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New Afghan opposition coalition says can check Karzai
Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:47am EST
KABUL (Reuters) - Dozens of Afghan political parties launched a new coalition bloc on Thursday hoping to pose a stronger challenge to the government of President Hamid Karzai, which they say is corrupt and misuses funds meant to rebuild their war-torn state.
In a room packed with hundreds of representatives from Afghanistan's provinces and ethnic groups, speakers said the bloc had secured enough support, including from a number of MPs, to provide a real counterweight to Karzai.
Karzai has ruled since soon after the Taliban government was toppled by U.S-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, but his grip on power has come under increasing pressure since a fraud-marred presidential election in 2009.
The National Coalition of Afghanistan, led by Abdullah Abdullah, an ophthalmologist who was Karzai's main rival in the 2009 vote, said the government had done little to rebuild the economy, erect infrastructure and bring people out of endemic poverty during Karzai's 10 years running the country.
Thousands of lives and billions of dollars have failed to secure Afghanistan and only fragile gains have been made in education and women's rights, falling well short of promises made a decade ago.
"We don't have any enmity with our friends who lead the country, but they have lost their way. Afghanistan's people are supporting the government but the gap between people and the government is growing day by day," Abdullah told the crowd.
The political battle has been undermining international efforts to foster good governance, particularly as the West starts handing over control of security to Afghan forces.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan, which stands at about 130,000, is due to withdraw the last of its combat troops by the end of 2014.
Political parties in Afghanistan rarely have the structure or discipline of parties in Western political systems. The new coalition is meant to present a joint opposition ahead of the next presidential vote, also due in 2014.
The bloc called for a more decentralized political system, with proper checks and balances, so the fate of the country is not dictated by a political elite. It also questioned Karzai's desire to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.
One speaker accused Karzai of luring opposition members with money or government positions to sustain their support.
The bloc also accused Karzai of planning to change the constitution to be able to run for a third term in power when his current five-year term ends, an allegation the president has so far denied.
"Ten years for a president of a country is enough time. When will you stop corruption, stop the mafia?" said Humayun Shah Asifi, a 2004 presidential candidate.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
National Coalition of Afghanistan Inaugurated
TOLOnews.com By Tamim Hamid Thursday, 22 December 2011
National Coalition of Afghanistan was officially inaugurated in Kabul on Wednesday. Dozens of politicians and parties attended the opening ceremony and the new coalition warned the government of collapsing if it continues in the same direction.
The members of the coalition said that turning to people's views, a positive change of government and institutionalisation of democracy in the country are its major programmes goals.
A big umbrella to cover all over the country is what the members of the coalition speak about.
The new coalition criticised the Afghan government and claimed that nothing fundamental had been done so far.
"Where is the root of all problems today?" Mohammad Yonus Qanooni, member of the coalition said. "The answer is lack of management and good governance."
"This regime has been one of the most corrupt ones in the country so far. It hasn't been able to form a team to work positively towards implementation of programmes," Noor-ul-Haq Olumi, member of the coalition said.
Meanwhile, efforts to make peace and reconciliation with the Taliban was the main thing that members of the new coalition reacted against.
"We have repeatedly said that reconciliation and paying ransom to terrorism is not in the national interest of Afghanistan," Ahmad Behzad, member of the coalition said. "Today you can see that the government ignores true suggestions of political parties and figures and now it is going deep into crisis."
Meanwhile, the National Coalition emphasised on establishment of peace in Afghanistan.
"Some propaganda exists that the opposition are against the peace process in the country. This is only defamation. We have always wanted permanent peace in the country, we don't want to destroy the bases of this government," Dr Abdullah Abdullah, member of the National Coalition said.
"We follow the process of change, a political, social and national contribution change and moving towards national unity," Ahmad Wali Massoud, member of the National Coalition said.
During the past ten years, several political parties have been formed, but members of this coalition believe that their efforts will have positive impacts on Afghanistan.
U.S. deal with Taliban breaks down
By Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post
The Obama administration, as part of an accelerated push toward anendgame in Afghanistan, last month reached a tentative accord with Taliban negotiators that would have included the transfer of five Afghans from U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Taliban’s public renunciation of international terrorism.
The deal called for the prisoners to be sent to house arrest in Qatar, where the Taliban planned to open an office, and additional actions by both sides, according to U.S. and European officials who would discuss the sensitive negotiations only on the condition of anonymity. Until now, no Guantanamo detainees have left the prison as bargaining chips in a larger deal.
It was the closest that the parties have come to genuine peace negotiations after nearly a year of talks, officials said. They said the agreement ultimately collapsed after Afghan President Hamid Karzai balked at its terms.
“Right now, things have stopped,” said a senior Obama administration official. “Everybody is taking a deep breath.” Contacts with the Taliban are expected to be reestablished early in the new year.
The negotiations reflect a marked change over the past year in what the administration believes is both acceptable and achievable in Afghanistan, apart from the core objective of eliminating al-Qaeda and the possibility that it could reestablish an Afghan presence.
Disappointment in the governments of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, economic and political pressures at home, and sheer fatigue with the decade-long effort have led to lowered expectations as the United States and its allies head toward the scheduled withdrawal of all foreign troops by the end of 2014.
The need to fashion a comprehensive, realistic exit strategy was also underlined in a newly completed National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, a classified assessment produced by U.S. intelligence agencies. Officials familiar with the document described it as uniformly pessimistic about the future.
“We’re not looking for nirvana,” said a second administration official. “We’re pretty sanguine about Afghan ‘good enough.’ That’s the framework” for current strategy discussions, this official said. “That’s why we’re working so hard on reconciliation.”
U.S. commanders have said that the Taliban’s interest in talks stems from coalition gains on the battlefield. But officials said they believe the insurgents are more or less in the same position as the United States in forecasting that the conflict will reach an inconclusive end. Taliban leaders may believe that political accommodation now will better position them for future struggles after the troop withdrawal, officials said.
Short-term agreements with the insurgents, such as the establishment of cease-fire zones, could influence decisions on when to transfer areas to Afghan control. Those transitions could, in turn, dictate the pace of troop withdrawal, as well as longer-term assessments of what “good enough” means in terms of stability and central government control.
Negotiations with Karzai over an ongoing U.S. troop presence beyond 2014 — the Pentagon’s working number is somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 — will be influenced by whether other countries in the region perceive that presence as contributing to or undermining their own security goals.
President Obama has already ordered the withdrawal by September of the 33,000 troops he sent to Afghanistan last year. “The big debate,” a Defense official said, is “can you come up with another number for what happens over the next 12 months” after that drawdown. “The argument will once again be the military saying let’s keep it at 68,000,” the number of troops who will remain in September, “and [Vice President] Biden saying let’s get it down to 20,000 really quickly, with the reality somewhere in between.”
Although Biden lost the argument over the surge in late 2009, officials said the internal administration balance has shifted toward a steeper glide path that would put the Afghans in charge sooner rather than later, in conjunction with a political settlement.
Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said last week that the pace of withdrawal after September will not be resolved until his staff completes a “strategy-based discussion” now underway and receives specific orders from Obama.
But Allen indicated that a change of mission has already been decided, with U.S. troops shifting gradually from broad counterinsurgency operations and “shoulder-to-shoulder” partnership with Afghan troops to an advisory role. “That will in many respects be a preview of how we’ll see our forces postured in the years to come,” he said.
The administration hopes to have all elements of the strategy working together by May, when NATO leaders meet at a Chicago summit to flesh out plans for achieving the 2014 withdrawal deadline.
“Not all of it will be done” in time for the Chicago meeting, the senior official said. “But we would like to be ready to make an intelligent presentation.”
For now, the administration official said, “we see reconciliation as the most important pillar of our effort. It’s one that’s intertwined with everything else we’re doing, especially the military elements.”
The potential transfer of prisoners was the result of at least a half dozen meetings this year between U.S. representatives and a Taliban delegation headed by Tayyib Agha, an aide to Afghan Taliban leader Mohammad Omar. German officials have held other meetings with other Taliban representatives.
“We believe we are talking to the right people, those who have the ability to do confidence-building measures,” the senior administration official said.
“We knew what we wanted — a statement against international terrorism” that would amount to a public break with al-Qaeda, the official continued, as well as a similar statement of support for Afghanistan’s constitutional democracy, “and an agreement to start negotiations with the Afghan government.”
“They want five prisoners from Guantanamo,” among about 20 Afghans being held there, the official said. “They would like an office [in Qatar]. We said okay, but only for the purpose of negotiating with the Afghans. Not for propaganda, not for recruitment, not for an alternative government, but about the future of Afghanistan.”
As discussions progressed rapidly through the fall, officials grew optimistic that a deal could be announced at an international conference on Afghanistan held in Bonn, Germany, on Dec. 5. Aspects of the transaction, including the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners, were first reported by Reuters on Monday.
Agreement initially bogged down as U.S. lawyers expressed concern over the details, including restrictions Congress has placed on the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo — let alone Taliban members. The United States refused to release the detainees and neither side was happy about transferring them to an Afghan prison. Qatar, which had already agreed to host a Taliban office, said it would supervise them under house arrest.
But Karzai refused at the last minute to sign on to the deal.
“During the process, different players play the difficult part at different times,” a European official said. “At the moment, it’s him.”
Although officials said that Karzai has been “fully briefed” throughout the process, his attitude toward negotiations has been mercurial. Officials said he had failed to build political support at home among powerful Afghan players, particularly ethnic Tajiks and other forces in the northern part of the country, whose opposition to peace talks was fueled when an insurgent suicide bomber killed chief Afghan peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani in September.
Since the tentative agreement died, new roadblocks have appeared. Last week, Afghanistan withdrew its ambassador from Qatar because, an Afghan official said, the Qataris had not kept Kabul fully informed of their actions. A statement issued by Karzai’s office said that no Taliban office should be opened until the insurgents stop their “fighting and violence against the people of Afghanistan” and that any such facility should be in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia or Turkey, not Qatar.
After congressional leaders were briefed after the fact on the possibility that such a deal might come to pass in the future, one lawmaker, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) publicly denounced any negotiations with the Taliban. Political pressure against such talks is likely to increase as the U.S. presidential election draws near.
“What you need in a peace process, and surely in this one, is the simultaneous readiness of all major actors . . . to risk the absoluteness of their position,” the European official said. “You need courage to do this. The problem is that sometimes you have it on one side, but the other side is not ready.”
Staff writer Craig Whitlock contributed to this report.
