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Special Envoy Arrives in Afghanistan
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. The New York Times February 13, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, the United States Embassy here said, one day after a coordinated series
Afghans investigate Pakistan link to Kabul raids
By Jonathon Burch – Thu Feb 12, 6:37 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan intelligence agents said Thursday they are investigating links between Pakistan and Taliban militants who killed 26 people in three simultaneous suicide bomb and gun raids on state offices in the capital Kabul.
Thousands of US weapons astray in Afghanistan: auditors
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Lax controls mean that tens of thousands of US weapons, including assault rifles and grenade launchers, risk ending up in the wrong hands in Afghanistan, congressional auditors warned on Thursday.
War against Taliban 'will be lost by autumn' unless strategy changes
The war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan will be lost by the end of the summer without dramatic changes in counter-insurgency strategy, according to a US military expert.
The Telegraph.com- UK By Alex Spillius in Washington 11 Feb 2009
The assessment of Col John Nagl, who is consultant to the US government as it conducts four policy reviews on Afghanistan, comes amid fears that unless the insurgents’ advance is halted, Afghanistan will become the new president’s Vietnam.
U.S., UN Condemn Taliban Attacks on Kabul Government Buildings
By Jay Shankar and James Rupert
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration and the United Nations condemned Taliban suicide attacks on Afghan government buildings in central Kabul yesterday that killed 26 people before a U.S. envoy visits the capital.
Italy Ready to Add 800 Troops in Afghanistan, La Stampa Says
By Steve Scherer
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday said he is willing to increase the country's troop level in Afghanistan by 800 during a telephone conversation with President Barack Obama
Time to Avoid Blame Game over Afghanistan Difficulties
Faryal Leghari 12 February 2009 Khaleej Times Online
DUBAI - There is a need to avoid a blame game over difficulties in Afghanistan as the new United States administration prepares to send in more troops to the country that is at the forefront on the war against terrorism
FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, Feb 12
12 Feb 2009 10:58:23 GMT
Feb 12 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1100 GMT on Thursday:
Coordinated Kabul assault shows Taliban strength
By Anand Gopal Anand Gopal – The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Thu Feb 12, 3:00 am ET
Kabul, Afghanistan – Insurgents attacked three government offices in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 26 and wounding nearly 60. The assault was one of the most complex and daring to take place in the Afghan capital since 2001.
Kabul on alert after Taliban attacks
Heidi Vogt ASSOCIATED PRESS Thursday, February 12, 2009
KABUL (AP) -- Heavily armed government troops thronged the streets of Afghanistan's capital Thursday, stepping up security before the arrival of the new U.S. envoy a day after Taliban attacks showed how easily the city's defenses can be breached.
Blast in Afghan capital controlled explosion
Thu Feb 12, 3:48 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – A loud blast was heard in the east of the Afghan capital Thursday, but the Defense Ministry said it was a controlled explosion carried out by the Afghan army.
Taliban send a bloody warning
Asia Times Online By Syed Saleem Shahzad 2/11/09
ISLAMABAD - The Taliban made their bloody presence felt in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday with a daring attack that claimed the lives of at least 26 people, with up to 60 injured.
Kabulis Stunned by Taleban Raid
Institute For War and Peace Reporting Afghan Recovery Report By IWPR-trained journalists in Kabul (ARR No. 312, 12-Feb-09)
Officials warn insurgents are getting stronger after they strike simultaneously at three government institutions.
Britain ready to send 300 more troops to help 'surge' in Afghanistan
The Times Online-UK February 12, 2009
Britain is preparing to send 300 more troops to Afghanistan, which could mark the extent of its contribution to the US-led “surge”.
SCENARIOS-US force in Afghanistan may grow to 60,000
Reuters North American News Service Feb 11, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will soon decide how many troops to send to Afghanistan as part of his first major deployment of forces overseas as commander in chief of the U.S. military.
Balkh Drug Addicts Face Grim Future
Institute For War and Peace Reporting Afghan Recovery Report By Abdul Latif Sahak in Mazar-e-Shairf (ARR No. 312, 10-Feb-09)
Spiraling addiction consequence of easy access to drugs and inadequate treatment facilities.
Northerners Leaving in Droves
Thousands flee poverty, unemployment and drought – with many heading for Iran.
Institute For War and Peace Reporting By Shah Reza Munshizada in Maimana (ARR No. 312, 10-Feb-09)
It is early morning in the Maimana city bus station, and crowds of young men are waiting to board buses that will take them far away.
Minister of Public Health Got Parliament's Confidence Vote
Written by www.quqnoos.com Wednesday, 11 February 2009
This week, parliament called four ministers for MPs votes and approval
Afghanistan: Food insecurity, the problem that never went away
EurasiaNet Aunohita Mojumdar 10 Feb 2009
Just as the United States is preparing for a massive reinforcement of its troops in Afghanistan, so too is the United Nations calling for a surge in humanitarian relief. Forty thousand people die every year in Afghanistan
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Special Envoy Arrives in Afghanistan
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. The New York Times February 13, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, the United States Embassy here said, one day after a coordinated series of Taliban suicide attacks in Kabul underscored the deteriorating security in the capital and across the country.
Security forces in Kabul remained on high alert Thursday, not only in preparation for the arrival of the envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, but also because a Taliban spokesman claimed eight bombers remained at large in the city and were still “looking for a chance.”
The spokesman described Wednesday’s attacks as retaliation for the mistreatment and torture of Taliban prisoners.
The suicide bombers and Taliban gunmen struck government buildings at three sites in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 57. It was a complex and highly organized attack that demonstrated the ease with which the insurgents could penetrate even a heavily fortified place like Kabul.
At the Justice Ministry, five Taliban guerrillas armed with explosives and Kalashnikov rifles killed two guards, stormed inside and took control of the building for more than an hour. Frightened employees, including the justice minister, barricaded themselves in their offices while the armed men stalked the halls for victims. At least 10 people were killed, including 2 who were shot in the cross-fire between government forces and the insurgents, security officials said.
Afterward, security forces carried the mangled bodies of the attackers out of the building and, in a sign of deep disrespect, dumped the bodies unceremoniously on the concrete forecourt. All eight attackers at the three sites were killed in addition to their 20 victims, the Interior Ministry said.
Earlier Thursday, Mr. Holbrooke met with the former Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, in the Pakistani city of Lahore. His tour of the region was part of a ground-up review of American policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan ordered by Mr. Obama, who met with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Wednesday to discuss plans to bolster American force levels here.
The brazen nature of the attacks was certain to influence the debate among administration officials over the strength of the Taliban, who control much of the countryside and have steadily encroached on Kabul.
The attacks also highlighted the fluid and murky nature of the insurgents’ ties with terrorist networks in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which Mr. Holbrooke visited briefly on Wednesday under Pakistani military escort.
One senior official in Washington said initial intelligence indicated that Wednesday’s attack was probably planned or supported by the Pakistan-based network of Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Mr. Haqqani’s group was also implicated in the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul last summer and might have had the assistance of members of Pakistan’s intelligence agency in that operation, American officials have said.
The attacks on Wednesday were the most audacious since the embassy assault. And in an eerie echo of the attacks in Mumbai, India, in November, which Indian and American intelligence officials say have been traced to a Pakistani militant group, the Taliban gunmen on Wednesday sent three messages to Pakistan seeking the “blessing of their mastermind,” said Amrullah Saleh, director of the Afghan national intelligence service.
