 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Fresh from Iraq success, Petraeus takes on Afghanistan, Iran
by Daphne Benoit – Thu Oct 30, 10:52 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Crowned with success in Iraq, General David Petraeus, who takes command Friday of US military forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, inherits the next big challenge:
Piece by piece, talking peace
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / October 30, 2008
KARACHI - A two-day jirgagai, or mini-jirga (council) , involving politicians and tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan ended in Islamabad on Tuesday with the participants offering an olive branch to militants
Afghan leader Hamid Karzai: Taliban trying to stop talks with attack
October 30, 2008 FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters stormed the Ministry of Culture in the heart of Kabul Thursday, killing five people in an attack the president said aimed at derailing the government's new effort to draw
India to set up telemedicine facility in Afghanistan
Xinhua / October 30, 2008
India has agreed to establish telemedicine facility in Afghanistan under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) inked in Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday, said a statement released by Afghan Public Health Ministry.
In the hands of Afghanistan' s Taliban, life is cheap
by Sharif Khoram – Thu Oct 30, 11:36 pm ET
WARDAK PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFP) – "We will behead him," threatens a 25-year-old, self-proclaimed Taliban, as day-long negotiations on the fate of a shopkeeper abducted five days ago reach a critical point.
Garbage sustains Afghan 'ragpickers'
Jason Motlagh Washington Times October 29, 2008
LAHORE, Pakistan | Six-year-old Ali Reza Khan spots a half-eaten apple and steps toward it, darting when another boy makes his move. In one quick swoop, he picks it up, wipes it with a soiled sleeve and takes a bite.
Deafness reported in returning troops
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Intense noise level in Afghanistan' s war zone has caused severe or permanent hearing damage among hundreds of British troops, The Times of London has learned.
AFGHANISTAN: THREE-NATION ART SHOW OPENS IN KABUL
Aunohita Mojumdar 10/31/08 EURASIA INSIGHT
It is not often a painting arrives at an exhibition with the extra protection of war and terrorism insurance. But that is exactly what Jemima Montagu, the director of culture and heritage at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation (TMF)
AFGHANISTAN: OPINION SURVEY REVEALS INCREASING WORRY AMONG AFGHANS
Aunohita Mojumdar 10/29/08 Eurasianet
The lack of security outranks poor economic conditions as the population's top worry in Afghanistan, according to a newly released public opinion survey. While support for the country's reconstruction
Mint oil, melons: Afghan farm fairs spur business
By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press / October 29, 2008
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) — Nadir Bahktar's stall at a northern Afghanistan agriculture fair had the faint smell of Christmas.
Afghanistan Needs `Berlin Airlift' to Avoid Famine, RUSI Says
By Ed Johnson
Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan needs urgent international aid, akin to the Berlin airlift 60 years ago, to stave off the threat of famine that could see villagers turn against the government, a London-based defense institute said today.
The next president and the 'war on terror
By Andrew J Bacevich Nov 1, 2008 Asia Times Online, Hong Kong
A week ago, I had a long conversation with a four-star US military officer who, until his recent retirement, had played a central role in directing the global war on terror. I asked him: what exactly is the strategy that guides
Progress in Afghanistan hindered by corruption, diversity, researcher says
By: Michael Vernor Arkansas State University Herald - Oct 30 2:53 PM
Progress in Afghanistan is being hampered by a diverse, sometimes incompatible, ethnic population and the intervention of too many outside governments, Dr. Pamela Hunte, an anthropologist and experienced
Canada's PM 'concerned' about fate of Afghan journalist
Thu Oct 30, 3:49 pm ET
OTTAWA (AFP) – Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday said he is concerned by a 20-year prison sentence against a young Afghan reporter for blasphemy.
Afghan security forces highly motivated to take care of their war dead
By Tobi Cohen, The Canadian Press Thu Oct 30, 4:12 PM
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Dressed in green army fatigues, assault rifles slung across their chests, a group of Afghan National Army soldiers march slightly out of step onto the tarmac at Kandahar Airfield.
Now more than ever, Britain needs a plan for Afghanistan
Telegraph.co. uk, United Kingdom By Con Coughlin 31/10/2008
One minute we are being told we must send more troops to Afghanistan if we are to stand any chance of securing victory; the next that the only option is to sit down and talk to the Taliban.
McCain and Obama Advisers Briefed on Deteriorating Afghan War
New York Times, United States By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT October 30, 2008
WASHINGTON-Afghans in the Korengal Valley, who have ties to the Taliban, met Thursday with American and Afghan military officials.
Will More US Troops Really Help in Afghanistan?
By Mark Thompson / Washington time.com Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008
Many U.S. military officers believe the war in Afghanistan was needlessly interrupted by that unpleasantness in Iraq that has cost more than 4,000 Americans their lives. And now that Iraq seems to be settling down
Karzai attends Central Asian economic forum
Written by www.quqnoos.com Thursday, 30 October 2008
Karzai to discuss regional co-operation at World Economic Forum in Turkey
Asifi's kidnappers were 'fresh out of jail'
Written by www.quqnoos.com Thursday, 30 October 2008
NDS chief says men who kidnapped late king's relative had only just left prison
MPs warn of electoral fraud
Written by www.quqnoos.com Thursday, 30 October 2008
Registration cards are kept in unsecure locations, lawmakers say
Shake-up of Herat's police force announced
Written by www.quqnoos.com Thursday, 30 October 2008
Rising violence forces minsitry to make changes to security officials
Back to Top
Fresh from Iraq success, Petraeus takes on Afghanistan, Iran
by Daphne Benoit – Thu Oct 30, 10:52 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Crowned with success in Iraq, General David Petraeus, who takes command Friday of US military forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, inherits the next big challenge: devising a winning strategy in Afghanistan.
Responsible for a volatile theater of operations that extends from Kenya to Kazakhstan, the high profile general must also keep an eye on extremism in Pakistan and Iranian influence in the region, all under the orders of a new US president.
Sent to Iraq in 2007 to salvage the explosive situation there, Petraeus is credited with turning around a Sunni insurgency in the west and using a 30,000 troop "surge" to secure Baghdad and its environs.
Many hope that Petraeus will bring his counter-insurgency expertise to bear in Afghanistan as he did in Iraq, where levels of violence have dropped sharply and combat deaths are now at the lowest point since 2003.
The intensifying violence in Afghanistan has put the "forgotten war" on the front burner and has pushed the White House, the Joint Staff and Petraeus to launched strategic reviews of what the general has called the "longest campaign of the long war."
The reviews extend to the extremism in Pakistan and the sanctuaries in its northwestern tribal areas from which the Taliban and Al-Qaeda launch attacks into neighboring Afghanistan.
As it waits for these reports, Washington has already committed to send reinforcements to Afghanistan as US force levels decline in Iraq, to bolster the 70,000 NATO and US troops there.
Both presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, advocate sending more troops to Afghanistan, which they promise to make a priority.
At the same time, calls have been made from a variety of sources in favor of a dialogue with the Taliban insurgents, following the Iraq model.
Petraeus, who emphasizes the importance of political and economic efforts in defeating an insurgency, has publicly said the United States should "talk to enemies," as has Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"There is talk, not surprisingly, of a 'surge' for Afghanistan, and hope that we can soon accomplish there what has begun to take root in Iraq," wrote Michael O'Hanlon, of the Brookings Institution, and Andrew Shearer of the Lowy Institute.
But they warn that conditions are different in Afghanistan. There are fewer troops, the country is poorer and has less resources, and the insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan are destabilizing.
Relying on local tribal militias also is risky in a country that historically has been ruled by warlords beyond the control of the central government, some experts say.
Added to the long list of challenges that await General Petreaus is Iran, which the United States accuses of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and of trying to keep the pot boiling in Iraq by supporting insurgents.
"In Iran, we face a tremendous threat to regional security, and also the country most likely to test the next US president," said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Piece by piece, talking peace
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / October 30, 2008
KARACHI - A two-day jirgagai, or mini-jirga (council) , involving politicians and tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan ended in Islamabad on Tuesday with the participants offering an olive branch to militants willing to lay down their arms, but the initiative does not extend to al-Qaeda.
This leaves open how the real players, the two foreign forces in the South Asian war theater - the United States and al-Qaeda - fit into this game of reconciliation.
Commenting on the key recommendations adopted at the talks, Owais Ahmed Ghani, who led the Pakistani delegation and who is also the governor of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), said that he and former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who headed his county's delegation, had been tasked with contacting the Taliban.
"Our responsibility is to set up a committee formed by jirgagai members. In addition, we will form contact groups of influential people to contact those groups involved in fighting and who are referred to as 'opposition' . That way we can talk to them about peace and reconciliation," Ghani said.
Abdullah added that contact would only be established with groups which recognized the Afghan and Pakistani constitutions.
