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Afghan leader floats proposal for April election
by SSardar Ahmad – Wed Feb 25, 7:45 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai has floated the prospect of bringing forward presidential elections to April, senior officials said Wednesday, as he bids to head off intense wrangling over his future.
Clashes, motorbike bomb kill 32 in Afghanistan
Wed Feb 25, 4:41 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – A bomb exploded in Afghanistan and killed two civilians while 28 militants and two Afghan soldiers died in clashes, the authorities said.
Reports: Uzbekistan, NATO reach Afghanistan deal
By Jim Heintz, Associated Press Writer – Wed Feb 25, 6:48 am ET
MOSCOW – Uzbekistan has reached an agreement with NATO allowing the alliance to send non-military supplies through the Central Asian nation en route to Afghanistan, news agencies quoted the Uzbek president as saying Wednesday.
Turkmenistan to open airspace for U.S. supplies to Afghanistan
17:58 | 25/ 02/ 2009
TASHKENT, February 25 (RIA Novosti) - Turkmenistan will open its airspace for the transit of non-lethal cargo to a U.S. military contingent in Afghanistan, the country's president said on Wednesday.
Forces launch operation in C Afghan province
February 25, 2009 eople's Daily
Afghan troops and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched operation against Taliban insurgents in Jalrez district of Afghanistan's central Wardak province, a statement of the alliance released here Wednesday said.
Afghanistan focus of U.S.-Canada talks
Cannon calls meeting with secretary of state 'friendly, productive'
Toronto Star - Feb 25 1:36 AM Mitch Potter WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON – The riddle of how to proceed in Afghanistan dominated talks as Canada's top diplomat met yesterday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Obama’s Real ‘Vietnam’
Author Thomas Ricks on the state of Iraq and why the new president should worry more about Pakistan than Afghanistan.
By Jessica Ramirez | Newsweek Web Exclusive Feb 24, 2009
In February 2006, Army historian Conrad Crane handed out green stones with red veins in them to 136 experts gathered to discuss irregular warfare. He explained to them that what they were holding was coprolite
Mulla Omar orders halt to attacks on Pak troops
By Mazhar Tufail The News International (Pakistan) Tuesday, February 24, 2009
ISLAMABAD: The militants active in North and South Waziristan agencies have been directed by Mulla Omar to immediately stop their attacks on the Pakistani security forces.
AFGHANISTAN: Civilian deaths up 40 percent
25 Feb 2009 10:23:15 GMT
KANDAHAR, 25 February 2009 (IRIN) - Last year was the worst for Afghan civilians since the end of major hostilities in 2001 as more than 2,100 non-combatants lost their lives in conflict, according to the United Nations
In Brief: Snowstorm kills, displaces people in north Afghanistan
25 Feb 2009 10:37:27 GMT
KABUL, 25 February 2009 (IRIN) - Three people were killed, two were injured and 18 families displaced from their homes by snowstorms in the Paryan District of Panjshir Province, in the north of Afghanistan,
Russia playing roulette
Gulf News, United Arab Emirates By Rauf Baker February 24, 2009
The recent decision of the Kyrgyz government to shut down the US air base at Manas, serving as Nato's Afghanistan supply lung, sparkled an intense debate about Russia's scale of involvement in the ex-Soviet republics
Afghans brave poor security to register vote
By Jonathon Burch
KABUL, Feb 24 (Reuters) - More than 4 million Afghans have registered to vote in the Aug. 20 presidential election, double the number expected, an official said on Tuesday, but poor security in some areas prevented others from taking part.
China breaks its silence on Afghanistan
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong By M K Bhadrakumar Feb, 25, 2009
In the violent, lethal environment in which he lived and survived to eventually lead Beijing's march towards socialism with Chinese characteristics, Deng Xiaoping had great reasons to be cautious. In regards to China's international
Pakistan's extremist triumph
Los Angeles Times By Ahmed Rashid 02/24/2009
The government has caved in to the Taliban in the Swat Valley to avert more violence.
Change slow for isolated Afghans
BBC News By Bilal Sarwary 25 February 2009
Takhar province, Afghanistan
A dirt road lined with crumbling stonewalls weaves its way through Afghanistan's snowy Hindu Kush peaks.
FACTBOX-Military deaths in Afghanistan
25 Feb 2009 16:06:51 GMT
Feb 25 (Reuters) - Three British soldiers were killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the defence ministry said.
The Afghan Air Force Steps Up
Strategy Page - Feb 25 2:18 AM
February 25, 2009: Seven years ago, as the post-Taliban Afghan government began planning their new armed forces, it was believed that the air force would probably consist of a few dozen transports
UN: Afghanistan Has the Highest Mortality Rates in Asia
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 24 February 2009
With simple family-planning methods, mortality rates can be reduced by twenty five percent
Afghan MPs Criticizing Iran Interference in Afghanistan
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Presences of international troops are necessary in Afghanistan, MPs say
Herat NSD Arrests Relicts Smugglers
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Stealing and smuggling of art objects has tremendously increased in the past two years in Afghanistan
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Afghan leader floats proposal for April election
by SSardar Ahmad – Wed Feb 25, 7:45 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai has floated the prospect of bringing forward presidential elections to April, senior officials said Wednesday, as he bids to head off intense wrangling over his future.
The embattled leader, under increasing pressure at home and abroad, called in foreign ambassadors for talks on the dilemma this week, his office said.
He separately summoned his vice presidents, cabinet ministers, the speakers of parliament and other key figures to the presidency to try to wrap up consultations.
The Independent Election Commission last month set the vote for August 20, saying earlier polls would be difficult because the threat of insurgent violence and logistical difficulties had delayed preparations.
"No decision was made but various options, including holding the elections in April, were discussed," a well-placed senior government official told AFP under cover of anonymity.
Asked specifically about an electoral date of April 21, he said: "A number of options including that were discussed."
Karzai was expected to announce his decision soon, possibly by Friday, the official said.
Observers said that as well as an April election, other options included a state of emergency to extend Karzai's term until the vote -- which the opposition has rejected -- or appointing an interim administration.
Karzai has been under pressure, particularly from Afghanistan's opposition, to adhere to the constitution under which he should step down by May 21 when his term ends, with elections held at least one month before then.
The election would be only the second presidential vote in the country's turbulent history and comes with Karzai under criticism for not being tough enough against corruption or being able to stop a downward spiral of violence.
Analyst Haroun Mir said an April election could benefit Karzai as he would be able to campaign while in government and with the protection of international forces if he chose to travel into risky areas.
"If he is not in office, it would be difficult for him to campaign as an ordinary person," said Mir, from Afghanistan's Center for Research and Policy Studies.
"As a president he could travel, enjoy the protection of NATO forces and use government resources," he said.
And with debate still under way about who should govern if the August polling date is adhered to, Karzai might be forced to step down by May and forego the incumbency advantage, he said.
The president, however, recently suggested he had reconsidered an earlier decision to run for re-election.
The opposition has not made clear who they would field for the vote and no serious challenger has yet thrown their hat officially into the ring.
"A lot of candidates have not registered and will not have time to campaign," Mir said.
