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10 Aid Workers, Including 6 Americans, Killed in Afghanistan
Sean Maroney VOA News / August 7, 2010
An international Christian charity says militants have killed 10 of its aid workers, including six Americans, in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.
Afghan police: 10 bodies found in N Afghanistan
The Associated Press 06/08/2010
KABUL - The bodies of 10 people, including eight foreigners, were recovered Friday in a remote area of Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan, police said.
2 militants groups claim responsibility for killing 8 foreigners in NE Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Taliban and the Islamic Party (Hizb-e- Islami) on Saturday claimed responsibility for killing eight foreigners and two Afghan interpreters in Afghanistan's northeast Badakshan province.
Foreigners fight alongside with Taliban in northern Afghan province: police
August 7, 2010
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Xinhua) -- Some 40 foreign fighters have been supporting Taliban militants in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, provincial deputy police chief Abdul Rahman Haqtash said on Saturday.
Karzai move threatens U.S. aid
The Washington Post By Karen DeYoung 06/08/2010
U.S. worried by Hamid Karzai's attempt to assert control over corruption probes
Obama administration officials fear that a move by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assert control over U.S.-backed corruption investigations might provoke the biggest crisis in U.S.-Afghan relations since last year's fraud-riddled election and could further threaten congressional approval of billions of dollars in pending aid.
Disfigured Afghan Woman In California For Surgery
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 7, 2010
A young Afghan woman who says her nose and ears were cut off as Taliban punishment for fleeing her husband's abusive household has arrived in California for facial reconstruction surgery.
A kinder, gentler Taliban
Terrorist propaganda can't hide murderous strategy
The Washington Times, Editorial 06/08/2010
The Taliban can't stop killing the people they supposedly are trying to help. A new directive from leader Mullah Omar instructs Taliban fighters to go easy on Afghan civilians. On Monday, however, five Afghan children fell victim to Taliban suicide bombs. Apparently, Islamist guerrillas believe they have to destroy kids in order to save them.
NATO troops kill 14 insurgents in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led troops eliminated over a dozen insurgents in Taliban's hotbed, the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Saturday, a statement of the alliance said.
Afghan parliamentary candidate's body found
The Associated Press By AMIR SHAH August 6, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - A candidate in next month's parliamentary elections, who was kidnapped by insurgents, was found dead Friday along a road in volatile eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
Women and Modern Art in Afghanistan
The New York Times - Asia Pacific By MUJIB MASHAL August 6, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - Under the watchful eye of a male instructor, a teenage boy is deep in focus, trying to trace and copy from a postcard as accurately as possible. For years, this has been the art scene in Afghanistan: stale, and dominated by men. Realism has long ruled as the only accepted style.
Germany to compensate Afghan families for Kunduz strike
August 6, 2010 BBC News
Germany will pay $5,000 (3,800 euros, £3,150) to each of the families of people killed or injured in an air strike near the Afghan town of Kunduz.
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10 Aid Workers, Including 6 Americans, Killed in Afghanistan
Sean Maroney VOA News / August 7, 2010
An international Christian charity says militants have killed 10 of its aid workers, including six Americans, in a remote area of northern Afghanistan.
The director of the International Assistance Mission charity, Dirk Frans, said the group's medical team was last heard from Wednesday as the aid workers were returning to Kabul from an eye clinic in Nuristan.
Their bullet-riddled bodies were discovered Friday in Badakhshan, where the team was traveling through believing it to be safer.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for killing the group, which also included a German, a Briton and two Afghans.
A Taliban spokesman accused the group of spreading Christianity, but Frans denied accusations that the group proselytized.
Two other Afghans traveling with the group escaped the ambush, including one man who said he survived by reciting passages from the Koran.
The local police chief said villagers had warned the group the forest was dangerous.
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Afghan police: 10 bodies found in N Afghanistan
The Associated Press 06/08/2010
KABUL - The bodies of 10 people, including eight foreigners, were recovered Friday in a remote area of Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan, police said.
Provincial police chief Gen. Agha Noor Kemtuz said the victims, who had been shot, were found next to three bullet-riddled four-wheeled drive vehicles in Kuran Wa Munjan district. He said two Afghan men were found dead along with eight others — three women and five men — whose nationalities were not known.