Moments later, they began “indiscriminate killing” inside the Justice Ministry, Mr. Saleh said. Officials said 21 people had been detained, but it was not clear what linked them to the attacks.
The multiple coordinated strikes cloaked Kabul, a dusty and chaotic city of four million, in panic for the entire day. Miles of Kabul’s principal thoroughfares were blocked off, as police officers and soldiers rushed to reinforce scores of checkpoints.
Hours later, there were fears that other bombers were still roaming Kabul. In addition to the eight bombers who struck the Justice Ministry, the Education Ministry and the directorate for prisons.
Across the city, many streets were empty as residents were too scared to go outside. The attacks clearly unnerved Afghan officials.
“The enemy still has the capability to bring this amount of weapons and explosives inside the city of Kabul and find their way to government institutions,” said Hanif Atmar, the interior minister. He promised new and strict security measures that would be “uncomfortable” for residents, but necessary. Many parts of the capital are already sectioned off for security, and foreign embassies sit behind layers of checkpoints and blast walls.
The most confidence-shaking attack, at the Justice Ministry, began about 10 a.m., when five Taliban fighters took over three of the building’s four floors. The ministry is in the heart of the capital, a few hundred yards from the presidential palace.
Employees locked their doors and dived for cover inside their offices. There was “chaos on all four floors,” said Habib Mushakhas, a senior ministry official, after the police rushed him out of the building. “I heard an explosion, then a firefight. There was a lot of blood in the corridors. I saw one dead body.”
A little more than an hour after the attack, security forces counterattacked. Scores of soldiers and police officers rushed into the building and scaled ladders onto upper floors. More than 20 shots were fired. Soon after, ambulances took several police officers and soldiers away, their feet hanging off of stretchers poking out the open doors. It was not clear whether they were wounded or dead.
Eventually, the police and soldiers retook enough of the building to begin evacuating dozens of survivors. Then they rushed children out from the kindergarten classroom inside the ministry.
The police also began removing civilian bodies. By early afternoon they said they felt confident that they had defeated the gunmen, and they called an impromptu news conference in the Justice Ministry’s forecourt.
But minutes later they realized that one Taliban attacker was still inside, and a handful of different security forces — the police, the Afghan Army and national intelligence officers — went searching for him. A nervous commander barked into his radio, “Try to recognize each other, and don’t shoot our own guys.”
A radio call came from a commander inside the building. “We’ve cornered him,” he said. “Could you order us to shoot? We are worried because we think there are children and other civilians around.”
Two commanders outside talked. “What should we do?” one said. “Shoot him!” said the other.
Moments passed, and the commander inside the building said: “There’s nobody here. We should attack.”
“Attack!” came the response from a commander outside.
About 60 shots were fired over the next 20 minutes. Finally, the last gunman was dead. But so, too, were two more civilians whose bodies were brought outside and laid on stretchers. Security officials later said two hostages were killed in the cross-fire as government forces killed the last gunman.
All of the gunmen had worn suicide-bomb vests, but none of the vests had detonated. The government forces had defused and stripped them from the bodies, which bore large gashes and bullet holes, or had arms ripped partly from shattered shoulders.
As security forces fought to take back control of the Justice Ministry, a single Taliban suicide bomber was killed as he tried to attack the Education Ministry.
Across town, two more Taliban bombers killed and wounded more people at the Prisons Department. One bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint in front of the prisons building, while witnesses said the other bomber used the distraction to run inside.
Gholam Farouk Wafa, a 35-year-old policeman, said he was attending a training class inside with 60 other policemen when they saw a clean-shaven man with a large backpack come to the door. One of the policemen fired two shots at him, and the man fled upstairs, where he detonated his bomb, Mr. Wafa said.
Reporting was contributed by Lynsey Addario, Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sangar Rahimi from Kabul; Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan; David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt from Washington; and Mark McDonald from Hong Kong.
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Afghans investigate Pakistan link to Kabul raids
By Jonathon Burch – Thu Feb 12, 6:37 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan intelligence agents said Thursday they are investigating links between Pakistan and Taliban militants who killed 26 people in three simultaneous suicide bomb and gun raids on state offices in the capital Kabul.
The three coordinated raids on two ministries and a prisons department office Wednesday show a new tactic by the Taliban, who have previously only attacked one target at a time.
The raids may have been inspired by last year's attacks in Mumbai, India, and were designed to cause maximum panic and publicity, but analysts said Afghan forces blunted the effect by acting quickly to kill the militants.
"As they were entering the Ministry of Justice before starting their indiscriminate killing of the civilians in there, they sent three messages to Pakistan calling for the blessing of their mastermind," Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said.
The National Directorate of Security is investigating the possible link to Pakistan, a spokesman for the state intelligence agency said Thursday.
Since the beginning of last year, the Taliban and their allies have launched fewer attacks inside the heavily guarded capital, but those they have carried out have tended to be against high-profile targets designed to grab media attention.
Wednesday's attacks also came on the eve of the first official visit to Afghanistan by President Barack Obama's new regional special representative, Richard Holbrooke.
"These suicide bombers were not the ordinary Taliban type of suicide bombers who come and blow themselves up somewhere. They had rifles as well and their aim was not to immediately explode themselves," said Haroun Mir, political analyst and co-founder of the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies.
"It was in my opinion to take hostages and continue the way they did in Mumbai, to paralyze Kabul and hopefully inflict a big blow to Mr. Holbrooke's trip to Afghanistan. This trip is a very important trip to Afghanistan."
AFGHAN TROOP SUCCESS
India says the militant plan to attack Mumbai that killed 179 people last November was hatched in Pakistan, something the Pakistani Interior Ministry said Thursday was partly true.
Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of allowing Taliban militants to train and equip in the lawless tribal regions close to the rugged frontier with Afghanistan.
Elements within Pakistan's intelligence services secretly back the Afghan Taliban in order to keep Afghanistan weak and secure Pakistan's rear, allowing Islamabad's forces to concentrate on defending the border with India, analysts say.
Holbrooke, charged with unraveling the age-old regional rivalries, admitted ahead of his current visit to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India he faced a "tougher challenge than Iraq."
NATO troops in Afghanistan are locked in a stalemate, especially in the south, where mainly British, Canadian and Dutch forces have seen the Taliban come back time and again because they do not have enough troops to hold territory.
Obama is expected to decide in the next few days how many extra U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan to try to break the stalemate. But while almost doubling U.S. troop numbers to 60,000 is an option, the long-term solution and exit strategy for Washington is to train up Afghan forces to do the job themselves.
The United States is committed to increase the Afghan army from 80,000 troops at present to 134,000 in the next three years and has begun cleaning up the notoriously corrupt police.
While Wednesday's raids exposed gaps in Kabul's security, the action of Afghan forces in shooting dead three of the eight attackers before they were able to enter the government offices, then swiftly storming the buildings and killing the rest certainly limited what could have been a much deadlier incident.
"This highlighted the success of the Afghan security forces, because they didn't allow them to take control of these ministries," said Mir.
"Indian forces (in Mumbai) wasted a lot of time just deciding whether to enter or not," he said.
"This was not a sophisticated attack that had the huge amount of damage that it could have had. It was actually very poorly executed and interdicted very well by the Afghan security forces," said U.S. forces spokesman Colonel Greg Julian.
(Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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Thousands of US weapons astray in Afghanistan: auditors
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Lax controls mean that tens of thousands of US weapons, including assault rifles and grenade launchers, risk ending up in the wrong hands in Afghanistan, congressional auditors warned on Thursday.
