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Afghanistan's Karzai considers change in election timetable
Thursday, April 12, 2012
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday he was considering changes to either the 2014 timetable for presidential elections or the planned transition of security to Afghan forces that year to avoid overloading the country with simultaneous change.
Under Afghanistan's constitution, a presidential vote must occur before the end of 2014 to decide on a successor to Karzai, who must step aside after winning a second five-year term in 2009.
But after a series of bombings by the Taliban and the breakdown of peace talks between insurgents and the United States, there is worry that shrinking NATO troop numbers and fledgling Afghan forces may not be able to ensure security.
Karzai said he had been discussing the question with his close advisers for months.
"This is a question that I have had, and I have raised it with my inner circle, if we cannot have all that accomplished in 2014 because of the heavy agenda," he told a press conference in Kabul with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"Can we bring either the transition and the return of international forces to 2013 so we can have the other agenda fulfilled in 2014 with less to do, or should we allow the transition process to complete itself in 2014, but bring the presidential election one year earlier to 2013."
"I have not had a final decision yet and it will not be soon."
Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan William Patey told The Guardian newspaper this month that there "perfectly good arguments" why 2013 would be a better time to hold the presidential election.
Afghan security forces are due to take over security responsibilities from NATO by the end of 2014 when most foreign combat troops will leave.
(Reporting by Rob Taylor and Jack Kimball; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
In Afghanistan, who follows Hamid Karzai?
The Washington Post By David Ignatius Thursday, April 12, 2012
Americans are clamoring to speed up the 2014 security transition in Afghanistan so that U.S. troops can come home sooner. But the buzz in Kabul is about the political transition to a post-Karzai government — and whether that hand¬over should be accelerated.
Under the Afghan constitution, a presidential election must take place before the end of 2014 to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who won a second term in 2009. But there’s growing talk about moving up the election to 2013, when more NATO troops will be there to provide security.
“There are perfectly good arguments why 2013 would be a good time” for the presidential election, William Patey, Britain’s ambassador in Kabul, said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper last week. He added that the British “wouldn’t have any objections.” Afghanistan’s independent election commission would have to approve any change.
One argument for an earlier election is that it would focus attention on the political transition ahead — rather than on just the military situation. An emphasis on military issues at the expense of politics and governance has plagued the U.S. effort in Afghanistan since the beginning.
“We have a very detailed and micromanaged security transition plan, but we don’t really have any functional plan for the transfer of political power,” complains one adviser to the NATO mission in Kabul.
The Obama administration is assuming the election will take place as scheduled in 2014. But regardless of the polling date, some top U.S. officials agree it’s time to focus more on politics and a bit less on the military handover that gets the headlines. Already, Ryan Crocker, the veteran U.S. ambassador in Kabul, is expanding his outreach to Afghan politicians in the hope of encouraging a new generation of leaders, post-Karzai.
I don’t know where this sort of political outreach fits in the toolbox of U.S. power. Some would argue that it should be a CIA function, since it may involve covert contacts and money. But why not do this political work openly, through the embassy? It seems crazy to have spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to stabilize Afghanistan, and then pretend Washington isn’t interested in shaping the political landscape and encouraging a strong and popular successor to Karzai.
A U.S. focus on Afghan politics might confound the Taliban. Right now, the insurgents seem to think that if they can outlast the planned withdrawal of NATO combat troops, who will give up their lead role in mid-2013, then they’re home free. The Taliban might be less sanguine, and more eager to bargain, if they saw the United States encouraging new political leaders.
“There is little doubt in my mind that the U.S. government needs to make an effort to support key moderate leaders in each of the groups,” argues one prominent Afghan business leader. A deal with the Taliban before there’s a new Afghan government “will end in tears,” he warns.
Here are some of the political prospects mentioned by U.S., European and Afghan analysts: Farooq Wardak, a Pashtun who is education minister; Hanif Atmar, a Pashtun former interior minister; Ashraf Ghani, a Pashtun former finance minister who is now helping manage transition efforts; Amrullah Saleh, a Tajik former intelligence chief; Atta Mohammad Noor, the popular Tajik governor of Balkh province; Shukria Barakzai, a Pashtun member of parliament who speaks out on women’s issues; and Razaman Bashardost, a Hazara former planning minister who campaigns against corruption.
Any of these Afghan politicians (and there are a dozen more I could have mentioned) would give the country a more dynamic political face — less corrupt and more competent than the mercurial Karzai has proved to be. “We need a new political dynamic that is stable and aligned with our security interests,” stresses the NATO adviser.
With an election ahead to decide Afghanistan’s political future, why is the U.S. government trying so hard to negotiate a deal now with the Taliban? That’s a good question. Perhaps the Obama administration simply started the process of outreach to the enemy a year too soon, before a new leadership team was forming in Kabul.
The deadlocked negotiations with the Taliban are another reason to focus more on politics — so that a more popular and less tainted Afghan government could bargain over the country’s future with an enemy that, however potent its roadside bombs, is widely disliked.
“Karzai’s departure may very well allow us to press the ‘reset’ button,” says the Afghan businessman. The sooner the better.
davidignatius@washpost.com
NATO Chief Pledges To Meet Afghan Handover Goal
April 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the alliance is on track to fully hand over responsibility for securing Afghanistan to local forces by the end of 2014 as scheduled.
Speaking during a visit to an Afghan special forces facility outside Kabul, Rasmussen said Afghan troops would be ready to take the lead role around the country by mid-2013.
He also pledged that funding and training of Afghan troops by NATO would continue after 2014.
Afghan security forces now number about 330,000 and are to increase to 352,000 by the end of the year.
Rasmussen was to meet President Hamid Karzai during his visit.
