 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Afghan Youth May Block Karzai’s Return, Abdullah Says (Update2)
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan’s former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah says he can block President Hamid Karzai from winning a second term this week in an election critical to U.S.-led efforts to stabilize the war-torn country.
Abdullah faces hard road to Kabul
By James Lamont in Gardez August 17 2009 19:12
Streams of fake snow were showered on Abdullah Abdullah during the last day of campaigning in the Afghanistan election. President Hamid Karzai’s main rival had his path strewn with flowers and tinsel by an adoring taekwondo
Huge rally ends Afghan election campaign
Press TV August 17, 2009
Thousands of Afghans stage a rally in support of presidential hopeful Abdullah Abdullah on the last day of campaigning.
Ahead of Vote, Afghans in U.S. Backing Candidates From Afar
Washington Post By Tara Bahrampour Monday, August 17, 2009
Late at night, after he gets home from his job managing an Afghan restaurant in Alexandria, Mir Farid Hashimi makes long-distance calls, trying to convince relatives in Afghanistan that despite the hard times there, Hamid Karzai should keep leading the country.
Karzai's rival: President's 'assessment a myth'
Press TV August 17, 2009
Afghanistan's incumbent president, Hamid Karzai has attended a live televised election debate with two of his main rivals, ahead of Thursday's presidential poll.
Feature: Election campaign goes slow in Taliban birthplace
By Abbas Ali
KABUL, Aug. 17, (Xinhua) -- There are only five days to the Afghan presidential and provincial council elections, but the campaigning goes slowly in the Taliban birthplace Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s President Moves to Bolster Bid for Re-election
New York Times By CARLOTTA GALL August 16, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai moved to strengthen his chances of re-election on Sunday, just four days before the voting, by appearing in a live televised debate with two of his opponents
No-Show Karzai Disappoints Helmandis
Incumbent president may have lost quite a few votes when he failed to appear at campaign rally.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Lashkar Gah (ARR No. 331, 17-Aug-09)
The preparations had gone on all night – workmen hammering together a stage, hanging posters, and erecting a tent over Karzai stadium, named after the Afghan president.
Threats by Taliban May Sway Vote in Afghanistan
By DEXTER FILKINS The New York Times August 17, 2009
TARAKAI, Afghanistan — A group of Taliban fighters made their announcement in the bazaar of a nearby village a few days ago, and the word spread fast: anyone caught voting in the presidential election will have his finger
Post-Election Unrest Concerns
With vote only days away, many government officials worried about disputes over outcome turning violent.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Kabul (ARR No. 331, 17-Aug-09)
As Afghanistan prepares for a elections this week, it is faced with the twin spectres of an escalating insurgency and the threat of post-ballot political unrest.
Obama seeks support for Afghan effort
The Irish Times - News Monday, August 17, 2009
President Barack Obama will seek to shore up US public support for the war in Afghanistan today just days before an Afghan presidential election widely seen as a major test of his revamped strategy.
Afghanistan: The corner of Kabul that is forever England
There is a corner of Kabul that is forever England. Surrounded by streets clogged with battered taxis and bullet-proof 4x4s is the British cemetery, an oasis of calm contemplation at the heart of a city scarred by conflict.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer in Kabul 17 Aug 2009
Among its rose bushes and trees is its newest memorial.
Three black stone plaques placed side-by-side on the cemetery's southern wall, that chart the grim toll of men cut down in their prime.
Tajik-Afghan Prisoner Exchange Still On Hold
August 17, 2009 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
DUSHANBE/KABUL -- A Tajik-Afghan agreement on a prisoner exchange signed last year has still not been implemented, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.
Afghan Warlord's Warning To Nato Forces
Sky News - Politics 17 Aug 2009
One of the world's most wanted warlords has told Sky News he will not enter into any peace talks while foreign troops remain in Afghanistan.
Afghan women fight on for rights
By Jane Corbin Reporter, BBC Panorama Sunday, 16 August 2009
The smell of disinfectant mingled with burnt flesh was overpowering - I was in the special burns unit in Herat's hospital.
U.S. civilian killed in E Afghanistan: Coalition forces
KABUL, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- An American national working for troops in east Afghanistan was killed in the militancy-hit region of east Afghanistan, a press of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) issued here Monday said.
Pakistan Taliban claim responsibility of blast in northwest
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility for a car blast in which at least 12 people were killed in a petrol station in northwest Pakistan's Charsadda, local TV channels reported Monday.
Afghanistan's war of ideas
A woman, a school, a tragically complex relationship
Global Post By C.M. Sennott Monday, August 17, 2009
KABUL - On the morning of July 9, boys and girls were walking down a narrow road in the Logar Province on their way to school, just as they did every day at that time.
Back to Top
Afghan Youth May Block Karzai’s Return, Abdullah Says (Update2)
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan’s former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah says he can block President Hamid Karzai from winning a second term this week in an election critical to U.S.-led efforts to stabilize the war-torn country.
“Week by week, we are seeing increased support, especially among young voters, and the race has become even,” Abdullah said in an interview before a final rally today at Kabul’s main sports stadium. Thousands of supporters, mostly young men, cheered Abdullah at the meeting and then formed columns of marchers and vehicles that wound through city streets, chanting his name and waving flags.
Polls show that Abdullah and Karzai are likely to face a runoff by topping the field of almost 40 candidates on Aug. 20, with neither winning the majority needed for election. This weekend’s car bombing in Kabul and rocket attacks in Kandahar underscored threats by militants to disrupt the ballot. The election is central to the Obama administration’s effort to build an Afghan government strong enough to prevent the Taliban from providing a base for al-Qaeda.
The polls, plus large crowds at Abdullah’s campaign rallies, suggest that Karzai will fall short of an election majority, “as long as there is no massive fraud,” said Peter Tomsen, a retired U.S. ambassador and former special envoy to Afghanistan. Karzai would face Abdullah in the runoff, possibly in October.
“The result of a runoff is really impossible to predict,” Tomsen said in a telephone interview from Washington.
‘Comfortable Partner’
If elected, Abdullah, 48, “would be a comfortable partner for the United States,” Tomsen said. “Like Karzai, Abdullah has a pro-Western, democratic orientation.”
Abdullah’s campaign positions are similar to those put forward by 51-year-old Karzai. Both call for rooting out the corruption that Afghans say permeates the government, and promise to seek reconciliation with at least some of the Taliban.
“I blame Karzai for not being a leader, and for failing to build an effective government,” Abdullah said.
Two opinion surveys published last week by U.S. research groups indicated that Abdullah had broken away from a pack of candidates in mid-July to become the president’s chief rival. Karzai was favored by 44 percent of voters, compared with 26 percent for Abdullah, in a poll released by the Washington-based International Republican Institute, one of several groups monitoring the election.
‘Not Worried’
“We are not worried about these polls and we’re very confident that President Karzai will win,” said Sediq Seddiqi, a spokesman for his campaign. Each poll interviewed more than 2,000 Afghans nationwide and listed a margin of error of less than 2 percent.
Karzai held official meetings and did not plan to campaign on the final day of the race, Seddiqi said.
While many Afghans express frustration with the growing war under Karzai and the slow pace of reconstruction, a survey by Washington-based Glevum Associates found two-thirds of respondents saying they still have a favorable view of Karzai.
A suicide car bombing on Aug. 15 near the U.S. Embassy and the main North Atlantic Treaty Organization base in Kabul killed seven people and injured 91 others, reinforcing concern the Taliban may stage attacks on election day. Insurgents refrained from such strikes during Afghanistan’s first two national elections in 2004 and 2005.
The war has intensified throughout Karzai’s rule, with the Taliban having taken control of most of rural southern Afghanistan. Britain said July 30 its forces fighting under NATO command in Afghanistan are this year suffering their highest casualties of the war.
Ethnic Divide
As with any candidate for national leadership, Abdullah must straddle a divide between ethnic Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest group, and non-Pashtuns who live in the center and north.
While Abdullah is from an ethnically mixed Tajik-Pashtun family, his political base is among the Tajiks of the northeast. He trained as an ophthalmologist and in the 1980s war against Soviet occupation was an aide to the most famous Afghan guerrilla commander, Ahmed Shah Masood.
Although Pashtuns historically have opposed any rule by Tajiks, Abdullah said his campaign is “bridging that divide.” He predicted that many Afghans will break with their habit of voting only for candidates from their ethnic or linguistic group.
