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Afghanistan unveils results from fraud-marred vote
by Waheedullah Massoud
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan on Wednesday released almost all the final results from its controversial parliamentary election after massive fraud saw nearly a quarter of votes cancelled and 24 winners disqualified.
Afghans Release Election Results For All But One Province
By Mustafa Sarwar, Ron Synovitz Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 24, 2010
Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission has announced final results from September's parliamentary elections in 34 of the 35 voting constituencies -- saying another three candidates announced as preliminary winners have been disqualified for fraud.
Sitting lawmakers head Afghan legislative election's final result
KABUL, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Sitting legislators have topped the final result of the Afghan parliamentary elections held on Sept. 18, which was announced on Wednesday.
Final Results of Elections Called Illegal
November 24, 2010 Tolo news
The Attorney General's Office Wednesday evening declared the final results of parliamentary elections illegal and ahead of time
Electoral Commission Spokesmen Suspended
November 23, 2010 Tolo news
Attorney General suspended the spokespersons for Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) and Independent Election Commission on Tuesday over corruption charges
Afghanistan sees move to 3G in 2011
Reuters 23/11/2010
Afghanistan will likely launch third-generation (3G) telecoms services next year, giving one of the world's fastest-growing markets speedier internet access, government minister Baryalai Hassam said on Tuesday.
Kuchi minority complain of marginalization
KABUL, 23 November 2010 (IRIN) - Unlike many Afghans whose living conditions have improved over the past nine years, many Kuchis, a minority nomad community - predominately Pashtuns - say theirs have deteriorated.
Pentagon Report Cites Gains in Afghanistan
New York Times By ELISABETH BUMILLER November 23, 2010
WASHINGTON - The United States and its partners are making modest gains in some key areas of Afghanistan, but the insurgency is still strong and expanding across the country, a Pentagon report to Congress this month has concluded.
Suicide bomber kills himself, wounds 2 in NE. Afghanistan
TALIQAN, Afghanistan, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in the relatively peaceful northeast Takhar province on Wednesday, killing self and wounding two others, spokesman for provincial administration Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi said.
Pentagon: Afghan Violence Soars, Insurgency Expanding
November 23, 2010 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Pentagon says in a new report that violence in Afghanistan has hit an all-time high in recent months and that the insurgency there is increasingly sophisticated.
Outrage Over A NATO Dismissal Of Kabul Children's Fears
November 23, 2010 By Farishte Jalalzai, Ron Synovitz Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Fourteen-year-old Rabia doesn't feel safe on the streets of Kabul as she goes about her daily routine.
Every school-day morning, Rabia's father walks her to a street corner near their home and stays with her until a private bus arrives to take her and other girls to school. Once on the bus, Rabia says, they are treated with contempt and hostility by the driver -- a former mujahedin fighter who resents his life as a bus driver for schoolgirls.
Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan open anti-drug trafficking meeting
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Ministers and senior officials of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan Wednesday opened a two-day meeting in Islamabad to deepen cooperation in their fight against drug trafficking in a series of meetings of the Triangular Initiative.
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Afghanistan unveils results from fraud-marred vote
by Waheedullah Massoud
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan on Wednesday released almost all the final results from its controversial parliamentary election after massive fraud saw nearly a quarter of votes cancelled and 24 winners disqualified.
The main opponent of President Hamid Karzai swiftly claimed that his supporters had won more than 90 seats in the 249-member chamber as analysts said the head of state's support base in the new parliament would weaken.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) declared the vote a "major success," but disqualified another three people who won seats according to preliminary results and delayed certified results from one troubled province.
The September 18 parliamentary poll was Afghanistan's second since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban, but results took far longer than expected to compile because of investigations into widespread corruption.
The irregularities dampened Western hopes that the election would be an improvement on the fraud-tarnished 2009 presidential vote which cast a long pall over Karzai's return to power and his pledge to wipe out corruption.
The IEC named winners of 238 seats, leaving 11 still unconfirmed due to "technical problems" from the southern province of Ghazni, where Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, apparently suffered a crushing defeat.
Preliminary results gave ethnic Hazaras all 11 seats in the province, a flashpoint in the nine-year Taliban insurgency.
IEC chairman Fazil Ahmad Manawi said Ghazni had the largest number of polling stations shut due to insecurity.
