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Talks on long-term Afghan-U.S. partnership stalled
By Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post July 28
KABUL — Negotiations to set the terms of the U.S. partnership with Afghanistan in the decade after 2014 are faltering as the two countries struggle to bridge the gap between their demands, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.
Roadside Bombs Kill 17 Civilians in Southern Afghanistan
VOA News July 29, 2011
Afghan police say separate roadside bombs killed at least 17 civilians in southern Helmand province Friday.
Officials said at least 16 civilians — including children — died when their minivan hit an explosive device in Nahri Saraji district. Another blast in Garmsir district killed one civilian and wounded four others when the farm tractor they were riding hit a mine.
2 NATO soldiers killed in E. Afghanistan
KABUL, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed on Friday in a Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in eastern Afghanistan, the military alliance said.
“The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers” by Peter Tomsen
Washington Post By Stephen Tanner Friday, July 29, 2011
In “The Wars of Afghanistan,” Peter Tomsen builds a compelling case for blaming much of the U.S. heartache in Afghanistan on its supposed ally in the region, Pakistan. Indeed, Tomsen’s book, which provides a sweeping look at Afghanistan and its legacy of turmoil, offers among its many policy prescriptions that the United States withhold military
Afghan Political Process Will Lead to Peaceful Solution: German FM
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 28 July 2011
At an exclusive interview with TOLOnews, German Foreign Minister said Afghan reconciliation and reintegration process would result in a positive outcome.
U.S. targets outskirts of Afghan cities
USA TODAY By Carmen Gentile, Special for USA TODAY 29/07/2011
UPPER GERESHK VALLEY, Afghanistan - Smoking a cigarette after a long day at a tiny military outpost deep in Taliban territory, Sgt. David Sowell mulled over how many of his fellow Marines had lost limbs in this river valley.
UN Office in Mazar-e-Sharif Re-opened
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 28 July 2011
UN regional office in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif has been re-opened four months after the office came under attack by a number of demonstrators.
Afghan police suffer more deaths than Afghan soldiers or coalition troops
Associated Press July 28 , 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban were raining fire on his checkpoint when Afghan policeman Jan Agha heard the whooshing sound of an incoming rocket just as he was tying a tourniquet on his bloody hand ripped by a machine gun bullet.
Holding Pakistan to Account
New York Times July 28, 2011
The Obama administration’s decision to suspend $800 million of its $2 billion in annual security aid to Pakistan inevitably raises the question of why the United States should continue to give Pakistan any military aid at all.
Mixed Feelings Over Helmand Handover
Afghan satisfaction at gaining control of security mixed with fears for future stability.
IWPR By Gol Ahmad Ehsan 28 Jul 11
Afghanistan - As British troops handed over control of security in Helmand to the Afghan military, residents of the troubled southern province greeted the historic move with both joy and apprehension.
Drug trafficking, a rising concern in Pakistan
by Misbah Saba Malik
ISLAMABAD, July 29 (Xinhua) -- In the silence of pitch dark night, a container carrying match boxes was creeping slowly at the outskirts of southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. Its pace was interrupted when Muhammad Khan, a police constable stopped the driver to examine the luggage and recovered over 100 kg of heroine hidden in the match boxes.
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Talks on long-term Afghan-U.S. partnership stalled
By Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post July 28
KABUL — Negotiations to set the terms of the U.S. partnership with Afghanistan in the decade after 2014 are faltering as the two countries struggle to bridge the gap between their demands, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.
After months of talks, some of the officials involved are growing increasingly pessimistic about the prospect of a substantive “strategic partnership” declaration anytime soon that would allow for a long-term U.S. troop presence in exchange for protection guarantees for Afghanistan and support for the nation’s security forces. U.S. -led NATO forces are set to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
“I see a situation building that will turn negative,” said Shaida Mohammad Abdali, Afghanistan’s deputy national security adviser. “If the U.S. is really interested in staying in Afghanistan, it must show it practically to the Afghan government and the people. And respond to what we need.”
Both sides see an agreement as important to precluding the kind of abandonment of the country that followed the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. That period of civil war and instability in Afghanistan led to the Taliban takeover and the establishment of a haven for al-Qaeda. The new U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Ryan C. Crocker, said Wednesday that the intention of the negotiations is to set a foundation for a “strong, stable, long-term relationship between our two countries.”
“Is it going to be easy to get to? No,” Crocker told reporters at the U.S. Embassy. “Is it worth trying for? Boy, you bet it is. Because, again, we’ve seen consequences of disengaging, of not seeking that kind of relationship.”
Afghan officials appear particularly worried that as the U.S. troop withdrawal accelerates, Washington’s commitment to paying large sums long into the future to support Afghanistan’s security forces will diminish.