Pakistan Rejects US Findings on Border Attack
VOA News December 23, 2011
Pakistan's military has rejected the findings of a U.S. inquiry into last month's coalition attack that killed 24 Pakistan soldiers at Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
The army said Friday the investigation's findings were "short on facts" and that it would give a detailed response once the formal report is received.
U.S. defense officials Thursday blamed inadequate coordination by both Pakistani and U.S.-led forces for last month's attack.
Brigadier General Stephen Clark, a U.S. Air Force officer who led the investigation, said "an overarching lack of trust" between the two countries prevented each side from receiving specific details on troops and combat locations.
Pentagon spokesman George Little said the investigation found that U.S. forces, given the information they had available to them at the time, acted "in self-defense and with appropriate force after being fired upon."
He said U.S. officers had shared incorrect mapping information with the Pakistanis, leading to a misunderstanding about the location of Pakistani military posts along the border. That, he said, along with other gaps in information about the activities and location of units from both sides, contributed to "the tragic result."
But the investigation found that there was "no intentional effort" by U.S. forces to mislead or target the Pakistani military.
The U.S. Department of Defense expressed its "deepest regret" and "sincere condolences" for the incident, but stopped short of meeting the Pakistani demand for a full apology.
Pakistan refused to cooperate in the investigation. Pentagon officials said Thursday that Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani had been briefed on the U.S. military probe's findings.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said Thursday it agreed with the investigation report.
The attack on November 26 has inflamed already damaged tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan. Islamabad has ordered U.S. forces to vacate a Pakistani airbase they were using, and has indefinitely closed the two main overland routes NATO uses to send nonlethal supplies to Afghanistan.
American media reports on Thursday quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying NATO's failure to inform Islamabad that it was conducting the operation may have led Pakistani soldiers to mistake the coalition forces for Taliban militants.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Outspoken Afghan Rights Official Ousted
New York Times By MATTHEW ROSENBERG December 22, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - There have been few causes that Ahmad Nader Nadery, the prominent Afghan human rights activist, shied away from over the past decade: he spoke out on the killings of civilians by NATO and Taliban forces, on election fraud by President Hamid Karzai’s supporters, even on land grabs by rich and well-connected Afghans whose houses now dominate central Kabul’s broken streets.
But this week, Mr. Karzai and his closest aides seemed to have had enough of Mr. Nadery. He was effectively forced out of the leadership of a national human rights commission, according to Afghan rights activists and Western officials. The decision appeared final, although there remained a slight chance it could be reversed, they said.
Mr. Nadery, 36, has long been an irritant to Afghanistan’s elite. But the final straw for the Karzai administration appeared to be a report that he has championed, which exhaustively details atrocities committed here over three decades of war, the officials and activists said. The officials asked not to be identified because they are lobbying the Karzai administration to be more open about its decision — and to reconsider it. The activists also said they were worried that speaking out publicly could jeopardize their safety.
Mr. Nadery’s ouster from the C, which is appointed by the government but acts independently, raised fresh questions about the Karzai administration’s commitment to human rights, which have been a major focus of the international effort here for the past decade. In that time, a small but vocal community of activists has grown up, and Mr. Nadery was at their forefront.
Lately, though, the activists have found themselves under increasing pressure on two flanks. On one side is a government dominated by former warlords whom Mr. Karzai cannot afford to alienate; on the other, the Taliban and their allies, with their own checkered history on human rights. As the United States starts to cut back its forces and financing and pushes the government to negotiate with the Taliban, hard-won rights for women and minorities face an uncertain future.
The people named as offenders in the report — which Mr. Nadery described on Thursday as his “most important work” — include Taliban commanders and powerful politicians. Many were leaders of the mujahedeen resistance to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and then played major roles in the civil war of the mid-1990s, the officials and activists said; some are now senior figures in the government.
Mr. Karzai’s spokesman did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Mr. Nadery, whose five-year term ran out on Dec. 16, said he was not formally told that his tenure would not be renewed. The terms of two other members of the nine-member commission also may not have been renewed, the officials said.
“This sends a very disturbing message to the people of Afghanistan that if you speak out about human rights, if you demand justice, you will be silenced,” said Dallas Mazoori, a former colleague of Mr. Nadery’s who remains involved in human rights issues in Afghanistan. She called him “the face of human rights in Afghanistan.”
Western officials said they were dismayed that the Karzai administration had made the decision this week at a private meeting of Mr. Karzai and some senior officials and aides whom Mr. Nadery has criticized.
Mr. Nadery’s replacement is an associate of the first vice president, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, activists and officials said; one Western official called the choice “exactly the wrong sign.”
Mr. Nadery declined on Thursday to discuss the details of the atrocities report, which has been in the works for about three years. It was not clear when it would be released. In an earlier interview, he had said the report documented “more than 180 mass graves, some with large numbers.” As for who was responsible, he said: “Unfortunately, it belongs to all sides in different stages of the conflict. The majority of people killed, a lot of them were P.O.W.’s or civilians.”
Mr. Nadery, who grew up in Kabul, was briefly imprisoned by the Taliban in the late 1990s, along with other Kabul University students, for writing reports advocating peace and dropping them anonymously at the United Nations office in the city. “We didn’t know where to send them,” he said.
After the fall of the Taliban, he became a prominent rights activist and was named to the commission in 2004; his five-year term formally began in December 2006.
Mr. Nadery also runs the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan and said he expected to stay on there. But he will lose his government security detail when the decree announcing his departure is released, a step expected on Saturday.
“I’ve received death threats,” Mr. Nadery said in an interview. “I am worried about my life, and my wife and our small daughter and my parents, who live with me.” Still, he said, he did not plan to leave the country.
Rod Nordland and Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
Karzai Sacks Human Rights Commissioner
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Abrahimkhil Thursday, 22 December 2011
Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Thursday sacked Nader Naderi, a commissioner of Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, along with some other members of the commission.
An official on condition of anonymity said that Nader Naderi, Human Rights Commissioner, Fahim Hakim, Mawlawi Ghulam Mohammad Gharib and two other members of the commission were sacked by the president over publishing a report about violation of human rights by some high ranking government officials and disagreements between the commission and the government and Administrative Reforms and Civil Services Commission as well as acting ministers' activities. The Afghan government officials have remained silent in this regard.
Afghan Civil Society Forum describes the action as crackdown on democracy in the country.
According to some sources President Hamid Karzai, Vice presidents, Head of President's Office and National Security Advisor to the President have sacked the Human rights officials.
"It's a pity. It is unacceptable for civil society activists, especially human rights activists in Afghanistan," Director of Afghanistan Civil Society Forum, Aziz Rafii, said. "If such a decision is made by the Afghan government and those around Mr Karzai, it is the beginning of a crack down on democracy in Afghanistan."
This comes as according to the Independent Human Rights Commission Regulations, the president does not have the authority to sack it's commissioners.
The article fourteen of this law which is extracted from article fifty eight of Afghan constitution and United Nations General Assembly Resolution No 134 which organises the activities of the commission says:
1.Member of the commission can be sacked in the following cases if proved with clear reasons:
1. Inability to perform assigned duties
2. Reveal confidential documents of the commission
3. Violation of this law
2. Implementation of this article shall be requested by two third of the commission members and approved by the President.
The Independent Human Rights Commission has 9 members and have been selected for five years.
Meanwhile, some experts believe that there have been pressures from human rights violators.
Pakistan’s Army Rules Out Military Coup
VOA News December 23, 2011
Pakistan's army chief is denying reports the military is looking to oust the civilian government from power amid a scandal over a memo.
General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said Friday speculations of any military takeover are “misleading” and being used to divert attention from “real issues.” Kayani said the army will continue to support the democratic process in the country.
The statement came one day after Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said “conspirators” are attempting to undermine his government as it faces mounting criticism over a secret a memo appealing for U.S. help to prevent a feared military coup.
Pakistan's Supreme Court is deliberating whether to order an investigation into the memo. It was allegedly sent in May by a member of President Asif Ali Zardari's office, asking for U.S. military assistance to thwart a possible coup by the country's powerful military and intelligence services following the covert U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on Friday also moved to allay fears about a possible coup, saying there is “no question of a military takeover.”
The existence of the memo came to light in October, when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz wrote a column in the Financial Times newspaper accusing Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Hussain Haqqani, of writing the memo and asking for it to be delivered to Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military official at the time. Haqqani was subsequently forced to resign.
Prime Minister Gilani and President Zardari have faced increasing pressure to resign over the memo scandal.
Mr. Gilani has insisted the military must operate under the control of the civilian government, saying Thursday there cannot be “a state within the state” and that all the country's institutions are “answerable to this parliament.”
Pakistan plot to overthrow government, says PM Gilani
BBC News 22 December 11
Conspirators are plotting to bring down Pakistan's civilian government, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.
Without specifically blaming the military, he said it was accountable to parliament and no institution could be a state within a state.
His government is struggling with a memo scandal that has forced the resignation of the Pakistani ambassador to the US and threatens the president.
The leaked memo allegedly asked for US help to prevent a military takeover.
Correspondents are describing Mr Gilani's tirade as an unprecedented attack by a civilian leader on Pakistan's powerful military.
"I want to make it clear today that conspiracies are being hatched here to pack up the elected government," the prime minister said in a speech at the National Arts Gallery in Islamabad.
"But we will continue to fight for the rights of people of Pakistan whether or not we remain in the government."
Later, in parliament, he said: "There can't be a state within the state. They have to be answerable to this parliament."
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says there has always been an impression in Pakistan that the powerful military and its intelligence services are a state within the state.
But successive military and civilian rulers have kept up the appearance that the military is a subordinate institution of the state. Mr Gilani's defiant comments and tough language throw the issue open to debate, our correspondent says.
Bin Laden raid
Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, has recently returned to the country after seeking medical treatment in Dubai. The 56-year-old denies any role in the memo.
His illness and the scandal surrounding the memo have led to speculation that he might be forced out of office.
Pakistan's Supreme Court has opened a hearing into the memo and demanded a reply from the president.
Tensions are high between the civilian government, which has ruled since elections in February 2008, and Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence services, after US forces killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad in May. The army was not told about the raid in advance.
Mr Gilani also referred to the controversy over the late al-Qaeda leader, querying how he had managed to get into Pakistan and live there for six years apparently undetected.
He reminded parliament that his government had given "solid support" to the army and its intelligence agency, the ISI, following the raid, which deeply embarrassed the military.
A strike by Nato forces on a Pakistani border post in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. This has caused outrage in Pakistan and made it more difficult for the civilian government to defend its policy of co-operation with the United States.