Abdullah proposes reducing unemployment by using development funds to hire educated youths as teachers. He also plans to give a higher priority to developing agriculture to create more rural jobs and says he’ll build a network of grain banks to ease regional food shortages.
“People are desperate to see changes -- an end to the war and to poverty,” he said. “The political culture is changing. I’ve heard from a lot of Pashtun families whose fathers will vote for Karzai, while the sons will vote for me.”
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Kabul at jrupert3@ bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 17, 2009 06:18 EDT
Back to Top
Back to Top
Abdullah faces hard road to Kabul
By James Lamont in Gardez August 17 2009 19:12
Streams of fake snow were showered on Abdullah Abdullah during the last day of campaigning in the Afghanistan election. President Hamid Karzai’s main rival had his path strewn with flowers and tinsel by an adoring taekwondo team on arrival in Gardez, a dusty Pashtun-belt town 60km south of the capital, Kabul.
Mr Abdullah, a former foreign minister, has turned the Afghan election into an unexpectedly close contest in the run-up to polling day on Thursday.
According to some predictions, Mr Karzai stands to win 40-45 per cent of the vote and Mr Abdullah 20-30 per cent. Ramazan Bashadorst, a populist anti-corruption campaigner with a following in the central highlands, is in third position with about 10 per cent.
A second-round vote between the top candidates has become a real possibility in the past month. An October run-off could see support split among an initial field of 40 candidates consolidating behind Mr Abdullah and lead to a heated leadership battle.
“The turning point was Herat province. That was when everyone knew that something was going on,” says one of Mr Abdullah’s aides. “There was a massive turnout. I would say tens of thousands. It was more than the big rally at Mazari Sharif.”
Since then the sense of inevitability around a Karzai victory has ebbed away.
During the last days of campaigning, Mr Karzai cancelled a visit to Helmand, opting instead for a televised debate, which his chief rival declined.
More controversially, he invited the return of the Abdul Rashid Dostum, a warlord suspected of atrocities against the Taliban, back from exile in Turkey. The pro-Soviet fighter’s return was widely viewed as a last-minute effort by Mr Karzai to firm up one of a number of ethnic alliances and secure victory. The move drew criticism from Washington.
Likewise, Mr Karzai has reached out to Mohammad Fahim, a former defence minister and Soviet-trained military commander, as a future vice-president. Mr Fahim brings with him Tajik votes.
The bout of pre-election deals worries rivals who see the president stitching together a powerful, if unwieldy, alliance with prominent figures from Afghanistan’s divided past.
One senior diplomat in Kabul says even if Mr Karzai wins, the 50-year-old Mr Abdullah has impressed with a mature campaign and is an attractive future presidential prospect.
Mr Abdullah, a relaxed man careful in his appearance, has drawn crowds across the country. He has staged 20 rallies and brings a simple message.
In Gardez, he told voters that it was not good enough for people not to have basic services after eight years of Mr Karzai’s rule. Flanked by gun-toting security men, he said Gardez – home to a large military base – deserved roads, a reliable electricity supply and a university.
He also said more people needed to be recruited into the national army and police to shoulder greater responsibility for the nation’s security. “We are eight years into the process and international troops in Afghanistan are increasing in number. That is a sign of our failure and the inefficiency of the government.”
A third electoral promise is to change Afghanistan’s constitution and introduce a parliamentary system with a prime minister and a president in an effort to balance power in an ethnically and religiously divided land.
Mr Abdullah’s aides say that a candidate with a Pashtun father and a Tajik mother can bridge the ethnic gulf between north and south.
But here lies Mr Abdullah’s weakness. He speaks Pashtun a little haltingly, and is conscious that he needs to build up his relationships with leaders in the south and east. Without these, his ambitions to national leadership are stunted.
Along the road between Kabul and Gardez lie homesteads protected by high mudwalled fortifications. Some have turrets and large gates embossed with Islamic designs. These timeless edifices speak of fearfulness and mistrust.
Where a US convoy patrols in the day, at night the road is held by Taliban forces.
Mr Abdullah has momentum. But he has a hard road to travel to win Kabul’s presidential palace.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Huge rally ends Afghan election campaign
Press TV August 17, 2009
Thousands of Afghans stage a rally in support of presidential hopeful Abdullah Abdullah on the last day of campaigning.
People gathered in Kabul stadium wearing blue baseball hats, waving flags and championing former Foreign Minister Abdullah, raising the chance of a run-off as the incumbent President Hamid Karzai is tipped to win.
Karzai, who has ruled since the late 2001 US-led invasion into the country, has been criticized for his controversial alliances with warlords during election campaigning.
Seventeen million Afghans are eligible to go to the polls on Thursday. But the election has been overshadowed by threats from the Taliban.
The militants have issued warnings of direct attacks on polling stations. Afghan officials say they won't know exactly how many polling stations will be open until election day.
Hundreds of foreigners have fled the country amid fears of violence ahead of the vote.
About 200,000 Afghan security forces and the 100,000 US and NATO troops will provide security in the event.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Ahead of Vote, Afghans in U.S. Backing Candidates From Afar
Washington Post By Tara Bahrampour Monday, August 17, 2009
Late at night, after he gets home from his job managing an Afghan restaurant in Alexandria, Mir Farid Hashimi makes long-distance calls, trying to convince relatives in Afghanistan that despite the hard times there, Hamid Karzai should keep leading the country.
Humira Noorestani, who runs an Afghan economic development organization in Centreville, has used e-mail, Facebook and phone calls to lobby voters in Afghanistan, including her mother's 500 cousins, to vote for one of Karzai's rivals.
Hashimi and Noorestani are among an estimated 250,000 Afghans in the United States who, because they live outside Afghanistan, will not be able to cast ballots in Thursday's presidential election. But although they can't vote in the second election since the Taliban's defeat eight years ago, they can campaign, even from 7,000 miles away. This summer they have organized fundraising events, held meetings in support of candidates and spoken on U.S.-based Afghan television, which is beamed to Afghanistan. Some have traveled there to help educate people about voting, and others are working the phones and social networking sites to push for a candidate.
"Most Afghans in the U.S. are upset because they're not able to vote," said Ajmal Ghani, an Afghan American who lives in Springfield and is a representative for his cousin, presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani.
Afghans who live abroad couldn't vote in the last presidential election either. The polling infrastructure isn't in place to allow voting outside Afghanistan, although it is something the government would like to set up, said a spokesman for the Afghan Embassy here.
More than most expatriates, many Afghans in the diaspora, including about 35,000 in the Washington area, have deeply personal connections with the politics of their homeland. This is partly because most of the country's political and economic elite fled during the war-torn 1980s. People who in calmer times might have been leading the country found themselves driving taxis in Northern Virginia or selling hip-hop clothing in Northern California -- two of the biggest U.S. Afghan enclaves.
After the rout of the Taliban, many returned to Afghanistan to enter politics or business but retained close ties to the United States. Among those who remained here, plenty have family members who returned or have spent time themselves in Afghanistan, aiding in its reconstruction or seeking investment opportunities. Afghans from the United States have invested almost $500 million in the country's infrastructure since 2002, according to the embassy.
For this election, Ghani supporters held a fundraiser this month at the Afghan Restaurant (where Hashimi, the Karzai supporter, works). Ghani, a candidate U.S. officials have promoted as a possible chief executive for the country, lived for many years in Bethesda, taught at Johns Hopkins University and worked for the World Bank. James Carville is advising his campaign.
Local supporters of Abdullah Abdullah, an ophthalmologist and former foreign minister, held an event this month at George Mason University during which the candidate addressed attendees live remotely via speakerphone; they say they have raised about $30,000.
It is hard to know how much clout Afghans in the diaspora have with voters. At times, those who live in Afghanistan have resented Afghans coming in from abroad and trying to direct things. But many in Afghanistan also receive financial support from relatives in the United States.
A call from the United States can carry weight, said Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States. "It's received well, because [the recipient] thinks, 'Maybe he knows something we don't.' " Sometimes the callers abuse that power, he added, claiming that their recommendations are "the United States' position." The U.S. government has not endorsed a candidate.
Candidates, too, like to feature their American backgrounds. "Any kind of association or affiliation with the U.S. is regarded as an asset," Jawad said. "So if they have it, they use it prominently."
