Tweet
12 killed in Afghanistan in 2 days
By Farid Behbud
KABUL, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people including six suicide bombers have been killed in the most recent Taliban-led violent attacks in insurgency-hit country since Thursday morning.
In the latest string of violent attacks, Taliban insurgents carried out an attack in the country's restive southern region that left a NATO soldier dead in Friday, the military alliance confirmed.
"An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan today," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement released here in Afghan capital Kabul on Friday.
However, the brief statement did not provide details as to the exact place of the incident and the nationality of the victim under ISAF policy, only saying "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."
Over 510 NATO soldiers, most of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year.
This is the third security incident since Thursday morning.
Four suicide bombers and three Afghan policemen were killed when Taliban launched a coordinated attack against a district headquarters in eastern Paktia province on Thursday afternoon, Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed on Friday.
According to local media reports the attack on Samkani district occurred when a meeting between the governor of Chamkani district and local elders, who were due to attend a Loya Jirga or grand assembly to be held in Kabul, was underway in the province, some 100 km south of Kabul.
Afghan government is going to convene the Loya Jirga, possibly on Nov. 16, to discuss the proposed Afghan-U.S. strategic partnership and the peace process.
"A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of Samkani district headquarters and then a group of militants, probably suicide attackers, tried to enter," said Abdul Rahman Mangal, the deputy provincial governor of Paktia.
"The attack began at approximately 3:15 p.m. (1045 GMT), with insurgents continuing to fight after barricading themselves inside a mosque. The battle ended at approximately 5 p.m. (1300 GMT) after a U.S. helicopter received permission from Afghan government officials to engage the insurgents," a statement issued by ISAF' s Regional Command-East late on Thursday said.
"This is the third failed insurgent attack within the last month. They are getting more and more desperate. That they would attack from a mosque shows what little regard they have for the Afghan people," U.S. Brig. Gen. Gary Volesky, deputy commander, Regional Command-East said in the statement. "The Afghan police demonstrated their continued capability to protect and fight for the citizens."
The coming four-day Loya Jirga is scheduled to be held under a giant tent inside the Polytechnic University compound in Kabul, and as part of the security measures, the Afghan government has given days-off for the students of Polytechnic during the Jirga, besides stationing police on the hilltops and roads leading to the Jirga avenue.
Taliban militants, who attacked a peace Jirge, or peace gathering, under the same tent in 2010, have warned sternly to disrupt the coming event which will be attended by more than 2,000 representatives from all over the country.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (name of the ousted Taliban regime) calls on its brave and courageous Mujahideen (holy warriors) to target every security guard, person with intention to participate in the so-called Loya Jirga, and such traitors will be pursued by Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate in every corner of the country and will face severe repercussions," the statement warned.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for Paktia's attack, a purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told local media, via cell phone from undisclosed location, that his fighters killed over 10 Afghan and NATO forces members in the attack.
Separately, two civilians were killed and a child was injured when a suicide bomber, apparently targeting an ISAF military convoy, blew his explosive-led vehicle up in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of southern Helmand province, on Thursday evening.
A spokesman for Helmand's provincial government confirmed the incident, adding no Afghan or ISAF forces were killed in the attack in the province where Afghan police and army already took full contrail of its provincial capital of Lashkar Gah in July this year.
What's more, on Friday evening, a statement from south Afghan province Kandahar said an armed insurgent was killed in firefight between Afghan National Police and armed insurgents in Zhari District of Kandahar Province on Friday afternoon.
"The insurgent was killed after a group of insurgents equipped with small arms attacked a police checkpoint in Nalgham village of the above mentioned district at 4 p.m. (1130 GMT)," said the statement.
"Afghan National Police has very professionally repelled the insurgent attack and backed it with the death of one insurgent. An investigation was launched by Afghan National Police to find out the safe havens of the insurgents who escaped from the fight this afternoon. No ANP or civilian casualties or economic loss have been reported from the fight."
Defence Minister jets to Afghanistan to mark Remembrance Day with troops
By Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Fighter jets roared through the cloudless Afghan sky and Chinook helicopters hovered overhead as Canadians marked a final Remembrance Day in Kandahar.
Every takeoff and landing was a reminder that even as the Canadian military closes a chapter on the decade-long conflict in Afghanistan, a fierce battle still rages beyond the confines of Kandahar Airfield.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay made the long trip to southern Afghanistan to mark the occasion with the 1,000 or so troops who are packing up Canada's gear now that the combat mission has ended.
He read aloud the names of the Canadians who have died as part of the decade-long mission in Afghanistan as poppies were placed on each black marble plaque on the cenotaph.
"It is obviously very poignant, it's a very solemn feeling knowing that with each name, it's piercing the heart of a family to have lost a loved one here," MacKay later told reporters.
"But there's also an enormous sense of pride that those sacrifices are not in vain."
The family members of some fallen soldiers placed poppies on the plaques of their lost loved ones.
Amanda Cushley laid a poppy next to the etching of her brother, Pte. William Jonathan James Cushley, a member of 1st Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, who died in Afghanistan in September 2006.
Silver Cross mothers Karen Megeney and Mabel Girouard then laid poppies next to the plaques bearing the names and likenesses of their sons, Cpl. Ronald Kevin Megeney and Chief Warrant Officer Robert Michel Joseph Girouard.
Later, Cpl. Kelly James laid a poppy next to the etching of her brother, Cpl. Mark Robert McLaren of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, who was killed in Afghanistan in December 2008.
Then MacKay read the names of American soldiers killed while serving with the Canadians.
At least one Canadian soldier was overheard sniffling as MacKay read the names of the dead. An American soldier with the name tag "Scott" on the back of his cap took a photograph with a small point-and-shoot camera.
"Lest we forget," MacKay said before returning to his seat.
One female soldier mouthed the words to the poem "In Flanders Fields" before Canadian musician George Canyon sang "Danny Boy" as two more Chinooks rose into the sky behind him.
Flags were lowered to half-mast and wreaths were laid in honour of the 158 Canadian military personnel killed as part of the Afghan mission.
One diplomat, one journalist and two aid workers have also been killed.
Starting Saturday, military engineers will start dismantling the cenotaph so it can be shipped back to Canada. The military is considering several spots in Ottawa to put the memorial, with one of the preferred locations being Beechwood Cemetary in the city's east end, home to the national military cemetery.
Canada's combat mission officially ended this summer, but 950 military trainers will remain in and around the capital city of Kabul through 2014 as part of NATO's training mission.
Smaller contingents of Canadian trainers have also been deployed to the cities of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Herat in the west near the border with Iran.
Australian soldier wounded in Afghanistan gun battle
CANBERRA, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- An Australian soldier has been wounded after coming under fire from insurgents in Afghanistan, Australian Defense Force confirmed on Friday.
The incident happened on Thursday afternoon when a joint patrol of Afghan and Australian troops came under fire from insurgents in the southern province of Uruzgan.
The Australian soldier was wounded by small arms fire after more than four hours of skirmishes between the patrol and insurgent gunmen armed with automatic weapons.
According to Acting Chief of Joint Operations, Rear Admiral David Johnston, the wounded soldier is now receiving medical treatment at the Role Three Military Hospital at Kandahar Airfield.
"The wounded soldier has been assessed as being stable and in a satisfactory condition," he said in a statement released on Friday.
The incident brought 213 Australian Defense Force personnel wounded in Afghanistan since 2001.