The National Front coalition, the main opposition group, accused Karzai of trying to "confuse public opinions and confuse the contenders."
"He did it because he knows that after May 21 he will not be the legitimate president and will have to step down," spokesman Sayed Aqa Fazel Sangcharaki told AFP.
Afghanistan's international backers, including the United States and Britain, supported the announcement of an election in August with the United Nations saying its postponement was a "pragmatic necessity".
However they also believed the date was an Afghan decision as long as the poll is free, fair and credible, one Western embassy official told AFP.
The NATO-led force has put out requests to its members for thousands of extra troops to help secure the polls against attacks by Taliban insurgents.
"By their nature, military forces are flexible," NATO spokesman in Kabul, John Coppard, told AFP when asked if troops could be in place by April.
"It is important that elections take place, that they be credible and that they are accepted by the people," he said.
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Clashes, motorbike bomb kill 32 in Afghanistan
Wed Feb 25, 4:41 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – A bomb exploded in Afghanistan and killed two civilians while 28 militants and two Afghan soldiers died in clashes, the authorities said.
The blast and the fighting on Tuesday took place in the south of the country, a Taliban stronghold where about 17,000 US troops are expected to deploy in the coming weeks to reinforce multinational troops fighting extremists.
In Kandahar city, explosives fixed to a motorbike were detonated remotely as an Afghan army convoy passed, said the regional army commander, General Shair Mohammad Zazai.
Two civilians were killed and three wounded, while five Afghan soldiers were hurt, he told AFP.
It was not clear who was behind the attack but Taliban militants have carried out hundreds of similar bombings in an insurgency that last year reached its deadliest since the hardliners were ousted from government in 2001.
Heavy fighting erupted in the neighbouring province of Helmand late Tuesday when gunmen attacked Afghan soldiers protecting police who were destroying illegal opium crops, the provincial government said.
"Eighteen militants were killed and two Afghan army soldiers were martyred," provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP.
Two Westerners training the counternarcotics team were also wounded in fighting, he said.
Helmand produces the bulk of Afghanistan's opium, which is used to make heroin in a drugs trade worth four billion dollars a year and one that earns Taliban insurgents millions of dollars, Afghan and US officials say.
The authorities announced separately that the US-led coalition and Afghan troops had killed 10 militants in the southern province of Uruzgan Tuesday after coming under attack while on patrol.
The forces called in air support after an initial gun battle, which killed one militant, a joint press statement said.
"Nine militants were killed and one fortified fighting position was destroyed during the strike," it said.
The information could not be independently confirmed.
There have been several heavy clashes in Afghanistan over the past few days, with insurgency-linked violence this year expected to match that of last year.
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Reports: Uzbekistan, NATO reach Afghanistan deal
By Jim Heintz, Associated Press Writer – Wed Feb 25, 6:48 am ET
MOSCOW – Uzbekistan has reached an agreement with NATO allowing the alliance to send non-military supplies through the Central Asian nation en route to Afghanistan, news agencies quoted the Uzbek president as saying Wednesday.
A U.S. military official last week said a tentative agreement had been reached, but there had been no confirmation until the statement by President Islam Karimov, which was reported by the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies.
Most supplies for the international military operation in Afghanistan have gone by land through Pakistan, a route whose security is increasingly undermined by attacks.
This new northern transit route goes from Western Europe through Russia and Kazakhstan before reaching Uzbekistan. A rail spur from Uzbekistan extends a short distance into Afghanistan.
A shipment of U.S. non-military supplies that left Latvia last week is now in Uzbekistan, the RIA-Novosti news agency said Wednesday, citing an unnamed official from Kazakhstan's Emergency Situations Ministry.
The agreement on transit through Uzbekistan comes amid mixed signals from Russia and former Soviet Central Asian states about cooperating with the military operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan's president Kurmanbek Bakiyev last week signed an order to evict the United States from a military base that has been a key support facility for the Afghanistan campaign. The Manas base is home to tanker planes that refuel military aircraft over Afghanistan and is a transit point for thousands of troops and hundreds of tons of supplies going into and out of Afghanistan every month.
The closure order followed Russia's granting impoverished Kyrgyzstan more than $2 billion in loans and aid. Officials in both countries deny the moves were linked, but many analysts disagree.
At the same time, however, Russia agreed to let the U.S. send Afghanistan-bound non-lethal materiel by rail and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested Russia could eventually agree to allow weapons shipments.
Uzbekistan evicted the United States from a base in 2005 after coming under heavy criticism from Washington and the West over the government's violent suppression of an uprising in the city of Andijan. But Karimov, whose regime harshly suppresses opposition and independent media, has recently indicated a desire to end the rift with the West.
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Turkmenistan to open airspace for U.S. supplies to Afghanistan
17:58 | 25/ 02/ 2009
TASHKENT, February 25 (RIA Novosti) - Turkmenistan will open its airspace for the transit of non-lethal cargo to a U.S. military contingent in Afghanistan, the country's president said on Wednesday.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is on a visit to neighboring Uzbekistan, which earlier agreed to allow the land transit of U.S. supplies through its territory to its war-torn southern neighbor.
"We do not mind the transit of [U.S.] humanitarian cargo through our air corridor," the Turkmen president said.
Due to worsening security on the main land route from Pakistan and the upcoming closure of a U.S. airbase in Kyrgyzstan, NATO has to rely on alternative routes to supply the U.S.-dominated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
There are over 60,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, more than half of them from the United States, and U.S. President Barack Obama has recently ordered another 17,000 U.S. soldiers to the war-ravaged country.
The so-called "northern corridor" for U.S. transshipments to Afghanistan includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The first trainload of non-lethal supplies for the U.S. military in Afghanistan left a cargo terminal at the Latvian port of Riga on February 19 and has reportedly crossed Russia and Kazakhstan.
U.S. officials earlier said 20 to 30 trainloads a week could go from Latvia to Afghanistan if the
route is a success.
Russia and NATO signed a framework agreement on the transit of non-military cargos in April 2008, and a subsequent Russia-U.S. deal was signed in January.
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Forces launch operation in C Afghan province
February 25, 2009 eople's Daily
Afghan troops and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched operation against Taliban insurgents in Jalrez district of Afghanistan's central Wardak province, a statement of the alliance released here Wednesday said.
"ISAF and Afghan National Security forces begun a joint operation against insurgents earlier today in Jalrez district of Central Wardak province," the statement said.
This is the first offensive of the international troops launched in Wardak province over the past one year.
"ISAF is working closely with Afghan authorities in a coordinated effort to establish a greater presence in Jalrez valley," the statement added.
Over 70,000-strong NATO-led ISAF and the U.S.-led Coalition forces have been serving in Afghanistan to ensure durable security in the country.
Source:Xinhua
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Afghanistan focus of U.S.-Canada talks
Cannon calls meeting with secretary of state 'friendly, productive'
Toronto Star - Feb 25 1:36 AM Mitch Potter WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON – The riddle of how to proceed in Afghanistan dominated talks as Canada's top diplomat met yesterday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Describing the 50-minute first encounter as a "great meeting, very productive, very friendly," Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said he offered to share Canadian lessons from Kandahar as the American military moves to ramp up its presence in restive southern Afghanistan.
