 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Abdullah campaign king in Afghan vote hunt
by Emmanuel Duparcq – Sat Aug 1, 9:50 pm ET
JURM, Afghanistan (AFP) – As criticism mounts against Afghan President Hamid Karzai for failing to reach out to ordinary voters, his main rival has been crowned king of the campaign trail for the August 20 election.
1 French, 3 American troops killed in Afghanistan
By Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press Writer – Sat Aug 1, 10:26 am ET
KABUL – Three U.S. troops were killed Saturday when roadside bombs ripped through their patrol in southern Afghanistan, while a French soldier died in a gunbattle north of the capital, officials said.
Pakistan minister says Karzai admits anti-Pakistan terror camps in Afghanistan
by Hadi Mayar
KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's interior minister, Rahman Malik, claimed that during his recent visit to Kabul, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had admitted presence of terrorist camps in Afghanistan working against Pakistan.
Taliban commander detained in N Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan Security forces captured Taliban key commander in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan, a local official said Saturday.
Roadside bomb kills 3 in N Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua)-- A senior security officer and two other persons were killed as a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Baghlan province north of Afghanistan Saturday, police said.
July Worst US Month in Afghanistan, Best in Iraq
By Al Pessin VOA News The Pentagon 31 July 2009
The month of July had the highest death toll for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began nearly eight years ago, and the lowest death toll in Iraq since that war began six years ago. In Afghanistan, at least 43 Americans
Problems plague rebuilding of war-torn Afghanistan
AP By RICHARD LARDNER 1 August 2009
WASHINGTON - U.S. agencies handling reconstruction work in Afghanistan lack direction and communication, problems that risk wasting U.S. tax dollars, says the special inspector general overseeing tens of billions of dollars worth of projects.
US pledge to reduce Afghan deaths
Friday, 31 July 2009 BBC News
Civilian casualties in Afghanistan must be reduced, the newly appointed commander of US and Nato-led troops Gen Stanley McChrystal has told the BBC.
Afghans Suspect US of Rocking Karzai’s Election Boat
Some local analysts believe Washington may have taken an indirect swipe at president’s re-election campaign.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Kabul (ARR No. 328, 31-July-09)
The crimes are not new: Afghans and the rest of the world have known about the deaths of up to 2,000 Taleban prisoners of war immediately following their surrender to General Abdul Rashid Dostum in November 2001.
More Australian troops to provide security for Afghanistan's elections
Xinhua www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-31
CANBERRA - Australian forces in Afghanistan have doubled their capacity with the arrival of a 120-strong combat team to provide security for upcoming elections, Australian Associated Press reported on Friday.
‘In Afghanistan, where is the truth?'
The Globe and Mail 1 August 2009
Kandahar - From Saturday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Friday, Jul. 31, 2009 06:57PM EDT
New Taliban Rule Book Aims To Win Afghan Hearts And Minds
July 31, 2009 By Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive leader of Afghanistan's Taliban, has issued an updated book outlining the rules of conduct for his fighters.
Back to Top
Abdullah campaign king in Afghan vote hunt
by Emmanuel Duparcq – Sat Aug 1, 9:50 pm ET
JURM, Afghanistan (AFP) – As criticism mounts against Afghan President Hamid Karzai for failing to reach out to ordinary voters, his main rival has been crowned king of the campaign trail for the August 20 election.
Dressed in a traditional cream shirt and Western-style leather jacket, ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah is back in the northeast mountains where he earned a reputation as a fearless member of the anti-Soviet resistance.
"Everybody in the country has decided to get rid of this corrupt government," shouts Abdullah's campaign manager Wakhef Hakimi, warming up the crowd in the northeastern town of Faizabad to the Karzai-bashing theme.
"Karzai turned a golden opportunity into disaster. There's no point giving him five more years," Abdullah himself tells the crowd.
Swinging through four villages within 24 hours, the eye doctor gives voters exactly what they want -- conservative rhetoric laced with memories of jihad against the Soviets and resistance hero Ahmad Shah Massoud.
Observers say Abdullah has done more than any of the other 41 presidential candidates to tap into voters' growing dissatisfaction with those who have led poverty-stricken, war-torn Afghanistan for the past eight years.
"Abdullah in my opinion has turned into a serious rival to Karzai, his popularity is widening," says Fahim Dashty, chief editor of the Kabul Weekly, one of few independent newspapers in Afghanistan.
That is an easy task in northeast Badakhshan province, where the "doctor" is revered for having been close to the late Massoud and for travelling snow-capped peaks on horseback to save wounded guerrillas two decades ago.
Leaving aside much of the south inflamed by the Taliban insurgency, Abdullah has flown west and east, playing on his mixed Tajik and Pashtun heritage, depending on his audience in this ethnically riven country.
"He's reached out to big communities in areas where ordinary people have never seen the president face to face. I think he reaches communities more than any other candidate," said Dashty.
Abdullah and his running mates -- a diplomat and a surgeon -- have branded themselves as a new generation which wants to loosen warlords' grip on power, ease corruption and weaken damaging alliances that thwart democratic reform.
Karzai is tipped to win the election but analysts say Abdullah is probably the only candidate capable of forcing him into a run-off, by depriving the president of a minimum 50 percent of the vote in the first round.