With reporting by AP and dpa
US In Afghanistan For the Long Run: Grossman
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 April 2012
The imminent signing of the Afghanistan-US long term pact should signal to Afghans, insurgents and the regional nations alike that the United States is in Afghanistan for the long run, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, said on Tuesday.
The long-term agreement was just part of the message that there will be a US presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Grossman said in a speech at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC.
"The sooner we can sign the [strategic partnership deal] with Afghanistan, people then will have to realise that there is going to be an American presence in Afghanistan for some time to come," he said.
"So Afghans, the Taliban, the region, including Iran, will then say, 'Aha, well now, how do I react to that?"
The negotiations for the pact, which will govern when, where and how the US troops will be deployed after 2014, were well underway, he said.
He pointed out that the transfer of responsibility for Bagram military prison and night operations to Afghan security forces had ensured the finalisation of the long-term agreement soon.
Afghanistan to sell scandal-hit bank in June: Official
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan plans to sell the Kabul Bank in June, two years after seizing it from its former owners who pushed it to the brink of collapse by taking illegal loans, an official said on Thursday.
Renamed 'New Kabul Bank' since being taken over by the government, the Kabul Bank, the country's largest private lender, was bailed out by President Hamid Karzai's administration after its former bosses failed to return US$900 million (S$1.1 billion) they had secretly taken in off-book loans.
'The plan is to sell it back to the private sector in June,' Mr Noorullah Delawari, the governor of Afghanistan's central bank, which controls the war-torn nation's monetary policies, told AFP.
Mr Delawari said another option was for half the shares to be sold to turn the bank into a joint-venture between the government and the private sector. The sale would take place through a tender process, the central bank chief added.
Elite female night raiders break down barriers in Afghanistan
Reuters By Mirwais Harooni 11/04/2012
KABUL - Crouching behind a wooden barrier, 27-year-old Sergeant Sara Delawar fires her M-4 rifle at a target showing the silhouette of a man, part of a training exercise for Afghan special forces.
Anxious to defuse tensions stoked by foreign male soldiers raiding Afghans' homes at night in what is a conservative Muslim country, Afghanistan has begun training elite female troops to join Afghan male soldiers on operations.
"Before we joined this unit, our operations were done by foreign troops and they did not know our culture. People were critical so we joined to help out," Delawar, a former policewoman in Jowzjan province, said.
"I have already fought the Taliban. My comrades were martyred in fights with the Taliban and we have killed them too, but during the night raids I haven't fought insurgents yet."
Fluent in four local languages, Delawar is one of only 12 female soldiers who has been trained to fight and conduct searches in what is an attempt to pay greater respect to cultural sensitivities.
Surprise night raids in pursuit of militants have long stoked anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan, with many locals seeing them as assaults on their privacy and on women's privacy in particular.
In conservative southern areas of the country where the Taliban is strong, such raids have created even more ill will.
On Sunday after months of tense negotiations, Afghanistan and the United States agreed that only Afghan forces would search residential homes or compounds.
As well as seeking to assuage cultural sensitivities, the new strategy is aimed at lowering civilian casualties and shoring up President Hamid Karzai's popularity at a time when foreign combat troops are handing over to Afghan forces.
"It's unacceptable for us to see male soldiers body-searching females. Men are not allowed to touch females," third-lieutenant Binazir, 24, said.
"I'm proud to say that I'm here to serve my country side by side with my brothers. I'm proud that Afghan girls are here and I hope more girls join in order to provide better services for brothers and sisters in the battlefield and save lives."
NO EASY TASK
At a training facility on the outskirts of Kabul, the Afghan capital, suspected militants inside a mock-up house are advised to leave the building via loudspeaker. A hijab-wearing woman cries and asks where the soldiers are taking her brother.
Female soldiers lead her by the arm away from the scene.
"The training they've already received in this unit has had a good outcome during night raids," Captain Mohammad Khalid, head of training at the special forces, said.
"In order to launch our operations in a good manner we have to have 100 female officers in our forces."
The program began two months ago and drew women from the Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen and Hazara ethnic groups, but not from the Pashtun where the Taliban recruit most of their fighters.
The task of finding women has become even more important ahead of a pullout of most NATO combat troops by the end of 2014.
Afghanistan is still recovering from the strict social conservatism of the Taliban, whose hardline laws during their 1996-2001 rule marginalized women, stripping them of the right to work, study or move freely.
The country remains one of the world's worst places for women and setting up female special forces was not an easy task.
Recruitment is especially tricky. Women are put off by the prospect of social rejection and disapproval from their families.
Traditionally confined to their homes, women also face problems their male comrades do not.
"My children were attending school in Jowzjan, but here they don't because I'm not at home and they can't go by themselves," said Delawar, a mother-of-two and a widow.
"I hope there is support for them to get educated especially when I'm out of my house on the duty."
(Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Australia-Afghan Strategic Agreement Drafted for Nato Summit
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Afghanistan is on the cusp of signing a strategic agreement with Australia following the visit of Australia's Defense Minister to Kabul on Wednesday.
Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith said Australia is interested in forging a strategic partnership with Afghanistan during his meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the Presidential Palace, according to a statement from Karzai's office.
The draft of the strategic partnership document has been given to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs for review and is expected to be signed by the leaders of the two nations during the Nato conference in May, the statement said.
"Smith stressed that Australia is also interested in long-term cooperation with Afghanistan and gave assurances that the international community would not leave Afghans alone beyond 2014," it said.
Smith had visited Australian defense forces in southern Afghanistan before the meeting and told Karzai he believed Uruzgan province was "fully prepared" for the third phase of security transition.
Karzai's office said the President thanked Australia for its assistance and cooperation with Afghanistan, especially in building education in Uruzgan, and that the government would review the draft agreement quickly in order for it to be approved by the time of the Nato summit.
Afghanistan is also expected to sign a long-term strategic agreement with the United States at the Nato summit.
