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Officials: suicide bomber kills 36 in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press – Fri, Oct 26, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing 36 people and wounding 23, officials said.
Pakistan condemns suicide attack in Northern Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Friday strongly condemned the suicide attack in northern Afghanistan and vowed to work with the neighboring country to defeat terrorism.
Saudi Mufti Slams Suicide Attacks in Hajj Sermon
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 25 October 2012
One of the highest-ranking Islamic scholars Mufti-e-Azam Saudi Arabia said in his Hajj address that suicide attacks are prohibited in Islam.
Four International Service Members Killed in Afghan Attacks
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN October 25, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two attacks in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday and Thursday killed four international service members, and in both cases there are continuing investigations into whether they were insider attacks, with members of the Afghan security forces responsible, officials said.
Iranians Build Up Afghan Clout
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB October 25, 2012
HERAT, Afghanistan - Iran is funding aid projects and expanding intelligence networks across Afghanistan, moving to fill the void to be left by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.
Pakistani Girl Shot by Taliban Making Speedy Recovery
VOA News October 26, 2012
The family of the 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban has visited her in the British hospital where she is being treated for her injuries.
China ratifies border agreement with Tajikistan, Afghanistan
BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The China-Tajikistan-Afghanistan agreement on the definition of the tri-junction point for national boundaries was ratified on Friday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.
New Zealand offers new home to Afghan interpreters
WELLINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Afghan interpreters working for New Zealand troops and diplomats in the province of Bamyan will be offered residency in New Zealand, the New Zealand government announced Friday.
Facing Taliban threats, Afghan interpreters wait for U.S. visas
Washington Post By Kevin Sieff October 25 , 2012
KABUL - Of the more than 5,700 Afghans who have applied for U.S. visas under a special program tailored for those who have supported the American war effort, just 32 have been approved, the State Department says, leaving the rest in limbo as foreign forces begin their withdrawal.
New Zealand offers residency to its Afghan translators as it prepares to withdraw troops
Associated Press Friday, October 26, 2012
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand says it will offer residency to all the military translators it employs in Afghanistan.
Fixing Afghanistan's Leather Trade
Animal skins are a top export, but traders say they will never make money unless the government kick-starts the tanning industry.
IWPR By Golab Shah Bawar 25 Oct 12
Afghanistan - Kamaluddin shouts at his team to load up the trucks as quickly as possibly so that they get on the road. By the afternoon, they should have made the run down from the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif to the Afghan capital Kabul. From there, they will head south for Pakistan.
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Officials: suicide bomber kills 36 in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press – Fri, Oct 26, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing 36 people and wounding 23, officials said.
The attack in the town of Maymana, capital of northern Faryab province, came as people were gathering at the mosque to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Top provincial officials, including the governor and the police chief, were inside the building when the bomber set off his explosives outside, where a large crowd had gathered, officials said. The officials were not hurt, but most of the dead were police officers and soldiers.
"The targets of the bomber were all the officials inside the mosque," Deputy Governor Abdul Satar Barez said. He said the dead included 14 civilians.
"There was blood and dead bodies everywhere," said Khaled, a doctor who was in the mosque at the time of the blast. "It was a massacre," said Khaled, who like many Afghans uses only one name.
Video from the scene showed the motionless bodies of several soldiers and policemen lying next to their vehicles parked on a tree-lined avenue of the city, located about 500 kilometers (300 miles) northwest of Kabul. On the sidewalk, a number of civilians lay along the mosque's outer wall, some writhing and moaning in pain.
It appeared to be the deadliest suicide attack in recent months.
On Sept. 4, 25 civilians were killed and more than 35 wounded in Nanghar province, and on Sept. 1, 12 people were killed and 47 wounded in a suicide attack in Wardak province.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the attack, saying that those who carried it out were "enemies of Islam and humanity."
He said in a statement that 36 people died in the blast and 23 were injured.
The attack came as Karzai was urging Taliban insurgents "to stop killing other Afghans."
In his Eid al-Adha message to the nation on Friday morning, Karzai called on the insurgents to "stop the destruction of our mosques, hospitals and schools."
The United Nations says that Taliban attacks account for the vast majority of civilian casualties in the 11-year war. The insurgents routinely deny that they are responsible for attacks on civilians, saying they target only foreign troops or members of the Afghan security forces.