The Pentagon has failed to track an estimated 87,000 weapons given to Afghan government forces by the United States, or a further 135,000 donated by NATO allies, a report by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office said.
US military officials' neglect to record serial numbers or conduct inventories once the weapons were shipped to Afghan forces risk them ending up in Taliban hands and being turned on NATO troops, the report indicated.
"Given the unstable security conditions in Afghanistan, the risk of loss and theft of these weapons is significant," said the evaluation, which was submitted to a House of Representatives hearing taking place Thursday.
GAO inspectors visited Afghanistan last August and found a worrying failure to conduct basic checks by US forces on the ground.
"Lapses in accountability occurred throughout the supply chain," the report said. "This was primarily due to a lack of clear direction from (Department of) Defense and staffing shortages."
Aside from weaponry including rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars, the report found inadequate oversight of night vision goggles issued to the Afghan National Army.
There was no immediate comment from the US government but a senior Pentagon auditor, Thomas Gimble, was testifying at the hearing of the House subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs.
The subcommittee's Democratic chairman, John Tierney, said the "disturbing" GAO report exposed the risk of US troops being killed by their own government's weapons.
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War against Taliban 'will be lost by autumn' unless strategy changes
The war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan will be lost by the end of the summer without dramatic changes in counter-insurgency strategy, according to a US military expert.
The Telegraph.com- UK By Alex Spillius in Washington 11 Feb 2009
The assessment of Col John Nagl, who is consultant to the US government as it conducts four policy reviews on Afghanistan, comes amid fears that unless the insurgents’ advance is halted, Afghanistan will become the new president’s Vietnam.
Adml Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he expected to announce the deployment of a further 30,000 US troops soon, even though President Barack Obama’s administration is waiting to evaluate the reviews.
The expectation in military circles is that Mr Obama will agree to the extra troops and the adoption of the approach that worked well in Iraq, where US forces concentrate on a “clear, hold, build” strategy designed to prevent captured towns falling back into enemy hands.
Col Nagl, an Iraq veteran who helped devise the strategy, told The Daily Telegraph that the gains made by the Taliban needed to be reversed by the end of the fighting season, around late September or early October, or else the Taliban would establish a durable base that would make a sustained Western military presence futile.
“Counter-insurgency campaigns have momentum, like a football game when the crowd senses something before it happens. Right now the Taliban has that momentum,” said Col Nagl.In his campaign Mr Obama committed to sending extra resources to Afghanistan and was bullish about the chances of success. But at a press conference this week, he played down expectations of ushering in a Western-style democracy and instead set a goal of preventing the country from becoming a haven for terrorists to “act with impunity”.
The president’s spokesman on Tuesday announced that he had asked Bruce Riedel, a former CIA agent and academic, to head an inter-agency review that would include civilian and military affairs in Afghanistan and the region.
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U.S., UN Condemn Taliban Attacks on Kabul Government Buildings
By Jay Shankar and James Rupert
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration and the United Nations condemned Taliban suicide attacks on Afghan government buildings in central Kabul yesterday that killed 26 people before a U.S. envoy visits the capital.
Militants struck the Justice Ministry building located a few hundred yards from President Hamid Karzai’s offices, in the closest attack to Afghanistan’s center of power since a January 2008 suicide bombing at the Serena Hotel.
The U.S. said the “brutal tactics” of the Taliban only strengthen American resolve to defeat the insurgency. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was appalled by the “coordinated attacks targeting the people and institutions that are committed to building a better future for Afghanistan.”
American envoy Richard Holbrooke is due to arrive in Afghanistan this week on the second leg of a trip to South Asia, as President Barack Obama’s administration revamps its policy on tackling the Taliban insurgency.
The attack “is probably a signal in advance” of the visit by Holbrooke, Obama’s representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Robert Finn, who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan in 2002-03 and now lectures at Princeton University in New Jersey.
“They are laying down a marker and trying to color the whole discussion when he comes there: ‘We’re getting more powerful, we can hit anywhere,’” Flinn said by phone yesterday.
Permanent Presence
The Taliban movement has a “permanent presence” in almost three-quarters of Afghanistan and is closing in on Kabul, according to the International Council on Security and Development, a Paris-based research organization.
The council, which has full-time offices in Afghanistan, said in December Taliban fighters have advanced out of their bases in the south and east and are infiltrating the capital.
Three bombers targeted the Directorate of Prisons yesterday, while four attacked the Justice Ministry, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said by telephone. Two attackers died when they detonated devices and the others were shot dead by security forces before they could explode their bombs, he said.
Troops battled the rifle-wielding bombers at the Justice Ministry headquarters, across Pashtunistan Square from an entrance to the presidential palace, said Mohiburrahman Fayez, a political officer at the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi.
“This horrendous crime was committed against innocent civilians with total disrespect for human life,” Ban’s office said in a statement.
“It hardens our resolve,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday. “But it also hardens our resolve to get the next steps in Afghanistan right.”
Obama will likely decide in the “next few days” whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said two days ago.
U.S. General David McKiernan, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, has asked for as many as 30,000 more American soldiers over the next year to turn the tide of the Taliban insurgency.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net; James Rupert at jrupert3@bloomberg.net.
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Time to Avoid Blame Game over Afghanistan Difficulties
Faryal Leghari 12 February 2009 Khaleej Times Online
DUBAI - There is a need to avoid a blame game over difficulties in Afghanistan as the new United States administration prepares to send in more troops to the country that is at the forefront on the war against terrorism, Kabul’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday.
Abdul Farid Zikria told a group of Khaleej Times editors that while there were shortcomings on parts of both Afghanistan and the international community in the past it was now time to look ahead.
“The focus of the new strategy towards resolving the crisis should be on joint collaboration and moving beyond the mistakes made in the past,” he said.
The ambassador, who has been in Abu Dhabi for the last four years, said that President Hamid Karzai had been engaging in a political dialogue with dissident factions inside the country. The Afghan government, he stressed, “remains open to engage with the Taleban provided they had no direct links with the Al Qaeda and were ready to accept the Afghan Constitution.”
He said also that the drug mafia had become strong in Afghanistan after forming an alliance with the Taleban and Al Qaeda. He added that the mafia and Al Qaeda did not want the fragmented Taleban to launch talks with the government as they benefited from the instability. “The Taleban lacked a cohesive group structure and are split into many factions dictated by individual agendas thus lacking a single platform for negotiation as was possible with a single group,” Zikria said.
The ambassador said that the presidential polls were scheduled for August. Karzai’s term officially ends in May and it is not clear yet what his political status would be between then and August.
On the new US strategy of pushing as many as 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, Zikria said he hoped those involved in the strategy would be mindful of civilian casualties, which was the highest priority of his government.
Zikria said that Afghanistan’s biggest problem remained capacity building, and that it would take at least two generations to reach the point of social stability that the country had until the invasion by Soviet troops.
He said Afghanistan was thankful to the international community for its assistance in reconstruction and humanitarian projects. “The UAE has been particularly helpful as it stood by the Afghan people even during the days of the Afghan Jihad,” Zikria said, adding “so far the UAE had given about $550 million for projects that were identified by the Afghan government.”
He said the UAE had financed the Kabul Road Project and humanitarian assistance that was being channelled via its Red Crescent Society offices in Kabul. There are between 120,000 and 150,000 Afghan nationals in the UAE, which was looking at ways of increasing recruitment of Afghan nationals to work in the Gulf.