It has already signed similar agreements with the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and India.
Australia is the largest non-Nato contributor of foreign soldiers to the Nato-led mission in Afghanistan. It has 1550 soldiers mainly based in Uruzgan province.
2 children killed in roadside bombing in S Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Two children were killed and six other civilians injured Thursday when a roadside bomb went off in the country's southern province of Helmand, a spokesman for the provincial government said.
"Two innocent children were killed and six other civilians injured when a vehicle touched off a roadside bomb on a road at about 9 a.m. local time in Safar area of Garmasir district," spokesman Daud Ahmadi told Xinhua.
He blamed Taliban for the attack.
Taliban militants have used Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or roadside bombs and suicide bombers in their attacks which also inflicted casualties on civilians.
A total of 3,021 Afghan civilians were killed in 2011, up by 8 percent compared with 2010, according to a United Nations annual report released in Kabul in February.
360 graduates join Afghan National Police
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, April 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 360 newly-graduated policemen joined the Afghan National Police ( ANP) after completion of training in the country's northern province of Balkh, an official said on Thursday.
"A total of 360 policemen including 120 police officers were commissioned to the ANP on Thursday morning after completion of six-month training period in a police training center in provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif city," Abdul Shukor, an official with the training center of Police 303 Pamir Zone, told Xinhua.
"These policemen have been put through a curriculum, which is practical in nature and covers a police skill which has been very important in law enforcement mission in this period of time in Afghanistan." Shukor added.
The Afghan government and NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A) have stepped up efforts to train and equip Afghan police and army as NATO-led ISAF forces have handed over the security responsibilities of several areas across the country to Afghanistan.
Transition of security responsibilities from NATO forces to Afghan army and police began in July last year and lasts till 2014 when Afghanistan is due to take over its full security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.
Post-ABC News poll shows drop in Republican support for Afghan war
Washington Post By Scott Wilson and Jon Cohen Thursday, April 12, 2012
A majority of Republicans say for the first time that the war in Afghanistan has not been worth fighting, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that comes as the continuing U.S. presence in that country is emerging as a key point of contention in the presidential race.
The poll findings are likely to present a challenge for Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, who has said that the goal in Afghanistan should be to defeat the Taliban on the battlefield.
President Obama stepped back from that goal during his 2009 strategy review and has set the end of 2014 as the departure date for all U.S. combat forces.
Overall, the Post-ABC News poll reflects a country bone-weary of war after more than a decade of fighting in Afghanistan and, until late last year, an almost nine-year engagement in Iraq.
Public support for the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan has fallen to an all-time low, with only 30 percent of respondents saying it has been worth fighting.
Since the 2001 invasion, almost 2,000 U.S. troops have been killed and more than 15,000 have been wounded in Afghanistan. According to the poll, two-thirds of Americans think the war has not been worth fighting, equaling the most negative public assessments of the U.S. war effort in Iraq.
Although foreign policy has been a peripheral issue in the presidential campaign, the poll’s findings highlight the difficulty Obama and Romney face in explaining U.S. policy to an increasingly war-weary electorate.
Obama, who announced the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan at the end of 2009, is now drawing down those forces with the goal of turning over security responsibilities to Afghan troops by the end of next year. The president intends to bring home all U.S. combat troops by the end of 2014 — and he is tapping into the nation’s war fatigue on the campaign trail.
“For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq,” Obama told an audience in Hollywood, Fla., at a campaign fundraising event Tuesday. “And we’ve begun to transition in Afghanistan to put Afghans in the lead, bring our troops home.”
But Romney, whose résuméis thin on foreign-policy experience, has criticized Obama’s management of the Afghanistan war.
In particular, the former Massachusetts governor has said that he would have listened more closely to his commanding generals, who have urged Obama to keep troops in place longer, and not set a specific timeline for withdrawal. Romney says that Obama’s doing so has allowed the Taliban to simply wait out the U.S. military.
“The governor’s position is that Americans are understandably tired of this war, and he recognizes that, in the end, the Afghan people have to prevail,” Richard S. Williamson, a senior foreign policy adviser to the Romney campaign, said in a recent interview. “But we have handicapped them by setting early withdrawal dates, by not being able to forge a more stable NATO coalition and by not broadening the political base in the country.”
The war effort has been rocky, and Obama at times has had trouble convincing his political advisers that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a trustworthy partner in a risky endeavor to change the course of the war.
As public support for the war has faded — except for the ephemeral bump that followed the killing of Osama bin Laden — Obama heads toward November with Afghanistan as an uncertain asset in his reelection bid.
The Post-ABC News poll found that 48 percent of the public support his handling of the war and that 43 percent disapprove.
Almost two weeks after he outlined his surge policy at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in December 2009, a Post-ABC News poll found that a slight majority approved of Obama’s management of the war.
For Romney’s campaign, the slip in Republican support for the war could pose political difficulties, placing him outside the majority view of his party. For the first time, more Republicans and GOP-leaning independents oppose the war than support it, with 55 percent saying it has not been worth the costs.
The findings come a month after a U.S. soldier is alleged to have killed 17 Afghan civilians in what witnesses said was a house-to-house rampage. The soldier, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, had deployed three times to Iraq before arriving in Afghanistan in December.
The poll found that Americans are unsure about what, if anything, the incident reveals about the toll of the war on U.S. troops.
But eight in 10 of those polled say there should be limits on how long service members can be deployed to combat areas.
Two foreign troops killed by insurgents in Afghanistan
April 12, 2012 NEW YORK POST
KABUL -- Two members of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed by insurgents in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday.
In separate statements, ISAF said one of the troops was killed during an improvised explosive device attack, while the other was killed during an insurgent attack.
As per its policy, ISAF did not identify the troops or their country of origin.
