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Afghanistan's First New Railroad On Track
October 14, 2010 By Charles Recknagel Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan -- From the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif to the Uzbek border, the land runs flat with barely a hillock to block the way.
Afghan peace council chief: Taliban ready to talk
By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan – A former Afghan president who heads a new peace council said Thursday that he's convinced the Taliban are ready to negotiate peace.
U.S., NATO Back Taliban Talks
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 14, 2010
Top U.S. and NATO officials have said they support the Afghan government's efforts to establish peace talks with the Taliban.
EU Special Envoy Welcomes Afghan-Led Reconciliation Process
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 14, 2010
Vygaudas Usackas has been EU Special Representative in Afghanistan for only a few months, but has already made many friends in Kabul. Despite the falling public support for the war in Afghanistan, the former Lithuanian foreign minister remains optimistic about the future of Afghanistan. In an interview with RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique
Peace Talks Impossible without International Support: Motawakil
Hamed Haidari Tolo news October 14, 2010
If the international community does not support Afghan peace efforts with the Taliban, the High Peace Council will end with no results, says former Taliban foreign Minister
NATO allies ask Karzai to allow private security for donor programs
The Washington Post By Joshua Partlow 13/10/2010
KABUL - The United States and its NATO allies, worried about how the Afghan government's ban on private security companies might affect their operations, have asked President Hamid Karzai to sign a letter allowing such companies to continue protecting the foreign donor community, according to Western officials in Kabul.
Afghans pay off Taliban with 'American money'
Construction firms, workers say they have to hand over some of their earnings
By Hamid Shalizi Reuters
KABUL, Afghanistan — Cash from the U.S. military and international donors destined for construction and welfare projects in restive parts of Afghanistan is ending up in the hands of insurgents, a contractor and village elders said.
Iraq Embassy Opened in Kabul after 18 Years
Najeeb Hazem Tolo news October 14, 2010
Iraq's ambassador in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that the two countries have had diplomatic relations in the past 80 years
Pakistan, UNHCR launch new registration cards for Afghan refugees
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan and the UN refugee agency Thursday formally launched a nationwide project to issue new registration cards to registered Afghan refugees.
Little relief for growing number of conflict IDPs
KABUL, 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - Over 100,000 people have been forced out of their homes by clashes in different parts of Afghanistan over the past 12 months but by no means all of them have received aid, according to aid agencies and affected people.
70% of Partial Counting Results Announced
October 14, 2010 Tolo news
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Thursday in a press conference that 70% of partial counting results of all Afghan provinces have been announced
Brigade linked to Afghan civilian deaths had aggressive, divergent war strategy
By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 13, 2010
When the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade arrived in Afghanistan, its leader, Col. Harry D. Tunnell IV, openly sneered at the U.S. military's counterinsurgency strategy. The old-school commander barred his officers from even mentioning the term and told shocked U.S. and NATO officials that he was uninterested in winning the trust of the Afghan people.
The Afghanistan Pipeline Story Is a Floppy Red Herring
Th Hufington Post By Melissa Roddy 14/10/2010
Many people, especially folks who think they know a thing or zip about Afghanistan, believe that the International Coalition is only there to support American lust for cheap natural resources. This is wrong on so many levels. Let's review a few.
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Afghanistan's First New Railroad On Track
October 14, 2010 By Charles Recknagel Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan -- From the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif to the Uzbek border, the land runs flat with barely a hillock to block the way.
It is perfect terrain for building a railway. So, since Afghanistan inaugurated construction of its northern rail line in May, progress has been fast.
Now, the Uzbek company contracted to lay the track has completed almost all of the 75-kilometer line. According to the schedule, the construction should be finished by the end of this year.
If so, Afghanistan will get its first railroad in more than 100 years. That is when a former monarch, Amir Abdurrahman, banned rail lines as potential invasion routes.
Officials say the railroad will speed up freight deliveries across the Uzbek border dramatically.
"The [delivery time] will decrease by 50 percent because the speed of rail transport is faster, since the wagons don't have to stop," says Ahmad Wali Sangar, an economic adviser to the government of Balkh Province, where Mazar-e Sharif is located. "When the cargo is loaded on the train wagons, the trader's products will be transported straight to Afghanistan."
Currently, the stops can be endless.
Revitalize The Economy
Everything headed by rail for Afghanistan has to stop at the Uzbek border and be offloaded to trucks. The offloading and resulting backups and customs checks can means weeks of delay before the cargo continues on its way.
The railroad will solve that problem by allowing containers -- which are sealed at their point of origin -- to move across the border without interruption to a major new freight terminal near Mazar-e Sharif's airport. From the terminal, the cargo can be forwarded by truck or air, making Mazar-e Sharif a major distribution hub for the country.
The Asian Development Bank, which is funding the construction with some $165 million, hopes the railway line will help revitalize the Afghan economy by bringing in goods faster and cheaper than is now possible. Among the key imports are grain, fuel, and foodstuffs from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and, farther afield, from Russia.
But the rail from the border will also enable Washington and NATO to bring in more supplies for troops, reducing the coalition's dependence on routes through Pakistan where militants routinely attack trucks. And that may make the railroad a tempting target for the Taliban.
Currently, the railroad is guarded by a force of 500 police. The headquarters of the force is a small, windswept outpost halfway between Mazar-e Sharif and the Afghan border crossing of Hairaton, where the new rail line starts.
Cause To Worry
General Asghar Asghary, the head of the force, receives visitors in the post's single small concrete building. He says there are other posts scattered along the length of the track and that the force is strong enough to protect the line when it becomes operational.
"We won't need more police than we have now. The structure we have is entirely capable," Asghary says. "And even during the last three to four months, the company's trains have been coming and going a lot with workers and they are being protected."