But neither Abdullah nor his team always gets a warm reception. Last week, insurgents opened fire at an Abdullah rally. Less than 24 hours later, one of his campaign managers was shot dead in an ambush, also in the east. Abdullah was not present on either occasion.
In Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan, his campaign website claimed a turnout of 20,000 but an AFP reporter put this closer to 2,000.
Since being dropped from the cabinet in 2006, Abdullah has worked for the Massoud Foundation charity and has emerged as a trenchant critic of the government as he seeks to distance himself from Karzai and highlight his democratic credentials.
"I was foreign minister and a successful one," he told AFP on the sidelines of his northeast campaign.
"I helped the recognition of Afghanistan by promoting policy and getting international support. I left the government three years ago. Then, the situation was not that bad," he added.
In the overwhelmingly Tajik lands of the north, he does not waste time on political and economic promises. His basic argument comes down to the fact that Karzai, a Pashtun from the south, looks after his own at the expense of Tajiks.
"Give me power and I'll give it back to you!" is his rallying cry, which seems to strike a chord.
"Karzai never gave us anything. With Abdullah, we'll get more positions in cabinet!" says Jumah Khan, a 50-year-old voter.
After lunch under apricot trees, the Badakhshan campaign climaxes in the village of Jurm, where Abdullah is welcomed as a prophet by tribal elders.
He performs a walkabout as if starring in a Hollywood Western, with more than 1,000 over-excited supporters thronging in his wake, decked out in tribal dress, fatigues and football strips.
"We will finish this government. We will finish corruption," he shouts, stabbing the air with an accusatory finger, hailed by jubilant cries of "Allah Akhbar!"
Back to Top
Back to Top
1 French, 3 American troops killed in Afghanistan
By Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press Writer – Sat Aug 1, 10:26 am ET
KABUL – Three U.S. troops were killed Saturday when roadside bombs ripped through their patrol in southern Afghanistan, while a French soldier died in a gunbattle north of the capital, officials said.
The Americans were killed in the southern Kandahar province, said Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo. He gave no further details on the blasts, pending notification of the victims' families.
Roadside bombs have become the militants' weapon of choice in Afghanistan, and the number of such attacks has spiked this year, as thousands of additional American forces have joined the fight. President Barack Obama has ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and expects the total number of U.S. forces here to reach 68,000 by year's end.
That's double the number of U.S. troops that were in Afghanistan in 2008 but still half as many as are now in Iraq.
Deaths among U.S. and other NATO troops have also soared this year. With 74 foreign troops killed — including 43 Americans — July was the deadliest month for international forces since the start of the war in 2001.
Separately a French soldier was killed and two others were wounded during a clash with insurgents north of Kabul, the French military said in a statement.
The military said the slain corporal was part of a 230-strong joint Afghan and French force that came under attack from the Taliban in a valley north of Kabul early Saturday. It did not say how many insurgents launched the attack, but said it led to a clash that lasted more than one hour and two French soldiers were wounded. There were no reports of Taliban casualties.
France has lost 29 soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001, and has 2,900 troops in the country.
In Paris, a statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said he condemned the soldier's killing and "reiterated France's determination to fight, alongside the Afghan people, against obscurantism and terrorism."
There are currently 62,000 U.S. troops and 39,000 allied forced in Afghanistan, on top of about 175,000 Afghan soldiers and police. Some NATO countries plan to withdraw their troops in the next couple of years, even as the U.S. ramps up its presence.
___
Associated Press writer Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pakistan minister says Karzai admits anti-Pakistan terror camps in Afghanistan
by Hadi Mayar
KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's interior minister, Rahman Malik, claimed that during his recent visit to Kabul, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had admitted presence of terrorist camps in Afghanistan working against Pakistan.
Malik made the claim in an interview with a private Pakistani television channel Geo. "Karzai directed his security advisor and Interior Minister to destroy and close down all training camps working against Pakistan," he said while referring to his July 19 visit to Kabul.
During the visit, which Malik made as special emissary of President Asif Ali Zardari, both sides had agreed to further bolster border security so as to check Taliban insurgents, crossing over Pak-Afghan border.
They also agreed to install biometric devices at important border-crossings to discourage illegal crossing of the common frontier.
Afghanistan had previously been turning down the proposal to install such devices along the border. Later, Pakistani media lauded both Zardari and Malik for "taking a bold stand" on bilateral issues, particularly those related to war on terror.
"The Pakistani interior minister informed President Hamid Karzai that 90 percent of those carrying out terrorist activities and creating law and order situation in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Baluchistan, and FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) were Afghan nationals," according to a Peshawar-based newspaper Mashriq.
It said, "The Kabul visit of Rahman Malik is significant because during this visit he exposed, inside Kabul, the conspiracies for destabilizing Pakistan."
Without naming India, Malik said in his July 27's interview that he told the Afghan leaders that "another country is also interfering [in Pakistan's internal affairs] from the Afghan soil."
Malik's assertion came at a time when the Afghan foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar Spanta categorically said on the same day that "the recent allegation made by Pakistan against India creating trouble in Baluchistan is baseless."
Spanta, who is in New Delhi to meet his Indian counterpart S. M. Krishna, said, "Islamabad's claim of New Delhi creating unrest in Baluchistan province is empty."
Pakistan is claiming for a long time that India is providing arms, ammunition, and fund to separatist armed rebels operating in its Balochistan province.