Those living outside Afghanistan might also seem more credible because they are less subject to pressures from local tribal leaders, said Mariam Atash Nawabi, co-founder of the Washington-based Afghanistan Advocacy Group, a networking organization.
"What the diaspora think actually has a reverberating effect on their families in Afghanistan," she said. "They can say more what people in Afghanistan can't say because they're afraid of the warlords there."
Many Afghans say they are frustrated seeing Afghanistan mired in corruption, ethnic partisanship and violence despite their efforts and those of the U.S. and other governments.
"In my personal opinion, anyone is better than Dr. Karzai, because unfortunately he has failed to deliver," said Atiq Panjshiri, a former president of the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce who lives in Springfield and calls himself "a full supporter of Dr. Abdullah and also Dr. Ashraf Ghani."
Phone lines to Afghanistan have been jammed in the days leading up to the election, Hashimi said, but when he can get through, he urges family members to vote for Karzai, who he said has worked hard to modernize the country despite taking over at a difficult time.
"Most of them were going to Dr. Abdullah Abdullah," he said of his relatives, including an uncle he talked to for more than an hour. "But I changed a lot of them to go for Hamid Karzai."
Noorestani said her mother, who recently visited Afghanistan, was taking cabs several times a day. "She would ask the taxi driver, 'Are you voting?' " Many said they were not because they felt the outcome was predetermined or feared violence at the polls; she encouraged them to vote.
Noorestani's mother has 500 cousins who had been inclined to vote for Karzai because, like them, he is Pashtun. Ghani is also Pashtun, and Abdullah is Tajik. "She would tell them, 'Vote for Dr. Abdullah, don't you want to see change in Afghanistan?' "
Although she can't know how they will act on election day, she said, "they would tell my mom, 'Now you're telling us to, we're voting for Dr. Abdullah.' That's how politics works in Afghanistan. It's all about family ties."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Karzai's rival: President's 'assessment a myth'
Press TV August 17, 2009
Afghanistan's incumbent president, Hamid Karzai has attended a live televised election debate with two of his main rivals, ahead of Thursday's presidential poll.
Karzai was taken to task by two rival candidates, independent lawmaker Ramazan Bashar-doust and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.
But former foreign minister and presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, the man seen as Karzai's strongest challenger, did not attend the debate.
The debate comes as Afghanistan is to hold its second presidential election since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban on August 20, 2009.
Karzai said that civilian casualties caused by the US-led forces remains one of 'the most difficult challenges' facing the future Afghan government.
He added that fortunately, the figures were declining, but more needed to be done.
Meanwhile, Bashar-doust rejected Karzai's claims of a decline in casualties calling the president's 'assessment a myth'.
He said in order to have a peaceful Afghanistan; candidates must prove their words with action.
Former finance minister Ashraf Ghani for his part said that stability can be achieved only through a political framework and not by force.
All candidates promised they would create better educational and employment opportunities for women if elected.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Feature: Election campaign goes slow in Taliban birthplace
By Abbas Ali
KABUL, Aug. 17, (Xinhua) -- There are only five days to the Afghan presidential and provincial council elections, but the campaigning goes slowly in the Taliban birthplace Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan.
Compared with other important cities of Afghanistan like capital Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif or Jalalabad, there is less hustle and bustle for the elections here.
Though one can see some posters of one of the two women presidential candidates in Kandahar, the biggest commercial city in the south, few posters of the presidential hopefuls are seen on the walls, streets and main roads of the city.
Despite Taliban threat to disrupt the electoral process, both the sitting president Hamid Karzai and his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah have visited Kandahar and called on people to use their franchise on voting day.
There is low women participation in the social and political scenario in Kandahar as compared to other parts of the country.
There have been many incidents of Taliban militants throwing acid on female students. A couple of months ago, Sitara Achakzai, a prominent female politician and women's rights activist was killed by Taliban insurgents.
Kandahar, the hometown of president Karzai and a former stronghold of Taliban insurgents in south Afghanistan, has been the focal point of the three leading contesters e.g. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, incumbent president Karzai and Abdullah.
Security in Kandahar in the face of Taliban threat remains a challenge ahead of the coming election.
However, officials of the Afghan and International Forces are hopeful of the situation in Kandahar, saying they would do their best to facilitate all eligible voters to vote.
The Commander of Afghan forces in Kandahar, Gen. Abdul Bashir Salizai says the security has improved in the province. But the past week was bloody for the residents of Kandahar.
Nine civilians including women and children were killed on Tuesday in a roadside bomb blast in the city. Two foreign journalists of Associated Press of America (AP) were wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb near Kandahar city.
Taliban insurgents have been launching attacks in attempt to destabilize security ahead of the coming election.
There are over 200 voting centers across the troubled Kandahar province. Afghan National Security Forces (ANA) with the support of international troops according to Salizai would ensure security at the polling stations.
For ordinary people in Taliban birthplace Kandahar security is a serious threat. Rangin Khan, 26, says "In normal days we always fear security threat. There is no peace in this province."
He also expressed concern, "When we come out of home in the morning, we don't know whether we will return alive in the evening."
"Our days are not safe, how could we participate in the elections willingly?" he questioned.
A couple of weeks ago Taliban militants in a statement released to media from unknown location warned people to stay away from the election process or face dire consequences.
Due to lack of campaign, security threats and disinterest, some Afghans in Kandahar even don't know much about the second presidential elections of the country.
Muhammad Habib, 35, a baker talking to Xinhua said, "I have not registered myself for voting. I am a poor man. I need to work. I am not interested in these all (elections)."
Taliban militants in their latest wave of violence to demoralize people carried out a suicide car blast in the capital city Kabul Saturday killing seven civilians and wounding over 90 others.
Despite the slow pace of electioneering and the security challenges, Ali Kazai, Head of the Independent Election Commission in Kandahar is optimistic. "This is very crucial moment. Afghans have to decide their faith through voting," he said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan’s President Moves to Bolster Bid for Re-election
New York Times By CARLOTTA GALL August 16, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai moved to strengthen his chances of re-election on Sunday, just four days before the voting, by appearing in a live televised debate with two of his opponents and allowing an Uzbek warlord to return to Afghanistan to rally support.
His security chiefs also announced that the Taliban would allow more polling stations to be open in the south, Mr. Karzai’s stronghold.
The warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek commander whose men are accused of killing hundreds of Taliban prisoners of war in 2001, arrived in Afghanistan from exile in Turkey on Sunday evening, said Sardar Mohammad Rahman Oghli, a member of Parliament who is an ethnic Uzbek. Mr. Dostum’s return is expected to raise ethnic Uzbek support for Mr. Karzai, even though his reputation may put off some voters.
Afghanistan’s intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, said Sunday that hundreds of Taliban have agreed to cede ground in different areas to allow presidential and provincial elections to go ahead unhindered, despite their campaign of threats and bombs.
The agreements, mostly negotiated through elders in specific communities, will allow the Afghan police and army into areas to provide security for election officials and voters at polling centers, he said. It was not clear how many areas are involved, and election officials have said that hundreds of polling places will not be able to open because of a lack of security.
But Mr. Saleh said Taliban groups were under pressure from government security forces as well as from the communities to allow elections to proceed. The decision of some groups to allow elections to take place was also an indication that the Taliban leadership did not have control of its commanders, he said.
“These hundreds of Taliban who agree to back off and let the polling centers open and let the Afghan National Army at least come over, shows that the cohesion in the command of the Taliban is broken,” Mr. Saleh said.
Afghan and American forces have retaken control of two districts in recent military operations, Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said Sunday. Eight of Afghanistan’s 364 districts remain wholly under Taliban control and will not be able to hold elections, he said.
But the government has also been pursuing a flexible approach in places. “This diplomatic effort and these softer approaches and outreach allow us not to rely on force alone but also to exploit other ways and be more pragmatic,” Mr. Saleh said.
“We have contributed significantly to increasing the number of election centers,” he said, adding that the mediation efforts had taken place in a lot of provinces, “everywhere where you think they have a presence.” Security officials usually describe the Taliban as having influence in 45 percent of the country.
Mr. Saleh joined the defense and interior ministers at a news conference in the capital to lay out their security plans for the elections and urge the population not to be deterred by the threat of violence, a day after Kabul suffered a car bombing that left 7 dead and 91 wounded.