"Even in areas where polling sites were open, people did not turn up to vote," Manawi said. In one district, for instance, only three votes were cast.
About 100 failed candidates marched in Kabul on Wednesday, denouncing the results as fraudulent a day after a Pentagon report admitted that violence in Afghanistan was now at an all-time high.
Ethnic splits in the vote could spark controversy. A senior election official speaking on condition of anonymity said Pashtuns, the country's traditional rulers, won about 88 seats compared with 112 last time.
Emerging opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah later told reporters that "more than 90" of his supporters had won seats.
The former eye surgeon's father was Pashtun, but his mother is an ethnic Tajik and he is associated with the Tajiks of the late anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud's stronghold in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul.
"We will put pressure on the government inside parliament and outside parliament to bring reforms, positive changes, and to implement and strengthen the rule of law," he said.
There are no standard Afghan political parties and many of the 2,514 people who stood for the lower house, or Wolesi Jirga, were officially independent candidates, making it difficult to assess political alliances.
Analysts said Wednesday there were indications that Karzai had lost support, but warned that it was too early to draw a clear picture.
"From the sound of it, we can say the new parliament certainly won't be dominated by pro-government elements," said political analyst Mahmood Saikal.
Election authorities previously invalidated about 1.3 million of the 5.6 million votes cast after receiving more than 5,000 complaints of fraud in the wake of the poll. Of those, 2,500 complaints were classed as "serious".
Manawi said a total of 24 candidates had been stripped of victory accorded to them by preliminary results. The group is understood to include allies of Karzai and even a first cousin of the president.
Karzai, himself a Pashtun, has favoured a re-run in Ghazni and on Wednesday the presidency stopped short of immediately accepting the poll outcome.
"We haven't seen the results yet," Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer told AFP.
Afghanistan's previous parliament was dominated by warlords, many of them accused of war crimes.
"We have a number of bad faces that are still there. We have a number of new faces elected too," said Nader Nadery, chairman of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan.
NATO leaders last week endorsed a plan to start handing Afghan forces command of the war next year, with the aim of ceding full control by 2014. The United States and NATO currently have around 143,000 troops in Afghanistan.
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Afghans Release Election Results For All But One Province
By Mustafa Sarwar, Ron Synovitz Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 24, 2010
Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission has announced final results from September's parliamentary elections in 34 of the 35 voting constituencies -- saying another three candidates announced as preliminary winners have been disqualified for fraud.
The announcement comes more than two months after Afghans cast ballots in the country's second parliamentary polls since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Electoral authorities last month invalidated nearly one-quarter of votes cast because of fraud or other irregularities.
The disqualifications raise to 24 the total number of candidates stripped of an initial victory due to irregularities.
Fazil Ahmad Manawi, head of Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission, said final official results are still pending from the province of Ghazni because of "technical problems" that complicated the vote.
"Due to technical problems, one province -- [Ghazni] -- is still in the process of being counted," Manawi said. "In one or two days, a maximum of a week -- we will complete that process and release the results."
But another commission member, Abdullah Ahmadzai, said that a decision still must be made about whether the results in Ghazni should be certified. Other options are to conduct a new ballot or suspend the election in Ghazni until circumstances permit a new ballot there.
Results 'Bought And Sold'?
In Ghazni, many polling stations were closed during the September 18 ballot because of security concerns. Results from other polling stations in the province were invalidated because of fraud or because voter turnout was almost nonexistent.
According to the initial results, Pashtuns -- the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan -- failed to win any parliamentary seats in Ghazni. Pashtun leaders in Ghazni say battles against the Taliban prevented many Pashtun voters from going to the polls.
The preliminary results from Ghazni show ethnic Hazara candidates winning all 11 parliamentary seats in the province, which has been a flashpoint for violence since the Taliban regime fled Kabul nine years ago.
President Hamid Karzai, himself an ethnic Pashtun, has said he would be in favor of a new election in Ghazni for the sake of Afghan national unity.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan's top prosecutor cast doubt on the official results by announcing he was launching a criminal investigation into ballot fraud.
Mohamad Ishaq Alako said the results were "bought and sold" by powerful, well-connected Afghans who keep their money in Dubai.