"This committee will also make recommendations to the governments with a view to denying sanctuaries to terrorists and subversive elements in both countries," the declaration said.
Another jirgagai has been scheduled for Kabul within a few months to assess the progress of the recommendations.
This week's gathering was a follow-up to the larger joint peace jirga held last year in the Afghan capital of Kabul at which delegates from Pakistan and Afghanistan called for negotiations with Taliban militants to discuss ways of ending the insurgencies in both countries.
This ongoing jirga process, including the recent Saudi Arabia initiative for peace in Afghanistan, is part of a broader shift in US policy towards the Taliban under which at least some of them will be accepted as "good sons of the soil".
The Wall Street Journal, citing senior US administration officials, wrote this week, "Senior White House and military officials believe that engaging some levels of the Taliban - while excluding top leaders - could help reverse a pronounced downward spiral in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan."
The report said the new approach was contained in a draft recommendation in a classified White House assessment of US strategy in Afghanistan. Talks would be led by the Afghan government, "but with the active participation of the US".
It is noteworthy that a string of United Nations resolutions has labeled the Taliban as terrorists. A sticking point in the dialogue process could be the requirement that the participants lay down their arms.
Senator Allyas Bilour, a prominent leader of the Pakistani secular Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party, which governs the restive NWFP, expressed serious reservations. "Pashtuns never lay down their weapons. There is no precedence in history for such a demand to any Pashtun that he lay down his weapon," he said in a statement.
"During conflicts within Pashtun societies, the antagonized segment is part of the dialogue process and once all parties become part of the process, conflict automatically halts until the jirga reaches any consensus and the agreed upon consensus is binding for all. No Pashtun can deviate from the jirga's decision."
Similarly, a senior Taliban source told Asia Times Online that the move to initiate dialogue only with some militants was a problem. "Dozens of small and big Taliban have already joined the government. What was the result? Even a big commander like Mullah Abdul Salaam Rocketti joined the government, but what difference does it make? He cannot even go to Zabul, his native place [in Afghanistan] and he lives in Kabul under heavy security."
The Taliban source also commented that he was pleasantly surprised that the Western media, which have always downplayed Taliban activity, have suddenly started highlighting Taliban attacks in Afghanistan. "The media flash our point of view. This has never happened before," he said.
The peace initiative in Afghanistan is clearly in its beginning phase, at which point strict protocols are set, such as the demand to surrender weapons and to uphold the constitution. However, once the process proceeds and contacts are established with the militants and dialogue is initiated on a regular basis, backchannel discussions can remove such barriers.
A far bigger obstacle in the process of peace jirgas is to overcome the barrier that currently prevents the United States from sitting across the table from al-Qaeda.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan leader Hamid Karzai: Taliban trying to stop talks with attack
October 30, 2008 FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters stormed the Ministry of Culture in the heart of Kabul Thursday, killing five people in an attack the president said aimed at derailing the government's new effort to draw militants into a peace process and end a seven-year insurgency.
The fighters shot their way inside the building, where one of the militants blew himself up, a police guard wounded in the blast said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and gave a similar account.
‘‘Our enemies are trying to undermine the recent efforts by the government for a peaceful solution to end the violence,'' U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai said in a terse statement.
The attack came three days after senior Afghan and Pakistani officials decided at a meeting held in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, to reach out to the Taliban militants to propose talks on ending the insurgency. The meeting was part of a process initiated by President Bush and his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts in 2006.
The Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan said the two sides recently had contacts in Saudi Arabia. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the incoming head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, have both endorsed efforts.
Karzai's remarks suggested that elements of Taliban are seeking to sabotage the nascent efforts for reconciliation. But the attack is not likely to derail the overture because after years of unsuccessfully trying to repress the Taliban by force with the help of U.S. and NATO troops, the government has concluded talks are the only way out of the conflict. The Taliban has proved resilient, emerging with new force this year to challenge the government.
While the Taliban regularly use suicide attacks against Afghan and foreign forces around the country, they rarely strike in Kabul.
Amir Mohammad, a police guard who was wounded in Thursday's attack, said three assailants opened fire on police guards outside the Ministry of Information and Culture before entering its cavernous hall where one of them blew himself up.
‘‘There were three people. They were running. They opened fire on our guard first and then they entered'' the building, Mohammad told The Associated Press from his hospital bed in Kabul.
The force of the blast flung Mohammed onto the street, where he lay unconscious among shattered glass and pools of blood.
Five people were killed in the attack, including a policeman, three ministry employees and a civilian, the Interior Ministry said.
An additional 21 were wounded, said Abdul Fahim, the spokesman for the Health Ministry, which supervises the hospitals where the injured were taken.
The culture ministry was a pointed target. Before the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden, the regime banned art, secular music and television, vandalized the National Museum of Afghanistan and destroyed artwork or statues deemed idolatrous or anti-Muslim. Taliban fighters also blew up two giant statues of Buddha, cultural treasures that had graced the Silk Road town of Bamiyan for 1,500 years.
The ministry is in the center of the city, at a busy intersection lined with shops. One of the side walls of the building collapsed, while glass littered the roads nearby and office equipment was scattered over the area. The light-blue metal gates in the ministry entrance were twisted from being flung open. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said three militants stormed the building by throwing hand grenades at the guards at the main gate. A man named Naqibullah from the eastern Khost province carried out the suicide attack, Mujahid told the AP. The other two men fled, he said.
Abdul Rahim, a witness, said he first heard machine gun shots and saw a policeman lying on the ground and then saw the explosion that rocked the building.
Back to Top
Back to Top
India to set up telemedicine facility in Afghanistan
Xinhua / October 30, 2008
India has agreed to establish telemedicine facility in Afghanistan under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) inked in Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday, said a statement released by Afghan Public Health Ministry.
Afghan Minister for Public Health Syed Mohammad Amin Fatimi and Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad signed the MOU on behalf of their respective governments.
"The main purpose of this project is to provide complex technical know-how and expertise to the health care providers of Afghanistan from a distance by the Indian health professionals," the statement said.
An Indian enterprise, Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL), would be the sole executing agency for the implementation of the project, it said.
"We believe that the establishment of telemedicine facility by Indian government and transfer of knowledge, consultation and expertise from India to Afghanistan will not only enhance the capacity for health care service delivery but also bring a new technology and facility to Afghanistan," the statement quoted Afghan Health Minister as saying.
India has contributed more than 750 million U.S. dollars to Afghanistan since 2002 and major parts of the contribution has been invested in the fields of health, education and road building.
Back to Top
Back to Top
In the hands of Afghanistan' s Taliban, life is cheap
by Sharif Khoram – Thu Oct 30, 11:36 pm ET
WARDAK PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFP) – "We will behead him," threatens a 25-year-old, self-proclaimed Taliban, as day-long negotiations on the fate of a shopkeeper abducted five days ago reach a critical point.
Four worried-looking male relatives of captured Abdul Ahmad sit with their backs against the wall in a house of a low-level Taliban commander in a part of Wardak province where the militants are in control, not the government.
There is no way these humble men, who have arrived from the town of Ghazni just a few dozen kilometres (miles) away, can meet the ransom demand of 12 PK machine guns and ammunition or the equivalent in cash -- roughly 1.4 million Pakistani rupees (17,000 dollars), the preferred currency here.
One resignedly repeats an Afghan expression: "If a whole city costs one rupee and you don't have it, you can't buy it."
Hafiz, the young Taliban who wears a scarf wrapped into a turban, gets angry.
"We will kill him," he fumes, adding that the shopkeeper's head will be delivered the following day.
Again, the relatives explain that 35-year-old Ahmad is not with the government despite the documents found on him when he was pulled from a taxi travelling from Kabul to Ghazni.
The rebels are not worried about an English-language proposal to supply a Polish-run military reconstruction team with solar power -- they cannot read it. Ahmad was only delivering it for someone else anyway.
It is a Dari-language list of food items that the shopkeeper has been contracted to supply to the provincial police headquarters in Ghazni that they say proves he is works for the government.
The road on which he was captured -- which continues on to the southern city of Kandahar -- is one of the most dangerous in Afghanistan, where travellers are preyed on by Taliban and bandits, sometimes kidnapped, sometimes killed.
There is also a risk of bombings or shoot-outs between security forces and rebels. But it is a key artery and most Afghans have no choice except to take the chance.
Ahmad's relatives are by now sure they will be taking home a dead body.
"We will stay for the night but will not eat until our problem is solved," says one, hoping this affront to Afghan culture will influence the negotiation process.
Indeed it prompts the low-level commander in whose home they sit to call in a more senior Taliban, who arrives shortly and gives his name as Mullah Zabihullah from the southern province of Helmand.
Talks begin afresh, with the relatives taken outside one by one for private discussions.
Around midnight Ghulam Abbas, Ahmad's oldest brother, returns, his face relieved: an agreement has been reached.
"We will leave now and by first light we will return with our part of the arrangement," the 62-year-old says.