Minister of Defense Abdul Rahim Wardak called for a day of peace on Thursday, the day of elections, and said the Afghan security forces would not mount any offensive operations that day.
In the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday, insurgents fired three rockets near a stadium as thousands gathered at a rally to support Mr. Karzai’s re-election bid.
Mr. Karzai did not attend the rally, but the rockets landed close by the stadium, killing a woman in her home and wounding four other people, the director of the city hospital, Muhammad Daoud Farahi, said.
The president, who is the front-runner in polls, appeared in the televised debate Sunday evening alongside two other prominent candidates, legislator Ramazan Bashardost and the former finance minister Ashraf Ghani. The debate was a sedate affair, but a first for the country as the president defended his record before two rivals.
His main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, declined to attend. Mr. Abdullah took part in an earlier debate with Mr. Ghani, which Mr. Karzai had declined to attend.
Mr. Karzai defended his seven-year record, saying that he had always acted in the national interest, and that the general situation in Afghanistan had improved during his tenure.
But his opponents highlighted the widespread insecurity, corruption and poor management that have all increased under Mr. Karzai’s government. And they took swipes at him, saying that Afghans did not want a president who hid behind bodyguards and armored cars.
Back to Top
Back to Top
No-Show Karzai Disappoints Helmandis
Incumbent president may have lost quite a few votes when he failed to appear at campaign rally.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Lashkar Gah (ARR No. 331, 17-Aug-09)
The preparations had gone on all night – workmen hammering together a stage, hanging posters, and erecting a tent over Karzai stadium, named after the Afghan president.
Rows and rows of chairs were brought in, and lunch was prepared for 10,000 people.
It’s not every day that Helmand province, centre of poppy, insurgency, and international forces, gets a visit from the country’s leader. But local residents had been told that Saturday, August 15, was going to be special. Karzai was coming to Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, to ask the people for their votes in the August 20 presidential elections.
A large crowd, including women and children, was gathered under the tent by 9 am, waiting for their president to appear. They were still there an hour later, but Karzai had not shown up.
Shortly after 10.30 local officials filed in. They included Karzai’s provincial campaign manager, Amir Mohammad Akhundzada, along with his big brother, the former governor of Helmand, the highly controversial Sher Mohammad Akhundzada.
Sher Mohammad was sacked at the insistence of the British in late 2005, after nine tonnes of poppy paste was discovered in his office. Karzai has often said that getting rid of Sher Mohammad was one of his biggest errors – after the tough governor was fired, security in the province went rapidly downhill.
But Sher Mohammad apparently harboured no hard feelings: Karzai made him a senator, and brought him to Kabul. Now he was back home, campaigning for the incumbent president.
Alishah Mazlumyar, head of the information and culture department, opened the ceremonies. He promptly cast a pall over the proceedings by announcing that Karzai was not likely to come.
People near the entrance began to leave.
Suddenly Amir Mohammad Akhundzada took his phone out of his pocket, held it up to the microphone, and the crowd heard the voice of the president.
“Helmandis! Brothers and sisters! Hello!” Karzai then delivered a short speech, outlining his plans for talks with the Taleban, promising to help solve Helmand’s security problems, and appealing for votes.
“I am also feeling the sorrows of the Helmandis,” Karzai said. “Give me enough votes so that I can become president and then I can think about how to deal with all of these difficulties.”
Helmand residents may be forgiven for being sceptical. The province has been a war zone for the past three years. Since major military operations began in early July, the capital has been rocketed daily, while gunfire is frequently heard in outlying neighbourhoods.
The day before Karzai’s scheduled appearance, a suicide car bomber blew himself up in front of the Afghan National Army base in the Tor Tank area of Lashkar Gah, badly injuring two children and two ANA soldiers.
This, apparently, was too much for Karzai.
“The president cancelled his trip due to some security concerns,” Sher Mohammad said. “But I will definitely get your voices to the president. We are tired of this continuous war.
“We are asking for education, security, and reconstruction from the next president. We also ask him to give major government posts to Helmandis as he does for people of other provinces.”
But the audience was not eager to listen to Sher Mohammad or to the other speakers. Despite his appeals for quiet, people began to talk among themselves.
Amir Mohammad Akhundzada looked a bit stressed by the entire affair.
“It was a good thing that Karzai at least called,” he said, his eyes red-rimmed. “Otherwise, how could I face these people?”
The campaign rally had cost a lot of money, he added, and Karzai would have been very happy to see how many people wanted to hear him speak.
“All of this was ruined because of security,” he said.
With the elections only days away, security is a major concern in Helmand. The province has been the site of two major military operations, Dagger Thrust and Panther’s Claw, designed to rid the area of the insurgents and allow Helmandis to vote in peace.
Helmand authorities have announced that the elections will be held in a secure environment, with more than 2,000 police, hundreds of ANA soldiers and thousands more foreign troops for back-up.
“I am informing Helmandis that they will have security on election day,” Assadullah Sherzad, police chief of Helmand, said. “At the moment, more than 2,000 police are ready to guarantee the security of the polling centres.”
According Engineer Abdul Hadi, head of the local election commission, there will be 107 polling centres in Helmand. Just a little over one week ago his estimate had been 222 – but the centres would have been in areas too volatile to patrol. Many of Helmand’s residents will not have the possibility of casting their ballots, even if they wanted to.
Shirin Del, a tribal leader in Helmand, said that last week’s car bomb and the rockets showed that the Taleban had a plan for the elections.
“Nobody can prevent them,” he said. “These security forces could not protect Karzai. How can they protect me?”
Lashkar Gah has proved inhospitable to other presidential candidates as well. When Shahnawaz Tanai, one of the less prominent of this crop of contenders, visited Helmand in late July, an irate spectator threw shoes at him, repeating the indignity suffered by then US president George W Bush in Baghdad last December.
Karzai, it seems, did not do himself any favours with the Helmand electorate.
“I am not going to vote for anybody,” said one disgruntled resident, leaving the stadium. “Karzai has not paid any attention to us for the past five years.”
One man who is definitely not going to go to the polls for Karzai is the labourer who put up the stage.
“That damned Karzai,” he grumbled. “I worked all night on that stage, for very little money. I wish I had not done it.”
Mohammad Ilyas Dayee is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Threats by Taliban May Sway Vote in Afghanistan
By DEXTER FILKINS The New York Times August 17, 2009
TARAKAI, Afghanistan — A group of Taliban fighters made their announcement in the bazaar of a nearby village a few days ago, and the word spread fast: anyone caught voting in the presidential election will have his finger — the one inked for the ballot — cut off.
So in this hamlet in southern Afghanistan, a village of adobe homes surrounded by fields of corn, the local people will stay home when much of the rest of the country goes to the polls on Thursday to choose a president.
“We can’t vote. Everybody knows it,” said Hakmatullah, a farmer who, like many Afghans, has only one name. “We are farmers, and we cannot do a thing against the Taliban.”
Across the Pashtun heartland in eastern and southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents hold sway in many villages, people are being warned against going to the polls.
In many of those places, conditions have been so chaotic that many Afghans have been unable to register to vote. In many areas, there will not be any polling places to go to.
The possibility of large-scale nonparticipation by the country’s Pashtuns is casting a cloud over the Afghan presidential election, which, American and other Western officials here believe, needs to be seen as legitimate by ordinary Afghans for the next government to exercise real authority over the next five years.
Doubts about Pashtun participation are particularly injecting uncertainty into the campaign of the incumbent, Hamid Karzai. Five years ago, Mr. Karzai rode to an election victory on a wave of support from his fellow Pashtuns, who make up about 40 percent of Afghanistan’s population.
Polls show that Mr. Karzai is leading the other candidates. But those predictions could be overturned if a large number of Pashtuns stay away from the polls.
The threats against the local population in villages like Tarakai show a change in the Taliban’s tactics from previous years. Five years ago, the insurgents largely allowed voting to go forward. At the time, Afghan and American officials believed that the prospect of voting was so popular among ordinary Afghans that Taliban commanders decided that opposing it could set off a backlash.
But things are different now. The Taliban have surged in strength since 2005. Mr. Karzai, though he is the leading candidate, is vastly more unpopular than he was then. As a result, Taliban leaders are actively trying to disrupt the candidates’ campaigns and preparations for the vote.