Alako said he has evidence and documents proving that "the decision about the Afghan election has been made in Dubai and in Kabul's foreign-exchange market." He said if his investigation is not accepted, he will resign from his post.
Legitimacy Questioned
Although his allegations referred to criminal charges, Alako's comments suggest his investigation would cover the entire electoral process -- a move that already is being challenged by some officials in Kabul as unconstitutional.
Alako also said he has suspended the spokesmen for Afghanistan's two main independent electoral organizations -- the Independent Electoral Commission, which organized the vote, and the Electoral Complaints Commission, which investigates allegations of fraud and misconduct. The prosecutor said both spokesmen had made what he called "irresponsible" remarks to the media -- including disparaging remarks about the prosecutor's office.
It was unclear whether the prosecutor's office has the authority to suspend the spokesmen. Both spokesmen said they had received no official notice of being suspended and had heard about the development only through media reports.
Noor Mohammad Noor, the spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission, said the Afghan constitution stipulates that the Electoral Complaints Commission has the responsibility of reviewing cases of fraud. He said any government organization that has any evidence of fraud should share the evidence with the Electoral Complaints Commission itself:
"If such an act [of fraud] has been carried out by any official of the election commission, in that case the general prosecutor's office can share these concerns with the Afghan Independent Election Commission," Noor said. "We are ready to cooperate with the general prosecutor's office and the courts."
The 24 disqualified candidates who had been announced as winners in preliminary results were from across Afghanistan. At least seven are reported to be former members of parliament. At least five of the disqualified candidates are from the western province of Herat.
'Serious' Problems
Earlier this month, a recording emerged that appears to contain the voice of Afghan Energy Minister Ismail Khan instructing ballot counters to eliminate his political opponents from the ballot and declare his allies as winners. Ismail Khan, the powerful former governor of Herat and a former mujahedin commander who fought against both Soviet troops and the Taliban, still holds sway over much of the province through loyal militia fighters.
Jan Dad Spinghar, head of a Kabul-based nongovernmental election monitoring group called the Free and Fair Election Foundation, insists there was so much electoral fraud that the vote results will not be accepted by the Afghan people.
"There are concerns that the results announced will, to a large extent, not be acceptable to the candidates nor to the Afghan people," Spinghar said. "As a result, the legitimacy of the parliament will be undermined."
The electoral Complaints Commission says it received more than 5,000 complaints of fraud in the wake of the vote. About half of those complaints were classified as "serious."
Afghanistan's emerging opposition leader, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, said more than 90 of his supporters had won seats in the 249 seat parliament. It remained unclear whether Abdullah would be able to muster enough support from other lawmakers to form a majority coalition in the legislature.
Meanwhile, President Karzai criticized supporters of disqualified candidates who have been staging street demonstrations against the rulings in Kabul, Herat, Konduz, Nangahar, and the northwestern province of Baghlan.
"Some of our candidates who have not won seats are complaining about the election," Karzai said. "They have a right to complain. If someone complains about this election, they can go to our justice system and register their complaint there. That is the right place to go and complain. But blocking the roads and launching violence because they have not won a seat is not the right thing to do and is a malicious act against the country. They should not do this."
The disqualified candidates do not have the right to directly appeal the rulings against them by electoral officials.
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Sitting lawmakers head Afghan legislative election's final result
KABUL, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Sitting legislators have topped the final result of the Afghan parliamentary elections held on Sept. 18, which was announced on Wednesday.
Mohammad Mohaqiq, bagging over 16,000 votes, has secured the first position, followed by sitting speaker of Lower House Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, according to the result pasted on election commission website said.
A critic of government and parliamentarian Mohammad Ramzan Bashardost, with nearly 8,000 votes, secured the third position and sitting lawmaker Abdul Rasoul Sayyaf had won forth position, according to the website.
Meanwhile, three women won the contest in Kandahar, the Taliban birthplace in south Afghanistan; while two women have secured the two seats allocated to the western Nimroz province.
Preliminary result of the election was announced on Oct. 20.
However, the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) has delisted 27 winner candidates in preliminary results due to committing fraud and failing to resign from their government post.
More than 2,500 people, including over 400 women from across the country, contested the election to secure seat in the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, or Lower House of parliament, in the post-Taliban Afghanistan.