Much of the partnership document has been agreed to, but key sections remain in debate. The Afghans are attempting to use the agreement as the place to set binding deadlines for their assumption of control of detentions and controversial U.S. military nighttime raids. U.S. officials think that such timelines should be based on conditions on the ground and that the partnership declaration is not the forum in which to settle them.
Afghan officials are also demanding more firepower, including F-16 fighter jets and Abrams tanks — equipment that U.S. military officials argue is prohibitively expensive and unnecessary for the young Afghan army.
“We’re not going to buy them jets. We’re not going to buy them tanks,” one U.S. military official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation candidly.
The Afghans want the United States to fund their security forces well into the future, despite estimates that the cost to Washington of such support in 2014 would be about $8 billion.
The United States is seeking long-term access to military bases for counterterrorism operations and for training and mentoring the Afghan security forces. Although the document does not specify how many bases would be involved, Afghan officials said they are considering four to five regional military facilities in places such as Herat province, along the Iranian border; Mazar-e Sharif in the north; Kandahar in the south; and Jalalabad in the east, toward Pakistan.
U.S. officials also want the Afghan government to commit to reforms such as fighting corruption and strengthening democratic institutions to ensure that American money is not propping up an unpalatable government.
Afghan officials say that by allowing U.S. troops to stay into the future, they are paying a steep price, given the opposition to the idea at home and among their neighbors. They insist that they need binding commitments, not vague language, about what they will get from the U.S. government in return.
“President Karzai wants to have a strategic partnership. He is all for it. But he wants the nation to buy it,” said one senior Afghan official who is close to Karzai. “Why can we not have the simplest equipment for national defense — the aircraft and tanks and those things? . . . You see the vulnerability of this nation.”
At one point, U.S. officials hoped a partnership agreement could be signed before President Obama’s announcement that U.S. troops would begin withdrawing, to counter any impression that the United States was abandoning Afghanistan. But the negotiations stalled before the announcement was made last month, and officials say they do not know when an agreement might be reached.
Crocker said he envisions the declaration as a “broad compact” that would outline principles of cooperation in a variety of areas, including support for education, science and technology, and economic and commercial ties.
But Afghanistan’s national security adviser, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, told the parliament this week that there is no certainty that a deal will be reached. Any agreement should “not be a statement but a contract,” he said. U.S. officials also appear discouraged about the prospects.
“There is still a distance to go,” then-U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry said last week.
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Roadside Bombs Kill 17 Civilians in Southern Afghanistan
VOA News July 29, 2011
Afghan police say separate roadside bombs killed at least 17 civilians in southern Helmand province Friday.
Officials said at least 16 civilians — including children — died when their minivan hit an explosive device in Nahri Saraji district. Another blast in Garmsir district killed one civilian and wounded four others when the farm tractor they were riding hit a mine.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosions, but officials say militants attacked security forces who responded to the minivan blast. It was not immediately clear if the responders suffered any casualties.
A recent United Nations report says violence against Afghan civilians has risen by 15 percent in the first half of this year, with more than 1,400 civilian deaths due in part to roadside bombings. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also has made several public appeals to the international coalition to end civilian casualties in airstrikes.
And while the Taliban typically does not claim attacks that cause significant civilian casualties, Friday's roadside bombings follow a coordinated Taliban assault on government buildings in central Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. That hours-long attack killed at least 19 people — including children and a journalist — and wounded 37 others.
The attack also follows a series of high-profile assassinations of key allies of President Karzai, as the Taliban attempts to disrupt the ongoing security transfer from the international coalition to Afghan forces in several parts of the country.
On Wednesday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed the mayor of Kandahar city. His death follows last week's targeted killing in Kabul of a senior advisor to President Karzai. And earlier this month in Kandahar, a trusted bodyguard shot and killed President Karzai's half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai.
Throughout the violence, the international coalition has pressed ahead with transferring security control in the first seven areas of Afghanistan to Afghan forces.
About 33,000 American troops are set to leave Afghanistan by September of 2012 with all foreign combat troops scheduled to exit the war-torn country by the end of 2014.
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2 NATO soldiers killed in E. Afghanistan
KABUL, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed on Friday in a Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in eastern Afghanistan, the military alliance said.
"Two International Security Assistance Force service members died following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in eastern Afghanistan today," said a statement issued by ISAF here.
However, the brief statement did not reveal the nationalities of the victims, saying it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
Troops mostly from the United States have been stationed in eastern Afghanistan within the framework of ISAF to curb Taliban- linked insurgency there.
A total of 328 NATO soldiers, most of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan since beginning this year.