“Afghans must boycott the deceitful American project and head for the trenches of holy war,” said a communiqué released by the Taliban leadership last month. “The holy warriors have to defeat this evil project, carry out operations against enemy centers, prevent people from participating in elections, and block all major and minor roads before Election Day.”
In other messages released since then, Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility for killing campaign workers for Mr. Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, another major candidate, in provinces across the country.
In Tarakai, a village of about 50 families, some local men gathered outside their homes when a group of American Marines approached on foot. Some 10,000 Marines, sent here by President Obama, have fanned out across Helmand Province over the past six weeks and are pressing an offensive against Taliban insurgents.
The local men appeared relaxed and friendly in the presence of the Marines. But they said they were too frightened of the Taliban to go to the polls on Thursday and doubtful that the Marines could protect them. The Americans stationed here, part of the Second Battalion, Eighth Marines, have been in combat with Taliban insurgents nearly every day since arriving in the area on July 2.
“When you leave here, the Taliban will come at night and ask us why we were talking to you,” a villager named Abdul Razzaq said. “If we cooperate, they would kill us.”
Even if the villagers in Tarakai were inclined to cast ballots, they would be hard-pressed to do so. The nearest polling station will be in the town of Garmsir, the capital of the district of the same name, 12 miles up an unpaved road pockmarked with craters from homemade bombs. Afghan officials considered setting up polling places across Helmand Province, but concluded that many areas were not safe enough. In the district, which straddles the Helmand River, there will be seven voting precincts in the capital, but none elsewhere.
“It’s too insecure in those places,” said Lt. Col. Christian Cabaniss, the Second Battalion’s commander.
What is more, anarchic conditions have prevented many Afghans from registering to vote. Earlier in the year, when the government was registering voters, there were no Marines in the area and the Taliban were in control. The Afghan Independent Election Commission sent no officials to the area to sign up potential voters.
In their six weeks here, the Marines have succeeded in chasing many Taliban fighters from the area. But the Taliban, and the fears of them, linger.
One farmer said the Taliban regularly imposed a tax on the crops in the area.
Another, an elderly man with a long white beard, said the Taliban fighters were sure to deal harshly with people who talked to the Americans.
“We’re afraid you’re going to leave this place after a few months,” he told First Lt. Patrick Nevins, an officer from Chapel Hill, N.C., who led the Marine unit into Tarakai.
“I promise you,” Lieutenant Nevins said, “we will be here when the weather gets cold, and when it gets hot again.”
The Marines walked back to their base, and the Afghans back into their homes.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Post-Election Unrest Concerns
With vote only days away, many government officials worried about disputes over outcome turning violent.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Kabul (ARR No. 331, 17-Aug-09)
As Afghanistan prepares for a elections this week, it is faced with the twin spectres of an escalating insurgency and the threat of post-ballot political unrest.
A major suicide bombing rocked the capital, Kabul, on Saturday, August 15, killing at least ten and injuring 100 more. Fighting has broken out in various regions around the country, a rocket attack has closed the airport in Herat, and candidates are starting to cancel campaign appearances for fear of assassination attempts.
With concerns over low voter turnout and widespread fraud plaguing the process, many are beginning to question whether the presidential and provincial council elections on August 20 will have any legitimacy among the population.
And remarks by some senior members of the presidential candidates’ campaigns, notably from a representative of one of the main challengers, have raised the possibility of mass protests if the results are seen as having been rigged.
The first of the warnings signals came in a late July interview in The National, a newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates, UAE, with the campaign manager for leading presidential contender Dr Abdullah Abdullah told a reporter that his faction would not recognise the re-election of the incumbent president Hamed Karzai.
“We will not accept it,” Abdul Satar Murad told the newspaper. “[Karzai] cannot win unless he resorts to large-scale corruption. So we will not accept that. The nation is not voting for him. He only gets votes through his governors and by corruption.”
Karzai is the clear favourite in the poll, and is almost certain to secure another term in office. The only serious question is whether Abdullah can pull enough votes to deprive the president of a first-round victory.
In 2004, Karzai easily triumphed over a field of 17 challengers, gaining 54 per cent of the vote on election day. According to the constitution, if no candidate received more than 50 per cent of the vote, the top two will face off in a second round.
The possibility of a runoff has appeared more likely in recent weeks. Officials from the Independent Election Commission, IEC, have said privately that the campaign will continue for “a few more months”, and two recent opinion polls suggest that Karzai does not command the voting strength to gain a first-round win.
But Abdullah’s camp has put up an unexpectedly strong showing, and, according to Murad, will be prepared to protest if things do not go their way.
”There will be a big demonstration,” he told The National. “[There will be] street demonstrations, and it will turn bad. The country will land in the middle of a crisis.”
But the major candidates, including Abdullah himself, have backed away from any threat of violence.
“We look to the stability of Afghanistan as a necessity for every move and change,” Abdullah told the media shortly after the interview in The National. “We will never do anything under any circumstances which threatens stability in Afghanistan.”
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, another top presidential contender, told IWPR in early June that Afghans “would not take any attempt to steal the election lying down”, but his campaign manager, Ajmal Abedi, has insisted his people would not resort to any attempt to foment violent protests.
“We strongly oppose post-election violence,” Abedi said. “Maybe there will be fraud during the elections, but we should be patient, and not go towards violence. We should solve the issue through legal channels.”
Karzai’s campaign dismisses any allegations of attempted fraud, and says that such rumours are circulated to serve certain candidates’ political interests.
“These rumours are started by candidates who know that the results of the elections will not be in their favour,” said Wahid Omar, spokesperson for Karzai’s campaign. “One way or another they want to challenge the results. They have created a concern that, if candidiate A does not win the election, Afghanistan will go towards violence.”
The Karzai campaign, he emphasised, had no such aim, “We are sure of the people’s votes. We will not advocate violence, no matter what the results of the election. If Dr Abdullah wins, or somebody else, we will accept it calmly.”
No one has been officially sanctioned for spreading rumours of violence; however, following the article in The National, many pointed fingers at Abdullah’s team. For their part, supporters of Abdullah are blaming Karzai for conducting a propaganda campaign against them.
Fazel Sancharaki, spokesperson of the National United Front and a supporter of Abdullah, said that the issue of violence had been exaggerated by the Karzai team to such an extent that Afghans and the international community now thought that Abdullah was trying to sabotage the elections.
“Karzai wants to silence his rivals,” Sancharaki said. “This is definitely why Karzai’s team is spreading these rumours. He wants to force people to accept the results of the elections.”
Karzai’s campaign strongly denies such allegations.
The international community, which is overseeing the elections process, has also expressed concern over the possibility of violence.
Kai Eide, United Nations Special Representative to Afghanistan, told the media that he had delivered a forceful message to all of the candidates about the issue. He called for unity and shared responsibility, to avert any out break of unrest.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US ambassador to Afghanistan, caused a stir with an op-ed piece in the Financial Times, published August 11. If violence were to break out, he warned, it could be very dangerous for the mission of the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, in Afghanistan.
”There is the danger that one or more of the contenders might not accept the declared results, leading to protracted violence, probably focused on Kabul. It is unclear whether Afghan security forces could control the situation on their own, or would require assistance from the ISAF. This could be a no-win situation, with serious consequences for the ISAF role in Afghanistan, whether it participated in the pacification effort or not.”
Afghanistan has experienced years of war and crisis in which the gun has had the last word. A number of analysts inside Afghanistan warn that the capacity for violence exists if a candidiate chooses not to accept defeat.
“The situation is not at all conducive to elections,” said political analyst Ahmad Saeedy. “In Helmand province, for example, it is not possible for everybody to participate. So when boxes full of votes come from that place, some candidates will say that this is fraud. They will protest and fan the flames of violence.”
Recent events in neighbouring countries have contributed to the feeling of unease, he added.
“The post-election violence in Iran has had an influence on Afghanistan as well,” Saeedy said. “And on the other hand, the armed opposition is also trying to bring the legitimacy of the elections into question.”
If protests begin, Saeedy added, they might be difficult to control.
“There are guns in Kabul and other provinces,” he said. “And the enemy also has a presence in the capital. If there are protests, everybody can take advantage of the opportunity to pursue his own ends. This is not a distant possibility.”
The interior ministry has issued stern warning that they will deal harshly with anyone trying to foment violence.
Kabul residents are also worried about the possibility of post-election trouble.
