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Afghanistan joins US 'war on terror' review
by Waheedullah Massoud
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan will join a major US review of the "war on terror", President Hamid Karzai announced Sunday amid tensions between the allies about the fight against growing Taliban-led unrest.
Once a star, Afghan president now on the defensive
by Jim Mannion – Sun Feb 15, 1:01 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Once the toast of Washington, Afghan President Hamid Karzai now finds himself on the defensive here, dogged by criticism of government corruption and questions about whether he still has friends in the White House.
Karzai admits tensions with US
Al Jazeera English
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has admitted that there is tension between his government and the new US administration.
Iran Is Helping Taliban in Afghanistan, Petraeus Says
By Henry Meyer
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Iran is helping Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, said General David Petraeus, who is in charge of U.S. forces in the Central Asian nation and Iraq.
Is the U.S. repeating Soviet mistakes in Afghanistan?
By Jonathan S. Landay, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Sat Feb 14, 4:26 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan — Twenty years to the day after the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan , Dastagir Arizad ticked off grievances against President Hamid Karzai and the United States that are disturbingly reminiscent of Moscow's humiliating defeat.
Taliban to cease fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley
By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD – The Taliban announced a 10-day cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley on Sunday after freeing a Chinese hostage during peace talks with the government, while an abducted American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers remained missing.
Pakistani Taliban militants free Chinese engineer
The Associated Press February 15, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban militants have freed a Chinese engineer held captive for nearly six months, officials said on Sunday, as fears rose over the safety of an abducted American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers.
Kabul 20 years after the Soviets
Saturday, 14 February 2009 BBC News
Twenty years ago this week, Soviet troops pulled out of Afghanistan, after nine years of occupation. Lyse Doucet was our correspondent in Kabul then and she's back in the Afghan capital now.
Afghans commemorate Soviet forces withdrawal but Afghanistan still in turmoil
www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-15 20:59:12
By Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- "Today we mark the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Union's defeat and the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan but unfortunately still we do not have peace in our country,"
Afghan court upholds sentences in Quran trial
By RAHIM FAIEZ and HEIDI VOGT Associated Press Writer Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009
KABUL An appeals court in Afghanistan upheld 20-year prison sentences Sunday for two men who published a translation of the Quran that drove religious leaders to call for their execution.
'Pashtunistan' holds key to Obama mission
guardian.co.uk, UK via The Observer Sunday 15 February 2009
The mountainous borderlands where Afghanistan meets Pakistan have been described as a Grand Central Station for Islamic terrorists, a place where militants come and go and the Taliban trains its fighters.
Obama's men in Afghanistan
Misconceptions in the new administration could set back progress in the fight against the opium economy
From Saturday's Globe and Mail February 14, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST THOMAS SCHWEICH
Earlier this month, the United Nations released a report predicting a decline in opium cultivation in Afghanistan for the second year in a row. Because Afghan heroin funds the insurgency, corrupts the government
Honest Afghan cop a rarity in corrupt force
Commander and his unit offer hope to Canadian troops
Archie Mclean Canwest News Service Sunday, February 15, 2009
The line of cars on the dusty Afghan road is growing longer. It's the equivalent of morning rush hour here and villagers are becoming impatient with the delay of their shopping trips.
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Afghanistan joins US 'war on terror' review
by Waheedullah Massoud
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan will join a major US review of the "war on terror", President Hamid Karzai announced Sunday amid tensions between the allies about the fight against growing Taliban-led unrest.
Karzai made the announcement with US envoy Richard Holbrooke, with whom he held talks late Saturday, as criticism from Afghanistan mounts over civilian casualties in US-led operations against Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives.
Holbrooke is on a regional tour to collect views for the review, ordered by President Barack Obama amid increasing alarm about Islamic extremism in the region seven years after the United States launched its "war on terror" here.
"I am very, very thankful that president Obama has accepted my proposal of Afghanistan joining the strategic review of the war against terrorism in the United States," Karzai told reporters.
Kabul would send a delegation to Washington headed by Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta to take part in the reassessment, he said.
Holbrooke, who arrived late Thursday from Pakistan, said he carried from Obama a personal message of "support for the people of Afghanistan and for the democratically elected government of Afghanistan".
Obama has been critical of Karzai, who revealed this week that he had not been contacted by the new US leader since he took office in January, and there are questions about support for the Afghan president in the US ahead of presidential elections due August.
Holbrooke said his trip was "to reaffirm America's commitment to the effort in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda".
"We have come here to listen and to learn your points of view," the envoy told reporters Sunday.
He met a range of officials and opposition politicians, military commanders and diplomats before his talks with Karzai.
The discussions were "very detailed and fruitful", Karzai said, without giving details.
"This is a new page in the growing relations between Afghanistan and United States," foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen told AFP.
The Afghan team, due to head to Washington at the end of the month, would push for more economic assistance for development and strengthening democracy, human rights and good governance, alongside the military operations, he said.
Holbrooke, accompanied by the deputy commander of the US Central Command, Lieutenant General John Allen, later travelled to the key base in the south near Kandahar.
He left the base in the evening, an official there said, without being able to say where he went. Holbrooke's tour is expected to take him to India next.
The United States has 37,000 troops in Afghanistan and is the main donor to efforts to rebuild a country ravaged by war, including resistance to the 1980s Soviet occupation, into which the United States poured arms and money.
More than 30 foreign soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, including two on Saturday.
Thousands more US troops are expected this year, after 2008 was declared the deadliest in terms of Taliban violence.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera late Thursday, Karzai admitted to a "crisis" between Washington and Kabul including over civilian casualties, which he has warned risk public support for his government and the foreign forces.
And he rejected US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's assertion that Afghanistan is a "narco-state," saying it did not benefit from the money generated by the huge illegal opium and heroin trade.
Holbrooke said this month a new approach was required to turn Afghanistan around but it was "going to be a long, difficult struggle".
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Once a star, Afghan president now on the defensive
by Jim Mannion – Sun Feb 15, 1:01 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Once the toast of Washington, Afghan President Hamid Karzai now finds himself on the defensive here, dogged by criticism of government corruption and questions about whether he still has friends in the White House.
With problems mounting in Afghanistan, officials, commentators and, most importantly, President Barack Obama are taking a sharper look at the man who has been the public face of the faltering seven-year-old Afghan project.
"They've got elections coming up, but effectively, the national government seems very detached from what's going on in the surrounding community," Obama said this week in a comment that has set the tone for the new US skepticism.
Karzai responded in kind in an interview with CNN to air Sunday, saying he was "surprised to hear that statement."
"Perhaps it's because the administration has not yet put itself together. Perhaps they have not been given the information yet. And I hope as they settle down, as they learn more, we will see better judgment," he said.
It's not just Obama, though, who is pointing fingers at Karzai's tenure.
A US intelligence assessment delivered this week by retired admiral Dennis Blair, the new director of national intelligence, warned that Karzai's government was losing legitimacy because of endemic corruption and an inability to deliver basic services.
"Corruption has exceeded culturally tolerable levels and is eroding the legitimacy of the government," Blair's report said.
"The Afghan drug trade is a major source of revenue for corrupt officials, the Taliban and other insurgent groups operating in the country and is one of the greatest long-term challenges facing Afghanistan."
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently warned: "If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of a Central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose. Because nobody in the world has that much time, patience or money, to be honest."
To all of this, Karzai, who is running for re-election this year, pointed to the schools and roads and healthcare services introduced in Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest country.
"The engagement with the Afghan population is so wide and so widely spread that we've never had in our history," he told CNN.
Asked about allegations that his brother was involved in drug trafficking, Karzai said he had asked US authorities for evidence but it was never forthcoming.