Still, there is increasing cause to worry. The Taliban have grown powerful over the past two years in several northern provinces, particularly in the neighboring province of Konduz. Already the militia regularly attacks fuel trucks traveling from the Tajik border through Konduz and Baghlan provinces to the coalition's base at Bagram airport near Kabul.
Asghary says that U.S. officers initially visited his headquarters and promised help, including with constructing fortified perimeters around the posts. But they have not returned since and he does not know whether the aid will ever arrive. His own budget is not enough to do more than the minimum needed to fortify and winterize the outposts.
For now, guarding the railroad is light work and construction goes on unimpeded.
Lack Of Technical Skills
Each day the police escort the Uzbek workers building the railroad to their construction site and then escort them home again to their camp in Hairaton.
The entirely Uzbek team is doing the work because Afghanistan long ago lost the equipment and technical skills needed for the job. But once the railway is built, some of the Uzbek technical staff will stay on to train Afghan personnel and create the basis for Afghans to extend the track further themselves in the future.
Sangar says the country today has nowhere near the money needed to build a railway network connecting its different regions. But the track which will soon be finished in Mazar-e Sharif, plus another track currently being built in Iran toward the Afghan border, create the starting points for a wider system.
Iran has reportedly completed two-thirds of a 190-kilometer rail bed from its town of Khaf to link with Herat.
If Herat were one day connected by rail to Mazar-e Sharif, some 700 kilometers away, northern Afghanistan would not only acquire a major rail line but also become a transit country for the shortest rail link between the Central Asian countries and the Gulf or Indian Ocean ports.
Whether that rail line is built will depend upon outside funding. The Asian Development Bank is funding technical surveys for such a track across northern Afghanistan but has made no commitments.
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Afghan peace council chief: Taliban ready to talk
By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan – A former Afghan president who heads a new peace council said Thursday that he's convinced the Taliban are ready to negotiate peace.
Burhanuddin Rabbani told reporters in Kabul the Taliban have not completely rejected the idea of negotiating a nonmilitary resolution of the war.
"They have some conditions to start the negotiations process. It gives us hope that they want to talk and negotiate," Rabbani said.
"We are taking our first steps," he said. "I believe there are people among the Taliban that have a message that they want to talk. They are ready."
The Afghan government has acknowledged that it has been involved in reconciliation talks with the Taliban, but discussions between the two sides have been described as mostly informal and indirect message exchanges relying on mediators.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said any reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgents has to be led by Afghans. But he told a press conference in Brussels Thursday that the U.S. is offering advice and has kept an ear on the initial talks.
Gates said reconciliation efforts may not bear fruit anytime soon, but he says the effort is worth making.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the military alliance is helping the Taliban meet with the Afghan government. Rasmussen said that when there are practical ways that the alliance can help, it will.
He did not give details, yet it was a sign that the U.S. and NATO are backing clandestine talks aimed at bringing an end to the 9-year-old war.
In Brussels on Wednesday, a senior NATO official confirmed that it has provided safe passage for top Taliban leaders to travel to Kabul for face-to-face negotiations with the Afghan government. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to describe the subject publicly.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that she thinks it's "highly unlikely" that Taliban leaders, who refused to turn over Osama bin Laden in 2001, will ever reconcile. "But, you know, stranger things have happened in the history of war," she said on ABC's "Good Morning America" television program.
The Afghan Taliban, meanwhile, have denied having discussions. In a message posted on its website this week, the group said the notion of talks with the enemy was "baseless propaganda" and that negotiations would be a "waste of time."
Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, a top adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai who also spoke with reporters, confirmed the contacts that were conducted with coalition support.
"There are people who have had contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban," Stanekzai said, declining to identify the players. "The elders of this country, the clerics of this country — they can mediate to form a bridge."
He said those who want to join to the peace process must be provided safety and security.
"The comings and goings are continuing," he said. "We are now at the beginning steps of our work."
Stanekzai said the Afghan government was getting strong support for the peace process from the international community, but that negotiations with the Taliban must be led by Afghans.
On Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said his country — where key Afghan insurgent leaders are believed to be based — would be part of the process.
"Look, nothing can happen without us because we are part of the solution. We are not part of the problem," Gilani said.
Stanekzai said he welcomes Pakistan's help in finding a peaceful resolution to the war, but that Afghanistan would not go through Pakistan to talk to the Taliban.
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U.S., NATO Back Taliban Talks
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 14, 2010
Top U.S. and NATO officials have said they support the Afghan government's efforts to establish peace talks with the Taliban.
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance was ready to support possible peace talks with the Taliban, but ruled out halting military operations against the Afghan insurgency.
He said while the NATO-led force was willing to provide "practical assistance" for reconciliation efforts, "we should continue our military operations" against the Taliban.
At the same press conference, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington would do "whatever it takes" to support Afghan President Hamid Karzai's push to reconcile with some elements of the Taliban, but acknowledged that it is a complex effort that may not work.
Gates said any reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban must be led by Afghans.
Clinton added that the United States supported what the Afghans were doing, but wasn't ready to make any judgment about how far the talks should go.
Afghan officials today requested NATO's support in clearing the way for a new peace initiative with the Taliban, including by halting military operations in areas where reconciliation talks could take place.
compiled from agency reports
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EU Special Envoy Welcomes Afghan-Led Reconciliation Process
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 14, 2010
Vygaudas Usackas has been EU Special Representative in Afghanistan for only a few months, but has already made many friends in Kabul. Despite the falling public support for the war in Afghanistan, the former Lithuanian foreign minister remains optimistic about the future of Afghanistan. In an interview with RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique, Usackas says his main challenge is to convince Afghanistan's neighbors to emulate the European model in ending the numerous conflicts in the region.
RFE/RL: I want to begin by asking you about the peace process. Following the appointment of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani as the head of the High Peace Council, how do you view the way forward?