“When candidates talk about violence, it means they are thinking of coups and revolutions,” Mohammad Mansoor, a resident of Kabul, said. “So why are they running for office? If people do not like a person, they will not vote for him. If the candidates are not prepared to respect the vote of the people, and if they will not accept the results, then why should we vote? it is better if they just decide among themselves.”
Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Obama seeks support for Afghan effort
The Irish Times - News Monday, August 17, 2009
President Barack Obama will seek to shore up US public support for the war in Afghanistan today just days before an Afghan presidential election widely seen as a major test of his revamped strategy.
Mr Obama will address a military veterans group in Phoenix at a time when US combat deaths are rising amid a troop buildup against a resurgent Taliban, and polls show a softening of public backing for the eight-year-old war.
Hoping to reassure Americans, Mr Obama is expected to sketch out why he believes the Afghanistan policy he unveiled earlier this year is working and why the United States must remain committed to stabilising the war-ravaged country.
Since taking office in January, he has shifted focus from the more unpopular war in Iraq to Afghanistan, setting it as his administration's top foreign policy priority.
"He'll obviously touch on what we're accomplishing ... (and) what we hope to accomplish," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in previewing Obama's speech, which will be delivered at 11am local time to a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.
Mr Obama will speak as Afghans prepare to vote in an election on Thursday that the Taliban, stronger than at any time since they were driven from power in 2001, have vowed to disrupt.
Securing the balloting will be a crucial test for Mr Obama's strategy that has rushed 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan this year in a bid to tip the balance in a war some in Washington had admitted the United States was not winning.
"We've got tremendous resources there to ensure that there is a security situation that allows the Afghans to choose their leaders," Mr Gibbs told reporters.
Underscoring the threat, however, the Taliban on Saturday claimed a suicide car bomb that killed seven people near the headquarters of the Nato-led international force in Kabul.
In a wide-ranging speech that will also delve into the winding-down of the Iraq war, defense spending and veterans' healthcare, Mr Obama can be expected to tread carefully about the Afghan election to avoid any implication of US interference.
Despite the Obama administration's unease about incumbent president Hamid Karzai's leadership, polls show him with a comfortable lead over his nearest challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, but not enough to avoid a second round run-off.
The new commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, will deliver a strategy assessment shortly after the Afghan election. It comes at a time when Taliban violence is exerting pressure on Washington to show results in what was supposed to be a "good war."
After a record 44 US troops were killed in Afghanistan in July, a recent CNN poll showed US public support for the war at a new low -- 54 per cent opposed and 41 per cent in favour.
Mr Obama's strategy has called for increased aid as well as troops for Afghanistan, but the effort to bring in more civilians to help rebuild has been slow.
He has worked to draw neighboring Pakistan into a regional crackdown on the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies, and though Islamabad has stepped up counter-insurgency operations in its territory Washington still wants tougher action.
Iraq could also figure prominently in the speech. Mr Obama, who rode to victory in last year's election partly on his opposition to the war, has said the United States is on track to withdraw all troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
He has said his predecessor George W Bush was too distracted by Iraq to give adequate resources to Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan: The corner of Kabul that is forever England
There is a corner of Kabul that is forever England. Surrounded by streets clogged with battered taxis and bullet-proof 4x4s is the British cemetery, an oasis of calm contemplation at the heart of a city scarred by conflict.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer in Kabul 17 Aug 2009
Among its rose bushes and trees is its newest memorial.
Three black stone plaques placed side-by-side on the cemetery's southern wall, that chart the grim toll of men cut down in their prime.
An engraved list of those killed in the conflict of the past eight years has spread across the stones.
But in a summer which has seen the Armed Forces' bloodiest month, bloodiest week and bloodiest day since operations began it is hard to keep pace.
The plaques were last updated for Remembrance Sunday in 2008 and hold 121 names.
This weekend came the news that the memorial will now have to bear 201 names. More plaques will be needed to hold the additions.
The cemetery was built in 1879 to hold the dead of the second Anglo-Afghan War. It replaced an earlier graveyard for the first Anglo-Afghan war and bears some graves dating back to that 1842 defeat.
Passing through the wooden door, set in a high anonymous wall, visitors exchange the bustle and dust of Kabul's potholed roads for tranquillity and reflection.
Quietly pacing the gravel paths is Rahimullah, the cemetery's wizened caretaker and watchman since the 1980s.
Among the graves he tends is that of Major John Cook, of the 5th Gurkha Rifles, who won a Victoria Cross during hand-to-hand fighting with Pashtun tribesmen in 1878.
On the newest monument is the name of Cpl Bryan Budd, of the Parachute Regiment, who won the same award charging Taliban fighters 128 years later.
Officially the garden is now known as the Christian cemetery and contains explorers, diplomats, adventurers, merchants and aid workers from across the world.
But while headstones commemorate Poles, Germans, French, Italians and Canadians, to the Afghan residents of Kabul, it remains simply the 'British cemetery'.
The plaque to the most recent British dead is informally funded by officers and men who have served in Afghanistan.
The cemetery is not formally recognised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and is still owned by the city of Kabul.
Col Simon Diggins, the British defence attaché who coordinates fundraising for the cemetery, described it as a "labour of love".
Col Diggins, said: "It's very important to us.
"It would be great to think that in ten years time, families might be able to come out here and see it and enjoy the tranquillity." British commanders admitted at the start of this year they were facing a "very difficult" summer at a crucial time for Afghanistan.
Their misgivings have been grimly realised in Helmand's sweltering heat.
British troops have faced some of their hardest fighting yet in a campaign already notorious for difficult conditions.
In the past year, the death toll has risen sharply.
The milestone of 100 British dead in Afghanistan arrived after six and a half years of operations.
The latest 100 deaths took only another 15 months to arrive.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Tajik-Afghan Prisoner Exchange Still On Hold
August 17, 2009 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
DUSHANBE/KABUL -- A Tajik-Afghan agreement on a prisoner exchange signed last year has still not been implemented, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.
The majority of the some 260 Afghan citizens currently serving terms in Tajik prisons were found guilty of illegally crossing the border and/or drug trafficking.
A court in Tajikistan's southwestern Khatlon province recently sentenced Afghan Musokhon Valadi Mirhamza to 18 years in prison. Local Judge Izzatullo Tabarov told RFE/RL that trials for three more Afghans are expected to be held soon.
One Afghan inmate, Abdullah, called RFE/RL earlier this month seeking help in being sent to Afghanistan, and cited the Tajik-Afghan agreement from last year on prisoner exchange.
Afghan Ambassador to Tajikistan Sayid Mohammad Khairkhoh told RFE/RL that implementation of the agreement is being discussed, as the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe has prepared all necessary documents for establishing a joint Tajik-Afghan commission that would oversee the exchange.
Meanwhile, Tajik Deputy Prosecutor-General Abdusami Dodoboev told RFE/RL that the Afghans in Tajik jails will be sent to Afghanistan if Kabul can guarantee that they will serve their prison terms there and not be freed.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dodfar Spanta told Radio Free Afghanistan on August 13, said that such guarantees have been officially sent in a special letter to the Tajik government.
There is no exact information on the number of Tajik citizens serving prison terms in Afghan prisons.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan Warlord's Warning To Nato Forces
Sky News - Politics 17 Aug 2009
One of the world's most wanted warlords has told Sky News he will not enter into any peace talks while foreign troops remain in Afghanistan.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a Mujahideen leader who was once the Afghan prime minister, now leads the Hezb-e-Islami political party and paramilitary group in Afghanistan.
His gunmen fight alongside al Qaeda and the Taliban - with the mission of killing British and American troops.
Sky News gained unprecedented access to his group, and spent several days with them in four different provinces of Afghanistan, including the capital, Kabul.
We were shown scores of weapons hidden across the region, including the roadside bombs that have claimed the lives of so many soldiers.
In his first interview to a British journalist in nearly a decade, he told Sky News: "The important issue for us is to end the occupation and re-establish the country's sovereignty.
"We never want to take part in a puppet Government under foreign dictat.
"The Kabul Government is made up of looters and corrupt criminals. We don't want to enter this dirty ditch."
Hekmatyar is wanted by America for taking part in terrorist activities with al Qaeda and the Taliban.
His tough stance on the withdrawal of troops appears to have constantly disappointed the current Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
Mr Karzai is believed to have made overtures to Hekmatyar to lay down his arms and join the political process.
Mr Hekmatyar himself says President Karzai and his administration have repeatedly approached him.