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“The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers” by Peter Tomsen
Washington Post By Stephen Tanner Friday, July 29, 2011
In “The Wars of Afghanistan,” Peter Tomsen builds a compelling case for blaming much of the U.S. heartache in Afghanistan on its supposed ally in the region, Pakistan. Indeed, Tomsen’s book, which provides a sweeping look at Afghanistan and its legacy of turmoil, offers among its many policy prescriptions that the United States withhold military aid to its ally, because the more funds that go to Islamabad, the stronger the Taliban seems to become. I took it as a sign of Tomsen’s acuity that on the day I finished reading his book, the United States announced it would not release $800 million intended for Pakistan’s military support.
Tomsen was the U.S. special envoy to the Afghan resistance groups from 1989 to 1992, the years right after they drove out Soviet troops. He had close relationships with a range of major players — Afghan commanders, mullahs and politicians, Pakistani generals, Soviet diplomats and Saudi princes — and he pours his insights into this thick, important volume adding up to more than 700 pages of text.
The book begins with a brief look at Afghanistan’s history. Tomsen calls the country a “shatter zone” because it was repeatedly invaded by stronger powers and then it invariably defeated or outlasted its occupiers. The key to the nation’s resilience, he notes, is its reliance on thousands of isolated communities that were always willing to fight but never willing to give up their independence. This fragmented structure affected how Afghanistan was governed: The leadership in Kabul survived only by forging alliances with enough tribes and ethnic groups to achieve critical weight and maintain stability. Tomsen’s historical narrative helps us understand how Afghanistan in the 20th century was able to achieve not only intermittent calm and prosperity but also gradual democratization. Afghan progress was undermined in the 1970s, however, when a right-wing coup was followed by a left-wing takeover and the disastrous Soviet intervention.
Tomsen expresses his dismay at U.S. policy toward the triumphant Afghan factions that finally forced the Soviet withdrawal. The United States took a neutral stance toward the disparate Afghan resistance groups — a lack of attention at a critical time that Tomsen and other observers argue allowed for the rise of undesirable factions. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia favored the most fanatical Islamist groups to the detriment of religious moderates and nationalists.
It was at this time that for a full decade the United States “outsourced” its Afghan policy to Pakistan, Tomsen says. The country crumbled into civil war that ceased only after Pakistan formed, funded and supplied the rigidly Islamist Taliban, which calmed the fighting and spread Pakistan’s influence. But the deal backfired when the Taliban proved not so pliable and played host to al-Qaeda, which inspired the country’s latest invasion — by America. Pakistan promptly promised cooperation with the United States and its coalition but, Tomsen argues, Islamabad has been double-dealing the United States ever since its involvement in Afghanistan after 9/11. Pakistan had handled the Soviet incursion into its sphere of influence in similar fashion, Tomsen says, and now the United States is operating under a “Grand Delusion” in which policymakers refuse to recognize that their ally is both fireman and arsonist in its determination to maintain its strategic depth in the Afghan nation. Tomsen is clearly sympathetic to th
e Afghans and details their nuances intimately, while tending to generalize about Pakistan — I wished the book had more on that state’s own fragility and its geopolitical dilemmas.
“The Wars of Afghanistan” contains many compelling vignettes, which demonstrate the author’s proximity to the principals. Tomsen provides unprecedented detail in recounting the death of the resistance icon Ahmed Shah Massood two days before 9/11. His account of Massood reading poetry on the night before his assassination, which his companion found portentous, adds a poignant touch to the hero’s death. Tomsen was also in the same convoy as Hamid Karzai in 2002 when a Taliban assassin thrust an AK-47 through the Afghan leader’s car window but the weapon fortunately misfired.
This long-overdue work, which takes us up to the recent killing of Osama bin Laden, is the most authoritative account yet of Afghanistan’s wars over the past 30 years and should be essential reading for those wishing to forge a way forward without repeating the mistakes of the past.
Stephen Tanner is author of “Afghanistan: A Military History, from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban.”
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Afghan Political Process Will Lead to Peaceful Solution: German FM
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 28 July 2011
At an exclusive interview with TOLOnews, German Foreign Minister said Afghan reconciliation and reintegration process would result in a positive outcome.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle reassured that the German government would not forget Afghanistan beyond the year 2014, when security transition to Afghan lead is expected to be completed.
Mr Guido Westerwelle said there might have been some setbacks in the transition process, but he said he thinks there has been progress in the process.
"I can assure you that the German government will not forget our solidarity and our engagement in Afghanistan in the years beyond 2014," he said.
He said after security handover process is completed by the end of 2014, Germany will still be in Afghanistan with a shift in its engagement.
"The kind of and the field of our engagement will change after 2014," he said.
He said Germany is happy to feel proud to host the forthcoming Bonn conference on Afghanistan.