Vygaudas Usackas: I think it is very welcome news that the High Peace Council has been established and that such a highly respected person as Professor Rabbani was appointed chairman of the High Peace Council. I know Professor Rabbani rather well, and will be seeing him...and learning from him how he sees the process [moving] forward. We all know that the international community and the European Union [are] very much behind reconciliation.
We believe that the resolution to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan rests in the peace efforts and in the peace settlement which will entail both the fractions within the country but also important contributions of the neighboring countries. I just came back from Islamabad -- we had meetings with representatives of the government and also with the NGO and think-tank communities -- and I was very encouraged to hear the voice of positive attitude in support of the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
RFE/RL: In speaking to people on both sides while in Kabul, I have become aware of a key point in that the Taliban believe that tangible steps toward peace can only come when the international community lifts some of the blacklists, sanctions against some Taliban leaders, close detention facilities that are obviously very notorious, like the Guantanamo Bay prison, the Bagram prison, and also allow insurgents some political space. Do you see that happening any time soon?
Usackas: What I see happening is indeed opposition by the Afghan government to the talks. First of all, it is important to acknowledge that they will be Afghan-led negotiations; and I think that what we have heard from President [Hamid] Karzai numerous times is his support and eagerness to advance reconciliation. I don't want to go into details -- it will be a part of negotiations when they start.
We have heard the reports about the talks and connections being established between the government and certain types of Taliban -- the Haqqani Network and Quetta Shura. Again, I don't want to preempt those discussions. I think currently we only see pre-positioning for the future talks, and the first contacts, or talks, for the talks. However, again, I welcome the establishment of the High Peace Council. We support the efforts toward reconciliation -- the European Union itself is an example of reconciliation among the nations after the Second World War. So, I mean, the Afghan-led process of reconciliation has [the EU's] whole-hearted support in that respect.
Intra-Afghan Matters
RFE/RL: You said you were in Islamabad. What was the mood there after the government closed the main northern NATO supply route to Afghanistan? Is Islamabad ready to help with an internal political settlement in Afghanistan, or do they seek to realize what was traditionally their objective of seeing a pro-Islamabad government in Kabul?
Usackas: First of all, what I gathered is a clear sign that Pakistan sees internal settlement as an Afghan-led settlement in Afghanistan. And that's, I think, very important that we all -- all neighbors of Afghanistan and the international community -- would rally behind the efforts of an intra-Afghan peace settlement. On the other hand, what I found is also an understanding that both countries share the same security threats and security risks, which derive from militant extremism and the sources of international terrorism.
RFE/RL: How do you see the new parliament shaping up -- will the results of the September 18 elections be as contested as in the presidential election of 2009. I mean, it has already taken a long time just to announce the results of the elections; just to compile them.
Usackas: What is now important and what is happening right now is that both the IEC and the Election Complaints Commission are going through the tabulation of results and are going through the review of complaints. And what matters is that the tabulation and complaints would be reviewed in as transparent a fashion as possible so as to demonstrate to the Afghan people that the process is credible, inclusive, and transparent. It will not be, as I said, ideal elections, but what is important to what I discussed [on October 10] with President Karzai, is indeed to embark upon lessons learned as soon as the results are announced, and we stand ready to support the Afghan government, and Afghan institutions, and the Afghan people, in reviewing the electoral-reform process.
For example, no one knows how many people there are in Afghanistan; how many are eligible to vote. How are we going to address that issue? Are we going to embark on a voters' registry, or are we going to help with I.D. cards for Afghan citizens for example? How can we support the Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission and the Independent Election Commission? So those issues have to be addressed. And I hope that the Afghan government -- and I felt from my conversation [October 10] with President Karzai -- that he is committed to move forward with the electoral process after the election.
Is Democracy Delivering?
RFE/RL: You come from a country which has undergone in a way, tremendous transformation in the past 20 years. From being a Soviet state you are a member of the EU, a member of NATO, a country that has joined the largest regional corporation organization we see today. In your personal view, what kind of future direction do you see in this country? Is there democracy really working, is it delivering?
Usackas: What is rewarding, really, to see is the building [of a] consensus in the Afghan establishment from President Karzai to junior officials that a critical mass of issues has to be addressed in reforming civil service in making the civil service accountable and providing the best service for the people. And I think we can share that experience, which is of paramount importance. And I'm glad also to register that thanks to the Kabul Conference and especially thanks to the European Union's engagement, we helped to make that issue more prominent within the agenda of Afghanistan. That without good governance, without good public administration, without eliminating corruption from the government services they'll be no way to ensure and retain economic and political development of the country.
I think we're coming to that point where there is a clear recognition and actually request from President Karzai to me and the members of the European Union to come help. And I think Central European countries, the Baltic countries, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and others have a lot of offer to Afghanistan. I mean, we went through 20 years of reform. We went from the one-party system to multi-party democratic system. We went from the central planning economy to the free-market economy.
RFE/RL: Ambassador, what is EU doing to support economic development in Afghanistan? And how do you see the Afghan economy? Is it on the right trajectory?
Usackas: Well, first of all, often it is underestimated what a big contribution the European Union is making in Afghanistan. Since 2002, the European Union all together has contributed 8 billion euros of development aid. European Union's common budget, a part of the EU's member states' budget, annually is going to increase from 150 [million euros] this year to 200 million euros for the next three consecutive years. Annually, EU common budget, and EU states together contribute to Afghan economy and Afghan development projects worth 1 billion euros.
Our major focus areas are the following: Agriculture and rural development, to enable Afghan people to move from the poppy industry into the agriculture development, which is very rich especially with fruits, with different kinds of nuts and vegetables, and also we are supporting irrigation systems, putting up irrigation systems in different provinces, building dams, etc. Secondly, we are supporting Afghan people on the rule of law and governance. We are still supporting, salary-wise, Afghan police forces. We also have the European Union police mission in place, which during the last year alone has contributed to train 11,000 civil police, and that's a unique niche where European Union police mission is concentrated. That's something neither the NATO training mission nor the American bilateral mission can really address. The third important sector is the health sector. We've been supporting regeneration and renovation of building up the different medical care centers across the country, and thanks to that, the access to medical care has increased from 6 percent in 2002 to 64 percent in 2010.