Islamabad said India has opened 14 consulates in various Afghan cities bordering Pakistan, from where support is being extended to Baloch insurgents.
Pakistani officials also said that India has set up terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan where Indian experts impart training to Baloch fighters.
Both India and Afghanistan have denied these charges. The fresh claim by a senior Pakistani official is likely to spark up another tension among the three neighboring countries.
Pakistan had -- during the visit of Richard Holbrooke, the special U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan -- informed the latter about the alleged Afghan connections of Balochistan issue.
While addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Holbrooke said that both President Asif Ali Zardari and the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif had raised the issue of Balochistan.
He said the Pakistani officials also informed him of their plans to deploy more troops along the common border in Balochistan province to effectively check infiltration from the Afghan side.
Pakistan has already deployed 100,000 troops and established over 1000 border check posts along the 2640-kilometer border with Afghanistan. It has repeatedly asked NATO forces and the Afghan government to seal the border on their side to check illegal border-crossing.
While Pakistan has previously been raising the issue of Taliban's infiltration with the U.S. and Afghan officials, it had never made Balochistan a subject of its trilateral interaction with Washington and Kabul.
It is for the first time that Pakistan has, besides Afghanistan, also raised the issue with the United States and India.
During his visit to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, earlier July to attend the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) summit, the Pakistan prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, had, for the first time, raised Balochistan issue with his Indian counterpart, Dr. Manmohan Singh, alleging that New Delhi was abetting terrorists in the Pakistani province.
In his interview, Rahman Malik also said that he had extended a "written demand" to the Afghan government regarding Brahamdagh Bugti.
Pakistan claims that Brahamdagh Bugti, the son-in-law of the slain Baloch nationalist leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti, who leads armed Baloch separatists, is hidden in Afghanistan.
Kabul has in the past denied the claim. "Karzai assured me to entertain Pakistan's request about Brahamdagh," Rahman Malik claimed.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Taliban commander detained in N Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan Security forces captured Taliban key commander in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan, a local official said Saturday.
"German troops with the cooperation of national security forces arrested Taliban key commander Qari Abdul Wadoud from Qarakator village of Imam Sahib district Friday," Juma Khan, the governor of Imam Sahib, told Xinhua.
The detained Taliban commander, according to the official, was commanding some 100 militants and had been involved in series of anti-government activities.
He also added that the arrested Taliban commander would be shown to media at proper time.
Parts of Kunduz have been the scene of Taliban activities over the past couple of months as some 300 German troops and Afghan security forces launched operation dubbed Eagle to clear Taliban militants last week.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Roadside bomb kills 3 in N Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua)-- A senior security officer and two other persons were killed as a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Baghlan province north of Afghanistan Saturday, police said.
"The device planted by enemies struck an official vehicle in Eightenkotal area this morning as a result director of intelligence department of Dahnai Ghori district along with his body guard and driver were killed," senior police officer in the province Shams Raman told Xinhua.
Meantime, Taliban purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in talks with media via telephone from undisclosed location claimed responsibility, saying militants carried out the attack.
Back to Top
Back to Top
July Worst US Month in Afghanistan, Best in Iraq
By Al Pessin VOA News The Pentagon 31 July 2009
The month of July had the highest death toll for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began nearly eight years ago, and the lowest death toll in Iraq since that war began six years ago. In Afghanistan, at least 43 Americans were killed, among 75 coalition troops. In Iraq, the U.S. death toll was seven.
The statistics reflect the changing role of U.S. troops in both war zones.
In Iraq, American combat forces left the populated areas at the end of June. Only U.S. trainers operate with Iraqi units in the cities, while combat troops work in the countryside or wait on their bases in case Iraqi units need help.
In Afghanistan, by contrast, thousands of U.S. troops have been pouring in, part of the near doubling of the American military presence ordered by President Barack Obama. About 4,000 of those troops, along with British and Afghan forces, launched an offensive in southern Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold, and took heavy casualties.
Former State Department official Wayne White, now of the Middle East Institute, says high U.S. casualty rates in Afghanistan will likely continue for some time.
"As we ramp up our presence and we go after these bad guys who are very tough skilled fighters, seemingly much more capable of sustained combat than even the Iraqi insurgents, we will see higher U.S. casualties," he said.
White is also concerned that U.S. casualties in Iraq could rise again, if security deteriorates and the Iraqi military asks for help in some areas. But he says Iraqi leaders will do everything possible to prevent that from happening. The United States is scheduled to sharply reduce its troop presence in Iraq next year, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this week that process could start earlier than planned if the security situation remains stable.
In Afghanistan, an opposite move is being contemplated. Civilian advisers to the new U.S. and NATO commander, General Stanley McChrystal said this week they have told him he needs more U.S. troops to put down the Taliban and other insurgent groups. The general's decision on what to ask Secretary Gates and President Obama to provide is expected in about two weeks.
Wayne White says General McChrystal's assessment and possible troop request may not be what the top officials want to hear.
"He's got a big task ahead of him. And I believe that probably the administration will be even more surprised than it has been over how badly the situation has deteriorated in Afghanistan, and may have to send him additional troops, with great reluctance on their part," said White.