It was unclear what the group was doing in the forested area away from main routes through the province.
Kemtuz speculated that robbery could have been a motive in the killings.
"We couldn't find any passports or anything," he said. "Nothing was left behind."
Villagers reported seeing foreigners traveling in four-wheeled drive vehicles in the area about 15 days ago, Kemtuz said. About two days ago, villagers told police that they saw the vehicles abandoned and search crews were sent to the area to investigate, he said.
"We have seen the reports and are actively working with local authorities and others to learn more about the identities and nationalities of these individuals," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
In eastern Afghanistan, a candidate in next month's parliamentary elections, who was kidnapped by insurgents, was found dead Friday along a road in Ghazni province.
Also in the east, 12 Afghan civilians and a NATO service member were killed by roadside bombs.
The Taliban abducted the candidate, Najib Gulstani, 10 days ago in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province, Kazim Allayar, the deputy provincial governor, said. Relatives, assisted by Afghan soldiers, recovered his body Friday afternoon from the side of road that runs between Qarabagh and Ab Band districts, Allayar said.
Aziza Mysam, a member of parliament from Ghazni, said members of the local council in Qarabagh told the governor that the Taliban wanted two of their detainees released in exchange for the candidate. She said the governor refused to entertain the exchange offer.
"Ghazni is very dangerous," said Mysam, who said she has received 10 threats from the Taliban in the past month.
She said one caller told her, "Leave your job, otherwise we will kill you."
She said she told the caller, "I'm continuing my job. It's my wish to serve the nation. I'm not afraid of your threats."
In other violence, nine civilians were killed Thursday by a remote-controlled bomb in the Bar Kunar district of Kunar province, according to Gen. Khalilullah Zaiyi, provincial police chief. Three civilians were killed and others were wounded in a different blast Thursday in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni, NATO said.
NATO did not disclose the nationality or provide other details about the death of its service member Friday. But the Polish Defense Ministry said the dead soldier was a Pole killed by a roadside bomb in Ghazni that also injured five other Polish service members.
In the south, Malak Janan, a tribal chief in Kandahar province's Dand district, and his son were killed Thursday night when gunmen entered their home and shot them, according to Zelmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the provincial governor. The motive was unclear.
NATO said Afghan-led security forces detained several suspected insurgents Thursday in neighboring Helmand province where they were tracking two Taliban district commanders in charge of Garmser and Naway-i-Barakzayi districts.
One force targeted a compound in search of the militant commander for Garmser district, who directs attacks against coalition forces and runs weapons and supplies for Taliban fighters. Afghan forces used a loudspeaker to ask residents to leave their buildings and, after questioning, the assault force detained several suspected insurgents.
A separate security force went to Marjah district looking for the Nawah-i-Barakzayi district commander, who recently returned from Pakistan, NATO said. The force captured three men who tried to escape a compound by maneuvering through a nearby canal. The assault force detained several suspected insurgents and found five pounds (2.3 kilograms) of opium at the scene.
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2 militants groups claim responsibility for killing 8 foreigners in NE Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Taliban and the Islamic Party (Hizb-e- Islami) on Saturday claimed responsibility for killing eight foreigners and two Afghan interpreters in Afghanistan's northeast Badakshan province.
"These people were preaching Christianity and we punished them, " a Taliban spokesman Za bihullah Mujahid told media by telephone from undisclosed location.
He added that a number of documents and books which have proved their involvement in preaching Christianity were found from their possession.
Four of the eight slain foreigners were women, he said.
These foreigners and two local interpreters were killed by unknown gunmen in Karan-o-Manjan district of Badakhshan province and their bodies were found on Friday, said provincial police chief Aqa Noor Kintoz, who suspected thieves were behind this crime.
Kintoz also said that two of the victims were Americans while the remaining six were Germans.
Kintoz said their driver Saifullah was able to escape unhurt.
Meanwhile, another radical militant group, the Islamic Party ( Hizb-e-Islami) under former Prime Minister Gulbudin Hekmatyar, also claimed responsibility.