The army has ruled Pakistan for much of its history and has carried out four coups.
Some analysts have speculated that the "memogate" affair is a conspiracy by the army to embarrass the government.
3 civilians killed in blast in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians were killed on Friday when a mine went off in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, country's Interior Ministry said.
"Three innocent civilians were killed when a sticky mine attacked to a vehicle detonated in Mali village of Takhta Pul district of southern Kandahar province at around 10:00 a.m. Friday, " the ministry said in a press release.
It blamed Taliban for the attack.
Taliban militants who largely rely on roadside bombings have yet to make comments.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group announced to launch a rebel offensive from May 1 against Afghan and NATO-led troops stationed in Afghanistan.
A total of 1,462 Afghan civilians were killed in the first half of 2011, a 15 percent rise over the same period of 2010, according to the United Nations mid-year report released in Afghan capital Kabul in July this year.
1 Taliban killed, 3 police injured in clash in Afghanistan
KABUL, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban rebel was killed and three policemen were injured on Friday in a clash that broke out after the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the country's relatively peaceful Ghor province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.
"A group of armed Taliban launched an attack on a police checkpoint at around 00:00 local time Friday in Ghor province triggering a four-hour fighting that left a Taliban insurgent dead and three policemen injured," the ministry said in a press release on Friday afternoon.
It said the attack occurred in Khoja Ghar area of Taywara district in the province, some 360 km west of Kabul.
Separately, three Taliban insurgents have been killed and three others detained when the Afghan National Police (ANP), army and NATO-led Coalition forces launched three operations in the country' s Kabul, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces over the last 24 hours, the ministry confirmed in another press release on Friday.
The ANP separately found and defused an anti-vehicle mine besides uncovering and seizing 3,000 kg of explosive materials and a handful of weapons in Sari Pul and Uruzgan provinces over the same period of time, it said.
Taliban insurgents, who have intensified activities against Afghan and NATO-led troops stationed in the country, have yet to make comments.
Unmanned cargo helicopter operating in Afghanistan
AFP 22/12/2011
An unmanned helicopter capable of carrying more than 3,500 pounds of cargo (1.6 tonnes) has begun supplying troops in Afghanistan, US military officials said Thursday.
It is hoped the K-MAX, which conducted its maiden flight with cargo in a combat zone on Saturday, will help save lives by reducing the need for vehicle convoys which are often a target of roadside bombs.
The aircraft, deployed by the US Marine Corps, is the service's first unmanned helicopter designed for resupplying troops in remote locations and aviation experts said it heralded a new era in unmanned flight.
"We delivered cargo that was supposed to be delivered by convoy," said Major Kyle O'Connor, of the Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1.
"This is a demonstration phase to test the true capabilities of this aircraft and how well it can perform its job in a combat environment."
It is understood most of the missions will be undertaken at night and at higher altitudes to keep the aircraft out of small arms range.
The aircraft, developed in a joint venture between Kaman Aerospace and Lockheed Martin, are able to drop supplies accurately, a useful capability in Afghanistan where dusty conditions can make flying and landing more difficult.
"It is a milestone, certainly," said Steven Athanas, of Lockheed Martin.
"We have delivered a lot of loads in the States during training, testing and evaluation. Now that we have integrated it into the battlespace, we have gone from what you think can happen -- to what can happen."
The maiden flight saw the helicopter supply troops at Combat Outpost Payne in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
Aviation expert Paul Mcleary of Aviation Week said it heralded the "age of unmanned logistics".
A manned version of the K-MAX was developed in the 1990s and is used for heavy-lifting, including logging.
Ten Years Of Hanging On As An Afghan Potter
NPR December 23, 2011
After the fall of the Taliban, Abdul Wahkeel was the first potter to return to the Afghan village of Istalif.
Istalif had been home to generations of potters who crafted teapots, dishes and pots that glow a jewel-like blue. But Wahkeel and other villagers left after the Taliban torched workshops, smashed pottery and — it was said — killed birds in their cages.
When NPR's Renee Montagne first arrived in Istalif in 2002, she heard Wahkeel's story as he was centering clay on his potter's wheel.
"It is two months now that I have returned back to my home," he told her.
Montagne returned to his story and the village of Istalif again and again over the years. Those reports reveal a man and a community clinging to safety and prosperity as violence rages in other parts of the country.
As Wahkeel rebuilt his home and his business, so did others. The school and a small hydroelectric power plant were rebuilt using money from international donors. Pottery stalls came back to the village, as did a bakery and a clothing shop.
By 2006, things had improved even more. "It's good," Wahkeel told Montagne. "The pottery bazaar has attracted attention. On their days off, foreigners working in Kabul come here to shop for pots."
Fast forward to 2011 — 10 years after the Taliban fell. Wahkeel now has a cellphone he uses to place orders in Kabul for wood in his kiln. He now presses "Made in Istalif" on the bottom of his pots.
And he's training oldest son, Omar, in the family business: "Now he can make glasses, some plates and some small pots."
Over the last 10 years, Istalif has been luckier than most towns in Afghanistan. But those gains are fragile.
"Everything depends on security and peace," he told Montagne recently.
Wahkeel now has nine children. "If there is peace in Afghanistan, they will have a prosperous future. But if not, we don't know what will be their destiny."
Afghanistan: Kabul neighborhood struggles to regroup after bombing
In the corner of a Kabul neighborhood where almost every family lost someone in an early December bombing, the psychological and economic effects are far-reaching.
Christian Science Monitor By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent December 22, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - Before a bomb blast killed his son and injured three of his daughters, hospitalizing two of them, life was anything but easy for Ahmad Shah. Like many in his poor Kabul neighborhood, he eked out enough to survive by pulling a rickshaw-like cart made of scrap wood. Merchants who either had a small load or couldn’t afford a truck hired Mr. Shah to drag their goods across town on his cart.
Shah made enough to support his family’s day-to-day needs, but had to take out loans from microfinance organizations for heating supplies and food during the winter. He had hoped to work off his debt before the spring, but his careful plans crumbled when a suicide bomber detonated himself at religious Ashura festival on Dec. 6, killing more than 80 people, injuring scores, and taking a catastrophic toll on his family.
“I lost my son and I need to take care of my injured daughters. Now I need to borrow money from friends and family to care for them. It will take a long time to pay my debts. It will make my life even more horrible,” says Shah. “Why couldn’t all of us die together so we could have peace and not have these things to make us worry?”
Although only two weeks have passed since the Ashura bombing, it has long faded from the headlines as Afghan news moves on to other macabre events and political developments. Still, the story of those affected by the bombing, one of the largest single-incident losses in recent Afghan history, provides a window into the challenges that face Afghan society as it works to rebuild amid deep-seeded psychological trauma and its far-reaching effects.
After more than 30 years of war, it’s difficult to find an Afghan untouched by violence. Despite persistent NATO statements that the situation is improving, civilian causalities have steadily increased every year since the US-led war began more than a decade ago. In the first half of this year alone, 3,606 Afghan civilians were killed or injured. According to a United Nations report, insurgent attacks caused 80 percent of the 1,462 civilian deaths here.
“War and conflict in Afghanistan have dragged on for more than three decades and caused many Afghans psychological trauma,” says Azizudin Himt, the head of the Afghanistan Psychologists Association. “There is not any survey or census about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but we have many people who suffer from it in this country.”
Dr. Himt adds that a number of people who suffer from trauma struggle to take an interest in their work and move their life forward, a serious problem for a nation trying to put itself together again after nearly a third of a century at war. Additionally, Afghanistan lacks the ability to adequately treat those suffering from psychological problems induced by trauma such as PTSD.
Shah lives a short walk from the Abu Fazal shrine where the Ashura bombing occurred. Made up of mud brick houses and uneven dirt roads, the neighborhood likely doesn't look much different today than it did when it was first formed about 300 years ago. The shrine is also a short distance from several government buildings and a modern luxury hotel where the cost of one night in a basic room is almost double Shah’s monthly earnings.
In his corner of the neighborhood, 50 of those killed or injured in the attack came from 15 families, or a little more than 100 people. One family home now stands empty, the front gate bolted shut, after the blast killed seven and injured seven more people living there. Three family members were already disabled from various incidents over the past several years.
Another man in the neighborhood voluntarily gave up his home, vowing to live the rest of his life in the local graveyard alongside his wife, mother-in-law, and two sons who he lost in the suicide attack. Residents say he spends most of the day wandering the city before returning to the cemetery at night.
“Now we are concerned that maybe we will go deeper into poverty,” says Abdul Hussein, an elder in Shah’s neighborhood who lost his wife in the attack. “Our concerns are like a mountain. We are not people who have businesses and trade that generates a big income. We just depend on our daily work to survive and when you lose people who used to work it creates serious problems for the community.”
Residents say they will support their neighbors who lost breadwinners for a time, but they concede that given their own financial situation it is impossible for them to do so long-term. Help from outside the community has been more or less nonexistent.
Shah’s 12-year-old daughter Tarana, who was injured but not hospitalized, appears in a memorable photograph taken moments after the blast by Agence France-Presse photographer Massoud Hossaini. In the picture, which is likely to become one of the iconic images of the Afghan war, Tarana stands covered in blood with her arms outstretched, crying, and surrounded by a circle of dead women and children. One of her sisters sits among the dead, weeping, her face covered in blood.
“I was really scared by that incident and now when I go to bed at night I can’t sleep. I just lay awake scared,” says Tarana, adding that she also suffers from loss of appetite and no longer likes being outdoors.
Her photo ran in newspapers around the world after the blast and now hangs on the side of the Abul Fazal shrine. Shah keeps a printed copy of the photo, but says he has mixed emotions about it.
“Maybe this picture will help to bring a change, but it won’t be useful for me because I lost everyone. We got harmed and we’re losing more to take care of my injured daughters,” he says.
Lions of Khorasan Make History, Seek Govt Support
TOLOnews.com By Miriam Arghandiwal Thursday, 22 December 2011
A closed book, bearing as a country's forgotten gem, retrieved by a group of twenty men who wiped off its dust, opened its worn cover and turned a new page.
This is how The Lions of Khorasan's goal keeper, Hameedullah Yousufzai, described the recent state of football in Afghanistan.
Nearly two weeks have passed since their return from the South Asian Football Federation Cup finals in New Dehli, and still the streets of Afghanistan are rejoicing over their success.
"Every neighborhood we go to, children come up to us, men stop working to greet us, and women and elders kiss our foreheads in joy and thank us," Yosufzai said.