That reluctance stems from a concern Secretary Gates has expressed about possibly alienating some Afghans by having a very large U.S. troop presence, and from a desire not to have more months like July with high American casualty figures.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Problems plague rebuilding of war-torn Afghanistan
AP By RICHARD LARDNER 1 August 2009
WASHINGTON - U.S. agencies handling reconstruction work in Afghanistan lack direction and communication, problems that risk wasting U.S. tax dollars, says the special inspector general overseeing tens of billions of dollars worth of projects.
Inspector General Arnold Fields says that coordination between the Americans and the Afghans is poor, leading to a disjointed effort and slowing progress on critically needed improvements to the country's transportation, agriculture and energy production.
"The more we move around and the more we conduct our audit work, the evidence is compounding that there is a lack of oversight and follow through," says Fields, who returned July 19 from his fifth trip to Afghanistan since he was appointed last year.
He also said that "there isn't always a direct connection between what the Afghans feel that they need and what the reconstruction effort is delivering." Since 2002, the U.S. has committed $32 billion to Afghanistan's reconstruction. With President Barack Obama ordering more civilian and military personnel there to quell a growing insurgency, that figure is expected to rise to nearly $50 billion by 2010, according to a quarterly report released Wednesday by Fields' office.
The projects vary significantly in size and cost. On his most recent trip, Fields says he visited Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan to see a $118 million road construction project. He and his staff also stopped in Ghor, a remote province in central Afghanistan where a $240,000 high school dormitory was recently completed.
Fields plans to keep an eye on the road work and may perform an inspection to make sure it is done properly and that the Afghans are trained and equipped to maintain the highway once it's completed.
At the dormitory, investigators saw exposed wiring, broken locks on doors, lack of storage space and overcrowded rooms. Fields says it looked as though the dorm had been built 25 years ago.
A new inspection report from Fields' office details problems with an electric power station in Khost, a town on Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.
At a cost of nearly $1.6 million, the power generation plant in Khost was transformed from a dilapidated building into a modern facility with three newly installed generators. In September 2008, the plant was turned over to Khost's ministry of energy and water.
But inspectors found the plant has deteriorated because the Afghans have been unable to sustain it. They also found serious safety hazards, including exposed high voltage cables and open electrical boxes.
As more money flows into Afghanistan, Fields' quarterly report says there is no single computer system that provides complete, up-to-date information on reconstruction projects.
Military commands, the Army Corps of Engineers, the State Department and other agencies each have established information systems for tracking financial data and accounting.
But auditors found these systems "varied significantly" and didn't allow information to be exchanged easily. That "increases the risk that U.S. resources may be wasted either through duplication of effort or because projects are in conflict with each other," the report said.
Civilian officials and military authorities most often exchange information through periodic meetings and impromptu reports and presentations, the report said.
Fields says it doesn't appear the difficult lessons from the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq have been applied to Afghanistan. That's in part because his office wasn't created until 2008, nearly seven years after the U.S.-led coalition invaded to oust the Taliban and attack al-Qaida camps.
"You need to start oversight early rather than later," he said. "Many of the issues that we're now pointing out would likely have been pointed out before, and we would have been able to turn the corner."
Back to Top
Back to Top
US pledge to reduce Afghan deaths
Friday, 31 July 2009 BBC News
Civilian casualties in Afghanistan must be reduced, the newly appointed commander of US and Nato-led troops Gen Stanley McChrystal has told the BBC.
He said both preventing and investigating incidents where civilians were hit would be a priority.
Earlier, a UN report said the number of civilians killed so far this year had risen 24% on the same period last year.
The UN said insurgent bombings and air strikes by international forces were the biggest killers.
There has been widespread concern in Afghanistan about civilian death tolls.
In June the US military called for better training in an effort to reduce the numbers of civilian deaths.
The Taliban also issued a new code of conduct earlier this week which says fighters should minimise civilian casualties.
Gen McChrystal, the new commander of US and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan, said civilian casualties were "deeply concerning" and something he "would love to say we'd get to zero".
He said he was trying to build this into the culture of his forces, but admitted it was very hard to balance this with their own protection.
"It's very hard because it's a balance for the young soldier on the ground, who is in combat. One of the assets that he has that might save his life might be air power or indirect fire from artillery or mortars and we don't want to take away that protection for him," he said.
But that "must be balanced against the possibility of hurting anyone".
He said he wanted his forces to be seen both to work actively to prevent civilian deaths, and to investigate civilian deaths openly when they did occur.
On the possibility of talks with the Taliban after presidential elections in August, Gen McChrystal said the US was willing to talk to anyone ready to seek a political solution - including local fighters and senior Taliban figures.
But he pointed out that ultimately those decisions were up to the Afghan government.
There is enormous pressure on the new commander, says the BBC's Lyse Doucet in Kabul.
The US defence secretary Robert Gates has made it clear that foreign forces have a year to show clear progress on the security front or will lose support here and at home.
Civilian targets
The report, by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama), says insurgents were responsible for more deaths than government-allied forces.
But it also notes that two-thirds of the deaths caused by government-allied forces came in air strikes.
The rising death toll was partly due to the fact that militants were deliberately basing themselves in residential districts, the report's authors concluded.
The increasingly sophisticated tactics used by insurgents were also highlighted.
This is the third year the UN has counted civilian deaths and the numbers have risen each year.
Election fears
The UN warned more civilians may be killed in the coming weeks as militants fight back against a major offensive by US forces ahead of key elections next month.
Elections are due to take place amid tight security on 20 August, when President Hamid Karzai is hoping to secure a second term.