On Wednesday, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar urged his fighters to "pay full attention to the prevention of civilian casualties," saying the enemy was trying to blame them on the insurgents.
Also Friday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for killing two American service members in southern Uruzgan province, in what may have been the latest insider attack against Western troops.
In an emailed statement, Taliban spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi said a member of the Afghan security forces shot the two men the day before, then escaped to join the insurgents.
A spate of insider attacks has undermined trust between international troops and Afghan army and police, further weakened public support for the 11-year war in NATO countries and increased calls for earlier withdrawals.
Maj. Lori Hodge, spokeswoman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said on Thursday that authorities were trying to determine whether the latest attacker was a member of the Afghan security forces or an insurgent who donned a government uniform.
It was the second suspected insider attack in two days. On Wednesday, two British troops and an Afghan policeman were gunned down in Helmand province.
Before Thursday's assault, 53 foreigners attached to the U.S.-led coalition had been killed in attacks by Afghan soldiers or police this year.
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Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Kabul contributed to this report.
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Pakistan condemns suicide attack in Northern Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Friday strongly condemned the suicide attack in northern Afghanistan and vowed to work with the neighboring country to defeat terrorism.
At least 41 people were killed and over 30, including the provincial police chief, were injured as a bomber blew his explosive up near a mosque in Maimana, the provincial capital of Faryab on Friday, an Afghan official said.
"Pakistan strongly condemns the suicide attack outside a mosque in Maymana city, Northern Afghanistan this morning," the Foreign Ministry said.
A statement said the Government of Pakistan conveys its deepest condolences to the Government and people of Afghanistan on this tragic incident. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims," it added.
The Foreign Ministry said the two countries face the common threat of terrorism, and Pakistan is committed to work closely with Afghanistan to eliminate this scourge.
Afghan officials said 23 members of the Afghan National Police were among the dead.
Provincial police chief Abdul Khaliq Aqsay was among the wounded. However, Afghan media reported that the police chief of Faryab was also killed in the attack.
No group claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The Afghan authorities blame Taliban for such attack.
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Saudi Mufti Slams Suicide Attacks in Hajj Sermon
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 25 October 2012
One of the highest-ranking Islamic scholars Mufti-e-Azam Saudi Arabia said in his Hajj address that suicide attacks are prohibited in Islam.
Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Sheikh emphasised in his sermon to some two million Muslims performing the day-of-Arafat obligations on Mount Arafat, a hill to the east of Mecca, that anyone who attempts or carries out a suicide attack will not be forgiven by God.
Saying that there was no link between Islam and terrorism, Mufti-e-Azam stressed Islam was a religion of peace, prosperity and brotherhood.
Islam teaches patience and tolerance and dismisses all kinds of violence in society, he said in the hajj sermon, adding that Muslims are obligated to do no harm to others on the basis of their caste, creed or religion.
He urged the pilgrims and all Muslims to come together as a single economic force and focus on improving science and technology to help overcome conflict and resolve the problems faced in the socio-economic arena of the Muslim world.
The Sheikh said that the Islamic system of governance was better than a fake democracy and that political problems can be solved through dialogue.
His comments provide a stark contrast to those of the Islamist militant leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, the head of the Taliban fighting the Afghan government.
Omar called for his followers to shun the peace process and infiltrate Afghan security forces so as to kill the foreign soldiers training and working with them.
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Four International Service Members Killed in Afghan Attacks
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN October 25, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two attacks in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday and Thursday killed four international service members, and in both cases there are continuing investigations into whether they were insider attacks, with members of the Afghan security forces responsible, officials said.
Two British service members — a male marine and a female army medic — were killed in a gun battle on Wednesday while on foot patrol in Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand Province, according to a spokesman for the British Defense Ministry.
The spokesman said that an Afghan man was among the dead after the fighting and was thought to be a member of the national police force, though he was not wearing a uniform at the time. “The U.K. patrol were not working with any Afghan partners at the time,” the spokesman added. “At this stage we do not know what initiated the exchange of gunfire and an investigation is ongoing.”
Helmand Province, where the attack occurred, is where the 9,500 British forces in Afghanistan are concentrated.
“This is dreadful news for all of us serving in Afghanistan,” said Maj. Laurence Roche, the spokesman for Task Force Helmand. “Our sincere condolences go to their families, friends and colleagues at this time of grief.”