Mullah Zabihullah explains later that the agreed price was six machine guns and some ammunition -- which really means the equivalent in cash -- and "a promise he will not work with the government again".
It is still hours before dawn but the prisoner has to be fetched.
A group of armed men in a four-wheel-drive vehicle, seized from a supply convoys ambushed on the Kabul-Kandahar road, leave on a zig-zag route into some hills and a small village of mudbrick houses.
They walk into a small mosque and through to a room and inspect three men lying on mattresses. Ahmad had been kept here but has been moved.
They drive to a small house just minutes away. One is about to shoot open the door but is persuaded to wait until it is unlocked.
The men push their way in and head for a small room. There lies Ahmad, frightened and dishevelled, his legs in chains and three armed men keeping guard.
He is bewildered, unaware there had even been talks for his release, and he tries to please his captors with jokes, uncertain if he is really to be freed.
By daylight, the ransom has been paid and Ahmad has his hat, watch and a wad of documents returned.
Squeezed into a taxi with the relatives who saved his life, his beaten and tired face shows his relief at being able to return home.
In a vehicle nearby is another man, younger than the shopkeeper, weeping, calling to God, and fingering prayer beads as he sits between two Taliban -- another victim from the highway.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Garbage sustains Afghan 'ragpickers'
Jason Motlagh Washington Times October 29, 2008
LAHORE, Pakistan | Six-year-old Ali Reza Khan spots a half-eaten apple and steps toward it, darting when another boy makes his move. In one quick swoop, he picks it up, wipes it with a soiled sleeve and takes a bite.
It's 7:30 a.m. at the city garbage dump, and the hunt is on.
Several truckloads of refuse soon arrive, and Ali tosses aside the rind to join a frenzy of Afghan children who depend on the bounty hidden within each steaming mound to support themselves and their families.
Known locally as "ragpickers," most were born in Pakistan after their parents fled the violence and economic hardships that continue to worsen across the border.
Pakistan's own economy is on the brink as the government seeks an emergency infusion of cash from foreign donors, but the country remains home to 1.8 million Afghan refugees seven years after the overthrow of the Taliban.
Despite the filth on which these children tread, most insist they are better off mining trash for money than going home.
"I don't want to do this all my life, but right now I have no choice. There is no work in Afghanistan," said Naqibullah Ullah, 14, peering from beneath a red Dale Earnhardt sports cap.
By some estimates, Pakistan's large cities have as many as 25,000 ragpickers, perhaps 70 percent younger than 18. The vast majority are young Afghans like Naqibullah, who has plied the same waste patch along the Ravi River for five years.
Not long after he was born at a camp outside the southwest border town of Quetta, his family migrated to Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, in search of better prospects.
His father died of an illness three years ago, leaving him to look after his mother, two younger brothers and a sister who now accompany him on his daily rounds.
From dawn till dusk, 700 to 800 dump trucks rumble into the site spilling trash and belching smoke. The children typically spend six to eight hours a day scavenging on behalf of junk buyers, who pay 3 rupees, the equivalent of 4 cents, per pound for glass, 8 rupees for paper, and up to 10 rupees for polyethylene bags, the scraps of choice.
Naqibullah swears it's possible to earn nearly $5 in a 12-hour stretch if the pickings are prime and his legs hold out, though on average he earns about $1.25.
Although this involves sorting through shards of glass, rotten meat and hospital waste, the scavenging nets up to $40 a month, what some low-level laborers and domestic servants here earn.
At the end of the workday, Naqibullah and his siblings walk five minutes on foot to their squat -- a tarp enclosure inside the walls of a half-built brick compound. Outside, his mother, Fatima, serves a dinner of bread and lentils around a small fire. Mounds of old shoes and plastic bottles fill the yard.
Khalid Butt, an instructor at Government College in Lahore who has spent the past year researching the Afghan ragpickers, said they are "specialized in their job" since they are free to make their own hours and be among their own people, and still make enough to get by.
Working under a Pakistani employer is tough for refugees, he adds, because it usually requires someone to vouch for you, and can lead to situations in which people are trapped and forced to work more for less.
"As bad as it may seem, they have some ownership over their lives," Mr. Butt said. "And they appear generally OK doing it, meaning life in Afghanistan must have been pretty bad for them before."
The Afghan exodus dates to the war against Soviet occupation from 1978 to 1989, which caused more than 6 million refugees to flee to Pakistan and Iran. Thousands more left amid civil war in the early 1990s that ended when the Taliban took over and imposed an oppressive interpretation of Islamic law.
Others were displaced during the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the regime in late 2001. Many went back at the end of the war, but an escalating Taliban insurgency has since paralyzed much of Afghanistan, which has dropped to five places from the bottom in the latest U.N. development index.
Tens of thousands of refugees remain in more than 80 camps near the border, where the U.N. refugee agency provides basic education, health care and water sanitation. Yet fewer than half of the refugees from the overall population still live in these camps, said spokeswoman Vivian Tan, suggesting that many Afghans have "integrated quite well economically" as day laborers.
"They have found their way on their own," she said.
The Pakistani government had planned to repatriate all of its Afghan refugees by the end of next year. It now says it may revise the deadline in light of the deteriorating security situation, while the United Nations and both countries have agreed that the process must be "voluntary and gradual."
In the meantime, the Society for Human Rights and Prisoners Aid -- a Pakistan-based human rights agency -- is lobbying the government to affirm the legal rights of Afghan refugees, who at times are subject to harassment from police and territorial locals.
The organization has arranged legal representation for some Afghans, and the head of Lahore's waste-management department recently affirmed their right to work, said Qaiser Siddiqui, a program officer.
These developments may come as some relief to Khodadad Khan, Ali Reza's father, who left the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif five years ago. Word had traveled through the emigre pipeline that trash collectors in Pakistan were paid almost twice as much as in Afghanistan, a rumor that proved true.
He has since gone back three times to visit his extended family. Although he's "bothered" by the labor he and his children do, he says the alternatives are worse at home. So he will stay as long as he can.
Naqibullah has yet to make the trip but hopes to, "Inshallah [God willing]."
"We still love our country with our whole hearts," he said, "even though we've never seen it."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Deafness reported in returning troops
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Intense noise level in Afghanistan' s war zone has caused severe or permanent hearing damage among hundreds of British troops, The Times of London has learned.
The problem has become one of the unpublicized accounts of British military campaign in Afghanistan, reports The Times, adding it draws comparison with those suffered in the two world wars and the Korean War.
The newspaper, which obtained its data through Freedom of Information Act requests to the Ministry of Defense, said it learned about 1-in-10 soldiers with a British regiment in Afghanistan suffers from hearing problems. It said the impairment would bar the soldier from front-line duties and may affect chances for civilian employment.
Some of those who served in Iraq during the 2004 and 2005 campaign against Shiite militants also returned home with hearing damage but what make the Afghan campaign more severe are the roadside bombs, fierce close-combat clashes with the Taliban and the 500-pound bombs dropped by coalition planes, the report said.
The Royal British Legion in the past three years dealt with 1,195 hearing loss claims against the British defense ministry, the report said.
The defense ministry was quoted as saying noise-induced hearing loss is a serious risk, but that earplugs and ear defenders has been issued to all troops. But their usage is not strictly enforced, the report said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
AFGHANISTAN: THREE-NATION ART SHOW OPENS IN KABUL
Aunohita Mojumdar 10/31/08 EURASIA INSIGHT
It is not often a painting arrives at an exhibition with the extra protection of war and terrorism insurance. But that is exactly what Jemima Montagu, the director of culture and heritage at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation (TMF), had to obtain when she planned an international art exhibition in Kabul, bringing together contemporary artists from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The show -- titled Living Traditions, and containing 50 pieces by 15 artists from the three countries -- opened October 11 in the restored Babur Gardens of the eponymous Mughal Dynasty founder.
The exhibition, organised by TMF, a charity working to preserve Afghanistan's traditional crafts, is going forward against the odds. It is scheduled to run through November 20. There were perhaps more reasons not to hold the show than to hold it. At the opening, a bomb scare saw several of the elite visitors depart hastily. Two paintings missed the opening due to transit delays, and few artists were willing to participate in an exhibition in Kabul, a city where there is as yet no sophisticated constituency for art and no PR points for those wishing to further their careers. Artists "thought if they sent their work, they would never see it again," recalled Montagu.
If it was difficult to get people to contribute their work, it was even more difficult to get them to participate in person. Why Kabul? Why now? How was it possible to ensure an exhibition of international quality with all its exacting standards? In the end, the answer to all those doubts and questions had to be answered with the single simple question: 'Why not?'
"The three countries [represented in the show] share a strong bond, particularly in art and in the way Islamic calligraphy and painting evolved," said Montagu. "These traditions can and need to be adapted if they are to survive."