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Final Results of Elections Called Illegal
November 24, 2010 Tolo news
The Attorney General's Office Wednesday evening declared the final results of parliamentary elections illegal and ahead of time
With the issue of a statement, the Attorney General's Office said some high-ranking Afghan officials are involved in the illegal announcement of the final results.
The Attorney General is determined to investigate frauds and violations in electoral commissions to bring fraud organisers to justice.
After months of investigations on votes, ruling out bulk of votes and disqualifying many candidates in the process, the Independent Election Commission eventually announced the final results of elections on Wednesday.
The IEC has denied being under any sort of pressures by the government, foreigners and power-holders and as ever before emphasised on its independence.
The Attorney General suspended the spokespersons for Electoral Complaints Commission and Independent Election Commission on Tuesday over corruption allegations.
"Decisions over the fate of candidates have been taken in Dubai and Kabul money exchange market. I have evidence about it," said Afghanistan's Attorney General at a press conference on Tuesday.
But in reaction to the allegations by Attorney General's Office, head of the IEC urged the Attorney General to provide evidence.
Meanwhile, the United Nations, in a statement released today, "strongly" welcomed today's certification of the final results.
The statement also supported IEC's decision to take more time to finalise certification of Ghazni province poll results.
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Electoral Commission Spokesmen Suspended
November 23, 2010 Tolo news
Attorney General suspended the spokespersons for Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) and Independent Election Commission on Tuesday over corruption charges
The spokesman for IEC, Noor Mohammad Noor and the spokesman for ECC, Ahmad Zia Rafat were suspended from their posts as the two have consistently spoken of transparency in the polling process.
Because of complaints by a number of candidates, Senate Complaints Commission summoned head of the ECC to provide answers.
During the summon, member of Senate Complaints Commission and some candidates seriously criticised the work of the commission and urged electoral commission to avoid declaring the final results, until the complaints are not considered transparently.
"From the day the complaints commission changes its decision and even if it leads to my resignation, I will stand by your side to ensure the rights of [candidates]," said head of Senate Complaints Commission.
Afghanistan's Attorney General said at a press conference: "decisions over the fate of candidates have been taken in Dubai and Kabul money exchange market. I have evidence about it."
The Attorney General's Office also accused the electoral spokespersons of making statements that are against Afghan national interests.
Meanwhile, the IEC announced that the final results of the election will be declared on Wednesday.
"The IEC is determined to officially announce the final results of elections," said the spokesman for IEC, Noor Mohammad Noor.
Meanwhile, supporters of some protesting candidates in Baghlan and Zabul province staged demonstrations on Tuesday and the Kabul-Mazar-e Sharif Highway was blocked for hours.
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Afghanistan sees move to 3G in 2011
Reuters 23/11/2010
Afghanistan will likely launch third-generation (3G) telecoms services next year, giving one of the world's fastest-growing markets speedier internet access, government minister Baryalai Hassam said on Tuesday.
The Telecommunications Ministry is in talks with the four Afghan mobile carriers on upgrading to a 3G or possibly 4G network, he told Reuters in an interview.
"We're in the end of 2010, and probably in 2011 3G will take place in Afghanistan," Hassam said. "It can be further, maybe even 4G."
Discussions with carriers involved whether the 3G spectrum should be auctioned off or distributed among the companies, he said. Carriers argue that distribution will generate economic growth and thus tax revenue.
With 80 percent of Afghanistan now getting telecoms coverage, "it's time to move from the (slower 2G GSM standard) to new-generation mobile services," said Hassam, who is deputy minister for technical issues.
Mobile phone use has mushroomed since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, when Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, had only a few thousand landlines and no international service.
The sector now has 13.3 million mobile phone users and is the biggest source of tax revenue for the government of President Hamid Karzai, generating $129 million (81.2 million pounds) last year.
90 PCT PENETRATION
Hassam, a 45-year-old Czech-educated electrical engineer, forecast that, in three years, market penetration would reach more than 90 percent from the current 50 percent.
The ministry's goal is high-quality internet access at a low price, a development that will help Afghanistan's roughly 30 internet service providers, he said.