In a separate episode in Oruzgan Province, two members of the United States Forces-Afghanistan, a command that includes many Special Operations forces, were killed on Thursday in what is also being investigated as a possible insider attack. Such attacks have sharply risen over the past year and have raised tensions between American and Afghan forces in the field together.
Military officials said they were holding off on details until further investigation. “It’s a confused picture and we’re trying to understand more about the circumstances,” said James Graybeal, a spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan. The Oruzgan police chief, Matiullah Khan, and the head of the provincial council, Ibrahim Akhundzada, however, both described the event as if it were an insider attack. They said that the Americans had come to a meeting with local officials and others in Khas Oruzgan, a district in the far east of the province.
“They wanted to investigate a Taliban fighter who had been arrested and was being held there,” Mr. Khan said.
As the American troops were arriving, “a police officer who is originally from Chora district was on guard in the tower near the police headquarters, and he opened fire,” said Mr. Akhundzada, the provincial council chief.
After killing the two Americans, the shooter fled, Mr. Akhundzada said, and the international forces began searching for him.
Mr. Akhundzada went on to complain about the behavior of the international forces in general, suggesting that in some measure the attack was understandable.
“Even though Afghan army and police are with them during the joint operations, the foreigners ignore them and still disrespect our culture and traditions and misbehave with locals,” he said. “Then this makes the Afghans to show a reaction and open fire on them.”
Also on Thursday, an international troop member died in an insurgent attack in western Afghanistan, according to a statement from the International Security Assistance Force.
Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
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Iranians Build Up Afghan Clout
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB October 25, 2012
HERAT, Afghanistan - Iran is funding aid projects and expanding intelligence networks across Afghanistan, moving to fill the void to be left by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.
While Iran's spending here is nowhere near the billions the U.S. spends, Tehran's ability to run grass-roots programs and work directly with Afghans is giving its efforts disproportionate clout—something it could wield against American interests should the U.S. military strike Iran's nuclear program.
"Iran is the real influence here. With one snap of their fingers, they can mobilize 20,000 Afghans," said a high-ranking official in Afghanistan's presidential palace. "This is much more dangerous than the suicide bombers coming from Pakistan. At least you can see them and fight them. But you can't as easily see and fight Iran's political and cultural influence."
Many leading Afghan government officials have received Iranian support for years. President Hamid Karzai two years ago admitted that his office has regularly received suitcases of cash from Tehran, with as much as $1 million in euros stuffed inside, in exchange for "good relations."
Afghanistan is important to Tehran's efforts to break out of its international isolation as Iran's main regional ally, Syria, battles an insurgency. A pro-Iranian militant group in Lebanon, Hezbollah, has also been put on the defensive by the civil war in Syria, a Hezbollah benefactor.
Iran shares a language with many Afghans, about half of whom speak a dialect of Persian. Millions of Afghans work in Iran, and Iran is the main supplier of electricity to western Afghan cities like Herat, an hour's drive from the border. While Afghanistan is mainly Sunni Muslim, it has a large minority that shares Iran's Shiite branch of Islam.
Iran's main vehicle for spreading its influence across its eastern border is the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, or IKRC, a secretive aid organization that operates around the world. The U.S. blacklisted IKRC's branch in Lebanon two years ago for aiding Hezbollah.
Unlike the U.S. Agency for International Development, which disburses its aid through private contractors and sometimes even hides the aid's American origin, the IKRC works directly with Afghan applicants, combining economic help with seeding efforts to gather intelligence, Western and Afghan officials say.
According to an Afghan man named Ali, who says he worked for IKRC vetting applicants for aid, they must supply extensive information on backgrounds and contact details of their extended family. U.S. officials believe IKRC uses the process to ensure aid goes only to those loyal to Iran.
Iran's embassy in Kabul and consulate in Herat didn't respond to requests for comment.
A senior U.S. official predicted Iran's efforts would fail because Afghans view them with suspicion. "The Afghans know who their true friends are," the official said, adding that the U.S. would have an enduring partnership with Kabul but Iran won't.
In Herat, IKRC provides loans to build houses; monthly stipends of oil, sugar, tea and medicine; and vocational courses. "As human beings, we will receive aid from whoever provides it," said Ali. "America is absent."
One recipient is Masooma Karimi. When she and her husband-to-be needed money for a wedding, IKRC paid for it and for furniture and kitchen goods.