The team took a devastating 4-0 loss against India. The loss was shadowed by Referee Sukhbir Singh from Singapore granting India a penalty kick followed by Yousufzai receiving a red card for protesting the call.
Chief Coach Yosuf Kargar said the unwarranted call, dampened the team's spirit in the second half of the game causing their defeat. Nevertheless, he is still proud of the boys, for they displayed their skills and potential to the world by their performance in the first half.
"I feel amazing, proud and honoured about the overall journey, it was great and although we didn't win the final, we still achieved victory, and made Afghanistan's name memorable, it's a dream that has come true." Belal Arezou, striker for the national team and leading striker of second division of Norwegian club, said.
Yosufzai said, Afghan people had lost faith in Afghan football, particularly in the last decade due to their incessant taste of defeat. Today, that is no longer the case.
"We have changed everything, not only in Afghanistan, but all over the world. The media and people everywhere are talking about Afghan football," he said.
Afghan football was hindered during its three decades of war. First, the sport was disrupted with the Soviet invasion in 1980, then banned under the Taliban regime from 1996 - 2001, and then temporarily disbanded by the Afghan Football Federation in 2004 after players opted out of a training camp in Italy.
The 2011 SAFF cup is the furthest the national team has excelled since it was first founded in 1922. Kargar, who played for the national team himself in the 80's, said the team's recent success could be credited to two factors, unity and recent football advancements in Afghanistan.
Kargar said previous teams were weak because they had no proper training and no fields to practise in. Even with foreign Afghan players on the team, they struggled to unite and succeed.
This year's team had a field to practise in Afghanistan, given to the federation by FIFA, and players had gone through rigorous trainings, he said.
To build a sturdy team, Kargar recruited 12 of the best football players from Afghanistan, and personally travelled to the US and Europe to recruit eight of the best foreign Afghan football players from around the world.
The boys met 10 days before the games in Dubai for a training camp, where they warmed up to each other and worked on becoming familiar with one another's techniques.
Mid-fielder, Mustafa Madar, said his teammates got along well on and off the field.
"At night, we all sat down and talked about Afghanistan, about the war and the violence; they would ask 'How did you guys live there?,' We would tell them we were used to it," Yosufzai said. "We became very close."
Masses witnessed the team's kinship when their war-stricken country's conflict caught up with them.
A day before the team would go up against Bhutan; Madar received a phone call informing him that four of his family members were among the 58 people who were killed in suicide blast at the Abul Fazl shrine in Kabul.
"I was heartbroken and couldn't stop crying," Madar said. "The trainers, coach and my teammates all sympathised with me."
Upon hearing of Madar's loss and seeing the team's devastation, Kargar said he arranged a team meeting before the game the next day.
"Everyone was very emotional at the time. The boys couldn't even eat, their hearts were not with the game at the moment," he said.
As a coach, Kargar said he had to find a way to lead the team to move forward in the tournament.
"We consoled the boys and told them this situation exists in Afghanistan. Today, Mustafa lost his family, we have to do something to uplift him and the people of Afghanistan," Kargar said. "Our job is that we have a game today, a game that we will play for those who passed and for Afghanistan's happiness," he told the team.
The team went on to score eight goals that night against Bhutan, after each score they ran to Madar who sat on the sideline, and celebrated with hugs, empathising with his pain and bring what relief they could.
Their 8-1 victory led to their advancement to the semi finals, where they would play a long grueling game against Nepal. Yosufzai said his team expected it would be a tough match because Nepal was a powerful team that was coached by Graham Roberts, a former football player for Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion clubs.
"They always beat us by three or four goals every time," he said.
Thus, both Arezou and Yosufzai recalled the moment when Arezou scored his 6th and the game winning goal in the 115th minute, one of the best of their lives.
The team's final match gave their fairy tale story an unfortunate end. Nevertheless, the boys returned home far from unsatisfied.
"Our team's accomplishments mean a lot for Afghanistan because it's been in more than 30 years of war, which made Afghanistan's invisible among all the south Asian countries. So, by winning or coming so close to winning these matches is reminding all the (other) countries that regardless of the bad situations in Afghanistan, it still exists and has skilful people in it, with lots of passion in their hearts for their beloved country," Arezou said.
Madar said even with the odds set against them; being placed at 178 on FIFA's world rankings, being unfinanced and having to pay out of pocket for their SAFF expenses, and the countries unfaltering track record of previous performances, he never doubted they would not succeed.
"We were hopeful and confident we would be successful in the tournament," he said."We worked hard, we were skilled, and we were united as a team, that along with the prayers of our supporters is what got us this far."
The team hopes for more support in the future from the Afghan government, Olympic committee and successful Afghan businesses to invest in them so they can keep their momentum up and continue to achieve great results, Yosufzai said.
The team have done their part in showing they can be successful, now it is the elders' turn to do their part, he said.
"This time they weren't supportive the way they should have (been)," Arezou said. "The government needs to support players financially and encourage them so they could have something to hang on to, they should have training camps so they could get ready for it and they should have fixed salary on a monthly basis so they could boost up their energy after training."
The team's success only furthers the federation's responsibilities to the Afghan people, as they have raised the bars for expectations, Madar said.
Anything is possible in this game, even when being a part of a generation raised in war one can succeed as long as they have hope and work hard, he said.
"You must have to have hope, no matter what, never be hopeless and always know your people are always behind you," Madar said.
Yosufzai said keeping their hope and confidence was what kept them motivated when they were overlooked by players from opposing teams during their 10 day training in Dubai.
"We sat down when we were in Dubai and we vowed we'd give a performance everyone would remember. We'd show everyone we were lions, and bring Afghan football to life again," he said.
Body of alleged killer of ex-Afghan central banker found
Reuters By Mary Slosson Thu Dec 22, 2011
Remains of a San Diego man suspected of killing a former head of the Afghanistan central bank who fled to the United States as a political fugitive have been found, police said on Thursday.
Bones identified as belonging to Ismael Raul Lopez, 28, were discovered by recreational divers offshore in the Pacific Ocean and later recovered by public safety personnel, San Diego police said in a statement.
Lopez was suspected by police of killing self-employed cab driver Mir Najibullah Sadat Sahou, 68, in a robbery-homicide in late September. An arrest warrant had been issued in October.
The announcement sheds more light on a mysterious case that some believe was a politically motivated assassination instead of the robbery-homicide police have described.
On September 28, at about 11:35 p.m., Sahou stopped his green-and-white cab along a street in La Jolla, just north of San Diego, according to police. Witnesses saw two men emerge from the vehicle.
A woman who lives near the crime scene says she heard two men bickering loudly in a foreign language before three gunshots were fired. Police later found Sahou dead on a nearby walkway.
The woman said she doubted that robbery was the motive. Sahou's nephew also told local media that his uncle's wallet and ring had been found in the cab.
Lopez fled in the cab, which was later found abandoned and unoccupied by police on a coastal road a few miles away from the site of the shooting.
Lopez either jumped the curb of the coastal road by accident or intended to drive into the ocean, police said. Paint marks on the cab matched marks on the wooden fence above the ocean.
Along with the bones, divers also found part of Lopez's skull with a bullet hole in it, police said.
Homicide investigators said they will continue to work with the medical examiner's office to determine Lopez's cause of death.
POLITICAL ASYLUM
Forced by civil war from his post as governor of Afghanistan's central bank, Sahou was granted political asylum in the United States in 1992 after fighters in his native country seized his home.
Almost two decades later, the French-trained former economist turned full-time cabby and part-time TV commentator was shot to death while working a late-night shift driving his taxi in the upscale La Jolla community.
Some friends and associates of Sahou have raised questions about whether his views on the Afghan government and economy, as aired on a talk show he hosted on the Ariana-Afghanistan International TV network, may have cost him his life.
Nabil Miskinyar, who owns the Irvine, California-based TV channel, said Sahou's commentary for the bi-weekly show, "To Find the Truth," struck a very "neutral" tone, and he doubted the killing was political.
But he said homicide investigators asked Sahou's wife for a copy of her husband's final program, broadcast the week he died, focusing on the September 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, leader of the High Peace Council seeking to open talks with the Taliban, at his home in Kabul.
Sahou ran the central bank under Rabbani and prior to his administration, Miskinyar said.
Despite master's degrees in finance and economics from the Sorbonne in Paris, he was unable to find work in his field in the United States.
He ultimately purchased a taxi cab and began working double shifts. But his daughter Savitar Sahou, 26, said he remained very much a scholar, reading during breaks on the job and writing poetry during rare moments of free time.
Although Sahou eventually became a U.S. citizen, he maintained close ties with Afghanistan and was urged to return to his homeland to seek political office after the Taliban were driven from power, his daughter said. He chose instead to stay and build a new life in the United States.
Sahou "started over and worked very hard to make something of himself here," his daughter said.
(Editing by Peter Bohan)
Indonesia continues search, rescue operation for victims of sinking ship
JAKARTA, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Office has extended a search and rescue operation for missing illegal migrants after their ship sank on Saturday in the waters off East Java to another 7 days as there are still many missing persons, spokesman of the office Gagah Prakoso said here on Friday.
By Friday, the seventh day of the operation on which the rescue should be ended according to Indonesia's rule, the rescuers had found 90 bodies and rescued safely 49 others, the spokesman said, but the national police said that the fatality had been 95.
"We have decided to extend the operation because there are still many people missing," he told Xinhua by phone.
Prakoso said that the area of the operation was going to be widened to the east, where the current moves to and would involve more rescuers. He said that two bodies had been found at the waters off West Nusa Tenggara province hundreds kilometers from the scene. Several bodies had also been found in waters of Bali, which is closer than West Nusa Tenggara, said Prakoso.
"The rescue was going to involve two more provincial search and rescue offices in Bali and West Nusa Tenggara, and of course there will be more people and equipment to be involved or used," he said.
The police had declared four suspects of the tragedy, local media has said.
The wooden ship carrying illegal migrants seeking for asylum to Australia sank at about 40 nautical miles from the TPI Prigi beach of Trenggalek district of East Java. The ship was heading to Christmas Island of Australia, according to the East Java Search and Rescue Office.
Many of the immigrants were from the Middle East such as Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey, according to the office.
Indonesia has been a favorable transit points for illegal immigrants from the Middle East heading to Australia. But, they have frequently weathered sea accidents, as they took the journey with a lack of safety standards, and huge waves in the ocean used to hit and collapse their small ship or boat, leaving dozens fatalities.