An unknown caller who claimed to speak for Hizb-e-Islami told media from unknown location that Hizb-e-Islami members killed these foreigners in Badakhshan province, but failed to give reason.
Government officials in the Afghan capital Kabul have yet to make comment.
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Foreigners fight alongside with Taliban in northern Afghan province: police
August 7, 2010
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Xinhua) -- Some 40 foreign fighters have been supporting Taliban militants in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, provincial deputy police chief Abdul Rahman Haqtash said on Saturday.
While showing three foreign fighters to journalists, he said they have been fighting under Uzbek extremist commander Tahir Yaldash.
"They are from Tajikistan and they received one-year training in Pakistan's tribal area of Miran Shah bordering Afghanistan last year," Haqtash told a news conference here.
They were arrested along with their Afghan comrade Abdul Sattar this morning and arms and ammunition in their possession were seized, he added.
"UP to 40 foreign fighters from Arab, Chechen, Tajikistan and other central Asian states have been fighting alongside with Taliban militants in Kunduz province," Haqtash said.
A relatively peaceful province in northern Afghanistan, Kunduz has seen increasing Taliban-led insurgency since beginning of this year.
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Karzai move threatens U.S. aid
The Washington Post By Karen DeYoung 06/08/2010
U.S. worried by Hamid Karzai's attempt to assert control over corruption probes
Obama administration officials fear that a move by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assert control over U.S.-backed corruption investigations might provoke the biggest crisis in U.S.-Afghan relations since last year's fraud-riddled election and could further threaten congressional approval of billions of dollars in pending aid.
The concerns were sparked by Karzai's decision this week to order a probe of two anti-corruption units that have been involved in the recent arrest of several senior government officials on graft and bribery allegations. Karzai said the investigators, who have been aided by U.S. law enforcement advisers and wiretap technology, were acting outside the Afghan constitution.
Afghanistan's attorney general said on Thursday that Karzai plans to issue a decree outlining new regulations for the bodies, the Major Crimes Task Force and Special Investigative Unit.
Officials in Washington have moved urgently to ensure that anti-corruption efforts are not derailed. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the most senior U.S. official to discuss the matter with Karzai this week, conveyed the message that "these two anti-corruption bodies represent important progress," a senior administration official said, "and any steps to undercut or remove powers or authorities from them would be a step backwards."
Just last week, Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told Congress that the successful task force operations were proof that Karzai is serious about fighting corruption.
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), whose House Appropriations subcommittee has cited concerns about corruption in withholding approval of an administration request for nearly $4 billion in non-military aid to Afghanistan for fiscal 2011, called Karzai's actions "extremely troubling." She said they were "more than just disconcerting; they put at jeopardy our mission."
"That money will not go forward until I get clearance that the promises and commitments that have been made by the Afghan government to work in good faith to stop corruption have taken place," Lowey said in a telephone interview. She noted that other funds already in the pipeline and a supplemental appropriation President Obama signed last week will allow civilian operations in Afghanistan to continue into the fall.
Affecting public support
But administration concerns extend far beyond the current funding request. There are growing worries that U.S. public support for the war, already dwindling in the face of rising combat casualties and the increasing costs of the conflict, will diminish further if voters continue to see Karzai's government as hopelessly corrupt.
Corruption has also been identified in internal U.S. analyses as the leading concern of Afghan citizens, above worries about security. "It's obviously an important component to send a message to the Afghan people that corruption is taken seriously," a senior administration official said.
Since early last year, Holbrooke told Lowey's subcommittee last week, the administration has known that "if corruption isn't dealt with, other things won't succeed. We had stated that it was a malignancy that could destroy everything else we were doing."
The administration established the task forces more than a year ago, sending scores of Treasury and Justice Department, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration officials to assist vetted Afghan investigators in corruption probes. Although the units' work has led to several dozen arrests, a number of high-profile cases have been derailed amid ongoing reports that Afghan officials are sending pallets of cash abroad and are building mansions in Kabul and in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
With U.S. analyses warning that increased U.S. spending in Afghanistan will probably promote even more corruption, the military has established its own task forces to investigate reports that money from defense contracts is being funneled to political power brokers, warlords and the Taliban.