"We are glad and of course we are also proud to be the host of the next Afghanistan conference at the end of this year, first of December in Germany," he said while insisting the conference will be held under the full and transparent lead of Afghan government.
Negotiation and engaging through political process with opposition is something that could work for a peaceful solution not only in Afghanistan, but for every other nation, he said.
"We have three topics on the agenda. The first one is transition and the progress in transition, the second of course is the reconciliation and reintegration, the political process is crucial for every peaceful solution for Afghanistan and the third is that we want to specify and to underline again that our engagement and the engagement of the international community will not finish in the year 2014," he said.
Germany has around 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan with most of them stationed in the relatively peaceful northern regions of the country.
Meanwhile, Afghan High Peace Council that was set up by President Karzai to broker peace with the Taliban has called on the Taliban to take warnings of the international community seriously.
A senior member of the peace council, Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar, remarked that political, military and security conditions are fragile in the country and the Taliban should as soon as possible become ready for negotiations.
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U.S. targets outskirts of Afghan cities
USA TODAY By Carmen Gentile, Special for USA TODAY 29/07/2011
UPPER GERESHK VALLEY, Afghanistan - Smoking a cigarette after a long day at a tiny military outpost deep in Taliban territory, Sgt. David Sowell mulled over how many of his fellow Marines had lost limbs in this river valley.
"I don't want to lose my legs, but if I do, I can cope with it as long as it's not one or both of my arms, I'll be fine," said Sowell in a casual Texas drawl.
Sowell and the rest of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment are on the outermost ring of the U.S. forces that have spread from main population centers.
The strategy is to keep the Taliban on the outskirts while the cities and villages behind the Marines gradually accept the government's help and in return, give their allegiance.
* STORY: Data: Coalition holds line on Taliban attacks * PHOTOS: Deep in Taliban territory
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, says it remains to be seen how things work out here.
"It's a rural insurgency," he said, explaining that direct fire attacks have increased here but are "very ineffective."
"So what we see happening is the violence is now on the edges of the population center instead of the center," Rodriguez said.
Large cities in southern Afghanistan such as Marjah were largely cleared of significant Taliban forces months ago, but many fighters in Helmand fled here to the Upper Gereshk Valley, a verdant expanse of farms and mud-brick homes.
When the 4th Marine Regiment arrived in the province a few months ago they had to fight their way in. The offensive left four Marines dead and 50 wounded from Taliban sniper fire and buried mines known as improvised explosive devices.
Casualties have subsided after the Marine objective was modified to prioritize the protection of a newly paved road rather than heading into the valley regularly looking for the Taliban.
The road connects to the main highway that bisects northern Helmand. Marines work side-by-side with Afghan National Civil Order Police to patrol the highway, which has made it easier for locals to do business and improve their lives. But it also provides a convenient pathway for insurgents operating in the valley.
"The Taliban have the ability to maneuver easily in the AO (area of operation)," Maj. Jackson Doan said. "They do have the home-turf advantage, coupled with the ability to blend in with the local populace."
Doan maintained that the change in strategy from pursuing insurgents closer to the river was the right move.
"We have to concentrate our forces where we can make the most gains," he said, saying that insurgent attacks on the highway have decreased.
Battalion commander Lt. Col. Robert Piddock agreed that the previous strategy of pursuit wasn't working.
Piddock said U.S. forces didn't have the support of the local elders, many of whom have left the river valley for the relative safety of the nearby desert. Women and children that call the valley home have also fled, he said.
"In order to have success (here) you have to have the support from land-owning elders," Piddock said.
With the Marines are U.S. Army special operations forces and Afghan commandos whose efforts to tamp down the insurgency, engage the populace and recruit Afghan men for a local police force also largely failed to produce results, officers says.
Piddock and others said that the Taliban's reliance on murder and intimidation of villagers has kept U.S. forces here from from forming closer relations with locals. A contractor working on one of the bases in the area was recently killed by insurgents. Insurgents also recently hanged an 8-year-old boy after his father, a police officer, refused to give them a police vehicle.
The absence of Afghan National Army forces here also makes it difficult to counter the insurgents' influence and win favor among locals, said Capt. Andrew Terrell, who said there is a shortfall of Afghan forces in the region.
Operating out of a patrol base called Shark's Tooth and a series of small compounds, the Marines talk on a daily basis with the remaining Afghan men here and rely on a select few to guide them along footpaths and through creek beds to avoid the IEDs planted around the bases.
The farmers here say they don't support the Taliban and deny that their crop of opium poppies is used to provide cash for the insurgency.