With 3G technology, users can surf the internet faster and download music and data more easily to handsets, letting operators tap new revenue from data services. About 95 percent of Afghan traffic now is for voice.
Afghanistan's mobile carriers are market-leading Roshan, the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat, South Africa's MTN Group Ltd and Afghan Wireless Telecommunications Co.
Roshan is 51 percent owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, 36.75 percent by Cable & Wireless Worldwide Plc and 12.25 percent by Sweden's TeliaSonera.
A fifth carrier, state-owned Afghan Telecom, provides landline and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless services.
Hassam said the biggest challenge facing carriers was security, with the Taliban attacking transmission towers to thwart tracking by Afghan and NATO-led forces. Violence is at its worst since the Taliban were overthrown, with record casualties on all sides of the conflict.
Najibullah Kamali, president of the Afghanistan Telecommunications Social Association, an industry group, said in a separate interview that operators had lost around $40 million through attacks on towers in the past two years.
The carriers are in talks with the government about a way to insure the towers or to get compensation from a development fund to which the companies contribute 2.5 percent of net revenues.
The sector got a legal framework with passage of a telecommunications bill this year, Hassam said. He added that Afghanistan was taking its development model from a number of countries, but especially India, which has seen explosive growth since 2002 along with regulatory changes.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Paul Tait and John Stonestreet)
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Kuchi minority complain of marginalization
KABUL, 23 November 2010 (IRIN) - Unlike many Afghans whose living conditions have improved over the past nine years, many Kuchis, a minority nomad community - predominately Pashtuns - say theirs have deteriorated.
Months after their mud-huts on the southwestern outskirts of Kabul were allegedly burned down in skirmishes over property and grazing land in August with Hazaras (a minority group mostly living in central Afghanistan), the number of Kuchi households seeking refuge in slums across Kabul has increased.
Many of the estimated 14,000 people living in 16 slums in different parts of Kabul are Kuchis, according to government officials.
Dozens of Kuchi families have, meanwhile, sought refuge in and around a ruined palace in the south of Kabul. As the harsh winter sets in, many of these families, particularly their children, face increased problems.
Worst indicators
The Central Statistics Office estimates the Kuchi population at three million (more than 10 percent of the total).
And while more than 30 percent of the Afghan population (nine million people) live in absolute poverty and five million “non-poor” live on 2,100 Afghanis (US$43) a month, the majority of Kuchis (over 54 percent) live in absolute poverty, according to a 2008 National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA).
“The Kuchi are one of the poorest and most marginalized communities in Afghanistan,” states a 2009 report by the Center for Natural Resource Information Technology at the Texas A&M University, describing 55-78 percent of Kuchi households as poor.
Officials in the Health Ministry said they did not have information about Kuchis’ access to healthcare services but the Education Ministry said Kuchis’ illiteracy rate was the highest in the country.
“No one even counts how many Kuchi women and children die from preventable and curable diseases,” Ezatullah Ahmadzai, director of Independent Directorate of Kuchi Affairs (IDKA), told IRIN.
Loss of pastureland
Most Kuchis rely on animal husbandry for their livelihoods but their access to pasture has diminished due to conflict, environmental, demographic, economic and social and political factors over the past three decades.
This has resulted in regular violence between Kuchi herders and mostly Hazaras over the past few years except in 2009.
Hazara residents of Wardak and Bamyan provinces accuse Kuchi herders of invading their villages, damaging farmlands and property.
“A lot has changed in Afghanistan over the past decades and there are no grazing lands left in Hazarajat [central Afghanistan] for Kuchis,” said Gholam Sakhi, a Hazara elder in Kabul.
Kuchis accuse Hazaras of denying their centuries-long right to pasture land for ethnic reasons.
“The government has formed a commission to solve the pasture land issue but this will take time,” said Ahmadzai of the IDKA.
However, both Kuchi and Hazara elders accused the government of being unwilling to end their disputes.
Secret payment
In 2009, however, no Kuchi-Hazara conflict was reported in the central highlands where the Hazara are the majority.
Fabrizio Foschini, a political researcher with the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), a Kabul-based think-tank, said the government secretly paid US$2-3 million to an influential Kuchi militia commander to ensure Kuchis did not enter Hazara areas.