The Iranians also paid for the wedding of Dunya and Saytaki Husseini, providing $400 and traditional clothes for the ceremony. "The Iranians are doing more than the Americans," said Mr. Husseini. "Iran is in all of our lives."
Ms. Karimi and the Husseinis live in the Herat neighborhood of Jubrayl, with many ethnic Hazaras who, like Iranians, are Shiites. Iran has built it a library, school, clinics and smooth roads—all Afghanistan rarities.
On a recent day in the library, a stack of books bearing a portrait of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was piled on the floor awaiting distribution to children.
The library doesn't just spread Iranian propaganda. Young girls use one room to learn English. There are classes in computer science and math.
"I would be happy if the U.S. would provide this aid, too, but they don't," said Reza, the manager, who uses just one name. "So I'm working with Iranian aid."
An employee, however, said the library had little choice: Officials from the Iranian consulate in Herat threatened to cut off funding this spring unless the library promoted more Iranian programs.
Another demand, the employee said, was to commemorate the June 3 anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran's 1979 revolution. The library, needing the funds, agreed to increase its classes on Iranian culture.
"Soft power" isn't the only kind Iran projects. Herat provincial officials say they have seen a rise in insurgent activity by groups with Iranian backing. Insurgents "have safe houses in Iran and fight against the Afghan government," said Herat's governor, Daoud Saba.
In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had let the Taliban open an office in Iran and was increasing its support to the insurgency, aiming to speed up the U.S.-led coalition's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a meeting in China with Afghanistan's Mr. Karzai, said if the U.S. or Israel attacked Iranian sites, Iran would target U.S. Afghan bases, said officials who attended the meeting.
Western diplomats call Iran's moves partly a reaction to U.S. and European sanctions aimed at its nuclear ambitions, which have caused its currency to fall and inflation to rise. "They cannot attack Washington or London, but they can attack us," a senior Afghan official said.
Afghan officials say Iranian diplomats have long funded Afghan media outlets, and in August, officials in Iran's embassy in Kabul met with four Afghan TV stations and three newspapers in an effort to establish a union of Afghan journalists that would voice the Iranian line.
Afghanistan's intelligence agency struck back, arresting several Iranian journalists it claimed were Iranian spies. A Kabul-based reporter for Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency remains in custody.
Mobarez Rashidi, Afghanistan's deputy minister of culture and information, acknowledged that the U.S.-led coalition, too, has funded the Afghan media to foster pro-American views. He drew a distinction. "We welcome countries that support media clearly and openly," he said.
Unlike the U.S., which focuses aid on restive provinces where the Taliban are strong, Iran empowers those that tend to be pro-Iranian.
Permission to enter Iran is potent tool. At Iranian-run clinics and mosques in Herat, when Afghans seek to enter Iran for medical care or a pilgrimage, only those deemed loyal to Iran get visas, said a senior Western official in Herat.
Herat's provincial health director felt Iran's wrath in 2008 when he sought to inspect an Iranian-funded clinic that was accused of giving patients pro-Iranian propaganda. The clinic, Sabz-e-Parsyan, is a gatekeeper for Afghans seeking treatment in Iran. The provincial official, Ghulam Sayed Rashed, says its staff refused to let him inspect the building fully.
He ordered the clinic shut until an inspection was completed, but two days later was overruled by a higher Herat official. The clinic's current director said he wasn't aware of the incident and denied any pro-Iran activity.
In any case, says Mr. Rashed, he and his family members have been denied visas to visit Iran ever since. —Ziaulhaq Sultani, Habib Khan Totakhil and Dion Nissenbaum contributed to this article.
Write to Maria Abi-Habib at maria.habib@dowjones.com
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Pakistani Girl Shot by Taliban Making Speedy Recovery
VOA News October 26, 2012
The family of the 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban has visited her in the British hospital where she is being treated for her injuries.
Family members of Malala Yousufzai flew from Pakistan to Britain Thursday and went to see her at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, told reporters Friday that Malala is recovering at "encouraging speed and we are very happy."
The day before, Yousafzai said his daughter will return home to Pakistan after her medical treatment. They were his first public comments since the October 9 shooting of Malala in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley.
Taliban gunmen shot the teenage girl in the head and neck as she left school. She was internationally recognized for documenting Taliban atrocities in the area near her home and for promoting women's education.
She has been in critical condition since the shooting.
Pakistan's government is paying for all expenses related to her recovery and has pledged to protect her once she returns. Queen Elizabeth is renowned for its expertise in dealing with her types of injuries. She has been treated there for nearly two weeks.