Indonesia has set up a cooperation with Australia to address the illegal immigrants.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:47am EST
KABUL (Reuters) - Dozens of Afghan political parties launched a new coalition bloc on Thursday hoping to pose a stronger challenge to the government of President Hamid Karzai, which they say is corrupt and misuses funds meant to rebuild their war-torn state.
In a room packed with hundreds of representatives from Afghanistan's provinces and ethnic groups, speakers said the bloc had secured enough support, including from a number of MPs, to provide a real counterweight to Karzai.
Karzai has ruled since soon after the Taliban government was toppled by U.S-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, but his grip on power has come under increasing pressure since a fraud-marred presidential election in 2009.
The National Coalition of Afghanistan, led by Abdullah Abdullah, an ophthalmologist who was Karzai's main rival in the 2009 vote, said the government had done little to rebuild the economy, erect infrastructure and bring people out of endemic poverty during Karzai's 10 years running the country.
Thousands of lives and billions of dollars have failed to secure Afghanistan and only fragile gains have been made in education and women's rights, falling well short of promises made a decade ago.
"We don't have any enmity with our friends who lead the country, but they have lost their way. Afghanistan's people are supporting the government but the gap between people and the government is growing day by day," Abdullah told the crowd.
The political battle has been undermining international efforts to foster good governance, particularly as the West starts handing over control of security to Afghan forces.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan, which stands at about 130,000, is due to withdraw the last of its combat troops by the end of 2014.
Political parties in Afghanistan rarely have the structure or discipline of parties in Western political systems. The new coalition is meant to present a joint opposition ahead of the next presidential vote, also due in 2014.
The bloc called for a more decentralized political system, with proper checks and balances, so the fate of the country is not dictated by a political elite. It also questioned Karzai's desire to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.
One speaker accused Karzai of luring opposition members with money or government positions to sustain their support.
The bloc also accused Karzai of planning to change the constitution to be able to run for a third term in power when his current five-year term ends, an allegation the president has so far denied.
"Ten years for a president of a country is enough time. When will you stop corruption, stop the mafia?" said Humayun Shah Asifi, a 2004 presidential candidate.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
National Coalition of Afghanistan Inaugurated
TOLOnews.com By Tamim Hamid Thursday, 22 December 2011
National Coalition of Afghanistan was officially inaugurated in Kabul on Wednesday. Dozens of politicians and parties attended the opening ceremony and the new coalition warned the government of collapsing if it continues in the same direction.
The members of the coalition said that turning to people's views, a positive change of government and institutionalisation of democracy in the country are its major programmes goals.
A big umbrella to cover all over the country is what the members of the coalition speak about.
The new coalition criticised the Afghan government and claimed that nothing fundamental had been done so far.
"Where is the root of all problems today?" Mohammad Yonus Qanooni, member of the coalition said. "The answer is lack of management and good governance."
"This regime has been one of the most corrupt ones in the country so far. It hasn't been able to form a team to work positively towards implementation of programmes," Noor-ul-Haq Olumi, member of the coalition said.
Meanwhile, efforts to make peace and reconciliation with the Taliban was the main thing that members of the new coalition reacted against.
"We have repeatedly said that reconciliation and paying ransom to terrorism is not in the national interest of Afghanistan," Ahmad Behzad, member of the coalition said. "Today you can see that the government ignores true suggestions of political parties and figures and now it is going deep into crisis."
Meanwhile, the National Coalition emphasised on establishment of peace in Afghanistan.
"Some propaganda exists that the opposition are against the peace process in the country. This is only defamation. We have always wanted permanent peace in the country, we don't want to destroy the bases of this government," Dr Abdullah Abdullah, member of the National Coalition said.
"We follow the process of change, a political, social and national contribution change and moving towards national unity," Ahmad Wali Massoud, member of the National Coalition said.
During the past ten years, several political parties have been formed, but members of this coalition believe that their efforts will have positive impacts on Afghanistan.
U.S. deal with Taliban breaks down
By Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post
The Obama administration, as part of an accelerated push toward anendgame in Afghanistan, last month reached a tentative accord with Taliban negotiators that would have included the transfer of five Afghans from U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Taliban’s public renunciation of international terrorism.
The deal called for the prisoners to be sent to house arrest in Qatar, where the Taliban planned to open an office, and additional actions by both sides, according to U.S. and European officials who would discuss the sensitive negotiations only on the condition of anonymity. Until now, no Guantanamo detainees have left the prison as bargaining chips in a larger deal.
It was the closest that the parties have come to genuine peace negotiations after nearly a year of talks, officials said. They said the agreement ultimately collapsed after Afghan President Hamid Karzai balked at its terms.
“Right now, things have stopped,” said a senior Obama administration official. “Everybody is taking a deep breath.” Contacts with the Taliban are expected to be reestablished early in the new year.
The negotiations reflect a marked change over the past year in what the administration believes is both acceptable and achievable in Afghanistan, apart from the core objective of eliminating al-Qaeda and the possibility that it could reestablish an Afghan presence.
Disappointment in the governments of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, economic and political pressures at home, and sheer fatigue with the decade-long effort have led to lowered expectations as the United States and its allies head toward the scheduled withdrawal of all foreign troops by the end of 2014.
The need to fashion a comprehensive, realistic exit strategy was also underlined in a newly completed National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, a classified assessment produced by U.S. intelligence agencies. Officials familiar with the document described it as uniformly pessimistic about the future.
“We’re not looking for nirvana,” said a second administration official. “We’re pretty sanguine about Afghan ‘good enough.’ That’s the framework” for current strategy discussions, this official said. “That’s why we’re working so hard on reconciliation.”
U.S. commanders have said that the Taliban’s interest in talks stems from coalition gains on the battlefield. But officials said they believe the insurgents are more or less in the same position as the United States in forecasting that the conflict will reach an inconclusive end. Taliban leaders may believe that political accommodation now will better position them for future struggles after the troop withdrawal, officials said.
Short-term agreements with the insurgents, such as the establishment of cease-fire zones, could influence decisions on when to transfer areas to Afghan control. Those transitions could, in turn, dictate the pace of troop withdrawal, as well as longer-term assessments of what “good enough” means in terms of stability and central government control.
Negotiations with Karzai over an ongoing U.S. troop presence beyond 2014 — the Pentagon’s working number is somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 — will be influenced by whether other countries in the region perceive that presence as contributing to or undermining their own security goals.
President Obama has already ordered the withdrawal by September of the 33,000 troops he sent to Afghanistan last year. “The big debate,” a Defense official said, is “can you come up with another number for what happens over the next 12 months” after that drawdown. “The argument will once again be the military saying let’s keep it at 68,000,” the number of troops who will remain in September, “and [Vice President] Biden saying let’s get it down to 20,000 really quickly, with the reality somewhere in between.”
Although Biden lost the argument over the surge in late 2009, officials said the internal administration balance has shifted toward a steeper glide path that would put the Afghans in charge sooner rather than later, in conjunction with a political settlement.
Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said last week that the pace of withdrawal after September will not be resolved until his staff completes a “strategy-based discussion” now underway and receives specific orders from Obama.
But Allen indicated that a change of mission has already been decided, with U.S. troops shifting gradually from broad counterinsurgency operations and “shoulder-to-shoulder” partnership with Afghan troops to an advisory role. “That will in many respects be a preview of how we’ll see our forces postured in the years to come,” he said.
The administration hopes to have all elements of the strategy working together by May, when NATO leaders meet at a Chicago summit to flesh out plans for achieving the 2014 withdrawal deadline.
“Not all of it will be done” in time for the Chicago meeting, the senior official said. “But we would like to be ready to make an intelligent presentation.”
For now, the administration official said, “we see reconciliation as the most important pillar of our effort. It’s one that’s intertwined with everything else we’re doing, especially the military elements.”
The potential transfer of prisoners was the result of at least a half dozen meetings this year between U.S. representatives and a Taliban delegation headed by Tayyib Agha, an aide to Afghan Taliban leader Mohammad Omar. German officials have held other meetings with other Taliban representatives.
“We believe we are talking to the right people, those who have the ability to do confidence-building measures,” the senior administration official said.
“We knew what we wanted — a statement against international terrorism” that would amount to a public break with al-Qaeda, the official continued, as well as a similar statement of support for Afghanistan’s constitutional democracy, “and an agreement to start negotiations with the Afghan government.”
“They want five prisoners from Guantanamo,” among about 20 Afghans being held there, the official said. “They would like an office [in Qatar]. We said okay, but only for the purpose of negotiating with the Afghans. Not for propaganda, not for recruitment, not for an alternative government, but about the future of Afghanistan.”
As discussions progressed rapidly through the fall, officials grew optimistic that a deal could be announced at an international conference on Afghanistan held in Bonn, Germany, on Dec. 5. Aspects of the transaction, including the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners, were first reported by Reuters on Monday.
Agreement initially bogged down as U.S. lawyers expressed concern over the details, including restrictions Congress has placed on the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo — let alone Taliban members. The United States refused to release the detainees and neither side was happy about transferring them to an Afghan prison. Qatar, which had already agreed to host a Taliban office, said it would supervise them under house arrest.
But Karzai refused at the last minute to sign on to the deal.
“During the process, different players play the difficult part at different times,” a European official said. “At the moment, it’s him.”
Although officials said that Karzai has been “fully briefed” throughout the process, his attitude toward negotiations has been mercurial. Officials said he had failed to build political support at home among powerful Afghan players, particularly ethnic Tajiks and other forces in the northern part of the country, whose opposition to peace talks was fueled when an insurgent suicide bomber killed chief Afghan peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani in September.
Since the tentative agreement died, new roadblocks have appeared. Last week, Afghanistan withdrew its ambassador from Qatar because, an Afghan official said, the Qataris had not kept Kabul fully informed of their actions. A statement issued by Karzai’s office said that no Taliban office should be opened until the insurgents stop their “fighting and violence against the people of Afghanistan” and that any such facility should be in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia or Turkey, not Qatar.
After congressional leaders were briefed after the fact on the possibility that such a deal might come to pass in the future, one lawmaker, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) publicly denounced any negotiations with the Taliban. Political pressure against such talks is likely to increase as the U.S. presidential election draws near.
“What you need in a peace process, and surely in this one, is the simultaneous readiness of all major actors . . . to risk the absoluteness of their position,” the European official said. “You need courage to do this. The problem is that sometimes you have it on one side, but the other side is not ready.”
Staff writer Craig Whitlock contributed to this report.