The reason, he said, was the September 2009 presidential election when President Hamid Karzai had secured the support of a Hazara leader, Haji Mohammad Muhaqiq.
This was confirmed by Ahmadzai: “The government paid money to some Kuchis to procure fodder so another conflict over pasturelands could be prevented.”
US military forces also stepped in to ease Hazara-Kuchi tensions in 2009 with humanitarian assistance.
Kuchis have 10 seats in the lower house of the parliament and a general directorate to represent their interests. However, some experts say they are marginalized from decision-making.
“Kuchi is now a derogatory term,” said Foschini, adding that MPs and other politicians representing the community were not really Kuchi as most had settled in Kabul and other major cities.
The government, in line with the constitution, seeks to distribute land and help Kuchis end their nomadic lifestyle.
But solving Kuchis’ problems or changing their lifestyle requires more than a piece of land and a stronger resolve by the government, experts say.
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Pentagon Report Cites Gains in Afghanistan
New York Times By ELISABETH BUMILLER November 23, 2010
WASHINGTON - The United States and its partners are making modest gains in some key areas of Afghanistan, but the insurgency is still strong and expanding across the country, a Pentagon report to Congress this month has concluded.
In cautious findings that mirror recent statements from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, the report said that there were signs of progress in security, governance and development in “operational priority areas.”
That was a reference to Kandahar and Helmand Provinces in southern Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of United States soldiers and Marines are concentrated.
The report also said that the growth and development of the Afghan security forces “are among Afghanistan’s most promising areas of progress,” and that the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police met their target numbers for expansion three months before a deadline of Oct. 31 this year.
Currently, Afghan Army personnel number 134,000 and police officers total 109,000.
On the negative side, the report cited Pakistan’s reluctance to go after insurgents operating from havens on its border with Afghanistan.
In one particularly blunt sentence, the report said that while it recognized the “tremendous effort” Pakistan was making against some insurgents inside its country, “insurgent safe havens along the border will remain the primary problem to achieving a secure and stable Afghanistan.”
In addition, the report said overall violence in Afghanistan increased 65 percent in the third quarter of 2010 compared with that period last year.
The report attributed the increase in part to the more aggressive campaign that United States and NATO forces had mounted against the Taliban.
The report, titled “Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” is the sixth in a series that the Pentagon is required to submit twice a year to Congress.
Its data will be used in a more comprehensive White House review next month assessing United States strategy in Afghanistan and any need for revision.
Administration officials say they expect the White House review to cite similar progress, but with the same caveats.
The current report is the first since the Obama administration completed a buildup in Afghanistan this fall to nearly 100,000 American troops. It is also the first since General Petraeus took over as the top NATO commander in the country. It covers the period from April 1 to Sept. 30 this year.
The previous report, which covered the period from Oct. 1, 2009, to March 31 this year, came to the conclusion that a “continuing decline in stability” in Afghanistan had leveled off, but it cited little progress against the Taliban.
A senior defense official who briefed reporters about the report at the Pentagon on Tuesday sought to put a positive interpretation on the expansion of the Taliban into other areas of Afghanistan like the north and west.
The official said that as United States, NATO and Afghan forces have put pressure on insurgents in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar and Helmand, the insurgents have been forced out.
“The Taliban have clearly reacted to that by going to more peripheral areas,” the official said, “so while they have expanded to those areas, the importance of those areas is not key, is not central, to their success, or to our ability to defeat them.”
The official said he could not be identified under Pentagon ground rules, but neither he nor other Pentagon officials provided an explanation for those rules.
The anonymous official acknowledged that there were many skeptics questioning the ability of the United States to make progress in Afghanistan after nearly a decade of war.
But he said this was the first time the United States had committed so much in military strength and civilian effort to the country, and therefore the doubters were being “irresponsible” in not looking at the bigger picture.
“Of course there are skeptics, there are always skeptics,” he said.
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Suicide bomber kills himself, wounds 2 in NE. Afghanistan
TALIQAN, Afghanistan, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in the relatively peaceful northeast Takhar province on Wednesday, killing self and wounding two others, spokesman for provincial administration Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi said.
"A man strapped explosive device in his body blew himself up in the bazaar of Khaja Bahadin district, leaving himself dead and wounding two others, both civilians," Tawhidi told Xinhua.
