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ISAF: Man in Afghan Army Uniform Kills Coalition Soldier
VOA News July 16, 2011
The international coalition fighting in Afghanistan says a man dressed in an Afghan army uniform has killed a NATO service member in the southern part of the country.
Gunfight leaves 14, including 7 security forces dead in W Afghanistan
HERAT, Afghanistan, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people including seven security forces and seven insurgents have been killed during an operation launched Friday in Bala Buluk district, Farah province 695 km west of capital city Kabul, deputy to provincial police chief Mohammad Ghous Malyar said Saturday.
Dysfunction and dread in Kabul
Washington Post By Pamela Constable Saturday, July 16,2011
Kabul, a place I once called home, has become a city of security barriers and fantasy palaces.
I can’t find my old house, my old street or the bakery where I used to watch the early-morning ritual of men slapping dough into hot ovens beneath the floor. They’ve all vanished behind a high-security superstructure of barricades and barbed wire, a foreign architecture of war. Elsewhere in the Afghan capital
Afghan Legislators Claim To Have Met Taliban Leader
July 15, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Two Afghan members of parliament held a press conference in Kabul on July 14 to reveal that they had met with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar over a year ago, and that he had agreed on an outline for peace negotiations with the government in Kabul.
Gunmen Ambush Bus in NW Pakistan, Kill 7
VOA News July 16, 2011
Pakistani officials say gunmen have killed seven people after opening fire on a passenger bus in the northwestern part of the country.
At Afghanistan’s urging, sanctions committee drops 14 former Taliban from UN blacklist
Associated Press Saturday, July 16, 2011
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. committee that oversees the Taliban blacklist dropped 14 names on Friday at the Afghan government’s urging, including several members of the peace council that President Hamid Karzai formed to find a political solution to the country’s insurgency.
Central Bank Denies Crisis at Azizi Bank
Tolo news July 16, 2011
Azizi Bank, Afghanistan's second-biggest private financial institution, is not facing crisis, acting central bank governor told lawmakers on Saturday.
Canada's exit highlights Afghanistan challenges
Other allied nations have made no secret of their wish to follow suit, and the withdrawals will place a heavier burden on those troops left behind. Senior U.S. officials have been reassuring wary Afghans, who say violence is still rampant.
Los Angeles Times By Laura King July 16, 2011
Kandahar, Afghanistan - The air conditioning in the cavernous military assembly hall didn't generate enough of a breeze to flutter the long strings of plastic Canadian flags. Some in the audience squirmed in their seats during a lengthy farewell address by an Afghan general. And with that, it was over.
Afghanistan: Evaluating the Political Impact of the Karzai Assassination
EURASIANET By Aunohita Mojumdar July 15, 2011
The killing of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half-brother of Afghan President Ahmed Karzai, was a shocking development -- even for Afghanistan, a country steeped in tragedy. But experts are unsure whether it will have a lasting impact on political developments.
Afghan government seeks to ban costly weddings
Washington Post By Kevin Sieff Saturday, July 16, 2011
KABUL - There was still confetti on his tuxedo when Ahmed Rashed Azimi settled into his purple throne at the center of an expansive wedding hall and surveyed the crowd: 1,200 friends and family members, a live band, costumed dancers and a crew of greeters dressed in the colors of the telecom company that made him rich.
Immigration minister says 550 Afghan interpreters will be in Canada in months
The Canadian Press Bill Graveland Fri Jul 15 2011
CALGARY - Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says hundreds of Afghan translators who risked their lives working with Canadian troops in Afghanistan and continue to be at risk will be moving to Canada in the next few months.
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ISAF: Man in Afghan Army Uniform Kills Coalition Soldier
VOA News July 16, 2011
The international coalition fighting in Afghanistan says a man dressed in an Afghan army uniform has killed a NATO service member in the southern part of the country.
The International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that it is investigating Saturday's incident. It did not release the nationality of the victim.
It is unclear whether the suspect was a member of the Afghan National Army or just wearing the uniform as a disguise. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
In recent months, there have been several high-profile incidents of men wearing Afghan army uniforms attacking NATO and Afghan positions.
In June, the Taliban launched a brazen assault on a police station near the presidential palace in Kabul, killing nine people. At least one of the attackers wore an Afghan army uniform.
In May, an individual wearing an Afghan army uniform shot dead a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan.
While not all these types of incidents during the nearly 10-year war have been carried out by the Taliban, analysts say the attacks damage trust between the U.S.-led coalition soldiers and their Afghan counterparts. In many cases, coalition soldiers are responsible for training their Afghan partners and are in close proximity to them across the country.