The ambassador said that the Afghan government and the UAE had signed an MoU in October last year that entails repatriation of criminals in cases where it is justifiable and feasible. They are also expected to sign an agreement sometime this year on drug trafficking that would entail information sharing. This agreement is expected to help monitor trafficking of Afghan opiates through the region.
While commenting on the regional tensions in South Asia particularly between Pakistan and India, Zikria said, he hoped that “both Pakistan and India are able to resolve any ongoing problems amicably as it had a direct impact on the situation in Afghanistan.”
He was also optimistic about the new administration in Pakistan that had begun to proactively engage the Afghan government’s security considerations.
faryal@khaleejtimes.com
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Italy Ready to Add 800 Troops in Afghanistan, La Stampa Says
By Steve Scherer
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday said he is willing to increase the country's troop level in Afghanistan by 800 during a telephone conversation with President Barack Obama, La Stampa newspaper reported without citing anyone. Italy now has 2,795 soldiers stationed in northwestern Afghanistan, in and around the city of Herat. Berlusconi told Obama that Italy also is willing to host some inmates from Guantanamo if the U.S. shuts it down, La Stampa said.
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FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, Feb 12
12 Feb 2009 10:58:23 GMT
Feb 12 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1100 GMT on Thursday:
PAKTIKA - A suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives outside the entrance of the provincial security headquarters in Paktika province, 150 km (95 miles) southwest of Kabul, killing one police officer and wounding two soldiers, the interior ministry said.
NIMROZ - A suicide car bomber targeted an Afghan army unit in Khash Rud district, 675 km (420 miles) southwest of Kabul, on Wednesday, killing one soldier and wounding two more, the defence ministry said. (Compiled by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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Coordinated Kabul assault shows Taliban strength
By Anand Gopal Anand Gopal – The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Thu Feb 12, 3:00 am ET
Kabul, Afghanistan – Insurgents attacked three government offices in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 26 and wounding nearly 60. The assault was one of the most complex and daring to take place in the Afghan capital since 2001.
Five armed militants stormed the Ministry of Justice building, in a crowded section of downtown, killing some workers and taking others hostage. Afghan security forces exchanged gunfire for hours before freeing the hostages and killing all of the insurgents. At the same time, suicide bombers assailed a government prison affairs office in the north of the city, while a gunman opened fire outside the education ministry before being killed by police.
The attacks come as the Obama administration is reviewing US strategy in Afghanistan. US special representative Richard Holbrooke is due to visit Kabul Thursday from Pakistan as part of a South Asian tour, and President Obama is expected to decide within days whether to send as many as 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
Major incidents like this will certainly affect the debate in Washington, says Waliullah Rahmani, an expert on the insurgency with the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies. "If the insurgents can continually strike at the heart of the heavily fortified capital," he says, "it undermines Washington's faith in the Afghan government to provide security and could push them to send many more troops."
More high-profile assaults in Kabul
Wednesday's attack is the latest in a series of high-profile assaults in Kabul. In January, a car bomb detonated near the German Embassy, killing civilians and US soldiers. Last July, a car bomb targeted the Indian Embassy, killing at least 50 people. Gunmen tried to assassinate President Hamid Karzai last spring and stormed a luxury hotel early last year. In most of these cases, the insurgents were able to circumvent tight security.
On Wednesday, the gunmen were carrying large amounts of weaponry – including knives, grenade launchers, Kalashnikovs, and suicide vests – according to Afghan security officials.
"It concerns me that the enemy is able to bring explosives into the city, despite the security," says Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar.
While parts of the south and east of the country are not under Afghan control, Kabul has remained a government stronghold. The periodic attacks here are creating a sense of insecurity, analysts say, and pose a challenge to US strategy since the city already has a large concentration of security forces.
"These incidents are a psychological blow to the Afghan government and its allies," says Mr. Rahmani, "since they create the impression that the Taliban and other groups are able to strike anywhere."
Kabul Province saw a 43 percent increase in insurgent-initiated incidents over the past year, according to numbers compiled by Sami Kovanen, a security analyst.
The insurgents periodically unveil new tactics, says Rahmani. Most of Wednesday's attackers adopted a new look, according to witnesses. Some were clean-shaven and wore Western-style clothes, unlike past attackers, who wore traditional Afghan clothing and sported beards.
Assaults in the capital are also becoming more complicated. Wednesday's offensive involved at least eight insurgents in three different parts of the city, requiring considerable planning and coordination. "This is the hallmark of the Haqqani network," says Rahmani, referring to the guerrilla network headed by Jalalhuddin Haqqani and thought to be close to Al Qaeda. "The Haqqani attacks tend to be complex and are growing ever more so."
Officials blame the Haqqani network for most of the high-profile attacks in Kabul in the past year, such as the car bombing at the Indian Embassy. The group counts a number of foreign fighters among its ranks and is generally considered more extremist than the Taliban in their tactics and political outlook.
Nonetheless, the Taliban and the Haqqani network sometimes coordinate attacks, officials say. A Taliban spokesman took credit for Wednesday's assault, saying that they were in retaliation for the Afghan government's harsh treatment of prisoners. (The Haqqani network does not have a spokesman.)
Retaliation for prison abuse?
Two of the besieged sites – the Ministry of Justice and the government office that regulated prisons – oversee the penitentiary system. Afghanistan's prisons house hundreds of captured Taliban and other insurgent members, many of whom allege that authorities torture them. In December, scores of Taliban prisoners sewed their mouths shut and went on a hunger strike to protest ill treatment. Some Taliban members claim to have been falsely imprisoned, and say they turned against the government only after experiencing abuse in the prisons.
Officials with the Afghan security services say that Taliban fighters exaggerate claims of abuse, and that harsh measures are sometimes necessary to extract valuable intelligence. "The Taliban are the ones who are brutal and indiscriminately kill civilians," says Mr. Atmar, the Interior minister. "We are trying to do our job and protect people."
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Kabul on alert after Taliban attacks
Heidi Vogt ASSOCIATED PRESS Thursday, February 12, 2009
KABUL (AP) -- Heavily armed government troops thronged the streets of Afghanistan's capital Thursday, stepping up security before the arrival of the new U.S. envoy a day after Taliban attacks showed how easily the city's defenses can be breached.
Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's recently appointed envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was expected later in the day for his first trip to the country. Security would have already been high for such a visit, but Holbrooke arrives following one of the Taliban's most audacious attacks on the capital.
In the east, meanwhile, a suicide bomber Thursday blew himself up outside a police station in Sharan, the capital of Paktika province, killing an officer and wounding 10 others, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The Taliban regularly target Afghan and foreign troops with suicide and roadside attacks, and other violent incidents have already spiked this year.
On Wednesday, Taliban militants killed 20 people in a coordinated assault on three government buildings. Armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests, they stormed through barricades at the Justice Ministry in the heart of Kabul and a corrections department building to the north.
One attacker was killed before he could force his way into a third building, the Education Ministry.
The Taliban claimed responsibility soon after the assault began.
The attack served as a reminder of the challenges facing Obama as he increases America's focus -- and troop levels -- in Afghanistan. The new administration has promised up to 30,000 new troops. Holbrooke is helping the Obama administration chart a new strategy to beat Taliban insurgencies in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Under rain and snow, troops armed with heavy machine guns swarmed street intersections in Kabul on Thursday, checking drivers' papers and searching cars.