Instead, he suggested that the rumors about his brother were floated in response to disputes with the Americans over aerial spraying of poppy fields and his strong public denunciation of civilian casualties in US air strikes.
"My conclusion is, yes, this was a part of a political pressure tactic unfortunately," Karzai said.
He said there was corruption in Afghanistan as in any developing country, exacerbated by a flood of aid money in a country devastated by years of war.
"Corruption is there, and it's in different levels -- there's petty corruption, there's corruption in contracting," he said. "Part of it is our problem, part of it is the problem of the international community and the way they make contracts."
In the interview, Karzai signaled other potential differences with Washington as it increases the size of its forces in Afghanistan,
The additional forces should focus on stopping the infiltration of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters across the country's porous borders, rather than in Afghan communities, he said.
"Definitely the war on terrorism is not in the Afghan villages. It never was," he said.
Karzai said he could work "very positively" with Obama.
"But ... people in our part of the world, they also have sensitivities, we also have morality. Some of us stand on a very high platform of morality in this part of the world," he said.
"When I complain about civilian casualties, it's because I expect that our American friends, who I'm sure are standing on a very high platform of morality, will understand it's a human concern and it has to be responded to by our friends in the United States."
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Karzai admits tensions with US
Al Jazeera English
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has admitted that there is tension between his government and the new US administration.
The acknowledgement came in an interview to Al Jazeera's David Frost as Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan, met high-level officials of the Afghan government.
Karzai also admitted that he has not heard from the US president since Barack Obama moved into the White House last month.
"There is tension between us and the US government on issues of civilian casualties, arrests of Afghans, nightly raids on homes and the casualties they cause," Karzai said.
"We are negotiating I had to campaign for an end to civilian casualties because we are a sovereign country and the Afghan people expect their government to stand for them."
Hamish MacDonald, reporting for Al Jazeera from Kabul, noted that Holbrooke has insisted on holding talks with senior Afghan security officials before meeting Karzai, amid growing speculation over the Afghan president's political fate.
Karzai losing favour
After leading Afghanistan for over eight years, Karzai is now seen by many Western officials as part of the problem, rather than one who can push through solutions.
Holbrooke himself has previously criticised Karzai's government as "weak", "corrupt" and suffering from "thin leadership".
Obama is expected to approve the deployment of about 30,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan in the next few days, despite fears in some circles that the mistakes of the Soviet Union's 1979-89 invasion of the country, when much of the general Afghan population joined the fight against Russian forces, are being repeated. The deployment is seen as vital for securing presidential elections - only the second in Afghanistan's history - set for August 20 after they were postponed for three months amid security concerns. "Holbrooke will meet at least one of four men who could potentially take over from Karzai in elections to be held later this year," Al Jazeera's MacDonald reported on Friday. "At the moment, there is a perception that Karzai is losing favour not just at home but also internationally, so the fact that Holbrooke is meeting some of the possible replacements is significant." Holbrooke is also expected to discuss with Afghan leaders a Russian offer to open up new supply lines into Afghanistan for internati
onal forces following several attacks on existing routes. Allies wary There are fears that the security situation is deteriorating in and around Kabul after the Taliban launched one of their most audacious raids on the city to date on Wednesday, killing 20 people in a co-ordinated assault on three government buildings. Kabul says most of the opposition fighters are based in Pakistan's remote tribal regions to the east of Afghanistan. Holbrooke could ask officials why they cannot even secure government infrastructure in Kabul, MacDonald said.
"This is clearly something Holbrooke will be thinking of as he is not only responsible for Afghanistan, as far as the US is concerned, but also for Pakistan." Holbrooke believes the security forces fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda have to be stronger. There are now 80,000 US and Nato soldiers in the country, backed up by the Afghan army and police. But most Nato nations are reluctant to contribute more; they also do not want their forces in a frontline role. In Washington on Thursday, Al Jazeera's Anand Naidoo asked Robert Wood, the US state department spokesman, if the planned US deployment was likely to go ahead. "The president has made it very clear that Afghanistan is going to be a priority and that we need to do more in terms of fighting the Taliban," Wood said. Xenia Dormandy, a former South Asia section head at the US National Security Council, told Al Jazeera: "There is a debate because they truly do not know what the border Afghan policy is going to be over the coming years. "They are still trying to decide what are going to be the objectives over the next year to two years. And until the new administration comes up with these new objectives, the question of how many forces and how much US forces you need is very much up in the air."
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Iran Is Helping Taliban in Afghanistan, Petraeus Says
By Henry Meyer
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Iran is helping Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, said General David Petraeus, who is in charge of U.S. forces in the Central Asian nation and Iraq.
“There is a willingness to provide some degree of assistance to make the life of those who are trying to help the Afghan people difficult,” Petraeus told a conference today in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Petraeus gave no details of the Iranian assistance, which he described as taking place at “a small level.” The U.S. and its allies are watching Iran’s actions in Afghanistan “very, very closely,” he said, adding that the Persian Gulf state continues to train and equip Shiite Muslim militias in neighboring Iraq.
The Obama administration is preparing to commit as many as 30,000 more troops over the next year to beat back a renewed Taliban insurgency. Petraeus’s comments come as the U.S. is seeking to start a dialogue with Iran amid a continued standoff over its nuclear program.
Shiite Muslim Iran cooperated with the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the militant Sunni Muslim Taliban, noted Petraeus.
“It’s not in their interests to see the Taliban, a Sunni ultra-conservative, extremist element, return to take control of Afghanistan,” he told the conference on the U.S. role in the Islamic World.
Support to Iraq
Petraeus, who commanded the U.S. military in Iraq before taking over as head of forces in Central Asia and the Middle East, said that Iranian military ties to “special groups” in Iraq was “one of the elements fueling” violence between Sunnis and Shias that brought Iraq to the verge of civil war in 2006 and 2007.
“There is absolutely no question about this, and there is also no question that some of this does continue to this day,” Petraeus said.
The additional forces in Afghanistan would be part of a shift of emphasis under President Barack Obama to make that country the main focus of U.S. efforts to combat terrorism as violence declines in Iraq. Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan last year rose to the highest level since the 2001 invasion.
After Qatar, Petraeus is due to travel onto Uzbekistan. The Central Asian nation borders Afghanistan and housed a U.S. air base until 2005, when its government ordered the American military to leave.
Potential Setback
The U.S.-NATO effort in Afghanistan suffered a potential setback earlier this month when another Central Asian country, Kyrgyzstan, announced plans to end American access to an air base in the country.
The base at the Manas airport near the capital of Bishkek is a prime transit point for personnel and cargo moving in and out of Afghanistan. There are about 37,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan as well as 32,000 troops from other North Atlantic Treaty Organization members.
The U.S. is considering alternative supply routes into Afghanistan even as it seeks to retain access to Manas.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced plans to close the U.S. base while visiting Moscow on Feb. 3. During the visit, Bakiyev received a Russian pledge for more than $2 billion in economic assistance.
Russia is pushing the new Obama administration to reconsider U.S. plans to station missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. It also opposes NATO expansion to include its former Soviet neighbors, Ukraine and Georgia.
To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Doha via the Dubai newsroom at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net
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Is the U.S. repeating Soviet mistakes in Afghanistan?
By Jonathan S. Landay, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Sat Feb 14, 4:26 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan — Twenty years to the day after the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan , Dastagir Arizad ticked off grievances against President Hamid Karzai and the United States that are disturbingly reminiscent of Moscow's humiliating defeat.
"Day by day, we see the Karzai government failing. The Americans are also failing," said Arizad, 40, as he huddled against the cold in the stall where he sells ropes and plastic hoses. "People are not feeling safe. Their lives are not secure. Their daughters are not safe. Their land is not secure. The Karzai government is corrupt."