Mohammed Daud is among the many farmers that grow poppy for opium in the spring, followed by wheat, soy and corn. His thick, black beard and weathered face make him appear much older than his 36 years. As most elders in Hayadarabad have fled for the relative safety of the nearby desert, Daud speaks as a de facto leader in a lawless area where there are no elected or appointed officials, and certainly no influence exerted by the federal government.
"We rely on poppy to make our money in case someone gets sick or to pay for a wedding," Daud said. "It is the most profitable crop we grow. The others are just for our survival."
Piddock says the men in the area, including Daud, are Taliban sympathizers who play "both sides of the fence" but that they continue to try and win them over.
Patrol Base Shark's Tooth is comprised largely of mud walls and windowless hovels partially burrowed in the ground. Marines live four or more in tiny rooms to escape the overbearing summer heat. Many sleep outdoors, using insect netting to avoid malaria from a mosquito bite. There is no running water; the Marines go weeks, even months, without a shower.
At Outpost 22, a group of young Marines piles into a room covered with dirty carpets to rest. They complained about the squalid conditions, attacks from an unseen enemy and the heat. Petty Officer 3rd Class Kurtis Lett, a Navy corpsman attached to the Marines, said the assignment is not without its charms.
"This place isn't really that bad if you're not scared of getting shot at or blown up," said Lett, prompting laughter from the rest of the men.
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UN Office in Mazar-e-Sharif Re-opened
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 28 July 2011
UN regional office in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif has been re-opened four months after the office came under attack by a number of demonstrators.
Back in April this year an unknown number of protesters, angered by burning of the holy Koran by an American pastor, attacked the UN office and killed seven foreign employees.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai had condemned the attack on the UN office in Mazar-e-Sharif.
A statement by the office of Balkh governor said that during a meeting with Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor, UN Special Representative to Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura introduced the new director for UN office in Mazar-e-Sharif.
The new director for UN office in Mazar-e-Sharif is a citizen of Azerbaijan, according to the statement.
During the meeting with Governor Noor, Staffan de Mistura expressed happiness about the progress being made in Balkh province, it said.
Attack on the UN office was against Afghan culture. The enemies of peace and stability in Afghanistan were involved in the attack, the statement said from Governor Atta Mohammad Noor.
Governor Noor has promised to ensure full security of the UN office in Mazar-e-Sharif.
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Afghan police suffer more deaths than Afghan soldiers or coalition troops
Associated Press July 28 , 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban were raining fire on his checkpoint when Afghan policeman Jan Agha heard the whooshing sound of an incoming rocket just as he was tying a tourniquet on his bloody hand ripped by a machine gun bullet.
He moved fast, but couldn’t get far enough. Shrapnel from the rocket sprayed his legs, breaking both in several places.
“If I had been standing where I was, I would have been killed,” the 26-year-old Agha said, lying in a hospital bed in Kabul.
Agha of Maidan Shahr in Wardak province lived to tell his story, but many of his comrades don’t. Afghan policemen on the front line of the war suffer more deaths and injuries than Afghan soldiers or U.S.-led coalition forces. And the human toll on the 130,600-member police force is likely to rise as it increasingly takes over from foreign troops who are to end their combat mission in 2014.
There were 2,770 Afghan policemen killed during the two-year period that ended March 19, the last day of the most recent Afghan calendar year. That’s more than twice the 1,052 Afghan soldiers or 1,256 U.S. and other foreign troops who died during the same period. Moreover, 4,785 Afghan policemen were wounded in the two-year period compared with 2,413 Afghan soldiers.
The statistics were obtained from the Afghan ministries of interior and defense and the U.S.-led coalition.
“For anyone to say ‘When will the Afghans start fighting and dying for their country?’ I can tell you that they are doing that right now.” Gen. David Petraeus, the former top commander in Afghanistan, recently testified in the U.S. Senate.
The Afghan National Police force has come under criticism for corruption, and many call it unprofessional and under equipped. Illiteracy is rife, despite six weeks of training and literacy lessons that recruits undergo. Still, questions remain about whether it will be able to handle the increased duties as foreign troops leave.
Police officials acknowledge the problems. But they also point to the risks that members of the force are constantly facing. While the troops of the more than 160,000-member Afghan National Army move in offensives against Taliban and insurgents, police are at the forefront trying to keep a longer-term hold on territory, patrolling their towns, stopping suicide bombers from slipping through checkpoints and trying to foil potential attacks.
“It is true that corruption is a liability in the police force, but (critics) tend to forget about the sacrifices and the hard work and the bravery of the Afghan police,” said Hanif Atmar, who was interior minister from 2008 to 2010.
Police, for example, are the main force involved in eradication of poppy crops, making them the target of hatred from farmers, drug dealers and the fighters that profit from the drug trade, said Zemeri Bashary, a former ministry spokesman who now handles security for international organizations in Afghanistan.