"Security measures have been increased 100 percent, particularly at the gates of Kabul," said Abdul Gafar Pacha, the head of the police criminal investigation unit.
All eight attackers died in Wednesday's assaults, bringing the death toll to 28. Another 57 people were wounded, according to the Interior Ministry.
Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan's intelligence service, said the attackers sent text messages to a militant leader in Pakistan before the attack.
Afghanistan has accused militants based in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas or Pakistan's spy service of being behind several major attacks in Kabul, including the bombing of the Indian Embassy last July, an assassination attempt against President Hamid Karzai in April and an assault on the luxury Serena Hotel in January 2008.
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Blast in Afghan capital controlled explosion
Thu Feb 12, 3:48 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – A loud blast was heard in the east of the Afghan capital Thursday, but the Defense Ministry said it was a controlled explosion carried out by the Afghan army.
The blast followed three suicide attacks and raids by armed Taliban attackers on government buildings in Kabul Wednesday which killed 26 people.
Afghan security forces and international troops frequently carry out controlled explosions of old ordinance in and around the capital, but only sometimes warn residents beforehand.
(Reporting by Kabul newsroom; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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Taliban send a bloody warning
Asia Times Online By Syed Saleem Shahzad 2/11/09
ISLAMABAD - The Taliban made their bloody presence felt in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday with a daring attack that claimed the lives of at least 26 people, with up to 60 injured.
Suicide bombers and gunmen, reminiscent of the Pakistan-linked terror attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last November, stormed heavily guarded government ministries near the presidential palace, making an unequivocal statement that they are a factor to be reckoned with as Western-led nations scramble to contain the Taliban insurgency and find a way to protect supply lines into Afghanistan.
The attack, the most complex and brazen in the capital since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, involved five armed militants
storming the Ministry of Justice building in a crowded downtown area, killing some workers and taking others hostage. Afghan security forces exchanged gunfire for hours before freeing the hostages and killing all of the insurgents. At the same time, suicide bombers attacked a Prison Affairs office in the north of the city, while a gunman opened fire outside the Education Ministry before being killed by police.
The attack came a day ahead of a visit by Richard Holbrooke, the new United States special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and can be seen as a clear statement that even while furious diplomatic activity is taking place involving among others Washington and Moscow, the Taliban voice will be heard.
The administration of US President Barack Obama, along with Britain, which has appointed Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles as its envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, are attempting to strengthen Pakistan's role against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as trying to bring India into the fold of their strategic partnership.
A spokesman for the Taliban was reported to have claimed responsibility for the incident, saying it was revenge for the mistreatment of Taliban prisoners by Afghan authorities.
Initial inquires point towards Sirajuddin Haqqani, along with other groups including Arab and Pakistani militants. Haqqani's network is the most resourceful and the strongest component of the Taliban-led Afghan resistance with long-standing links to Pakistan.
The attack comes as something of a surprise as it was widely believed that the Taliban would lie relatively low ahead of this year's spring offensive. In the meanwhile, various diplomatic initiatives are underway for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces to be fully prepared come April.
Russian connection The Obama administration went the extra mile to achieve this task by unofficially using the services of veteran Henry Kissinger, a former US national security advisor and secretary of state, to deal with Russia. Kissinger has been dealing with Moscow on START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) negotiations as the accord expires in December this year.
On the sidelines of this past weekend's 45th Munich Security Conference, Kissinger was instrumental in making a deal with Russia under which the most Russian-influenced Central Asian republic, Kazakhstan, agreed to refine and supply 100% of the oil needed for NATO in Afghanistan. Currently, 90% of the oil is supplied by Pakistani refineries, with 5% coming from Azerbaijan and the rest via other Central Asian sates.
Russia has also tacitly agreed to allow NATO's military supplies to pass through its territory as routes through Pakistan are being severely disrupted. In return, Moscow would expect NATO expansion into Europe to stop and that other defense-related issues in Europe would take into consideration Russian demands.
On the battlefields in Pakistan and Afghanistan, meanwhile, plans are afoot to launch the strongest offensive yet against militants. This could begin once Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani returns to Pakistan from the United States where he will discuss in detail the dynamics of the militancy and enhanced cooperation between Islamabad and Washington.
Holbrooke has already met with the leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif and is expected to persuade Sharif from supporting a potentially politically destabilizing lawyers' movement in March against the government.
Pakistan is continuing its efforts to curtail militants in Khyber Agency, where they are causing havoc with the bulk of the NATO supplies that pass through the area on the way to Afghanistan. The next plan is to target the Taliban in Mohmand Agency, Bajaur Agency and the Swat Valley, as well as in North Waziristan and the South Waziristan, which serve as vital bases for the Taliban's efforts in Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, the Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on Pakistani cities as advance warning to the Pakistani security apparatus not to implement any joint US-Pakistan operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. These are expected to reach deep inside Pakistani territory.
In this vicious cycle, new responses could emerge in coming days, such as attacks in Islamabad, where security has been tightened to unprecedented levels. Such a development in the capital of the most important non-NATO ally would be devastating.
Across the border in India, there are also murmurings of al-Qaeda terror cells exploding into action to deter India from aligning with Western forces against the Taliban-led resistance in Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda assesses 2009 as the year in which it could fight its fiercest - if not decisive - battle: the flames of war could flare at any time, anywhere.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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Kabulis Stunned by Taleban Raid
Institute For War and Peace Reporting Afghan Recovery Report By IWPR-trained journalists in Kabul (ARR No. 312, 12-Feb-09)
Officials warn insurgents are getting stronger after they strike simultaneously at three government institutions.
Kabul is in a de facto state of emergency, following a series of attacks on Wednesday, February 11, that have left at least 20 dead and 57 injured. Roads are closed, shops are shuttered, and a terrorised population wonders what will come next.
Nearly twenty suspects have detained in connection with the incidents, which officials say signal a new and troubling stage in the insurgency.
Shortly before 10 am, suicide bombers attacked the ministry of justice, the directorate of prison affairs, and the education ministry.
Five attackers attempted to gain entrance to the ministry of justice, just a stone’s throw from the presidential palace in the heart of Kabul. Two were killed immediately, but three penetrated the ministry’s defences, and went on a rampage. Terrified staffers cowered behind desks and his in washrooms while waiting for relief.
“We did not know whether we would get out alive,” said one ministry staffer, who did not want to give her name. “The terrorists were in the corridors and we could hear continuous shooting. Finally the police came and saved us.”
Justice Minister Sarwar Danesh was pinned down in his office for more than an hour before he was able to escape unharmed.
While Afghans across the country followed events on national television, security forces erected ladders against the side of the building and, brandishing automatic weapons, climbed in through the windows. After several hours, the police managed to kill all of the attackers before they were able to explode their suicide vests. At least 13 people died in the assault, and over 40 were injured, according to health officials in Kabul.
Meanwhile, across town, two suicide bombers approached the directorate of prison affairs.
“One suicide bomber blew himself up near the building, while the second was able to reach the second floor before detonating,” said General Aref, head of the directorate.
The explosion blew off much of the front of the building, scattering glass, blood and body parts in a 500-metre radius.
“We thought it was Doomsday,” said Enayatullah, a young man who was at the scene. “I was just passing by … when suddenly there was an explosion and everything went dark. Then I saw dead bodies everywhere. I could not count them. We could not tell who was alive and who was dead.”
The official toll was seven dead and 15 injured, but General Aref said that the numbers could well rise.