Cannon said he also reinforced to Clinton the need for "additional civilians in the field as the key to Afghanistan achieving its goals of good governance and self-reliance."
U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered the deployment of another 17,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, even as his administration proceeds with a wholesale review of America's approach to the conflict.
Cannon said he welcomed the additional U.S. support in his meeting with Clinton. She did not raise the question of what happens after 2011, when Canada is to end its combat role in Kandahar, Cannon said.
Clinton issued no statement following the meeting, which was designed to advance the bilateral momentum of last week's meeting in Ottawa between Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
But during an afternoon photo-op, Clinton told Cannon she was looking forward to visiting Canada soon, saying that during a previous state visit: "I got to skate on the canals in Ottawa. That was a personal highlight."
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Obama’s Real ‘Vietnam’
Author Thomas Ricks on the state of Iraq and why the new president should worry more about Pakistan than Afghanistan.
By Jessica Ramirez | Newsweek Web Exclusive Feb 24, 2009
In February 2006, Army historian Conrad Crane handed out green stones with red veins in them to 136 experts gathered to discuss irregular warfare. He explained to them that what they were holding was coprolite—fossilized dinosaur excrement. "This, Crane warned, was what he didn't want the new counterinsurgency manual to be: a new polishing of old crap." Washington Post senior Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks retells this story in his new book, "The Gamble." The meeting itself is one of many moments orchestrated by a small band of people who revised the U.S. plan in Iraq, and paved the way for the surge. NEWSWEEK's Jessica Ramirez spoke to Ricks—author of the best-selling "Fiasco"—about his book and the future of U.S. military strategy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Your book starts with the Haditha massacre. You call it the end of "the first misbegotten phase of the American war in Iraq." Why is that?
Thomas Ricks: It comes to an end in Haditha because the Marines kill 24 women, children and men. The entire chain of command, when finally asked about it, said that it was routine stuff. I only found out after the book was published that the Marines didn't even file a SIGACT. That's short for a Significant Action Reported. The killing of 24 civilians wasn't seen as significant enough to report. This is so at odds with basic counterinsurgency theory, which is "don't focus on killing or capturing the enemy. Focus on protecting the population." If Haditha occurred today, it would shock the entire U.S. military establishment and there would be a swift response. [Back] then it took months and the intervention of journalism to call the situation to the attention of top commanders.
A large part of the second phase of this war revolves around the surge, which many of Gen. David Petraeus's military colleagues didn't believe would work. What did the surge actually change?
People think we put a few more troops in and everything changed. What people don't understand is that the spring of 2007 was arguably the most difficult phase of the war so far. For months, U.S. killed-in-action numbers go up. Eventually it did lead to a turnaround in that security improved and violence decreased. That said, the surge failed. When you judge the surge on its own terms, it was not just about improving security. The second, more important goal was to improve security in such a way as to lead to a political breakthrough. Here we are in the late winter of 2009, and not a single one of the basic questions facing Iraq before the surge was solved during the surge. No. 1 is how to share oil revenues. No. 2 is the future shape of Iraq. Is it going to be a loose confederation of different groups or is it going to be a tightly controlled country with a central government. What is the basic relationship between the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds? What about Iran? All of these are potentially violent problems.
This is why Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker says to me at the end of my book, "The events for which the Iraq War will be remembered probably have not yet happened."
Why did it take so long to understand that we needed to shift gears?
I wish to God I knew. This is one of the great tragedies of the war. By the time [President] George Bush started acting like a commander in chief instead of a cheerleader in chief, we had been fighting for four years. That said, when Bush finally stepped up in December 2006 and January 2007, when he picks leaders like Petraeus and [Gen. Raymond] Odierno to command, when he decides on the surge, I really think that is his finest moment.
You say the "biological parent" of the surge was not Petraeus but General Odierno. That's a break from how you saw him in "Fiasco." What led him down this path?
There's no question that Odierno is one of the villains of "Fiasco." I hang around his neck blame for command of a division deemed to have inflamed the insurgency. The Odierno of this book is without question one of the book's heroes. [Why Ordierno changed:] First, Odierno's son was badly wounded in Iraq. A rocket-propelled grenade took off his arm. I think that has a devastating effect on any parent, but especially one commanding in Iraq. After his first Iraq tour, he also had the interesting job of being the Pentagon's ambassador to the State Department. I think that gave him a new view of how the State Department viewed this war, how the CIA viewed this war, how the National Security Council worked. So, he [develops] perhaps a different perspective of the war and also knows where the levers of power are in the American government. This allows him to get around his bosses when he goes back to Iraq in 2006 and realizes this thing is going to go down in flames on his watch. He doesn't want that to happen. So he uses retired general Jack Keane as his conduit to the White House and talks to GeneralPetraeus offline because he isn't out there yet and they turn in a whole revision to the U.S. approach to the war.
You've suggested this war is far from over. How long might we have substantial forces there, and what does this mean for President Obama?
What it means for President Obama is that Iraq is going to change Obama more than Obama changes Iraq. He came in promising to have all combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months. That's not going to happen. As Odierno tells me in the book, it will be hard to get below 35,000 troops through 2015.
What does this tell us about what we can expect from Obama in Afghanistan?
When Obama talks about taking troops out of Iraq, he's not departing from Bush. The Bush administration consistently thought it could drawdown the troops. The original plan was to be down to 30,000 troops by the fall of 2003. Here we are five years later with five times that number. I worry that Obama may be repeating one of the mistakes of the Bush administration, which was persistent, unwarranted, optimism about Iraq. What that means for Afghanistan is that he may not have as many troops or resources available as he thinks. The one bright light I see is that the administration is talking about this as the Afghan-Pakistan war. That's significant because it recognizes the reality that in that war, the more important of the two is Pakistan. As a friend of mine, Andrew Exum, who writes the blog Abu Muqawama, puts it, "It's hard to win a war in Afghanistan when the enemy decides to fight it in Pakistan."
You recently said NEWSWEEK might have gotten it wrong when we said that Afghanistan could be Obama’s Vietnam. Why?
We could lose Afghanistan, and it would be bad but it would not present an existential threat to this country. If you "lose Pakistan"—and by that I mean if Pakistan collapses or is taken over by Islamic extremists—you face the prospect of Islamic extremists having nuclear weapons. That's Al Qaeda's dream. It's our nightmare. That's why Pakistan is Obama's potential Vietnam. There's no clear solution there. What you may try to do for several years is simply manage it. Kicking the can down the road in both Iraq and Pakistan is not an emotionally satisfying outcome, but it may be the most mature and even best scenario we can come up with.
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Mulla Omar orders halt to attacks on Pak troops
By Mazhar Tufail The News International (Pakistan) Tuesday, February 24, 2009
ISLAMABAD: The militants active in North and South Waziristan agencies have been directed by Mulla Omar to immediately stop their attacks on the Pakistani security forces.