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Gunfight leaves 14, including 7 security forces dead in W Afghanistan
HERAT, Afghanistan, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people including seven security forces and seven insurgents have been killed during an operation launched Friday in Bala Buluk district, Farah province 695 km west of capital city Kabul, deputy to provincial police chief Mohammad Ghous Malyar said Saturday.
"The operation with the involvement of army and police launched in Shiwan village of Bala Buluk district on Friday and so far seven Taliban rebels, six Afghan soldiers and one Afghan police have been killed," Malyar told Xinhua.
Twelve Taliban insurgents and two policemen have been wounded in the battle, he added.
The operation is still underway and would continue until the area is cleaned up of insurgents, the official further said.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi, according to media reports, also confirmed that the gunbattle in Bala Buluk district, Farah province on Friday left six Afghan soldiers dead and wounded 10 others.
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Dysfunction and dread in Kabul
Washington Post By Pamela Constable Saturday, July 16,2011
Kabul, a place I once called home, has become a city of security barriers and fantasy palaces.
I can’t find my old house, my old street or the bakery where I used to watch the early-morning ritual of men slapping dough into hot ovens beneath the floor. They’ve all vanished behind a high-security superstructure of barricades and barbed wire, a foreign architecture of war. Elsewhere in the Afghan capital, a parallel construction boom is underway. The slapdash sprawl of nouveau riche development has sprouted modern apartment buildings, glass-plated shopping centers, wedding halls with fairy lights, and gaudy mansions with gold swan faucets and Greco-Roman balustrades, commissioned by wealthy men with many bodyguards and no taxable income.
Both of these facades are conspiring to cover up the past, paving over the rubble and the lessons of war, distancing ordinary people from the local elites and the bunkered foreigners alike. Most tragically, they are erasing the hope and the promise of change that burst forth in Afghanistan’s post-Taliban liberation nearly a decade ago.
I was privileged to witness that awakening and to experience the exhilaration of a society being given a new chance after a generation of war and ideological whiplash. In those early years, I met Afghan exiles who had given up careers in Germany or Australia to participate in their homeland’s renaissance, and American jurists and agronomists who had come to help rebuild an alien land.
Foreigners were welcome everywhere, and a new generation of Afghans was in a hurry to catch up. In the cities, I met girls who led exercise classes and boys who took computer lessons at dawn. In rural areas, women still hid behind curtains and veils, but schools reopened in tents, and mud-choked irrigation canals were cleaned. In 2004, long lines of villagers proudly flashed their ink-dipped thumbs after voting in the country’s first real democratic election.
That optimism and energy vanished long ago, gradually replaced by cynicism and fear. The trappings of democracy remained in place, propped up by a vast international apparatus, but the politics of ethnic dogfights, tribal feuds and personal patronage continued to prevail. Government agencies were awarded to ethnic factions as fiefdoms for petty extortion. Aid money vanished into powerful pockets, and the once-moribund drug trade flourished.
The parliament became a gallery of old Islamist militia bosses and new war racketeers, locked in crippling disputes with the executive. The 2009 presidential election, a fraudulent parody, was ultimately accepted by international officials because it left the more familiar devil, President Hamid Karzai, in power as Washington prepared to ratchet up the war effort.
As corruption and malaise spread throughout the Karzai government, Taliban aggression and influence filled the void. As the countryside became more vulnerable, foreign aid projects shrank, and tea with tribal elders gave way to convoys of monster vehicles and helmeted warriors kicking in doors. As the gulf between Western intentions and public perceptions widened, Karzai made it worse by denouncing NATO bombings but ignoring Taliban beheadings, in the vain hope that his fellow tribesmen would return to the fold.
The disillusionment worked both ways. By the time President Obama ordered a high-profile civilian and military surge in 2009, hundreds of frustrated American mentors and aid workers had lost heart or left. A Western lawyer who worked with Afghan anti-corruption officials told me recently that “even the most promising few people I was training turned out to be corrupt.” And a woman working to improve rural services said, “I still have to practically force officials in Kabul to pick up the phone or visit the provinces.”
Even U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, usually upbeat and polite, was goaded to an emotional outburst last month by Karzai’s suggestion that Western forces — who have lost more than 2,500 lives fighting the Taliban and training Afghan troops since 2001 — were “using” Afghanistan for their own interests and could be viewed as unwelcome occupiers. In a June 20 speech, Eikenberry warned that such “hurtful” comments could cause Americans to grow “weary” of the Afghan effort and demand that all U.S. troops return home.
