there were now 30,000 women teachers and more than 2 million girls in school.
But there were considerable difficulties, too. Almost half of all Afghans still live on less than $1 a day. And the recent kidnapping of three UN workers provided a "sombre context", he said.
Mr Straw's focus was opium. Afghanistan accounts for 95% of heroin sold in Europe. According to Mr Straw and the UN, production and the area under cultivation are rising rapidly again. Britain is the lead country in curbing the Afghan drug trade and has earmarked £70m for the task. Mr Straw said success would not come quickly.
What holds true for the heroin problem holds true for Afghanistan as a whole. Elections are all very well but if nation building is to succeed the US, Britain and their allies will be required to stay for the long haul.
Karzai's rival rejects Afghan election results
www.chinaview.cn 2004-11-09 20:40:40
KABUL, Nov. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Leader of Afghanistan's National Congress Party and presidential candidate Abdul Latif Pedram has rejected the result of the country's presidential polls.
"We do not recognize the upcoming government of Mr. Karzai as alegitimate one as it comes through a sham election," Pedram told journalists here Tuesday.
Karzai, capturing 55.4 percent of over eight million votes castin the first-ever direct presidential election on October 9, was announced the first elected president of the post-war nation.
"We, the National Congress of Afghanistan would remain in opposition and continue our peaceful struggle against Karzai for the larger interest of our nation,"the young France-educated academic said.
Pedram, who garnered only 1.4 percent of the votes, disputed the polls outcome by saying "defiantly the result was different from what is today if the polls were conducted in a free environment."
His argument came after Karzai's powerful challengers such as former Education Minister Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, Hazara politician Hajji Mohammad Mohaqiq and Uzbek warlord Abdul Rahsid Dostum have already conceded their defeat in the race.
As an influential poet, Pedram who is leading an well-organized political party has been famous among intellectual circles, particularly in minorities. He is also a staunch critic of George Bush's policies vis-a-vis Iraq and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Karzai who appeals for national reconciliation is likely to form his new government early next month.
Supreme Court endorses Raheen's reform for media
Pajhwok 11/08/2004 By Abdul Qadir Munsef
KABUL – The Afghan Supreme Court has endorsed a call by the Information and Culture Minister, Dr. Sayed Makhdom Raheen, for harmonization of radio and TV programs with Islamic and Afghan rules.
Raheen had earlier criticized Kabul television stations, including the state-run TV Afghanistan, radios, and cable networks for broadcasting foreign movies instead of Afghan films.
Waheed Mujdah, Supreme Court spokesman, backing Dr Raheen's comments, said the court had earlier called for the improvement of radio and TV programs.
He pointed at the newly-established Tolo TV that broadcasts for Kabul.
"Tolo TV broadcasts some subjects that should be reformed," Mujdah noted.
As an example, he said: "The TV recently showed a film on the Prophet Moses which was criticized by the Ulema Council."
When asked to comment on these issues, Tolo TV officials declined to talk to Pajhwok Afghan News.
The Ulema Council, made up of Islamic clerics from around the country, holds regular sessions in which they discuss different issues.
The council agreed to express their views on the nature of radio and TV programs in the session after the upcoming Eid, the court spokesman added.
Jamal Kotwal, a correspondent with the Radio TV Afghanistan, talking on behalf of his department told Pajhwok Afghan News that he agreed with Raheen but added that: "There are few Afghan films produced – if we show them it would be repeatedly."
Kotwal said the state TV shows one Indian movie weekly, after censoring, and will continue to show foreign films after censoring the frames in contradiction with Islamic and Afghan traditions.
There are many cable networks in Kabul providing TV programs for the residents. They say the movies they put on show are first censored and the unsuitable parts are taken out.
"We broadcast Iranian and Indian films after censoring and there are, of course, some songs and dances," said the director of a cable network in Kabul, who requested to stay anonymous.
He said the cable network owners will get together after Eid to issue a verdict on Raheen's comments.
He added that his network, however, does not show songs and dances during Ramadan but will air foreign films after the holy month without censorship.
The network needs to meet the demands of people's taste in entertainment, otherwise, the business will suffer losses.
A shot at sports for Afghan children in the Shomali Plain
SHOMALI PLAIN, Afghanistan, Nov 9 (UNHCR) - The Mirbacha Khan School, in the Shomali Plain north of Kabul, is thriving again.
For years, the education system in Afghanistan had virtually collapsed, girls were not allowed in the few schools that functioned, and many Afghan children lived in exile. Now the refugees have come back, and Mirbacha Khan houses both a girls' and a boys' school. With so much to catch up on, sports have not been a high educational priority until now, but that is something the authorities, and especially the Afghan section of the International Olympic Committee, want to change.
UNHCR, in cooperation with the Afghan national Olympic Committee, arranged to give out a large number of sporting goods - including soft balls, soccer and volley balls - to the children of Mirbacha Khan and 12 other schools in the Shomali Plain in late October. The area is home to a large number of returning refugees, and an official of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation thanked UNHCR for organising the distribution. The items were donated by Sporting Goods to Go!, an international consortium of sports manufacturers, national Olympic committees and leading non-governmental organisations dedicated to promoting access to competitive sports and recreational activities for children in developing countries.
"Children everywhere in the world should be encouraged to take part in sports, and it is especially important here in Afghanistan, where for so long children were deprived of so much," said Stig Traavik, advisor to the Afghan Olympic Committee.