Separately, ISAF said one of its helicopters made a hard landing in eastern Afghanistan Thursday morning, but no fatalities were recorded.
"ISAF is still in the process of assessing the circumstances to determine more facts. However, initial reporting indicates that there was no enemy activity in the area," an ISAF statement said.
"All crew members have recovered with no reported fatalities and the site of the incident is secure."
NATO has 130,000 soldiers helping Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government fight the Taliban but is scheduled to hand responsibility for security across the country to Afghans and withdraw most of its troops by the end of 2014, AFP reported.
But relations between the allies were strained this year by a series of killings of Western troops by Afghan security personnel, a massacre of 17 civilians blamed on a US soldier and the burning of Korans at a US base.
A Stable Afghanistan Is Still Possible
The insurgency persists, but if the U.S. doesn't withdraw prematurely, Afghan security forces will be able to contain it by 2014.
Wall Street Journal By MICHAEL O'HANLON And BRUCE RIEDEL April 11, 2012
There is no easy victory in sight in Afghanistan, but we are closer to accomplishing our goals than many assume. By late 2014 it will no longer be necessary to keep significant numbers of combat troops there.
The recent accord transferring main night-raid responsibility to Afghan forces, while perhaps a bit hurried at Afghan insistence, nonetheless reflects progress and is welcome news. At a time when discussion of the war has become very negative in the U.S., we need to bear these points in mind—and resist self-fulfilling fatalism and a premature withdrawal.
The good news is that the Obama administration appears unlikely to waver anytime soon. Its officials have declared that no further draw downs will be considered until the current one, bringing U.S. troops down to 68,000 from 100,000 by the end of September, is complete. In particular, we need to see how conditions evolve in the east, where this year's main anti-insurgency efforts will likely occur. However, the more worrisome news is that in a political year, with electoral pressures rising, a steady policy hand in the White House should not be assumed indefinitely into the future.
Overall, while NATO and the Afghan government have plenty of problems, the Taliban have been losing the war on the battlefield and remain hugely unpopular among the Afghan population. Our problems pale next to the enemy's. It can still win by exploiting our vulnerabilities, but only if we let it.
The Taliban narrative goes something like this: President Hamid Karzai's government is a corrupt puppet that will fall once NATO troops depart. NATO nations are irresolute infidels, looking for any excuse to leave a war they know they can't win. The massacre of 17 Afghans by U.S. Sgt. Robert Bales last month is more proof that Westerners don't care about the Afghan people. All security trends favor the Taliban, as spectacular attacks—like the assault last September on the U.S. Embassy—from Kabul to Kandahar to Kunduz reveal over the last two years.
Every point in this account is something between a huge exaggeration and a cynical lie:
In fact, Kabul is a fairly safe city—and it's safe largely because Afghan forces protect it. Less than 1% of all enemy-initiated attacks occur there; statistically it is far less dangerous than Iraq's Baghdad or Pakistan's Karachi. Yet the narrative reinforced by Taliban media releases emphasizes the spectacular attacks. There hasn't been one in months, but the daily news cycle tends not to note such favorable trends.
Violence in the south is down by a third to half, despite the Bales tragedy and a recent "green on blue" incident in which an Afghan killed two British soldiers. Many if not most Taliban weapons caches are gone, NATO officials say, and governance has improved substantially in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. The north and west are worse than they were in 2002-07 but somewhat better than in 2009-10. The situation in these regions is no longer deteriorating.
Afghan security forces are leading 40% of operations nationwide. According to the commander of U.S. forces, Gen. John Allen, these soldiers are "better than we thought." The Taliban are acutely aware that Afghan security forces are now 330,000-strong and much improved. That is why the Taliban are desperate to disrupt their partnership with NATO.
Mr. Karzai is still a challenge. We cannot afford a repeat of the 2009 undemocratic presidential election. Mr. Obama's handling of that process was his biggest mistake in the war. But the huge news is that Mr. Karzai has firmed up his plans to step down in 2014. We now need to get on with supporting Afghan political parties, opposition candidates and parliament to create the ingredients for a good 2014 election to replace him.
The Taliban may talk with bravado, yet they have been decimated in many ways. Sanctuaries in Pakistan provided by that country's Inter-Services Intelligence organization still protect Taliban leaders. But we have been taking hundreds of local Taliban commanders off the battlefield per year, with the result that the average age of those who remain has declined to 23 or so, from 35. In short, we are hurting, but the enemy is hurting more. Their actions demonstrate it. For instance, While it is regrettable that the Taliban have suspended peace talks, their mere interest in such talks is unprecedented. It probably reflects their own, and Pakistan's, sense of their vulnerabilities.
Afghanistan still has huge problems, and no clear victory is within reach by 2014. We lost that opportunity years ago, and the insurgency is likely to persist. But the goal can and should be that Afghan forces will increasingly contain and combat it on their own. At that point, perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 foreign forces can suffice—to mentor Afghan units in the field, and for air power and intelligence support, training and special operations.
Moving to such a small force prematurely, however, would leave the country's east too infiltrated by insurgents. It would also prevent the partnering and apprenticeship work with Afghan units in the field—which requires NATO combat formations, not just advisers. Things are better than many realize. We have an exit strategy that is already being implemented. So it is important not to rush it.
Mr. O'Hanlon is co-author, with Martin Indyk and Kenneth Lieberthal, of the new book, "Bending History: Barack Obama's Foreign Policy" (Brookings). Mr. Riedel is the author of "Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America and the Future of the Global Jihad (Brookings, 2011). Both are senior fellows at the Brookings Institution.
Putin signals support for NATO Afghan supply hub
Reuters By Gleb Bryanski April 11, 2012
MOSCOW - President-elect Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called NATO a relic of the Cold War but said he supported letting the alliance use a Russian airport as a supply hub in support of its mission in Afghanistan.