In a letter to the militants, who have forged a new alliance, Mulla Omar admonished them not to fight the Pakistani security forces and kill their Muslim brethren, a reliable source told The News on Monday.
“Mulla Omar first sent an envoy to the local Taliban and then wrote a letter to the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) admonishing these leaders and told the TTP that fighting Muslims could not be described as Jihad so they should immediately cease attacks on the Pakistani security forces.
He told them that if they really want to participate in Jihad, they must fight the US and Nato troops inside Afghanistan because their attacks on the Pakistani security forces are undermining the objectives of the war against the invaders and cause of the Taliban movement.
“If anybody really wants to wage Jihad, he must fight the occupation forces inside Afghanistan,” the source quoted Mulla Omar as having told the TTP leaders. “Attacks on the Pakistani security forces and killing of fellow Muslims by the militants in the tribal areas and elsewhere in Pakistan is bringing a bad name to Mujahideen and harming the war against the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.”
“Our aim is to liberate Afghanistan from the occupation forces and death and destruction inside neighbouring Pakistan has never been our goal,” he added. The source said according to Mulla Omar, the US was devising a new strategy and adopting new tactics to crush Mujahideen in Afghanistan so the Taliban, too, must forge unity in their ranks, and instead of operating in Pakistan, they must concentrate on actions against the US and Nato forces.
He said the new alliance has been directed by Mulla Omar to devise a new strategy to counter the invaders because the reinforcement of the US forces in Afghanistan is food for thought for all the forces fighting the occupation forces in the war-ravaged country.
“The formation of a new alliance of militants by the name of Shura Ittihad-ul-Mujahideen is aimed at implementing the advice given by Mullah Omar,” the source said. “After this development, the attacks on security forces by the local Taliban will decrease if not end completely,” he said.
This correspondent tried to seek comments from some government officials and leaders of the ruling parties, including the Awami National Party and the Pakistan People’s Party, but they refused to say anything on record.
However, one of the officials contacted by The News feared that if the newly found alliance of the militants stepped up their attacks on the coalition troops inside Afghanistan, it would create many problems for Pakistan and Islamabad would face its consequences.
According to an announcement made on Sunday, the new alliance comprises groups led by central head of the banned TTP, Baitullah Mehsud, and Maulvi Nazir of South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadar of North Waziristan, two militant commanders who were considered to be pro-government. A 13-member body has also been named to run the affairs of the new alliance.
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AFGHANISTAN: Civilian deaths up 40 percent
25 Feb 2009 10:23:15 GMT
KANDAHAR, 25 February 2009 (IRIN) - Last year was the worst for Afghan civilians since the end of major hostilities in 2001 as more than 2,100 non-combatants lost their lives in conflict, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
Civilian deaths increased by 40 percent in 2008 on the year before as warring parties, particularly insurgent groups, paid little heed to the safety of non-combatants, UNAMA said in a report. [http://www.unama-afg.org/docs/_UN-Docs/_human%20rights/2009/UNAMA_09february-Annual%20Report_PoC%202008_FINAL_11Feb09.pdf].
Suicide attacks and the use of improvised explosive devices by insurgent groups inflicted heavy losses on civilians, as did aerial bombardments by international forces, UNAMA said.
"In addition to fatalities as a direct result of armed hostilities, civilians have suffered from injury, loss of livelihood, displacement, destruction of property, as well as disruption of access to education, healthcare and other essential services," states UNAMA's report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
UNAMA's concerns were echoed by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), whose spokesman, Ahmad Zia Langary, said: "The impact of war on civilians cannot be limited to fatality figures, they are broad and numerous."
Aid agencies have warned that conflict has spread lawlessness and insecurity across the country and humanitarian operations have been especially squeezed.
Thirty-eight aid workers were killed and 147 kidnapped, and 198 security incidents involving NGOs were recorded in 2008, the UN said.
"Unseen victims"
In conflict-affected areas, mostly in the south and east, women and children are particularly harmed by conflict.
"Women and children have, to a significant extent, been the unseen victims of the armed conflict in Afghanistan," said the UN report.
Financial burdens resulting from the loss of a breadwinner mostly deprive children and women of education, healthcare, food security and many other opportunities.
Dozens of schools and health centres were attacked and many school-children targeted by insurgent elements throughout 2008.
It is unclear how many of the reported 2,118 civilian deaths in 2008 were women and children but UNAMA said it would introduce a new electronic database to provide disaggregated information on the gender and age of civilian casualties of war.
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In Brief: Snowstorm kills, displaces people in north Afghanistan
25 Feb 2009 10:37:27 GMT
KABUL, 25 February 2009 (IRIN) - Three people were killed, two were injured and 18 families displaced from their homes by snowstorms in the Paryan District of Panjshir Province, in the north of Afghanistan, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). About 46,000 people in 111 villages have been hit by heavy snowfall in the mountainous province. ISAF said its forces delivered winter supplies, including blankets, clothes, boots, charcoal and wheat flour to the affected people .
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Russia playing roulette
Gulf News, United Arab Emirates By Rauf Baker February 24, 2009
The recent decision of the Kyrgyz government to shut down the US air base at Manas, serving as Nato's Afghanistan supply lung, sparkled an intense debate about Russia's scale of involvement in the ex-Soviet republics and raised questions about whether Moscow is regaining a degree of its former influence over its "natural sphere".
Since its establishment in the autumn of 2001, the US air base in Kyrgyzstan has been founded upon the granting of narrow economic incentives to the host country, but not on the Kyrgyz Republic's commitment to a broader role in Afghanistan.
The Kyrgyz government felt, with this attitude, that it is no more than a beggar at the White House steps; complaining behind the scenes about the leasing terms of the base. Under these terms, the US paid Kyrgyzstan $63 million (Dh231.4 million) per year, and employed more than 320 Kyrgyz citizens at the base.
The Kremlin was orchestrating this closely, waiting for the right moment to interfere and play its favourite game - setting a fire and then rushing to put it out. A recent report in a Russian decision-making inner circle threw light on how Moscow had offered the Kyrgyz government a significant multi-year financial-aid package in exchange for the closing of the US base, and that Kyrgyzstan had decided to accept the Russian financial package, much to Washington's surprise.
The $2.15 billion Russian package, which was presented to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on February 3, just hours before his announcement on the base closure, includes a $300-million low-interest loan, a $150-million cash payout and $1.7 billion in credit to complete the Kambarata-1 hydropower plant (even though neighbouring Uzbekistan has traditionally been opposed to projects that could potentially diminish water inflows into its territory). Part of the deal was also a debt-for-assets swap, in which the Kremlin forgives Kyrgyzstan's $193-million debt in exchange for a 48 per cent share in the Dastan naval munitions plant.
Russia, then, stepped forward and offered to provide the critical logistical link that the base's closing would create. Moscow declared it is willing to provide logistical support for getting the non-military cargo to Nato troops serving in landlocked Afghanistan. And with Taliban escalating their attacks in the Khyber Pass area, putting US and Nato supply lines in peril, it looks like Washington is being cornered for an ambush.