For the first time in 12 years, Afghanistan took part in the Olympics Games this summer, and the team of five Afghan athletes who represented their country in Athens attended the distribution ceremony. All stressed the importance of sports for children, as a recreational activity and a source of pride, in themselves and their nation.
Among the five-member team were two women, Robina Mogeemyar, who ran in the 100-metre race, and Feriba Rizai, a judo practitioner. It was the first time in the Games' long history that Afghanistan had sent women to compete. For the two women, it was the realisation of a dream they had not even dared to have. Feriba's story is an indication of how much has changed for Afghan refugees in the past few years.
Until only three years ago, 17-year-old Feriba was one of three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. She was only seven years old when her family left Afghanistan, fleeing the Taliban's advance on Kabul. She remembers the trip to Pakistan as a very traumatic time, and the following years as very hard for the entire family. From a very early age, she had loved sports, but with no money and very few opportunities for girls, she believed that her dream of becoming an athlete would never come true.
"All the time I was in Pakistan, I hoped that one day I would go back to Kabul, and be able to practise a sport. I liked boxing and judo. But I never thought it would happen."
Inspired by the films of kungfu star Jackie Chan, Feriba enrolled in a judo club as soon as she came back to Kabul with her family in early 2002. She has worked hard and done very well, but is still only a brown belt in judo, and competed in Athens by special invitation of the International Olympic Committee. She never really expected to win, and was beaten by her Spanish competitor in the first round.
"Although I lost, it gave me such pride to represent Afghanistan, to see the Afghan flag flying among all the other flags. And especially, it gave me pleasure to be there, for all the women of Afghanistan, who have had no rights for such a long time."
Today, Feriba is a student at Kabul's High School, and spends two hours a day training. "Watching athletes from other countries," she said, "I realise that two hours is not enough. Here in Afghanistan, we are lacking in resources for sports, and it is definitely worse for women."
Yet the teenager is hopeful, not only for her own future sporting career but for all women in Afghanistan. "Since I have come back from the Olympics," she said, "more than 20 girls have approached me to join the judo exercise. I think it is a good sign that so many women are interested in sports."
And Feriba has other ambitions too. After she has won a gold medal, she wants to become a politician and play a role in the democratisation of her country.
"Women have always been ignored and are always told what to do. Now we have a chance to change that, and I can think of nothing more important to do with my life than to help bring about this change."
She hopes that helping girls like the students in the Shomali Plain gain access to sporting activities, through donations and other initiatives, will encourage many more to follow in her tracks and forge a new future for Afghan women.
First Afghan National Military Strategy Signed
By Col. Randy Pullen, U.S. Army, and Harry P. Allen MPRI Office of Military Cooperation –
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (November 6, 2004) – Afghanistan’s defense sector took another major step forward with the adoption of its first National Military Strategy October 21.
At a regularly scheduled meeting of the Defense Council, Afghan Minister of Defense Qasim Fahim Khan signed the document approving the National Military Strategy (NMS). Behind that stroke of the pen lay 18 months of work by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Office of Military Cooperation – Afghanistan (OMC-A).
Afghan senior leaders had worked side by side with their coalition partners from OMC-A to initiate and develop a national strategy within the framework of the Strategic Planning System. While the National Military Strategy (NMS) represents the strategic direction of the Afghan National Army, it was developed with sound advice from the Minister of Defense and in consultation with the Chief of the General Staff.
Assistant Minister for Strategy and Policy Mohibullah assigned the mission of developing the NMS to Mr. Abdul Khaliq, Chief of Strategic Planning.
Khaliq formed a Strategic Planning Working Group that met routinely over many months to discuss and formulate an effective military strategy. The working group included senior representatives from across the Defense Ministry and the General Staff.
The working group received classes on strategic planning and fundamentals of military strategy from MPRI mentors. The group was then guided through the process of developing the National Military Strategy. This was a daunting task considering the entire MoD and GS were undergoing transformation while simultaneously preparing this document and introducing a number of other systems and processes. The primary focus of the efforts of the Strategic Planning Working Group was to design a strategy with the following objectives:
• Build and further develop the defense capabilities of the Afghan security system;
• Ensure the inalienable sovereignty of the Islamic State of Afghanistan;
• Reduce the vulnerability of its borders and the divisibility of its territory;
• Guarantee the independence of the nation; and
• Define the constitutionally mandated function of the Afghan military.
“The NMS will provide guidance and direction for developing the Afghan National Army, in accordance with the constitution, the rule of law and the authority of the Central Government,” said Khaliq.
As outlined in the NMS document, the strategy focuses on improving the posture of the Afghan National Army so that it can provide the citizens of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and their government with a better foundation for security, independence and the ability to work with coalition nations and regional neighbors.
The NMS provides strategic direction to the ANA. In the near term, the ANA is charged, in cooperation with the Coalition and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), to counter internal threats posed by terrorist organizations and extending the authority of the central government. In the long term, the ANA will assume its traditional role as the guardian of Afghanistan’s independence, freedom, and territorial sovereignty. The ANA will accomplish these near- and long-term objectives according to the orders of the legitimate and elected government of Afghanistan.
The NMS also states that the ANA is established by the Afghan people, is trusted, respected and supported by the people and is loyal to the Afghan Constitution, which it defends.