However, in the past week alone there have been two attacks on Afghan election campaigns.
On Tuesday a campaign manager for presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah was wounded when his vehicle was attacked in Laghman province.
Two days earlier there was an assassination attempt on Mohammed Qasim Fahim, a running mate of Mr Karzai.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghans Suspect US of Rocking Karzai’s Election Boat
Some local analysts believe Washington may have taken an indirect swipe at president’s re-election campaign.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Kabul (ARR No. 328, 31-July-09)
The crimes are not new: Afghans and the rest of the world have known about the deaths of up to 2,000 Taleban prisoners of war immediately following their surrender to General Abdul Rashid Dostum in November 2001.
Nor is there any doubt that Dostum was then a partner of the United States in its successful attempt to topple the Taleban government.
But recent statements by President Barack Obama that he may be prepared to re-examine the deaths, have raised a furore in the highly-charged, pre-election atmosphere of the Afghan capital.
“The indications that this had not been properly investigated just recently was [sic] brought to my attention,” Obama said in a July 13 interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “So what I’ve asked my national security team to do is to collect the facts for me that are known, and we’ll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all of the facts gathered up.”
Dostum is a colourful and controversial figure in Afghanistan. He is widely revered among his fellow ethnic Uzbeks for his bravery and fighting spirit, while being just as widely reviled by others, especially Pashtuns, for his brutality.
He is also a key ally of the incumbent president, Hamed Karzai, in his bid for re-election.
Dostum has long come in handy during Afghanistan’s decades of conflict and has danced in and out of alliances, his loyalty often seen as more a matter of realpolitik than genuine conviction.
When the US decided to invade Afghanistan in October 2001, it turned to Dostum, among other former commanders, for help. In the northern city of Kunduz, after a carefully brokered agreement, 8,000 Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters laid down their arms and waited for the transport that had been promised.
As many as 2,000 were shoved into metal containers with no ventilation, and left to suffocate, an investigation by Physicians for Human Rights under United Nations auspices concluded. They were then buried in mass graves in the Dasht-e-Leili, a desert in Dostum’s home province of Jowzjan.
Dostum’s alleged involvement in the deaths has been investigated by Afghan and international human rights groups, which have claimed that the burly general bears the bulk of the responsibility for what amounts to a war crime. But to date there has been no official inquiry and he has denied it happened.
When Karzai was elected president in 2004, he sought to bring many of the former warlords into his government. Dostum was given the largely symbolic post of chief of staff to the commander in chief.
But he went into exile last year, after a widely publicised brawl with a former ally, Mohammad Akbar Bai.
Saying he needed medical attention – Dostum suffers from diabetes – the general left for Turkey, where he now lives in the capital, Ankara.
But he wants to come home. Observers say that his support for Karzai was predicated on a promise that he would be allowed to return to Afghanistan, where he has a power base in the north.
According to a recent article in the New York Times, the State Department has been working to block Dostum’s return to Afghanistan. The piece quoted US officials saying that the administration “might not be hostile to an inquiry”.
The timing of the Times piece, as well as Obama’s remarks, have many observers in Kabul scratching their heads. They see this as part of an ongoing campaign to unseat the Afghan president.
“The Americans think that if the current situation continues, the crisis in Afghanistan will expand,” said political analyst Amad Saeedy. “So they want to place the burden [of government] on somebody else.”
Dostum himself has reacted angrily to what he sees as a politically motivated attack.
In a letter to the Afghan media, he called the accusations about the Dasht-e-Leili burials a lie.
“The high council of the north … released an announcement in September 2002, saying that there had been no deliberate killing of prisoners of war,” he wrote. “Moreover, I have been told that the Pentagon confirmed the truth of this report.”
Dostum may be a bit hasty in invoking the US military establishment in his defence. With a new administration in charge in Washington, many are not opposed to revealing some of the less savoury aspects of the Bush era. And the political wind may be shifting in Kabul as well, as Dostum points out in his letter.
“The only reason for bringing this matter up now is [Afghanistan’s presidential] election,” he said.
Karzai himself has not reacted to this issue directly, but Hakim Asher, the head of the president’s media office, told reporters that the fuss over Dostum could well affect the campaign.
“Since Dostum had a key role in the Afghan government, this is not unrelated to Karzai’s candidacy,” he said.
Dostum may have a harder time shaking off the accusations now than he did when he was a valued US ally in the war against the Taleban.
A video clip has been shown on Afghan media in which a police officer who served in Jowzjan in 2001 speaks to the camera, although his face is obscured.
“During the Ramadan month of 2001 I rented a bulldozer and some labourers and opened the containers, which were on the Khorasan bridge west of Shiberghan [the capital of Jowzjan]. Each container had more than 150 dead bodies,” he said.
“We dug three graves. I myself buried 1,100 people. Others buried five more containers. I reported my eyewitness account to [then US special envoy] Zalmay Khalilzad and a number of Afghan authorities, but nobody paid any attention. I also tried to meet with [then UN Special Representative] Lakhdar Brahimi, but I did not succeed.”
Last year, the media reported that the mass graves in Dasht-e-Leili were being tampered with; many of the bodies had been moved in an attempt to destroy evidence.
With Dostum fighting off renewed allegations of war crimes, he may be less effective as a supporter for Karzai in the increasingly tense presidential contest.