Yousafzai's doctors say they expect her to make a good recovery.
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China ratifies border agreement with Tajikistan, Afghanistan
BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The China-Tajikistan-Afghanistan agreement on the definition of the tri-junction point for national boundaries was ratified on Friday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.
The agreement is based on relevant border pacts with Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and it was reached through negotiations among the three nations, said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who was entrusted by the State Council to explain the agreement to the NPC Standing Committee.
"The ratification of the agreement is of great significance to maintain peace along the border areas, and will further promote friendship among the three countries," he said.
In 2010, China held border negotiations and signed a draft agreement with Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
In June 2012, the foreign ministers from the three countries signed the agreement in Beijing.
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New Zealand offers new home to Afghan interpreters
WELLINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Afghan interpreters working for New Zealand troops and diplomats in the province of Bamyan will be offered residency in New Zealand, the New Zealand government announced Friday.
The offer to 23 interpreters and their families follows New Zealand opposition warnings that Afghans working for New Zealand would face persecution or death if they were left in Afghanistan after New Zealand troops leave in April next year.
Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman and Immigration Minister Nathan Guy announced said the offer of resettlement would cover about 73 Afghans if all the interpreters accepted it.
The package allowed for interpreters to be resettled in New Zealand with their immediate dependents or opt for a three-year salary payment so they could opt to relocate elsewhere in Afghanistan, said a statement from the ministers.
"The interpreters are playing a critical role in the operation of the PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) in Bamyan, enabling the PRT to interact effectively with the local population," Coleman said in the statement.
"Offering assistance to current interpreters employed by the government reflects the view that New Zealand should demonstrate a duty of care to this group who have served New Zealand with the work of the Provincial Reconstruction Team," he said.
Immigration Minister Nathan Guy said the interpreters were not "refugees" as defined by the Refugee Convention or had asylum seeker status, but would be granted residence under a discretion offered by New Zealand immigration laws.
"They will not displace refugees offered places under our United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees (UNHCR) quota of 750 people per year," Guy said in the statement.
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Facing Taliban threats, Afghan interpreters wait for U.S. visas
Washington Post By Kevin Sieff October 25 , 2012
KABUL - Of the more than 5,700 Afghans who have applied for U.S. visas under a special program tailored for those who have supported the American war effort, just 32 have been approved, the State Department says, leaving the rest in limbo as foreign forces begin their withdrawal.
The growing, protracted backlog threatens to undermine congressionally approved legislation, as well as the longstanding guarantee that the United States will protect Afghans whose contribution to the American mission has left them hunted and vulnerable.
In 2009, the Afghan Allies Protection Act allocated 7,500 visas for Afghans employed by the U.S. government, mostly as military interpreters. The legislation was intended to respond to a prospect that the interpreters knew well: Without a swift escape route, they would be high-priority targets for the Taliban after the American war effort draws down.
But the channel established by Congress has been far from swift. Some interpreters say they have waited years with hardly a word from the State Department about their applications. The U.S. embassy’s visa office in Kabul has been badly understaffed, according to immigration attorneys who have worked on interpreters’ cases.
The long wait has been disheartening to thousands of men and women critical to the American mission, many of whom serve on the front lines with U.S. troops. Since 2007, at least 80 interpreters have been killed in combat.
Until late 2011, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul did not process a single visa under the Afghan Allies program, according to the State Department. Before then, interpreters were asked to travel to Islamabad — a precarious journey for Afghans working with the U.S. military — to complete their applications. Even there, few visas were granted.
U.S. officials acknowledge that the program was not prioritized in the years after its establishment.
“We didn’t plan for an increase in staffing or resources . . . and there was a pent up demand,” said one U.S. embassy official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A top priority
But after a slow start, U.S. officials say they now have the resources to handle the backlog.
“It’s absolutely a top priority for us now,” the U.S. official said.
When the Afghan Allies program was established, members of Congress said there was urgency behind the legislation. But some officials at the U.S. embassy in Kabul expressed concern that that program could remove from Afghanistan talented local employees at a time they were sorely needed.
“This act could drain this country of our very best civilian and military partners: our Afghan employees,” former Ambassador Karl Eikenberry wrote in a February 2010 cable to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that was obtained a year later by the Associated Press. He went on to warn that the program could “have a significant deleterious impact on staffing and morale, as well as undermining our overall mission in Afghanistan. Local staff are not easily replenished in a society at 28 percent literacy.”