The strategy spells out what capacities, training, arms and equipment are required by the ANA to fulfill its responsibilities and defines the defense priorities. It also lays out the guiding principles for the Ministry of Defense:
• Develop and establish a national army based on defensive doctrine, mutual cooperation and friendly relations with neighbors,
• Participate in the regional and international collective security system, developing close ties and mutual cooperation with coalition countries and
• Collect weapons, decommission Afghan Militia Force units and complete the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process by June 2005.
A significant and historical aspect of this strategy is the establishment of civilian authority over the military. The NMS clearly lays out that command and control of the army will be made in coordination with the elected parliament and the elected president, as per the Afghan Constitution and the rule of law. The civilian president will be the Supreme Commander of the army. This fundamental will assist the Afghan National Army in its efforts to operate in agreement with international community principles and standards.
It also facilitates operations with coalition forces because, as the NMS notes, they use a similar command and control system.
The specific duties of the Afghan National Army are to:
• Militarily support and back the Islamic Transitional Government of Afghanistan and ensure security for the political process progress that has been made,
• Gradually replace all factional, private and irregular militia forces,
• Disarm all illegal armed groups and
• Fight the terrorists and other destructive groups with the cooperation of the Coalition, ISAF and independently.
The composition of the ANA consists of basic ground forces, an air and air defense force, quick reaction forces, support and service support forces (Logistics Command, Communications Command, Medical Command and other sustaining institutions) and a reserve force. Per the Bonn II agreements, the size of the ANA will be 70,000, although the NMS allows for changes in size and structure based on future security, economic, strategic and geopolitical developments.
Much of what is laid out in the NMS is already being done. The reform of the ANA and MoD has been long underway. Major headquarters such as the Regional Commands have been activated and their locations designated. The fielding plan for the Regional Commands outlined in the strategy is progressing per the NMS.
Afghan leaders know that the NMS represents a milestone in their country’s reconstruction.
“There has never been an official document called the National Military Strategy in Afghanistan,” said Deputy Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.
“This is the first time we have come up with a written document.”
“The National Military Strategy gives us clear goals for the next three to five years,” Wardak said, “subject to modification as required. Now we really know where we’re going, what the threats are we need to deal with and what we need in our armed forces. We know what standards to apply as we raise the Afghan National Army.”
Wardak said that the help of the MPRI mentors contributed greatly to the development of the NMS. He noted how valuable an August 2004 seminar was in bringing together representatives from the MoD, the Office of Military Cooperation – Afghanistan and MPRI in order to work on the National Military Strategy.
The Chief of OMC-A, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig P. Weston, described how this three-day seminar contributed to completing the NMS.
“We broke into Afghan-led working groups to make recommendations to finalize an Afghan national military strategy in response to the Afghan-approved National Threat Assessment,” Weston related. “For the first time, Afghan leaders used modern strategic methods and techniques to review their draft national military strategy and use their proposed planning system to define appropriate force structure to execute the strategy.”
Those who worked to bring the NMS to completion were enthusiastic about the results and about what it would do for the Afghan defense sector. They were also pleased to have been part of the project from start to finish.
“It’s been rewarding to see all the pieces come together and be able to watch the Defense Minister sign the National Military Strategy and set Afghanistan on an entirely new security course.” said Frank Taddonio, an MPRI Mentor for Strategy and Policy.
With its first National Military Strategy in place, the Afghan leadership will be able to build on it and continue to improve their defense of the Afghan people.
2,000 former Afghan underage soldiers to go through demobilization and reintegration
UNICEF 11/08/2004
KABUL — An initial group of 2,000 former underage soldiers associated with Afghanistan's fighting forces will benefit from a reintegration and rehabilitation program this week, supported by UNICEF. The program – which follows a successful pilot project in 2003 – begins on February 10 in the north-eastern province of Badahkshan and will be followed by similar exercises in Kunduz, Taloqan, Baghlan and the Central Highlands region throughout February.
A total of 5,000 underage soldiers will receive assistance from the program by the end of 2004. The program has been established in consultation with the Afghan New Beginnings Program (ANBP) which is leading the disarmament of former combatants across Afghanistan.
The new phase of the reintegration program focuses on the development of an information database on each former underage soldier, including psychosocial assessment and medical screening, and the creation of a comprehensive care plan for each child. Following their identification by local demobilization and integration committees, each participant will receive information and advice on options available to him, such as education, vocational training and other skills acquisition, as well as drug abuse prevention and mine risk education. Special briefings for the former child soldiers will also explain the civic responsibilities expected of all community members, in an effort to underline the constructive role that these young people can make in the rebuilding of their nation.
UNICEF is working with a number of NGO partners including Child Fund Afghanistan, AREA, Save the Children-Sweden and BRAC to provide community-based rehabilitation projects that will allow former underage soldiers to re-enter education, or learn a new skill or trade that will assist them to financially support themselves and their families, and provide opportunities and alternatives to military life. Most former underage soldiers in Afghanistan have missed out on many years of education, and all participants in the program will receive basic literacy and arithmetic tuition. In the northern provinces where the reintegration project is commencing this week, it is expected that participants will be able to start education and skills training activities within two to four weeks once their needs and aspirations have been assessed.
