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Afghan police: Grenade thrown at police office in west side of Kabul; no casualties
By Associated Press, December 16
KABUL, Afghanistan — Assailants threw a hand grenade at a police station in the Afghan capital on Friday, triggering an explosion and a gunbattle with police.
Afghan Woman, Jailed For Being Raped, Now Says She Wants To Marry Attacker
December 15, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
KABUL -- An Afghan woman, who was jailed for "forced adultery" after a relative raped her before subsequently being pardoned amid an international outcry over the case, has told RFE/RL she wants to marry her attacker to avoid "hostility" and so her baby daughter does not grow up "as an orphan."
Childbirth and maternal health improve in Afghanistan
Women in Afghanistan still face gender violence and have limited legal protection. But small gains in maternal health are critical for rebuilding Afghan society.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent December 16, 2011 at 11:06 am EST The Christian Science Monitor
Kabul, Afghanistan - Amid increasing focus on the fraught question of what will happen in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO combat forces, a recent survey released by the country's health ministry indicates a significant leap forward for Afghanistan's women.
Pakistan Army Chief: Memo Scandal an Attempt to Lower Morale
VOA News December 16, 2011
Pakistan's army chief says a recent memo that accused the military of plotting to overthrow the president was an attempt to lower the military's morale.
At Pakistani Embassy, officials decry NATO airstrike
Washington Post By Pamela Constable Friday, December 16, 2011
Pakistani officials in Washington vehemently asserted Thursday that a deadly NATO airstrike on two Pakistani border posts near Afghanistan last month was unprovoked and inexplicable. They also said that U.S. military officials in the region had given “inaccurate and incomplete” information to their Pakistani counterparts as the attack, which killed 24 Pakistani troops, got underway.
Afghans Unenthused by Bonn Conference
For many, talks did little to drive progress in their country.
IWPR By Khan Mohammad Danishju 15 Dec 11
Afghanistan - The second Bonn conference has drawn mixed reactions from Afghans, with some observers praising the event as a sign of how far the country has come, and others deriding what they see as a symbolic gathering that produced little of value.
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Afghan police: Grenade thrown at police office in west side of Kabul; no casualties
By Associated Press, December 16
KABUL, Afghanistan — Assailants threw a hand grenade at a police station in the Afghan capital on Friday, triggering an explosion and a gunbattle with police.
Police fired on the attackers but they escaped, said Sardar Mohammad, a police officer at the scene in western Kabul. No one was injured, said the capital’s police chief, Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi. He said reports that attackers got inside the police station were inaccurate.
The gunfire damaged nearby houses.
“The glass is broken,” said Abdul Salam, 70, who lives across from the police station. “See, there were five bullets,” Salam said, showing an Associated Press reporter damage to his home.
An Afghan National Police quick reaction force responded to the scene as well as troops from the NATO international military coalition.
The most recent major attack in Kabul occurred on Dec. 6 when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite shrine, killing at least 80 people.
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Afghan Woman, Jailed For Being Raped, Now Says She Wants To Marry Attacker
December 15, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
KABUL -- An Afghan woman, who was jailed for "forced adultery" after a relative raped her before subsequently being pardoned amid an international outcry over the case, has told RFE/RL she wants to marry her attacker to avoid "hostility" and so her baby daughter does not grow up "as an orphan."
The 21-year-old woman, named Gulnaz, is staying in a secret government safe house after being released from a Kabul prison on December 13 under a presidential pardon.
She was sentenced to two years in prison for "adultery by force" after she was raped by her cousin's husband in 2009. As a result of the attack, she gave birth to a daughter while in prison.
The case has attracted international disapproval and highlighted the dismal state of women's rights in Afghanistan 10 years after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban, who are notorious for their harsh laws against women.
Sex outside marriage -- even in cases of rape -- remains one of several "moral crimes" in Afghanistan for which women can be imprisoned. Others include leaving an abusive husband and running away from a forced marriage.
Gulnaz was pardoned on December 1 by Afghan President Hamid Karzai after he met with judicial officials amid growing international criticism about her plight.