Police: Mother, Daughter Shot Dead In Afghanistan
November 11, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Police say a mother and daughter have been killed in their home in eastern Afghanistan by armed men who apparently accused them of "immoral activities."
Ghazni provincial police chief Zilawar Zahid said the two attackers burst into the home of the widow and her daughter in Ghazni city on November 11 and shot them dead.
Zahid denied media reports that the women were stoned to death.
Neighbors and unnamed officials blamed the Taliban, who they said had accused the women of "moral deviation and adultery."
Women's rights have improved in some parts of Afghanistan since the Taliban were forced out of power, but many still face violence, particularly in areas where the militant Islamists remain powerful such as Ghazni.
compiled from agency reports
Experts Say Political Reforms Needed for Afghanistan's Stability
VOA News November 10, 2011 Muhammad Atif
Washington - U.S. and NATO combat forces are set to leave Afghanistan by 2014. Afghanistan's neighbors and Western countries are pledging their commitment to the country's security and economic stability, while allowing the country to take ownership of its economic future. But some Washington-based analysts say that Afghanistan also needs some political reforms.
During a recent visit to Turkey, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that there will not be any hope for peace in his country without help from its neighbors in fighting terrorist groups. The Istanbul conference, hosted by Turkey and Afghanistan, involved top diplomats from the region, and the west.
The United States is working with its partners to build what's being called a "New Silk Road" to embed Afghanistan in the economic life of the region. The plan aims to boost trade in the region by linking Central Asia's roads and railways with Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
"The bottom line is, you can't make Afghanistan a New Silk Road unless you stabilize the country and stabilize the politics," noted Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "So all these visions for the future are sort of getting ahead of the immediate job at hand which is to continue to stabilize Afghanistan."
O'Hanlon, who specializes in national security and defense policy, says the troop drawdown policy is reasonably sketched out, but the harder part is to strengthen the Afghan political system.
"2014 is also the year that President Karzai has to step down. We need to help Afghans have some meaningful way to choose who is going to replace him. Unfortunately, the Afghan constitution, for which my country has some responsibility, creates a very strong President and weak political parties, weak Parliament, weak alternative centers of political influence. And that leaves you poorly prepared for a presidential election where the incumbent cannot run," O'Hanlon noted.
Some analysts warn the 2014 elections will be a "disaster," if the widespread fraud alleged in the last elections is repeated. They say there must be an agenda for serious reforms to put Afghanistan's government on a sustainable path.
"The justice system is ... the attorney general is either in the hands of President Karzai or it is an incredibly weak justice system. So there has got to be greater checks and balances so there is some accountability within the system and so that people can channel some of their grievances. Those are some of the minimal reforms that have to happen. There has got to be a way through creating checks and balances through more decentralization of the state to bring more voices, to bring more inclusivity and bring more accountability to the system," said Caroline Wadhams, who is with the Center for American Progress.
At this point the United States and the international community intend to keep funding Afghanistan's efforts to build its infrastructure and provide other basic services to its citizens. But if security continues to deteriorate beyond 2014, these plans could be derailed.
There may be some violence still after 2014, but regional and western countries are supporting an Afghan-led reconciliation process that will ensure a stable and democratic Afghanistan.
Can Turkey Save Afghanistan?
A trilateral conference this month highlighted the possibilities – and limits – to Turkey’s new Central Asia diplomacy drive.
The Diplomat By Richard Weitz November 11, 2011
The recent Istanbul Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia conference has prompted a great deal of discussion, hardly surprising with media outlets running headlines like: “As NATO withdraws, Afghanistan’s neighbors make security pact.”
The only problem with this is that participants didn’t agree a pact with binding commitments, but rather a “vision” document with no means of ensuring that any of the principles and projects will actually come to pass.
Still, the issue is of significant interest, especially with the Obama administration having increased the number of diplomatic initiatives aimed at creating a favorable environment for an Afghan-led peace process. In her first appearance before Congress since returning from a week-long trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the Obama administration’s Afghan-Pakistan war strategy is pursuing three mutually reinforcing tracks: “fight, talk, and build.”
But the United States is far from the only country boosting its diplomacy in the region. Turkey has also been complementing its longstanding military and economic contributions to Afghanistan with some regional maneuvering. Many of Turkey’s diplomatic initiatives have concentrated on improving relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan—or at least keeping their lines of communication open during their frequent bilateral disputes. Like the Obama administration (and other NATO governments), Turkish officials argue that any enduring solution to the conflict will require better relations between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In particular, Pakistani support is needed for inducing the Afghan Taliban to end its insurgency, since the insurgents use Pakistani territory as a base of operations.
Turkish officials say that their country has distinct advantages in this mediation role, including historically good relations with both countries, a shared Islamic faith, and a lack of local proxies or other incentives to interfere in their internal affairs.
Certainly, Turkey has provided extensive assistance to Afghanistan’s security – it has twice led the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and currently heads ISAF’s command for the Kabul region. On November 1, Turkey extended its command of the ISAF’s Kabul region for another year. And, while the Turkish government has refused to deploy its troops on explicit counterinsurgency or counterterrorist operations in Afghanistan, its military forces within ISAF have helped train members of the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police in these tactics. The Turkish government and Turkish non-governmental organizations have, for their part, supported many humanitarian and economic reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, including education, health, housing, and infrastructure improvement projects.
Turkey is helped in its regional efforts by its long-established good ties with Pakistan, dating from their alignment with the Western camp during the Cold War and their common moderate Muslim governments. Their military-to-military exchanges, which include a diverse range of bilateral and multilateral exercises, have continued to this day. In turn, Pakistan may have helped Turkey improve its relations with China and discouraged its Afghan Taliban allies from attacking Turkish troops in ISAF.
Since April 2007, Turkey has hosted six Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Forum meetings involving senior Turkish, Afghan, and Pakistani government officials. But it is determined to move beyond mere declarations. As part of the trilateral process, Turkey earlier this year organized a joint military exercise (on urban warfare) involving all three armies. A trilateral direct video-telephone conference line among the three presidents has also been established, and Turkish officials are now even considering initiating contact with the Afghan Taliban in support of peace mediation efforts.
The latest tripartite summit occurred on November 1, when Turkish President Abdullah Gul hosted Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Zardari in Istanbul. This was a useful step forward after the Taliban’s September 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, which prompted an outraged Karzai to announce he was abandoning attempts to open talks with the Taliban and would instead deal with their Pakistani sponsors.
Through their engagement with the parties, Turkish officials concluded that the two governments were looking for a mechanism to resume their direct dialogue rather than “talking to each other via the media” and other indirect means. “We sense that they have a genuine wish to talk to each other because they realize this trend isn’t helping either of them,” one Turkish official told the press before the trilateral presidential summit in Istanbul.
But was there any substantive progress? The three governments signed agreements to cooperate in education, banking, and other areas, and also agreed to conduct more joint military exercises. Most notably, the three governments agreed to conduct a joint investigation into the Rabbani assassination to complement their individual efforts. Police, intelligence, military, and other representatives from the three governments will participate in this joint mechanism, and will be able to present and review evidence collectively.
Still, comments Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin’s made to the media after the event make it clear that while the meeting may have ended their public feuding for now, only genuine progress on concrete issues will generate enduring forward momentum in their relations: “So we are at a stage where we need to move beyond words, beyond expressions of commitments. We need to get to a stage where we actually do concrete things that will address our concerns with regard to our security.”