Psychologically, though, the withdrawal is well underway. Despite assurances by Eikenberry and other officials that the United States will maintain a robust presence after most of its fighting forces leave by 2014, many Afghans believe that the end is near. After 1989, the last time a great foreign power pulled out, civil war soon erupted, and Afghanistan nearly destroyed itself. No one knows what will happen this time, but everyone is bracing for the worst. As one American diplomat said last month, “In their hearts they want us to leave, but in their heads they want us to stay.”
Already, there is a growing sense of order unraveling. The assassination Tuesday of the president’s half-brother Ahmed Wali Karzai — a powerful and controversial man with many enemies — is an example of the brutal pre-transition power struggle. There have been other signs of trouble, such as the missing Central Bank president who surfaced in Northern Virginia last month, saying he feared for his life after exposing high-level official involvement in a private banking scandal.
The Taliban, in a spectacular attack that mocked months of hopeful rhetoric about a nascent peace process, sent a suicide squad on June 28to lay siege to an iconic hotel on a hill overlooking the capital. Afghan forces were unable to stop them after a night-long battle, requiring NATO gunships to blast the remaining assailants from the hotel roof. Even in the heavily policed capital, Afghans were unprepared to protect themselves.
In many ways, though, the great battle for the country’s future is not the one NATO and Afghan troops are waging against Islamist insurgents in far-flung provinces such as Konar and Khost. It is the messier struggle for money and power taking place in urban centers such as Kabul and Kandahar, where old ethnic rivals are settling scores and new mafia barons are fighting to establish turf.
It includes the scandal of Kabul Bank, whose officers and rich shareholders casually “borrowed” nearly $1 billionof depositors’ money to invest in private schemes. It is set amid a self-defeating culture that romanticizes past exploits and yearns for revenge rather than reaching for opportunities. It is a fight with few heroes and no principles at stake, only the spoils of war and drugs.
The real tragedy of Afghanistan is how little advantage it has taken of the enormous international goodwill that followed the defeat of the Taliban in 2001. Showered with far too much aid, clever Afghans have learned to imitate Western jargon, skim project funds and put their relatives on the payroll — while many show little interest in learning the modern skills that would propel their country forward. At its core, this remains a society of tribal values and survival instincts. Goals such as democracy and nationhood come much further down the list.
Today, stuck in Kabul’s rush-hour traffic, I marvel at the blinding video billboards, the ATMs, the supermarkets filled with cat food, tin foil and other items unknown here a decade ago. Like everyone else, I also curse at the roadblocks and detours, the trunk searches, the militarization of daily life.
I sometimes think back to the Taliban era, when the same streets were empty, shops were shuttered, and the only sound was the jingle of a passing horse cart. Life was harder then, isolated and primitive. But often, I hear Afghans complain that everything today is chaotic and corrupt. At least under Taliban rule, people say, there was safety and order and Islam. They may not want to return to that era, but they dread what lies ahead.
Pamela Constable has reported frequently from Afghanistan for The Washington Post since 1998. She is the author of “Playing With Fire: Pakistan at War With Itself.”
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Afghan Legislators Claim To Have Met Taliban Leader
July 15, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Two Afghan members of parliament held a press conference in Kabul on July 14 to reveal that they had met with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar over a year ago, and that he had agreed on an outline for peace negotiations with the government in Kabul.
Homa Soltani and Hajji Abdul Basir claimed to have presented Omar with an outline of negotiations that had been approved by none other than Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The lawmakers said that Omar had physically signed an outline peace proposal -- with some of his demands added -- but the president's office rejected it.
"One year ago Mullah Omar accepted our peace plan," Soltani said. She detailed how she had met the Taliban leader in a "border province," and he signed her proposal for peace negotiations while seated on her red shawl, which she had spread on the ground.
Hamid Elmi, a deputy spokesman for the Afghan president, told RFE/RL that Karzai had met with the two lawmakers and had indeed received a letter, reportedly signed by Mullah Omar, but said the president's office "had doubts" that the signature was truly that of the Taliban leader.
Soltani, one of a handful of female members of parliament in Afghanistan, added, "Mullah Omar has no problem, no objection, with the Afghan Constitution. He has no language discrimination and he respects women rights."
Soltani and Basir also said that Omar had at one point been "150 kilometers from Kabul" once for peace talks.
This is not the first time Soltani and Basir have held a high-profile press conference on possible negotiations with the Taliban.