"The problems we are having are made by the Americans. The Americans should review their policies," he said Saturday. "They should not support the people who are in power."
As Arizad spoke, Pres. Barack Obama's special envoy, Richard Holbrooke , was holding his first talks with Karzai in the presidential palace nearby amid mounting U.S.-Afghan tensions fueled by mutual recriminations over the growing Taliban insurgency.
Some Afghan experts are worried that the United States and its NATO allies are making some of the same mistakes that helped the Taliban's forerunners defeat the Soviet Union after a decade-long occupation that bled the Kremlin treasury, demoralized Moscow's military and contributed to the Soviet Union's collapse.
Among the mistakes, these experts said, are relying too heavily on military force, inflicting too many civilian casualties, concentrating too much power in Kabul and tolerating pervasive government corruption.
Violence and ethnic tensions will worsen, they warned, absent a rapid correction in U.S.-led strategy that improves coordination between military operations and stepped up reconstruction, job-training and local good governance programs.
"We have not justified democracy. We have not justified human rights. We have not justified liberalism," said Azziz Royesh, a political activist, educator and former anti- Soviet guerrilla. "Afghans don't like the Taliban . But we haven't shown them a better option."
"I see a time when again there could be thousands of unorganized insurgencies around the country," he cautioned. "The foreigners are the ones who will be targeted. If we don't bring change here, these kinds of incidents will add to the Taliban insurgency."
A public opinion survey released earlier this month underscored the concerns.
The poll, commissioned by ABC News and the BBC , found that while 90 percent of Afghans oppose the Taliban , less than half view the U.S. favorably, down from 67 percent last year. Twenty-five percent also said they believed that attacks on foreign troops can be justified, up from 17 percent in 2007.
Adm. Mike Mullen , the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded in a Washington Post opinion article Saturday that the U.S., which is planning to almost double the 32,000-strong U.S. force in Afghanistan over the next 18 months, will lose the war if it can't win Afghans' trust.
(EDIORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
"We can send more troops. We can kill or capture all the Taliban and al Qaida leaders we can find — and we should. We can clear out havens and shut down the narcotics trade. But until we prove capable, with the help of our allies and Afghan partners, of safeguarding the population, we will never know a peaceful, prosperous Afghanistan ," Mullen wrote. "Lose the people's trust, and we lose the war."
A senior official of the NATO -led International Security Assistance Force, who requested anonymity in order to speak more candidly, said that many allied governments would find it harder to keep troops in Afghanistan "if we don't see some sort of rise in (Afghans') perception of how things are going . . . within the next 12 months."
Some Western officials and many Afghans appear to be hoping that Obama, who last week criticized Karzai for being "very detached," will abandon the Bush administration's unqualified support for the Afghan leader in hopes that he won't run for re-election or is defeated in an Aug. 20 vote.
Soviet leaders, however, believed in 1986 that a change in Afghan leadership would stem that decade's Islamist insurgency. They were wrong.
Of course, there are major differences between the brutal 10-year Soviet occupation that ended on Feb. 14, 1989 — the date it's marked on the Afghan calendar — and the U.S.-led effort to prevent Afghanistan from reverting to a Taliban -ruled sanctuary for al Qaida .
Moscow invaded to save a dictatorial regime that ignited a rebellion when it tried to force communism on a tribal society that remains rooted in conservative Islam and centuries-old tribal law. Some 1 million Afghans died and more than 5 million fled the country as Soviet and Afghan troops fought U.S.-backed guerrillas based in Pakistan .
The 2001 U.S.-led intervention came after the former Taliban regime refused to surrender Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11, 2001 , attacks. More than 40 nations have deployed a total of 70,000 troops and are spending billions on schools, clinics and roads, while the United Nations is helping to prepare for Afghanistan's second-ever presidential election.
The effort, however, faces grave uncertainties because the Bush administration, fixated on Iraq , never committed enough troops or developed a comprehensive counter-insurgency strategy for Afghanistan .
Previously secret Soviet documents made public in English for the first time on Saturday reveal that Obama is facing some of the same problems that compelled former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to order a withdrawal from Afghanistan .
The documents, posted on the George Washington University's National Security Archive Web site, show that Gorbachev decided in 1985 to end the Soviet occupation after realizing that Moscow couldn't win a military victory, a point that Obama and senior U.S. commanders repeatedly stress.
Soviet leaders also saw that Afghanistan's ruling communists had failed to earn legitimacy, become self-reliant or improve most Afghans' lives, problems that also afflict Karzai's U.S.-backed government.
"After seven years in Afghanistan , there is not one square kilometer left untouched by a boot of a Soviet soldier. But as soon as they leave a place, the enemy returns and restores it all back the way it used to be," the late Soviet Army chief Sergei Akhromeyev is quoted as saying in notes from a Nov. 13, 1986 , Politburo meeting.
Moreover, the documents indicate, Soviet troops were unable to stop U.S.-backed guerrillas infiltrating from sanctuaries in Pakistan , and they fueled support for the insurgents by killing civilians, factors that are aiding the Taliban today.
"Very little is left of the friendly feelings toward the Soviet people, which existed for decades. Very many people have died, and not all of them were bandits (guerrillas). Not a single problem was solved in favor of the peasants," then-Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze reported to the Politburo on Jan. 21, 1987 , according to minutes of the meeting. "In essence, (we) waged war against the peasants."
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Taliban to cease fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley
By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD – The Taliban announced a 10-day cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley on Sunday after freeing a Chinese hostage during peace talks with the government, while an abducted American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers remained missing.
Past peace deals with militants, including in Swat, have failed, and any agreement this time could re-spark U.S. criticism that the talks merely give insurgents time to regroup and rearm. Pakistan's government, however, insists that it cannot rely on force alone to defeat the al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in its regions bordering Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan called the release of Chinese engineer Long Xiaowei a goodwill gesture as government officials and a group linked to the Swat insurgents said they had come to terms on introducing elements of Islamic law in Swat and surrounding areas.
"In view of these developments, we announce a unilateral cease-fire for 10 days, but we reserve the right to retaliate if we are fired upon," Khan told The Associated Press.
Regaining Swat, a former tourist haven, is a major test for Pakistan's shaky civilian leaders. Unlike the semiautonomous tribal regions where al-Qaida and Taliban have long thrived, the valley is supposed to fall fully under government control.
Meanwhile, a string of attacks on foreigners — including the apparent beheading of a Polish geologist — have underscored the deteriorating overall security in the country.
On Friday, the kidnappers of American U.N. official John Solecki threatened to kill him within 72 hours and issued a 20-second video of the blindfolded captive saying he was "sick and in trouble." U.N. officials said Sunday they were still trying to establish contact with the gunmen who seized Solecki on Feb. 2 in Quetta, a southwestern city near the Afghan border.
The kidnappers have identified themselves as members of the previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front, indicating a link to separatists rather than to Islamists. The captors have demanded the release of 141 women allegedly held in Pakistan, but Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik has denied that the women are being held.
Baluchistan provincial government spokesman Syed Kamran said it was offering a $31,363 reward "for any information leading to the recovery of the kidnapped U.N. official."
Earlier this month, Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak was apparently beheaded by Islamist militants in a video obtained earlier this month by news media and believed by the Polish government to be authentic. If confirmed, it would be the first killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since American journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002.
Pakistani government officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the announced cease-fire. Nor would any comment on whether a ransom was paid or militants were freed in exchange for the Chinese captive's release Saturday.
Long's freedom was secured days before a planned visit to China by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
He and fellow telecommunications engineer Zhang Guo were kidnapped in August in the Dir region of northwestern Pakistan. They both escaped in mid-October, but Long hurt his ankle and was recaptured, while Zhang got away, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency said.