Of the 15 artists who contributed their work, five were present at the opening. Among those in attendance was a young Pakistani couple, Muhammed Imran Qureshi and Aisha Khalid. A professor at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Qureshi saw participation as an act of faith. "It was exciting and scary at the same time. It is important for the people of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan to have this connection," he said, speaking as he worked to help his wife finish her installation the day before the opening. Both were well aware that they had to complete the job before dusk since -- like most of Kabul -- the exhibition grounds would have no electricity. "Things may be primitive here after the impact of years of war. But they will not remain the same. We cannot control things, but we can make efforts to change it," he said.
Both Qureshi and his wife had their sanity questioned by their friends and family who perceive Kabul as a very dangerous place. For Khalid the decision to come was impelled by her desire to challenge western stereotypes of women from this region. Khalid's exhibits center around the theme of the 'burkha,' whether it is a graphical pattern of the ruffle of the hem or how it outlines the shape of a woman. "I want to question the stereotype that goes with the image of a burkha. If the Taliban were imposing their values, so is the West," she said.
For Iranian Khosrow Hassanzadeh, this visit was the first step in what he hopes will be a continuing regional collaboration. Hassanzadeh, who has shown his work in many western capitals, said "this is more important than showing in New York. We have a shared tradition and it is important for people here to get an idea about their own rich culture."
Most of the artists were conscious that their cross-cultural exchange countered existing political tension among the three countries. "We need to look at each other rather than have outsiders look at us," said Hassanzadeh. Qureshi, meanwhile, stressed how his own perceptions about Afghanistan had been changed by the visit.
Zolaykha Sherzad, an Afghan designer who has been interpreting traditional Afghan design in contemporary form, saw immediate similarities in the works coming from across borders: the use of calligraphy, the use of certain colours, the use of gold were present in many of the art works in the exhibition, she said. Sherzad, who divides her time between New York and Kabul, said this exhibition was a way to find common ground in the midst of conflict.
Despite the attendance of Kabul's elite, largely foreigners, at the opening, Montagu made it clear this was not the target audience. "This is not a project for expatriates. There is no existing audience for arts and culture here. You have to create it," the former Tate curator told Afghans in attendance. The exhibition's most important audience will be the 3,000-4,000 school children who will attend guided tours explaining the relevance and context of the artwork, Montagu suggested.
The past three decades of conflict in Afghanistan have caused the slow and steady decimation of art in the country. Survival, displacement and violence all took their toll. Long before the Taliban's deliberate destruction of works depicting living forms, art had become a luxury that virtually all Afghans could not bother to contemplate. Post-2001 artists are back at work, but the extended, enforced hiatus has skewed Afghanistan's art environment. Much of what is being produced now is tourist kitsch. Showing contemporary art in this milieu created perhaps even more of a challenge for organizers than the security constraints imposed by international curators.
Ahead are more challenges. Montagu hopes she can take the exhibition to both Pakistan and Iran, but is not quite sure. "It is hard to raise funds for culture anywhere, but especially here, where there is often a feeling that any money spent on culture is money taken away from hospitals." Qureshi, who gave a lecture at Kabul University's faculty of fine arts, expressed his strong conviction about the relevance of this exhibition. "This kind of opportunity is historical. We will feel the value of it later."
Qureshi's special moment in the exhibition came from one of the Babur Gardens' caretakers. "He saw me doing the floor paintings and said, 'The other art pieces can be sold. But what you painted on the floor is really just for us.'"
Editor's Note: Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian freelance journalist based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for the past 18 years.
Back to Top
Back to Top
AFGHANISTAN: OPINION SURVEY REVEALS INCREASING WORRY AMONG AFGHANS
Aunohita Mojumdar 10/29/08 Eurasianet
The lack of security outranks poor economic conditions as the population's top worry in Afghanistan, according to a newly released public opinion survey. While support for the country's reconstruction process has declined over the past two years, a plurality still believes the country is moving in the right direction.
The opinion survey, prepared by the Asia Foundation and released October 28, represents one of the largest efforts to gauge the mood of Afghans. When compared with Asia Foundation polls in previous years, the 2008 results indicate that Afghans are experiencing a steady decline of hope for a better future, and they are growing increasingly disenchanted with the government's performance. At the same time, the 2008 survey shows that public acceptance of the presence of foreign troops on Afghan soil remains steady, as does approval of international assistance efforts.
According to the survey, the percentage of the population that feels the country is moving in the right direction dropped from 44 percent in 2006 to 38 percent in 2008, while the number saying the country is going in the wrong direction increased from 21 percent in 2006 to 32 percent this year.
In 2006, economic worries topped the list of concerns for Afghans, but over the last two years security worries have surged ahead. Nationally, 36 percent of respondents in the 2008 survey identified security as the biggest problem, followed by 31 percent who cited unemployment as their main concern. A breakdown of responses by region showed that insecure feelings are spreading across Afghanistan, and are no longer limited to the traditional hotbeds of Islamic militant activity in southern and eastern sections of the country. Even relatively stable areas in the North registered a drop in confidence.
The survey also indicates that the perception of insecurity is more widespread than actual incidents of violence. In addition, the results seem to dispel the notion that Islamic insurgents are the most widespread cause of insecurity. Just over 1 percent of the Afghan population reported they had experienced violence at the hands of insurgents or militants. In a worrying trend, 1 percent of Afghans said they had suffered violence at the hands of the foreign forces, drawing attention once again to the dangers associated with the growing number of civilian casualties connected with US and NATO military operations. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
In the southwest region -- which in the survey covers the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Nimroz and Zabul, where the bulk of radical Islamic insurgent activity occurs -- 16 percent reported suffering from insurgent-related violence; 12 percent in those provinces suffered violence connected to actions by foreign forces.
In a deeply worrying trend, despite the expenditure of $25 billion in aid over the past seven years, and the promise of $21 billion more in additional assistance pledged during the Paris summit in June this year, there is now little difference in the number of people who feel their economic situation is better today than it was under the Taliban (39 percent) and those who feel they were better off during the Taliban era (36 percent).
The survey identifies unemployment as a "major problem." More than three-fourths said the availability of jobs in their area was very low and "a significant proportion of respondents expect the availability of jobs to be even lower in the coming year."
In analysing the biggest problems facing their country, Afghans surprisingly did not cite the lack of foreign assistance as a major issue, even though 30 percent identified the poor economy, poverty, unemployment and corruption as the biggest problems they face.
Corruption was seen as a major problem at the national level (76 percent), with as many as 51 percent terming it a major problem in their daily lives. Over half the respondents felt corruption had increased at the national level over the past 12 months, while a quarter felt it had increased in their daily lives. While a majority felt the government had done a good job, the number of those dissatisfied with the government increased by 13 percent.
In evaluating public services, Afghans positively rated their access to education and health care. Unemployment was cited as the biggest local problem followed by lack of electricity and water.
On the matter of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the results were mixed. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. An overwhelming majority, 82 percent, considered it wrong to cultivate poppy. But in some of the country's leading poppy-producing regions in the Southeast and East, opposition to poppy cultivation is eroding. In southeastern Afghanistan, for example, the percentage opposing poppy cultivation slipped from 85 percent in 2006 to 77 percent this year.
The revelation that fewer people believe that participation in the electoral process will bring future benefits is a worrying trend, as the country prepares to hold presidential and parliamentary elections over the next two years. Confidence in the electoral process dropped from 75 percent in 2006 to 65 percent in 2008; the number of people who were likely to vote dropped by 9 percent over last year.
Satisfaction with the democratization process in Afghanistan dropped from 73 percent last year to 68 percent in 2008, with dissatisfaction rates highest in the insurgency-prone areas of the South and the East. On the positive side, the number of Afghans who felt democracy was a challenge to Islam dropped slightly, from 29 percent to 26 percent.
Editor's Note: Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian freelance journalist based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for the past 18 years.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Mint oil, melons: Afghan farm fairs spur business
By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press / October 29, 2008
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) — Nadir Bahktar's stall at a northern Afghanistan agriculture fair had the faint smell of Christmas.
Before him sat an array of tiny $2 bottles filled with pure mint oil, a pungent liquid that smelled like concentrated candy canes and was strong enough to bring tears to the eyes. The concoction was advertised as a cure for aching joints.
"No, you don't drink it," he scolded a customer with a wag of the finger before making a rubbing motion over his knees.
Bahktar and his mint oil joined honey producers, melon growers and carpet weavers on Wednesday at the seventh and final U.S.-funded agricultural fair of the year, outdoor forums to help farmers and exporters meet up and sign business deals.
Bahktar has attended several of the fairs in order to advertise his mint oil and mint-flavored drinking water. "Business is good but we're trying to improve it even more," he said at his fair booth Wednesday.
An agriculture fair in Kabul last year attracted 160,000 people. But this year the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. government aid arm that sponsors the fairs, pulled back the size of the event. Still, 50,000 people showed up to look at the 200 booths. Some 60 overseas buyers attended.