However, experts aver that Russia would not want this issue to seriously jeopardise its relationship with the new American administration. Rather, Moscow prefers to use the Kyrgyzstan base as a "bargaining chip" in a much wider strategic dialogue over the future of the US missile defence shield in Europe, for instance, and the issue of Nato membership for Georgia and Ukraine. It looks as if it is inviting the West for a dialogue, showing off some of its trump cards at the same time.
Unlike the tragic day of September 11, 2001, when then president Vladimir Putin was one of the first world leaders to call former American president George W. Bush and offer him access to intelligence on the "Taliban" and access to his country's airspace for armed US overflights, this time Russia wants to see what quid pro quo the US is willing to give in return.
Clearly, Russia is playing both sides by offering to solve a US logistics problem that it created. The troubled economic situation, rising unemployment and growing trade deficit in the Kyrgyz side has worked to its benefit. But it seems all's fair in strategic conflicts and war; or should one borrow the title of Ian Fleming's famous novel From Russia With Love to portray James Bond's plight in the post-Cold War era?
Rauf Baker is a Dubai-based journalist who specialises in Eastern European Affairs.
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Afghans brave poor security to register vote
By Jonathon Burch
KABUL, Feb 24 (Reuters) - More than 4 million Afghans have registered to vote in the Aug. 20 presidential election, double the number expected, an official said on Tuesday, but poor security in some areas prevented others from taking part.
The final phase of voter registration ended last week, with hundreds of thousands of people turning up at district centres to register, despite security concerns, in four southern provinces, where the insurgency is strongest.
"I am very happy. Our plan was to register 2 million people and this would have been a success," Zekria Barakzai, deputy chief electoral officer for the Independent Election Commission, said.
Women made up 38 percent of those who registered to vote.
But in 10 districts, mainly across the south of the country, a lack of government presence and poor security prevented election officials from entering, Barakzai said.
Half of those districts were in southern Helmand province, the centre of Afghanistan's $3 billion illicit drugs trade where several thousand mainly British and Afghan soldiers are locked in daily battles with Taliban militants.
Two other districts were in neighbouring Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban, one in Ghazni and one in Wardak province, just south of Kabul, and where some 3,000 new U.S. troops have recently deployed.
"We are negotiating with tribal leaders and security forces on ways of registering people in these districts. If, on the election date, these districts are secure, then we may be able to let people register and vote on the same day," Barakzai said.
CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
U.S. President Barack Obama has approved the deployment of 17,000 extra U.S. troops this year to add to the nearly 70,000 military personnel already in Afghanistan. Commanders have also requested that NATO allies send temporary reinforcements to help provide security for the election.
While there were no major security incidents, insurgents attacked a voter registration centre in Kandahar province last week, killing one policeman and wounding another, the U.N. agency assisting in the elections said.
The new round of registration was for voters who had either lost their polling cards from the last presidential election in 2004 or had come of age since then. Some 12.5 million Afghans were registered to vote in 2004.
President Hamid Karzai met key power brokers and lawmakers on Tuesday to discuss a looming constitutional crisis. The constitution says elections must be held by May 21 when his government looses its legitimacy, but the electoral law says the presidential term is five years, meaning Karzai should remain in power until either October, five years after he was elected, or December, five years after he took the oath of office.
To remain in office beyond May, Karzai will have to make concessions to opposition groups, diplomats say. The president will announce his decision soon, his office said. (Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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China breaks its silence on Afghanistan
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong By M K Bhadrakumar Feb, 25, 2009
In the violent, lethal environment in which he lived and survived to eventually lead Beijing's march towards socialism with Chinese characteristics, Deng Xiaoping had great reasons to be cautious. In regards to China's international approach, Deng had this to say: "Observe calmly; secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and bide our time; be good at maintaining a low profile; and never claim leadership."
Thus, China never spoke its mind on the Afghan problem. The organ of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), The People's Daily, has now broken that rule of thumb in a highly nuanced commentary.
Of course, there is a criticality today as the atmosphere in the region surrounding Afghanistan threatens to become sulfurous with blinding speed. But that alone doesn't explain the timing of the Chinese commentary titled "Will adjustments in US anti-terror strategy be successful?"
The context is highly relevant. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just concluded a landmark visit to China. Beijing is manifestly heaving a sigh of relief about the "sense of certainty" in Sino-American relations under US President Barack Obama's watch. Even more, Beijing is enthralled that Clinton quoted the ancient Chinese aphorism tongzhou gongji - "when on one boat, help each other" - as the spirit of our troubled times. Now, that goes way past George W Bush's tough love aimed at making China a "stakeholder" in the international system.
Afghanistan would have certainly figured in Clinton's talks with the Chinese leaders, especially as her visit coincided with Obama's announcement regarding a troop buildup in Afghanistan.
Fishing in troubled waters However, there are two other subtexts. The US is palpably shifting gear on its South Asia policy, as is evident from Obama's decision to appoint Richard Holbrooke as special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke is no stranger to Beijing.
Clearly, in the immediate aftermath of Holbrooke's visit to the region recently, Beijing has sized up that the US's relationship with India is entering a qualitatively new phase, which has shown some signs of friction. It pays well for Beijing to fish in troubled waters and pile up more pressure on its southern neighbor.
Second, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced last week that invitations had been issued for the long-awaited Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference on Afghanistan in Moscow on March 27. The time is approaching for Beijing to take a position on the Afghan problem. Prevarication couched in pious homilies may no longer suffice.
Does China have a sense of solidarity with Russia - or with SCO observers like India and Iran? But Beijing cannot afford to dissipate the budding momentum of partnership with the Obama administration, either. And the US (plus its allies) is boycotting the SCO conference.
Thus, we may get to see some amazing trapeze acts by Beijing in the coming period. The People's Daily commentary has virtually called for an expansion of Holbrooke's mandate to include the "Indian-Pakistani problem". True, it stops short of mentioning Kashmir as such but leaves little to the imagination that Kashmir is precisely what it was referring to - that the US should mediate a solution to what Pakistan calls the "core issue" in its tense relationship with India.
The Chinese commentary says the mere dispatch of more US troops to Afghanistan cannot help achieve Obama's "strategic goals" unless Washington stabilizes South Asia, especially Pakistan and the India-Pakistan relationship. The editorial continues: It is clear that without Pakistan's cooperation, the US cannot win the war on terror. Therefore, to safeguard its own interests in the fight against terrorism in South Asia, the US must ensure a stable domestic and international environment for Pakistan and ease the tension between Pakistan and India. This makes it easy to understand why Obama appointed Richard Holbrooke as special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan issues, and why India is included in Holbrooke's first foreign visit. In fact, the "Afghan problem", the "Pakistani problem" and the "Indian-Pakistani problem" are all related. (Emphasis added). These are not words that are in the nature of off-the-cuff remarks. And these unfriendly remarks are highly unlikely to go unnoticed in New Delhi. Indian diplomats pulled out all the stops to see that Holbrooke's mandate did not include India, though there is a large body of opinion among American think-tanks and within the US establishment, which insists that so long as the Kashmir problem remains unresolved, underlying tensions in India-Pakistan relations will continue. Beijing now has waded into the debate. It openly expresses support for Pakistan's stance.