A third attacker was identified near the education ministry, and shot. He managed to blow himself up, but caused no further injuries or damage.
Throughout the middle part of the day, the wail of ambulances could be heard all over the city.
Lines of anxious relatives besieged local hospitals, especially the Italian-run Emergency Hospital in downtown Kabul.
By 1 pm, the situation was under control.
But the authorities say that Wednesday’s events signal a worrying escalation in the war with the insurgents.
“[These attacks] indicate that the enemy is able to get weapons and explosives into the capital,” said Hanif Atmar, the interior minister, speaking to journalists at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “We should work harder.”
Amrullah Saleh, head of the national directorate of security, said that forensic reports indicated that all of the attackers were between 20 and 25 years old.
“We are working on identifying the networks behind this attack, and we have already detained 21 people on suspicion of being linked to this incident,” he told reporters.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed told IWPR that they organised this attack because of the harsh treatment meted out to Taleban prisoners in government jails.
“We wanted to teach them a lesson,” he said in a telephone interview. “They should treat our prisoners better.”
This is the largest organised attack on the capital since the fall of the Taleban more than seven years ago. Other incidents, such as last summer’s suicide bombing at the Indian embassy, have claimed more lives, but no single attack has had the discipline and precision of Wednesday’s simultaneous strikes.
“People are getting more frightened by the day,” said Gul Rahman, a Kabul resident. “If the authorities are not safe, how can we feel secure?”
The journalists who filed this report have requested that their names be withheld for security reasons.
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Britain ready to send 300 more troops to help 'surge' in Afghanistan
The Times Online-UK February 12, 2009
Britain is preparing to send 300 more troops to Afghanistan, which could mark the extent of its contribution to the US-led “surge”.
Britain will deploy the specialist troops within weeks in a move being seen as an attempt to head off any larger request for British forces from President Obama.
The new US Administration had been expected by some British officials to request a whole battle group of 1,500 troops, and plans had been sketched out by senior military figures to send two 700-strong combat battalions.
Gordon Brown will not want to disappoint the US President over the issue as European heads of state fight it out to become the first to meet him in the White House. As The Times revealed in December, however, the Prime Minister is cautious about committing significant numbers above the 8,300 British troops already taking part in the Nato effort because of the cost and casualties.
Some ministers believe that the 300 troops that Parliament will be told about within weeks will mark the limit of Britain's additional engagement in the region. The troops will be skilled in clearing roadside explosives. The Ministry of Defence says that 80 per cent of British troops killed in Afghanistan are the victims of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The Government says that no final decisions have been made on whether further troops will join the surge. Mr Brown announced that he had already sent an additional 300 before Christmas, which at the time was hoped by some in Government to be enough to avoid a further commitment.
Britain has said repeatedly that other Nato allies should make a bigger contribution to Afghanistan, with John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, reiterating the plea at a conference at the weekend. “Combat forces, that is a most precious contribution right now to that campaign,” he told defence chiefs in Munich. “We kid ourselves if we imagine that other contributions are as important.”
Last week it was reported that Italy would send more troops to Afghanistan, raising the current deployment of 2,000 troops to 2,800. The Italian Government may also drop restrictions on the deployment of its soldiers.
At the same conference David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, admitted that Britain and its Nato allies were stuck in a stalemate with the Taleban.
The US has not yet revealed what its new aims are for Afghanistan. Much effort has been put in by Nato forces in shoring up the presidency of Hamid Karzai and regional governors. However, relations between the Obama Administration and President Karzai are poor. Mr Obama said recently that the Afghan Government was detached from the surrounding communities it was supposed to serve.
Ministers believe that much of the surge could be directed at the mountainous region that borders Pakistan and is believed to harbour al-Qaeda. There are already signs of a build-up of US troops at two bases in southern Afghanistan, they say.
Afghanistan will be one of the foreign policy priorities of the forthcoming Italian presidency of the G8. Rome believes that Nato's credibility is on the line and wants to call an international conference on stability in the region.
It will invite China, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey to join G8 members in shaping a new strategy and impressing on the Afghans the need to take more responsibility for their security.
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SCENARIOS-US force in Afghanistan may grow to 60,000
Reuters North American News Service Feb 11, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will soon decide how many troops to send to Afghanistan as part of his first major deployment of forces overseas as commander in chief of the U.S. military.
The new deployments are seen as the first stage in an expected build-up from the present force of 37,000 to about 60,000. Here are is a look at how the force is likely to grow.
FORCE SIZE:
Obama has been expected for weeks to announce the deployment of as many as three combat units comprising up to 17,000 troops; top Pentagon officials have said they envision two of the units arriving in Afghanistan by the end of spring and a third during the summer.
U.S. military planners have been considering sending two Army brigade combat teams, each with about 3,500 soldiers, and a larger Marine task force of a number expected to approach 10,000 troops.
The Pentagon is already sending about 2,200 support troops known as enablers and an Army combat aviation brigade of 2,800 soldiers, in addition to an Army combat brigade of 3,800 soldiers that deployed last month in eastern Afghanistan.
The expected U.S. build-up would increase the total number of Western forces, including troops from other NATO countries, to around 100,000 troops.
DEPLOYMENT TIMING:
In recent days, Pentagon officials including Defense Secretary Robert Gates have suggested the combat deployment could take place in stages beginning with a force as small as a single brigade.
Officials say the Obama administration may hold back the main deployment until it completes a strategic review in time for a NATO summit in April, but at least one brigade may have to be ordered to Afghanistan before the review is finished.
That is because of the danger of a spike in violence this spring when warm weather unclogs mountain passes and allows freer movement to the Taliban and other militant groups.
MISSION:
Most of the extra forces would likely be sent to south Afghanistan, where the top U.S. and NATO commander in the country, General David McKiernan, says the shortage is most acute and the Taliban's power has grown with the aid of illicit opium proceeds.
The troops' initial mission is expected to focus on reversing a deterioration in security caused by growing Taliban influence. Analysts say that will probably involve securing roads against bombs and other roadside attacks.
Extra troops will also allow commanders to hold onto territory that has been cleared of Taliban influence so that development can begin to take hold, officials say.
Ultimately, Pentagon officials say the extra forces are a stop-gap measure until the Afghan National Army can take over security operations. A U.S.-backed plan calls for increasing the Afghan military from around 80,000 troops to 134,000 but the Pentagon has said even that may not be enough. (Reporting by David Morgan; editing by David Storey)
Source: Reuters North American News Service
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Balkh Drug Addicts Face Grim Future
Institute For War and Peace Reporting Afghan Recovery Report By Abdul Latif Sahak in Mazar-e-Shairf (ARR No. 312, 10-Feb-09)
Spiraling addiction consequence of easy access to drugs and inadequate treatment facilities.
Aziz Ahmad, 28, is sitting by the roadside in Mazar-e-Sharif, begging passersby for money. He is wearing dirty and torn clothes, and seems exhausted and hopeless.
Aziz said he began using drugs when he was a refugee in Iran. He had recently undergone a 20-day rehabilitation course in the city’s only drug treatment centre, but soon relapsed into his former ways.
“I was making good progress, I was recovering,” he told IWPR. “But after 20 days the doctors told me to go home, they needed the bed for another addict. My condition deteriorated once I got home. I had nothing to eat and no medicine. Before long I was forced to start taking drugs again.”
Aziz would like to get free of the drugs that are ruining his life, but does not see how he can do it.