Moscow is studying a request from NATO for use of facilities at an airport in the Volga River city of Ulyanovsk as a transit point for shipments of non-lethal supplies to and from Afghanistan by air, rail and road.
Russia has allowed Afghan-bound NATO transport through its territory since 2009 as an alternative to convoys through Pakistan, which have been subject to militant attacks, but no permanent facility was involved.
"I consider NATO ... a throwback to the Cold War era. It was created at a time when there was a bipolar system of international relations," said Putin, who has frequently criticized the alliance and its eastward expansion. But, in his last address to parliament as prime minister before his return to the Kremlin next month, Putin dismissed fears that NATO's use of the Ulyanovsk facility could represent a threat in Russia's heartland.
"There will be no NATO base there," he said, but only "a hop over pad" for military cargo transit.
"Therefore I assure you that nothing unusual, not corresponding to our national interests, is happening there. On the contrary, everything that is being done in this sphere fully corresponds to the national interests of our people," he told parliament's lower house.
In remarks that suggested Russia does not intend to decrease cooperation in Afghanistan, Putin said "in some cases NATO is playing the role of a stabiliser in global affairs" and included the Afghan mission among such cases.
Moscow's support is crucial to the United States and NATO ahead of the pullout of most combat troops by the end of 2014.
Putin has used vocal anti-Western rhetoric in his presidential campaign, criticizing NATO over its operation in Libya last year and accusing the United States of fomenting protests against his rule. He employed some of that rhetoric on Wednesday, saying that NATO "often sticks its nose where it is not necessary and oversteps its authority".
Russia says it opposes a long-term Western military presence in Afghanistan, but has also expressed fears that the spread of drugs and Islamist militancy toward its borders could worsen if NATO forces leave without first ensuring stability.
"We don't want our soldiers to fight on Tajik-Afghan border," Putin said.
The Soviet Union fought a disastrous war in Afghanistan and Russia ruled out sending troops to aid the U.S.-led invasion after the September 11, 2001, attacks, but Putin - president at the time - offered the use of Russian airspace and other support.
(Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
Turkmenistan Will Deliver Gas to Afghanistan for 30 Years
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Turkmenistan will sell gas to Afghanistan for the 30 years following the construction of its trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline to India and Pakistan, Afghan Minister of Mines, Wahidullah Shahrani, said Wednesday.
Shahrani, who recently returned from Turkmenistan, said Turkmen President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, has promised to deliver to Afghanistan around 500 million cubic meters of gas per year at "appropriate prices", and that the project would begin soon.
Shahrani added that in an economic meeting held in Kabul recently and attended by Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, Berdimuhamedov had indicated that he was satisfied with the progress of talks on gas prices and transit issues with India and Pakistan.
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline agreement recognises Afghanistan has rights to a certain amount of gas.
Shahrani rejected the recent statement of Pakistan's Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources, Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry, that Afghanistan had given up its share of 500 million cubic meters gas.
Karzai has assured Turkmenistan that the Afghan government will strive to co-operate with the implementation of the TAPI project.
The TAPI pipeline is expected to transfer 33 billion cubic meters of gas each year. It will stretch for 1800 kilometres from Turkmenistan, through Kandahar and Chaman, to Pakistan and India.
The practical phase of the project will start by 2014.
Parliament Calls for Deputy Finance Minister to be Sacked
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Afghanistan's House of Representatives called for the Minister of Finance to fire his deputy on Wednesday, or the House would call for the Finance Minister to take responsibility for his deputy's "disrespectful" comments.
Deputy Finance Minister, Mustafa Mastor, reportedly told journalists that parliamentary members had rejected the federal budget put forward by the Finance Ministry because they were not happy with their monthly salary.
Afghan legislators said such comments were not true and were disrespectful against the country's lawmakers.
Speaker for the House Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said the Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal had until Saturday to fire the deputy minister and "restore the parliament's honor".
A number of parliamentarians said the statement was irresponsible and must be brought to the attention of the Attorney General.
Kabul parliamentary representative Shukria Barekzai said: "Vilification is itself a crime according to our laws and we call for the deputy minister to be fired as the law says."
The Parliament has twice rejected the budget proposed by the Finance Ministry for the current fiscal year, saying it was unbalanced in its allocation of funds to different provinces and for the allocation of $80 million to bailout Kabul Bank, among other things.
Afghanistan War: Special Operations War Plan Proposed
By KIMBERLY DOZIER The Huffington Post - Apr 12 08:19am
WASHINGTON -- Adm. Bill McRaven, the head of U.S. special operations, is mapping out a potential Afghanistan war plan that would replace thousands of U.S. troops with small special operations teams paired with Afghans to help an inexperienced Afghan force withstand a Taliban onslaught as U.S. troops withdraw.
While the overall campaign would still be led by conventional military, the handfuls of special operators would become the leading force to help Afghans secure the large tracts of territory won in more than a decade of U.S. combat. They would give the Afghans practical advice on how to repel attacks, intelligence to help spot the enemy and communications to help call for U.S. air support if overwhelmed by a superior force.
The Associated Press learned new details of the draft plan this week.
The special operations proposal was sketched out at special operations headquarters in Tampa, Fla., in mid-February, with Central Command's Gen. James Mattis and overall Afghanistan war commander Gen. John Allen taking part, according to several high-level special operations officials and other U.S. officials involved in the war planning. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal has not yet been presented to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta or the White House.
If approved by the administration, the pared-down structure could become the enduring force that Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak indicated Tuesday at the Pentagon that his country needs, possibly long after the U.S. drawdown date of 2014.
McRaven's proposal amounts to a slimmed-down counterinsurgency strategy aimed at protecting the Afghan population as well as hunting the Taliban and al-Qaida. It's not the counterterrorist plan advanced by Vice President Joe Biden, which would leave Afghan forces to fend for themselves while keeping U.S. special operators in protected bases from which they could hunt terrorists with minimum risk, according to a senior special operations official reached this week.