An aide's arrest
The current crisis began with the arrest last week of Mohammad Zia Saleh, a senior presidential national security aide, on charges that he had solicited bribes, including an automobile, to help block a corruption probe of New Ansari, a Kabul-based financial firm. The firm is suspected of helping politically connected Afghans transfer millions of dollars out of the country.
The arrest, by Afghan law enforcement without direct U.S. participation, was based in large part on wiretaps and other evidence collected with U.S. assistance by the Major Crimes Task Force. Karzai's sharp reaction startled U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington, and has been the focus of a series of emergency, high-level meetings, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity about a situation he called the "most serious" crisis since Karzai's reelection in a fraud-riddled vote last year.
A statement issued by Karzai's office Wednesday said a special commission is being appointed to conduct a "case by case" review of "all activities" of the task forces. The statement said without elaboration that some of their actions had violated the constitution and Afghan human rights.
Administration attempts at clarification have not gotten far, officials said. In his conversation with Clinton, Karzai's principal response was to rail against Saleh's arrest by masked commandos he accused of "acting like the Russians," who occupied Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s.
'Watch and learn'
At a senior staff meeting of the U.S. and NATO command in Afghanistan on Thursday, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander, instructed officials to "watch and learn" over the next few days before drawing conclusions, a U.S. defense official in Kabul said. "It's not a red line right now. But it's an area of concern," he said.
The defense official speculated that Karzai's reference to "human rights" may refer to publication of Saleh's name, despite Afghan law barring such publication until conviction. "It's the dignity and shame part of it," he said.
But this official and others, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, expressed certainty that the real basis of Karzai's concern was the threat that corruption investigations posed to the government itself. Despite the task force successes, U.S. officials have cited repeated instances in recent months in which top government figures intervened to quash corruption investigations of politically connected Afghans.
"If I were in his shoes," the defense official said of Karzai, "I would also be concerned about it. Those high-profile arrests were done by Afghans, reviewed by Afghan judges. . . . They're finding things, and becoming more aggressive. There are people who are corrupt throughout the government who are upset about it. I think [Karzai's] feeling the pressure."
In his inauguration speech last fall, at an international conference in London in January and another in Kabul this summer, and at numerous meetings with senior administration officials, Karzai has said stemming corruption is among his highest priorities. In a communique issued with Obama during his visit here in May, Karzai "reaffirmed his inaugural pledge to bring to justice those involved in corrupt activities."
"Karzai says a lot of the right things," a congressional aide said Thursday. "But when push comes to shove, we don't see it."
At a news conference in Kabul on Thursday, senior Afghan officials sought to play down the notion that Karzai is soft on corruption. They said 54 people had been arrested on charges of corruption, drug trafficking and financial crimes.
Nasrullah Stanezkai, a legal adviser to Karzai, said the government wants to improve, but not disband, the task forces.
Correspondent Joshua Partlow in Maimana, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
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Disfigured Afghan Woman In California For Surgery
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 7, 2010
A young Afghan woman who says her nose and ears were cut off as Taliban punishment for fleeing her husband's abusive household has arrived in California for facial reconstruction surgery.
The case of the 18-year-old woman, named as Bibi Aisha, has attracted attention since a portrait showing her mutilated face was published this month on the cover of "Time" magazine. The related article talks about the grave threat that many Afghan women feel if "women's rights...[become] the sacrifice by which peace is achieved" in Afghanistan.
The Grossman Burn Foundation said Aisha arrived in Los Angeles on August 5 and is staying with a host family.
Dr. Peter Grossman, a plastic surgeon and co-director of the Grossman Burn Centers, said he will meet with Aisha to discuss her treatment, which he said is likely to include a prosthetic nose or the reconstruction of her nose with tissue from the rest of her body.
Officials said her treatment is being provided free of charge by the burn center.
compiled from agency reports
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A kinder, gentler Taliban
Terrorist propaganda can't hide murderous strategy
The Washington Times, Editorial 06/08/2010
The Taliban can't stop killing the people they supposedly are trying to help. A new directive from leader Mullah Omar instructs Taliban fighters to go easy on Afghan civilians. On Monday, however, five Afghan children fell victim to Taliban suicide bombs. Apparently, Islamist guerrillas believe they have to destroy kids in order to save them.