Mr Karzai has made no secret of his wish to open talks with the Taliban and other insurgent groups, but with certain pre-conditions such as the laying down of arms and renouncing of violence.
But neither Mullah Omar - who leads the Afghan Taliban - nor Hekmatyar appear to regard Mr Karzai as worth negotiating with.
"The Kabul Government has no power or will," Hekmatyar said.
"They have no decision-making powers. The foreign powers don't even listen to the Government's requests to avoid civilian casualties or share information about their operations."
Obtaining the interview with Hekmatyar involved weeks of negotiation. We recorded a series of questions and the CD was sent via a number of intermediaries.
It changed hands several times before being delivered to a secret location where the militant leader is running operations.
He then responded with his own recorded answers and the CD spent nearly two weeks being transported back to us.
Hekmatyar insists he has no structured links with al Qaeda but his organisation, the Taliban and al Qaeda do 'help' each other.
He said he believes al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is still alive although he admits he has not seen him for some years.
He says his group is very active in the south of the country where British troops are mostly stationed in Helmand.
He talks of mounting jihad (or Holy War) in "some places (of Helmand) secretly, in some places openly, in some place independently, and in some places with other groups".
He has a reputation as a ferocious political fighter and a ruthless leader and his links with other militant leaders are legendary.
In previous interviews he has said he helped bin Laden escape from the mountains of Tora Bora.
He and his group is believed to be responsible for many attacks on coalition forces and he is also a main suspect in the assassination attempt on Hamid Karzai in Kabul in April 2008.
He says his group has been able to continue fighting for more than 30 years without any foreign aid.
"The Americans know that for Mujahideen to make a roadside bomb it costs less than $100 (£61)," he said.
"Everyone knows that no country is helping Mujahideen. All our neighbours including Iran are helping the Americans.
"Iran and Pakistan arrested hundreds of Mujahideen and turned them over to the Americans."
He goes on: "In the end the Americans will be forced to leave Afghanistan and that will be the day that will be celebrated as Afghanistan freedom just as it was celebrated as a freedom day in Iraq's cities when the American forces left."
And in a statement which is likely to dash any hopes of reconciliation with his militant group, he says: "The foreign troops are the cause for prolonging the war.
"While they are here the war will never end and there won't be any security either."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan women fight on for rights
By Jane Corbin Reporter, BBC Panorama Sunday, 16 August 2009
The smell of disinfectant mingled with burnt flesh was overpowering - I was in the special burns unit in Herat's hospital.
It was set up by a French charity in the Afghan city to treat women who set fire to themselves, usually to escape a violent husband or a forced marriage.
There I found Zeinab, an 18-year-old mother of two. Her eyes were vacant, her body covered with a mesh suit to conceal the raw flesh. After two years of constant beating she had poured oil from a lamp over herself, in front of her husband.
"I was going to wash it off. I am not the sort that would commit suicide," she told me, "then he jeered and said 'Look, she spent 20 Afghanis of my money to buy oil and didn't even burn herself'".
Zeinab grabbed the matches and set herself alight. This one unit sees 100 cases each year, but most women die before they reach the hospital.
I was in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 when the whole world expressed outrage over the medieval regime which had forbidden women to work, banned girls from schools and executed women in a football stadium.
After the country was liberated, women were supposed to cast off their burkhas and embrace the new democracy introduced by President Hamid Karzai's government.
The new Constitution promised them equality and human rights under the law.
Eight years on, as I travelled around Afghanistan listening to their stories, I found that the vast majority of women are still downtrodden and desperate.
But some brave women are fighting against the odds to improve their own lives and those of other women.
Sold for sex
A staggering 60% of women are still forced into marriage as children - often as young as nine or ten. That has not changed since the West intervened, despite Afghan law stating that girls under 16 should not be married.
In practice, the government and families ignore the law. In the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, I found 17-year-old Saida who was on the run from her husband.
Her father had died when she was little and her brothers had claimed her as their property. They sold her off, at the age of 9, to a 60-year-old man.
"If he saw a shoe or a stick, anything - he would beat me with it," Saida said, "I had four miscarriages because of the beating and the stress".
Then her husband took his child bride on the road to places where they were not known and sold her to other men, forcing her to have sex with them.
Finally, Saida confided in a woman at a shrine in Mazar-i-Sharif, the police were alerted and Saida was taken to a women's shelter.
Staff at the shelter are helping her get a divorce, but her husband will not agree to let her go.
"He is in touch with my relatives on the phone," said Saida "He says he is praying for an opportunity to drink my blood".
'I do not accept bribes'
Afghanistan is a lawless place - the government is not able to implement its own laws to keep women safe or to protect them from a resurgent Taliban.
However, some women are standing up to the extremists. I spent time with the first female Prosecutor of Herat, Maria Bashir, who is guarded day and night by a posse of security men.
She has survived one bombing attack but her children are unable to go to school or to play with friends for fear of kidnap. The son of another law officer was beheaded by people who thought he was Maria's child.
"I do not accept bribes. I have many enemies because I have never acted illegally," Maria explained.
She continues to try to bring justice to the poor, especially women. But the police are reluctant to investigate crimes against women, and male judges often drastically reduce the jail sentences of men found guilty of such crimes.
"We are far from seeing the picture of equality promised under our Constitution," Maria said.
Women workers
One of the most inspiring women I met showed me how important it is to start at the grassroots to improve the lives of women.
Maryam set up a jam-making business when she returned as a refugee to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. She employed poor women from her small village. It was the first time they had earned money and had any independent life outside the home.
Maryam applied to be a contestant on the Afghan version of Dragon's Den - she promised her conservative family she would wear a hijab and cover her face to respect their honour.
Yet, the local Taliban began to threaten her after she got through the first three rounds of the contest.
"I told them I didn't do anything against Islam," Maryam said, "'Who are you to tell me what to do' I said".
The price for standing up to the Taliban was high - Maryam and her family had to flee their village.
But she came second in the television contest, winning a cheque for $10,000. With the money, she bought land on an industrial estate in Herat and is building a big jam factory to employ even more women.
I saw pathetic sights, women beggars and drug addicts, faceless women in burkhas who wanted to talk to me but were too afraid.
But I met courageous women too, including women activists working despite the threat of assassination and women MPs who stand up to bullying and intimidation in Parliament.
And most encouraging of all many young girls determined to finish school and have a career.
With 80% of Afghan women still illiterate, change will only eventually come if there is an equal opportunity for both girls and boys to be educated and if some measure of meaningful protection for women is introduced.
Change for women is painfully slow in Afghanistan and people are full of foreboding about what will happen after the presidential election if talks with the so-called 'moderate' Taliban go ahead.
Back to Top
Back to Top
U.S. civilian killed in E Afghanistan: Coalition forces
KABUL, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- An American national working for troops in east Afghanistan was killed in the militancy-hit region of east Afghanistan, a press of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) issued here Monday said.
"A U.S. civilian working with the military died after his patrol encountered small arms fire from insurgents in eastern Afghanistan on Aug. 16," the press release added.
"We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the fallen," said Air Force Lt. Col. Todd Vician, a U.S. spokesperson said in the press release.
However, it did not say the exact rank and position of the victim with the troops and the exact place of the incident.
Casualties of the NATO-led multinational peacekeeping have gone up in Afghanistan since early last month since a major offensive under U.S. Marine had been launched against Taliban in the poppy-growing Helmand province on July 2.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pakistan Taliban claim responsibility of blast in northwest
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility for a car blast in which at least 12 people were killed in a petrol station in northwest Pakistan's Charsadda, local TV channels reported Monday.
According to reports, the bomb was attached to a passenger pick-up and exploded when it was getting fuel at a petrol pump at the town of Shabqadar in Charsadda district, some 30 kilometers from Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari expressed his deep sorrow and grief over the blast, saying the government will not be deterred by such acts and vowed to continue its efforts against the extremists and terrorists till their complete elimination.
Pakistan's most wanted Taliban militant commander, Baitullah Mehsud, was reportedly killed by a U.S. missile attack on Aug. 5 in South Waziristan, part of the lawless tribal regions along Pakistan 's border with Afghanistan. Taliban has vowed to launch afresh wave of retaliation attacks.
On Saturday, the second day after Pakistan's 62nd Independence Day, a suicide bomber rammed into a security check post with his explosives-packed vehicle in the town of Khawazakhela in nearby Swat, killing five security personnel and a civilian.