UNICEF estimates that there are a total of 8,000 former child soldiers in Afghanistan, many of whom have already left the fighting forces informally over the past year. All are in urgent need of assistance to fully reintegrate to civilian life, especially in the area of education and sustainable income-generation.
Afghan Press Monitor
No 44, 09 Nov 04
Karzai meets US Congressional delegation
(Anees) – President Hamid Karzai met with a delegation from the US Congress, led by Peter Hook. During the meeting, Hook congratulated Karzai as the first-ever elected president of Afghanistan, and said the current achievements represented a suitable basis for future development. The two sides also discussed ways of combating and eliminating terrorism and drugs in the country. Karzai said the Afghan people and government appreciate the many different areas of US assistance.
(Anees is a governmental daily mostly in Dari Language)
Businessman ready to swap places with kidnapped UN workers
(Hewad) – A businessman has announced his readiness to surrender himself and his five family members to the kidnappers of three UN workers abducted in exchange for their freedom. Haji Mohammad Amin, a trader, yesterday went to the Interior Ministry to make his offer, saying that kidnapping is not a part of Afghan culture and that this incident has made Afghans ashamed. Amin also said he was prepared to talk with the kidnappers if they wanted money for the release of the hostages.
(Hewad is a governmental daily mostly in Pashto Language)
Supreme Court seeks release of UN workers
(Islaah) – Supreme Court Justice Mawlawi Fazel Hadi Shinwaray, showing concern over the abduction of three UN workers, yesterday said in a meeting of the Court’s High Council that the kidnapping goes counter to Afghan hospitality, especially when two of the hostages are women. In the meeting, the High Council asked the kidnappers to release the hostages in respect of the holy month of Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr. They also reasoned that some of the hostages may not be in good health and need medical attention.
(Islaah is a governmental daily run by Islaah publications)
Islam opposes abduction of women says professor
(Kabul Times) – Professor Abdu-r-Rab Rasool Sayaf, leader of the Itahad-e-Islami party, yesterday said abduction is an illegal and inadmissible act in Islam. Pointing to the abduction of three UN staff, he said "the kidnapping is both against the Islamic principles and Afghan traditions.” He said Islam “strongly condemns” the abduction of women for political reasons. According to Sayaf, Islam resents terrorism because it is a religion of mercy, compassion, courage and bravery. Islam and its true followers abhor terrorist acts especially in case of women, he said.
(The Kabul Times is a governmental paper in English published every other day)
Police find 145kg of hashish in Ningarhar
(Arman-e-Milli) – In Ningarhar province, police have found 145kg of hashish that reportedly was brought in from Pakistan and was being kept in a house in the Hisarak district. Police sources also said they found 50kg of opium and two Kalashnikov assault rifles during the operation, but were unable to apprehend the smuggler. The investigation continues.
(Arman-e-Milli is an independent daily run by a group of journalists)
Afghan diplomat caught with heroin, counterfeit currency
(Cheraagh) – The Pakistani Criminal Investigation Department is interrogating the acting Afghan trade commissioner, Sayed Abdyullah Bacha, who was arrested near the border on Friday allegedly carrying 1kg of heroin and counterfeit Pakistani currency. Acting on a tip-off, CID personnel stopped Bacha’s official car and recovered 1kg of heroin and a large amount of fake Pakistani currency notes from the vehicle. The car had foreign mission number-plate, sources said. Many Afghan warlords are reportedly involved in this illegal trade. They are using Tajikistan and Pakistan as routes for transporting heroin to Europe.
(Cheraagh is an independent daily run by Development and Democracy Association)
Rehabilitation of cement factory under consideration
(Kabul Times) – Commerce Minister Sayed Mustafa Kazemi heard the survey report of the Pul-e-Khumri cement factory conducted by an expert from Heidelberg, Germany. In a meeting attended by the finance minister, Chairman of the High Investment Commission Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, representatives from the ministries of Rehabilitation, and Mining and Industry as well as the German ambassador, the representative expressed the interest of his company in rehabilitating the Pul-e-Khumri cement factory. He said the company will start with an initial capital of $150m-$200m, and that it is also ready to invest in the private sector.
(The Kabul Times is a governmental paper in English published every other day)
Afghan Press Monitor is published by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, an independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and democratic change. Stories for the Afghan Press Monitor are selected and summarised by Ahmad Abid Akmal in Afghanistan, and edited by Eric Watkins in the USA. The selections are intended to give readers a sense of what local Afghan newspapers are reporting. IWPR cannot vouch for the accuracy of the reports. The views represented by the stories are not necessarily those of IWPR.
A girl's struggle show issue of modernizing Afghanistan
By SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN Knight Ridder Newspapers Tue, Nov. 09, 2004
KABUL, Afghanistan - Dusk crosses into night, and still Pekay isn't free. After a long day walking from office to office, pleading with stubborn judges, her quest has failed: She's still married to her abusive husband.
Once again, her memories take control. Her father selling her in marriage to a man five times her age to pay the rent; the beatings and sodomy that followed. She was 9 years old.
Her mind drifts toward suicide. She's tried twice - first with a knife, then with kerosene and a match.
Pekay is 13 now, one of thousands of girls and women who are trapped in forced marriages, caught between the rural, tribal and Islamic customs that ruled the country for centuries and the promise of a new Afghanistan ruled by laws that apply equally to everyone.