The multinational summit that met in Istanbul the following day was aimed to do just that. Formally entitled the Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia conference, the meeting was held at the Ottoman-era Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. Representatives from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates attended the event as full participants and wrote the collective conference communique. These self-designated “Heart of Asia” countries were joined by senior officials from other supporting countries and international institutions, including the United States, many EU countries, and the United Nations.
But the most important development, missed by much of the press, was that the Istanbul conference saw a major behind-the-scenes dispute between Turkey and Pakistan. The result was to limit the conference’s role to that of offering a vision of harmonious regional security architecture. And, although the conference communiqué is an improvement over the even vaguer 2002 Kabul Declaration on Good Neighborly Relations, it’s still primarily a statement of principles and projects without a means to finance them.
The problems Turkey faces in trying to secure a breakthrough are similar to those encountered by the U.S. and other third-party facilitators, including the region’s porous borders, which facilitates the flow of fighters and drugs; poor governance; transnational organized criminal groups that have an interest in sustaining the conflict; week national governments and security forces have facing major Islamist insurgents; and limited and declining commitments by external powers to support regionally driven peace programs.
In addition, the Afghan-Pakistan conflict has elements of a civil war in which the Taliban enjoys some support among the large Pashtun community that straddles the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. For this reason, regionally based peace efforts will invariably struggle unless accompanied by complementary developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan such as more effective governance, better counterinsurgency operations, and a greater desire on the part of the insurgents to lay down their arms and reenter their civilian societies.
And regional rivalries have also impeded Turkey’s peace efforts. While Russia, China, and the West now generally support the same goals, Turkey has found it just as difficult as other countries to manage the India-Pakistan rivalry. The Indians complained when they weren’t invited to the trilateral summits between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey, as well as other Turkey-hosted gatherings on Afghanistan. Indians interpreted their exclusion as a sign that Turkey doesn’t respect India’s legitimate national security interest in Afghanistan.
This past year, Turkish diplomats addressed these concerns by including India in more of Turkey’s diplomatic initiatives regarding Afghanistan, but the shift has irritated Pakistan. Indeed, some Pakistani analysts accuse Turkish officials of distancing themselves from Islamabad’s interests in Afghanistan in order to please Washington “at Pakistan’s expense.” Meanwhile, the main Turkish opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, has attacked the Turkish government for seeking to cooperate with the Taliban (which they denounce as a terrorist group) by considering establishing a Taliban representation bureau on Turkish territory.
Still, the first Istanbul meeting appears to have at least stabilized relations between the Afghan and Pakistani governments. Their leaders have ceased denouncing one another in public. But the impact of the second larger meeting will only become evident during the next few months, when a number of major international conferences regarding Afghanistan will occur in Bonn, Chicago, and then in Kabul in June 2012.
The problem is that although there have been dozens of major international conferences during the past decade, their impact on Afghanistan has remained less than that of the actions of certain individual key actors, especially the governments of Pakistan and the United States as well as the Taliban. Perhaps the impending NATO military withdrawal will galvanize greater efforts to avert a transnational civil war in Afghanistan as the neighboring states wage proxy conflicts—using local Afghan actors as well as their preferred international institutions—among themselves at Afghanistan’s expense.
Another question is whether Turkey’s diplomatic ambitions extend beyond the Afghan issue? There’s growing talk that Turkey may try to formalize ties with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in order to expand its diplomatic toolkit regarding Afghanistan. In June, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping told a Beijing news conference that the Turkish government had indicated through diplomatic channels that it wanted to become a “dialogue partner” of the SCO. In itself, that status would give Ankara a very circumscribed role within the SCO, but it could provide a springboard from which Turkey could then transition to become a formal observer or a full member of the SCO.
Earlier this year, Kazakh officials and the Russian press discussed Turkey’s acquiring some kind of formal affiliation with the SCO, but the Turkish diplomats I met last month in Ankara disclaimed any interest in obtaining some kind of official affiliation with the SCO. I remarked at several meetings in Turkey that some in Washington might see Turkey’s entry as a means to help keep the SCO from moving in an anti-Western direction by diluting Moscow’s and Beijing’s domination of the organization. But they seemed unenthusiastic about Turkey’s playing that role within the organization.
Yet Turkey’s ambitions to influence developments regarding Afghanistan may be leading Ankara to change its position. The SCO has been seeking to expand its role in the Afghan conflict and, for example, plans to hold a large Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan next year. Washington should therefore use its newfound influence in Ankara to encourage such a development.
Not only does Turkey share more Western values than the other SCO members, but Turkey could specifically help keep the SCO aligned with NATO, the EU and other international institutions establish a benign regional security, economic, and diplomatic framework in which the Afghans might just be able to resolve their own differences enough to avert the impending catastrophe.
17th SAARC summit reaches fruitful decisions: Maldivian president
ADDU City, Maldives, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit reached fruitful decisions after many discussions during the two-day meeting, Madivian President Mohamed Nasheed said here on Friday.
SAARC member countries have agreed to direct the SAFTA (South Asuab Free Trade Agreement) Ministerial Council to intensify efforts to reduce the sensitive list as well as reduce non-tariff barriers to trade, Nasheed said in the closing address.
Nasheed said SAARC nations have also agreed to direct the finance ministers to chart a proposal to allow more financial flows and investments.
He said the SAARC secretary general has been instructed to ensure the final preparations for the Indian Ocean Cargo and Passenger Ferry Service are completed this year.
Other efforts have also been made to promote communication between SAARC countries. The president said they have agreed to conclude the Regional Railways Agreement and convene the Expert Group Meeting on Motor Vehicles Agreement before the next Council of Ministers.
The establishment of a South Asian Postal Union has also been agreed, said Nasheed.
On security issues, Nasheed said they have reached an agreement on the Rapid Response to Natural Disasters and agreed to initiate work on combating maritime piracy in the region.
He said all SAARC countries have agreed that they will spend an appropriate proportion of their national income on renewable energy technologies, subject to approval of national arrangements.
He said they have agreed to convene an expert group meeting to discuss a regional mechanism to empowerment of women and promote gender equality in the region.
The SAARC Summit concluded here on Friday with the adoption of Addu Declaration. The declaration, jointly adopted by the eight SAARC member countries, reaffirms their commitment to peace, confidence building, liberty, human dignity, democracy, mutual respect, good governance and human rights.
Founded in 1985, the SAARC is an organization of eight South Asian nations, namely: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
The declaration reviews their commitment to alleviate poverty and reduce income inequalities within the societies and reaffirms their resolve to improve quality of life and well-being of their people through people-centered sustainable development.
In the declaration, SAARC member countries show their concerns about the continuing threat of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, transnational organized crimes, especially illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, trafficking in persons and small arms and increased incidents of maritime piracy in the region; and reiterating their resolve to fight all such menaces.
The declaration says that the countries are aware the environmental degradation and particular vulnerabilities of the region to the threat of climate change and recognize the need to further strengthen the institutional mechanisms of SAARC in order to bolster and enhance regional cooperation.
Foreign ministers from SAARC member countries have signed the agreements on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters, Multilateral Arrangement on Recognition of Confirmity Assessment, Implementation of Regional Standards and Seed Bank.
On Thursday, Indian and Pakistan prime ministers met for talks in what seems to be one of the focal points of the summit. Increasing warmth of relations were observed during the talks between the two parties with hopes for a "new chapter" opening during the next round of talks.
At the opening ceremony of the Summit, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called for all SAARC countries to work together to eliminate terrorism. "Terrorism presents an enormous challenge to the people and SAARC needs to work together to eliminate this menace," he said.