He also added that there were no security checkpoint or security personnel when the terrorist blew himself up.
The official however, put the attack on the enemies of peace, a term used against Taliban militants but the outfit has yet to make comment.
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Pentagon: Afghan Violence Soars, Insurgency Expanding
November 23, 2010 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Pentagon says in a new report that violence in Afghanistan has hit an all-time high in recent months and that the insurgency there is increasingly sophisticated.
The report also charges that Iran continues to provide weapons and training to the Taliban, and says their safe havens along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border remain an obstacle even as Pakistani military cooperation with NATO improves.
The Pentagon says that while the Afghan government is making some effort to combat corruption, there is a "questionable" commitment to ending corruption at official levels.
compiled from agency reports
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Outrage Over A NATO Dismissal Of Kabul Children's Fears
November 23, 2010 By Farishte Jalalzai, Ron Synovitz Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Fourteen-year-old Rabia doesn't feel safe on the streets of Kabul as she goes about her daily routine.
Every school-day morning, Rabia's father walks her to a street corner near their home and stays with her until a private bus arrives to take her and other girls to school. Once on the bus, Rabia says, they are treated with contempt and hostility by the driver -- a former mujahedin fighter who resents his life as a bus driver for schoolgirls.
Rabia says she worries each day about the possibility of roadside bomb attacks against the bus. Once she arrives at the school, she fears Taliban militants will target the building -- as they have with hundreds of other girls' schools across the country. She also worries about militants who have singled out young Afghan schoolgirls in acid attacks -- blinding them and disfiguring their faces for life because they tried to get an education.
"Every minute there is a possibility of an explosion. At any time, there is a possibility of being attacked," Rabia says. "If you have ever seen the aftermath of a [suicide] bombing [in Kabul], you would know there often are many school students who are killed -- innocent boys and girls."
Rabia was outraged by remarks made to the BBC this week by Mark Sedwill, NATO's top civilian representative in Afghanistan. Sedwill told the BBC that children in Kabul "are probably safer here than they would be in London, New York, or Glasgow and many other cities." Sedwill also said "most children" in Kabul can "go about their lives in safety."
Under pressure for dismissing the fears of ordinary Kabul residents, Sedwill's office quickly issued a statement to clarify his remarks. The statement noted that there have been few bombings in the Afghan capital in recent months. It also stressed that Kabul's children face greater risks from poverty, "absence of clean water, open sewers, malnutrition, [and] disease" than from Taliban militants.
'You Are Never Sure'
Rabia heard Sedwill's clarification in news reports but says the former British ambassador to Afghanistan does not seem to understand the broad range of threats that Kabul residents face every day.
"There are powerful human traffickers who are kidnapping children for evil purposes," Rabia says.
She cites the mysterious fate of a very young girl in her neighborhood who was playing outside when she simply disappeared.
"Nobody knows what happened to her, but many in our neighborhood fear she was taken by traffickers who will kill her to harvest her organs or smuggle her to another country for evil purposes," Rabia says. "I also know an 11-year-old missing boy with the same story. Nobody knows what happened to him."
Rabia's mother, Palwasha, says she also was angry when she heard reports about Sedwill's comments.
"Where is the security? Every morning when my children leave home until they return, I imagine a hundred horrible things that could happen to them," Palwasha says. "There is no safety. We are involved in hundreds of miseries. Even if the school bus driver comes right to the door, you are never sure your children will be safe."
Indeed, the week before Sedwill's comments, gunmen in a car grabbed a young girl in Rabia's neighborhood and tried to take her away. Neighborhood residents responded to the girl's shouting, teaming together to stop the would-be abductors. But the girl was so traumatized that she fainted and was hospitalized for a week.
From Bad To Worse
Aid workers and children's rights advocates who deal with harrowing tales from Kabul's children on a daily basis say Sedwill's remarks -- even with the later clarification -- were inappropriate.
Hamida Barmaki, the head of children's affairs for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, convened a press conference on November 22 to announce new research showing the situation for Afghanistan's children is worsening.
Barmaki says increasing violence and other dangers faced by Afghan children include kidnappings, sexual assaults, the threat of opium addiction, and poverty that robs many children of the chance to go to school.