Domestic violence is widespread, but most cases never go to court. The laws are weak, and women stay silent out of fear or shame: Divorce disgraces the family and the tribe. Each year, scores of Afghan women escape bad marriages by setting themselves on fire or other forms of suicide.
The Muslim fundamentalist Taliban regime collapsed three years ago. Hamid Karzai has won the country's first presidential elections. Women, who couldn't freely leave their houses in the old Afghanistan, voted in droves.
Yet none of this momentous change has helped Pekay. Under Afghanistan's civil law, it's illegal for girls younger than 16 to marry. But the Supreme Court, led by conservative clerics and Islamic law, ruled that she can't get divorced, even from a violent child molester.
Her last hope is that Fazal Hadi Shinwari, the ultra-conservative chief justice of the Supreme Court, will reverse the decision.
"If he doesn't, I'll kill myself," said Pekay, who like many Afghans uses one name. "And I'll leave it up to God to punish the judges in the next world."
ABUSE
Pekay is less than 5 feet tall and slight. Her nose is puffy and crooked from a thrashing. Her left cheekbone is higher than her right, as if a bone is out of place. Her lower lip is split.
She was smaller when she met Malik Muhammad four years ago. At 48, he was old enough to be her grandfather. He offered to rent a room in his house to Pekay's family.
Four months passed, and Muhammad never asked for the rent. Pekay's father, Muhammad Omar, was too poor to remind him. One day, Muhammad demanded the rent money: $80, a princely sum.
When Omar asked if he could pay in installments, Muhammad said, "You must pay me now or give me your daughter," Omar recalled. Four days later, Muhammad started planning a wedding.
"We had no choice," said Omar. "He was a Taliban intelligence agent. He was very powerful. He said if I didn't allow the marriage, he would take us to the Taliban central office and do the wedding there."
On her wedding night, Pekay was confused. Why was the man she called "uncle" taking her to his bedroom? Why was her mother so sad?
"I'll be back soon," she recalled telling her mother.
Smiling, she stepped in. Her new husband shut the door.
"I started to hear screams," recalled her mother, Qudbi. "I thought he was going to kill her."
The next morning, Muhammad refused to let Qudbi see Pekay. He'd chained her hands and legs to his bed, said Pekay. Four days later, he evicted her parents.
Pekay lived as a slave for the next 2 1/2 years. Muhammad locked her in a room, releasing her only to cook, clean and do the washing. He pounded her with sticks and rubber tubing. When he stopped beating her, he started raping her.
"I can't tell you what happened," Pekay said. "It's the type of thing that happens only with animals."
Muhammad, now 52, denies he abused Pekay, but his next-door neighbor, Zalmay Quasimi, remembers her screams.
A short man with yellow chipped teeth and a thick beard that's dyed black, Muhammad claims that Pekay is "15 or 16," not 13. Pekay's identity card proves otherwise.
"Physically her body is small, but she's older," said Muhammad, who wore a silver ring topped with a turquoise stone and a white skullcap. "She was fine in my bed. She never complained or told me she was very small.
"If she comes back, I'll get her pregnant."
Asked whether he was concerned that he broke the law by marrying a child, he replied: "If a girl is under 16, her father has the authority to marry her off," Muhammad said. "Lots of Taliban were married to 7- or 8-year-old girls."
At first, Pekay's parents were afraid to confront Muhammad, who, along with other Taliban rank-and-file types, was granted amnesty by Karzai's transitional government when the regime fell.
They gained confidence from the changes that began taking place around them: Some women shed their burqas, the ghostly coverings the Taliban had ordered them to wear. Girls, banned by the Taliban from education, began attending schools. A new constitution was drafted that protected the rights of women.
Fifteen months ago, Pekay's parents finally went to the police. Officers raided Muhammad's house and found Pekay and his first wife, Samar. Dried blood stained the floor and chains dangled from a bedpost, according to court documents. The police took Muhammad into custody.
But Afghanistan's legal system, a mix of civil and sharia, Islamic law, still favors men. Once he proved that he was Samar's and Pekay's husband, Muhammad was released. Samar was told to go with him. Because of her age, Pekay was returned to her parents pending a court decision.
Pekay and her parents went to Kabul's family court to get a divorce. Muhammad, in court documents, called the allegations "a massive lie."
But in front of two female judges, Pekay undressed and showed the marks around her waist from the chain that Muhammed used to bind her, said Manija, one of the judges, who also uses one name.
The court, filled with progressive young judges, granted her a divorce. Pekay was ecstatic.
Her joy, and her freedom, soon evaporated.
Muhammad appealed the decision. The appeals court ruled in his favor. The Supreme Court did the same.
Pekay was ordered to return to her husband or go to jail.
Supreme Court justice Sayeed Omar Munib explained that sharia allows a father to marry off his daughter even if she's under 16. And Pekay hadn't met the standard of evidence - two witnesses who saw the abuse or a confession from her husband.
The only way Pekay can divorce Muhammad, Munib said, is if her parents pay him off. They offered, Munib said, but Muhammad turned them down.
"Her father married her, and she cannot now say I want to get a divorce," said Munib. "The only thing she can do now, if she wants, is separate their bed and sleep in another room. The past doesn't matter."
When asked why he didn't rule according to Afghanistan's civil law, he replied: "In Islam and sharia, it's not like that. Women are very smooth operators. If we let her get a divorce, then women will be encouraged to divorce their husbands if they see another man they like. We'll have a lot of divorces in our society."