That was the first suicide attack in Swat valley since Pakistan’s security forces started the military operations against Taliban militants in the area.
The security forces have said they have secured most areas in Swat of Taliban-linked militants but the fresh attack has raised concerns over the presence of the militants.
The security forces had launched a major offensive against the militants in Swat in late April and according to the army some 1500 militants have been killed.
The military operations have internally displaced over 2 million people from Swat and several other parts of the northwest and 60 percent have returned, according to Pakistani and UN officials.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan's war of ideas
A woman, a school, a tragically complex relationship
Global Post By C.M. Sennott Monday, August 17, 2009
KABUL - On the morning of July 9, boys and girls were walking down a narrow road in the Logar Province on their way to school, just as they did every day at that time.
That's when the large bomb packed in a timber truck pulled up at a checkpoint and detonated, killing 25 people, including 13 schoolchildren, in the worst bombing in Afghanistan in several years.
It is believed that the Taliban carried out the attack in retaliation for the girls' school that had been built in the village in the Mohammed Agha district.
Education is on the frontline of the war in Afghanistan.
Almost daily, girls' schools are burned and bombed, and teachers, principals, students and their families receive what are known as "night letters" -- Islamic decrees of death issued by the Taliban and pasted on homes and the walls of villages in the dead of night. In just two years, more than 640 schools in Afghanistan and more than 350 in Pakistan have been bombed, burned or shut down, according to the education ministries in both countries. Eighty percent of those targeted were girls' schools.
In southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, most of which is effectively controlled by the Taliban, 75 of 228 schools have been shut down by Taliban militias that disapprove of the secular teaching as well as the idea of girls receiving an education.
But the July 9 bombing in Logar and the devastating effect the deaths of 13 elementary-school-age boys has had on the village where it happened offers a microcosm of just how bad things are in Afghanistan. The story really begins on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Peter Goodrich, 32, was among those killed on the second plane that was hijacked and crashed into one of the World Trade Center twin towers. His parents, Don and Sally Goodrich of Bennington, Vt., fell into the abyss of despair that lies before any parent who loses a child, as well as the trauma experienced by Sept. 11 families. The light that helped lead them out of the darkness was an idea from a close friend of Peter's who served as a Marine in Afghanistan. He thought that Sally Goodrich, a schoolteacher, might want to help Afghan school kids as a way to honor her son.
Mrs. Goodrich eventually established the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation, which raised $200,000 in funds needed to build the two-story, 26-room, K-8 girls' school in Logar's Mohammed Agha district. The foundation has taken on other projects as well, from water distribution systems to relief for victims of an earthquake in Nangarhar.
Two years ago, Mrs. Goodrich went to see the Logar Province school in session for the first time. The classrooms were overflowing, and the hallways were buzzing with the chatter and giggling excitement of elementary school girls. Though the girls' faces were wrapped in the white headscarves of Islamic modesty, they looked up at the Vermont schoolteacher with confidence and glee that they would be learning.
But in March 2007, the Goodriches received news that the village, about 20 miles outside of Kabul, was overrun by the Taliban. On March 9, U.S.-led coalition forces raided the village in the middle of the night and burst into the homes of the two village elders: Haji Malik and Khadel Khan. They were handcuffed and bundled off for questioning as Taliban sympathizers.
The Goodriches had bonded with these men -- tall, bearded Pashtun brothers who wore all the traditional regalia. Sally Goodrich liked to say they and the community they represent gave back her life. Haji Malik was soon released, but his son and his brother, Khadel Khan, have been held ever since March at the U.S. military prison on Bagram air base. They have been detained without charges but are suspected Taliban militant collaborators, U.S. military officials say.
Sally Goodrich, as an educator, and her husband Don, a lawyer, were convinced that the U.S. military had been supplied with flawed intelligence. The Goodriches at first refused to accept such a betrayal as a possibility.
In mid March, the Goodriches flew to Kabul to meet with U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michael Ryan. He handed them a dossier marked "restricted" from the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. It contained documentation of the allegations against the Afghan men.
Documents state that both Mr. Malik's son and Mr. Khan are associates of "a major insurgent leader" of Taliban militants in the region who have carried out "suicide vehicle Improvised Explosive Device attacks in both Kabul and Logar." There were also photographs of the arms cache, including machine guns, landmines and wiring, detonators and explosive material to make roadside bombs -- all of which, the military report stated, were found in the compound where Mr. Malik's and Mr. Khan's extended families live.
The Goodriches left convinced that the allegations had substance, and that devastated them.
Mrs. Goodrich faced a dilemma. "So where am I? I am in a position where I can't support the school at this moment, because I am an American. That is why Peter was killed on that plane. And they are who they are. And I am who I am. ... I just don't see anyone coming out a winner on this point."
In June, Haji Malik agreed to be interviewed and came to Kabul. He denied that his son, Salim, 32, or his brother or anyone in his village had ever lent any support to the Taliban.
The name "malik" is akin to mayor, or village leader, elected by a village council. He is a man of standing and insisted that an enemy had fabricated evidence against them, and that he would never betray the support Sally Goodrich had provided his family and village.
"I am a Muslim; I am proud of it. But I am not a Talib -- I hate them," he said. "In the eye of Americans, I look like a Talib, but I am not. This is a conspiracy by our enemy."
It is possible that the tribal chiefs undertook a typically Afghan deal: They would support the Taliban to keep the school open. For Deputy Education Minister Autallah Wahajir, it is a plausible explanation, which he has seen occur elsewhere.
During the Taliban's reign in Afghanistan, Mr. Wahajir, who is himself from Logar, was exiled from his country. Earlier this year, his younger brother was kidnapped by the Taliban, and the family had to pay a ransom in tens of thousands of dollars to secure his release. He calls the Taliban who attack schools "worse than animals." And yet he believes that Haji Malik was right to have cut a deal if it meant getting an education for his children.
Mr. Wahajir is a young, rising star in the government and holds a key post in a very important ministry, which presides over some 12,000 schools attended by nearly 6 million students. Girls make up about one-third of the students. In 2001, when the Taliban were toppled, there were fewer than 1 million students and no girls enrolled as their perverse interpretation of the Quran prohibited that.
Mr. Wahajir is proud that the ministry has fought to keep schools open, despite threats from the Taliban, and he regrets that many parents are pulling their girls out of schools for fear that their safety is not secured. In accepting that the maliks of Logar may have cut a deal with the Taliban, he seems not to be considering the long math of a deal that, in this case, ended in tragedy.
American journalists cannot travel the extremely dangerous road to Logar. But a local TV cameraman from Logar with a small handheld Flip video camera documented that the school was open, but that attendance was down dramatically. The principal, who has received death threats, has not been at work. There was video, though, of the road leading to the school and children it.
On July 8, the Goodriches were shown the video, they were thankful to see the school open but sad attendance was down. Still, Sally Goodrich said prophetically: "We need to close the school. We can't risk the lives of even one child."
With USAID putting the female literacy in Afghanistan at a staggeringly low 10 percent in the rural areas where most Afghans live, education is the future for the country, particularly for women. No one believes that more than the Goodriches, but still they felt it was safer to close the school for now. They let that be known on their last trip in March. But the school falls under the Education Ministry, and Mr. Wahajir had stated that he wanted to keep it open in defiance of the Taliban intimidation.
Hours after the Goodriches were shown the video, news of the bombing came via e-mail from Logar. Details were sketchy, but it was confirmed that it exploded on the road between the girls' and boys' school. Thirteen children were killed -- all boys and all from families whose daughters attend the girls' school. Local leaders say they believe the Taliban targeted the boys, knowing it was a more severe punishment to families in a patriarchal society.
For Mrs. Goodrich, the wounds are extremely raw. She was in tears as she discussed the bombing. "I honestly wish we had never built the school. We put these people at risk. I just don't know how I am going to get through that," she said.
To Don Goodrich, the school is a microcosm of so much wrong in Afghanistan: "Our strategy in Afghanistan is on the brink of failure, if it hasn't already failed. We had an opportunity that we felt we were part of, and the surging toward a different life for the Afghan people is gone. ...
"I think it is gone because we did not understand the culture. We did not stand behind the promises we made. And I don't think we understand who to trust. Whether we can pull it back now is doubtful to me."
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).