Last March in Kabul, the lawmakers presented a man named Abdul Khaliq, who claimed to be a representative of Mullah Omar. Almost immediately, semi-official Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed denounced the man as an impostor.
At the most recent gathering, the lawmakers asserted that Omar had told them directly that "he has no relations or contact" with Mujahed.
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Gunmen Ambush Bus in NW Pakistan, Kill 7
VOA News July 16, 2011
Pakistani officials say gunmen have killed seven people after opening fire on a passenger bus in the northwestern part of the country.
Local officials in the Kurram tribal region said the attack took place Saturday. All of the attackers managed to escape.
The bus was carrying Sunni Muslims through a mostly Shi'ite area. While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, it is common for Sunnis and Shi'ites to clash in the area.
The Pakistani military launched an offensive against Taliban militants in Kurram, one of the semi-autonomous tribal regions that border Afghanistan.
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At Afghanistan’s urging, sanctions committee drops 14 former Taliban from UN blacklist
Associated Press Saturday, July 16, 2011
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. committee that oversees the Taliban blacklist dropped 14 names on Friday at the Afghan government’s urging, including several members of the peace council that President Hamid Karzai formed to find a political solution to the country’s insurgency.
The Afghan government had asked the sanctions committee to drop up to 50 former Taliban leaders from its list, and provided extensive documentation aimed at showing they have since been reintegrated into society. Removing sanctions against former Afghan Taliban, including a travel ban and assets freeze, is seen as key to promoting dialogue.
“The Security Council and the international community support the efforts of the Afghan government to engage reconciled Taliban in a political dialogue in order to achieve peace and security in Afghanistan,” said German Ambassador Peter Wittig, who chairs the Security Council committee that oversees those sanctions.
In dropping the 14 names, the committee recognized “efforts by members of the High Peace Council to work toward peace, stability and reconciliation,” said Wittig. “The message is clear: engaging for peace pays off.”
Another 123 names remain after Friday’s “de-listing.”
Those taken off the list included Arsala Rahmani, the Taliban’s former deputy minister of higher education; Habibullah Fawzi, who once served as the Taliban’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia; and Faqir Mohammad Khan, a former Taliban deputy minister, all of them are on Karzai’s 70-member High Peace Council.
Sanctions were also dropped against Sayed Rahman Haqani, who had been a deputy minister of mines and industries in the Taliban regime and now works with the peace council.
The action follows the Security Council’s recent decision to treat al-Qaida and the Taliban separately when it comes to U.N. sanctions. The move was designed to better support Afghan reconciliation efforts and fight global terrorism more effectively.
While Al-Qaida is focused on worldwide jihad against the West and establishment of a religious state in the Muslim world, Afghan Taliban militants have focused on their own country and have shown little interest in attacking targets abroad.
Karzai has been making peace overtures to members of the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan for five years and sheltered al-Qaida before being driven out of power in the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
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Central Bank Denies Crisis at Azizi Bank
Tolo news July 16, 2011
Azizi Bank, Afghanistan's second-biggest private financial institution, is not facing crisis, acting central bank governor told lawmakers on Saturday.
Mohebullah Safi, acting central bank governor, appeared in parliament to shed light on the current situation of Azizi Bank and assured legislators that the bank is not taking the same path as that of Kabul Bank that nearly collapsed earlier this year.
Last week some parliamentarians said that Azizi Bank was facing the same fate as the country's biggest private bank, Kabul Bank.
Kabul Bank, which was the biggest private financial organisation in the country, almost collapsed after the bank sank into crisis, because of mismanagement and illegal loans.
Mr Safi told parliament that Azizi Bank "was neither facing any crisis before, not it is facing any now", adding that the bank had $588 million in reserves which were safe.
"My perception is that the central bank is investigating the problems not just because of one individuals but for the whole nation," Mr Safi said.
"I need your cooperation regarding the Azizi Bank. We all know that many Afghans are illiterate and have accounts in banks and we shouldn't panic them, which could damage our national interest."
But some MPs expressed doubt about Mr Safi's remarks, saying when something goes wrong and when you are there any longer who would be held responsible.
Mr Safi also sought amendments in the country's banking laws to allow the central bank to monitor investments made by Afghan banks and their shareholders both at home and abroad.
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Canada's exit highlights Afghanistan challenges
Other allied nations have made no secret of their wish to follow suit, and the withdrawals will place a heavier burden on those troops left behind. Senior U.S. officials have been reassuring wary Afghans, who say violence is still rampant.