Risk Of 'Honor Killing'
Despite the pardon, she remained in prison for another two weeks. The case created further uproar when judicial officials advised Gulnaz that she should marry the man who raped her.
That advice was reportedly based on fears that Gulnaz could become the victim of an "honor killing" by other members of her family if released, because of the stigma surrounding rape victims in Afghanistan.
In an interview on December 15 with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan from a safe house run by Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs, Gulnaz appeared frightened about her safety. But she also denied that she was afraid of anyone in her family.
At first, she said she felt she was being forced to marry a rapist. But then, when asked what she would do with her life if she had her own choice, she backed away from the contention that she would marry the rapist against her will -- claiming that she really does want to marry her attacker.
"I want to marry him, no matter what happens to me," she said. "No matter how badly I have been treated, I want my daughter to have a mother and a father -- to have parents.
"I don't want her to be like an orphan without any destiny...The man is also in jail. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. And then his sentence was reduced to 12 years. And my sentence has been reduced, so I am free. I want him to be freed as well so that we can get married. I want to make a compromise. I don't want hostilities."
'There Is Nobody To Take Me Back Home'
Although Gulnaz's attacker remains in prison because of the case, she told RFE/RL that she wants him to be freed so that a wedding can take place and so that she will be accepted again by her family:
"I urge President Karzai to release him as well so that he can marry me, and so I will be able to go with him to my home," she said. "I have a little baby girl who is often ill, and I have my own [health] problems as well. I was innocent, but I have spent two years in prison. And now, they have pardoned me and put me here [in a government safe house]. But there is nobody here to take me back to my home."
Gulnaz denied reports suggesting she was being kept in a safe house because her brothers or other relatives planned to carry out a so-called "honor killing."
"There is no danger for me [from my family]," she said. "I want to go with my brothers, but my brothers don't want to take me. So I will go with this man [who attacked me.]"
But pressed further, she intimated that she doesn't believe government officials who say she will be allowed to return to her family, and that she wants guarantees from both her brothers and the man who raped her before she marries.
"They are just reassuring me when they say I will go home, but I know I am not going to be released from this safe house because they see that I am crying and that I'm very concerned about what will happen," she said.
"I want [President Karzai] to ensure that I am married to this man, but I also want my brothers and this man to sign a document guaranteeing that nothing bad is going to happen to me in the future."
Calling for Gulnaz's release prior to her pardon by Karzai, Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir William Patey, said: "Any woman who is raped should be seen as a victim. They're not criminals."
written by RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz in Prague; with reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Hamid Mohmand in Kabul
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Childbirth and maternal health improve in Afghanistan
Women in Afghanistan still face gender violence and have limited legal protection. But small gains in maternal health are critical for rebuilding Afghan society.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent December 16, 2011 at 11:06 am EST The Christian Science Monitor
Kabul, Afghanistan - Amid increasing focus on the fraught question of what will happen in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO combat forces, a recent survey released by the country's health ministry indicates a significant leap forward for Afghanistan's women.
Save the Children listed Afghanistan in May as the worst country in which to be a mother. But Afghanistan has recently seen a marked improvement in maternal mortality rates. Previously, 1 in 11 mothers died in childbirth. The new survey indicates that the number has dropped to 1 in 50. The number of children who died before the age of 5 also dropped from 1 in 5 to about 1 in 10.
Ending maternal mortality has been a priority among international organizations because a mother's health is seen as a building block for the rest of the family: If a mother is healthy, a family is healthy, the thinking goes.
Considerable time has been spent drawing attention and funding to awareness campaigns and better training for midwives and nurses.
While the numbers show that the effort is having an effect on women in Afghanistan, life for Afghan women has not radically changed. Experts remain cautious in their assessment.
"Now pregnant women have more information about health," says Sima Ayubi, a maternity doctor in Kabul who advocates hospital births. "This mortality rate is still a problem. There's just a decrease. The problem is not completely eliminated or under control."