“They are the first barrier against all the bad guys — whether they’re terrorists, insurgents, drug dealers,” Bashary said.
Interior Minister Bismullah Khan said in an interview on Wednesday that most police casualties are from roadside bombs. “Unfortunately, we are on the front line. Sometimes the casualties go up and sometimes they go down, but we are obliged to fight against the enemy,” he said.
On average, between 1,200 and 1,400 policemen are killed every year, and up to three to four times that number are injured, said Atmar. Better intelligence networks would reduce that, he said, as would better equipment. Most police vehicles are unarmored, making them vulnerable to roadside blasts. “The police are expected to regularly patrol areas so they are easy targets,” Atmar said.
Assassination is a danger. The police chief of southern Kandahar province and the top police commander in the north were killed in two suicide bombings this year. This month, insurgents hanged an 8-year-old boy in Helmand province because his father, a police officer, refused to give them a police vehicle.
In the hospital, Agha said his 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son sometimes try to stop him from going to work, fearing he won’t come home.
When two of his close colleagues were killed two years ago by a mine, Agha said he was demoralized and thought about quitting. “But then I thought that if I leave and others leave too there will be no one left. That thought motivated me to stay and take revenge for my friends.”
Casualties are one reason only about half the policemen re-enlist after their first tour of duty, police officials said. Still, police recruiting is strong. In June, 130,600 Afghans signed up, exceeding the target by more than 1,000, according to the U.S.-led coalition.
Some join for patriotic reasons. They want to see their homeland secured by Afghans not foreigners.
“Police are serving this nation,” said Abdul Jabar, a 30-year-old policeman from Parwan province who is recovering from a bullet wound to his leg that he received in a Taliban ambush. “If I can still walk, I will go back to my duty.”
For many others, it’s a matter of money. A new patrolman makes about $165 a month, considered a decent salary.
“My brother many times tried to stop me from joining. He said ‘It’s too dangerous. You will lose your leg,’” said Gul Mohammad, a 38-year-old father of five in Ghazni in eastern Afghanistan. “But I had to join to feed my family.”
Last year, Mohammed’s police vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. He lost his right leg in the explosion.
He now works as a street cobbler, making less money.
“I don’t see a good future ahead for myself,” he said. “When I look at other people now I get upset. I used to be like them. I used to have both of my legs. I could walk like them.”
Currently, if a police officer is killed on duty, his family receives the equivalent of around $2,200. The families of slain lower-level patrolmen receive about $1,500. The ministry pays the cost of treating wounded policemen.
In Kabul, Hedayatullah Khan, a 25-year-old patrolman, stood with his AK-47 stopping vehicles at a checkpoint, looking for possible suicide bombers.
Amid the noise of engines and blaring horns, Khan and the other patrolmen closely watched the traffic — boys driving donkey carts, vendors pushing ice cream carts, coalition Humvees, armored vehicles, cars and overcrowded buses.
“In the morning when I come out of my house after praying, I know I am in danger of being attacked,” Khan said. “Even when I go to sleep at night, I have the feeling that death is following me.”
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Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report.
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Holding Pakistan to Account
New York Times July 28, 2011
The Obama administration’s decision to suspend $800 million of its $2 billion in annual security aid to Pakistan inevitably raises the question of why the United States should continue to give Pakistan any military aid at all.
The White House acted after Osama bin Laden was found living near Pakistan’s leading military academy and Pakistan then expelled American military trainers. Islamabad should see this as a serious warning that Washington has all but run out of patience with its double games. Both sides will pay a high price if this goes on too long.
Ending all military aid would be a serious mistake. This country tried that before with disastrous results. In the 1990s, Washington — incensed about Pakistan’s illicit nuclear program and no longer worried about a post-Soviet Afghanistan — cut off nearly all support. Pakistan’s military and the rest of the country are still bitter about it.
A total cutoff would destroy any hope of Islamabad’s continued cooperation, as limited and cynical as it is, which is essential to defeating Al Qaeda and other militants. The Pentagon needs Pakistan as a supply route for troops in Afghanistan. If there is any possibility of a political deal with the Taliban, Pakistan will have to be involved.
Ending $1.5 billion in annual civilian assistance — for energy, schools and other projects — would make even less sense. The aid needs to be better managed, but the hope is that over time it will contribute to a more stable, less suspicious Pakistan.
The administration’s challenge is how to calibrate the military aid suspension to maximize leverage without pushing Islamabad even closer to the extremists or to the edge. We don’t minimize the difficulty. If there is any chance of getting the Pakistanis to clean up their act, and fending off deeper cuts in Congress, this is the moment.