Long was in good condition Sunday and expected to return to China after a medical checkup, China's Foreign Ministry said. Chinese officials gave no details on whether money was paid or militants freed for Long's retrieval.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for North West Frontier Province, confirmed that authorities were talking to members of the Tehrik Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammed, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law, on ways to implement on-the-books regulations allowing Islamic judicial practices in Swat and surrounding areas.
Tehrik Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammed is led by Sufi Muhammad, whom Pakistan freed last year after he renounced violence.
Muhammad is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, leader of the Swat Taliban. His spokesman said Sunday that the Taliban would adhere to any deal reached with Muhammad.
"Once Islamic law is imposed there will be no problems in Swat," Khan said. "The Taliban will lay down their arms."
The Pakistani government has usually tried to avoid negotiating directly with militants, for instance using tribal elders as intermediaries.
Although agreeing to an Islamic judicial system is a concession to the insurgents, many civilians in the region would likely welcome the move after years of dissatisfaction with the inefficient secular justice system. But how exactly the government is willing to define Islamic law remains to be seen.
The talks revolved around some 22 points, Hussain said, but would not elaborate pending a final announcement.
A broader peace deal last year with Fazlullah's militants effectively collapsed within a few months, and Pakistani security officials blame that agreement for the militants' gains in Swat since.
Hussain insisted that dialogue would move forward, but warned that the government would resort to force if it had to.
___
Associated Press writers Henry Sanderson in Beijing, Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Habib Khan in Timar Garah contributed to this report.
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Pakistani Taliban militants free Chinese engineer
The Associated Press February 15, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban militants have freed a Chinese engineer held captive for nearly six months, officials said on Sunday, as fears rose over the safety of an abducted American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers.
It was not immediately clear what prompted Long Xiaowei's release, including whether a ransom was paid or militants were freed in exchange, but the news that he was safe was a rare bright spot in a month of heightened security concerns for foreigners in Pakistan.
Long's release came days before a planned visit to China by President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan.
On Saturday, a U.S. missile strike on a compound in an area where dozens of Taliban militants had gathered killed 27 people, intelligence officials said.
Earlier this month, a Polish geologist held by Taliban fighters was apparently beheaded on a video obtained by news media and believed by the Polish government to be authentic. On Friday, the kidnappers of an American UN official, John Solecki, threatened to kill him within 72 hours and issued a 20-second video of the blindfolded captive saying he was "sick and in trouble."
The abductions have underscored the overall deteriorating security conditions in Pakistan, a U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism, as it battles a Taliban insurgency in its northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan.
China also is an ally and financial supporter of Pakistan, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing attached high importance to the case of the kidnapped engineer.
Long was freed on Saturday and taken to the Chinese Embassy on Sunday morning, said Yao Jing, deputy head of China's mission in Islamabad. The engineer appeared in good condition and was expected to go back to China after a medical checkup, China's Foreign Ministry said.
Long and a fellow telecommunications engineer, Zhang Guo, were kidnapped in August in the Dir region of northwestern Pakistan. They both escaped in mid-October, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.
Long hurt his ankle and was recaptured, while Zhang got away.
The Chinese Ministry said that Long arrived at the embassy under the escort of Pakistani military and the police, but did not say how he came into Pakistani custody. Yao said he did not know if a deal was struck with the militants.
However, Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley, claimed that the militants freed the Chinese captive after the government agreed to impose Islamic law in their region.
Swat, a former tourist haven, is believed to be largely under militant control despite a lengthy army offensive.
"That was our only demand," Khan said by telephone. "Once Islamic law is imposed there will be no problems in Swat. The Taliban will lay down their arms." Pakistani government and military officials either could not immediately be reached or declined comment on Sunday.
Paying ransom or releasing militants in exchange for a hostage is not unprecedented in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region, though officials are generally loath to confirm the terms because of concerns it might inspire more kidnappings.
Gunmen seized Solecki, the American, on Feb. 2 in Quetta, a southwestern city near the Afghan border. The kidnappers have since identified themselves as members of the previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front, indicating a link to separatists rather than to Islamists.
The Pakistani president said in a television interview that the Taliban had expanded their presence to a "huge amount" of Pakistan and were eyeing a takeover of the state.
Many Pakistanis believe the country is fighting Islamist militants, who have enjoyed state support in the past, only at Washington's behest. Disdain for the United States has risen as it has stepped up the missile strikes.
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Kabul 20 years after the Soviets
Saturday, 14 February 2009 BBC News
Twenty years ago this week, Soviet troops pulled out of Afghanistan, after nine years of occupation. Lyse Doucet was our correspondent in Kabul then and she's back in the Afghan capital now.
I still keep the single sheet of paper - dull grey, stark black font, with the seal of the British embassy in Kabul, dated 19 January 1989.
"I must advise you," it warns, "you should leave Afghanistan without delay while normal flights are still available".
The British ambassador then pulled down the Union flag and locked the gates of a magnificent compound Lord Curzon once said was worth five divisions.
The US ambassador had done the same weeks earlier, urging Soviet troops to complete their pullout and predicting the collapse of the Afghan government.
Anxious voices
These were the dying days of the Soviet empire in the harsh winter of 1989. We didn't know it then. But we felt Kabul was in the eye of the storm.
Every day, several times a day, I was asked, in whispered anxious voices, by foreigners and Afghans: "Are you leaving? Do you think it's safe to stay? When will Najib go?" Najib is what many called the Soviet-backed president, Najibullah.
Some said he was a murderer, from his days heading the infamous KGB-trained Khad secret service. His nickname was the Ox - he was a burly man with a big voice and a barrel chest. He declared, to anyone who would listen, he wasn't going anywhere.
Not many believed him then. In neighbouring Pakistan, mujahideen rebels, backed by the might of the United States, the money of Saudi Arabia, and the efforts of Pakistan, bickered over the formation of an alternative government.
Earlier, while in Islamabad, I was warned by some mujahideen leaders to be careful in Kabul. They later sent safe-passage letters so that when they entered I would not be harmed. For them, it was only a matter of weeks.
How hard it was then to know if they were right or Najibullah was.
City cut off
Even Soviet officials heightened this sense of siege, speaking of 30,000 mujahideen fighters just beyond the snow-capped mountains that encircle this city. The rockets fell on Kabul every day. But was Kabul itself even close to falling?
In recent weeks, I've been calling Afghans who were the president's closest advisers then. "Was Najib really that strong then?" I asked one former aide. "Najib wasn't just strong," he insisted, "he was very strong".
Kabul in 1988 was isolated - by Cold War rivalries, and often cut off by snow that blocked any road or flight out of the city. There were of course no mobile telephones or internet then, just a small number of clattering telex machines and only three international telephone lines.
For some reason, many calls were routed through Glasgow. So every day, in my fourth floor room in a gloomy hilltop hotel, I spent a lot of time talking to Scottish telephone operators.
Three years later President Najibullah's rule finally ended. He was brought down by intrigues within his own party and in Moscow, an ill-fated UN process, and double-dealing by rival mujahideen commanders. They eventually took over Kabul and destroyed large parts of it.
Body hung
The president still did not manage to leave as his regime collapsed around him. He took refuge in a UN compound. And when the Taleban stormed into Kabul in 1996, he was urged to flee, but with his trademark confidence, he insisted: "I know my people, I will stay."
Vengeful Taleban fighters killed him and hung his body at a roundabout alongside his brother.
That was then, and this is now. On Kabul's freezing winter streets Afghan urchins press smudged faces against car windows peddling photographs of Afghan leaders including Najibullah. Copies of his speeches now do a brisk trade in the market - they are admired by some Afghans for their wisdom and wit.