When asked if he believed that women and men have equal rights, as Afghanistan's constitution states, Munib replied: "It's impossible. We are Muslims, and God has given a place for men and a place for women. We can't change that. Women don't have the same brains like men. They are very forgetful. They can't make big decisions. You should ask your own Western doctors about this. It has been proven that women are not like men."
Others read the Quran, Islam's holy book, differently. The prophet Muhammad says a man can't beat his wife, even with a flower, said Horia Mosadiq, a women's rights activist.
GIVEN A VOICE
Shortly after Munib's decision, policemen came to collect Pekay from the home of an upper-class family where her parents lived in exchange for cleaning. Pekay and her mother ran to the kitchen, and Pekay grabbed a sharp knife and prepared to thrust it into her stomach. Her mother grabbed a can of kerosene.
"Let me kill myself, and take my body to my husband's house," Pekay screamed. "I don't want to go back alive to his house again."
Their landlord's wife, Lailoma Haider, who'd run after them, intervened.
"If you kill yourself, you will only make your husband happy," Haider recalled telling Pekay. "You must live in this world. Life is God's gift to you. I promise you that you will never go back to your husband."
Haider told the policemen that Pekay wasn't there. They returned a month later. Pekay threatened to kill herself again. Haider talked her out of it again.
Haider and a neighbor worked to get Pekay an appointment with Chief Justice Shinwari. They were educated women and now had a voice, if a faint one, in the new Afghanistan. It took them weeks, but they finally got a meeting for Pekay.
Shinwari, also a cleric, dispensed justice according to strict sharia. But he looked at Pekay's face and body, and listened to Haider and her neighbor. Then he approved Pekay's divorce.
Muhammad, however, is determined to get Pekay back.
"I'll die before divorcing her," he said. "I can't force her to come back to my house, but I can make sure she won't marry again. One day she'll come back. She has to."
For now, the child inside Pekay is resurfacing.
"I wish the same success for all the women who have problems like mine to escape from their husbands," Pekay said with a wide smile. Then she turned solemn. "I hope Samar will escape from him someday," she said.
A few days later, the green door to Muhammad's mud-walled house was slightly ajar. A thin woman was hunched inside, washing clothes. It was Samar.
When a car pulled up, she peeked outside.
Fear spread across her sad, wrinkled face, and she shut the door.
Afghans showed 'remarkable political maturity' during recent presidential election, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping tells Security Council
Source: UN Security Council 9 Nov 2004
SC/8240 Security Council 5073rd Meeting (AM)
Also Warns Next Year's Parliamentary Elections Would Be Much More Complicated, Fraught with Security Concerns
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno told the Security Council this morning that, while Afghans had shown "remarkable political maturity" during the successful presidential election, they would continue to require the international community's full backing as they embark on the next stage of the electoral process.
He said the 9 October election, which had resulted in the election of Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan's first elected President, had demonstrated that Afghans had a strong national denominator in their common embrace of the democratic process, regardless of ethnic origin or political affiliation. Against a backdrop of continued challenges posed by narcotics, extremism and factionalism, that momentous development was one of the most encouraging features of Afghanistan today.
Over 8 million ballots had been cast, representing about 70 per cent of registered voters, of which 40 per cent were women, he noted. After considering the results of the counting, the report of the impartial panel and the work of their own complaints and investigations mechanism, the Joint Electoral Monitoring Body (JEMB) had declared that Hamid Karzai had secured an outright majority of 55.4 per cent of the vote.
Noting that the successful conduct of the presidential election might result in an unrealistic expectation that elections in Afghanistan were not difficult, he said parliamentary elections would be much more complicated and fraught with security concerns than the presidential elections. Defining the essential issues for holding parliamentary and local elections within the time frame prescribed by electoral law, he stressed the need for officially delimiting the boundaries of districts, as well as vetting the qualifications of thousands of potential candidates prior to their registration.
The influence of local commanders, the widespread and tangled web of narcotics and arms, and the absence of an efficient local civil administration constituted serious obstacles to holding legitimate parliamentary and local elections, he continued. A key factor in improving the local security environment would be the ability of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme to capitalize on the political momentum generated by the electoral process.
Describing the deployment of Afghan professional police as a "sine qua non" for safe district elections, he said no other force had the reach needed to secure close to 400 district elections in which tensions brought about by the electoral competition might be the rule rather than the exception. While domestic security forces would necessarily be called on to play a major role, international forces remained indispensable, both in the direct provision of security and in backing up national efforts.
Indeed, security remained a significant concern, he said, noting that a suicide bombing in the centre of Kabul on 23 October might have signalled the end of the period of relative calm that had prevailed during the election. A few days later, on 28 October, three electoral staff had been abducted in the Kart-e-Parwan district of Kabul in broad daylight. Securing their safe return was of paramount concern.
The meeting began at 10:15 a.m. and adjourned at 10:38 a.m.
Detailed Briefing Summary
JEAN-MARIE GUEHENNO, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, recalled that the last briefing on the 9 October presidential ballot had been provided three days after the event. Today he would update Council members on the subsequent process that had led to the certification of the official electoral results by the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) on 3 November, which had declared Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan's first elected President. He would also share key challenges that the Afghan leadership would need to address, with the international community's support, over the next 180 days.