The U.S. and Afghan governments are eager to encourage farmers to grow legal crops as opposed to opium. Afghanistan grows 90 percent of the world's supply of the plant, which is the main ingredient in heroin.
That drug trade fuels an increasingly violent militancy in the country: U.N. officials say the Taliban derives $100 million a year from it.
Loren Stoddard, director of the alternative development and agriculture office for USAID, said the fairs also help farmers in the war-torn country who have missed out on years of farming advancements.
Farmers and buyers have signed more than $10 million worth of contracts during 14 fairs the last two years, he said. The U.S. has spent about $1 million hosting the events.
"In the United States we have the yellow pages. If you want to buy some irrigation equipment, you open up the Yellow Pages," Stoddard said. "That doesn't exist here. Ag fairs are a way for everyone to see who sells irrigation equipment."
Buyers from regional markets, like India, attend the fairs in hopes of importing Afghanistan' s produce. The country grows gleaming red pomegranates and juicy grapes, but its road system makes getting produce to market quickly difficult, and it has few storage facilities.
USAID is helping teach farmers new techniques. James Kunder, the acting deputy assistant administrator for USAID who was visiting Afghanistan this week, said Wednesday that a farmer he spoke with at the fair told him his old melon exports to India suffered a 30 percent spoilage rate during transportation.
After USAID helped provide him with packaging for his produce, the farmer's spoilage rate dropped to 5 percent.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan Needs `Berlin Airlift' to Avoid Famine, RUSI Says
By Ed Johnson
Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan needs urgent international aid, akin to the Berlin airlift 60 years ago, to stave off the threat of famine that could see villagers turn against the government, a London-based defense institute said today.
An estimated 8.4 million Afghans, a quarter of the population, don't have enough to eat because of drought and rising food prices and will depend on emergency supplies to survive this winter, the Royal United Services Institute said.
Famine poses a greater threat to the country than the spiraling Taliban insurgency and the international community must ``mount an intensive air operation to deliver life-saving aid,'' RUSI analyst Paul Smyth said in a briefing note.
The U.S-led airlift beginning in 1948 delivered more than 2.3 million metric tons of food, fuel and medicine to West Berlin to circumvent a Soviet blockade. Planes landed every three minutes in the effort that lasted 462 days. While the aid operation to Afghanistan would be smaller, it would be ``strategically significant' ' and help prevent local frustration and anger against the government and NATO-led forces, the institute said.
Food shortages are compounding the problems facing President Hamid Karzai's government, which is battling Taliban fighters mainly in the south and east of the country.
The United Nations and the government in Kabul appealed in July for $400 million to assist vulnerable Afghans in the nation of almost 33 million people.
`Eating Grass'
``Reports already indicate that Afghans are migrating in search of food, some are eating grass and a tiny number have died of starvation,' ' RUSI said. ``Afghanistan may be on the brink of a calamity which has the potential to undermine much of the progress which has been achieved there.''
Insurgent attacks on aid convoys compound the food shortages, RUSI said. ``Help must come from farther afield, swiftly, and to any part of the country,'' it said. ``An airlift meets these demands.''
The country needs 25,000 metric tons of supplies before winter and another 70,000 tons before February 2009, RUSI said, citing the World Food Programme.
Airlifting such a quantity of aid ``should be well within the international community's military capacity, if it has the will,'' RUSI said.
The WFP estimates that 24.9 million people in Afghanistan live below the poverty line. A risk assessment in 2005 found that 6.6 million Afghans don't meet their minimum food requirements, a problem compounded by drought this year in the south, east and southwest of the nation, according to the UN agency.
The country faces a cereal shortfall of 2 million metric tons and the WFP says it intends to send food assistance to about 1.8 million people each month until next year's harvest.
The insurgency by supporters of the Taliban regime ousted in 2001 is worsening the humanitarian situation and making the delivery of aid difficult, according to the UN.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net .
Back to Top
Back to Top
The next president and the 'war on terror
By Andrew J Bacevich Nov 1, 2008 Asia Times Online, Hong Kong
A week ago, I had a long conversation with a four-star US military officer who, until his recent retirement, had played a central role in directing the global war on terror. I asked him: what exactly is the strategy that guides the George W Bush administration' s conduct of this war?
His dismaying, if not exactly surprising, answer: there is none.
Bush will bequeath to his successor the ultimate self-licking ice cream cone. To defense contractors, lobbyists, think-tankers, ambitious military officers, the hosts of Sunday morning talk shows, and the Douglas Feith-like creatures who maneuver to become players in the ultimate power game, the "war on terror" is a boon, an enterprise redolent with opportunity and promising to extend decades into the future.
Yet, to a considerable extent, that very enterprise has become a fiction, a gimmicky phrase employed to lend an appearance of cohesion to a panoply of activities that, in reality, are contradictory, counterproductive, or at the very least beside the point. In this sense, the global war on terror relates to terrorism precisely as the war on drugs relates to drug abuse and dependence: declaring a state of permanent "war" sustains the pretense of actually dealing with a serious problem, even as policymakers pay lip-service to the problem's actual sources. The war on drugs is a very expensive fraud. So, too, is the "war on terror".
Anyone intent on identifying some unifying idea that explains US actions, military and otherwise, across the Greater Middle East is in for a disappointment. During World War II, president Franklin D Roosevelt laid down "Germany first" and then "unconditional surrender" as core principles. Early in the Cold War, the Harry S Truman administration devised the concept of containment, which for decades thereafter provided a conceptual framework to which policymakers adhered. Yet seven years into its "war on terror", the Bush administration is without a compass, wandering in the arid wilderness. To the extent that any inkling of a strategy once existed - the preposterous neo-conservative vision of employing American power to "transform" the Islamic world - events have long since demolished the assumptions on which it was based.
Rather than one single war, the United States is presently engaged in several.
Ranking first in importance is the war for Bush's legacy, better known as Iraq. The president himself will never back away from his insistence that here lies the "central front" of the conflict he initiated after 9/11. Hunkered down in their bunker, Bush and his few remaining supporters would have us believe that the "surge" has, at long last, brought victory in sight and with it some prospect of redeeming this otherwise misbegotten and mismanaged endeavor. If the president can leave office spouting assurances that light is finally visible somewhere at the far end of a very long, very dark Mesopotamian tunnel, he will claim at least partial vindication. And if actual developments subsequent to January 20 don't turn out well, he can always blame the outcome on his successor.
Next comes the "orphan war". This is Afghanistan, a conflict now in its eighth year with no signs of ending anytime soon. Given the attention lavished on Iraq, developments in Afghanistan have until recently attracted only intermittent notice. Lately, however, US officials have awakened to the fact that things are going poorly, both politically and militarily. Al-Qaeda persists. The Taliban is reasserting itself. Expectations that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) might ride to the rescue have proven illusory. Apart from enabling Afghanistan to reclaim its status as the world's number one producer of opium, US efforts to pacify that nation and nudge it toward modernity have produced little.
The Pentagon calls its intervention in Afghanistan Operation Enduring Freedom. The emphasis was supposed to be on the noun. Unfortunately, the adjective conveys the campaign's defining characteristic: "enduring" as in endless. Barring a radical re-definition of purpose, this is an enterprise which promises to continue, consuming lives and treasure, for a long, long time.
In neighboring Pakistan, meanwhile, there is the war-hidden-in- plain-sight. Reports of US military action in Pakistan have now become everyday fare. Air strikes, typically launched from missile-carrying drones, are commonplace, and US ground forces have also conducted at least one cross-border raid from inside Afghanistan. Although the White House doesn't call this a war, it is - a gradually escalating war of attrition in which we are killing both terrorists and noncombatants. Unfortunately, we are killing too few of the former to make a difference and more than enough of the latter to facilitate the recruitment of new terrorists to replace those we eliminate.
Finally - skipping past the wars-in-waiting, which are Syria and Iran - there is Condoleezza Rice's war. This clash, which does not directly involve US forces, may actually be the most important of all. The war that the US secretary of state has made her own is the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Having for years dismissed the insistence of Muslims, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, that the plight of the Palestinians constitutes a problem of paramount importance, Rice now embraces that view. With the fervor of a convert, she has vowed to broker an end to that conflict prior to leaving office in January 2009.
Given that Rice brings little - perhaps nothing - to the effort in the way of fresh ideas, her prospects of making good as a peacemaker appear slight. Yet, as with Bush and Iraq, so too with Rice and the Palestinian problem: she has a lot riding on the effort. If she flops, history will remember her as America's least effective secretary of state since Cordell Hull spent World War II being ignored, bypassed, and humiliated by Franklin Roosevelt. She will depart Foggy Bottom having accomplished nothing.