Los Angeles Times By Laura King July 16, 2011
Kandahar, Afghanistan - The air conditioning in the cavernous military assembly hall didn't generate enough of a breeze to flutter the long strings of plastic Canadian flags. Some in the audience squirmed in their seats during a lengthy farewell address by an Afghan general. And with that, it was over.
The formal end of the Canadian combat mission, commemorated in a ceremony last week at NATO's main base in the south, marked the first battlefield exit by a core member of the U.S.-led coalition. With the departure of 2,850 combat troops, an ally that had deployed forces to Afghanistan in the earliest days of the nearly 10-year-old war bowed out.
Allied nations with forces in Afghanistan have made no secret of their wish to follow suit, particularly in the wake of President Obama's decision to withdraw 33,000 American troops, about one-third of the total here, by the end of next summer. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, visiting Afghanistan this week, said he planned to bring home 1,000 of France's 4,000 troops by the end of next year. Qualms about the mission have been growing in France, spurred by Wednesday's deaths of five French soldiers in a suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan.
The German government has also said it wants to pare its presence. Britain said this month it would bring home 450 troops in the next six months.
The pullbacks will place a heavier burden on those troops left behind, most of whom are Americans. Some field commanders have made no secret of their worries that the drawdown is too fast and too steep.
Senior U.S. officials have been energetically seeking to reassure allies and the Afghan people that the American drawdown will not be "precipitous," in the words of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. But Western envoys say the U.S. pullback cannot help but trigger a reevaluation of their own military stance.
"If the Americans, who gathered this force, are on the way out, how can it be expected that anyone else will want to prolong their presence?" asked one European diplomat in Kabul who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about his country's views.
Among Afghan civilians, particularly those living in the most violent corners of the country, there is an uneasy sense that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization force is painting an overly rosy picture of security, the better to justify troop pullbacks to come. Over the weekend, Gen. David H. Petraeus cited falling numbers of insurgent attacks. But here in the southern city of Kandahar, some Afghans said such figures do not reflect the perilous reality of day-to-day life.
"Every day, there are killings and kidnappings," said a seamstress named Shalah. Two sons of her neighbors were recently abducted by the Taliban; the family, struggling to raise a ransom, received word a few days ago that one had already been executed.
In Kandahar's blast-oven summertime heat, people sleep with their windows open, or bed down on mattresses on the roof. "So the sound I hear in the night is the weeping of the women of this family," said Shalah, who did not want to disclose her family name.
For the Canadians, Kandahar province proved a killing field, and the sustained ferocity of combat here shocked a nation that had primarily envisioned a peacekeeping mission. At home in Canada, the war felt intensely personal; citizens routinely lined a highway bridge to pay respects when the bodies of fallen soldiers were repatriated.
Although Canada's contingent was only NATO's sixth-largest, it suffered disproportionate casualties: 157 deaths, according to the independent website icasualties.org, roughly equal to the combined fatalities sustained by larger troop contributors Germany, France and Italy.
Despite an arduous fight, the Canadians were too thinly deployed to break the Taliban grip on strategic districts surrounding Kandahar city. That did not happen until last summer, when American-led forces that had arrived in the Obama-ordered "surge" of troops dislodged the insurgents from key areas in the province.
Many Kandaharis believe the net effect of clearing outlying districts of insurgents has been to make the city itself more dangerous. And while they acknowledge that travel outside Kandahar is safer than it has been in several years, some rural landowners are not yet ready to risk moving their families back to isolated farm villages.
"It's a cat-and-mouse game with the Taliban," said Ahad Maiwandi, whose family holdings are in Maiwand district, about 30 miles from Kandahar. "And people perceive that the cat is growing tired. So I think the Taliban will be back."
The fact that years of costly Canadian efforts had little overall military effect in Kandahar province lent some awkwardness to the transfer to American forces. U.S. Army Col. Todd Wood, commander of the incoming Task Force Arctic Wolves, paid tribute to their sacrifices but said their departure would make little real difference to the fight.
"This is a normal progression of units in and out," he said before the transfer-of-command ceremony.
The Canadians pointed with pride to a stay in Kandahar that produced many development projects, such as schools and clinics. But even some local people who were appreciative of those efforts said they did not expect the Canadian projects to leave a permanent mark. Relations with local and provincial officials were sometimes testy; Kandahar's governor, Tooryalai Wesa, skipped the farewell ceremony.
Like other NATO nations with an eye on the exit, Canada agreed to remain involved in efforts to ready the Afghan police and army to take security control. It is deploying about 950 trainers to help prepare for that transition, meant to be completed in 2014.