Pakistan Rejects US Findings on Border Attack
VOA News December 23, 2011
Pakistan's military has rejected the findings of a U.S. inquiry into last month's coalition attack that killed 24 Pakistan soldiers at Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
The army said Friday the investigation's findings were "short on facts" and that it would give a detailed response once the formal report is received.
U.S. defense officials Thursday blamed inadequate coordination by both Pakistani and U.S.-led forces for last month's attack.
Brigadier General Stephen Clark, a U.S. Air Force officer who led the investigation, said "an overarching lack of trust" between the two countries prevented each side from receiving specific details on troops and combat locations.
Pentagon spokesman George Little said the investigation found that U.S. forces, given the information they had available to them at the time, acted "in self-defense and with appropriate force after being fired upon."
He said U.S. officers had shared incorrect mapping information with the Pakistanis, leading to a misunderstanding about the location of Pakistani military posts along the border. That, he said, along with other gaps in information about the activities and location of units from both sides, contributed to "the tragic result."
But the investigation found that there was "no intentional effort" by U.S. forces to mislead or target the Pakistani military.
The U.S. Department of Defense expressed its "deepest regret" and "sincere condolences" for the incident, but stopped short of meeting the Pakistani demand for a full apology.
Pakistan refused to cooperate in the investigation. Pentagon officials said Thursday that Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani had been briefed on the U.S. military probe's findings.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said Thursday it agreed with the investigation report.
The attack on November 26 has inflamed already damaged tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan. Islamabad has ordered U.S. forces to vacate a Pakistani airbase they were using, and has indefinitely closed the two main overland routes NATO uses to send nonlethal supplies to Afghanistan.
American media reports on Thursday quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying NATO's failure to inform Islamabad that it was conducting the operation may have led Pakistani soldiers to mistake the coalition forces for Taliban militants.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Outspoken Afghan Rights Official Ousted
New York Times By MATTHEW ROSENBERG December 22, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan - There have been few causes that Ahmad Nader Nadery, the prominent Afghan human rights activist, shied away from over the past decade: he spoke out on the killings of civilians by NATO and Taliban forces, on election fraud by President Hamid Karzai’s supporters, even on land grabs by rich and well-connected Afghans whose houses now dominate central Kabul’s broken streets.
But this week, Mr. Karzai and his closest aides seemed to have had enough of Mr. Nadery. He was effectively forced out of the leadership of a national human rights commission, according to Afghan rights activists and Western officials. The decision appeared final, although there remained a slight chance it could be reversed, they said.
Mr. Nadery, 36, has long been an irritant to Afghanistan’s elite. But the final straw for the Karzai administration appeared to be a report that he has championed, which exhaustively details atrocities committed here over three decades of war, the officials and activists said. The officials asked not to be identified because they are lobbying the Karzai administration to be more open about its decision — and to reconsider it. The activists also said they were worried that speaking out publicly could jeopardize their safety.
Mr. Nadery’s ouster from the C, which is appointed by the government but acts independently, raised fresh questions about the Karzai administration’s commitment to human rights, which have been a major focus of the international effort here for the past decade. In that time, a small but vocal community of activists has grown up, and Mr. Nadery was at their forefront.
Lately, though, the activists have found themselves under increasing pressure on two flanks. On one side is a government dominated by former warlords whom Mr. Karzai cannot afford to alienate; on the other, the Taliban and their allies, with their own checkered history on human rights. As the United States starts to cut back its forces and financing and pushes the government to negotiate with the Taliban, hard-won rights for women and minorities face an uncertain future.
The people named as offenders in the report — which Mr. Nadery described on Thursday as his “most important work” — include Taliban commanders and powerful politicians. Many were leaders of the mujahedeen resistance to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and then played major roles in the civil war of the mid-1990s, the officials and activists said; some are now senior figures in the government.
Mr. Karzai’s spokesman did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Mr. Nadery, whose five-year term ran out on Dec. 16, said he was not formally told that his tenure would not be renewed. The terms of two other members of the nine-member commission also may not have been renewed, the officials said.
“This sends a very disturbing message to the people of Afghanistan that if you speak out about human rights, if you demand justice, you will be silenced,” said Dallas Mazoori, a former colleague of Mr. Nadery’s who remains involved in human rights issues in Afghanistan. She called him “the face of human rights in Afghanistan.”
Western officials said they were dismayed that the Karzai administration had made the decision this week at a private meeting of Mr. Karzai and some senior officials and aides whom Mr. Nadery has criticized.
Mr. Nadery’s replacement is an associate of the first vice president, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, activists and officials said; one Western official called the choice “exactly the wrong sign.”
Mr. Nadery declined on Thursday to discuss the details of the atrocities report, which has been in the works for about three years. It was not clear when it would be released. In an earlier interview, he had said the report documented “more than 180 mass graves, some with large numbers.” As for who was responsible, he said: “Unfortunately, it belongs to all sides in different stages of the conflict. The majority of people killed, a lot of them were P.O.W.’s or civilians.”
Mr. Nadery, who grew up in Kabul, was briefly imprisoned by the Taliban in the late 1990s, along with other Kabul University students, for writing reports advocating peace and dropping them anonymously at the United Nations office in the city. “We didn’t know where to send them,” he said.
After the fall of the Taliban, he became a prominent rights activist and was named to the commission in 2004; his five-year term formally began in December 2006.
Mr. Nadery also runs the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan and said he expected to stay on there. But he will lose his government security detail when the decree announcing his departure is released, a step expected on Saturday.
“I’ve received death threats,” Mr. Nadery said in an interview. “I am worried about my life, and my wife and our small daughter and my parents, who live with me.” Still, he said, he did not plan to leave the country.
Rod Nordland and Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
Karzai Sacks Human Rights Commissioner
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Abrahimkhil Thursday, 22 December 2011
Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Thursday sacked Nader Naderi, a commissioner of Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, along with some other members of the commission.
An official on condition of anonymity said that Nader Naderi, Human Rights Commissioner, Fahim Hakim, Mawlawi Ghulam Mohammad Gharib and two other members of the commission were sacked by the president over publishing a report about violation of human rights by some high ranking government officials and disagreements between the commission and the government and Administrative Reforms and Civil Services Commission as well as acting ministers' activities. The Afghan government officials have remained silent in this regard.
Afghan Civil Society Forum describes the action as crackdown on democracy in the country.
According to some sources President Hamid Karzai, Vice presidents, Head of President's Office and National Security Advisor to the President have sacked the Human rights officials.
"It's a pity. It is unacceptable for civil society activists, especially human rights activists in Afghanistan," Director of Afghanistan Civil Society Forum, Aziz Rafii, said. "If such a decision is made by the Afghan government and those around Mr Karzai, it is the beginning of a crack down on democracy in Afghanistan."
This comes as according to the Independent Human Rights Commission Regulations, the president does not have the authority to sack it's commissioners.
The article fourteen of this law which is extracted from article fifty eight of Afghan constitution and United Nations General Assembly Resolution No 134 which organises the activities of the commission says:
1.Member of the commission can be sacked in the following cases if proved with clear reasons:
1. Inability to perform assigned duties
2. Reveal confidential documents of the commission
3. Violation of this law
2. Implementation of this article shall be requested by two third of the commission members and approved by the President.
The Independent Human Rights Commission has 9 members and have been selected for five years.
Meanwhile, some experts believe that there have been pressures from human rights violators.
Pakistan’s Army Rules Out Military Coup
VOA News December 23, 2011
Pakistan's army chief is denying reports the military is looking to oust the civilian government from power amid a scandal over a memo.
General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said Friday speculations of any military takeover are “misleading” and being used to divert attention from “real issues.” Kayani said the army will continue to support the democratic process in the country.
The statement came one day after Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said “conspirators” are attempting to undermine his government as it faces mounting criticism over a secret a memo appealing for U.S. help to prevent a feared military coup.
Pakistan's Supreme Court is deliberating whether to order an investigation into the memo. It was allegedly sent in May by a member of President Asif Ali Zardari's office, asking for U.S. military assistance to thwart a possible coup by the country's powerful military and intelligence services following the covert U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on Friday also moved to allay fears about a possible coup, saying there is “no question of a military takeover.”
The existence of the memo came to light in October, when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz wrote a column in the Financial Times newspaper accusing Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Hussain Haqqani, of writing the memo and asking for it to be delivered to Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military official at the time. Haqqani was subsequently forced to resign.
Prime Minister Gilani and President Zardari have faced increasing pressure to resign over the memo scandal.
Mr. Gilani has insisted the military must operate under the control of the civilian government, saying Thursday there cannot be “a state within the state” and that all the country's institutions are “answerable to this parliament.”
Pakistan plot to overthrow government, says PM Gilani
BBC News 22 December 11
Conspirators are plotting to bring down Pakistan's civilian government, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.
Without specifically blaming the military, he said it was accountable to parliament and no institution could be a state within a state.
His government is struggling with a memo scandal that has forced the resignation of the Pakistani ambassador to the US and threatens the president.
The leaked memo allegedly asked for US help to prevent a military takeover.
Correspondents are describing Mr Gilani's tirade as an unprecedented attack by a civilian leader on Pakistan's powerful military.
"I want to make it clear today that conspiracies are being hatched here to pack up the elected government," the prime minister said in a speech at the National Arts Gallery in Islamabad.
"But we will continue to fight for the rights of people of Pakistan whether or not we remain in the government."
Later, in parliament, he said: "There can't be a state within the state. They have to be answerable to this parliament."
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says there has always been an impression in Pakistan that the powerful military and its intelligence services are a state within the state.
But successive military and civilian rulers have kept up the appearance that the military is a subordinate institution of the state. Mr Gilani's defiant comments and tough language throw the issue open to debate, our correspondent says.
Bin Laden raid
Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, has recently returned to the country after seeking medical treatment in Dubai. The 56-year-old denies any role in the memo.
His illness and the scandal surrounding the memo have led to speculation that he might be forced out of office.
Pakistan's Supreme Court has opened a hearing into the memo and demanded a reply from the president.
Tensions are high between the civilian government, which has ruled since elections in February 2008, and Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence services, after US forces killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad in May. The army was not told about the raid in advance.
Mr Gilani also referred to the controversy over the late al-Qaeda leader, querying how he had managed to get into Pakistan and live there for six years apparently undetected.
He reminded parliament that his government had given "solid support" to the army and its intelligence agency, the ISI, following the raid, which deeply embarrassed the military.
A strike by Nato forces on a Pakistani border post in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. This has caused outrage in Pakistan and made it more difficult for the civilian government to defend its policy of co-operation with the United States.