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Peace Talks Impossible without International Support: Motawakil
Hamed Haidari Tolo news October 14, 2010
If the international community does not support Afghan peace efforts with the Taliban, the High Peace Council will end with no results, says former Taliban foreign Minister
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Taliban regime, Wakil Ahmad Motawakil, remarked on Thursday that trust building is very important in peace talks with the Taliban, and the Afghan government must do its best to hold talks with the Taliban.
Mr Motawakil said the success of the High Peace Council depends on its strategies.
The Afghan government held the Peace Jirga and established the High Peace Council in a latest effort to boost peace talks with the Taliban to put an end to the increasing violence in the country.
"Things can not be solved only by establishing a council. It is good that the Afghan government has put a step forward for peace efforts, but if nothing is done to build trust, the opposite side will never take this peace process seriously," Motawakil told TOLOnews reporter.
He cited the lack of the presence of a specific anti-government element as one of the problems in the process.
"Individuals can not play an important role, but strategy and management is very important. If the United States does not support such Afghan peace steps, such a process will never be applied," he added.
The High Peace Council is established at a time when the Taliban have often refused talks with the Afghan government and have preconditioned the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan for talks with the government.
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NATO allies ask Karzai to allow private security for donor programs
The Washington Post By Joshua Partlow 13/10/2010
KABUL - The United States and its NATO allies, worried about how the Afghan government's ban on private security companies might affect their operations, have asked President Hamid Karzai to sign a letter allowing such companies to continue protecting the foreign donor community, according to Western officials in Kabul.
Karzai was given the letter by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander here, while they flew to Kandahar on Saturday and had been expected to sign it Monday, according to minutes of a U.S. Embassy meeting on the topic obtained by The Washington Post. But he has not yet done so, and U.S. officials have warned the issue might escalate quickly.
The minutes of Tuesday's meeting, written by a U.S. Agency for International Development official, said U.S. Ambassador William E. Todd told the group that without Karzai's signature, the U.N. assistance mission here "would step in with its intention to close down all donor programs in Afghanistan, [and] next it could rise up to Secretary of State Clinton personally telephoning President Karzai. President Karzai was made aware that billions of dollars are at stake."
In August, Karzai issued a surprise order to disband all private security companies in Afghanistan within four months. Since then, his government has refined its position, saying it would first dismantle unlicensed companies that protect supply convoys on the highways and whose guards have often been accused of shooting wildly and antagonizing Afghans. Karzai has assured the United States and other countries that they can keep private security guards for embassies, military bases and other sites where foreigners work, according to the president's spokesman, Waheed Omar.
"It's not going to be a hasty dismantling of those companies that are protecting foreign missions and premises," Omar said. He said he was not aware of a letter for Karzai to sign. But without Karzai's written approval, U.S. officials remain unclear about the implementation of his order. The Interior Ministry has drafted a three-part plan calling for first phasing out the unlicensed companies that work the highways, followed by those that have violated the law and finally "all other companies that are remaining from the first and second phase," ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said.
U.S. military and civilian officials in Kabul described the issue as serious but under control. They said there appears to have been some miscommunication between the president and the Interior Ministry but that they are confident Karzai will allow their security guards to remain.
"Everyone's pushing back. We think we've got him back in the box," one U.S. military official said of Karzai.
Another Western official in Kabul said Karzai's decree, as written, "would not be something that would be doable for the international community."
"To not be allowed to move ambassadors or their deputies or their staff from one place or another, or not be able to secure project sites, is obviously of critical importance," the official said.
At Tuesday's U.S. Embassy meeting, according to the minutes, Todd said that USAID's partners need to take contingency planning seriously and be prepared for a "negative outcome." Private security company representatives said they are already having trouble getting visas for their employees, starting new projects or expanding current ones.
When USAID contractors present were asked if they felt comfortable being protected by Afghan soldiers or police, "several partners said no, they would not have confidence and they could not operate in that type of environment," the minutes said.
Tara Lee, a Washington-based lawyer who represents several U.S. and British private security firms working in Afghanistan, said she expects Karzai to clarify the issue soon but that in the meantime her clients have had trouble with visas, bank accounts and the having weapons confiscated at checkpoints.
Until Karzai makes his plan official, Lee said, "everybody is kind of waiting and nervous."
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the embassy and its coalition partners are "working urgently with the Afghan government to clarify implementation of this decree so that development and reconstruction efforts are not negatively affected."
Also Wednesday, six NATO troops were killed, including four in a single blast in southern Afghanistan. Another died in a separate bombing in that part of the country and the sixth was killed in the east, according to NATO officials. They did not release other details, or the nationalities of the slain soldiers.
Correspondent David Nakamura in Kabul contributed to this report.
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Afghans pay off Taliban with 'American money'
Construction firms, workers say they have to hand over some of their earnings
By Hamid Shalizi Reuters
KABUL, Afghanistan — Cash from the U.S. military and international donors destined for construction and welfare projects in restive parts of Afghanistan is ending up in the hands of insurgents, a contractor and village elders said.
The alliance of largely Western nations who back President Hamid Karzai and have nearly 150,000 troops on Afghan soil have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on aid and infrastructure since they ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001.
With violence spreading and the insurgency bloodier than ever, some construction firms and workers on development projects say they are having to hand over some of their earnings to insurgents to protect their personnel, projects or equipment.
Mohammad Ehsan said he was forced to pay insurgents a substantial part of a $1.2 million contract he won from the U.S. military two months ago to repair a road in Logar province south of Kabul, after they kidnapped his brother and demanded the cash.
"You know we need this American money to help us fund our Jihad," Ehsan quoted them saying when he eventually spent over $200,000 of the project money to secure his brother's freedom.