SAARC can also work together to promote culture and arts that can be used to promote tourism in the region. He welcomed a consideration to establish dialogue with partners to promote the travel industry.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to promote fair trade in the region. He spoke positively of the progress made in SAARC terming it as "impressive" and pointed out that many sectors including trade, transport, health and education have benefited from it. "Our summit is taking place at a time when the West is having an economic crisis. In the meantime developing countries like ours will be squeezed for capital and markets and we should look for innovative solutions within South Asian region," he said.
Development within countries would attract foreign investors and freeing of trade between SAARC members would create benefit for all nations.
South Asia has been able to maintain a respectable growth rate and this encouraging trend has resulted in the integration of SAARC and shows the region is on the right path, Singh said.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his address at the opening ceremony of the SAARC Summit focused on the need to create solutions for the youth of South Asia.
The 17th SAARC Summit's theme is "Building Bridges"-- both in terms of physical connectivity and figurative political dialogue.
Chairman of 17th SAARC Summit and Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed announced that 18th SAARC Summit is to be held in Nepal.
Failed Afghan road project shows pitfalls of U.S. efforts
McClatchy Newspapers By Shashank Bengali Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Heading back from a remote section of Ghazni province in September, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Tristan Rizzi radioed his base in eastern Afghanistan and said he wanted to take a slight detour.
Rizzi had his Chinook helicopter fly over the site of a long-stalled, U.S.-financed road project on which the Afghan contractors had pledged repeatedly to resume work. From the air, Rizzi saw a vacant site and no sign of the contractors. Once on the ground, he dialed one of them from a cellphone and asked where they were.
The contractor said they were working on the road — to which Rizzi replied, "No, you're not."
Two weeks later, alleging corruption and theft, U.S. officials in Ghazni terminated the $10 million road contract, pulling the plug on a closely watched infrastructure project in this strategic province and putting themselves at odds with a powerful governor who coalition forces had hoped would be a key ally.
From 2008 to 2010, the U.S. government paid $4 million to RWA, a consortium of three Afghan contractors — only to see it pave less than two-thirds of a mile on a road that's supposed to stretch 17.5 miles. The contractors said the area had become too violent to work in, but U.S. and Afghan provincial officials think that two of the principals absconded to New Zealand and the Netherlands, having pocketed much of the cash.
U.S. officials describe the Ghazni affair in positive terms: They saved the $6 million that remained on the contract for other projects, terminated RWA's existing contracts and blackballed it from future work, and say they're ready to cooperate with Afghan investigators should they decide to pursue legal action against the consortium.
But it's also a reminder that corruption, violence and political disputes continue to plague U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
Even before the failed road project, RWA was notorious in Ghazni because one of its principals, Ghulam Seddiq Rasouli, served jail time about three years ago after Taliban insurgents ambushed one of his construction teams and his security guards fired back indiscriminately, killing at least one civilian, according to Afghan intelligence officials. U.S. officials — who've awarded Rasouli multiple construction contracts — apparently were unaware of his legal difficulties.
As the U.S.-led military coalition plans to hand control of the nation's security to Afghan forces in three years, American diplomats and military officials say they're trying to clean up a contracting system in which hundreds of millions of dollars meant for reconstruction were misspent or allocated to unsavory characters, including those tied to violence against civilians or coalition forces.
Last year, a McClatchy investigation found that U.S. government funding for at least 15 large-scale Afghan programs and projects ballooned from just over $1 billion to nearly $3 billion — despite questions about their effectiveness or cost — in the headlong rush to rebuild the country and shore up its struggling government,.
Indonesia arrests 31 Afghan asylum seekers
AFP
Indonesian police have arrested more than 30 Afghan asylum seekers who were attempting to travel to Australia, a report said Friday.
Police said the men, aged between 20 and 40, had passed through Thailand and Malaysia before being detained on Thursday night in Jambi province on Sumatra island, the state-run news agency Antara reported.
"The police arrested 31 Afghan immigrants because they did not have passports or other official documents," Jambi police chief Yassir told the agency.
Parman Ali, one of the Afghans, said he and the other men were trying to get to Australia.
"Our goal was to go to Australia to seek asylum because our country is still troubled, and therefore we hope the United Nations will help and protect us," Parman told Antara.
Indonesia is not signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, and asylum seekers are regularly locked up as illegal immigrants.
The arrests come 10 days after a boatload of around 70 Afghan, Iranian and Pakistani asylum seekers capsized and sank off the coast of Pangadaran city on Java island, leaving eight dead.
The boat was destined for Kupang on the western part of Timor island, a key transit point for refugees trying to reach Australia.
Thousands of asylum seekers head through Southeast Asian countries on their way to Australia every year and many link up with people smugglers in Indonesia for the dangerous sea voyage.
Canberra has failed in its efforts to set up a regional processing centre in neighbouring countries in an attempt to reduce the flow of asylum seekers heading to Australia.
Hussain Ali, "We need protection not detention"
CANBERRA, 11 November 2011 (IRIN) - Hussain Ali, an ethnic Hazara Afghan, has experienced first-hand the flaws in Australia's mandatory detention policy. For more than 21 months, he has been held at the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), one of eight high-security facilities across Australia for boat people, unsure whether his application for refugee status will be accepted or not.
From the remote facility in Western Australia's far north - the nation's largest with an operational capacity of more than 1,200 detainees - the 25-year-old told IRIN why he fled his homeland.
"This is my second attempt to seek refugee status in Australia. I was just 15 when I first fled Afghanistan after the Taliban began forcibly conscripting young boys in the village. Life for Hazaras like me is particularly difficult in Afghanistan. We are Shias and look different from most Afghans so the Taliban regularly single us out for abuse. To escape this, my uncle had me smuggled out of the country to Australia.
"When I arrived I was only a minor and didn't know what my rights were. Over the next three years in detention, I had no contact with my family and often fell into depression. Being in detention for so long is mentally exhausting. I don't know how else to describe it.
"Then [former prime minister] John Howard's so-called 'Pacific Solution' started [in 2001] and they asked many of us to return voluntarily. Many took up the offer and returned to Afghanistan, only to be beheaded by the Taliban once they arrived. I too felt I had no choice but to return. When I returned, I contacted my family who had been driven off their land by the Taliban and fled to Pakistan in late 2002. In 2003, I joined them outside Quetta in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan Province.
"But life in Pakistan wasn't much better. There we were regularly discriminated against and abused as well - often quite violently. And as we didn't have the legal right to be there or work, many of us found ourselves having to work in a local coal mine where conditions were nothing short of dire. I worked there from 2003 until January 2010 where I regularly witnessed first-hand the violence and brutality meted out against Hazaras like me.
"We couldn't even go to the market or do anything as fundamentalist groups have declared us infidels. They even thought by killing us they would go to paradise, while local residents would throw stones at us. Meanwhile, the Pakistani authorities did little to protect us. In fact, we often had to pay the police bribes just to avoid arrest.
"In 2009, fundamentalist groups in the area called on us to leave, saying we didn't belong there. And when we didn't, they responded by beheading five Hazara coal miners, which prompted me again to flee again to Australia.
"Since my departure, things have not improved. Since 2002, hundreds of Hazaras have been killed in Pakistan.
"I arrived in Australia for the second time on 1 February 2010. Now more than 21 months on, I'm still in detention. My initial application for refugee status was rejected after 14 months, while I still haven't received a response to my appeal seven months ago. I don't know what will happen next to me or my family. Please help us. We need protection not detention."