Interestingly, Beijing completely overlooks the root cause of the "anti-Americanism" prevalent in Pakistan, which has much to do with the US's interference in that country's internal affairs, especially the American backing for successive military dictatorships or with the wounded Muslim psyche or with the brutal US-led war in Afghanistan. Indeed, the Chinese commentary remained silent on the central issue of the foreign occupation of Afghanistan.
Beijing cannot be naive that India's distaste for third-party intervention in Kashmir is in any way less than China's acute allergy with regard to world opinion on Tibet or Xinjiang. One possible explanation could be that Beijing is nervous that India may again play the "Tibet card" as the 50th anniversary of the Tibet uprising approaches next month.
Beijing is cracking down on Tibetan nationalists in the run-up to the anniversary. Arguably, Beijing would like to put India on notice that it could also flaunt a "Kashmir card". All in all, therefore, Indian strategists will have to analyze carefully the range of Chinese motivations in calling for US mediation in India-Pakistan disputes at this juncture, close on the heels of Clinton's talks with the leadership in Beijing.
Apart from India, Beijing singles out Russia as another regional power that negatively impacts on the US strategy to stabilize Afghanistan. (Incidentally, the commentary ignores Iran altogether, as if it is not a factor of consequence on the Afghan chessboard.) The commentary says, "... the US must make sure that Russia is appeased. The Central Asia region, where Afghanistan lies, used to be Russia's backyard ... While relations between US and Russia show signs of recovery after Obama's assumption of power, Russia's reactions to the US decision of increasing troops in Afghanistan are rather subtle."
So, what does Obama do? Beijing has the following assessment: "Russia's determination to not allow the US enjoying dominant control in the Afghan affair is rather noticeable. The way the US deals with its 'cooperative and competitive' relationship with Russia in the Afghan affair will test the US's capability to realize its strategic goals in Afghanistan."
But then, China is also an interested party apropos the two contentious issues today in US-Russia relations: the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into Central Asia and the deployment of the US missile defense system. China abhors NATO expansion into its Central Asian backyard and opposes the US missile defense system that will rubbish China's relatively sub-standard nuclear strike capability.
But, as Deng would say, why claim the leadership of opposition to these US moves when Moscow is already doing a splendid job?
The People's Daily commentary differentiates Russia's interests in Afghanistan. By implication, it urges Washington not to take the forthcoming SCO conference as any sort of ganging up by China and Russia. Again, by affirming that the closure of the Manas airbase by the Kyrgyz authorities is part of "a strategy game between the US and Russia", The People's Daily has in effect debunked the forthcoming SCO conference. After all, the conference's raison d'etre is that the Afghan situation poses a threat to Central Asia's security. But the Chinese commentary never once brings up this aspect.
In sum, what emerges is that no matter Moscow's determination to challenge the US's "monopoly over conflict resolution" in Afghanistan, China will not be drawn into such a calculus. As Deng would say, China will observe calmly and maintain a low profile. After all, Russia is forcing its way onto the Afghan turf and if it succeeds, not only the SCO but also China will be a net beneficiary. On the other hand, if the US snubs Russia, that will only dent Moscow's prestige, not Beijing's.
Is Beijing peeved that there are new stirrings in US-Russia relations? There is reason for Moscow to ponder why The People's Daily should have harped on Russia's animus toward the US influence in Central Asia at such a delicate juncture when the Obama administration has decided not to make the Manas airbase closure a factor in US-Russia relations. Moscow would find it embarrassing that it has been portrayed as a "spoiler" in Obama's strategy towards Afghanistan.
Reaching out to Islamists What is truly extraordinary about the Chinese commentary is its oblique references to the central issue of the Taliban. There are indications that Beijing has no problems as such if the Taliban are accommodated in the power structure in Afghanistan as part of a political settlement. Interestingly, the commentary advises the US to be "pragmatic towards the actual conditions of Afghanistan". It also voices support for the argument that Afghanistan lacks "almost any of the prerequisites of modernity". Besides, it suggests that Afghanistan cannot be a unitary state.
These comments are to be seen in the light of the new thinking in influential circles in the US and Britain that a "bottoms-up" approach involving diffusion of state power in favor of local leaderships might be the answer to the problems in Afghanistan and will be the best way of involving the Taliban in the power structure in the Pashtun regions.
Breaking fresh ground, the CCP invited a delegation of Pakistan's influential Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) to visit China last week. During the week-long visit, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding enunciating four principles of China-Pakistan relations, including independence, equality, mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of each country.
Meanwhile, the JI assured full support to China's national and geographical unity and fully backed China's stance on Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang issues. Beijing then reciprocated with its "principled stance" on the Kashmir issue and "reiterated that this stance and vital cooperation of China will continue".
Socialism - even with Chinese characteristics - does not easily mix with Islamism. There is no other way of explaining the CCP's cooperation with Pakistan's leading Islamic party except as a Faustian deal against the backdrop of the ascendancy of the forces of militant Islam in the region.
The People's Daily admits that the outcome of the US's surge strategy in Afghanistan remains uncertain. It takes note that the US is also moving toward "a compromise with moderates within the Taliban", as President Hamid Karzai would not otherwise have ventured onto that track. The commentary lauds such thinking as a manifestation of the use of "smart power", an idea "frequently mentioned" by Clinton. That is to say, while the US troop build-up is a "hard measure", "policies like helping the Afghan government to consolidate its regime for gradually stabilizing the country will be the 'soft measure'."
All the same, Beijing is aware that the real US agenda could be strategic insofar as Afghanistan is located "at the crossroads of Eurasia". While smashing up al-Qaeda indeed constitutes a goal, Washington's strategy will also "enhance NATO cooperation and alliance to guarantee that NATO's first military action out of Europe will not fail". In turn, that will enable the US to "raise its leadership status among its allies and reinforce its presence in the heart of Eurasia by using these means".
It seems China has no problem with such an agenda. China will "hide its capacities" - to quote Deng - even as the US and Russia collide and negate each other and eventually drop down in exhaustion. As The People's Daily concludes, Afghanistan is known as the "tomb of empires". Therefore, China must focus on securing its position and simply bide its time - a strategy Deng could surely appreciate.
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
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Pakistan's extremist triumph
Los Angeles Times By Ahmed Rashid 02/24/2009
The government has caved in to the Taliban in the Swat Valley to avert more violence.
Writing From Lahore - Maulana Sufi Mohammed, a radical cleric who was freed last year after spending six years in jail for leading 10,000 Pashtun tribesmen in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, has begun a new campaign. He is leading a peace march through the strategic Swat Valley in an attempt to persuade his son-in-law, Maulana Qazi Fazlullah, to accept the government's offer of a cease-fire and enforcement of an Islamic system of justice in the valley.
The fact that Mohammed has embraced the government's offer is a sign of how fully Islamabad has capitulated to the demands of extremists in the region. And the fact that the peace deal has not yet been accepted by Fazlullah, who leads the Swati contingent of the Pakistani Taliban and is closely allied with Al Qaeda, is a sign of how radicalized some of the region has become.