Ehsan said the insurgents also demanded the cash be changed out of dollars into Afghan or Pakistani currency, saying greenbacks are "Haram" or forbidden for Muslims.
Paying off militants is common across Afghanistan, where it is hard to work in villages or remote areas without greasing the palms of local insurgent commanders, said Ehsan.
"We are aware of those kind of reports ... contracting methods are definitely considered part of the counterinsurgency effort," said Major Joel Harper, spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, when asked about Ehsan's payment. "Such incidents would be investigated, and we have measures in place to try and prevent these things happening."
A U.S. Senate inquiry into private security firms contracting in Afghanistan found last week that funds had sometimes been funneled to warlords linked to insurgents , but did not look at other possible channels taking foreign money to insurgent groups.
The Taliban regularly attack supply convoys and development projects as well as military targets, but spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied the group extorts money from contractors, saying other elements may use the Taliban name to defame them.
"It is totally baseless, we don't need any money from any organizations that are linked to the invading force," he told Reuters by telephone from undisclosed location. "The people support us willingly and we will continue our Jihad against all occupying troops and their contractors."
But even elders from Provincial Development Shuras — traditional local councils adapted to foster development — that receive cash for small-scale projects in their villages, say they are not immune to the extortion.
"The Provincial Reconstruction Team gave me 500,000 Afghanis ($10,000) to clean sewers in my village but I was forced to pay 200,000 of it to the Taliban," said Aslam Jan from Logar's Baraki Barak district.
The U.S. government's aid arm USAID said it was aware of the risks from working in dangerous areas and worked to counter them.
"We take very seriously allegations that our funds are finding their way into the Taliban funds. We investigate each such allegation," USAID said in a statement.
Afghans who run transport businesses through volatile areas also prefer to pay off the Taliban rather than hire private guards who are often magnets for insurgent attacks.
Abdul Ghafoor Noori, owner of a transport firm in Kabul, said paying the insurgents makes business sense.
"I pay the Taliban not to attack my goods, and I don't care what they do with the money," he said laughing.
"If you don't, the next day your property is attacked and destroyed."
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Iraq Embassy Opened in Kabul after 18 Years
Najeeb Hazem Tolo news October 14, 2010
Iraq's ambassador in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that the two countries have had diplomatic relations in the past 80 years
The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a special ceremony for the inauguration of Iraq's embassy in Kabul stated that the step will be effective for the improvement of diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries.
"I am sure that this relation will help increase economic and social relations between the two countries and that our people will visit another country," Zalmai Rasool, the Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs told TOLOnews reporter.
The Iraqi ambassador in Kabul said the opening of Iraq's embassy in Afghanistan will be effective in improving relations between Afghanistan and the rest of the Islamic world.
"We hope and we are sure that more Arab embassies would come and should come, because this relation is not only Iraqi-Afghani, but it is also Arab-Afghani and Islamic-Islamic relation. Because we are eventually and before everything Muslims and this relation is bigger than everything," Qais-Al-Yaqoobi, Iraq's ambassador in Kabul told TOLOnews reporter.
Iraq cut its ties with the government of Afghanistan during the presidency of Saddam Hussain, the former president of Iraq.
After the Taliban regime in Afghanistan followed by the fall of Saddam Hussain's government in Iraq, the new Iraqi government made efforts to re-establish relations with Afghanistan and the rest of the Islamic world.
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Pakistan, UNHCR launch new registration cards for Afghan refugees
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan and the UN refugee agency Thursday formally launched a nationwide project to issue new registration cards to registered Afghan refugees.
The exercise will at the same time afford hundreds of thousands of young Afghans their first birth certificates, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The new Proof of Registration cards are valid until Dec. 31, 2012 and provide an important identity document for some 1.6 million Afghan refugees registered in Pakistan.
While more than 3.6 million Afghans have returned home with UNHCR's help since 2002, the remaining 1.6 million continue to seek protection in Pakistan.
"I note with interest that the government has a good strategy for the Afghan refugees in Pakistan. And it is heartening to know that one million Afghan children are being issued with birth certificates," UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner T. Alexander Aleinikoff said at the launch.
Aleinikoff hailed the exercise as a landmark decision that would continue to protect millions of Afghans in the host country.
The event took place at one of the renewal centers in Islamabad at which Dr. Imran Zeb, the Joint Secretary for the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) represented the government.
UNHCR Country Representative Mengesha Kebede called upon all the registered Afghans to come forward and renew their cards as this will mean continuing protection for the Afghan population.
Afghan children will also receive their first ever birth certificates, which is also recognized by the government of Afghanistan, a UNHCR statement said.
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Little relief for growing number of conflict IDPs
KABUL, 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - Over 100,000 people have been forced out of their homes by clashes in different parts of Afghanistan over the past 12 months but by no means all of them have received aid, according to aid agencies and affected people.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says civilians are trapped in a difficult environment: “One armed group may demand food and shelter in the evening and an opposing side demand justification for harbouring an enemy in the morning,” ICRC spokesman Bijan Frederic Farnoudi told IRIN.
“Many families see fleeing as their only solution,” he said, adding that internally displaced persons (IDPs) were “living a life of misery and poverty”.
The ICRC, which works in collaboration with the Afghan Red Crescent Society and has better access to conflict-affected areas than UN agencies, said it had assisted about 20,000 of the over 100,000 civilians displaced by fighting since last year.
Armed violence has reached unprecedented levels since the Taliban ouster in 2001, and civilians have increasingly borne the brunt of the violence, aid agencies say.
The number of IDPs in Afghanistan is estimated at about 300,000 by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and over 450,000 by the Ministry of Refugees and Returnees (MoRR). Most are residuals from the over one million displaced before 2001 due to conflict, poverty and natural disasters.