He says the interviews -- with more than 2,800 children during the first half of this year -- suggest that about 12.5 percent of Afghan kids are prevented from attending classes because of economic constraints or security concerns. Meanwhile, about 7 percent of children in urban areas and 30 percent in rural areas lack access to health services, and 80 percent of the health clinics throughout the country "lack the ability to provide essential health services," he says. He adds that an estimated 60,000 children are addicted to drugs and the number of sexual assaults against children has increased by 20 percent this year.
UN research supports the Afghan commission's findings. UNICEF says 1,271 Afghan civilians died in insurgent attacks during the first six months of this year -- up one-third compared to a year earlier. There also was a 55-percent increase in child casualties.
Barmaki says deteriorating security is increasingly harmful to Afghan children because of militant attacks that target schools and prevent access to vital care.
"The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission is calling on the [Afghan] government, nongovernmental organizations, and other civil-society foundations in Afghanistan to do their best to improve the situation for children in the country," Barmaki says. "We want Afghan and international troops -- and also the armed opposition forces -- not to target residential areas, health facilities, or schools so that children and other civilians remain safe."
Barmaki says some dangers faced by Afghan girls are the result of pressure from their own relatives -- such as forced marriages. Out of 2,800 children interviewed for the commission's latest study, 129 were underage girls who had been forced into a marriage -- usually when male relatives sold them for money or traded them like property to settle a feud. The commission said many cases involved teenage girls who were sold to become wives of elderly men for as little as a few hundred dollars.
The United Nations says more than 60,000 school-aged children work on the streets of Kabul to survive. Some beg while other polish and mend shoes. Still others sell plastic bottles of water, chewing gum, or newspapers. Many of them are not orphans, but are working to help support their entire family.
The Afghanistan Evaluation and Research Unit (AERU), an independent research group, concludes that most Afghan parents want an education for their sons and daughters. But it says Afghan families often are constrained by poverty and must send their children onto the streets.
contributors to this story include Radio Free Afghanistan's Faizullah Qardash in Kabul, with Mustafa Sarwar in Prague
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Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan open anti-drug trafficking meeting
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Ministers and senior officials of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan Wednesday opened a two-day meeting in Islamabad to deepen cooperation in their fight against drug trafficking in a series of meetings of the Triangular Initiative.
The agenda of the meeting is enhancing the work of the first regional law enforcement operations center. The Joint Planning Cell (JPC) in Tehran opened in 2009 to facilitate information sharing and operations aimed at seizing illicit drugs.
The meeting will also discuss organizing more joint operations to stop the flow of illicit drugs. Six joint operations have taken place, leading to significant drug seizures - almost 2,500 kilograms of opium, heroin and hashish - and the arrests of at least 74 drug traffickers.
The other item on agenda will be expanding and strengthening border controls between the three states. The countries have started to open a network of Border Liaison Offices (BLOs) to increase cross-border cooperation between law enforcement agencies.
The Triangular Initiative is facilitated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and brings together the ministers from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan responsible for drug control.
The three countries focus at finding solutions to the threats posed by drug trafficking in the region by enhancing cooperation in law enforcement. The UNODC provides assistance to the three countries in implementing their agreements.
Minister of Counter Narcotics of Afghanistan Zarar Ahmad Moqbel Osmani, Secretary-General of the Drug Control Headquarters of Iran Eng Mostafa Mohammad Najjar and Pakistani Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Arbab Muhammad Zahir are expected to issue a declaration on Thursday.
Also the Executive Director of the UNODC, Yury Fedotov, is also participating in the meeting, a UNDCO spokesperson said.
Zahir stressed during the meeting the need for enhancing cooperation between Iran and Pakistan to effectively fight against drug trafficking and organized crimes.
The minister said that opium comes to Pakistan from Afghanistan, terming that law and order situation in Afghanistan as the real problem.
Zahir opined that strength of anti-narcotics force in Pakistan is not enough to control drug trafficking and the government is recruiting about 600 more people for increasing the strength of anti-narcotics force.
Unofficial surveys suggested drug abuse in Pakistan is on the rise as an estimated five million addicts - three million from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas - are hooked on substances such as heroin, opium and hashish. Poverty, lawlessness, unemployment and low literacy rates are cited as the major reasons for drug use.
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