Pakistan's concessions to the Taliban in the Swat Valley, located just 80 miles north of Islamabad, are a watershed in the country's steady slide toward chaos. The situation there has added to the prevailing sense of public gloom in Pakistan that the Taliban is rapidly making inroads into the world's second-largest Muslim nation -- and the only one armed with nuclear weapons.
Fazlullah's men have fought bloody battles with the army over the last two years, finally driving it out and taking control of most of Swat last year. The fighting has led to about 1,200 civilian deaths and the forced exodus of an estimated 350,000 people out of a population of 1.5 million. Fazlullah has blown up 200 girls schools, hanged policemen, set up Sharia (Islamic law) courts and established a parallel government.
Now, rather than order the army to retake Swat, the Pakistan People's Party government in Islamabad led by Benazir Bhutto's widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, and the Awami National Party (ANP), a Pashtun secular party that runs the provincial government of the North-West Frontier Province, have capitulated to the Taliban's demands in order to avoid more violence.
While the government insists the legal change will allow only a limited application of Islamic justice through the local courts, the Taliban interprets it as allowing the full application of Sharia, affecting all aspects of education, administration and law and order in the region.
However the deal may be interpreted, it is an unmistakable defeat in the country's losing battle against Islamic extremism. Even though the military regime of former President Pervez Musharraf entered into several controversial, short-lived cease-fires with the Pakistani Taliban in the Pashtun tribal belt, Musharraf's army never conceded major changes in the legal or political system. Even in Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban controls several provinces, the Kabul government has never conceded the writ of the state, insisting that such provinces remain contested.
Zardari has to sign off on the deal, and the cease-fire may not last. Still, this is the first time the government has surrendered an enormous area of northern Pakistan to extremists, who will govern by a separate set of laws. Moreover, the Taliban is unlikely to stop in Swat. Even Mohammed, who is viewed as a moderate in comparison with his son-in-law, has vowed to impose Sharia across Pakistan and has denounced democracy as an evil, Western model. The psychological blow to public morale has been devastating.
In the North-West Frontier Province city of Peshawar, the ANP has been besieged by Taliban suicide bombers, who have vowed to eliminate the party's ministers and members of parliament. The threats have left the party divided and unable to govern, despite overwhelming support in last year's general elections from secular and democratic Pashtuns, who voted to oust a regional government of Islamic fundamentalists installed by Musharraf.
Fazlullah's strategy has been influenced by Al Qaeda and other extremist groups. The groups would like to create a new haven in the Pakistani heartland so they can move away from tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan, where increasingly successful attacks by U.S. drones have made survival difficult.
And the extremist threat doesn't stop with the Swat Valley. The Pakistani Taliban ultimately hopes to conquer all of Pakistan. Already it has made inroads into the largest province of Punjab and in the southern industrial city of Karachi, where it is facilitated by multiple Pakistani extremist groups that have spent two decades fighting in Indian Kashmir or are masters of urban terrorism.
The army is demoralized and overstretched, and has declined to accept U.S. offers to retrain its regular forces in counter-insurgency because it still perceives a much larger threat from its traditional enemy, India.
The Swat crisis will further weaken an already devastated Pakistani economy, which faces increasing joblessness, inflation and capital flight. Moreover, several hundred thousand Pakistani migrant laborers are being forced to return home from the Arabian Gulf countries because of the global recession. Many of these workers are Pashtuns and, with no jobs at home, some will inevitably become Talibs.
The Obama administration has promised Pakistan $1.5 billion a year for the next five years to be spent on social programs, but it is difficult to envisage when the U.S. Congress will make such large sums available and what fresh conditions it will impose -- conditions that the Pakistani state may be incapable of fulfilling.
The crisis comes just as the Obama administration has to conceive of a new strategic policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan before the NATO summit on April 2.
Afghanistan, despite dramatic advances made by the Taliban as a result of neglect by the Bush administration, requires obvious common-sense policies -- a comprehensive increase in foreign troops, money, development and reconstruction by the international community and real efforts to get the Afghan government and army on their feet.
For Pakistan, the U.S. and its allies have far fewer policy options. Large injections of money are desperately needed to give the government and the army the time and space to reestablish the writ of the state. Nevertheless, the question being asked in Washington and other capitals, as well as by millions of Pakistanis, is whether the government and the army have the will and the capability to do so.
Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist and the author of "Taliban." His latest book is "Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia."
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Change slow for isolated Afghans
BBC News By Bilal Sarwary 25 February 2009
Takhar province, Afghanistan
A dirt road lined with crumbling stonewalls weaves its way through Afghanistan's snowy Hindu Kush peaks.
On one side of the rutted track runs a shallow river, on the other a natural pistachio forest is sprinkled across the craggy, rising slopes.
But at the end of the road there is a harsh counterpoint to the natural beauty of the Farkhar valley - a decaying, isolated Afghan village.
With little of the infrastructure long promised by the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai, this village, like many others throughout Afghanistan, is on the verge of collapse.
Unseen by aid-workers, the village of Darbaw has been largely left to fend for itself in one of the world's most unforgiving landscapes.
Seven years after the fall of Taleban, this mountainous valley of 300 families still does not have access to clean drinking water and lacks even the crudest of medical clinics.
Villagers in Darbaw complain they hardly see any of the substantial profits made from the pistachio forest, let alone Takhar province's relatively lucrative salt and coal mine.
Chronic battle
In recent years, government aid work has introduced a small electrical power plant in Darbaw, allowing villagers to make the switch from kerosene lamps to electrical light bulbs.
But while the introduction of the light-bulb has certainly made a difference to the lives of the villagers, Darbaw's power supplies remain minimal at best, unable to provide enough electricity to sustain even one fridge.
There is here an unyielding determination to survive but there is a chronic battle with disease and hunger.
Darbaw is one of thousands of villages still waiting for the government and the international community to deliver on its promises of a better life.
The Afghan government points to its achievements - the northern highways have been asphalted, newly built bridges connect villages across valleys and hospitals and schools have been constructed.
"When the Taleban were removed, everything was destroyed. Today we have thousands of kilometres of asphalted road," says one senior Afghan official in Kabul.
"The Afghan police and army replaced the Taleban and warlords. Did Afghanistan get enough troops and money from America and the West?
"No, we didn't and now everyone blames it on the Afghan government."
For the most part, people's lives have not changed in post-Taleban Afghanistan, including in the north.
"Unemployment is very high, corruption is in the government and we live in poverty. I don't like this kind of democracy," says 72-year-old village elder Sayed Abdul Rahman.
Like in other parts of Afghanistan, most northerners are living below the poverty line, despite billions of dollars of foreign aid.
In northern Afghanistan, the danger is not posed by the Taleban but by a slew of warlords who maintain illegal militias.
Residents in Takhar province have reported a number of recent skirmishes between warlords that have resulted in the killing and displacement of residents.
"These commanders are still powerful. They don't like peace and stability - they want to take this country back to the war days," says 54-year-old Mohammad Ebrahim from the remote district of Rustaq.
"Some are in parliament, others have money and guns."