The official assistance programme to IDPs ended in 2006 as government officials, backed by UNHCR, advised people to return to their original areas, and prevented the setting up of new camps, but tens of thousands of IDPs are still in camps in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand and in the western province of Herat.
Violence spreading
Insecurity has, meanwhile, rapidly spread to the previously peaceful northern and central parts of the country: At least 200 families left their homes in Imaam Sahib District in the northern province of Kunduz over the past three months, the provincial ARCS office said.
“The Taliban have established a presence in Archin, Chardara and Imaam Sahib districts as a result of which some families are leaving the areas,” said Mahbubullah Faizi, spokesman of Kunduz governor Mohammad Omar who was killed in a blast on 8 October.
Hundreds of families allegedly displaced by conflict in the northeastern province of Kapisa have sought shelter in the eastern outskirts of Kabul.
No clear mandate to assist IDPs
Internal displacement in Afghanistan is a “highly politicized and controversial” issue, according to a May 2010 report by the Brookings Institution and The Liaison Office (TLO), a Kabul-based NGO.
"The problem is twofold: first no organization has a clear mandate to assist IDPs, and second, IDPs are often labelled economic migrants,” Susanne Schmeidl, a TLO researcher and author of the report, told IRIN.
The Afghan government has ultimate responsibility for assisting and protecting IDPs. The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement say (Principle 25): “The primary duty and responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons lies with national authorities,” but they are not legally binding.
Backed by aid agencies, the government categorizes IDPs into three groups: 1) conflict-induced IDPs, 2) disaster-induced IDPs, and 3) protracted IDPs. It treats conflict-related displacement as a temporary issue.
“Our policy is to make sure IDPs return to their original homes when security improves,” said MoRR spokesman Islamudin Joraat.
NRC concerns
However, Charlotte Esther Olsen, country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), highlighted some concerns: “Conflict induced displacement situations are not temporary phenomena that automatically ‘disappear’ when one party to the conflict takes control of an area.”
She also noted the difficult environment: “The precarious situation of IDPs in Afghanistan is a result of insecurity and violence which also increasingly prevents the humanitarian community from accessing locations of displaced populations without putting the safety of their staff at grave risk.”
All IDPs had the right to protection and assistance, she said, but many were not receiving these in adequate measure.
MoRR, which is responsible for refugees and returnees but also deals with IDPs, has weak capacity and lacks resources, say MoRR officials. As in other areas, the government relies heavily on assistance from donors and aid organizations and the latter are severely restricted by access problems.
Abandoned?
Many IDPs in Kandahar, Kabul and Helmand provinces said they had been abandoned by the government and aid agencies.
As the conflict spreads, the number of IDPs is expected to rise in the coming months, experts say, but if they remain unprotected and unassisted IDPs can easily be exploited by the insurgency, said TLO’s Schmeidl.
“There is a dual failure towards IDPs: first they are left unassisted and unprotected; second they are blamed for their alleged involvement with the insurgency,” she said, adding that instability could worsen if the IDP problem remains unaddressed.
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70% of Partial Counting Results Announced
October 14, 2010 Tolo news
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Thursday in a press conference that 70% of partial counting results of all Afghan provinces have been announced
The IEC spokesman, Noor Mohammad Noor, said the commission is due to announce the primary vote counting results of the Afghan parliamentary elections by October 17.
In 1300 polling centres, some ballots have been declared invalid and some other votes have been recounted or inspected, according to the statistics provided by the IEC.
Three days are left for the primary results to be announced, but nearly 90% of the result forms has been entered into the database.
"Around 85 to 90% of the result papers have been processed and IEC tries to announce the primary results by 17 October," Mr Noor said.
A day ahead of the announcement of the primary results, forged votes will be set apart from the genuine ones, IEC said.
"The process of checking, recounting and declaring the votes invalid will be continued till Saturday and probably the number of stations with invalid votes will increase," he said.
Around 71 candidates along with their supporters have been introduced to the Electoral Complaints Commission.
The IEC is planning to send the list of those in charge of polling centres and stations, where frauds took place, to the Electoral Complaints Commission.
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Brigade linked to Afghan civilian deaths had aggressive, divergent war strategy
By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 13, 2010
When the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade arrived in Afghanistan, its leader, Col. Harry D. Tunnell IV, openly sneered at the U.S. military's counterinsurgency strategy. The old-school commander barred his officers from even mentioning the term and told shocked U.S. and NATO officials that he was uninterested in winning the trust of the Afghan people.
Instead, he said, his soldiers would simply hunt and kill as many Taliban fighters as possible, as dictated by the brigade's motto, "Strike and Destroy."
What resulted was a year of tough fighting in territory fiercely defended by the Taliban and a casualty rate so high that it triggered alarms at the Pentagon. By the time the 3,800-member brigade returned in July to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash., it had paid a steep price: 35 soldiers were killed in combat, six were dead from accidents and other causes, and 239 were wounded.
The brigade also carried home a dark legacy that threatens to overshadow its hard-won victories and sacrifices on the battlefield. In some of the gravest war-crime charges to arise from the Afghan conflict, five soldiers have been accused of killing unarmed Afghan men, apparently for sport, and desecrating their corpses. Seven other platoon members have been charged with other crimes, including smoking hashish - which some soldiers said happened almost daily - and gang-assaulting an informant.
As sordid accounts of the platoon's activities continue to emerge, critics inside and outside the Army are questioning whether the brigade's get-tough strategy, which emphasized enemy kills over civilian relations, influenced the behavior of the accused.
Questions also persist about why the 5th Stryker Brigade's chain of command did not intervene earlier, given that soldiers from the platoon are charged with crimes alleged to have taken place over a roughly six-month period, beginning in November 2009.
Interviews and records obtained by The Washington Post indicate that commanders received multiple warnings of trouble brewing in the 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment.
Some soldiers have since told investigators that their company commander became furious after learning that the platoon had killed a second unarmed Afghan in January. But rather than referring the incident up the chain of command, he demanded that soldiers find evidence that would justify the shooting.