He said that on the day of elections, a number of opposition candidates had made allegations regarding the fairness of the electoral process, including complaints over the use of indelible ink to mark voters' thumbs and undue influence exerted on voters by polling staff and candidates' representatives. A three-member impartial panel of international electoral experts, established on 11 October, had examined complaints lodged by presidential candidates and had conducted an extensive investigation that included consultations with the candidates themselves, observer and electoral support teams and electoral staff.
The panel's report, submitted to the JEMB and made public on 2 November, had found that irregularities observed had not materially impacted the overall outcome of the election, he continued. Two days later, candidates Qanooni, Mohaqeq and Dostum, who had been most critical of the ballot process, had publicly announced their acceptance of the electoral results.
In all, some 8,128,940 ballots had been cast representing about 70 per cent of registered voters, of which 40 per cent were women, he said. After considering the results of the counting, the report of the impartial panel and the work of their own complaints and investigations mechanism, the JEMB had declared that Hamid Karzai had secured an outright majority of 55.4 per cent of the vote. Yonous Qanooni had obtained 16.3 per cent; Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq, 11.3 per cent; and Abdul Rashid Dostum, 10 per cent. The remaining 14 candidates had all received individually less than 2 per cent of the votes, and collectively 6 per cent. The Constitution called for the inauguration of the President-elect to take place 30 days after the announcement of the official ballot result.
The publication of the final results allowed the Organization to put forward an initial analysis of the vote, he said. Overall, ethnic considerations appeared to have played an important role in determining people's votes. Electoral support for the four main contenders, President Karzai, Qanooni, Dostum and Mohaqeq, had strongly correlated with the areas where Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras were, respectively, the majority group. Amongst refugees in Iran, Karzai and Mohaqeq had split the vote, each receiving 40 per cent. In Pakistan, 80 per cent had voted for Karzai.
He said that pattern confirmed one of the features of the Constitutional Loya Jirga, namely, the assertion of ethnic identities. While ethnic considerations had an impact in rural areas, President Karzai and other candidates had received multi-ethnic support in major cities. That might be attributable to the fact that, since ethnic identity had not been exploited aggressively during the campaign, candidates had been able to operate widely outside their core constituencies. As a result, all candidates had received votes in all provinces of the country. More importantly, beyond ethnicity, Afghans showed that they were united in their rejection of violence, their support for a peaceful political process and the affirmation of their right to participate in it.
Attention had now shifted to the post-election phase, including the immediate task of forming the next government and the challenges of parliamentary and local elections, he said. The new President had an opportunity to select an effective and competent cabinet able to deliver the basic services expected from the government. He would also take into account the need for the cabinet to be representative of the country's ethnic, cultural and geographical diversity. Competence and representation were, therefore, key to providing a strong political platform that would enable the President to address the challenges that Afghanistan would face. Regarding the priorities of the next government, President Karzai had already indicated that security would be the most important issue, especially the further disarmament of private military forces.
Security remained a significant concern, he said. A suicide bombing carried out in the centre of Kabul on 23 October, in which two people had died, might have signalled the end of the period of relative calm that had prevailed during the election. A few days later, on 28 October, Annetta Flanigan, Shqipe Hebibi and Angelito Nayan, all three of them electoral staff, had been abducted in the Kart-e-Parwan district of Kabul in broad daylight.
With the assistance of an UNSECOORD (Office of the United Nations Security Coordinator) team and specialists offered by other governments, Afghanistan's Government was leading the investigation into the incident, he said. Cooperation between the different national and international actors was ensured through a number of groups working around the clock on all aspects of the case. Securing their safe return was of paramount concern. For that reason, he was unable to share information that might compromise the ongoing process or put the three colleagues at greater risk. In the meantime, the United Nations had taken a number of special measures to enhance staff security at a time of possible increased exposure to risk. They were the most stringent staff security measures in place in Kabul since 2001.
Regarding parliamentary and local elections, he recalled that, last July, the JEMB had decided that parliamentary, provincial and district elections should be held separately from the presidential election, and not later than the next Afghan month of Saur (20 April to 20 May 2005). Embarking on that phase of the electoral process, a number of technical requirements and environmental conditions had to be carefully considered. In carrying out that complex planning exercise, the reports issued by the various observers and electoral support missions in Afghanistan during the presidential election, including those of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and other national and international organizations and groups, would be invaluable.
In the last few weeks, proposals had been made to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) by the different components of the electoral operations, in particular the JEMB and its secretariat, as well as national security agencies and international military forces, he said. Those proposals took into account the experience gained during the presidential elections in all key areas, institutions, legal procedures, operations and security, and suggested best practices and lessons learned. The reports would be crucial in assessing various solutions for the implementation of the next elections, and in exploring different technical and operational alternatives. The UNAMA had been discussing key issues related to electoral preparations with security and diplomatic partners in Kabul.
Continuing, he said that, in some ways, the successful conduct of the presidential election might result in an unrealistic expectation that elections in Afghanistan were not difficult. It would be a mistake, however, to become too complacent. Parliamentary elections would be much more complicated and fraught with security concerns than the presidential elections. In order to hold parliamentary and local elections within the time frame prescribed by electoral law, he defined five essential issues: boundaries of districts, and in some cases provinces, must be officially delimited; population figures must be agreed for the assignment of parliamentary seats; the voters' list must be analysed, refined and, in some cases, updated, in order to prepare specific voting lists for each polling station; a complaints mechanism and electoral offence prosecution system must be developed locally; and the qualifications of thousands of potential candidates must be vetted prior to their registration.