The survey also found that complications during pregnancy and childbirth were responsible for the deaths of 40 percent of women between ages 15 and 49.
Additionally, women continue to face considerable gender violence and have limited legal protections. In one recent rape case, the victim was sentenced to 12 years in prison for adultery. She was pardoned by President Hamid Karzai only after she was featured in a documentary by the European Union. Despite the pardon, she still faces pressure to marry her assailant.
Compared with the statistics of other nations, the latest maternal mortality survey may not seem encouraging, but with such daunting challenges facing women in Afghanistan, even small gains are critical.
Miriam, a mother of seven who, like many Afghans, only uses one name, says that she's seen drastic changes in care for pregnant mothers over the past decade.
"I've seen many mothers die during birth and many children die," she says. Miriam gave birth to all her children before 2001, but now she helps many young mothers through their pregnancies.
"In the years before Karzai's government, whenever we used to go to these hospitals ... the patients would cry in the wards and no one would help," she recalls. "Now after what I saw in the clinic, I don't believe people are going to continue dying anymore," says Miriam, who recently visited the hospital.
One of the biggest challenges facing Afghanistan is getting medical care to people living in rural areas – about three-quarters of the population.
In many places residents simply do not have access to medical facilities, let alone roads. According to a recent Asia Foundation survey, only 57 percent of Afghans say they have good or very good access to clinics or hospitals.
As a result, tremendous effort has gone into training midwives who can help women through the birthing process absent a full medical facility.
Since 2002, the number of schools for midwives in Afghanistan jumped from six to 31, according to a report by Save the Children. Afghanistan now has more than 3,000 midwives (up from just 500 in 2003) with an additional 300 to 400 trained each year.
The report indicates that the efforts were successful early on with the number of births in rural areas attended by skilled medical professionals jumping from 6 percent to 19 percent between 2003 and 2006.
Even when hospitals are available, women tend to prefer to give birth in their own homes, without trained attendants. Thus, say health officials, a big part in combating maternal mortality is simply raising awareness so that women will choose to give birth at a clinic if possible.
"All the achievements we've made in Badakhshan Province are thanks to efforts to raise awareness among the people here," says Abdul Momen Jalali, the head of health services for Badakhshan, which has been hit particularly hard by maternal mortality. Even so, he adds, "We still have a lot of problems with remote areas where we don't have roads to access these areas." Notably, Badakhshan was the location of a major attack on foreign charity doctors in 2010.
No matter how much the country's health-care system improves, doctors say there is only so much that can be done in the midst of Afghanistan's ongoing war. Violence often inhibits doctors' travels or stops patients from reaching the nearest hospitals.
"The midwives and doctors cannot go to very risky areas. Even though the doctors do not know any borders, they're still killed, kidnapped, and threatened. I think the mortality [rate] that is happening right now still looks very high. It's coming from those areas where there is not any doctor or security," says Jalil Hassan, a professor of medicine at Kabul University.
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Pakistan Army Chief: Memo Scandal an Attempt to Lower Morale
VOA News December 16, 2011
Pakistan's army chief says a recent memo that accused the military of plotting to overthrow the president was an attempt to lower the military's morale.
In a statement filed with Pakistan's supreme court, General Ashfaq Kayani said the memo had “impacted national security.” He called on the court to fully investigate the circumstances surrounding the memo's origins and who wrote it.
General Kayani, and Pakistani intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha both say they accept evidence provided by Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who has accused former Ambassador Hussain Haqqani of writing the unsigned memo.
Haqqani has denied any connection with the memo, but the scandal led to his resignation last month as Pakistan's ambassador the United States.
In October, Ijaz wrote a newspaper column accusing Haqqani of writing the memo, which requests U.S. assistance to prevent a military coup. The letter was reportedly sent in May to Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military official at the time.
On Monday the supreme court is scheduled resume a hearing on a petition filed by an opposition leader demanding an investigation into the affair.