In March, the platoon's first lieutenant and sergeant were removed from their posts because their soldiers had been caught shooting at dogs, according to Army investigative records. In contrast, no disciplinary action was taken after platoon members shot and killed four Afghan men - who were allegedly unarmed - in as many incidents. (Three of those shootings are now the focus of murder investigations.)
"It's obvious that willful blinders came into play, because this unit clearly was stepping in it," said Eric Montalvo, an attorney for one of the soldiers charged with murder.
Tunnell, the brigade commander, is not implicated in the shootings. There has been no indication he was aware that soldiers were allegedly killing for sport until special agents from the Army's Criminal Investigations Command opened a probe in May.
According to brigade members, however, Staff Sgt. Calvin R. Gibbs, the alleged ringleader of the self-described "kill team," was assigned to Tunnell's personal security detail from July until November 2009, right before the first of the atrocities occurred.
Gibbs, 25, was reassigned to the 3rd Platoon for reasons that are unclear. Army officials declined to say why he was transferred, citing the ongoing investigation.
Within days of the transfer, other soldiers have said in statements to investigators, Gibbs confided to his new platoon mates that he had gotten away with "stuff" during his previous deployments. They also said he talked about how easy it would be to stage the killings of innocent Afghans. Investigators are now examining Gibbs's involvement in the killing of an Iraqi family in 2004.
Through a spokeswoman at Fort Knox, Ky., where he now works for the U.S. Army Accessions Command, Tunnell acknowledged that Gibbs served on his security detail "for a brief time" but declined to answer other written questions for this article.
When asked in July about the killings, he told the Seattle Times that the fact that his brigade had opened the investigation by itself was "a good comment on how the system is supposed to work."
Gibbs's attorney and family also declined to comment for this article. His attorney previously told reporters that the killings Gibbs is charged with were combat-related and therefore justified.
Conflicting war strategies
The 5th Stryker Brigade - named for the Army's eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles - had trained for more than a year under the assumption that it would go to Iraq. In February 2009, however, it learned that it would go to Afghanistan instead.
That month, the brigade was undergoing mission rehearsal exercises at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Evaluators warned Tunnell that his disdain for counterinsurgency would cause trouble in Afghanistan, but the brigade commander ignored them, said Richard Demaree, a retired lieutenant colonel who served as a battalion commander for the 5th Stryker Brigade.
"Everybody was astonished he has this war-fighting philosophy toward Iraq or Afghanistan that was totally out of sync with the Army," Demaree said.
Tunnell, who served in Iraq and was badly wounded there, was a devotee of counter-guerrilla strategy, which places more emphasis on raids and other aggressive tactics but had been rejected as a doctrine by the Army in the aftermath of the Iraq insurgency. According to Demaree, Tunnell barred his soldiers from using the term COIN, shorthand for "counterinsurgency."
Demaree, who says he was later forced to relinquish his battalion command because of personal conflicts with Tunnell, said many officers worried that Tunnell's contempt for counterinsurgency would interfere with their mission in Afghanistan. "I believed it would put soldiers' lives unnecessarily at risk," he said.
Tunnell's mind-set also alarmed NATO and U.S. officials shortly after the 5th Stryker Brigade arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to a State Department official who was present in Kandahar. At the time, military and civilian leaders in NATO's Regional Command South had embraced counterinsurgency.
"We all said: 'This is going to be a disaster. This is the exact opposite of what we need,' " said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because agency rules forbid him from giving unauthorized interviews.
U.S., Dutch and Canadian officials asked Army Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, then the deputy commander of Regional Command South, to intervene with Tunnell. Nicholson agreed to talk to the brigade commander, but the chat had little effect, the State Department official said. Nicholson did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
"Tunnell was just apparently totally unimpressed by what he was told," the official said. "He spoke to us and said, 'Some of you might think I'm here to play this COIN game and just pussyfoot with the enemy. But that's not what I'm doing.' "
Tunnell's Strike and Destroy approach contrasted with official guidelines issued by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, then the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, which read: "Protecting people is the mission. The conflict will not be won by destroying the enemy."
As the 5th Stryker Brigade began suffering heavy casualties, however, some officers and enlisted soldiers grumbled that Tunnell's strategy was backfiring. According to the Army Times, Tunnell relieved a company commander, Capt. Joel Kassulke, in November after he advocated for counterinsurgency and tacked a quote from McChrystal's guidelines on a command post wall.
Warning signs
On Jan. 28, members of the 3rd platoon fatally shot an unarmed Afghan man along Highway 1 in Kandahar. Some soldiers said they thought the man could have been a suicide bomber.
When Capt. Matthew Quiggle, the platoon's company commander, heard of the incident, he became "furious," according to one soldier, Cpl. Emmitt Quintal, who later gave a statement to Army investigators. The platoon had shot and killed another unarmed Afghan man two weeks earlier, so Quiggle told the soldiers "they needed to search until they found something" that would justify the shooting, according to the statement. Quiggle did not respond to a request for comment submitted through the Army.
In response, Gibbs and other members of the unit planted a magazine from a contraband AK-47 rifle next to the corpse "to give the appearance the Afghan was an insurgent," according to an Army investigator's report. The shooting was subsequently ruled justified, and no one was disciplined.
There were more warning signs. In February, the father of one member of the unit called the command center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord to report that his son had told him that Gibbs and other members of 3rd platoon had "gotten away with murder" and were planning more killings.
The father spoke to the sergeant for 12 minutes, records show, but the Army did not take action. Army officials have since confirmed the phone call and are now investigating why the warning was ignored.
Members of the platoon would kill two more unarmed Afghans, according to charging documents.
Army criminal investigators learned about the killings in May as they were scrutinizing hashish use in the 3rd Platoon. In June, they charged Gibbs and four other soldiers with murder.