He recognized that, implementing some of those requirements –- for example, providing more time to vet candidates –- might require a revision of the electoral law. Other measures strongly recommended by most observers' reports included the need to develop a vigorous capacity-building programme for domestic observers and party agents, the need to strengthen and extend civic education activities to enable voters to understand the greater complexity of parliamentary and local elections, and the need to review the structure of the electoral authority and other operational modalities to conduct those elections. Separating the presidential and parliamentary elections provided additional time to improve the environment for the conduct of parliamentary and local elections. Those would inevitably be more affected by local tensions and more susceptible to fraud and intimidation than were the presidential elections.
For that reason, he said, the influence of local commanders, the widespread and tangled web of narcotics and arms, and the absence of an efficient local civil administration continue to constitute serious obstacles to holding legitimate parliamentary and local elections. A key factor in improving the local security environment would be the ability of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme to capitalize on the political momentum generated by the electoral process. As previously reported, in the few weeks before the presidential election, more than 5,000 men went through the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process, bringing the total for the programme in one year of operations to almost 22,000 disarmed ex-combatants. The heavy weapons cantonment programme had also gained considerable momentum since September –- approximately 75 per cent of all operational and repairable weapons were now in cantonment sites.
He said that the current Afghan Government wanted to accelerate the disarmament and reintegration of those remaining militia forces that were administratively linked to the Ministry of Defence so that the process was completed by the beginning of the Afghan New Year (21 March 2005). Reintegration activities would, of course, continue further until mid-2006. Closer collaboration between the Ministries of Defence and Finance should allow for a better monitoring of government resources allocated to militia forces, including the timely suspension of payments once units were decommissioned. The initiative to link political party registration to full disarmament, which began in July, had also yielded positive benefits. It had been agreed to modify the schedule of disarmament, in order to enable three of the main political groups (Jamiat, Junbesh and Da'wat) to divest themselves of their military wings and be registered in time for the parliamentary and local elections. The leaders of those parties had agreed to use their political authority to assist with full decommissioning of their former units.
While that progress had been encouraging, constant and focused attention was still required by the new Government and the international community if disarmament, demobilization and reintegration was to improve the environment in which parliamentary and local elections must take place, he stressed. The issue of irregular militias was also rapidly emerging as a problem which needed to be tackled in advance of the next round of elections. Those were armed groups that were not on the payroll of the Defence Ministry and, therefore, not included in the current disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme. They were equally and perhaps even more destabilizing for the security of many areas of the country than the regular militias. Discussions were ongoing in Kabul, under the leadership of the Government, to examine ways to dismantle those groups through weapons collection and community development programmes.
Another factor contributing to local insecurity, he said, was the production and trafficking of illicit drugs. The narcotics trade, with its scale and corrupting influence, posed a growing threat to the State-building process and risked becoming a major impediment to holding credible parliamentary and local elections. Much greater efforts must be made to address all aspects of the problem. Last but not least, the expansion of the formal security apparatus would obviously be key to the success of parliamentary and local elections. One of the most successful aspects of the presidential round had been that adequate security conditions, by and large, were maintained. That had been achieved thanks to a comprehensive and coordinated operation involving the national army and police working with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and coalition forces. That effort must be pursued and intensified ahead of parliamentary and local elections.
In particular, he continued, the deployment of Afghan professional police was a "sine qua non" for safe district elections. No other force had the reach needed to secure close to 400 district elections in which tensions brought about by the electoral competition might be the rule rather than the exception. While domestic security forces would necessarily be called upon to play a major role, international forces remained indispensable, both in the direct provision of security and in backing up national efforts. In that respect, he encouraged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member States to enable ISAF to deploy forces –- early and in adequate numbers –- to areas included in Stage 2 of its expansion, namely, the western provinces of Afghanistan.
In summary, he said that technical and operational requirements, and the need to create a more conducive environment, posed formidable challenges to the planning process for parliamentary and local elections. The UNAMA had initiated a process of consultations with all relevant interlocutors, including political parties, in order to formulate adequate recommendations to the Government of Afghanistan and the international community as soon as possible. He hoped that the consultations would be concluded by mid-November, at which point he would be in a position to identify financial requirements relating to the parliamentary elections. The presidential elections had demonstrated that Afghans had a strong national denominator in their common embrace of the democratic process, regardless of ethnic origin or political affiliation. That momentous development was one of the most encouraging features of Afghanistan today, against a backdrop of continued challenges posed by narcotics, extremism and factionalism.
He said that, from initial consultations carried out by UNAMA in the various regions, it transpired that the overwhelming majority of Afghans were ready, together with their political leaders, to embark on the next stage of the electoral process, which should result in the creation of representative institutions at local and national levels. The international community might be tempted to diminish its commitment to Afghanistan in the aftermath of the presidential elections. If so, it should resist that temptation. While Afghans had shown a "remarkable political maturity", they must still be able to count on the full backing –- economic, financial, political and military -– of the international community. In that new, difficult stage under way, success would require the support of both the Afghans and the international community.
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).