The memo, which has generated enormous controversy in Pakistan, asked for U.S. help to prevent a coup, in return for which a new national security team would conduct a full inquiry into allegations that Pakistan harbored al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The new team also would hand over top al-Qaida members and ensure that Pakistan's military spy agency cuts ties to the Taliban, the Haqqani terrorist network and other groups.
U.S. military officials have said Admiral Mullen received the memo but did not find it credible.
Rumors have also been swirling that, under pressure from the so-called “Memogate” scandal, President Asif Ali Zardari was planning to resign.
The 56-year old Pakistani leader traveled to the United Arab Emirates earlier this month for treatment after falling ill. Doctors said when Mr. Zardari was admitted, he suffered from numbness in the arm, twitching, and a loss of consciousness for a few seconds.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani denied reports that Mr. Zardari suffered a stroke or offered to step down from his post.
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At Pakistani Embassy, officials decry NATO airstrike
Washington Post By Pamela Constable Friday, December 16, 2011
Pakistani officials in Washington vehemently asserted Thursday that a deadly NATO airstrike on two Pakistani border posts near Afghanistan last month was unprovoked and inexplicable. They also said that U.S. military officials in the region had given “inaccurate and incomplete” information to their Pakistani counterparts as the attack, which killed 24 Pakistani troops, got underway.
Their comments, at a Pakistani Embassy news conference, came one week before U.S. military officials are expected to release the results of their investigation of the incident. NATO and Afghan officials have described the late-night assault as a response to gunfire from the vicinity of the Pakistani border posts, where they suspected militants had taken cover.
The incident, which caused a public uproar across Pakistan, deepened the rift between the U.S. and Pakistani governments. As a result of the November airstrike, Pakistan cut off NATO supply routes to Afghanistan and boycotted a recent conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany. It also declined to cooperate in the U.S. investigation of the incident.
Afghan military officials have said that coalition forces in Afghanistan came under fire from militants, who retreated to an area near the Pakistani military posts. American military officials have declined to release a detailed account of the incident pending their investigation, but they have expressed regret for the loss of life.
Pakistani officials Thursday referred to U.S. and NATO forces as “our friends” and stopped short of saying that the air attack had been deliberately aimed at Pakistani forces. But they repeatedly asserted that it could not have been a case of mistaken identity, and they said NATO forces in the area had multiple channels to communicate and coordinate with their Pakistani counterparts. The officials declined to be named for the record.
They also insisted that the attack, which began shortly after midnight, had continued for more than two hours, well after senior NATO officials had been told that they were killing Pakistani forces. By 1:05 a.m., a Pakistani military official said, “the entire chain of command knew something had gone wrong. If there was any doubt before, there was none after.” But he said the attack continued until well after 2 a.m.
Some key details of the apparent miscommunication, however, remained unclear. The official said Pakistani military officials, stationed at a joint border control center in Afghanistan with NATO officials, were told that a military operation was being launched but were given partial and incorrect information about the location. He said the NATO officials apologized for the errors, but he did not say when the apologies were made.
In previous interviews and statements, military officials in Pakistan have given varying accounts of the incident. One official has said that Pakistani forces also suspected there were militants in the area, sent up flares and fired at them. The officials on Thursday did not comment on these reports, but they said the area had been cleared of militant activity by a major army operation in September.
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Afghans Unenthused by Bonn Conference
For many, talks did little to drive progress in their country.
IWPR By Khan Mohammad Danishju 15 Dec 11
Afghanistan - The second Bonn conference has drawn mixed reactions from Afghans, with some observers praising the event as a sign of how far the country has come, and others deriding what they see as a symbolic gathering that produced little of value.
The December 5 meeting brought together delegates from more than 100 countries and from international organisations. They drafted a 33-article resolution that focused on international support for Afghanistan after the pullout of foreign troops scheduled for 2014.
Participants pledged help to Afghanistan until 2024, but repeated previous conditions for this aid, including action on corruption, the drugs trade and governance.
The meeting came ten years after the first Bonn conference, held in December 2001 following the ousting of the Taleban government, and focused on the appointment of Hamed Karzai as head of an interim administration as well as the creation of election mechanisms and a new constitution.