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The Afghanistan Pipeline Story Is a Floppy Red Herring
Th Hufington Post By Melissa Roddy 14/10/2010
Many people, especially folks who think they know a thing or zip about Afghanistan, believe that the International Coalition is only there to support American lust for cheap natural resources. This is wrong on so many levels. Let's review a few.
If petroleum - the mineral most favored by the Bush Administration - were the primary motivation for stationing NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, then why would former President Bush have diverted a majority of the resources necessary to secure the country (including soldiers, supplies and money) so early in the game to Iraq?
Answer: Even he's not that dumb. There really is an Al Qaeda, and the Taliban really did give them safe haven in Afghanistan to train and plan acts global terrorism. In fact, said training took place in the Aynak Valley.
NATO is in Afghanistan to rebuild and stabilize the country. It's really true. If petroleum was the agenda, rest assured, the Shrub-in-Chief would have put more effort into preventing a return of the Taliban, which consistently targets anyone working to develop the country and improve the lives of its citizens.
Earlier this year, it became known that, shock of shocks, there's other valuable rocks in them there Hindu Kush. This is true. The most valuable natural resource in Afghanistan is copper. In fact, the same Aynak Valley where Al Qaeda members trained for the September 11th attacks, is home to the world's seventh largest copper mine. In 2007, the China Metallurgical Group purchased a 30-year lease on the mine from the Afghan government for $3 Billion. That's China, not the United States. Copper mining in Afghanistan dates back to Alexander the Great, so it's a pretty good bet, that mine was not a secret.
But the favorite chant of the bleating sheep is, "It's about the pipeline!"
The gas pipeline to which they refer is the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan Pipeline (TAP). Nine years after the arrival of Coalition Forces, not one inch of pipe has been lain. In fact, that particular pipeline will probably never be built.
Click to enlarge
Years before the TAP was even a twinkle in oil giant, Unocal's, eye, negotiations for another pipeline were already well underway. The Iran-Pakistan-India Pipeline (IPI), sometimes called the Peace Pipeline, was first conceptualized in 1989 by R. K. Pachauri of India, in partnership with Ali Shams Ardekani, former deputy foreign minister of Iran. It's called the Peace Pipeline because energy interdependence could prove to be a powerful tool to reduce hostilities between India and Pakistan, which have existed since Pakistan's creation in 1947. Pakistan and Iran finalized their end of the deal in May 2009. Construction on Iran's section of the pipeline has now been completed. India's participation has been on-again-off-again, over pricing issues, but this year the Indians have indicated they wish to resume negotiations.
Simply put, in Pakistani terms, survival trumps greed - make that perceived survival. What does this mean?
Pakistan has a rapidly growing economy, and though it produces quite a bit of oil and gas, it still has to import petroleum. Turkmenistan (in 1995, a newly liberated Central Asian Republic, eager to develop alternative outlets to old Mother Russia for its products) and Afghanistan (a country in desperate need of any possible resource to rebuild itself) would have made ideal negotiating partners. Pakistan could have easily dictated whatever terms it liked. So why is it that the TAP remains un-built?
Pakistan's military leaders have been recruiting, training, paying and supplying Islamic fundamentalists and Maoists to terrorize, destabilize and/or control Afghanistan on their behalf since 1973. They do this because they fear that if they don't, like Yugoslavia, Pakistan will break apart.
In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand negotiated a treaty with the Emir of Afghanistan, establishing what has come to be known as the Durand Line. The Durand Line was so arbitrarily drawn that it not only divides large swaths of Pashtun and Baloch ethnic regions, it actually runs through the middle of towns and even properties. There are places along the border where it is possible to each lunch in Pakistan and go to the loo in Afghanistan. When the British were leaving India in 1947, the Afghans began to eagerly assert that it was time for reunification of their country. Instead, Pakistan was created.
Pakistan is primarily comprised of four ethnic regions: Punjab, Sindh, the Khaiber Pakhtunkhwa (Pashtun lands) and Balochistan. For centuries, the Pashtun and Baloch peoples have been fighting against Punjabi domination of their lands, yet that is exactly the situation in which the British left them. Punjabis are the largest ethnic population in Pakistan. More importantly, Punjabis dominate the military in this country where the military is the government.
Because there have been Pashtun and Baloch separatist movements in Pakistan since the creation of Pakistan, and because many of Pakistan's Pashtun are inclined towards reunification with their brethren in Afghanistan, ISI believes that in order to keep its territory from fracturing down the middle (the Indus River), it must keep Afghanistan either unstable or under Pakistani, i.e., Taliban, control. On its own side of the border, the government has been massively oppressing its people. In the past four years, more than eight thousand Baloch have been disappeared, and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that, even before this past summer's floods, over three million Pakistani Pashtun had been displaced by Taliban violence. Ironically, the oppressive action being taken by Pakistan's government is strengthening both the Pashtun and Baloch independence movements, thus practically guaranteeing a Balkan-like outcome.
Getting back to the TAP -- in 1995, Unocal approached the Administration of then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto about building a pipeline, from Turkmenistan, across Afghanistan and onwards to Lahore. She asked her advisers what they thought of the project. Since they themselves were well aware of Pakistan's heavy handed involvement in Afghanistan's ongoing instability (a policy they call "strategic depth"), the Prime Minister's inner circle advised against participation in the TAP.
The clever Mrs. Bhutto understood that saying no to the pipeline would not be positively received by her friends in the Clinton Administration. As the architects of the Taliban and their predecessors, the Mujahideen, the Pakistani leadership knew full well that their country would never leave Afghanistan alone long enough for such a pipeline to be built. Nevertheless, for the sake of maintaining good relations with Washington, Mrs. Bhutto told Unocal that if they built it, she would buy the gas. It didn't cost her a penny to say that. She knew it never would. Which is why, 16 years later, there is still no TAP pipeline. Odds are there never will be.
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