There's nothing inherently wrong in fighting simultaneously on several fronts, as long as actions on front A are compatible with those on front B, and together contribute to overall success. Unfortunately, that is not the case with the "war on terror". We have instead an illustration of what Winston Churchill once referred to as a pudding without a theme: a war devoid of strategic purpose.
This absence of cohesion - by now a hallmark of the Bush administration - is both a disaster and an opportunity. It is a disaster in the sense that we have, over the past seven years, expended enormous resources, while gaining precious little in return.
Bush's supporters beg to differ, of course. They credit the president with having averted a recurrence of 9/11, doubtless a commendable achievement but one primarily attributable to the fact that the United States no longer neglects airport security. To argue that, say, the invasion and occupation of Iraq have prevented terrorist attacks against the United States is the equivalent of contending that Israel's occupation of the West Bank since in 1967 has prevented terrorist attacks against the state of Israel.
Yet the existing strategic vacuum is also an opportunity. When it comes to national security at least, the agenda of the next administration all but sets itself. There is no need to waste time arguing about which issues demand priority action.
First-order questions are begging for attention. How should we gauge the threat? What are the principles that should inform our response? What forms of power are most relevant to implementing that response? Are the means at hand adequate to the task? If not, how should national priorities be adjusted to provide the means required? Given the challenges ahead, how should the government organize itself? Who - both agencies and individuals - will lead?
To each and every one of these questions, the Bush administration devised answers that turned out to be dead wrong. The next administration needs to do better. The place to begin is with the candid recognition that the "war on terror" has effectively ceased to exist. When it comes to national security strategy, we need to start over from scratch.
Andrew J Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University. His bestselling new book is The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (The American Empire Project, Metropolitan Books).
Back to Top
Back to Top
Progress in Afghanistan hindered by corruption, diversity, researcher says
By: Michael Vernor Arkansas State University Herald - Oct 30 2:53 PM
Progress in Afghanistan is being hampered by a diverse, sometimes incompatible, ethnic population and the intervention of too many outside governments, Dr. Pamela Hunte, an anthropologist and experienced Afghanistan researcher and scholar, said during her Monday night lecture,
Afghanistan is a Central Asian nation, which shares borders with six other countries, and is often known as the "Crossroads of Asia," Hunte said. The population, as a result, is made up of ethnicities from many surrounding groups.
Hunte said this diversity often leads to political problems at the local level ranging from language barriers to clashing cultural traditions to rivaling tribal interests.
"At the international level," she said, "you have many countries working there, rivalries between those countries, people not working in together, no solid policy direction … a lack of coordination in almost every sector."
As an anthropologist, Hunte said an understanding of history is often necessary to understand the issues of the present.
She talked about the invasion by the Soviet Union in 1978 and its subsequent 10-year occupation and how their goals for the development of education, industry and health in Afghanistan were very similar to those the West has set today.
"Going back in history … you have a lot of invasions over the centuries," Hunte said. "This has caused the people in this country to become very xenophobic. They're really afraid of foreigners and what their purposes are and why they are there."
Other problems facing Afghanistan today include a large amount of corruption, warlords and drugs among not only the Afghanis but also the foreigners to one degree or another. Also, the resurgence of the Taliban since 2006 and the intertwining of the Taliban and Al Qaeda have also contributed to the "downward spiral" of Afghanistan.
Despite these problems, Hunte said the people of Afghanistan are often eager to participate in education, an area she concentrates on for her work with the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, AREU.
Since the overthrow of the Taliban- controlled government shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, many refugees have returned to the country with a desire to seek education, rather than go back to farming.
"Many new schools have been built and are being built," Hunte said. "Now they have more than 6 million kids enrolled in school … the quality is something else though."
Hunte said many areas have far too many students for the amount of teachers available, and the teachers are often not sufficiently qualified.
Despite both presidential candidates' calls for more troops in Afghanistan, Hunte said diplomacy will be needed in the future because the country's issues are too numerous and deeply seeded to be solved militarily.
She said, unfortunately, the people might not think or believe that things can be fixed anymore.
"I think that up until 2006 the people really had hope," Hunte said. "But with the return of the Taliban and suicide bombings and the civil unrest, you have a lot of people feeling that their hope that things will get better is fading."
Hunte is a cultural anthropologist whose work with the Peace Corps first brought her to Afghanistan in 1969 as an English teacher. Over the years, she has researched many of the country's social issues such as family structure, education and child labor throughout Central and South Asia.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Canada's PM 'concerned' about fate of Afghan journalist
Thu Oct 30, 3:49 pm ET
OTTAWA (AFP) – Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday said he is concerned by a 20-year prison sentence against a young Afghan reporter for blasphemy.
"This is a case of some concern to us and it has been raised with the government of Afghanistan at the highest levels," Harper said.
But, he added, politicians in Afghanistan have no more control over their judiciary than leaders of Western countries.
"We'll continue to express our concerns and, obviously, there remain further levels of appeal in this particular case.
"So we hope that some of these decisions will be changed. But, you know, the political actors in Afghanistan don't necessarily have any more control over that than I would in our country," Harper said.
A Kabul appeals court last week upheld the conviction of Perwiz Kambakhsh, 24, who has spent a year in prison on charges of "insulting Islam," but reduced his sentence from the death penalty.
Reporters Without Borders, an international media rights watchdog, said it was outraged by the court's decision and called it "shameful."
Kambakhsh was not given a lawyer at his first trial in the northern province of Balkh in January at which he was sentenced to death after a hearing that lasted minutes.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan security forces highly motivated to take care of their war dead
By Tobi Cohen, The Canadian Press Thu Oct 30, 4:12 PM
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Dressed in green army fatigues, assault rifles slung across their chests, a group of Afghan National Army soldiers march slightly out of step onto the tarmac at Kandahar Airfield.
Several commanders hurriedly corral the young men into a sort of guard of honour in front of an old Russian Antonov-32 propeller plane while an ambulance pulls up before them.
The back doors fling open as a dozen or more officers jostle to help remove the flag-draped coffin of Lt.-Col. Abdullah Hazim.
After his body is lifted onto the plane, everyone squats on the blazing hot asphalt while a cross-legged young soldier with a melodic voice offers a prayer.
The 205 Corps' religious leader was killed a day earlier when his convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber while returning to Camp Hero - the ANA base next door to Kandahar Airfield where most of Canada's 2,500 troops are based. Four other soldiers were wounded.
Ramp ceremonies are reserved for Afghan army officers - unlike the Canadian Forces who hold a similar final farewell for every fallen soldier.
Eighty per cent of friendly forces deaths involve the Afghan National Security Force - including both the army and police.
The war-torn country lost 925 police officers last year, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry. Canada has lost 97 soldiers and one civilian since the mission to Afghanistan began in 2002.
U.S. Air Force Lt.-Col. Edward Fieg leads a team of 15 medical mentors who are helping run the Afghan army hospital at Camp Hero. He's seen hundreds of dead and dying Afghan police and military personnel as well as many civilians.
He said one thing his Afghan counterparts need little help with is the handling of their dead, in contrast to the lack of any "sense of urgency" in the general war effort.
"They're so good at taking care of deceased bodies, it's the single most efficient thing they do," he said.
"It's kind of a paradox that they are extremely motivated and energized to take care of their deceased and do so promptly and efficiently - including calling people in the middle of the night, getting airplanes and ambulances to move bodies and do all the things in accordance with Islamic tradition."
That, despite the fact their morgue consists of two dark, dingy and unairconditioned sea containers behind the army hospital.
Maj. Majeed Kherkhwa is responsible for looking after the bodies of soldiers killed in action. In four months over the spring and summer, the hospital handled 87 "martyrs."
Some 20 of the 35 bodies Kherkhwa prepared for burial in the last two years came in over the summer. He attributes the recent spike in casualties to the fact Afghan forces are taking a leading role in operations.
Insurgents are also better equipped, and a lack of armoured vehicles leaves Afghan troops more vulnerable to roadside bombs, he said.
The Role 3 multinational hospital at Kandahar Airfield actually treats many more Afghans than coalition soldiers, and many die there.
On one occasion, two patients were rushed there from the Afghan army hospital with massive head and chest wounds after two suicide bombers blew themselves up inside police headquarters in Kandahar City.
One of them, a civilian, would likely lose his arm but a CAT-scan indicated the patient could be saved. But little could be done for the police officer lying on a gurney in the trauma bay, blood pouring out of his head.
An Afghan interpreter was saying prayers as the policeman took his final breaths. Canadian Forces nurse Maj. Andrea Schmaltz gently held his hand, administered morphine for pain and wiped the bloody saliva from his mouth.
Canadian padre Jim Short stayed to keep her company.
"He's a fighter," Short said.
"All of them are," Schmaltz replied.
When he finally died, the customary practice was for his washed body to be wrapped in thin white cloth and place in a simple wooden coffin sprayed with perfume and draped with an Afghan flag. The coffin would be pointed toward Mecca.