The Taliban "layeha," or rule book, says, "All efforts must be made to avoid harming civilians in attacks." In this battle for hearts and minds, the Taliban are failing miserably. A June Congressional Research Service report showed that from December 2009 to March 2010, 737 Afghan civilians were killed and 979 were wounded in the ongoing conflict. Two-thirds of these casualties were the result of Taliban actions, up from 59 percent in 2009. Of those killed by the Taliban, 78 percent of the deaths were caused by indiscriminate attacks by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), an insurgent weapon of choice.
According to Pentagon sources, since July 27 - when news broke of the release of Mullah Omar's new directive - the Taliban have slain 43 Afghan noncombatants and wounded 65. Data collected by the International Security Assistance Force show that in July, there were nearly 300 insurgent acts of violence and oppression against Afghan civilians. This includes more than 160 murders and injuries and more than 100 cases of various types of coercion, including extortion, prohibiting girls from attending school and destroying development projects. Over that same period, the Taliban killed 220 civilians and injured more than 360.
The new Taliban layeha is the latest in a series of useless instructions. In 2006, Mullah Omar directed his followers not to rob civilians, not to maltreat people who wanted to help the movement, not to smoke and not to take "young boys without beards" into their homes. In May 2009, the "Rules for Mujahedeen" field manual directed fighters to take steps to avoid killing noncombatants, limit the use of suicide bombing and not torture or kill prisoners without the expressed permission of higher authorities. None of these directives appears to be catching on.
Previous orders counseled sparing all civilians, but the new directive explicitly orders insurgents to "capture and kill any Afghan who is supporting and/or working for coalition forces or the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," including women. In this way, the Taliban can write off many of their innocent victims as "collaborators" and the rest as "martyrs to the jihad."
The new guidebook is as much a propaganda tool as a means of imposing battlefield discipline. Guerrillas and terrorists always portray themselves as the friends of the people, particularly to credulous outsiders who may help rally international opinion to their cause. This is the basis of their legitimacy, claiming to represent the popular struggle against a corrupt, illegitimate regime propped up by foreign forces.
Propaganda aside, brutalizing the population is a key Taliban tactic. They are not a "popular front" but an armed extremist fringe group that imposes control by terror. This was evident during the period when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Even minor violations of their bizarre, extremist Islamist creed were punished by torture and death. For them to attempt to portray themselves as friends of the Afghan people requires the world to forget the charnel house that was Afghanistan in the 1990s and ignore the Taliban's ongoing brutality. Mullah Omar's order to his fighters to respect the rights of Afghan civilians is about as believable as if he ordered them to accept Jesus as their lord and savior.
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NATO troops kill 14 insurgents in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Afghan and NATO-led troops eliminated over a dozen insurgents in Taliban's hotbed, the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Saturday, a statement of the alliance said.
"Fourteen insurgents were killed and no civilians were hurt in the operation," the statement added.
However, it did not give the exact place of the operation, only saying that Afghan and coalition forces uncovered a large stockpile of weapons and communications equipment during an operation in Helmand province on Saturday.
"While investigating the weapons find, the force was engaged by insurgents with small arms fire, rocket propelled grenades and sniper fire," it said.
It added that in order to suppress the enemy fire, ISAF forces requested close air support, which was provided by an air weapons team and a U.S. Air Force A-10, during which 14 insurgents were killed.
Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
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Afghan parliamentary candidate's body found
The Associated Press By AMIR SHAH August 6, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - A candidate in next month's parliamentary elections, who was kidnapped by insurgents, was found dead Friday along a road in volatile eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
Also in the east, 12 Afghan civilians and a NATO service member were killed by roadside bombs.
The Taliban abducted the candidate, Najib Gulstani, 10 days ago in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province, Kazim Allayar, the deputy provincial governor, said. Relatives, assisted by Afghan soldiers, recovered his body Friday afternoon from the side of road that runs between Qarabagh and Ab Band districts, Allayar said.
Aziza Mysam, a member of parliament from Ghazi, said members of the local council in Qarabagh told the governor that the Taliban wanted two of their detainees released in exchange for the candidate. She said the governor refused to entertain the exchange offer.