When asked about Afghan speculation over Obama’s recent CNN remarks and the Times article, US State Department spokesman Andy Laine stated the position set out publicly and repeatedly by American diplomats in Afghanistan that Washington will neither support nor oppose any candidate in the Afghan elections. US special envoy Richard Holbrooke told reporters in Kabul last week that the administration wanted there to be “a level playing field” for the leadership ballot.
Just a few weeks ago, Karzai looked to have the election in the bag. Using, and, some say, abusing the liberal advantages of office, he was dominating the media, local governance, and tribal structures.
But Karzai’s strange absence from the political scene along with the emergence of former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah as an unexpectedly strong rival have turned what many saw as a foregone conclusion into a wide open race.
This could not have happened without the shadowy hand of the Americans, say Afghan analysts.
“Karzai has become closer to Iran over the past nine months, and this is intolerable for the Americans. He also tried to get closer to Russia, but the Americans got themselves closer still,” Saeedy said, adding that this was all part of a concerted effort to unseat Karzai.
“The ripples from these accusations will expand,” he insisted. “Other people will be affected. These scenarios show that the Americans are trying to get Karzai off the election stage.”
Political analyst Wahid Muzhda agrees that Obama is working against Karzai with his attention to Dostum’s alleged crimes, as well as pursuing his own political agenda.
“There are problems between Democrats and Republicans [in Washington],” he said. “Obama wants to use this issue against the Republicans. And on the other hand, there are the [Afghan] elections.”
Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter.
Back to Top
Back to Top
More Australian troops to provide security for Afghanistan's elections
Xinhua www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-31
CANBERRA - Australian forces in Afghanistan have doubled their capacity with the arrival of a 120-strong combat team to provide security for upcoming elections, Australian Associated Press reported on Friday.
Afghanistan's presidential and provincial elections will be held on Aug. 20.
With the country already well into its annual fighting season following winter and the May opium poppy harvest, insurgents are expected to step up their efforts to disrupt the polling and discredit the Afghan government.
In providing election security, the Australians will operate only in Oruzgan province.
"The activity of the insurgency has increased as expected, but the operational approach by the coalition in each of the areas has been postured to deal with an increase in activity," said Australia's commander in the Middle East, Mark Kelly.
Kelly said insurgents were exploiting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as their weapon of choice but that, too, had been anticipated.
"The guys work hard to identify this threat where it is and obviously deal with it. But it is still achieving a casualty rate against the coalition and Afghan security forces.
"Civilians in particular are suffering at the hands of this insidious plague of IEDs."
Kelly said coalition forces across Afghanistan were targeting insurgent leaders and the IED networks, and security was improving all the time as Afghan security forces get stronger.
"As we build the capacity of the Afghan National Army, that security framework is improving all the time and we are noticing that in Oruzgan."
Editor: Li Shuncheng
Back to Top
Back to Top
‘In Afghanistan, where is the truth?'
The Globe and Mail 1 August 2009
Kandahar - From Saturday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Friday, Jul. 31, 2009 06:57PM EDT
Abdullah Shah weeps as he tells the story of Oct. 24, 2006. “Allah saved me,” he says. “But I wish I was killed that night too, with my family.”
The tragedy that struck them also drew Mr. Shah into the complex, controversial business that counting Afghanistan's civilian dead has become.
The white-bearded Afghan farmer, who is in his 70s, recalls his family that night preparing and enjoying a feast for Eid, the end of the Ramadan fast. “We were eating sweets, cookies, milk,” he says.
But fighting broke out between coalition forces and the Taliban near their village of mud huts, Zangabad, in the Panjwai region 35 kilometres southwest of Kandahar.
Fatefully, Mr. Shah decided his relatives should seek refuge.
“I told all my family to go out from the village and stay near the nomad tents on the south side,” the old man says. He would stay behind and face what might come.
Hours later, after a long firefight, air strikes were called in. But the bombs didn't hit the family's compound – instead, they fell on the nomads' tents. Mr. Shah's one surviving male heir broke the news hours later: “My son who is alive came and told me that my family was completely killed.”
At least 50 people died, perhaps 30 of them civilians, including Mr. Shah's wife of 40 years, four of his adult sons and many of his grandchildren – part of the grim and growing tally of “collateral damage” in Afghanistan.
But calculating casualties here is not an exact science: Politics, military strategy and money all play a large part. The Americans are usually accused of low-balling the number of civilian dead, the Afghans of exaggerating.
Observers say Taliban fighters now seek out human shields, in hopes of drawing air attacks. For the insurgents, civilian deaths are a small price to pay for the popular backlash they inspire.
The Taliban's message thrives amid stories of Afghans slain by infidel “crusaders.”
Take for instance an American air strike in May that went terribly awry. As Taliban gunmen pinned down Afghan soldiers, the U.S. forces mentoring the fledgling army called in planes that dropped two 2,000-pound bombs along with lesser munitions.
Dozens of fighters were killed, but so were a large number of non-combatants. Afghan President Hamid Karzai rushed to the province of Farah, near the scene in Bala Baluk, to announce he would compensate relatives of 140 civilian victims.
The Pentagon said it could only confirm 26 civilian dead, with at least 78 insurgents killed.
That amounts to a fivefold difference in body counts – between allies.