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Farid Behbud
KABUL, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people including six suicide bombers have been killed in the most recent Taliban-led violent attacks in insurgency-hit country since Thursday morning.
In the latest string of violent attacks, Taliban insurgents carried out an attack in the country's restive southern region that left a NATO soldier dead in Friday, the military alliance confirmed.
"An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan today," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement released here in Afghan capital Kabul on Friday.
However, the brief statement did not provide details as to the exact place of the incident and the nationality of the victim under ISAF policy, only saying "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."
Over 510 NATO soldiers, most of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year.
This is the third security incident since Thursday morning.
Four suicide bombers and three Afghan policemen were killed when Taliban launched a coordinated attack against a district headquarters in eastern Paktia province on Thursday afternoon, Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed on Friday.
According to local media reports the attack on Samkani district occurred when a meeting between the governor of Chamkani district and local elders, who were due to attend a Loya Jirga or grand assembly to be held in Kabul, was underway in the province, some 100 km south of Kabul.
Afghan government is going to convene the Loya Jirga, possibly on Nov. 16, to discuss the proposed Afghan-U.S. strategic partnership and the peace process.
"A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of Samkani district headquarters and then a group of militants, probably suicide attackers, tried to enter," said Abdul Rahman Mangal, the deputy provincial governor of Paktia.
"The attack began at approximately 3:15 p.m. (1045 GMT), with insurgents continuing to fight after barricading themselves inside a mosque. The battle ended at approximately 5 p.m. (1300 GMT) after a U.S. helicopter received permission from Afghan government officials to engage the insurgents," a statement issued by ISAF' s Regional Command-East late on Thursday said.
"This is the third failed insurgent attack within the last month. They are getting more and more desperate. That they would attack from a mosque shows what little regard they have for the Afghan people," U.S. Brig. Gen. Gary Volesky, deputy commander, Regional Command-East said in the statement. "The Afghan police demonstrated their continued capability to protect and fight for the citizens."
The coming four-day Loya Jirga is scheduled to be held under a giant tent inside the Polytechnic University compound in Kabul, and as part of the security measures, the Afghan government has given days-off for the students of Polytechnic during the Jirga, besides stationing police on the hilltops and roads leading to the Jirga avenue.
Taliban militants, who attacked a peace Jirge, or peace gathering, under the same tent in 2010, have warned sternly to disrupt the coming event which will be attended by more than 2,000 representatives from all over the country.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (name of the ousted Taliban regime) calls on its brave and courageous Mujahideen (holy warriors) to target every security guard, person with intention to participate in the so-called Loya Jirga, and such traitors will be pursued by Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate in every corner of the country and will face severe repercussions," the statement warned.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for Paktia's attack, a purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told local media, via cell phone from undisclosed location, that his fighters killed over 10 Afghan and NATO forces members in the attack.
Separately, two civilians were killed and a child was injured when a suicide bomber, apparently targeting an ISAF military convoy, blew his explosive-led vehicle up in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of southern Helmand province, on Thursday evening.
A spokesman for Helmand's provincial government confirmed the incident, adding no Afghan or ISAF forces were killed in the attack in the province where Afghan police and army already took full contrail of its provincial capital of Lashkar Gah in July this year.
What's more, on Friday evening, a statement from south Afghan province Kandahar said an armed insurgent was killed in firefight between Afghan National Police and armed insurgents in Zhari District of Kandahar Province on Friday afternoon.
"The insurgent was killed after a group of insurgents equipped with small arms attacked a police checkpoint in Nalgham village of the above mentioned district at 4 p.m. (1130 GMT)," said the statement.
"Afghan National Police has very professionally repelled the insurgent attack and backed it with the death of one insurgent. An investigation was launched by Afghan National Police to find out the safe havens of the insurgents who escaped from the fight this afternoon. No ANP or civilian casualties or economic loss have been reported from the fight."
Defence Minister jets to Afghanistan to mark Remembrance Day with troops
By Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Fighter jets roared through the cloudless Afghan sky and Chinook helicopters hovered overhead as Canadians marked a final Remembrance Day in Kandahar.
Every takeoff and landing was a reminder that even as the Canadian military closes a chapter on the decade-long conflict in Afghanistan, a fierce battle still rages beyond the confines of Kandahar Airfield.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay made the long trip to southern Afghanistan to mark the occasion with the 1,000 or so troops who are packing up Canada's gear now that the combat mission has ended.
He read aloud the names of the Canadians who have died as part of the decade-long mission in Afghanistan as poppies were placed on each black marble plaque on the cenotaph.
"It is obviously very poignant, it's a very solemn feeling knowing that with each name, it's piercing the heart of a family to have lost a loved one here," MacKay later told reporters.
"But there's also an enormous sense of pride that those sacrifices are not in vain."
The family members of some fallen soldiers placed poppies on the plaques of their lost loved ones.
Amanda Cushley laid a poppy next to the etching of her brother, Pte. William Jonathan James Cushley, a member of 1st Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, who died in Afghanistan in September 2006.
Silver Cross mothers Karen Megeney and Mabel Girouard then laid poppies next to the plaques bearing the names and likenesses of their sons, Cpl. Ronald Kevin Megeney and Chief Warrant Officer Robert Michel Joseph Girouard.
Later, Cpl. Kelly James laid a poppy next to the etching of her brother, Cpl. Mark Robert McLaren of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment, who was killed in Afghanistan in December 2008.
Then MacKay read the names of American soldiers killed while serving with the Canadians.
At least one Canadian soldier was overheard sniffling as MacKay read the names of the dead. An American soldier with the name tag "Scott" on the back of his cap took a photograph with a small point-and-shoot camera.
"Lest we forget," MacKay said before returning to his seat.
One female soldier mouthed the words to the poem "In Flanders Fields" before Canadian musician George Canyon sang "Danny Boy" as two more Chinooks rose into the sky behind him.
Flags were lowered to half-mast and wreaths were laid in honour of the 158 Canadian military personnel killed as part of the Afghan mission.
One diplomat, one journalist and two aid workers have also been killed.
Starting Saturday, military engineers will start dismantling the cenotaph so it can be shipped back to Canada. The military is considering several spots in Ottawa to put the memorial, with one of the preferred locations being Beechwood Cemetary in the city's east end, home to the national military cemetery.
Canada's combat mission officially ended this summer, but 950 military trainers will remain in and around the capital city of Kabul through 2014 as part of NATO's training mission.
Smaller contingents of Canadian trainers have also been deployed to the cities of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Herat in the west near the border with Iran.
Australian soldier wounded in Afghanistan gun battle
CANBERRA, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- An Australian soldier has been wounded after coming under fire from insurgents in Afghanistan, Australian Defense Force confirmed on Friday.
The incident happened on Thursday afternoon when a joint patrol of Afghan and Australian troops came under fire from insurgents in the southern province of Uruzgan.
The Australian soldier was wounded by small arms fire after more than four hours of skirmishes between the patrol and insurgent gunmen armed with automatic weapons.
According to Acting Chief of Joint Operations, Rear Admiral David Johnston, the wounded soldier is now receiving medical treatment at the Role Three Military Hospital at Kandahar Airfield.
"The wounded soldier has been assessed as being stable and in a satisfactory condition," he said in a statement released on Friday.
The incident brought 213 Australian Defense Force personnel wounded in Afghanistan since 2001.
Police: Mother, Daughter Shot Dead In Afghanistan
November 11, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Police say a mother and daughter have been killed in their home in eastern Afghanistan by armed men who apparently accused them of "immoral activities."