Thousands of U.S. troops could remain in harm's way well after the end of combat operations in 2014, tasked with helping Afghans protect territory won by U.S. forces.
The Pentagon asked the top officials to draft this and other proposals to present to the White House after NATO allies decide how large a force to keep in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official familiar with the administration's deliberations.
Leaders of NATO nations are to meet May 20-21 in Chicago to discuss the war, among other issues.
The Pentagon by September will draw down the 23,000 troops that remain from the surge of 33,000 troops sent to Afghanistan in 2010 to buy time for the Afghan military and government to build both the numbers and expertise necessary to defend and govern themselves. Plans for the remaining 68,000 troops in Afghanistan are not yet complete, but most U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Allen, the commander of forces in Afghanistan, has indicated he would like to keep as many troops on the ground for as long as possible. But with a solid majority of Americans now against the continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan and the sped-up departure of some of America's NATO allies from the war zone, the Obama administration is feeling some pressure toward a faster drawdown.
The McRaven plan could provide a way to shrink troop numbers quickly without leaving a security vacuum as U.S. troops depart, as has happened in Afghanistan before when NATO forces left an area.
"This is the least bad option," said retired Marine Col. T.X. Hammes, senior fellow at the National Defense University and longtime critic of the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. "It's probably the smartest thing we could do to keep the Afghan government functioning long enough to safely withdraw."
In the back-of-the-envelope version of the strategy, a couple thousand special operators, like Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force, would keep working with Afghan special forces to raid terrorist targets, the senior special operations official explained.
U.S. commanders would seek to keep the same number of defense intelligence troops in country to feed data to the smaller force and would also rely heavily on the CIA for intelligence, while an as-yet-undetermined number of conventional forces would provide everything from air to logistical support to keep all the special operations teams running, officials said.
Some two-thirds of the roughly 6,000-strong special operations force would head to Afghanistan's rural towns and villages to advise inexperienced Afghan forces. This would include expanding the Village Stability Operations program in Afghan villages, in which special operators help what is essentially an Afghan government-backed armed neighborhood watch to keep the peace.
Reliance on the program already had forced it to grow so quickly, however, that U.S. commanders had put regular military forces into some of the sites. That is how Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a regular soldier with no prior Afghanistan experience, ended up at one of the sites. He stands accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers in a shooting spree last month.
U.S. officials say they will take more care with selecting who gets deployed into such sensitive and remote posts in the future.
The commanders building the new team also would draw heavily from the group known as "Afghan Pakistan hands," the 700-plus force of troops and civilians given months of extra language training in Pashtu, Dari or Urdu, the three main languages of Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials say. Around 50 of the "hands" are deployed to the Village Stability Operations to serve as translators, both of language and culture, between special operations troops, Afghan government officials and local villagers.
The insider knowledge of both the "hands" group and the special operators with multiple Afghan tours is intended to minimize the chance of further antagonizing Afghans and driving them to support the Taliban.
U.S.-Afghan relations have been strained in the past year, exacerbated by the killings of at least 16 U.S. and NATO troops by their Afghan allies in recent months, the inadvertent burnings of Qurans by U.S. troops in January and the shootings of the 17 Afghan villagers. Afghan President Hamid Karzai initially asked that the U.S. retreat from rural areas.
Taliban Wages a Poppy War to Protect a Cash Crop
New York Times By TAIMOOR SHAH and ALISSA J. RUBIN April 11, 2012
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - So focused are the Taliban on securing this year’s opium poppy crop — and the support of the farmers tending it — that in the early days of their spring offensive in the south, they are targeting not only the officials trying to eradicate the plants, but also the tractors they use.
This year, the poppy fields that are so beautiful right now, carpeted with lithe red blossoms, are also sown with land mines — the product of the increased cooperation between poppy farmers and the militants they see as protectors of their economic interests, government officials say.
“This year there is more poppy cultivation in Helmand, especially in places where people have confiscated the government lands and in places that were desert,” said Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the governor in Helmand Province. “The reason is that the Taliban promised and persuaded farmers to grow poppy and told them they would protect them.”
One suicide attack this week in Helmand Province, the poppy-growing capital not just of Afghanistan but of the world, was indicative of the far larger fight being taken up to control the crop across the southern opium belt, say government officials and the people who live there.
The multifaceted attack included a team of three suicide bombers, wearing police uniforms, who entered the Musa Qala district police headquarters intent on killing the police chief, who has been aggressive in his poppy-eradication efforts. Four officers died, and the chief was injured.
In the bazaar outside, other Taliban fighters strategically positioned two motorcycles loaded with explosives as close as possible to the tractors used in the anti-poppy campaign, said Niamatullah Khan, the Musa Qala district governor. A third explosives-laden motorcycle detonated elsewhere in the bazaar, killing three more police officers.
In Helmand, the government has embraced eradication as part of a comprehensive program to discourage farmers from growing poppies and to subsidize alternative crops. The program has been most successful in the Helmand River valley, and the Musa Qala district is far from the heart of the effort.
The program has been met with hostility by many local residents who say they are reduced to poverty without the income from the poppy crop. A study by the sociologist David Mansfeld, a researcher for Tufts University, noted that families who grow poppies eat meat more frequently and are more likely to be able to afford to marry off their children — weddings often come with crippling costs in Afghanistan, where relatives far and near must be hosted and fed.
“No one wants to see his poppy field destroyed. A farmer is even ready to fight for his poppy field,” said a merchant in Musa Qala who asked not to be named because the subject was so delicate. “If a son of a farmer is in the government and wants to destroy his father’s poppy field, the father would be happy if his son is killed by Taliban.”