Of the military aid withheld, $300 million was to compensate Pakistan for deploying 100,000 troops on the Afghan border to combat terrorism. They are battling militants in the FATA region — and taking casualties — but not the Haqqani network targeting American troops in Afghanistan. An additional $500 million worth of equipment — body armor, rifles, radios, night-vision goggles and helicopter spare parts — hasn’t been delivered or is being held in Pakistan until the government grants visas to the American trainers and to 200 or more diplomats and civilians assigned to the United States Embassy in Islamabad. After suggesting that they didn’t need American aid, and would rely more on China and Iran, Pakistan’s powerbrokers may be taking the suspension more seriously. Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, head of Inter-Services Intelligence, visited Washington recently and a senior American official said those talks made progress.
President Obama has offered Pakistan a broad relationship and its best chance to chart a new path. Rather than seize this opportunity, Pakistan’s leaders have stoked intolerance, anti-Americanism and an exaggerated fear of India. Perhaps most delusionally, they continue to see the fight against extremists as a favor to Washington. They are running out of time to salvage Pakistan’s future.
Mr. Obama needs to keep working with Islamabad. But he is right to show that the days of unconditional American support are over.
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Mixed Feelings Over Helmand Handover
Afghan satisfaction at gaining control of security mixed with fears for future stability.
IWPR By Gol Ahmad Ehsan 28 Jul 11
Afghanistan - As British troops handed over control of security in Helmand to the Afghan military, residents of the troubled southern province greeted the historic move with both joy and apprehension.
The Afghan tricolour flag flew from shops and buildings in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah as the official handover was marked on July 20.
Afghan forces were out in full force to secure the invitation-only ceremony, which was of particular importance since Helmand – the source of much of the world’s heroin – has long been the scene of heavy fighting between American and British troops operating under a NATO mandate and the Taleban insurgents.
Helmand governor Mohammed Gulab Mangal noted that the Afghan National Army, ANA, was taking control of security at a time when two of the province’s districts – Dishu in the southwest and Baghran in the far north – were still under Taleban control.
Mangal called for Afghan and foreign troop numbers to be boosted along border areas with Pakistan to disrupt the flow of insurgents. “If that isn’t stopped, it will be difficult to secure peace in Helmand,” he added.
During the ceremony, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who heads the national body in charge of the security transition process, said the ANA and the Afghan National Police were well-enough equipped and trained to take care of the situation.
“Our government is standing on its own two feet,” he said. “Our police have become more professional, and 765 million dollars is to be spent in Helmand on security affairs alone over the next three years.”
Provincial police chief Mohammad Hakim Angar assured the public that no efforts would be spared to provide security in Lashkar Gah and other parts of the province.
“Afghans have proved that they can protect their country, even with their bare hands,” he said. “Our police are equipped; the only things we need are more heavy weapons and ammunition.”
As the Afghan national anthem was played, the flag was formally handed from NATO to Afghan forces, and international troops pulled out of the town, many onlookers were left crying with happiness.
Kamal Khan, 60, wiped away tears with the end of his turban and said, “It’s been a great life ambition of mine to see foreign troops leave Afghanistan so that we acquire independence. God willing, this is the start of it, and I will live to see Afghanistan independent again one day.”
Bismillah, who comes from outside Lashkar Gah but works in the town, was equally pleased.
“Today was the best day of my life. It’s been made clear to everyone that we are not controlled by anyone else, and that we’re independent,” he said. “The withdrawal of the foreign forces could be harmful if they stop their assistance altogether, but if they continue to help, we are now strong enough now to go on.”
Bismillah said the onus was now on the Afghan authorities to win public trust. “The only path to success is through treating people well. That has improved, but there’s still more work to be done.”
Mohammad Iqbal, who owns a chemist’s shop in the town, added a note of caution, questioning whether Afghan forces were up to the job of guaranteeing security for the long term.
“Now that the transition process in Lashkar Gah is over, my spirit feels freer, because I trust my own people more than I do the foreign forces. At least they don’t enter houses and kill innocent people as they sleep. At least they listen to what you say,” he said.
However, he added, “Since our army and police don’t have heavy weaponry and air support, some problems might arise given the current situation.”
Iqbal noted that the handover presented a direct challenge to the Taleban.
“If the Taleban really are fighting against foreign forces, they must not carry out attacks in areas where the foreigners are no longer present,” he said. “If they still carry out repeated attacks, it will mean they are enemies to the Afghan people, and that the terminology of Islam and jihad that they use is just a pretext.”
Gol Ahmad Ehsan is a freelance reporter in Helmand, Afghanistan.