Ghazni provincial police chief Zilawar Zahid said the two attackers burst into the home of the widow and her daughter in Ghazni city on November 11 and shot them dead.
Zahid denied media reports that the women were stoned to death.
Neighbors and unnamed officials blamed the Taliban, who they said had accused the women of "moral deviation and adultery."
Women's rights have improved in some parts of Afghanistan since the Taliban were forced out of power, but many still face violence, particularly in areas where the militant Islamists remain powerful such as Ghazni.
compiled from agency reports
Experts Say Political Reforms Needed for Afghanistan's Stability
VOA News November 10, 2011 Muhammad Atif
Washington - U.S. and NATO combat forces are set to leave Afghanistan by 2014. Afghanistan's neighbors and Western countries are pledging their commitment to the country's security and economic stability, while allowing the country to take ownership of its economic future. But some Washington-based analysts say that Afghanistan also needs some political reforms.
During a recent visit to Turkey, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that there will not be any hope for peace in his country without help from its neighbors in fighting terrorist groups. The Istanbul conference, hosted by Turkey and Afghanistan, involved top diplomats from the region, and the west.
The United States is working with its partners to build what's being called a "New Silk Road" to embed Afghanistan in the economic life of the region. The plan aims to boost trade in the region by linking Central Asia's roads and railways with Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
"The bottom line is, you can't make Afghanistan a New Silk Road unless you stabilize the country and stabilize the politics," noted Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "So all these visions for the future are sort of getting ahead of the immediate job at hand which is to continue to stabilize Afghanistan."
O'Hanlon, who specializes in national security and defense policy, says the troop drawdown policy is reasonably sketched out, but the harder part is to strengthen the Afghan political system.
"2014 is also the year that President Karzai has to step down. We need to help Afghans have some meaningful way to choose who is going to replace him. Unfortunately, the Afghan constitution, for which my country has some responsibility, creates a very strong President and weak political parties, weak Parliament, weak alternative centers of political influence. And that leaves you poorly prepared for a presidential election where the incumbent cannot run," O'Hanlon noted.
Some analysts warn the 2014 elections will be a "disaster," if the widespread fraud alleged in the last elections is repeated. They say there must be an agenda for serious reforms to put Afghanistan's government on a sustainable path.
"The justice system is ... the attorney general is either in the hands of President Karzai or it is an incredibly weak justice system. So there has got to be greater checks and balances so there is some accountability within the system and so that people can channel some of their grievances. Those are some of the minimal reforms that have to happen. There has got to be a way through creating checks and balances through more decentralization of the state to bring more voices, to bring more inclusivity and bring more accountability to the system," said Caroline Wadhams, who is with the Center for American Progress.
At this point the United States and the international community intend to keep funding Afghanistan's efforts to build its infrastructure and provide other basic services to its citizens. But if security continues to deteriorate beyond 2014, these plans could be derailed.
There may be some violence still after 2014, but regional and western countries are supporting an Afghan-led reconciliation process that will ensure a stable and democratic Afghanistan.
Can Turkey Save Afghanistan?
A trilateral conference this month highlighted the possibilities – and limits – to Turkey’s new Central Asia diplomacy drive.
The Diplomat By Richard Weitz November 11, 2011
The recent Istanbul Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia conference has prompted a great deal of discussion, hardly surprising with media outlets running headlines like: “As NATO withdraws, Afghanistan’s neighbors make security pact.”
The only problem with this is that participants didn’t agree a pact with binding commitments, but rather a “vision” document with no means of ensuring that any of the principles and projects will actually come to pass.
Still, the issue is of significant interest, especially with the Obama administration having increased the number of diplomatic initiatives aimed at creating a favorable environment for an Afghan-led peace process. In her first appearance before Congress since returning from a week-long trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the Obama administration’s Afghan-Pakistan war strategy is pursuing three mutually reinforcing tracks: “fight, talk, and build.”
But the United States is far from the only country boosting its diplomacy in the region. Turkey has also been complementing its longstanding military and economic contributions to Afghanistan with some regional maneuvering. Many of Turkey’s diplomatic initiatives have concentrated on improving relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan—or at least keeping their lines of communication open during their frequent bilateral disputes. Like the Obama administration (and other NATO governments), Turkish officials argue that any enduring solution to the conflict will require better relations between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In particular, Pakistani support is needed for inducing the Afghan Taliban to end its insurgency, since the insurgents use Pakistani territory as a base of operations.
Turkish officials say that their country has distinct advantages in this mediation role, including historically good relations with both countries, a shared Islamic faith, and a lack of local proxies or other incentives to interfere in their internal affairs.
Certainly, Turkey has provided extensive assistance to Afghanistan’s security – it has twice led the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and currently heads ISAF’s command for the Kabul region. On November 1, Turkey extended its command of the ISAF’s Kabul region for another year. And, while the Turkish government has refused to deploy its troops on explicit counterinsurgency or counterterrorist operations in Afghanistan, its military forces within ISAF have helped train members of the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police in these tactics. The Turkish government and Turkish non-governmental organizations have, for their part, supported many humanitarian and economic reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, including education, health, housing, and infrastructure improvement projects.
Turkey is helped in its regional efforts by its long-established good ties with Pakistan, dating from their alignment with the Western camp during the Cold War and their common moderate Muslim governments. Their military-to-military exchanges, which include a diverse range of bilateral and multilateral exercises, have continued to this day. In turn, Pakistan may have helped Turkey improve its relations with China and discouraged its Afghan Taliban allies from attacking Turkish troops in ISAF.
Since April 2007, Turkey has hosted six Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Forum meetings involving senior Turkish, Afghan, and Pakistani government officials. But it is determined to move beyond mere declarations. As part of the trilateral process, Turkey earlier this year organized a joint military exercise (on urban warfare) involving all three armies. A trilateral direct video-telephone conference line among the three presidents has also been established, and Turkish officials are now even considering initiating contact with the Afghan Taliban in support of peace mediation efforts.
The latest tripartite summit occurred on November 1, when Turkish President Abdullah Gul hosted Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Zardari in Istanbul. This was a useful step forward after the Taliban’s September 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, which prompted an outraged Karzai to announce he was abandoning attempts to open talks with the Taliban and would instead deal with their Pakistani sponsors.
Through their engagement with the parties, Turkish officials concluded that the two governments were looking for a mechanism to resume their direct dialogue rather than “talking to each other via the media” and other indirect means. “We sense that they have a genuine wish to talk to each other because they realize this trend isn’t helping either of them,” one Turkish official told the press before the trilateral presidential summit in Istanbul.
But was there any substantive progress? The three governments signed agreements to cooperate in education, banking, and other areas, and also agreed to conduct more joint military exercises. Most notably, the three governments agreed to conduct a joint investigation into the Rabbani assassination to complement their individual efforts. Police, intelligence, military, and other representatives from the three governments will participate in this joint mechanism, and will be able to present and review evidence collectively.
Still, comments Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin’s made to the media after the event make it clear that while the meeting may have ended their public feuding for now, only genuine progress on concrete issues will generate enduring forward momentum in their relations: “So we are at a stage where we need to move beyond words, beyond expressions of commitments. We need to get to a stage where we actually do concrete things that will address our concerns with regard to our security.”
The multinational summit that met in Istanbul the following day was aimed to do just that. Formally entitled the Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia conference, the meeting was held at the Ottoman-era Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. Representatives from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates attended the event as full participants and wrote the collective conference communique. These self-designated “Heart of Asia” countries were joined by senior officials from other supporting countries and international institutions, including the United States, many EU countries, and the United Nations.