The army has ruled Pakistan for much of its history and has carried out four coups.
Some analysts have speculated that the "memogate" affair is a conspiracy by the army to embarrass the government.
3 civilians killed in blast in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians were killed on Friday when a mine went off in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, country's Interior Ministry said.
"Three innocent civilians were killed when a sticky mine attacked to a vehicle detonated in Mali village of Takhta Pul district of southern Kandahar province at around 10:00 a.m. Friday, " the ministry said in a press release.
It blamed Taliban for the attack.
Taliban militants who largely rely on roadside bombings have yet to make comments.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group announced to launch a rebel offensive from May 1 against Afghan and NATO-led troops stationed in Afghanistan.
A total of 1,462 Afghan civilians were killed in the first half of 2011, a 15 percent rise over the same period of 2010, according to the United Nations mid-year report released in Afghan capital Kabul in July this year.
1 Taliban killed, 3 police injured in clash in Afghanistan
KABUL, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban rebel was killed and three policemen were injured on Friday in a clash that broke out after the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the country's relatively peaceful Ghor province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.
"A group of armed Taliban launched an attack on a police checkpoint at around 00:00 local time Friday in Ghor province triggering a four-hour fighting that left a Taliban insurgent dead and three policemen injured," the ministry said in a press release on Friday afternoon.
It said the attack occurred in Khoja Ghar area of Taywara district in the province, some 360 km west of Kabul.
Separately, three Taliban insurgents have been killed and three others detained when the Afghan National Police (ANP), army and NATO-led Coalition forces launched three operations in the country' s Kabul, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces over the last 24 hours, the ministry confirmed in another press release on Friday.
The ANP separately found and defused an anti-vehicle mine besides uncovering and seizing 3,000 kg of explosive materials and a handful of weapons in Sari Pul and Uruzgan provinces over the same period of time, it said.
Taliban insurgents, who have intensified activities against Afghan and NATO-led troops stationed in the country, have yet to make comments.
Unmanned cargo helicopter operating in Afghanistan
AFP 22/12/2011
An unmanned helicopter capable of carrying more than 3,500 pounds of cargo (1.6 tonnes) has begun supplying troops in Afghanistan, US military officials said Thursday.
It is hoped the K-MAX, which conducted its maiden flight with cargo in a combat zone on Saturday, will help save lives by reducing the need for vehicle convoys which are often a target of roadside bombs.
The aircraft, deployed by the US Marine Corps, is the service's first unmanned helicopter designed for resupplying troops in remote locations and aviation experts said it heralded a new era in unmanned flight.
"We delivered cargo that was supposed to be delivered by convoy," said Major Kyle O'Connor, of the Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1.
"This is a demonstration phase to test the true capabilities of this aircraft and how well it can perform its job in a combat environment."
It is understood most of the missions will be undertaken at night and at higher altitudes to keep the aircraft out of small arms range.
The aircraft, developed in a joint venture between Kaman Aerospace and Lockheed Martin, are able to drop supplies accurately, a useful capability in Afghanistan where dusty conditions can make flying and landing more difficult.
"It is a milestone, certainly," said Steven Athanas, of Lockheed Martin.
"We have delivered a lot of loads in the States during training, testing and evaluation. Now that we have integrated it into the battlespace, we have gone from what you think can happen -- to what can happen."
The maiden flight saw the helicopter supply troops at Combat Outpost Payne in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
Aviation expert Paul Mcleary of Aviation Week said it heralded the "age of unmanned logistics".
A manned version of the K-MAX was developed in the 1990s and is used for heavy-lifting, including logging.
Ten Years Of Hanging On As An Afghan Potter
NPR December 23, 2011
After the fall of the Taliban, Abdul Wahkeel was the first potter to return to the Afghan village of Istalif.
Istalif had been home to generations of potters who crafted teapots, dishes and pots that glow a jewel-like blue. But Wahkeel and other villagers left after the Taliban torched workshops, smashed pottery and — it was said — killed birds in their cages.
When NPR's Renee Montagne first arrived in Istalif in 2002, she heard Wahkeel's story as he was centering clay on his potter's wheel.
"It is two months now that I have returned back to my home," he told her.
Montagne returned to his story and the village of Istalif again and again over the years. Those reports reveal a man and a community clinging to safety and prosperity as violence rages in other parts of the country.
As Wahkeel rebuilt his home and his business, so did others. The school and a small hydroelectric power plant were rebuilt using money from international donors. Pottery stalls came back to the village, as did a bakery and a clothing shop.
By 2006, things had improved even more. "It's good," Wahkeel told Montagne. "The pottery bazaar has attracted attention. On their days off, foreigners working in Kabul come here to shop for pots."
Fast forward to 2011 — 10 years after the Taliban fell. Wahkeel now has a cellphone he uses to place orders in Kabul for wood in his kiln. He now presses "Made in Istalif" on the bottom of his pots.
And he's training oldest son, Omar, in the family business: "Now he can make glasses, some plates and some small pots."
Over the last 10 years, Istalif has been luckier than most towns in Afghanistan. But those gains are fragile.
"Everything depends on security and peace," he told Montagne recently.
Wahkeel now has nine children. "If there is peace in Afghanistan, they will have a prosperous future. But if not, we don't know what will be their destiny."
Afghanistan: Kabul neighborhood struggles to regroup after bombing
In the corner of a Kabul neighborhood where almost every family lost someone in an early December bombing, the psychological and economic effects are far-reaching.
Christian Science Monitor By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent December 22, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - Before a bomb blast killed his son and injured three of his daughters, hospitalizing two of them, life was anything but easy for Ahmad Shah. Like many in his poor Kabul neighborhood, he eked out enough to survive by pulling a rickshaw-like cart made of scrap wood. Merchants who either had a small load or couldn’t afford a truck hired Mr. Shah to drag their goods across town on his cart.
Shah made enough to support his family’s day-to-day needs, but had to take out loans from microfinance organizations for heating supplies and food during the winter. He had hoped to work off his debt before the spring, but his careful plans crumbled when a suicide bomber detonated himself at religious Ashura festival on Dec. 6, killing more than 80 people, injuring scores, and taking a catastrophic toll on his family.
“I lost my son and I need to take care of my injured daughters. Now I need to borrow money from friends and family to care for them. It will take a long time to pay my debts. It will make my life even more horrible,” says Shah. “Why couldn’t all of us die together so we could have peace and not have these things to make us worry?”
Although only two weeks have passed since the Ashura bombing, it has long faded from the headlines as Afghan news moves on to other macabre events and political developments. Still, the story of those affected by the bombing, one of the largest single-incident losses in recent Afghan history, provides a window into the challenges that face Afghan society as it works to rebuild amid deep-seeded psychological trauma and its far-reaching effects.
After more than 30 years of war, it’s difficult to find an Afghan untouched by violence. Despite persistent NATO statements that the situation is improving, civilian causalities have steadily increased every year since the US-led war began more than a decade ago. In the first half of this year alone, 3,606 Afghan civilians were killed or injured. According to a United Nations report, insurgent attacks caused 80 percent of the 1,462 civilian deaths here.
“War and conflict in Afghanistan have dragged on for more than three decades and caused many Afghans psychological trauma,” says Azizudin Himt, the head of the Afghanistan Psychologists Association. “There is not any survey or census about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but we have many people who suffer from it in this country.”
Dr. Himt adds that a number of people who suffer from trauma struggle to take an interest in their work and move their life forward, a serious problem for a nation trying to put itself together again after nearly a third of a century at war. Additionally, Afghanistan lacks the ability to adequately treat those suffering from psychological problems induced by trauma such as PTSD.
Shah lives a short walk from the Abu Fazal shrine where the Ashura bombing occurred. Made up of mud brick houses and uneven dirt roads, the neighborhood likely doesn't look much different today than it did when it was first formed about 300 years ago. The shrine is also a short distance from several government buildings and a modern luxury hotel where the cost of one night in a basic room is almost double Shah’s monthly earnings.
In his corner of the neighborhood, 50 of those killed or injured in the attack came from 15 families, or a little more than 100 people. One family home now stands empty, the front gate bolted shut, after the blast killed seven and injured seven more people living there. Three family members were already disabled from various incidents over the past several years.
Another man in the neighborhood voluntarily gave up his home, vowing to live the rest of his life in the local graveyard alongside his wife, mother-in-law, and two sons who he lost in the suicide attack. Residents say he spends most of the day wandering the city before returning to the cemetery at night.
“Now we are concerned that maybe we will go deeper into poverty,” says Abdul Hussein, an elder in Shah’s neighborhood who lost his wife in the attack. “Our concerns are like a mountain. We are not people who have businesses and trade that generates a big income. We just depend on our daily work to survive and when you lose people who used to work it creates serious problems for the community.”
Residents say they will support their neighbors who lost breadwinners for a time, but they concede that given their own financial situation it is impossible for them to do so long-term. Help from outside the community has been more or less nonexistent.
Shah’s 12-year-old daughter Tarana, who was injured but not hospitalized, appears in a memorable photograph taken moments after the blast by Agence France-Presse photographer Massoud Hossaini. In the picture, which is likely to become one of the iconic images of the Afghan war, Tarana stands covered in blood with her arms outstretched, crying, and surrounded by a circle of dead women and children. One of her sisters sits among the dead, weeping, her face covered in blood.
“I was really scared by that incident and now when I go to bed at night I can’t sleep. I just lay awake scared,” says Tarana, adding that she also suffers from loss of appetite and no longer likes being outdoors.
Her photo ran in newspapers around the world after the blast and now hangs on the side of the Abul Fazal shrine. Shah keeps a printed copy of the photo, but says he has mixed emotions about it.
“Maybe this picture will help to bring a change, but it won’t be useful for me because I lost everyone. We got harmed and we’re losing more to take care of my injured daughters,” he says.
Lions of Khorasan Make History, Seek Govt Support
TOLOnews.com By Miriam Arghandiwal Thursday, 22 December 2011
A closed book, bearing as a country's forgotten gem, retrieved by a group of twenty men who wiped off its dust, opened its worn cover and turned a new page.
This is how The Lions of Khorasan's goal keeper, Hameedullah Yousufzai, described the recent state of football in Afghanistan.
Nearly two weeks have passed since their return from the South Asian Football Federation Cup finals in New Dehli, and still the streets of Afghanistan are rejoicing over their success.
"Every neighborhood we go to, children come up to us, men stop working to greet us, and women and elders kiss our foreheads in joy and thank us," Yosufzai said.