The winding down of the Canadian combat mission did not go unnoticed by the Taliban movement, which rarely fails to capitalize on any chance to paint the Western military presence as folly.
In a statement, the group praised Canada's "responsible step," and called on the people of "other invading countries to oblige their governments to put an end to the aimless war."
laura.king@latimes.com
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Afghanistan: Evaluating the Political Impact of the Karzai Assassination
EURASIANET By Aunohita Mojumdar July 15, 2011
The killing of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half-brother of Afghan President Ahmed Karzai, was a shocking development -- even for Afghanistan, a country steeped in tragedy. But experts are unsure whether it will have a lasting impact on political developments.
Ahmed Wali, or AWK as he was known among foreign diplomats and aid workers, was murdered by a former bodyguard on July 12. Since then, policy experts have been seeking answers to a bevy of questions: Will this personal blow to President Karzai also weaken him politically? Will political opposition in parliament intensify? Will the killing alter the president’s stance on negotiating with the Taliban? Will security in and around Kandahar be weakened with the absence of the “King of Kandahar,” as the international forces begin thinning out of Afghanistan? Or will AWK’s death offer the president a chance to regain lost political ground?
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the assassination, and on July 14, the radical Islamic movement issued a statement offering a supposed rationale for the act. In short, AWK, in spite of his image as a typical Afghan warlord, was killed because he was a CIA agent, the Taliban claimed.
Afghan government officials have publicly accepted the Taliban responsibility claim, but few in the international community are similarly credulous. The circumstances surrounding the incident make it difficult to believe the gunman was acting on the Taliban’s behalf. “We are treating it as a murder, and not a terrorist assassination” a high-ranking ISAF official told EurasiaNet.org on condition that his name would not be used. “It is a tragic event, but it was a murder by his personal protector, a trusted bodyguard.”
While investigators wrestle with determining a motive for the killing, diplomats and experts are focusing on its impact. The murder has the potential to alter Afghanistan’s political calculus at a sensitive time, when the Afghan government, with tacit international acquiescence, is trying to find political common ground with the Taliban, and when a foreign military drawdown is preparing to commence.
To get a handle on the future, experts are striving to determine who, exactly, was Ahmed Wali Karzai? In life, AWK had been linked to drug traffickers (allegations that surfaced regularly in the western media), the CIA and even the Taliban. In Afghanistan’s complex political waters, these roles were not necessarily mutually exclusive. The impact of his death, then, could be similarly ambiguous, fostering elements of stability and instability at the same time. It could weaken President Karzai, even as it offers him an opportunity to move beyond the politics of patronage that Ahmed Wali symbolized.
“He (Ahmed Wali) is such a paradoxical figure” said Candace Rondeaux of the International Crisis Group. “He was pulling things together through patronage and his adept use of bribery. At the same time, we saw the surge in Kandahar being used against his enemies,” leading to destabilization.
Ahmed Wali was useful to the international community, even though he undermined the long-term goals of strengthening institutions. He ran, for example, the Kandahar Strike Force, a militia that assisted US Special Forces’ operations. Yet the same force ran afoul of Afghan National Security Forces, and in an infamous raid in June of 2009, the Strike Force killed the provincial police chief Matiullah Khan.
Ahmed Wali was often a cause of embarrassment to the president, who was continuously asked by the international community to put an end to the criminal activities of his brother. Ahmed Wali’s control of patronage also alienated many tribal leaders who turned against the president. President Karzai may not be able to clean the family stable even now. “The problem is President Karzai is unable to work within institutional boundaries to ensure the even distribution of political spoils,” said Rondeaux.
Already feeling vulnerable, the assassination could cause President Karzai to grow even more sensitive to both real and perceived challenges to his authority, Rondeaux said. This increased sensitivity could, in turn, make Karzai a very fickle negotiator.
Omar Sharifi, the director of the American Institute of Afghan Studies (AIAS), agreed that assassination could significantly impact the president’s political outlook. “We will have to see whether this affects his vision on talks with the Taliban,” Sharifi said.
As to whether the void created by AWK’s death helps or hurts President Karzai in the near-term, expert consensus remains elusive.
Rondeaux indicated the coming days and weeks would pose a challenge for Karzai, noting that the president “has lost the confidence of the international community, his constituency in the parliament and in Kandahar.”
Opposition to Karzai within parliament could draw strength from the perception of vulnerability created by the death of his brother. In addition, the power vacuum that has opened in Kandahar could easily spark instability, as rivals -- including the current governor of Nangarhar Province, Gul Agha Sherzai who had been removed as chief executive in Kandahar at the insistence of Ahmed Wali – seek to establish themselves as the region’s new leader. Ultimately, Karzai must worry about the possibility of Kandahar becoming a bastion of opposition to his authority.