“Escape from this menace does not take 20 days or a month,” he said. “The patient has to be under medical treatment for a year.”
Addiction is on the rise in the north, fueled by easy access to drugs, the return of refugees from Iran, and the increasing use of opiates by women who weave carpets.
The lack of adequate treatment facilities means that many of these people have nowhere to turn if they want to give up their addiction.
Government officials say that the number of addicts has increased 50 per cent in the past year because there’s just the one treatment centre for the whole of Balkh province. The 20-bed facility, they say, cannot begin to cope with demand. Most of the patients are forced to leave long before they are ready; as a consequence, say medical professionals, at least 40 per cent return to drug use.
“This hospital, which should treat thousands, has a mere 20 beds,” said Dr Asadullah, acting head of the treatment centre. “We also have no recreation facilities for the patients, which is a problem during the treatment phase. And we do not have enough staff or financial resources to allow us to work properly.”
The hospital has treated about 600 men, women, and children, he added, and its entire staff consisted of two doctors, two nurses and five orderlies.
“Sometimes the number of addicts increases so sharply that they have to wait days for a bed,” he continued. “Often the patient loses hope and never comes back.”
A large number of addicts are returning refugees from Iran, added Dr Asadullah. The other major group is women carpet-weavers, who use hashish or opium to relieve their boredom. They also feed drugs to their children, to keep them quiet while they work.
“I think I became dependent on drugs while I was still in my mother’s womb,” Maryam, 30, said. “My mother was a carpet-weaver, and she used hashish. When I was small she did not want me to bother her, so she fed me more hashish. Now I am using it myself.”
Maryam said that she had tried the hospital, but didn’t get the treatment she was promised.
Mirwais Rabi, head of Balkh’s department of public health, acknowledged the problem. He told IWPR that the Germans had promised to build a well-equipped, 400-bed hospital, but could not say when it might be built.
Dr Abdullah Fahim, spokesperson for the public health ministry in Kabul, said that they are planning another 20-bed hospital in Balkh and one in Kunduz, to help relieve some of the pressure.
“This should have happened earlier, but there was no budget for it,” he told IWPR. “We have pursued this aggressively, and if we cannot find a government building, we will rent a private space.”
One factor complicating the recovery process is the easy availability of drugs in Mazar-e-Sharif. Addicts say they have no difficulty getting supplies.
“The authorities are tied up with the drug sellers and they do not arrest them,” said Habibullah, an addict. “They sell drugs openly in the Kefayat market, right in the middle of Mazar.”
Sher Jan Durrani, spokesperson for the Balkh police department, dismissed Habibullah’s claim that officials are in league with the dealers.
“Statements by addicts are baseless,” he said. “They are addicts – they can say anything they want. We arrested dozens of drug dealers last year, and now it is not as easy as they say to buy drugs.”
The head of Balkh’s counter-narcotics department, Khalil Rahman, confirmed the increase in the number of addicts. “This has been a difficult challenge,” he told IWPR. “The rise in the number of addicts was totally unpredicted.”
Rahman did, however, deny that drugs were traded openly in Mazar-e-Sharif. “Drugs are smuggled in from Pakistan and sold secretly in the city,” he said.
But addicts like Habibullah, Maryam, and Aziz Ahmad have no difficulty finding what they need, and the government seems powerless to stop them.
“If the government does not do something, the day will come when all carpet weavers are addicted to hashish and heroin,” said Maryam.
Abdul Latif Sahak is an IWPR trainee in Mazar-e-Sharif
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Northerners Leaving in Droves
Thousands flee poverty, unemployment and drought – with many heading for Iran.
Institute For War and Peace Reporting By Shah Reza Munshizada in Maimana (ARR No. 312, 10-Feb-09)
It is early morning in the Maimana city bus station, and crowds of young men are waiting to board buses that will take them far away.
Yuldash Mohammad, 27, stows his bags under the seat of a bus leaving for Balkh province, but his ultimate destination is Iran.
“I am a farmer,” he told IWPR. “I sold my bull and my farming equipment, and I am going to Iran. There I hope to find work and make money to send to my family.”
His farm, he said, was all but barren due to the recent drought.
“What else can I do?” he sighed. “My children are hungry. We cannot find any work here, so I have to leave so that my family can survive.”
Ezatullah, who runs the bus station, told IWPR that his business has boomed. “Everyday, seven to eight buses, each with 50 passengers, leave for Balkh province,” he said. “Most of these people are going on to Iran.”
Afghanistan has seen wave after wave of its citizens leave over the decades, fleeing the successive wars and conflicts in the country. Many had returned following the fall of the Taleban, but now economic and climatic conditions are forcing them to depart again.
There are currently about one million Afghan refugees in Iran and two million in Pakistan. Both countries are encouraging the Afghans to return home; Iran, especially, has undertaken harsh measures in recent years to force the refugees to leave.
But the buses continue to roll out of Maimana, the capital of Faryab.
Faryab is a remote province situated in northern Afghanistan, where agriculture is the main source of income. Farmers rely on natural sources – rain and snow – to water their lands. There are no irrigation canals or other artificial means of getting water to their crops.
A severe drought which has plagued the north this past year has driven many farmers to ruin. The government, although concerned by the exodus, lacks the resources to help.
“Poverty, high prices and drought are driving the young people away, but we cannot help them,” said Mohammad Osman Murid, head of Faryab’s department of refugees and returnees. “People, especially young people, are leaving for Iran in groups.”
According to Osman, more than 16,000 young men have departed in the past year. The statistics, he added, might be misleading: the actual number was likely to be far higher, as it’s hard to keep check on the migration.
Local officials say that this year’s exodus is unprecedented and extremely worrying.
Provincial Governor Abdul Haq Shafaq traces the problem to the drought, and the resulting hunger among Faryab’s inhabitants, nearly 65,000 of whom are suffering real deprivation due to the lack of rainfall.
“The government has distributed 9,700 tonnes of wheat to those affected by the drought,” he said. “In addition, the Red Cross, Norway and the European Union have also provided assistance to these people. But still, not even 20 per cent of (the drought-stricken) have been covered.”
Humaira, 50, supports nine members of her family in Maimana. Since the drought, she cannot feed them adequately, and has to beg bread from her neighbours.
“I have sent two of my young sons and my son-in-law to Iran to work and send us money so that we can feed ourselves and the children,” she said. “I have not heard from them yet nor has the government provided any assistance to us.”
The governor said that he lacks the resources to help everyone.
“More than two million people live in this province,” he said. “Helping all of those affected would require more resources.”
The international community and the central government should intervene to avert a humanitarian crisis, he insisted.
The problem is spreading to neighboring provinces. Officials in Samangan province announced in December that they were facing famine in their area.
Economic analysts blame the government for a failure of vision.
“A lack of a proper economic strategy by the government over the past seven years has caused the unemployment crisis,” said Abdul Wahed Wahidi, deputy head of the economics faculty at Balkh University.
But Aziza, the head of Faryab’s department of labour and social affairs, disagrees.
“The governor has done his utmost to create job opportunities,” she told IWPR. “But there are many more people looking for work than we had planned.”
According to Aziza, the department has found work for 3,459 people so far and has given vocational trainings to 1,082 others.
“The government does not have the resources to do more,” she said. “Civil society and private organisations should employ these people so that they do not leave the country.”
Sayed Zainuddin Abidi, a professor of higher education in Faryab province and a social affairs analyst, is very concerned about the loss of the younger generation.