Taleban demise
When questioned on the lack of progress, provincial government officials point to the fact that a court in Takhar recently convicted a number of criminals for involvement in killings, abductions and armed robberies.
One Afghan security official in the provincial capital, Taloqan, said: "These warlords are powerful in districts and villages where we are not present in greater numbers.
"But we can arrest and jail anyone in Takhar province. The Afghan government is much more powerful than we were few years ago.''
Such assertions do not mean much to the villagers of Darbaw, who still crave the basic necessities of life and more often than not appear disaffected by government inaction.
"Karzai made a lot of promises to us. We trusted him and his foreign friends about reconstruction and peace. Look what has happened since then," says Mr Rahman.
"We voted for Hamid Karzai because he promised to put an end to the suffering of our people. But where is my road, my clinic and my clean drinking water?"
A local teacher from Khawaja Bahawodeen district listed the problems of the north.
"We may not have suicide attacks, but there is corruption, little reconstruction and we still have warlords who do terrible things."
But some in Darbaw do welcome the change that has been achieved and remember fondly the demise of the Taleban.
''Men and women, young and old went to vote. After so many years of war, we finally saw a chance for peace. We didn't get everything, but look we have electricity and a road from Taloqan to our district," says Haji Abdul, 65.
Mohammad Akram, 31, adds: "When the electricity arrived at our village from the Afghan government's National Solidarity Programme (NSP), villagers in Darbaw celebrated for days.
"I couldn't believe it that our village will someday get electricity. But we were promised a lot of other things also.''
The NSP is widely considered to be the most successful government programme in recent years but Afghanistan will need many more like it to achieve peace and stability.
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FACTBOX-Military deaths in Afghanistan
25 Feb 2009 16:06:51 GMT
Feb 25 (Reuters) - Three British soldiers were killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the defence ministry said.
The blast happened in the southern Helmand province during an escort operation, the ministry said in a statement.
Here are figures for foreign military deaths as a result of violence or accidents in Afghanistan since 2001:
NATO/U.S.-LED COALITION FORCES:
Britain 148
Canada 108
Denmark 22**
France 26*
Germany 30
Spain 25
Netherlands 18
United States 660
Other nations 57
TOTAL: 1,094
NOTES:
** Figures supplied by Danish Central Command, includes one suicide.
* Figures supplied by French military. Sources: Reuters/icasualties (www.icasualties.org/oef), compiled from official figures. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;)
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The Afghan Air Force Steps Up
Strategy Page - Feb 25 2:18 AM
February 25, 2009: Seven years ago, as the post-Taliban Afghan government began planning their new armed forces, it was believed that the air force would probably consist of a few dozen transports and armed trainer aircraft, plus a few dozen transport helicopters (some of then armed). Russia would be a likely donor (or seller, at attractive prices) of the equipment as the Afghans have been using Russian air force equipment for more than 30 years. Eventually, Afghanistan would want jet fighters, but foreign aid donors would resist spending any money on these. Russia could donate some older combat aircraft (currently in storage and wasting away anyway), but even the Afghan government would probably prefer to use the native pilots they have for transports and helicopters, which would be of more use in the next few years.
The original plan has been working out. The Afghan Air Force (officially the ANAAC, or Afghan National Army Air Corps) will, by 2015, have 7,400 troops and 127 aircraft. These will include 61 helicopters (Mi-17 transports and nine Mi-35 gunships), 28 transports (20 G.222s, 6 AN-32s and 2 AN-26s). The remaining aircraft are single engine trainers, some of them used for ground attack. The air force has a pilot training program, which has produced 301 graduate so far, and currently has 46 men undergoing training overseas and in Afghanistan. The G.222s will begin deliveries this year. About half the helicopters are already in service, as well as the An-32s and An-26s.
Currently, the Afghan air force is flying 90 percent of the missions required by the Afghan armed forces. That amounts to about 260 sorties a month, moving 3,800 passengers and about 35 tons of cargo. There are also about 32 medevac missions a month. This is a huge jump since early 2007, when there were only 20 active aircraft and about 4,000 personnel. The Afghans still have a lot of work to do in recruiting and training Afghans to do all the maintenance work, but they have demonstrated that they can make what they have, work.
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UN: Afghanistan Has the Highest Mortality Rates in Asia
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 24 February 2009
With simple family-planning methods, mortality rates can be reduced by twenty five percent
Afghanistan has the highest mortality rates in Asia and the second highest throughout the world.
One thousand and six hundred mothers die while laboring every year in the country.
Doctors in Rabia Balkhi hospital in Kabul said, one of the reasons for mortality rates increase in the country is regular yearly laboring.
They say if parents care about creating distance in their child birth, the mortality rates will decrease by twenty five percent.
Lack of urgent maternity and health facilities, lack of physicians and the continuous births are among the reasons that have increased mortality rates in the country.
Doctors believe that an average Afghan family gives birth to eight or nine children without considering the time space between them.
This action has negative impacts on both the child and the mother.
On the other hand, these children cannot be well-treated and educated.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has established a family-planning center in Kabul in order to decrease mortality rates in Afghanistan.
The center was established in Rabia Balkhi hospital two years ago, with one hundred and eighty thousand dollars fund donated by UNFPA.
To date, about eighty mothers come to the center everyday.
More than twenty two thousand mothers have visited the center and have received advices for preventing frequent births from five doctors who have received training in Nepal.
It is planned that family-planning centers will also be established in Afghanistan's twenty two provinces.
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Afghan MPs Criticizing Iran Interference in Afghanistan
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Presences of international troops are necessary in Afghanistan, MPs say
Afghan parliamentarians criticized the Iranian authorities' statements on Afghanistan.
In a visit to Afghanistan, the chief of Iranian radio and television (Sada wa Sima), Syed Izatullah Zarghani, criticized the acts of international troops in Afghanistan and said, "some foreign countries are interfering in the region".
But contradicting his views and judgments, some Afghan MPs said that Iranians are interfering in Afghanistan.
The MPs also criticized the Afghan government for keeping silent against such statements of Iranian authorities.
According to some Iranian publications and some Iranian governmental authorities, the international troops in Afghanistan are invaders.
But the Afghan MPs proclaim that presences of international troops are necessary in Afghanistan.
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Herat NSD Arrests Relicts Smugglers
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Stealing and smuggling of art objects has tremendously increased in the past two years in Afghanistan
Herat National Security Directorate (NSD) arrested four people accused of the theft of the stones of Gawhar Shad Begum tomb.
The ministry of information and culture said, anti-government insurgents, who have criminal backgrounds rather than any terroristic motivation, are smuggling art objects across the border.
Afghanistan's historical relicts are smuggled outside the country for the past several years, but according to the ministry of information and culture, stealing and smuggling of art objects has tremendously increased in the past two years.
So far many smugglers have been convicted and even a special police of protecting the historical relics has been established.
Government authorities in Herat province reported about the arrest of four people convicted for stealing the stones of the Gawhar Shad Bagum tomb.
The Herat NSD reported that their troops arrested four people and also received historical stones from two areas of Injil district of this province.
According to the NSD press release, the arrested people were planning to smuggle the stones to Iran and Pakistan.
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