About 400 Afghan interpreters have received visas through other immigration programs. But those programs largely dried up by 2010, when the Afghan Allies legislation was originally supposed to be implemented.
Farhat, who would only allow his last name to be used because he fears for his safety, is among those living in limbo due to the backlog. He said he has been working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army for three years, since he was 18. It was the best paying job he could find. It was also the most dangerous.
While he was translating Pashto in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban had begun its resurgence, killing anyone seen as sympathetic to the U.S.-led war effort.
Insurgents sent letters to Farhat’s family, he said. “You’re an infidel,” they said. “You are killing Muslims.”
They kidnapped his cousin and called Farhat to say simply, “We warned you.” His cousin was eventually freed by Afghan police, Farhat said, but the threats kept coming.
Farhat said he could think of only one option. He would apply for an American visa for himself and his wife. When he applied in 2009, Farhat seemed a perfect candidate: a speaker of nearly unaccented American English, a man who had risked his life countless times for the U.S. mission.
But three years later, he’s still waiting for a visa. He checks the status of his application online almost every day. It always says the same word: “Pending.”
“My life is on the line here, and I keep waiting and waiting,” Farhat said.
For many interpreters, the easiest part of the visa application is citing the threats against their lives.
One of Farhat’s colleagues, Atiqullah, wrote about the time insurgents chased him in his truck, firing AK-47 rounds, destroying the vehicle and nearly killing him.
Another colleague, Irshadullah, described how a Taliban member called his father’s cellphone and said, “If your son doesn’t stop working with coalition forces, we’re going to remove his head from his body and burn your house.”
Anecdotes about America
To protect their identity, many interpreters use aliases when they’re at work in the field. Almost all of them have chosen thoroughly American names: Joe, Eric, Mark, Danny. They’ve spent years gleaning anecdotes about American culture, reading old surfing magazines, learning the relative merits of the East and West Coast and listening to country music.
“I can’t wait to go to Vegas,” Farhat said.
U.S. military officials say they’re frustrated the visas have not come more quickly.
“The visa process is a black hole,” said one U.S. military official in Afghanistan who has helped 30 interpreters apply for visas. “We haven’t heard a word about a single application. From what I’ve seen, they aren’t processing anything.”
Iraqi interpreters encountered some of the same bureaucratic roadblocks when they tried to secure U.S. visas before American troops withdrew at the end of 2011. Congress set aside 5,000 visas annually for Iraqi interpreters in 2007, but only a small fraction of those were issued in the first years of the program.
It wasn’t until the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq that the program was implemented effectively, according to immigration attorneys. Afghans say they hope they don’t have to wait until 2014, when foreign troops are slated to withdraw, to get their visas.
“I get contacted daily by Afghan interpreters and the Americans they served beside, terrified about the consequences of not receiving their visas before the military withdrawal,” said Becca Heller, the director of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project.
During the three years Farhat has waited for a visa, he’s seen the size of the U.S. military presence rise and fall. Now he's watching as bases are closed and downsized. He worries about the worst case scenario: What if the Americans leave before he gets his visa?
“I can’t stop thinking about it,” he said. “I knew I would have to wait, but I never expected to wait this long.”
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New Zealand offers residency to its Afghan translators as it prepares to withdraw troops
Associated Press Friday, October 26, 2012
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand says it will offer residency to all the military translators it employs in Afghanistan.
Defense minister Jonathan Coleman on Friday announced New Zealand will offer resettlement packages to 23 Afghan interpreters and their immediate families, a total of about 73 people.
New Zealand is preparing to withdraw its small contingent of 145 troops in April. The troops have been stationed in central Bamiyan province since 2003.
Some Afghan translators who have worked for coalition forces have been killed by the Taliban and others have been threatened. Their fate has come under increasing scrutiny as many coalition countries prepare to withdraw troops.
The U.S. has been criticized for not dealing more quickly with a huge backlog of interpreters who have applied for U.S. visas.
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Fixing Afghanistan's Leather Trade
Animal skins are a top export, but traders say they will never make money unless the government kick-starts the tanning industry.
IWPR By Golab Shah Bawar 25 Oct 12
Afghanistan - Kamaluddin shouts at his team to load up the trucks as quickly as possibly so that they get on the road. By the afternoon, they should have made the run down from the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif to the Afghan capital Kabul. From there, they will head south for Pakistan.