Complicating matters is the hold that poppy profits have on government officials. Local farmers say that eradication is selective, meaning that officials often exempt the fields of relatives or of people who bribe them sufficiently.
In Musa Qala, the police chief — who is known locally only as Koka — has a reputation as a ruthless fighter against the Taliban. He has made it a cause to destroy their poppy fields, but not necessarily those of others, like the policemen who work for him, said several local residents.
While only a small part of the total income from poppies goes to the Taliban — roughly 10 percent, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime — but that adds up to a lot in a $4 billion-plus harvest.
“The police chief made a plan to eradicate the poppy fields of Taliban commanders first and then kill the poppy fields of those who are sympathetic with the Taliban, like landlords who help Taliban or those farmers whose sons or relatives are with Taliban,” the merchant said. “This decision really infuriated Taliban commanders, and by any means the Taliban wanted to kill Koka, so that’s why yesterday they made a big effort. You cannot imagine how lucky he was to survive.”
Mr. Khan, the district governor, described a chaotic scene: after the suicide bombers made their way into the police headquarters — their initial attacks muffled by silencers on their pistols — the chief burst out of his office. But then he hesitated, evidently confused by the attackers’ police uniforms.
One of the chief’s officers shouted, “They are not the real police,” Mr. Khan said. The chief pulled out his pistol and shot one of the attackers; as he did, the man’s suicide vest exploded, wounding the other two bombers and the chief himself. The chief was taken to a NATO hospital, local government officials said.
Mr. Ahmadi, the spokesman in the Helmand Province governor’s office, said the police chief did not give preferential treatment to some farmers while going after the Taliban, but he admitted that the government had found such a pattern in Marja, in central Helmand, with members of the police and the local council being allowed to grow poppies. That has since changed, he said.
He said that the militant leadership known as the Quetta Shura, in need of cash, had instructed the Taliban to plant poppies.
“The only means of income they are relying on now is the poppy in Afghanistan, especially in Helmand Province, so that’s why they are planting mines in poppy fields, staging direct attacks, ambushing the eradication campaign and sometimes engaging in prolonged firefights,” Mr. Ahmadi said.
The intense resistance to eradication means that there will be a substantial poppy harvest in Helmand and that the campaign may create dangerous resentment, Mr. Ahmadi said.
“I do not think it will be possible for the eradication campaign to destroy all the poppy fields in Helmand,” he said. “And any person whose fields are destroyed, he is becoming Taliban.”
Trade Through West Afghan Province on the Up
Traders say exports rising thanks to better business climate and security.
IWPR By mohammadali.jawed, Harun Hakimi 11 Apr 12
Afghanistan - Exports from the western Afghan province of Herat have leapt by over a third as a result of a relaxation of customs rules, better international trade links and improved security, businessmen said.
Herat lies on ancient trade routes linking the Middle East with Central and South Asia, and borders on Turkmenistan as well as being Afghanistan’s major gateway to Iran.
The province produces saffron, rugs, cumin, marble, animal skins and wool, and should be prospering. But as in much of Afghanistan, businessmen frequently complain that free trade is hampered by continued conflict, endemic corruption, poor government policies, and a lack of markets abroad.
That situation is now improving, according to businessmen and officials, who credit a reduction in red tape and a supportive provincial chamber of commerce.
Officially-recorded exports from Herat province amounted to more than 30 million US dollars between March and September 2011, a 36 per cent increase on the figure reported for the same period of 2010, according to Amrullah Qalandarzoi, head of exports at the provincial customs department.
Some of the goods were bound for neighbouring Iran and Turkmenistan, while others were heading for the Middle East, India, Turkey and Europe.
Mohammad Rasul Fayeq, head of the rug makers’ association in Herat, said the carpet industry, which employs some 3,000 workers, most of them female, in western Afghanistan, had benefited significantly. Nearly 60 per cent more rugs were exported to Iran and on to Europe between March and September 2011 than in the same period of 2010.
The boom has prompted Herat’s biggest carpet trader, Abdol Zaher, to raise the wages he pays his workers from 60 to 300 dollars a month.
“I export about 30,000 square metres of carpets to Italy every year,” he said. “A lot of people put food on the table because of this Afghan industry.”
One of his employees is Nuria, 36, who became the breadwinner in her family when she lost her husband six years ago.
Before the pay rise, she could barely pay the rent and her two sons had to work to support the family, one in a bakery and the other selling plastic bags.
With the pay increase, Nuria hopes to send both sons to school.
Gholam Sediq Nuri, who sells rugs, cumin and saffron to the Middle East via Iran, said the chamber of commerce in Herat had been a great help. In the past, he had difficulty getting visas for Iran and other countries, often having to make a large down-payment.
“When the chamber of commerce introduced me to the embassies, however, I was able to get visas very easily,” he said. “Our trade has grown because Arab and European countries have opened their doors to Afghan traders, because we are producing more, and because – relatively speaking – security is fine.”
Khalil Ahmad Yarmand, the chamber’s executive manager, said it had helped exporters to market their goods and held trade fairs to attract foreign buyers.
“If things continue like this, Herat’s exports and people’s incomes will increase massively,” Yarmand said.
Although the security situation remains volatile in Herat, officials estimate than one third of the insurgents in the province have been “reintegrated” to civilian life over the last year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Economic analyst Mohammad Jawad Panahi predicted that a continued rise in production and employment would in turn improve the security environment and cut drug smuggling.
Panahi attributes these improvements to greater efficiency at the customs office, and says the finance ministry has also negotiated with Afghanistan’s neighbours to allow freer border trade.
Mohammad Qasem, a farmer from Gozara district, 20 kilometres south of Herat city, has expanded his business as export opportunities have increased.