The violence has not gone either. Now it is Taleban suicide bombs rather than mujahideen rockets which terrorise this city.
Afghans still worry about the future, foreigners still ask if it is safe to stay. And, just as many once asked how long President Najibullah could cling on to power, now they ask whether an embattled President Karzai will be elected again - and Western governments, including a new administration in Washington, raise questions about his rule.
Twenty years on Kabul remains threatened by rebels, cradled by the Hindu Kush, still very much in the eye of the storm.
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Afghans commemorate Soviet forces withdrawal but Afghanistan still in turmoil
www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-15 20:59:12
By Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- "Today we mark the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Union's defeat and the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan but unfortunately still we do not have peace in our country," said 59-year-old Mohammad Karim, an Afghan citizen.
The erstwhile Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on Dec. 27, 1979but left this country in humiliation on Feb. 15, 1989 after losing over 15,000 soldiers in the war and leaving a ruined nation behind.
Afghanistan had served as a battle ground between the big powers in the Cold War era and the Afghans had paid heavy price to win the war against the invaders and help end the Cold War. Ten years of occupation by the Soviet Troops, besides ravaging the country's basic infrastructures, left over 5 million Afghans homeless, forcing them to live in exile and over 2 million others dead and injured.
Afghans, who defeated the Soviet Troops with the financial and military support of the U.S.-led Western nations, had celebrated the pullout of the Red Army as the victory day but proved awful as the resistance groups turned guns against each other.
Factional fighting had raged among different ethnic and political outfits and eventually the country plunged into crisis.
Extremist groups from across the world had assembled in Afghanistan, and based on pan-Islamism ideology, began recruiting fighters to launch Jihad, or holy war, against those they described enemies of Islam.
Under the umbrella of Taliban regime, these outfits including al-Qaeda network began targeting the West's interests and in a Doomsday-like attack targeted the United States in 2001 and thus shocked the whole world.
Following the shocking attacks, over 40 nations under the U.S. have brought troops into Afghanistan, ousted the Taliban regime from power and united the country by facilitating Afghans to hold elections and have parliament and elected president.
Today, while Afghans marking the withdrawal of Soviet troops from their country by holding meetings and conferences, the poor country is still in turmoil as clashes between Taliban-linked insurgents and the government are going on in many parts of the country.
Only over the past one month more than 100 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in militants' attacks and conflicts in several parts of the country, including the capital city Kabul.
"This is not a victory. In fact, it is the beginning of all miseries, because we have failed to establish a stable government and make progress," commented a roadside vendor Ahmad Khan in Kabul.
"Victory means having peace and stability. How we can interpret it victory while still fighting is going on in several parts of the country. Though the Soviet Union had been dismembered peacefully, we, the Afghans, are still living in chaotic environment," he further said.
Nevertheless, Afghans are proud of their achievement in war against the ex-Soviet Union and defeating the Red Army.
"These were Afghans who paved the way for the liberation of central Asian states and the collapse of Berlin Wall," said Mohammad Aslam, a former Mujahidin, or holy warrior who currently serves as teacher.
"We jubilantly entered the base of Soviet troops after their withdrawal and celebrated it for days by offering special prayers and firing on the air," a former Mujahidin Abdul Mohammad from northern Baghlan province recalled and added, "eruption of infighting among Mujahidin groups and continued instability has disappointed us."
Editor: Du
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Afghan court upholds sentences in Quran trial
By RAHIM FAIEZ and HEIDI VOGT Associated Press Writer Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009
KABUL An appeals court in Afghanistan upheld 20-year prison sentences Sunday for two men who published a translation of the Quran that drove religious leaders to call for their execution.
The controversial text is a translation of Islam's holy book into an Afghan language without the original Arabic verses alongside. Muslims regard the Arabic Quran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Quran itself, and it is believed a mistranslation could warp God's word.
A host of Muslim clerics in this conservative Islamic state have condemned the translation - which was published in 2007 and handed out for free - as blasphemous and accused its publishers of setting themselves up as false prophets.
Critics have said the trial illustrates the undue influence of hard-line clerics in Afghanistan's fledgling legal system.
The appeals court found the men guilty of modifying the Quran - a crime punishable by death. However, the three-judge panel reiterated a lower court ruling giving the men 20 years each.
The prosecutor had asked for the death penalty for the two men - Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, a former spokesman for the attorney general, and Mushtaq Ahmad, a Muslim cleric who signed a letter endorsing the translation.
Chief judge Abdul Salam Qazizada invoked Islamic Shariah law when reading out the sentence, saying death would not have been an extreme punishment.
"He who commits such an act is an infidel and should be killed" according to some interpretations of Shariah law, Qazizada said.
Qazizada did not explain why they didn't issue a harsher verdict.
Zalmai's lawyer, Abdul Qawi Afzeli, said both men plan to appeal again, pushing the case the Supreme Court.
The appeals court reduced the sentence of the owner of the print shop that published the book to 15 months, which he has already served, from five years. Three other men charged with trying to help Zalmai flee the country were sentenced to just over seven months, also time already served.
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'Pashtunistan' holds key to Obama mission
guardian.co.uk, UK via The Observer Sunday 15 February 2009
The mountainous borderlands where Afghanistan meets Pakistan have been described as a Grand Central Station for Islamic terrorists, a place where militants come and go and the Taliban trains its fighters. Now Barack Obama has made solving the 'Af-Pak' question a top priority. But could the battle to tame the Pashtun heartland become his Vietnam?
Jason Burke in London, Yama Omid in Kabul, Paul Harris in Washington, Saeed Shah in Islamabad and Gethin Chamberlain in Delhi
Relaxing one evening last week at the Cuckoo's Cafe, a rooftop restaurant in the heart of the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan seemed on the point of causing a major incident.
As ever in the region, there had been no warning. The weather was just right, a warm late winter evening. The view was even better - unmarred by the security subtly positioned on surrounding buildings. From his table, Richard Holbrooke, 67, the diplomat charged with calming what fellow members of the administration call the most dangerous place in the world, looked out over the giant Badshahi mosque and the imposing Lahore Fort, both more than 300 years old. Carefully invited politicians, writers, human rights activists and journalists from Lahore's liberal elite chatted at tables around him.
It was not that Holbrooke did not enjoy the barbecued spicy kebabs, Lahore's speciality, it was just he had one special request. He wanted daal, the plain lentil curry that is the humblest dish in South Asia. For such a distinguished guest, none had been prepared. "The bulldozer", credited with negotiating an end to the war in the Balkans in the 1990s, usually gets his way and this time was no exception. Daal was soon on its way.
Tonight Holbrooke will land at the Palam air force base, adjacent to the main civilian airport in New Delhi. It will be the last stop on a journey that has led the diplomat across the broad swathe of territory stretching from central Afghanistan to Pakistan's Indus river. Call it the central front of the global "war on terror", the fulcrum of the "arc of crisis", Pashtunistan or simply, in the most recent neologism, "AfPak", no one doubts that this is the biggest foreign policy headache for Obama's new team.
"The situation there grows more perilous every day," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the American joint chiefs of staff, told journalists earlier this month. Holbrooke reaches for the ultimate comparison: "It's tougher than Iraq."
First, there is the local situation. Since launching an offensive in 2006 the shifting alliance of insurgents which make up the Taliban in Afghanistan have established control - or at least denied government authority - over a large part of southern and eastern Afghanistan. British foreign secretary David Miliband last week spoke of a "stalemate" - something senior generals and security officials have known for some time.
Local Afghan forces are still far from able to take on the insurgents without assistance from the 73,000 Nato troops now in country. The government is corrupt and ineffective. Opium production has exploded. Across the border in Pakistan, despite continuing military operations, authorities seem unable to push the Islamic militants on to the defensive. And somewhere in the mess is al-Qaida, though few can say exactly where.