"Ghazni is very dangerous," said Mysam, who said she has received 10 threats from the Taliban in the past month.
She said one caller told her, "Leave your job, otherwise we will kill you."
She said she told the caller, "I'm continuing my job. It's my wish to serve the nation. I'm not afraid of your threats."
In other violence, nine civilians were killed Thursday by a remote-controlled bomb in the Bar Kunar district of Kunar province, according to Gen. Khalilullah Zaiyi, provincial police chief. Three civilians were killed and others were wounded in a different blast Thursday in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni, NATO said.
NATO did not disclose the nationality or provide other details about the death of its service member Friday. But the Polish Defense Ministry said the dead soldier was a Pole killed by a roadside bomb in Ghazni that also injured five other Polish service members.
In the south, Malak Janan, a tribal chief in Kandahar province's Dand district, and his son were killed Thursday night when gunmen entered their home and shot them, according to Zelmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the provincial governor. The motive was unclear.
NATO said Afghan-led security forces detained several suspected insurgents Thursday in neighboring Helmand province where they were tracking two Taliban district commanders in charge of Garmser and Naway-i-Barakzayi districts.
One force targeted a compound in search of the militant commander for Garmser district, who directs attacks against coalition forces and runs weapons and supplies for Taliban fighters. Afghan forces used a loudspeaker to ask residents to leave their buildings and, after questioning, the assault force detained several suspected insurgents.
A separate security force went to Marjah district looking for the Nawah-i-Barakzayi district commander, who recently returned from Pakistan, NATO said. The force captured three men who tried to escape a compound by maneuvering through a nearby canal. The assault force detained several suspected insurgents and found five pounds (2.3 kilograms) of opium at the scene.
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Women and Modern Art in Afghanistan
The New York Times - Asia Pacific By MUJIB MASHAL August 6, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - Under the watchful eye of a male instructor, a teenage boy is deep in focus, trying to trace and copy from a postcard as accurately as possible. For years, this has been the art scene in Afghanistan: stale, and dominated by men. Realism has long ruled as the only accepted style.
The degree of accuracy in copying from a picture — and occasionally a live model — has been the only yardstick by which artists have been judged.
The tide, however, seems to be turning, even if gradually. For one week in June two spacious auditoriums at Kabul University hosted a large exhibition on the themes of pollution and the environment.
The exhibition had two remarkable qualities: All 18 participating artists were women, and the genre was modern art, a rarity in Afghanistan. Even today Kabul and Herat are the only Afghan provinces — out of 34 — to have a faculty of fine arts in their universities.
“The curriculum at most of our arts institutions has not changed for years,” said Rahraw Omarzad, the director of the Center for Contemporary Arts — Afghanistan.
“Such copying and copying only kills the creativity of our artists,” Mr. Omarzad said. “It gives them no opportunity, no room to develop a style of their own.”
The public, too, has always been skeptical of a formal arts education. “Families saw art only as vulgar song and dance and nothing more,” said Prof. Alam Farhad, the director of fine arts at Kabul University. “A fine arts degree did not lead to a job, or a prosperous life.”
Then, in the 1990s, came the Taliban. Music was banned, and art was limited to calligraphy and the drawing of immortal shapes. The first image that one encountered, upon entering Afghanistan from Pakistan through the Torkham Gate, was broken drums and destroyed film tape hanging from a tall mulberry tree.
“When the Taliban left in 2001, we had seven professors and eight students in our department,” Professor Farhad said. But in the past three years, the art scene has changed in terms of inclusiveness and creativity.
“Today, I have 700 students here, and close to 20 percent of them are girls. Quite often, I have to turn down students because we don’t have enough space for them,” Professor Farhad said, his eyes gleaming in triumph.
“We are going through a period in which the society is having a deep realization about art and what it can offer,” he said. “The presence of 20 to 22 television channels, and the market that they bring with them, has really changed people’s perceptions about art and its practicality.”
Professor Farhad and his department have adapted to the demands of the new media. “Today, we know that our people want actual, real jobs for their children, and we also know the market,” he said.