"We try to recognize every death in this facility," said Maj. William Patton, the Canadian Forces physician in charge of Role 3.
It was his crew, part of the fifth rotation of troops in Afghanistan, who initiated this Role 3 ritual for Afghans as a "mark of respect." He said it has thus far been well received by ANSF brass and Afghan religious leaders.
The process is a little different for foreign troops. The task of handling Canada's war dead in Afghanistan falls to the military police.
Capt. John Kirschner of the Canadian Forces National Investigative Service said the job is "a natural extension" of the duties of his four-man unit which normally investigates major crimes.
"Obviously we collect physical evidence as well from those remains to support the investigation so again, that's that extension," he said.
"There's a lot of dignity and respect and pride in actually being involved in this... It's a proper send off."
When word of a serious incident comes in, an MP is sent to confirm identity, he said.
The deceased is moved to the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency mortuary building, tucked in a corner between the flight line and hospital.
Operated by a company called Copenhagen Contractors, the modern facility replaces the army tent that served as the base's morgue until last spring.
Inside an armoured room, metal detectors scan the bodies for munitions before they're moved inside. Stainless steel rollers are available for processing multiple casualties.
For Canadians, identity is confirmed through photographs, but fingerprints, dental records or DNA might be needed.
The padre is called in to administer last rites, while the Role 3 doctor determines the probable cause of death so a Canadian death certificate may be issued. Photographs are taken throughout the process.
When the body returns to Canada, the Ontario coroner confirms cause of death after an autopsy, Kirschner said.
"We attempt to maintain the integrity of how the uniform was: if a helmet was on a soldier, that helmet will stay on the soldier and that's all used as part of that forensic analysis by the coroner's office," he said.
A few hours before the ramp ceremony, the camp sergeant major arrives to take the remains to the chapel.
"We don't attempt ramp ceremonies," Kirschner said.
"Our investigators went there but felt it to be a little overwhelming considering what we did in advance of the ramp ceremony. So we tend to finish off where we drape the flag and leave our soldiers where they depart from the building."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Now more than ever, Britain needs a plan for Afghanistan
Telegraph.co. uk, United Kingdom By Con Coughlin 31/10/2008
One minute we are being told we must send more troops to Afghanistan if we are to stand any chance of securing victory; the next that the only option is to sit down and talk to the Taliban.
All the while, as our politicians and military commanders argue over how best to win the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban quietly, but effectively, get on with their deadly insurgency campaign to sap our resolve.
The Taliban might be a shadow of the military force it was when British troops first deployed to southern Afghanistan in the spring of 2006, but they nevertheless retain the ability to undermine the international campaign to restore the country to something approaching normality following three decades of incessant conflict.
The murder of Gayle Williams, the British aid worker who had devoted her life to helping children who had lost their limbs to landmines or bombs, was part of the Taliban's insidious strategy to force the thousands of Westerners currently working on various reconstruction projects to pack up and go home.
The same tactic was used to devastating effect in Iraq, where groups of well-organised insurgents put back the country's postwar reconstruction by several years with a series of high-profile attacks on Western contractors, which quickly resulted in them either fleeing the country or seeking sanctuary within the safety of Baghdad's green zone.
Three years ago, I visited Kabul shortly before British forces were deployed. It was possible to walk around the city centre, buy carpets in bazaars and eat out at local restaurants. Today, you take your life in your hands the moment you leave the fortified enclaves where most Western workers are based (central Kabul is looking more like Baghdad's green zone with every passing day) so deadly is the threat posed by the Taliban and their supporters.
But while the Taliban have demonstrated an impressive ability to adjust their tactics to suit their diminished military capability, those responsible for prosecuting the West's military operation seem to be hopelessly divided over how best to achieve their goal of providing Afghanistan' s long-suffering civilian population with the security and stability they crave.
In the course of the past week alone, we have received a succession of dire warnings. First General Sir Michael Rose, the former Special Forces commander just returned from a tour of southern Afghanistan, said that the British mission is doomed to failure unless it receives urgently needed reinforcements. The following day it was revealed that the Americans are seriously considering sitting down and negotiating with the Taliban to end the fighting. Meanwhile, John Hutton, the new Defence Secretary, rebutted the defeatist attitude emanating from the front line in the war on terror, insisting that British forces will ultimately prevail.
But the fact that such differing opinions are now being aired on a regular basis suggests that, two and a half years into Britain's current deployment to southern Afghanistan, no one is any the wiser as to what our overall strategy is for achieving success.
The absence of such a clear-cut approach has been the Achilles' heel of Britain's involvement since the Government led everyone to understand that British forces were being deployed to support reconstruction projects and eradicate the poppy crop - which accounts for 90 per cent of the heroin sold on Britain's streets - rather than going eyeball to eyeball with the Taliban. There are still those in Whitehall - particularly at the Department for International Development - who believe that the main purpose of the British mission should be reconstruction, rather than confrontation.
But as Mr Hutton pointed out shortly after his appointment, the priority must be to deal with the insurgency, which, so long as it is allowed to continue, has the capability to undermine all other efforts to restore the country to normality. "If the Taliban turn up a month later," he said, "and bulldoze the school you've built, then you're back to square one." Quite.
Nor does Mr Hutton appear to suffer from the intellectual confusion that has afflicted some of his predecessors about the precise nature of Britain's commitment to Afghanistan. "It's first and foremost about UK national security," he said. "If Afghanistan becomes a state where terrorists can roam freely, that terror will be exported to our own doorsteps."
Given the confused signals that the Government has given out in the past to justify the deployment of British forces to Afghanistan, it is to be hoped that Mr Hutton's plain-speaking translates into a mission statement that will define the objectives of not just British forces, but all the other coalition troops currently deployed.
While British commanders have been satisfied by their tactical success in defeating the Taliban as a military force, they have been frustrated by what they regard as an absence of government strategy about how best to achieve the overall objectives.
Mr Hutton, whose personal interest in the subject led him to write a book on military history, may be the man to provide it - so long as he steers clear of his other great enthusiasm, the creation of a Euro-army.
We already have a Euro-army, in the form of Nato: the vast majority of the 53,000 Nato troops based in Afghanistan are drawn from Europe. But the trouble with European armies is that, with a few notable exceptions such as the Danes, Dutch and British, they don't want to fight. And that is one strategy that is sure to fail against a determined and resourceful foe such as the Taliban.
Back to Top
Back to Top
McCain and Obama Advisers Briefed on Deteriorating Afghan War
New York Times, United States By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT October 30, 2008
WASHINGTON-Afghans in the Korengal Valley, who have ties to the Taliban, met Thursday with American and Afghan military officials.
Two weeks ago, senior Bush administration officials gathered in secret with Afghanistan experts from NATO and the United Nations at an exclusive Washington club a few blocks from the White House. The group was there to deliver a grim message: the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse.
Their audience: advisers from the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama.
Over two days, according to participants in the discussions, the experts laid bare Afghanistan's most pressing issues. They sought to make clear that the next president needed to have a plan for Afghanistan before he took office on Jan. 20. Otherwise, they said, it could be too late.
With American casualties on the rise and Taliban militias gaining new strength, experts on Afghanistan say the next president will need to decide swiftly if he intends to send more troops there, because even after deployment orders are issued, it could take weeks or months for American forces to arrive.
The next president will also face what could be politically fraught decisions about how aggressively to pursue a campaign against militants taking shelter in Pakistan's tribal areas and whether to embrace negotiations under way in Afghanistan aimed at getting elements of the Taliban to lay down their arms. The discussions were started earlier this month in Saudi Arabia, and talks among Afghan officials and Taliban representatives have continued in Kabul at the request of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
The Bush administration has been wary of these talks, on the grounds that they could involve fighters who have killed American troops, and in the belief that senior Taliban leaders have no interest in serious negotiations. But some senior American officials, including William B. Wood, the American ambassador in Kabul, are said to have pressed the White House to at least consider flexibility in its position.
The briefing on Afghanistan appears to have been the most extensive that Bush administration officials have provided on any issue to both presidential campaigns. It was organized by Barnett R. Rubin, an Afghanistan expert and a professor at New York University, and included John K. Wood, the senior Afghanistan director at the National Security Council; Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, a former American commander in Afghanistan who is now at NATO headquarters; and Kai Eide, the United Nations representative in Afghanistan, according to some participants.
“The intent was to ensure that everyone understand that the situation is very fast-moving, and if the new administration spends three months trying to figure out what to do, it's too late,” said one administration official who participated in the discussion.
The Obama campaign sent Jonah Blank, a foreign policy specialist for Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., and Craig Mullaney, another Afghanistan adviser for Mr. Obama, participants said. They said the McCain campaign was represented by Lisa Curtis and Kori Schake, two former State Department officials.
The sessions were unclassified, but the participants agreed not to discuss their briefings or the contents of their discussions publicly.