Then, there is the regional situation. There is little love lost between Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. The two former countries have been at loggerheads since splitting in the aftermath of independence from Britain. Kabul's relationships with New Delhi are warm, a cause and consequence of their mutual animosity towards Islamabad.
"Both India and Pakistan would justify their involvement [in Afghanistan] as a deterrent against the other," said Chietigj Bajpaee, South Asia analyst for the Control Risks group.
Finally, there is the global situation. "AfPak", or more specifically the area dominated by the Pashtun tribes around the border mountains, has become the "grand central station" of global Islamic militancy, intelligence sources told the Observer. Young westerners head up to the tribal areas, the semi-autonomous zones which line the Pakistani side of the porous frontier, to visit makeshift al-Qaida training camps to learn how to blow up trains or planes back home. British intelligence track about 30 individuals of high risk through Pakistan each year. Others are known to be fighting with the Taliban against Nato troops.
It is this hideous puzzle that Holbrooke has been sent to sort out. If he can. "It is not too late. If they get the approach right and make an effort to really understand the problems, they can still do it," said Hekmat Karzai of the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies, Kabul.
Holbrooke will not do it alone, however. Obama has assembled a powerful team of new and old faces entirely to revamp the American "AfPak" strategy. On a global level, Hillary Clinton, the new secretary of state, will take charge. Holbrooke will work on the region and the political track. On the military side, David Petraeus, the general credited with turning Iraq around, is now tasked with winning Afghanistan too. He has been clear that engaging with the largely Pashtun tribes, who bear the brunt of the fighting and provide most of the support for the insurgents, is an essential part of his strategy. As those tribes stretch across the border into Pakistan - a frontier which they cross more or less at will - Petraeus has focused on Afghanistan's neighbour too.
The complexity of the problems is forcing what UK diplomats call a "recalibration" of objectives. The Americans are more blunt. Defence secretary Robert Gates said the aim is not to build a "central Asian Valhalla". Creating a liberal, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan has been, at the very least, postponed.
"We have certainly pulled back from the aims of a nice, happy, Scandinavian-style democracy,' said Steve Cohen, at the Brookings Institution policy research centre, Washington.
The priority now is stabilisation. "There is a recognition that before... nation building, you have to clear the ground," said Seth Jones, of the US-based Rand Corporation thinktank. For Waliullah Rahmani, of the Centre for Strategic Studies, Kabul, "until Afghanistan is stabilised, you can't have good governance, development or democracy."
First stop on Holbrooke's "listen and learn tour" was Pakistan. As he travelled, the militants sowed death. In Peshawar, the Pakistani frontier city, last Wednesday a member of the provincial parliament was killed by a roadside bomb, the first elected politician to die in the current violence. The same day, Afghan Taliban launched an attack on government buildings in Kabul which involved eight suicide bombers and killed 28. The Afghan government blamed it on Islamabad's spies.
In Pakistan, those Holbrooke met were impressed by the envoy's apparent desire to hear what Pakistanis had to say. In Lahore, Jugnu Mohsin, a newspaper publisher, described how when told how Lahore was once known as a tolerant city where all religions thrived, Holbrooke, who backpacked through the region as a young man, wanted to know if it had become more conservative.
"He wanted to know about the Badshahi (mosque), who built it. He was interested in the culture and history of the place," said Mohsin. "He was basically there to learn, to inform himself, not to tell us what was what."
Others agreed, though pointed out that Holbrooke's open mind might have revealed a lack of detailed knowledge. "He is candid and not given to the pro-India fixation of the Bush administration," said Ikram Sehgal, an analyst who briefed Holbrooke on the security concerns of Pakistani businessmen. "We've turned a real corner."
Washington has poured an estimated $1bn a year in military aid into Pakistan since 2001 and is worried that it is not getting value for money. There are also persistent question marks over the Pakistan security establishment's possible support of some Taliban elements.
Indians make frequent accusations. "We have no illusions in India that Pakistan is a major player in Afghanistan," says MK Bhadrakumar, a former Indian diplomat. "Pakistan estimates that at some point the US will withdraw ... [so] it can't let the Taliban go out of its hands."
Islamabad denies this, accusing New Delhi of joining with Kabul to foment violence amid separatists in Pakistan's south-west province of Balochistan and of spying from two consulates they have established along the border. "The Pakistanis have real concerns about Indian activities such as road construction or building the national parliament," said Jones of the Rand Corporation.
Holbrooke was taken on an aerial tour of the restive Pashtun tribal areas, flying by helicopter over Waziristan, the epicentre of militancy, to see the rugged and remote terrain. Yesterday, a missile fired from an American drone destroyed a house and at least 20 Taliban fighters in areas the envoy flew over, the latest in a series of highly controversial strikes.
Holbrooke stopped in the Khyber Pass, a key supply route for troops in Afghanistan and under attack in recent months, for a briefing with local commanders. Impressed, local observers pointed out that neither Pakistan's president, Asif Zardari, nor prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, have dared to do the same. Holbrooke had met both in Islamabad.
Then it was on to Lahore for meetings with former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif - who said Holbrooke had admitted that there had been "mistakes" in past US policy - and the rooftop dinner.
Then Holbrooke was on the move again to a frozen, snowy Kabul. The gritty, depressing, grey weather reflected the mood of the visit. Not only is it widely recognised that the Afghan project is in deep trouble but the Obama team believe President Hamid Karzai is at least in part responsible. Relations have deteriorated badly since the halcyon days when the Afghan tribal leader seemed the perfect man to lead his country. Obama himself is said to regard Karzai as unreliable and ineffective. Hillary Clinton has called his country a "narco-state".
Holbrooke arrived last Thursday and did not see the Afghan president until yesterday. Kabul was quiet - on account of the weather, power cuts and a national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country 20 years ago.
Obama has long promised to put 30,000 more US troops into Afghanistan as part of a wide-ranging review of American policy and the first soldiers are expected to arrive before late spring. John Nagl, a senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security, in Washington, believes the US commitment could eventually rise to 100,000 troops.
"The immediate problem is to stop the bleeding. The 30,000 troops is a tourniquet ... [but] that is all we have," he said. "If Obama is a two-term president then by the end of his time in office there may only be marine embassy guards in Iraq. But there will still be tens of thousands of US troops in Afghanistan."
There is also the matter of Afghanistan's coming elections, already postponed once. Some experts believe the polls might solve America's "Karzai problem". "Karzai will either improve his performance or he will be ex-president Karzai. That is the wonderful thing about elections," said Nagl.
Diplomats in European capitals fret about a weakened, re-elected Karazi with no real mandate. Sultan Ahmad Bahin, an Afghan government spokesman, said that Holbrooke had reassured the Afghan government of continuing American co-operation and of the new focus that Obama will bring.
Few locals showed much interest in the visit. "He's going to do what for us? These people just go backwards and forwards for nothing," said Karim, 34, a shopkeeper. "The Taliban have been killing us for seven years now."
For Bashir, a Kabul taxi driver, the Americans would leave. "The Soviets couldn't stay in our country. How can the Americans stay?" he asked.
A preoccupation for Obama and the Europeans is domestic public support for the war in Afghanistan. White House strategists believe it will hold up much better than the conflict in Iraq. "The polling has been very supportive. Iraq was a phony war but al-Qaida really is in Afghanistan and Pakistan," said Cohen.
That makes the job of persuading Americans that the war needs to be fought much easier. It is not hard to point out the genuine threats of a region where there are thousands of Islamic militants, nuclear weapons and where the 9/11 plot was hatched. "The main task will be to persuade the allies, especially the Europeans," said Cohen.