The trucks are carrying lambskins and other animal hides, the product of one of Afghanistan’s most important industries. They have been temporarily cured with salt, but they cannot be tanned and readied for sale because most processing plants collapsed long ago during years of war and disruption. Hence the long trip to Pakistan.
As a merchant himself and head of the hide traders' association in Mazar-e Sharif, Kamaluddin is unhappy that all the extra value added by tanning Afghan hides goes to Pakistan. Traders in the latter country make extra profits by re-exporting the finished product back to Afghanistan.
"It’s better than being unemployed,” he said of his job. “I make a ten per cent profit by transporting the skins to Pakistan, but even that sometimes falls to five or six per cent because of fluctuations in the value of afghanis and [Pakistani] rupees."
He added that much of the profit is made by those traders who import the skins back to Afghanistan after they are processed.
The plains of northern Afghanistan are ideal for raising livestock, and the region continues to lead production of wool for traditional carpets, the tightly-curled lambskins known as karakul, and other animal hides.
With 60 million skins – nearly the whole of the north’s production – exported to Pakistan every year, traders say the country is missing out on tens of millions of US dollars in export revenues and tax receipts, all because the government has failed to revive the tanning industry, which would also create many new jobs.
Before the cycle of conflict began with the Soviet invasion of 1979, there were so many Afghan tanning factories that it was the Pakistanis who exported their raw hides there.
"Now it’s the other way round,” Kamaluddin said. “We send skins to Pakistan where they are processed, and 90 per cent of the profit is earned there,"
In Balkh province, where Mazar-e Sharif is located, there are more than ten commercial firms involved in hide exports, as well as at least 200 traders operating independently. They deal in the skins of lambs, sheep, goats, cows and camels raised in the neighbouring Faryab, Jowzjan, Sar-e Pol and Samangan provinces as well as Balkh.
The head of Balkh province’s economic department, Abdurrahman, says one of the obstacles to leather and tanning factories taking off is the lack of effective barriers to low-quality imports.
Obaidullah Khan’s shop in Mazar-e Sharif is packed with karakul pelts and piles of black and red leather. He agrees that reviving the local tanning industry would increase quality, reduce prices and create much-needed employment.
With cowhide now selling at 20 dollars per kilogram, and processed sheepskin at ten dollars, he says, “The price of leather has increased by 30 per cent from last year."
Engineer Mohammad Hasan Ansari, director of industrial promotion and development at Balkh province’s chamber of commerce, says government has to take a lead on reviving the tanning industry. Private investors are just not prepared to take the risk on their own
"Aside from other problems, the lack of electricity and shortages of the raw materials needed for processing are among several reasons why investors have failed to take an interest in this sector," he said
When Afghanistan’s minister of commerce and industry, Anwarolhaq Ahadi, visited the north over the summer, he promised to kick-start the processing industry and offer support to potential investors.
"We are looking at promoting the domestic leather industry and curbing exports of the raw product in coming years, with some assistance from donor countries. We are aligned with the skin traders on this matter, and we will help them," he said.
For the moment, skins are brought into Mazar-e-Sharif to be sorted, salted and dispatched to Pakistan. The traders share a 500-square-metre area in the city centre for this purpose, and residents complain that it is dirty, messy and smelly, and should be shifted well outside the town.
"We can’t enjoy food and drink because of the stink from the skins,” local shopkeeper Abdul Jabar. “Some people just give up working in this area over the summer."
Abdul Jabar said residents had made several unsuccessful complaints about the hide collection facility to municipality officials and to provincial council chairman Mohammad Afzal Hadid.
"We know there’s money flowing into the pockets of municipal officials on a monthly basis, and that’s why we are not heard," he said.
Council chairman Hadid said he had discussed residents’ concerns with the municipality, but no solution had yet been found.
The skin traders' association has proposed moving out of the city centre to an industrial zone, but its deputy head Fazel Ahmad says the land there is parcelled out to people with good connections in local government but no interest in business.
Abdul Majid, the official in charge of industrial zones in Balkh, acknowledged that this was happening. "Certain powerful individuals are distributing land plots at the Gorimar industrial park to people who are not traders,” he said. “Resolving this problem is going to take some time."
Golab Shah Bawar is a freelance reporter in Balkh province.
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