Other experts believe Karzai could potentially emerge from the assassination in a stronger political position. Sharifi noted that President Karzai was never politically dependent on his half-brother’s ability to control Kandahar. “In fact, the death has created a wave of sympathy for the president,” Sharifi said. “We have to see if he can turn it into an act of support.”
Shah Mahmood Miakhel, the country director of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), also downplayed the notion that the assassination marked a political calamity for the president. “Even during elections, more of his [Karzai’s] votes were from Kunar, Laghman, Nangarhar and greater Paktia than Kandahar,” Miakhel said.
Such an assessment feeds into a common perception that Ahmed Wali derived his power from his proximity to his half-brother, rather than the other way around. Yet, while Ahmed Wali may not have contributed much to the president’s political stability, he at least ensured that the president didn’t have to worry about the province being a threat to Kabul’s authority.
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Afghan government seeks to ban costly weddings
Washington Post By Kevin Sieff Saturday, July 16, 2011
KABUL - There was still confetti on his tuxedo when Ahmed Rashed Azimi settled into his purple throne at the center of an expansive wedding hall and surveyed the crowd: 1,200 friends and family members, a live band, costumed dancers and a crew of greeters dressed in the colors of the telecom company that made him rich.
“This is the biggest wedding in Kabul,” Azimi said. He wasn’t smiling. “It cost so much money.”
There’s perhaps no better symbol of this city’s recent infusion of wealth than the glitzy wedding halls that have sprouted near its center, with Vegas-style replicas of the Eiffel Tower and flashing neon everything.
But the country’s government sees such celebrations as a different kind of emblem — of waste and anti-Islamic values. A law proposed this year by the Ministry of Justice would curb celebrations like Azimi’s, placing a limit on the number of guests and the cost of festivities. As American troops prepare to begin drawing down from Afghanistan, the law is an attempt to rebuild traditional Afghan culture, which, according to some officials, has been corrupted since U.S. forces helped overthrow the Taliban in 2001.
“The parties have gotten out of control. People spend money they don’t have and go into debt for many years. It’s not good for the society,” said Muhammad Qasim Hashimzai, the deputy justice minister.
The law, which would also prevent women from wearing dresses “contrary to Islamic sharia,” reminds some here of Taliban-era paternalism. It doesn’t jibe with the new Afghanistan, they say, a place where an influx of foreign dollars has created a new elite eager to flaunt its wealth, even as the vast majority of Afghans live in poverty.
Azimi is no doubt a part of that elite. He makes a substantial salary in the country’s booming telecom industry. He drives a new car and owns a closet full of shiny, Western suits. But even for Azimi, the cost of a wedding big and glamorous enough to impress colleagues and friends is difficult to shoulder. The string of parties during the week of his wedding will cost him about $80,000.
That is part of the reason why the stout, mustached 26-year-old sits on the throne with his lips pursed, looking thoroughly unhappy. Every guest who walks in the hall costs him another $15.
“I can’t refuse these people,” he said. “They invited me to their weddings. How can I not invite them to mine?”
Azimi borrowed money from family members to foot the bill, but he’d much prefer an excuse to thin the guest list. The justice ministry’s new law would serve as that kind of excuse, he said: “Then I could just tell them, ‘Sorry, the government has placed a restriction. There’s nothing I can do.’ ”
The Law on Prevention of Extravagance in Wedding Ceremonies would limit the number of wedding guests to 300 and the amount spent to around $7 per guest. It also aims to prevent grooms’ families from spending too much money on gifts for brides and their relatives. Brides, who sometimes wear more than a dozen outfits during wedding-related festivities, would receive only two dresses — one for an engagement party and one for the wedding itself.
Couples and wedding hall owners who exceed the legal limits would face fines or prison sentences.
But with the bill just now being reviewed by lawmakers, Azimi still felt pressure from friends, cousins and colleagues to show off his new wealth at the Uranuse Wedding Hall, which was blanketed with lace and flowers and fake snow during last week’s celebration. As is customary in Afghanistan, only men attended that event; a party for women would be held the following day.
Not long ago, someone of Azimi’s stature would have held a modest party in his home. But after the Taliban was expelled in 2001, strict wedding regulations disappeared andstandards began to change.
Parties remain divided by gender, but the venues have become larger and gaudier. Pop stars are hired to headline events. Dresses have become more revealing — another controversy the law aims to address by mandating a slew of “monitoring committees” composed of politicians and bureaucrats.