Finally on to New Delhi, where Holbrooke will step into a diplomatic atmosphere poisoned by November's Mumbai terrorist attacks. India holds Pakistan responsible for the three-day siege which left 179 people dead and many more injured. Relations with Islamabad are at their lowest ebb since the two nuclear-armed neighbours nearly went to war over Kashmir in 2001 and 2002.
Bajpaee, the analyst, argues that Holbrooke's best hope is to convince India to take a step back in Afghanistan to calm Pakistani concerns. Delhi may just be happy to let the US turn the screws on Islamabad. The Indians say they intend simply to "listen" to Holbrooke. The envoy too is going to be listening. The encounter may be much quieter than "the bulldozer" likes.
Divided Pashtun Nation Which nation with homogenous ethnic make-up, a common language, religion and values is not a nation? The answer: Pashtunistan.
The Pashtuns, of whom there are now an estimated 40 million spread from south-western Afghanistan through to central Pakistan, (plus communities in cities such as Karachi and abroad in the UK), were divided on lines drawn by Sir Mortimer Durand in 1893, when he separated the British Indian Raj and the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
Throughout the 19th century the Pashtun tribes fought ferociously, following their honour code of revenge. In Afghanistan, they dominated the emerging state.
But it was not all war. Pashtun culture, particularly poetry and a famous love of flowers, also flourished.
In the post-colonial era, an educated elite campaigned for a nation state but with little popular support. In the past decade, Pashtun identity has fused with more global, radical Islamic strands. Experts, however, warn against branding current violence a 'Pashtun insurgency'.
The Pashtun world • The world population of Pashtuns is estimated at 42 million, and they make up the majority of the population of modern-day Afghanistan.
• Pashtun tradition asserts they are descended from Afghana, grandson of King Saul of Israel, though most scholars believe it more likely they arose from an intermingling of ancient Aryans from the north or west with subsequent invaders.
• Pashtuns are predominantly Sunni Muslim.
• The largest population of Pashtuns is said to be in the Pakistani city of Karachi.
• Pashtun culture rests on "Pashtunwali", a legal and moral code that determines social order and responsibilities based on values such as honour (namuz), solidarity (nang), hospitality, mutual support, shame and revenge.
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Obama's men in Afghanistan
Misconceptions in the new administration could set back progress in the fight against the opium economy
From Saturday's Globe and Mail February 14, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST THOMAS SCHWEICH
Earlier this month, the United Nations released a report predicting a decline in opium cultivation in Afghanistan for the second year in a row. Because Afghan heroin funds the insurgency, corrupts the government and interferes with legitimate agricultural programs, this was good news for everyone. Four years ago, farmers grew poppies in all 34 of Afghanistan's provinces. Three years ago there were six poppy-free provinces; two years ago, there were 13; last year, there were 18; and experts predict that 22 of the 34 will likely be poppy-free this year. Nationwide, poppy cultivation was down 19 per cent last year, and it will likely fall even more this year, prompting the top UN diplomat in Afghanistan to say a few days ago, "This year could be a turning point" in the war against Afghan heroin.
As one of the U.S officials who developed and co-ordinated the counternarcotics strategy currently in effect, I felt heartened, but only a little. We — the international community and the Afghans — should have done a lot better. We have not delivered an effective counternarcotics campaign in two insurgency-ridden southern provinces — Helmand and Kandahar — the source of more than three-quarters of the heroin produced on Earth. The principal culprits are the Taliban, who protect their fields aggressively (killing dozens of Afghan narcotics police each year), and corrupt Afghan officials, many of whom come from these two provinces, and need the support of powerful drug lords in upcoming elections.
Outside Afghanistan, there are, regrettably, two other reasons we could not make inroads in Helmand and Kandahar: Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry. U.S. President Barack Obama has just chosen Mr. Holbrooke, a former Clinton administration official, as his special representative in the region, and Lt.-Gen. Eikenberry as his ambassador to Afghanistan. We all wish them well, but, if they are to succeed, they need to get their facts straight, establish clearer lines of authority, and avoid the increasing militarization of civilian projects.
CARROTS AND STICKS
In early 2008, Mr. Holbrooke wrote in the Washington Post that the U.S counternarcotics strategy in Afghanistan is "the single most ineffective program in the history of American foreign policy." Almost every salient fact in his piece was wrong. He claimed that the U.S. had a policy that focused on destroying poppy fields; in fact the policy — published on the State Department website — balances incentives such as development assistance and alternative crops with disincentives such as eradication and arrest. The U.S. developed the policy in close co-ordination with its allies, principally Britain and Canada.
Mr. Holbrooke also said that the poppies are grown in "rocky, remote" areas by destitute farmers with no alternatives, when two UN reports have demonstrated that relatively wealthy farmers grow most of the poppies in Helmand, which is the epicentre of world poppy cultivation. Many of them are government officials. Most of them only recently switched from growing wheat or other badly needed food crops to growing poppy. And they grow it on a well-irrigated, flat fertile plain near the major city of Lashkar Gah. These farmers are not poor, they do not live in remote areas, and they have alternatives. Mr. Holbrooke played into the hands of the Taliban and corrupt war lords, who also perpetuate the destitute-farmer myth in order to prevent any serious law enforcement action in that part of the country.
He has claimed that it was "an absolute scandal" that the Afghans and their allies have never arrested a single Afghan drug lord. In fact, four Afghan drug lords are in jail in the United States: Haji Bashir Noorzai, Mohammed Essa, Khan Mohammed and, most recently, Haji Juma Khan, aka HJK, probably the biggest drug lord in Afghan history. Afghan and international agents arranged for his arrest in October, and have since transported him to the U.S., where he will soon stand trial in open court.
I met Karl Eikenberry at the end of 2005, during his tour as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, when he briefed the drug-enforcement bureau at the U.S. State Department. He told us point-blank that the military would not get seriously involved in the drug trade in Afghanistan; it was not their mission. Drug experts warned him that the Taliban were likely to re-enter the trade to raise money, but Lt.-Gen. Eikenberry ignored the warning.
As a result, we did not get serious U.S. or NATO military support for counternarcotics development and enforcement activity in Helmand and Kandahar. Because those provinces are volatile the program cannot succeed without some sort of force protection for both humanitarian and law-enforcement efforts there. We never asked the military to destroy poppy fields or even arrest traffickers, but rather to enable Afghan counternarcotics authorities, and their international mentors, to execute a balanced plan of incentives and disincentives, including, but not limited to, eradication of the fields of wealthy farmers. Lt.-Gen. Eikenberry did nothing to help. Now, by UN estimates, the Taliban raise up to $300-million a year from the drug trade, and use it to kill Americans and Canadians.
Lt.-Gen. Eikenberry was also the architect of what another American general told me was the "flimsy and under-resourced" initial plan to train the Afghan police. So we could not count on the Afghan National Police for force protection either.
The misinformed statements of Mr. Holbrooke and Lt.-Gen. Eikenberry have greatly hindered our efforts to build a consensus in the international community on the drug issue. Yet even so, we have had two relatively successful years.
MILITARIZATION
Equally disturbing is the continued militarization of the civilian effort in Afghanistan. The Pentagon has already taken over police training in Afghanistan. Their latest plan is to arm Afghan militias, a scheme that U.S. allies, including Canada, have roundly and rightly criticized. And now Mr. Obama — in an unprecedented move — intends to appoint Lt.-Gen. Eikenberry — a three-star general — to be the U.S. ambassador there. So the U.S. National Security Adviser, the Director of National Intelligence and the ambassador to Afghanistan will have 11 stars among them. Civilians, mainly seasoned foreign service officers, once held all those posts. This is a dangerous trend if we want to build confidence among Afghans, who are weary of civilian casualties.