But the most important development, missed by much of the press, was that the Istanbul conference saw a major behind-the-scenes dispute between Turkey and Pakistan. The result was to limit the conference’s role to that of offering a vision of harmonious regional security architecture. And, although the conference communiqué is an improvement over the even vaguer 2002 Kabul Declaration on Good Neighborly Relations, it’s still primarily a statement of principles and projects without a means to finance them.
The problems Turkey faces in trying to secure a breakthrough are similar to those encountered by the U.S. and other third-party facilitators, including the region’s porous borders, which facilitates the flow of fighters and drugs; poor governance; transnational organized criminal groups that have an interest in sustaining the conflict; week national governments and security forces have facing major Islamist insurgents; and limited and declining commitments by external powers to support regionally driven peace programs.
In addition, the Afghan-Pakistan conflict has elements of a civil war in which the Taliban enjoys some support among the large Pashtun community that straddles the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. For this reason, regionally based peace efforts will invariably struggle unless accompanied by complementary developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan such as more effective governance, better counterinsurgency operations, and a greater desire on the part of the insurgents to lay down their arms and reenter their civilian societies.
And regional rivalries have also impeded Turkey’s peace efforts. While Russia, China, and the West now generally support the same goals, Turkey has found it just as difficult as other countries to manage the India-Pakistan rivalry. The Indians complained when they weren’t invited to the trilateral summits between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey, as well as other Turkey-hosted gatherings on Afghanistan. Indians interpreted their exclusion as a sign that Turkey doesn’t respect India’s legitimate national security interest in Afghanistan.
This past year, Turkish diplomats addressed these concerns by including India in more of Turkey’s diplomatic initiatives regarding Afghanistan, but the shift has irritated Pakistan. Indeed, some Pakistani analysts accuse Turkish officials of distancing themselves from Islamabad’s interests in Afghanistan in order to please Washington “at Pakistan’s expense.” Meanwhile, the main Turkish opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, has attacked the Turkish government for seeking to cooperate with the Taliban (which they denounce as a terrorist group) by considering establishing a Taliban representation bureau on Turkish territory.
Still, the first Istanbul meeting appears to have at least stabilized relations between the Afghan and Pakistani governments. Their leaders have ceased denouncing one another in public. But the impact of the second larger meeting will only become evident during the next few months, when a number of major international conferences regarding Afghanistan will occur in Bonn, Chicago, and then in Kabul in June 2012.
The problem is that although there have been dozens of major international conferences during the past decade, their impact on Afghanistan has remained less than that of the actions of certain individual key actors, especially the governments of Pakistan and the United States as well as the Taliban. Perhaps the impending NATO military withdrawal will galvanize greater efforts to avert a transnational civil war in Afghanistan as the neighboring states wage proxy conflicts—using local Afghan actors as well as their preferred international institutions—among themselves at Afghanistan’s expense.
Another question is whether Turkey’s diplomatic ambitions extend beyond the Afghan issue? There’s growing talk that Turkey may try to formalize ties with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in order to expand its diplomatic toolkit regarding Afghanistan. In June, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping told a Beijing news conference that the Turkish government had indicated through diplomatic channels that it wanted to become a “dialogue partner” of the SCO. In itself, that status would give Ankara a very circumscribed role within the SCO, but it could provide a springboard from which Turkey could then transition to become a formal observer or a full member of the SCO.
Earlier this year, Kazakh officials and the Russian press discussed Turkey’s acquiring some kind of formal affiliation with the SCO, but the Turkish diplomats I met last month in Ankara disclaimed any interest in obtaining some kind of official affiliation with the SCO. I remarked at several meetings in Turkey that some in Washington might see Turkey’s entry as a means to help keep the SCO from moving in an anti-Western direction by diluting Moscow’s and Beijing’s domination of the organization. But they seemed unenthusiastic about Turkey’s playing that role within the organization.
Yet Turkey’s ambitions to influence developments regarding Afghanistan may be leading Ankara to change its position. The SCO has been seeking to expand its role in the Afghan conflict and, for example, plans to hold a large Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan next year. Washington should therefore use its newfound influence in Ankara to encourage such a development.
Not only does Turkey share more Western values than the other SCO members, but Turkey could specifically help keep the SCO aligned with NATO, the EU and other international institutions establish a benign regional security, economic, and diplomatic framework in which the Afghans might just be able to resolve their own differences enough to avert the impending catastrophe.
17th SAARC summit reaches fruitful decisions: Maldivian president
ADDU City, Maldives, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit reached fruitful decisions after many discussions during the two-day meeting, Madivian President Mohamed Nasheed said here on Friday.
SAARC member countries have agreed to direct the SAFTA (South Asuab Free Trade Agreement) Ministerial Council to intensify efforts to reduce the sensitive list as well as reduce non-tariff barriers to trade, Nasheed said in the closing address.
Nasheed said SAARC nations have also agreed to direct the finance ministers to chart a proposal to allow more financial flows and investments.
He said the SAARC secretary general has been instructed to ensure the final preparations for the Indian Ocean Cargo and Passenger Ferry Service are completed this year.
Other efforts have also been made to promote communication between SAARC countries. The president said they have agreed to conclude the Regional Railways Agreement and convene the Expert Group Meeting on Motor Vehicles Agreement before the next Council of Ministers.
The establishment of a South Asian Postal Union has also been agreed, said Nasheed.
On security issues, Nasheed said they have reached an agreement on the Rapid Response to Natural Disasters and agreed to initiate work on combating maritime piracy in the region.
He said all SAARC countries have agreed that they will spend an appropriate proportion of their national income on renewable energy technologies, subject to approval of national arrangements.
He said they have agreed to convene an expert group meeting to discuss a regional mechanism to empowerment of women and promote gender equality in the region.
The SAARC Summit concluded here on Friday with the adoption of Addu Declaration. The declaration, jointly adopted by the eight SAARC member countries, reaffirms their commitment to peace, confidence building, liberty, human dignity, democracy, mutual respect, good governance and human rights.
Founded in 1985, the SAARC is an organization of eight South Asian nations, namely: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
The declaration reviews their commitment to alleviate poverty and reduce income inequalities within the societies and reaffirms their resolve to improve quality of life and well-being of their people through people-centered sustainable development.
In the declaration, SAARC member countries show their concerns about the continuing threat of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, transnational organized crimes, especially illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, trafficking in persons and small arms and increased incidents of maritime piracy in the region; and reiterating their resolve to fight all such menaces.
The declaration says that the countries are aware the environmental degradation and particular vulnerabilities of the region to the threat of climate change and recognize the need to further strengthen the institutional mechanisms of SAARC in order to bolster and enhance regional cooperation.
Foreign ministers from SAARC member countries have signed the agreements on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters, Multilateral Arrangement on Recognition of Confirmity Assessment, Implementation of Regional Standards and Seed Bank.
On Thursday, Indian and Pakistan prime ministers met for talks in what seems to be one of the focal points of the summit. Increasing warmth of relations were observed during the talks between the two parties with hopes for a "new chapter" opening during the next round of talks.
At the opening ceremony of the Summit, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called for all SAARC countries to work together to eliminate terrorism. "Terrorism presents an enormous challenge to the people and SAARC needs to work together to eliminate this menace," he said.