“People are returning to Afghanistan from outside, and they’re introducing a new culture,” said Hashimzai, the deputy justice minister. “Our purpose is to bring some discipline back to the society.”
But that push for discipline has met with resistance, with critics calling it unjust and logistically untenable.
“Why should the government tell people how to spend their money?” said Mohammed Salam Baraki, the owner of Uranuse. “If they pass this law, it will only facilitate corruption. I’ll have to pay off the inspector to allow more guests in.”
The population of Kabul has more than doubled in the past 10 years to 5 million, as Afghans have fled dangerous provinces and refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan for the relative safety of the nation’s capital. Some have prospered, but most remain as poor as they’ve ever been, sometimes living in tent cities just outside of the wedding halls.
For Afghanistan’s nascent middle class, the city’s wedding halls have come to symbolize their aspirations. Ajmal Wahabzada, 28, watched as Azimi was showered with confetti and thought instantly of his own wedding.
“It was also at a wedding hall, but nothing like this. This is really impressive,” he said.
Enamullah Arman, a boyish 22-year-old who works as a sales coordinator for a telecom company, spent much of the party filming dancers and musicians on his cellphone.
“This is exactly what I want,” he said. “I’ve already saved $800.”
Not long after a stream of men finished greeting Azimi, a shaggy singer started crooning about love.
“I’ll always remember you,” he sang in Dari.
Men began dancing, twirling in circles with arms outstretched. A videographer sprinted around from table to table, following the groom’s brothers as they looked for guests whose hands they hadn’t yet shaken.
Azimi sat on his purple perch, presiding quietly over the affair. Neon blue lights flashed over his head.
“We still have three more parties to come,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”
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Immigration minister says 550 Afghan interpreters will be in Canada in months
The Canadian Press Bill Graveland Fri Jul 15 2011
CALGARY - Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says hundreds of Afghan translators who risked their lives working with Canadian troops in Afghanistan and continue to be at risk will be moving to Canada in the next few months.
Kenney originally announced the “fast-track” program a couple of years ago to help Afghans who face what he called “extraordinary personal risk” by working with Canadians in Kandahar.
“We’ve received a few hundred applications. We are expecting that we’ll probably end up admitting about 550 people who qualify for the program, which exceeds our original estimate of about 450,” Kenney said in an interview with the Canadian Press Friday.
“We appreciate the bravery and the courage of Afghans who have co-operated with the Canadian Forces. We anticipate anyone who qualifies under the program will be coming to Canada within a few months.”
An official from Citizenship and Immigration Canada said the department will accept applications for six weeks after the end of the combat mission. That puts the deadline at Sept. 12.
Fifty-six translators are already settled in Canada, said Rachelle Bedard. Another 33 are booked to travel later this month and another 130 will arrive in Canada this summer and early fall.
“We hope the remaining cases will be resettled in Canada in early 2012,” she said.
The risk to the interpreters is real.
In December 2009, an interpreter working for the Canadian Forces was gunned down in Kandahar City. Local police blamed the Taliban.
At least six interpreters have died alongside Canadian soldiers and an unknown number have been wounded by roadside bombs.
Others have seen their family members kidnapped or assassinated, a direct result of their ties to coalition troops.
They earn between $600 and $900 a month, but they rarely tell their family or friends where the money is coming from.
In the field, they keep their faces covered at all times and only use nicknames. They refuse to be photographed.
Interpreters have received night letters, which are used by the Taliban as a form of intimidation. They refuse to answer the door at night and often change the regular routes they take.
The application process has been cumbersome, prompting some translators to believe they were being abandoned by Canada.
“The program had a bit of a slow start because, shortly after we announced it, the security situation in Kandahar deteriorated. We had to remove all civilian personnel so CIC people could not be there to process the applications,” Kenney said.
“We lost almost a year in terms of processing time, but we’re catching up now.”
Applicants require 12 months’ service to the Canadian mission and a recommendation letter from a senior soldier or diplomat. They also need to meet standard immigration criteria such as criminal, medical and security screening before being allowed to come to Canada.
“A lot of applications are in the queue and they are moving forward, but people have submitted incomplete applications. We’re trying not to be unnecessarily bureaucratic about this, but we have basic criteria,” he said.
Once the process is complete, Kenney believes the program will be seen as a success.
“The objective is to give an opportunity for resettlement for those who worked for us a long time who face an elevated level of risk. We will meet that objective at the end of the day.”
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