DECLARED DEAD, AFGHANS LATER FOUND ALIVE
A human-rights investigator in Kabul, while explaining the gritty mechanics of air-strike postmortems, pauses for a rhetorical question: “In Afghanistan,” he asks, “where is truth?”
He is venting. “We've interviewed some people who are supposed to be dead,” he says. “And they are very much alive. Half of them are working in Iran.”
The investigator, who requests anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his work, is employed by a non-governmental organization that tasks him with trying to figure out the true number of civilian dead after air strikes – a growth industry, given how commonplace and controversial such deaths have become in Afghanistan.
Investigators for coalition forces and the Kabul government, along with those from NGOs, rush to the scenes of tragedies to compete to reach the definitive assessments. The only certainty is that each side will interpret the information to their advantage.
Air strikes usually occur in remote communities and religious custom compels people to bury their dead by sundown and keep strangers away from the graves. Such villages are hostile to outlanders at the best of times. Some regard the Taliban as native sons.
As a result, many investigation teams can stay on the ground for only a few hours, canvassing hospitals and checking claims against what paltry records may be available.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government usually compensates families $2,000 (U.S.) per relative killed. In a country without central records and an $800 per capita gross domestic product, that amounts to a huge incentive to pad the numbers.
“I don't blame them, because they're dirt poor,” says the NGO human-rights investigator. He is more critical of the country's president, Mr. Karzai. “Because it's an election year, he wants to dole out as much cash as he can – the more the merrier as far as he's concerned.”
The sheer destructive power of modern munitions makes the numbers even harder to confirm. “The villagers claim the rest of the 70 or 80 or 90 who died were obliterated by a 2,000-pound bomb, and they became a pink mist,” the investigator says. “Or they were just shredded and they dumped all the parts in the graves.”
Such skepticism, he hastens to say, should not detract from the essential tragedy of these events: Families lose breadwinners, children are orphaned, and homes are destroyed – an impact that may last for generations.
REPORT KEPT SECRET FOR ‘OPERATIONAL SECURITY'
What went wrong that night in 2006 is an official secret. The Afghan National Army and NATO put together a joint report, but for reasons of “operational security,” its contents have never been divulged.
Even for NATO, piecing together events was difficult. Fighting had raged across several villages. Afghan military were leading the charge, but international military were also involved. Some were apparently Special Forces, accustomed to operating in strict secrecy.
The statements that were released for public consumption attribute the civilian casualties only to “breakdowns in communication” between international forces and “local authorities who knew that the nomads had moved into the surrounding fields.”
Allied forces are well aware that such blunders cost them dearly in the estimation and loyalty of the Afghan public. In June, NATO's new commander, General Stanley McChrystal, told the U.S. Senate that he was changing the yardstick for success. “The measure of effectiveness will not be enemy killed,” he said. “It will be the number of Afghans shielded from violence.”
It's a tall order, as more bystanders have been slain every year the war has worn on. Improvised bombs, the Taliban's calling card, killed at least 725 Afghan civilians in 2008, according to the United Nations. Yet coalition bombings didn't lag that far behind: Air strikes killed at least 552 Afghan civilians that year.
Canada oversees Kandahar Province for NATO, but the Canadian Forces have no warplanes in the theatre and frequently allow allies to operate on the ground. Right after the 2006 air strike, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters no Canadian soldiers were involved in the tragedy.
However, Mr. Harper may not have been fully briefed: Military sources confirm that Canadian soldiers fired artillery from a nearby mountainside base and offered up drone surveillance to support the operations. It was a peripheral role, but a role.
Canadians also witnessed the cleanup. At dawn, Afghans from surrounding villages came to collect the dead. Soldiers recall villagers showing up to the scene in “borrowed” police and army uniforms – in hopes that would amount to protective coloration.
Villagers still speak of finding the disembodied hands of small children – hennaed for the Eid celebration – in the rubble. The bodies and body parts were collected into the backs of civilian vehicles, en route to being buried.
One Canadian checkpoint logged the cargo of one vanload. It included two children under five, one decapitated, and nine adult Afghans, including women with missing limbs. A bag of body parts was also seen.
The soldiers also logged the presence of “one elderly male” who claimed that “18 of his family members had been killed.”
At first NATO said only a dozen civilians were killed in the air strikes. But later it revised this: “We believe the number to be around 30, or roughly the same number as, or slightly more than, insurgents killed.”
NATO also said that corrective measures were taken to prevent events from repeating themselves. Yet the errors and explanations bear some striking similarities to those that would occur again three years later, following this spring's deadly air strike in Bala Baluk.
“The inability to discern the presence of civilians and assess the potential collateral damage of those strikes is inconsistent with the U.S. government's objective of providing security and safety for the Afghan people,” reads the Pentagon's declassified June, 2009, summary. COMPENSATION INCLUDED A NEW HOME – AND WIFE
President Karzai called Mr. Shah a couple of days after the air strikes promising to help, and the president was true to his word. He gave the old man land, a new house, and sent his young, partly paralyzed daughter for treatment in Germany. He even helped the septuagenarian arrange an expensive dowry for a new, young wife – who has since given birth to a baby daughter.
Premium amounts of compensation money were also awarded. “Yes, it is true that Karzai pays $4,000 for each martyr and $1,000 for each injured person,” Mr. Shah says. Kabul even funded a pilgrimage to Mecca for the old man and other bereaved elders from the community.