SAARC can also work together to promote culture and arts that can be used to promote tourism in the region. He welcomed a consideration to establish dialogue with partners to promote the travel industry.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to promote fair trade in the region. He spoke positively of the progress made in SAARC terming it as "impressive" and pointed out that many sectors including trade, transport, health and education have benefited from it. "Our summit is taking place at a time when the West is having an economic crisis. In the meantime developing countries like ours will be squeezed for capital and markets and we should look for innovative solutions within South Asian region," he said.
Development within countries would attract foreign investors and freeing of trade between SAARC members would create benefit for all nations.
South Asia has been able to maintain a respectable growth rate and this encouraging trend has resulted in the integration of SAARC and shows the region is on the right path, Singh said.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his address at the opening ceremony of the SAARC Summit focused on the need to create solutions for the youth of South Asia.
The 17th SAARC Summit's theme is "Building Bridges"-- both in terms of physical connectivity and figurative political dialogue.
Chairman of 17th SAARC Summit and Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed announced that 18th SAARC Summit is to be held in Nepal.
Failed Afghan road project shows pitfalls of U.S. efforts
McClatchy Newspapers By Shashank Bengali Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Heading back from a remote section of Ghazni province in September, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Tristan Rizzi radioed his base in eastern Afghanistan and said he wanted to take a slight detour.
Rizzi had his Chinook helicopter fly over the site of a long-stalled, U.S.-financed road project on which the Afghan contractors had pledged repeatedly to resume work. From the air, Rizzi saw a vacant site and no sign of the contractors. Once on the ground, he dialed one of them from a cellphone and asked where they were.
The contractor said they were working on the road — to which Rizzi replied, "No, you're not."
Two weeks later, alleging corruption and theft, U.S. officials in Ghazni terminated the $10 million road contract, pulling the plug on a closely watched infrastructure project in this strategic province and putting themselves at odds with a powerful governor who coalition forces had hoped would be a key ally.
From 2008 to 2010, the U.S. government paid $4 million to RWA, a consortium of three Afghan contractors — only to see it pave less than two-thirds of a mile on a road that's supposed to stretch 17.5 miles. The contractors said the area had become too violent to work in, but U.S. and Afghan provincial officials think that two of the principals absconded to New Zealand and the Netherlands, having pocketed much of the cash.
U.S. officials describe the Ghazni affair in positive terms: They saved the $6 million that remained on the contract for other projects, terminated RWA's existing contracts and blackballed it from future work, and say they're ready to cooperate with Afghan investigators should they decide to pursue legal action against the consortium.
But it's also a reminder that corruption, violence and political disputes continue to plague U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
Even before the failed road project, RWA was notorious in Ghazni because one of its principals, Ghulam Seddiq Rasouli, served jail time about three years ago after Taliban insurgents ambushed one of his construction teams and his security guards fired back indiscriminately, killing at least one civilian, according to Afghan intelligence officials. U.S. officials — who've awarded Rasouli multiple construction contracts — apparently were unaware of his legal difficulties.
As the U.S.-led military coalition plans to hand control of the nation's security to Afghan forces in three years, American diplomats and military officials say they're trying to clean up a contracting system in which hundreds of millions of dollars meant for reconstruction were misspent or allocated to unsavory characters, including those tied to violence against civilians or coalition forces.
Last year, a McClatchy investigation found that U.S. government funding for at least 15 large-scale Afghan programs and projects ballooned from just over $1 billion to nearly $3 billion — despite questions about their effectiveness or cost — in the headlong rush to rebuild the country and shore up its struggling government,.
Indonesia arrests 31 Afghan asylum seekers
AFP
Indonesian police have arrested more than 30 Afghan asylum seekers who were attempting to travel to Australia, a report said Friday.
Police said the men, aged between 20 and 40, had passed through Thailand and Malaysia before being detained on Thursday night in Jambi province on Sumatra island, the state-run news agency Antara reported.
"The police arrested 31 Afghan immigrants because they did not have passports or other official documents," Jambi police chief Yassir told the agency.
Parman Ali, one of the Afghans, said he and the other men were trying to get to Australia.
"Our goal was to go to Australia to seek asylum because our country is still troubled, and therefore we hope the United Nations will help and protect us," Parman told Antara.
Indonesia is not signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, and asylum seekers are regularly locked up as illegal immigrants.
The arrests come 10 days after a boatload of around 70 Afghan, Iranian and Pakistani asylum seekers capsized and sank off the coast of Pangadaran city on Java island, leaving eight dead.
The boat was destined for Kupang on the western part of Timor island, a key transit point for refugees trying to reach Australia.
Thousands of asylum seekers head through Southeast Asian countries on their way to Australia every year and many link up with people smugglers in Indonesia for the dangerous sea voyage.
Canberra has failed in its efforts to set up a regional processing centre in neighbouring countries in an attempt to reduce the flow of asylum seekers heading to Australia.
Hussain Ali, "We need protection not detention"
CANBERRA, 11 November 2011 (IRIN) - Hussain Ali, an ethnic Hazara Afghan, has experienced first-hand the flaws in Australia's mandatory detention policy. For more than 21 months, he has been held at the Curtin Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), one of eight high-security facilities across Australia for boat people, unsure whether his application for refugee status will be accepted or not.
From the remote facility in Western Australia's far north - the nation's largest with an operational capacity of more than 1,200 detainees - the 25-year-old told IRIN why he fled his homeland.
"This is my second attempt to seek refugee status in Australia. I was just 15 when I first fled Afghanistan after the Taliban began forcibly conscripting young boys in the village. Life for Hazaras like me is particularly difficult in Afghanistan. We are Shias and look different from most Afghans so the Taliban regularly single us out for abuse. To escape this, my uncle had me smuggled out of the country to Australia.
"When I arrived I was only a minor and didn't know what my rights were. Over the next three years in detention, I had no contact with my family and often fell into depression. Being in detention for so long is mentally exhausting. I don't know how else to describe it.
"Then [former prime minister] John Howard's so-called 'Pacific Solution' started [in 2001] and they asked many of us to return voluntarily. Many took up the offer and returned to Afghanistan, only to be beheaded by the Taliban once they arrived. I too felt I had no choice but to return. When I returned, I contacted my family who had been driven off their land by the Taliban and fled to Pakistan in late 2002. In 2003, I joined them outside Quetta in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan Province.
"But life in Pakistan wasn't much better. There we were regularly discriminated against and abused as well - often quite violently. And as we didn't have the legal right to be there or work, many of us found ourselves having to work in a local coal mine where conditions were nothing short of dire. I worked there from 2003 until January 2010 where I regularly witnessed first-hand the violence and brutality meted out against Hazaras like me.
"We couldn't even go to the market or do anything as fundamentalist groups have declared us infidels. They even thought by killing us they would go to paradise, while local residents would throw stones at us. Meanwhile, the Pakistani authorities did little to protect us. In fact, we often had to pay the police bribes just to avoid arrest.
"In 2009, fundamentalist groups in the area called on us to leave, saying we didn't belong there. And when we didn't, they responded by beheading five Hazara coal miners, which prompted me again to flee again to Australia.
"Since my departure, things have not improved. Since 2002, hundreds of Hazaras have been killed in Pakistan.
"I arrived in Australia for the second time on 1 February 2010. Now more than 21 months on, I'm still in detention. My initial application for refugee status was rejected after 14 months, while I still haven't received a response to my appeal seven months ago. I don't know what will happen next to me or my family. Please help us. We need protection not detention."
www.afghanistannewscenter.com