The team took a devastating 4-0 loss against India. The loss was shadowed by Referee Sukhbir Singh from Singapore granting India a penalty kick followed by Yousufzai receiving a red card for protesting the call.
Chief Coach Yosuf Kargar said the unwarranted call, dampened the team's spirit in the second half of the game causing their defeat. Nevertheless, he is still proud of the boys, for they displayed their skills and potential to the world by their performance in the first half.
"I feel amazing, proud and honoured about the overall journey, it was great and although we didn't win the final, we still achieved victory, and made Afghanistan's name memorable, it's a dream that has come true." Belal Arezou, striker for the national team and leading striker of second division of Norwegian club, said.
Yosufzai said, Afghan people had lost faith in Afghan football, particularly in the last decade due to their incessant taste of defeat. Today, that is no longer the case.
"We have changed everything, not only in Afghanistan, but all over the world. The media and people everywhere are talking about Afghan football," he said.
Afghan football was hindered during its three decades of war. First, the sport was disrupted with the Soviet invasion in 1980, then banned under the Taliban regime from 1996 - 2001, and then temporarily disbanded by the Afghan Football Federation in 2004 after players opted out of a training camp in Italy.
The 2011 SAFF cup is the furthest the national team has excelled since it was first founded in 1922. Kargar, who played for the national team himself in the 80's, said the team's recent success could be credited to two factors, unity and recent football advancements in Afghanistan.
Kargar said previous teams were weak because they had no proper training and no fields to practise in. Even with foreign Afghan players on the team, they struggled to unite and succeed.
This year's team had a field to practise in Afghanistan, given to the federation by FIFA, and players had gone through rigorous trainings, he said.
To build a sturdy team, Kargar recruited 12 of the best football players from Afghanistan, and personally travelled to the US and Europe to recruit eight of the best foreign Afghan football players from around the world.
The boys met 10 days before the games in Dubai for a training camp, where they warmed up to each other and worked on becoming familiar with one another's techniques.
Mid-fielder, Mustafa Madar, said his teammates got along well on and off the field.
"At night, we all sat down and talked about Afghanistan, about the war and the violence; they would ask 'How did you guys live there?,' We would tell them we were used to it," Yosufzai said. "We became very close."
Masses witnessed the team's kinship when their war-stricken country's conflict caught up with them.
A day before the team would go up against Bhutan; Madar received a phone call informing him that four of his family members were among the 58 people who were killed in suicide blast at the Abul Fazl shrine in Kabul.
"I was heartbroken and couldn't stop crying," Madar said. "The trainers, coach and my teammates all sympathised with me."
Upon hearing of Madar's loss and seeing the team's devastation, Kargar said he arranged a team meeting before the game the next day.
"Everyone was very emotional at the time. The boys couldn't even eat, their hearts were not with the game at the moment," he said.
As a coach, Kargar said he had to find a way to lead the team to move forward in the tournament.
"We consoled the boys and told them this situation exists in Afghanistan. Today, Mustafa lost his family, we have to do something to uplift him and the people of Afghanistan," Kargar said. "Our job is that we have a game today, a game that we will play for those who passed and for Afghanistan's happiness," he told the team.
The team went on to score eight goals that night against Bhutan, after each score they ran to Madar who sat on the sideline, and celebrated with hugs, empathising with his pain and bring what relief they could.
Their 8-1 victory led to their advancement to the semi finals, where they would play a long grueling game against Nepal. Yosufzai said his team expected it would be a tough match because Nepal was a powerful team that was coached by Graham Roberts, a former football player for Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion clubs.
"They always beat us by three or four goals every time," he said.
Thus, both Arezou and Yosufzai recalled the moment when Arezou scored his 6th and the game winning goal in the 115th minute, one of the best of their lives.
The team's final match gave their fairy tale story an unfortunate end. Nevertheless, the boys returned home far from unsatisfied.
"Our team's accomplishments mean a lot for Afghanistan because it's been in more than 30 years of war, which made Afghanistan's invisible among all the south Asian countries. So, by winning or coming so close to winning these matches is reminding all the (other) countries that regardless of the bad situations in Afghanistan, it still exists and has skilful people in it, with lots of passion in their hearts for their beloved country," Arezou said.
Madar said even with the odds set against them; being placed at 178 on FIFA's world rankings, being unfinanced and having to pay out of pocket for their SAFF expenses, and the countries unfaltering track record of previous performances, he never doubted they would not succeed.
"We were hopeful and confident we would be successful in the tournament," he said."We worked hard, we were skilled, and we were united as a team, that along with the prayers of our supporters is what got us this far."
The team hopes for more support in the future from the Afghan government, Olympic committee and successful Afghan businesses to invest in them so they can keep their momentum up and continue to achieve great results, Yosufzai said.
The team have done their part in showing they can be successful, now it is the elders' turn to do their part, he said.
"This time they weren't supportive the way they should have (been)," Arezou said. "The government needs to support players financially and encourage them so they could have something to hang on to, they should have training camps so they could get ready for it and they should have fixed salary on a monthly basis so they could boost up their energy after training."
The team's success only furthers the federation's responsibilities to the Afghan people, as they have raised the bars for expectations, Madar said.
Anything is possible in this game, even when being a part of a generation raised in war one can succeed as long as they have hope and work hard, he said.
"You must have to have hope, no matter what, never be hopeless and always know your people are always behind you," Madar said.
Yosufzai said keeping their hope and confidence was what kept them motivated when they were overlooked by players from opposing teams during their 10 day training in Dubai.
"We sat down when we were in Dubai and we vowed we'd give a performance everyone would remember. We'd show everyone we were lions, and bring Afghan football to life again," he said.
Body of alleged killer of ex-Afghan central banker found
Reuters By Mary Slosson Thu Dec 22, 2011
Remains of a San Diego man suspected of killing a former head of the Afghanistan central bank who fled to the United States as a political fugitive have been found, police said on Thursday.
Bones identified as belonging to Ismael Raul Lopez, 28, were discovered by recreational divers offshore in the Pacific Ocean and later recovered by public safety personnel, San Diego police said in a statement.
Lopez was suspected by police of killing self-employed cab driver Mir Najibullah Sadat Sahou, 68, in a robbery-homicide in late September. An arrest warrant had been issued in October.
The announcement sheds more light on a mysterious case that some believe was a politically motivated assassination instead of the robbery-homicide police have described.
On September 28, at about 11:35 p.m., Sahou stopped his green-and-white cab along a street in La Jolla, just north of San Diego, according to police. Witnesses saw two men emerge from the vehicle.
A woman who lives near the crime scene says she heard two men bickering loudly in a foreign language before three gunshots were fired. Police later found Sahou dead on a nearby walkway.
The woman said she doubted that robbery was the motive. Sahou's nephew also told local media that his uncle's wallet and ring had been found in the cab.
Lopez fled in the cab, which was later found abandoned and unoccupied by police on a coastal road a few miles away from the site of the shooting.
Lopez either jumped the curb of the coastal road by accident or intended to drive into the ocean, police said. Paint marks on the cab matched marks on the wooden fence above the ocean.
Along with the bones, divers also found part of Lopez's skull with a bullet hole in it, police said.
Homicide investigators said they will continue to work with the medical examiner's office to determine Lopez's cause of death.
POLITICAL ASYLUM
Forced by civil war from his post as governor of Afghanistan's central bank, Sahou was granted political asylum in the United States in 1992 after fighters in his native country seized his home.
Almost two decades later, the French-trained former economist turned full-time cabby and part-time TV commentator was shot to death while working a late-night shift driving his taxi in the upscale La Jolla community.
Some friends and associates of Sahou have raised questions about whether his views on the Afghan government and economy, as aired on a talk show he hosted on the Ariana-Afghanistan International TV network, may have cost him his life.
Nabil Miskinyar, who owns the Irvine, California-based TV channel, said Sahou's commentary for the bi-weekly show, "To Find the Truth," struck a very "neutral" tone, and he doubted the killing was political.
But he said homicide investigators asked Sahou's wife for a copy of her husband's final program, broadcast the week he died, focusing on the September 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, leader of the High Peace Council seeking to open talks with the Taliban, at his home in Kabul.
Sahou ran the central bank under Rabbani and prior to his administration, Miskinyar said.
Despite master's degrees in finance and economics from the Sorbonne in Paris, he was unable to find work in his field in the United States.
He ultimately purchased a taxi cab and began working double shifts. But his daughter Savitar Sahou, 26, said he remained very much a scholar, reading during breaks on the job and writing poetry during rare moments of free time.
Although Sahou eventually became a U.S. citizen, he maintained close ties with Afghanistan and was urged to return to his homeland to seek political office after the Taliban were driven from power, his daughter said. He chose instead to stay and build a new life in the United States.
Sahou "started over and worked very hard to make something of himself here," his daughter said.
(Editing by Peter Bohan)
Indonesia continues search, rescue operation for victims of sinking ship
JAKARTA, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Office has extended a search and rescue operation for missing illegal migrants after their ship sank on Saturday in the waters off East Java to another 7 days as there are still many missing persons, spokesman of the office Gagah Prakoso said here on Friday.
By Friday, the seventh day of the operation on which the rescue should be ended according to Indonesia's rule, the rescuers had found 90 bodies and rescued safely 49 others, the spokesman said, but the national police said that the fatality had been 95.
"We have decided to extend the operation because there are still many people missing," he told Xinhua by phone.
Prakoso said that the area of the operation was going to be widened to the east, where the current moves to and would involve more rescuers. He said that two bodies had been found at the waters off West Nusa Tenggara province hundreds kilometers from the scene. Several bodies had also been found in waters of Bali, which is closer than West Nusa Tenggara, said Prakoso.
"The rescue was going to involve two more provincial search and rescue offices in Bali and West Nusa Tenggara, and of course there will be more people and equipment to be involved or used," he said.
The police had declared four suspects of the tragedy, local media has said.
The wooden ship carrying illegal migrants seeking for asylum to Australia sank at about 40 nautical miles from the TPI Prigi beach of Trenggalek district of East Java. The ship was heading to Christmas Island of Australia, according to the East Java Search and Rescue Office.
Many of the immigrants were from the Middle East such as Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey, according to the office.
Indonesia has been a favorable transit points for illegal immigrants from the Middle East heading to Australia. But, they have frequently weathered sea accidents, as they took the journey with a lack of safety standards, and huge waves in the ocean used to hit and collapse their small ship or boat, leaving dozens fatalities.
Indonesia has set up a cooperation with Australia to address the illegal immigrants.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com