In the drug arena, some NATO officials have been looking into the often discussed "silver bullet" of legalizing the opium trade. This is another example of what happens when military personnel get into areas outside of their expertise, advocating simplistic schemes that would have no chance of success.
First, the price for legal opium is much lower than the price of illegal opium, so farmers would have no incentive to switch to legal opium and would continue to sell to the illegal market under the convenient cover of legality.
Second, only about 15 per cent of the Afghan people grow heroin, so if you subsidize a legal opium program, everyone will grow it. Finally, Afghanistan is facing a serious food shortage; the last thing it needs is more opium. Maybe if the starving Afghans are all high on heroin, they won't notice … We have had two years of successful cultivation reduction; we need to build on that, not reverse course.
It is unclear who is running Afghan policy in the Obama administration. In recent weeks, we have seen Vice-President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, and General James Jones, the National Security Adviser travel to the region and to Europe, or testify to Congress about the need for change in Afghanistan. Now we have Mr. Holbrooke, a sometimes difficult personality, with the title "special representative," an unclear term, usually used in the context of the United Nations, not the United States.
According to press reports, Mr. Holbrooke does not report to Secretary Clinton. It is not clear if he has authority over the Pentagon, or if the Pentagon would recognize his authority. And his relationship to Gen. Jones — whose job is to co-ordinate among the relevant U.S. agencies — is equally ill-defined.
A couple of weeks ago, someone in this convoluted hierarchy anonymously leaked word that Mr. Obama might withdraw support for President Hamid Karzai. Though I am one of Mr. Karzai's harshest critics, I was astounded that a government official would make such an irresponsible statement to a media organization, instead of discussing these concerns directly with Mr. Karzai. In the past, when making huge policy shifts, we spoke on the record. And we never advocated regime change in Afghanistan, just regime reform. Afghanistan is a democracy and a sovereign state. The U.S. can ask for change, but we have no right to announce, anonymously or on the record, that it needs a new president.
This statement had everyone reeling both in Washington and inside the Karzai government. No one knew where it came from. This is what you get with an unclear chain of command.
President Obama promised the U.S. and the world a renewed focus on Afghanistan, and that is needed. But he will not improve things unless the he shows the international community that he has a clear leader for that effort: someone who knows the facts, accepts a larger civilian role and can bring discipline to the process.
Thomas Schweich is a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He has been U.S. ambassador for counternarcotics in Afghanistan, deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement, and chief of staff of the U.S. mission to the United Nations.
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Honest Afghan cop a rarity in corrupt force
Commander and his unit offer hope to Canadian troops
Archie Mclean Canwest News Service Sunday, February 15, 2009
The line of cars on the dusty Afghan road is growing longer. It's the equivalent of morning rush hour here and villagers are becoming impatient with the delay of their shopping trips.
Muhammed Khan and his police officers -- on patrol in Taliban territory with Canadian soldiers -- don't panic. They calmly and methodically search each vehicle, patting down the men and checking the cargo for explosives or other suspicious material.
Running a vehicle checkpoint may be a simple task for a professional police force, but this is the Afghan National Police, an organization that is often, and justifiably, criticized here for incompetence, drug use and corruption.
Khan's unit is the exception. He strictly enforces a no-drug-use policy and has no patience for corruption.
His Canadian mentors say if the fledgling force had more commanders like Khan, their job would be redundant. "We wouldn't need to be here," says Master Cpl. Gary O'Brien. "These guys are more seasoned than some of our soldiers." Khan and his officers have proven themselves time and again to the Canadian soldiers, including in numerous firefights, some as long as five or six hours.
Khan began working in this violent corner of Afghanistan three years ago.
He is based out of a police substation in Pashmul, in eastern Zhari District. Despite the fact that he is an ethnic Hazara -- a northern minority group that has fought periodic wars with the Pashtuns -- the Canadians say he knows his turf like a seasoned beat cop. "He knows everybody and they know him," O'Brien says. "They've got a lot of respect in the community." O'Brien and the other police mentors live full time with Khan and the 13 officers under his command at the Pashmul south station.
At other stations, the Canadians and Afghans live segregated lives, but not here. They often share meals, with the Canadians barbecuing steaks and the Afghans providing cilantro salads, naan or other local foods.
The Afghans relish the closeness with their Canadian counterparts.
At one point, they heard the Canadians were ordering more concrete barriers for the compound. They panicked, O'Brien said, because they thought it meant the end of their cosy life there.
The Canadians had to reassure them that the barriers were only for protection, not exclusion.
The job of a police officer in Afghanistan is a tough one. They are poorly paid, making roughly $100 a month, and face a constant threat of insurgent attacks.
Earlier this month, a suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform detonated himself inside a police station in Uruzgan Province, north of Kandahar. The blast killed 21 officers and injured another 12.
Afghan police are considered a "softer" target for strikes compared to the better-armed and better-trained army. More than 1,000 police officers died last year, more than three times the number of Afghan soldiers.
Corruption in the force is endemic and officers routinely defect to the Taliban.
According to the International Crisis Group, a Belgian think-tank that specializes in international security, corruption is eating away at their public support. "Institutional capacity is being corroded by corruption. With money-making taking precedence over merit in the appointment process and blocking real reform, effectiveness and community trust are being eroded," the think-tank said in a statement.
That's why officers like Khan are vital. On a break from patrol, he says his policing philosophy is simple: "I accept my law and I take pride in my work." Corruption and drug use shouldn't be tolerated because they're illegal and police officers are supposed to uphold the law, Khan says.
"That's really bad. And it's the fault of their commanders -- they should tell their officers not to do it." The solution to better policing in Afghanistan is more training at the regional centre in Kandahar, Khan says.
O'Brien would add to that, better pay.
"The biggest thing that's stopping them is the corruption. And that wouldn't be happening if they were paid a decent wage," O'Brien says.
Despite their success, these Afghan officers are far from perfect.
At one point in the day, they conduct a thorough search of a compound, which turns up a pair of spent Canadian artillery shells. But before Canadian engineers can examine them -- CLANK -- a sound comes from inside the room.
"Don't throw that!" yells Capt. Nick Arakgi, one of the mentors. "Talib, get out of there!" "I'm getting the hell out of here before we get blown up," says a nearby officer, walking out of the compound.
O'Brien is apologetic.
"They're the best in the area, sir, but they still do things that make me shake my head." O'Brien says that sort of thing is common, particularly as patrols drag late into the day.
"They're like kids in a Wal-Mart. After four hours, they're done." Indeed, a few hours later, one of the Afghan officers is horsing around and tosses a lit flare in front of a bunch of resting Canadian soldiers.
It earns some angry shouts from the soldiers, who don't appreciate a lit fuse thrown anywhere near them in a war zone.
Policing in rural Afghanistan remains a combination of soldiering and what Canadians would recognize as regular law enforcement.
The goal, says Arakgi, who is a Peel Regional Police constable in his civilian job back home, is to move them more toward the law enforcement side.
Khan is on the front lines of that transition. For example, he actually enforces drug laws, a rarity among Afghan police officers. Last week, he burned 131/2 kilograms of hash and has been known to burn drug crops in the field.
But good policing relies on a good relationship with the community.
Arakgi and O'Brien say the only downside to Khan's Hazara heritage is that it will stop him from moving up the ladder in the local police force.
Khan, who speaks only some Pashto, isn't concerned. He's just a cop, doing his job in a tough neighbourhood.
"My job is to provide security," he says. "Your people, the Canadians, are here to provide security. It's the same thing for me. I'm in my own country providing security.
amclean@thejournal.canwest.com
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