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Drug trafficking, a rising concern in Pakistan
by Misbah Saba Malik
ISLAMABAD, July 29 (Xinhua) -- In the silence of pitch dark night, a container carrying match boxes was creeping slowly at the outskirts of southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. Its pace was interrupted when Muhammad Khan, a police constable stopped the driver to examine the luggage and recovered over 100 kg of heroine hidden in the match boxes.
After investigations police revealed that the drug loaded container was on its way from Afghanistan to the Karachi port from where it was destined to be exported to Europe via the Arabian Sea. The anti-narcotics taskforce succeeded in recovering the concealed drugs on an intelligence tip-off.
Southern and southwestern Pakistan is the most common route used by drug traffickers to transport drugs from land-locked Afghanistan to the outside world. The route from Afghanistan into Pakistan and then into eastern Iran is called "The Golden Route" and it is the trail that takes Afghanistan's abundant opium, and its derivative heroin, to Western markets, where it finds willing buyers.
According to an official of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC), Afghanistan produces 355 metric tons of heroine every year, about 90 percent of the whole world's production. And 42 percent of the heroine production of Afghanistan passes through different routes from Pakistan.
Talking to Xinhua, National Research Development Program Officer at the UNODC Sher Ali Arbab said that 150 metric tons of heroine come to Pakistan every year out of which 80 metric tons are consumed in Pakistan and 70 metric tons are smuggled outside. He said it is impossible to seal the 2,500km-long porous boarder that Pakistan shares with Afghanistan, to curb drug trafficking and other smuggling.
"The drug traffickers have also succeeded in forming a mini market of heroine in Pakistan due to lawlessness in the tribal area which provides them an easy opportunity to transport drugs due to less influence of law enforcement agencies in the semi- autonomous tribal area," he said.
Opium and its derivatives are transported to European and American markets via land, sea and air routes. The southwestern province of Balochistan provides land and sea exit routes to international drug traffickers, and the Karachi port in the southern province of Sindh also acts as a drug trafficking exit point.
According to statistics of the UNODC, the total seizure of drugs in the world is 4.9 percent out of which 0.4 percent is seized by the Anti-Narcotics Force in Pakistan which is quite a good performance as compared to other countries.
Director General of the Planning and Monitoring Unit in the Ministry of Narcotics Control Muhammad Shahid indicated involvement of a complete mafia of drug-lords in drug trafficking from Pakistan to the outside world. He said that apart from local smugglers, some foreigners particularly Africans are involved in transporting drugs to European and American drug barons.
"We have arrested some Nigerian nationals and other Africans for their involvement in drug trafficking," Shahid told Xinhua, adding that poverty is the main reason behind the involvement of African people in the smuggling of drugs.
Shahid said that heroine is the most commonly used drug in the world, its per gram price in the local market is 4 dollars, but 100 dollars in European markets and it makes 200 dollars per gram in American markets.
Due to involvement of many factors and various techniques used by drug traffickers it is quite hard for anti-narcotics task force to seize drugs from them. There isn't any technology to indicate the drugs concealed in containers and most of the times drugs are seized on intelligence sharing.
In Pakistani law there are hard and fast rules for the drug traffickers. Courts decree death penalty if more than one kg of drugs is seized from a convict.
According to statistics by the Anti-Narcotics Force, 103 convicts have been sentenced to death so far in Pakistan, 1,331 met life imprisonment, 348 people have been put behind bars for more than 10 years and 7,067 other convicts got imprisonment of less than 10 years.
Previously, opium was not cultivated in Pakistan due to stringent measures taken by the authorities. Pakistan attained the status of poppy free country in the year 2001. But now due to deteriorating law and order situation, opium is being cultivated on 1,500 hectares in the northwestern tribal belt of the country.
Narcotics control officers said the main factors that push farmers in the area towards the cultivation of poppy is the scarcity of water in this parched region. It is not suitable to grow grains and vegetables which need water regularly and thoroughly. Such dry climate is most suitable for the cultivation of poppy which is also the most profitable crop.
"We are motivating the farmers of the tribal area to cultivate vegetables, we are also providing them free seeds, fertilizers and other things related to forestry and live stock to divert their attention from poppy cultivation," an officer said.
Due to the availability of heroine in Pakistan, drug addiction is penetrating deeply within every fragment of the country resulting in social, health and economic consequences for the people.
It is estimated that the total number of drug abusers in Pakistan is about four million. But a survey conducted by the United Nations in 2006 shows the total number of addicts in the country is 624,000. Among them, 400,000 are hard core heroin addicts while 120,000 are injecting drug users.
The number of heroin addicts has been stabilized over the last five years. However, injecting drug use has emerged as a serious health and safety issue.
Presently there are three government-run and about 200 private rehabilitation centers for the treatment of willing patients who want to get back to normal life. However, the number of recovered patients is far less than the number of druggies which is constantly rising in the country.
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