Member of parliament Shukria Barakzai praised the conference, saying the high-profile figures who attended it demonstrated the credibility of the Afghan government.
She added that the assurances of support until 2024 should be seen as a major achievement, but that the next decade should see Afghanistan becoming increasingly self-reliant.
Political analyst Faruq Bashar said it was important that the Afghan government itself chaired the event, since the first Bonn conference ten years ago was led by the United Nations.
Bashar welcomed the emphasis that the 2011 event placed on long-term economic assistance and support for a broad-based peace process.
He also noted that the conference showed how the country remained a focus of international attention.
“Afghanistan still has an opportunity to use the world’s attention to improve the domestic situation and boost our reputation in the world,” he said.
However, others warned that the achievements claimed for this conference were remarkably similar to those that came out of previous summits, in which a great deal was promised but little was delivered.
The second Bonn conference, they argued, had many failings in its scope and in its range of participants.
“The second Bonn event was like a fancy reception where countries gathered and presented statements at special ceremonies,” Sayed Fazel Sancharaki, spokesman for the opposition Coalition for Change and Hope, said. “The only outcome was fawning over Karzai’s government.”
Sancharaki said too little attention was paid to the issue of corruption. Despite billions of dollars in aid money, Afghanistan remained in poor economic shape.
“Peace and security issues should have been discussed first,” he said, “because some parts of the country are still controlled by the Taleban, and so development programmes cannot be implemented there.”
Ahead of the conference, concerns were raised about the failure to include insurgent groups, with some arguing that inviting the Taleban would have helped move the peace process along.
Two former Taleban figures, Mullah Abdol Salam Zaif and Abdol Wakil Motawakkel, both now living under the protection of the Afghan government, did take part.
But no new strategy was presented for achieving reconciliation with the Taleban. The forum simply reiterated the official line that the Taleban can participate in a peace process provided that they accept the current constitution.
The lack of Taleban involvement pleased some civil society groups, which held a demonstration in Kabul on December 10 to insist that members of armed groups who had violated human rights should be prosecuted, not granted amnesty.
Yunus Akhtari, a human rights and transitional justice activist, told IWPR that he and his fellow protestors demanded that all those suspected of crimes – both on the government side and outside it – should be held to account.
Pakistan was notably absent from the conference, staying away in protest at a NATO air attack which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 25.
Some observers felt that Pakistan, which many Afghans often accuse of harbouring or supporting insurgents, was such a key player that its presence was essential.
However, Karzai dismissed Islamabad’s boycott of the summit, telling reporters that “Afghanistan has lost nothing” from it.
Bashar, too, was dismissive of the idea that a Pakistani presence might have had positive effects.
“Has Pakistan ever fulfilled any of its commitments?” he asked. “Pakistan has even violated the official treaties it has signed with the Afghan government. So its participation or lack of participation can have no impact on the process.”
Ordinary Afghans interviewed by IWPR found it hard to summon up enthusiasm for yet another international meeting when the effects of three decades of conflict were still all too evident.
“Now is the time for actions, not words,” Kabul university student Shabnam said. “There are more and more conferences but people have no faith in them, because nothing practical has been achieved.”
Like many Afghans, she sees Pakistan as the real problem.
“If the international community does not eradicate terrorism in neighbouring countries, and if the Taleban continue to be present in Afghanistan and the terrorists in Pakistan, neither Afghanistan nor the world will ever be safe, and none of the development programmes discussed at the Bonn conference will ever be implemented,” she said.
Bashir Ahmad, 30, a resident of Kabul’s Khair Khana district, agreed that counter-insurgency was key to success.
“We don’t want money, and we don’t want assistance. If the international community really has sympathy for the people of Afghanistan, we want to destroy the nests of corruption and insecurity – and it’s clear where those are located,” he said, in a clear reference to Pakistan.
As for the talks in Bonn, he said, “We hear about a conference every year, but we don’t feel the effects of it in our own lives.”
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