The briefing was part of an effort by the departing Bush administration to ease the transition to the next team in a time of war and economic dislocation and allowed officials to try to have some influence over the next administration's plans.
Both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain have promised to increase the number of American troops in Afghanistan. Many in Washington are awaiting the results of a review to be led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who takes over command of all United States forces in Iraq and Afghanistan at Central Command on Friday.
American intelligence officials believe that Taliban commanders are convinced that they are winning. Not only are they establishing themselves in larger swaths of the country, but their campaign of violence is shaking the will of European countries contributing troops to the NATO mission.
General Petraeus's review will ultimately make recommendations about whether additional troops are needed in Afghanistan and, if so, how many. Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has requested three additional brigade combat teams for the mission, above the one extra Army brigade and one Marine Corps battalion already approved by President Bush.
General McKiernan's request, if approved, would be expected to add more than 15,000 combat and support troops to the mission, beyond the 8,000 or so scheduled to arrive in January under the orders issued by Mr. Bush.
American commanders have also spoken of the importance of better engaging Afghan tribes as a weapon against Taliban encroachment. Some have suggested using the model of the “tribal awakening” that occurred in Iraq, when the American military teamed with some former Sunni insurgents to try to drive out Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
But General McKiernan has cited significant differences in the history and culture of Afghanistan, as well as a greater complexity in the Afghan tribal system, as reasons why the Iraqi model does not directly apply in Afghanistan. Of the more than 400 major tribal networks inside Afghanistan, the general said recently, most have been “traumatized by over 30 years of war, so a lot of that traditional tribal structure has broken down.”
Thom Shanker and Peter Baker contributed reporting.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Will More US Troops Really Help in Afghanistan?
By Mark Thompson / Washington time.com Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008
Many U.S. military officers believe the war in Afghanistan was needlessly interrupted by that unpleasantness in Iraq that has cost more than 4,000 Americans their lives. And now that Iraq seems to be settling down, commanders on the ground in Afghanistan are calling for the reinforcements they say are needed if they are to prevail in the stubborn fight now underway there.
The steady climb in the number of U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan shows just how neglected the war has been — and how security conditions there have deteriorated. There were barely 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan two years ago, but today there are 32,000, the most since the Afghan war began. As Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters increasingly infiltrated eastern Afghanistan from sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan, U.S. commanders months ago asked for 10,000 more troops. In recent weeks, the reinforcement request climbed to 15,000 and now stands at about 20,000, Pentagon officials say.
While both presidential candidates and top Pentagon officials support the call for more troops in Afghanistan, there is no guarantee that a 20,000 increase will be approved. The U.S. military is stretched so thin — there are still 150,000 troops in Iraq — that it simply may not have the reinforcements available anytime soon. "Unfortunately, we don't have them all sitting at the ready," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Wednesday. "We have competing demands for our forces around the world."
Some defense officials fear that increasing the number of Western troops in Afghanistan — besides the 32,000 Americans, there are currently about 23,000 troops from NATO allies — may not turn the tide against the Taliban, and may in fact turn more Afghans against the Western-backed government.
The reinforcements requested are weighted toward various support forces needed to transport and build outposts for fighting soldiers, given Afghanistan' s rugged terrain and poor infrastructure. "There's much more challenging terrain in Afghanistan, and the ethnic tribal mix is much more complex there than in the very complex mix in Iraq," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told TIME. "Afghanistan is just a very, very poor country, and not developed; it wouldn't be fair to say it's underdeveloped — it's not developed."
Military experts say more must be done if the U.S. and its allies are to prevail. Yet not all of what needs to be done requires force. There is a growing recognition in Washington that the Kabul government backed by the U.S. and its allies needs to negotiate with more moderate elements of the Taliban insurgency. But now, with the Taliban on the offensive, is not the time for such talks. First, the U.S. and its allies need to regain momentum, and for that, more troops are needed. "We need a lot more boots on the ground in Afghanistan, and we need them now," says John Nagl, a retired Army officer who is widely viewed as one of the leading experts on counterinsurgency warfare. "It's a rural insurgency rather than an urban insurgency, so the population's not clustered but spread out very widely, so the demand for troops is large." Nagl says beefing up the Afghan military beyond the 130,000 troops already contemplated is necessary, and a relative bargain. "You can get about 70 Afghan soldiers trained, paid and equipped for about what it costs for one U.S. soldier for a year," says Nagl, co-author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam.
One of Nagl's colleagues at the nonprofit Center for a New American Security in Washington says the dearth of troops is only one problem facing the Afghanistan mission, and it may not even be the major one. "We do not have a strategic plan for Afghanistan," says Nathaniel Fick, a former Marine officer who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He says the U.S. has no Afghan war plan against which to plot objectives and chart corresponding troop needs. "We have an enormous amount of schizophrenia in our policy right now."
Fick said he witnessed a less-than can-do attitude among U.S. forces when he spent three weeks as a civilian instructor at the Afghanistan Counter-insurgency Academy in Kabul in 2007 for three weeks. "When I showed up, there was an Army National Guard colonel commanding the academy. When you have the guard commanding a mission like that, it means we don't think it's very important," Fick said, voicing what many active-duty officers think but rarely express. "When I showed up, he was reading the investment book Start Late, Finish Rich. And when I left at the end of the course, he was still reading the book, and we did not have, in that entire time, a really substantive conversation about counterinsurgency." More troops, Fick suggests, isn't going to fix that problem.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Karzai attends Central Asian economic forum
Written by www.quqnoos. com Thursday, 30 October 2008
Karzai to discuss regional co-operation at World Economic Forum in Turkey
PRESIDENT Karzai has landed in Turkey ahead of the first World Economic Forum on Central Asia.
The two day meeting in Istanbul, which will bring together international and regional business leaders and government representatives from across Central Asia, opens on Thursday.
Participants are expected to discuss ways to combat the global financial and economic crisis.
Media, cultural and religious leaders from across Europe, Turkey, Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East will also take part in the forum to explore the challenges faced by the different regions.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Asifi's kidnappers were 'fresh out of jail'
Written by www.quqnoos. com Thursday, 30 October 2008
NDS chief says men who kidnapped late king's relative had only just left prison
ONE of the kidnappers who abducted a relative of the late King Zahir Shah was released from prison only four months ago, the head of the secret intelligence service, Amrullah Saleh, said.
The revelation about Humayun Shah Asifi's kidnappers came amids calls for greater punishments for convicted kidnappers.
The speaker of the lower house, Mohammad Yunus Qanuni, called for a decision to be made regarding abductions.
Members of Parliament asked the president to investigate the freeing of convicted criminals, while members of the lower house said kidnappers should be publically punished.
They said the lack of punishment had caused people to loose confidence in the government and suggested government complicity in the crime wave.
Kabul's police chief said that without tougher punishments the crimes would continue. Humayan Shah Asifi - a relative of the late king, Zahir Shah - and fellow victim Abdul Latif – the son of a famous banker – were released on Sunday following a police tip-off.
They were held in a dry well for over a week while their kidnappers demanded a $5 million ransom to secure their release.
Back to Top
Back to Top
MPs warn of electoral fraud
Written by www.quqnoos. com Thursday, 30 October 2008
Registration cards are kept in unsecure locations, lawmakers say
MEMBERS of Parliament have said that, in some provinces, the registration process for next year's presidential elections may be subject to fraud.
They claim some registration cards are kept in unsecure locations. This may lead to electoral fraud, they say.
Ghazni province, where the Taliban control several districts, was singled out as particularly prone to problems.
MPs said the poor security situation in some provinces and a lack of discipline in the election's registration process threatens the legitimacy of the election.
Voter registration began early this month. The Independent Election Commission has sent polling cards across eastern provinces in preparation for next June's election.
Last week in Kunar, 40,000 Afghans registered within days of the process beginning.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Shake-up of Herat's police force announced
Written by www.quqnoos. com Thursday, 30 October 2008
Rising violence forces minsitry to make changes to security officials
THE INTERIOR Ministry has announced a shake-up in the police force amid rising violence in the western province of Herat.
The deputy interior minister, Munir Mangal, admitted to MPs that insecurity in the province had risen in recent months, comments which come weeks after mass demonstrations in the provincial capital took place in protest at a spate of violent crime.
Mangal said changes needed to be made to the security forces in the province in order to combat the rise in crime.
Herat has one of the highest number of kidnappings in the country.
The shake-up of the police force will come into effect in the near future, Mangal said.
Herat's MPs have boycotted Parliament for the past two weeks, blaming the government for failing to combat rising violence in their province.
The government has since sent a delegation headed by Mangal to investigate criminal activity.
Mangal reported that security in the province was unsatisfactory.
The protests in Herat were triggered by the attempted murder of a businessman in the province two weeks ago.
Traders warn that investors will pull out of the area if security continues to deteriorate.
Back to Top
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).