Over the past three years he initiated two new majors in the fine arts department: digital graphic and cinema. The interest has been tremendous. In digital graphic, 94 students are enrolled, 53 of them women, the highest percentage in any of the faculties.
Mr. Farhad believes that the interest among women in the digital graphic course is due to the rising market demand. “Television stations and magazines come to us often, asking for the services of our students,” he said. “The prospect of actual jobs excites people, encourages them.”
Another, and more important, reason for the popularity of majors like digital graphic among female artists is their low profile; the artists remain behind the scenes, represented in their work only by their names.
Appearing on television or in other media still carries a social stigma for women. The low number of students in departments like cinema and theater also reflects the fear in society among women who are artists.
In the first couple of years of President Hamid Karzai’s government, the appearance of women on television was frowned upon. Television channels broadcast only male singers and artists.
Gradually, the presence of women increased, but it cost the lives of several young women in the media to get there. Zakia Zaki, Sanga Amach and Shaima Rezayee are among the many female artists and presenters who were killed for the crime of appearing on television and trying to widen the role of women.
Some female artists continue to battle the stigma, while others have turned to single-sex art centers that are more socially acceptable.
The Center for Contemporary Arts — Afghanistan is one of these centers. Founded in 2004, it welcomed both male and female artists, but Mr. Omarzad soon realized that it was women who were most in need of a safer environment in which to work. For Environment Day, auditoriums at Kabul University were turned into galleries dedicated to the theme.
Mariam Kamal, an independent documentary maker and photographer, had two short films exhibited.
The first one, called “Silence,” portrayed the abundance of noise in the city. “From the howling of the dogs in the morning, to the cries of many children around breakfast, to the ignition of car engines, to the horns and beeps on the streets it is only noise and noise,” Ms. Kamal said.
“If there happens to be a moment of silence in our day, a suicide explosion in a distance reminds us that the silence is only an illusion.”
Another piece was a mud sculpture called “Scream” by Marzia Nazary, a fourth-year psychology student at Kabul University. On a small, loose piling of dried branches and limbs sits a square platform made out of mud. Cracks run throughout the platform. In the center of the platform is a pile of six heads, their mouths open to different directions.
“I read in a newspaper that a boy was killed by his own father,” Ms. Nazary said, describing her inspiration. “All night, I just kept thinking and thinking about the story.”
Although the women of the arts center have made tremendous strides, the future remains unclear.
As our colleagues Alissa J. Rubin and Rod Nordland reported, recent talk of negotiations with the Taliban has caused fear and uncertainty among Afghan women.
Despite the government’s repeated claims that none of the constitutional rights acquired by women will be compromised, there is no guarantee that the progress will not be undermined by integration of the Taliban into the government.
Even now the arts center is already very careful about social barriers within Afghan society, because it is promoting an art form that is taking its infant steps.
“If we do not adhere to the social and cultural norms at such an early stage, what has the potential of becoming a movement could be suppressed and killed easily,” Mr. Omarzad said.
“So we are very careful, very aware that no eyebrows are raised at how we behave here.”
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Germany to compensate Afghan families for Kunduz strike
August 6, 2010 BBC News
Germany will pay $5,000 (3,800 euros, £3,150) to each of the families of people killed or injured in an air strike near the Afghan town of Kunduz.
The families of 91 Afghans killed and those of 11 injured in the attack last September are to receive compensation.
The strike on two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban was ordered by a German commander and killed up to 142 people.
It caused outrage in Germany, forcing the resignations of a former defence minister and the army chief of staff.
Both resignations were linked to allegations of a cover-up over the raid.
The German defence ministry is still negotiating with the families of 74 victims in Kunduz, but those talks are separate from the voluntary $5,000 payment, which does not constitute an acceptance of legal responsibility, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reported.
Germany has arranged to pay the money into special bank accounts to prevent the Taliban getting hold of it, German media report.
There are about 4,500 German troops deployed in the relatively calm northern area of Afghanistan.
Regular compensation payments are made by the US and other members of the Nato-led coalition fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Guidelines for US army units operating in Helmand province provide for $1,500-$2,500 compensation for the death of a child or adult, according to AP.
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