All of this helped with the widower's grief, he says, but only “a little.” Nothing has stopped the depression and nightmares.
While his rags-to-riches story is famous in Afghanistan, some details shift amid retellings. Specifically, the number of dead relatives seems to fluctuate between 18 and 22.
Asked to name the dead, Mr. Shah has trouble recalling the daughters-in-law and some of the grandchildren. “I forgot their names,” he says, explaining they “were small and women.”
He denies that any insurgent fighters were killed in the strikes on the nomad tents that night.
In any case, the bombing did little to scrub his village clean of Taliban. Today, the insurgents control the Panjwai more than ever. Many villagers have fled and never come back. Even Mr. Shah lives in the city now.
The old farmer says his heart has hardened against both the Taliban and NATO. “No one is a friend of our country,” he says. “Both are enemies.”
Colin Freeze is a Globe and Mail reporter.
Back to Top
Back to Top
New Taliban Rule Book Aims To Win Afghan Hearts And Minds
July 31, 2009 By Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive leader of Afghanistan's Taliban, has issued an updated book outlining the rules of conduct for his fighters.
The thin, blue paperback booklet could be a key weapon in the movement's efforts to counter Western efforts to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.
The pocket-sized "Rule Book for the Mujahedin of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" is a Pashto-language publication that updates a similar guide issued by the Taliban in the fall of 2006.
Published in May, the main emphasis this time around appears to be countering the U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency strategy focused on providing security to ordinary Afghans.
Only recently coming to light, the book appears as Western leaders put forward new proposals to reconcile and reintegrate moderate Taliban commanders and their followers in a bid to end the conflict.
Battle For Hearts And Minds
The recurring message of the book is the importance of consolidating a centralized authority over Taliban ranks and commanders
Its back cover quotes Mullah Omar as telling his fighters that protecting the life and property of their people is the main objective of the current "jihad."
"Give a special place to your friends and your people in your hearts," the cover reads. "Extend a strong bond of loyalty and brotherhood to them so that the enemy is unable to realize its objective of dividing you."
Wadir Safi, a professor of political science at Kabul University, says that the book has twin purposes: to reinforce discipline into Taliban ranks and to counter the West's strategy in Afghanistan:
"They want to reinforce [strict] discipline in the Taliban ranks so that they can distance themselves from crimes that alienate civilians," Safi says.
According to Safi, the idea is to counter the United States' newest strategy in Afghanistan, which employs a number of different elements -- including economic assistance, a surge in troop numbers, and diplomacy -- designed to win over Afghan hearts and minds.
"Just as the Western troops want to appeal to the people by avoiding casualties among them, the Taliban want to do the same to appeal to their people," Safi says. "They want to reassure them that 'if we get back into power, don't fear us killing you and being barbaric. We will be there to serve you.'"
Avoiding Civilian Deaths
Another major message is that Taliban fighters must avoid harming or harassing civilians and minimize their losses of life and property.
The issue was highlighted by a UN report issued on July 31 that says civilian casualties are on the rise, with more than 1,000 deaths recorded in Afghanistan already this year.
The UN report blames insurgents for using increasingly deadly methods of attacks and using civilian residential areas as hideouts.
The new codes of conduct, which Afghan and U.S. officials called hypocritical, provide advice in staging deadly attacks.
"Carry out suicide attacks only on high-value and important targets, so that the brave youth of the Islamic nation are not wasted targeting unimportant and ordinary targets," one passage reads.
Great caution is advised in conducting such attacks, to avoid civilian casualties. It also warns against treating prisoners badly, and gives only Mullah Omar and his deputy the authority to order executions.
Parallel Administration
The rule book establishes Taliban as a centralized, hierarchical Islamist organization, guided by its own interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law, which seeks to restore control by driving out international forces and forcing the collapse of the current political system.
The 61-page booklet, divided into 13 chapters and 67 articles, warns its cadres against "tribal, ethnic, and linguistic" prejudices, and calls on them to "represent the Islamic Emirate [Taliban movement] in such a way that all compatriots welcome them and extend their cooperation and help to them."
It forbids them from collecting weapons from people, smoking, severing body parts, house searches, and kidnappings.
It says that the Taliban has divided Afghanistan into four military zones and the book hints at the presence of an alternative Taliban administration complete with governors, district administrators, judges, and local councils.
Compared to the 2006 edition, the guide urges greater caution and has more detailed instructions on how to deal with government officials, prisoners, contractors, those ferrying supplies for international forces, spies, and NGOs.
It urges caution in dealing with such cases and warns against public executions.
"When a convict is ordered to be executed, whether he is a spy or another criminal, he should be shot dead with a gun. Photographing such an incident is forbidden," Article 18 reads.
Consolidating Insurgency
In Kabul, expert Safi sees the three major armed opposition groups -- the Taliban led by Mullah Omar; the network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani; and the Hizb-e Islami, or pan-Islamist Islamic Party, led by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar -- as increasingly coordinating their actions.
For the Taliban specifically, the book is seen as part of a wider effort to show their resolve and strength at a time when the country is at a potential tipping point.
"The Taliban have taken a number of steps to control their own people," Safi says.
"They have reduced the number of 'foreign Taliban' who used to be present and operate on the Afghan soil. They insist that there are no factions or groups within Taliban, and that we have one leader and we are one people."
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).