“The migration of young Afghans has negative economic, social and political impact on the country,” he said.
Sayed Alauddin, a young man who was recently expelled from Iran, blames the government of President Hamed Karzai for his misfortune.
“If there were jobs and factories in our country, why would we leave go to Iran?” he asked. “Afghans are punished, first by God, who has sent this drought, then by the warlords in Karzai’s government, who have built themselves luxury palaces. They never care about the poor people of Afghanistan.”
Shah Reza Munshizada is a journalist from Maimana.
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Minister of Public Health Got Parliament's Confidence Vote
Written by www.quqnoos.com Wednesday, 11 February 2009
This week, parliament called four ministers for MPs votes and approval
Some MPs said Mohammad Amin Fatimi's responses to accusations of parliament's health commission were satisfactory and reasonable; therefore, the minister shall continue his work.
Parliament's health commission accused minister of public health for embezzlement and bad quality service, but Mr. Fatimi gave satisfactory answers to this commission's questions.
This week, parliament called four ministers for MPs votes and approval.
Fatimi was among the three who got the confidence vote.
Prior to Fatimi, Assadullah Khalid along with two other ministers were introduced to parliament for approval.
The minister of commerce and industries, and the minister of refugees got confidence vote, but Asadullah Khalid, the nominee for the ministry of border and tribal affairs, got the no-confidence vote from the parliament.
Secretary of the Lower House, Abdul Sattar Khawasi, said, according to parliament's internal guidelines, any minister who gets no-confidence vote from parliament, should not be introduced back for the same post to parliament for approval.
President Karzai re-introduced Asadullah Khalid, nominee for the ministry of border and tribal affairs to parliament.
He got non-confidence vote from the parliament on Monday, Feb. 9, 2009.
Some MPs say if president Karzai acts on his own will, then the parliament has to make changes in the employment guidelines with two-thirds of the votes.
Other MPs say, president Karzai re-introduced Asadullah Khalid to the parliament because of his personal friendly relations.
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Afghanistan: Food insecurity, the problem that never went away
EurasiaNet Aunohita Mojumdar 10 Feb 2009
Just as the United States is preparing for a massive reinforcement of its troops in Afghanistan, so too is the United Nations calling for a surge in humanitarian relief. Forty thousand people die every year in Afghanistan not from violence, but from the unnoticed collateral damage of war -- hunger and poverty. The number is 25 times higher than the toll due to violence, says the UN Security Council in its most recent report.
Despite repeated calls for greater attention to food security, the numbers of those who cannot meet their minimum dietary needs in Afghanistan is on the rise, growing from 30 percent to 35 percent between 2005 and 2008. The crisis is expected to worsen over the next few months as the impact of local drought and high global food prices push more Afghans into food insecurity.
Underscoring the crisis, the UN launched a Humanitarian Action Plan for Afghanistan on February 3, calling for a $604 million emergency relief package. The appeal, which will also aid health, education, water, and shelter, has earmarked over 50 percent to food and agriculture assistance. It even warns that, without urgent action, post-Taliban gains in education and health stand the risk of reversal.
Part of the problem is drought. Last year, the country received less than 24 percent of the rainfall level of 2007, resulting in an 85 percent drop in wheat production. Overall, there occurred a 30 percent drop in cereal harvest over the previous year countrywide. Today, on average, an Afghan family spends 77 percent of its income on food, compared to 56 percent in 2005. The increase, says the UN's humanitarian appeal, "quickly pushed large segments of previously borderline food-insecure people into an inability to obtain enough basic food and having to resort to destructive coping measures."
Launching the humanitarian appeal in Geneva, the UN Under-Secretary General and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said: "In 2008, at a time of rising global food prices, Afghanistan harvested only two-thirds of its annual food requirements, leaving a serious gap for the government and the humanitarian agencies to fill."
Despite the urgency, and awareness among international monitors, concern has not translated into relief. A Joint Emergency Food Appeal launched in July 2008 by the Afghan government and the UN, calling for $404 million to "feed Afghanistan's most vulnerable people who are in desperate need of food aid," was dismally under-funded. Despite repeated appeals, it has only been half-funded. The current estimate doubles the number of people in need of food assistance since last year, to almost 9 million.
According to Oxfam, the health of over a million young children and half a million women is at serious risk due to malnutrition. One out of every two Afghan children under five is stunted and 39 percent are underweight, the humanitarian agency says.
In a memo to US President Barack Obama, Oxfam has warned of the possibility of significant food shortages in 2009 that could "adversely affect public health and even spark displacement and unrest."
In the southern province of Kandahar, the new governor Tooryakai Wesa is asking for tractors and training, rather than troops, even though his province is considered one of the most violent in the country. During a recent visit to Canada, Wesa said he would like to create security through jobs, not tanks and artillery.
Though 80 percent of Afghanistan's population is dependent on agriculture, the sector has been one of the most under-funded, receiving only $500 million out of the $15 billion spent on non-security related reconstruction in this country. The country's leading donor, the United States, is estimated to have spent less than 5 percent of USAID's budget for Afghanistan since 2002 on agriculture. In 2007, US spending on agriculture amounted to less than 1 percent of what it spent on security.
Speaking in Kabul on February 1, the UN's top official in Afghanistan, the Secretary General's Special Representative Kai Eide, described agriculture as a neglected sector: "The government and donors must make sure that agriculture becomes a priority not only in rhetoric, but in the allocation of resources."
The apparent unwillingness of donors to fund the emergency appeals for food and development aid for agriculture lie in the structural inadequacies of the funding mechanisms, say experts.
Remarking on the launch of the UN appeal, the Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General Elizabeth Rasmusson urged "donor nations to commit more funds to establish and maintain independent humanitarian funding for Afghanistan." She pointed out that "most aid is for development and reconstruction," rather than aid for civilians in the midst of conflict.
Indeed, humanitarian funding has dried up as donors have moved towards funding the 'post-conflict' state. Donors often target conflict zones in need of humanitarian assistance with money for development projects. Many of these target areas are unable to absorb development aid.
Spending on agriculture development, which could prevent such humanitarian crises, is less appealing. It requires long-term painstaking dedication at the ground level. Many donors are unwilling to make such commitments, Oxfam says, as it is easier to quantify development projects such as the construction of bridges and schools. Returns on humanitarian investment are both lower and slower, making such projects unattractive to the private sector with its eye on quick profits and large returns.
"A large volume of aid money goes to private, profit-making companies," Oxfam points out in its memo to President Obama, adding that "too much aid seeks to achieve rapid material results, without sufficiently promoting local ownership, sustainable poverty reduction or longer term capacity building."
According to Mudasser Hussain Siddiqui, Manager of Policy Advocacy & Research
Action Aid Afghanistan, an NGO, "the key issue here is that we are in this vicious cycle of drought and food insecurity every year. This can be attributed to lack of investment in agriculture and rural employment or livelihoods in Afghanistan."
Much will depend on the new Obama administration's plans for Afghanistan. Initial signs suggest an approach weighted to military solutions, with a reduced emphasis on development and "less ambitious" short-term goals. None of this adds up to an encouraging future for Afghanistan's hungry millions.
Editor's Note: Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian freelance journalist based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for the past 18 years. © Eurasianet
The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website, meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed debate about the social, political and economic developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is a program of the Open Society Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies around the world by supporting educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the position of the Open Society Institute and are the sole responsibility of the author or authors.
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