He grew cumin for many years, but earned little from it because he could only sell to Iranian and Pakistani buyers at low prices. Now he can trade with countries further afield, and he has bought two tractors with the profits and gone into business with his two brothers, who have returned from Iran where they were working.
“In the past, we grew tired of working because no one would buy our products and we couldn’t cover our costs,” he said. “Our fields are worth working now.”
Despite the improvements, no one is under any illusion about the many obstacles to trade that still exist.
Fayeq pointed out that while increasing amounts of carpets are exported to Iran through legitimate routes, 95 per cent are still smuggled illegally into Pakistan.
Gholam Mohammad, a saffron trader in Gozara, said that although trade conditions were better than ever before, security and “massive corruption” remained major problems.
Officials continued to demand a percentage from legitimate businesses, he said, adding, “If you want to launch an import-export company, you need to bear in mind that you aren’t the only shareholder. Government officials are your shareholders as well.”
Mohammad Ali Jawed and Harun Hakimi are IWPR-trained reporters in Herat province.
Harun Hakimi is an IWPR-trained reporter in Herat province, Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: Shia Clerics Ban Marriage Payments
Some women in Helmand say decision will reduce respect for them.
PR By Gol Ahmad Ehsan 11 Apr 12
Afghanistan - Shia Muslim scholars in Helmand have ruled against the traditional payment of a “bride price”, a view that has also been supported by some Sunni clerics in the southern province.
The prohibition has proved unpopular amongst some Shia women, who say that if a marriage is not sealed by a financial transaction, brides will lose the respect of their in-laws and the wider community.
Although Helmand’s residents are mostly Sunni Muslims, there are an estimated 40,000 Shia in the province.
Among this community, the bride price ranges between 2,000 and 30,000 US dollars, whereas in other parts of Afghanistan, the payment is made in livestock.
Raising the cash imposes a heavy burden on families, and young men who want to avoid the real risk of remaining single are prepared to travel abroad to earn the money. Often travelling to Iran, these illegal migrants are vulnerable to imprisonment, deportation, injury and worse.
Shokria, a high school student in Helmand’s main town Lashkar Gah, said the size of the bride price would determine the value her future husband’s family would place on her. Lack of payment would raise questions about her virginity.
“If a family doesn’t get a bride price for their daughter, people will think the girl had poor morals and was a burden to her father,” Shokria said. “Paying a bride price protects a girl from such accusations. If my father doesn’t obtain a price for me, I won’t be prepared to get married.”
However, Qasem Ali Jafari, who chairs the Shia religious council in Helmand, disagreed with those who believed marriage payment determined a woman’s worth.
“If they think a woman’s value is in money, they are wrong,” he said. “Money does not reflect the value of women. A woman gains value through love and friendship, and the value of a husband and a wife comes only from love and trust.”
Jafari said the council believed the custom went against Islamic precepts, and predicted that the ban would ultimately win public support.
“We gathered all the religious scholars and tribal elders together and came to a decision that will benefit the public,” he said. “We made the decision because the cost of living has increased. People have been spending a lot of money, and it’s become a competition, with thousands of people invited to some weddings. The public will therefore welcome our decision.”
He said enforcing the ban would be easy, because it counted as a religious ruling.
“It also benefits the public, so they will put it into practice and support the decision themselves,” he added, noting that the council would be meeting every six months to discuss the decision and people’s response to it.
Some Sunni religious scholars in Helmand, like Maulavi Abdorrahim, agree that the practice went entirely against Islam.
“Receiving money for one’s daughter from her husband is like eating the flesh from dead bodies,” Abdorrahim said. “It is unlawful to use such money to buy food, to spend it or to do business with it.”
Abdorrahim said a woman’s value could not be quantified in cash.
“Are those girls who think the bride price enhances their value aware that many men have to kill, rob, smuggle and engage in other illegal activities to pay it?” he asked. “Have they thought about how they are going to live if their husband is in debt?”
In what was seen as an attempt to win popular support, the Sunni Taleban issued an edict in 2010 restricting the maximum bride-price in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, north of Kabul. (See Taleban Try Hearts-and-Minds Tactics .)
But others say the council has chosen to ignore practical issues.
Karima, a student at the Malalay high school in Lashkar Gah, said some families needed the payment in order to set their daughters up in married life. Sometimes the money was used to buy home appliances and thus it counted as part of the dowry of household goods which a bride is expected to bring when, as tradition dictates, she sets up home with the groom’s family.
“There are people on the [Shia] religious council who are well-off and who don’t need money in return for their daughters,” she said. “They can give their daughters all the items they need once they are married. But my father has nothing, and he can’t afford to provide me with the things I will need in my future life.”
Shakila, a housewife, said the ban might encourage men to marry more than one woman and then treat them unfairly.
“If paying a bride price is forbidden, every man will marry two women because there will be no need for him to have money. And if a man has two or three wives, there will be big problems in the family,” she said, adding, “I would never let my husband get married again. If he insisted, I would leave.”
But those who face paying the bride price seem happier about the decision.
Abdolhaq, 28, said his life had been dogged by the pressure of trying to raise the sums required.
“My father-in-law asked me for 20,000 dollars,” he said. “I tried to raise the sum for a full five years. I went to Iran, where my friends and I were imprisoned for a year for having no passports. We then returned home and I did get married. But I still owe people for the bride price.”
Gol Ahmad Ehsan is an IWPR-trained reporter in Helmand.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Thursday, April 12, 2012
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday he was considering changes to either the 2014 timetable for presidential elections or the planned transition of security to Afghan forces that year to avoid overloading the country with simultaneous change.
Under Afghanistan's constitution, a presidential vote must occur before the end of 2014 to decide on a successor to Karzai, who must step aside after winning a second five-year term in 2009.
But after a series of bombings by the Taliban and the breakdown of peace talks between insurgents and the United States, there is worry that shrinking NATO troop numbers and fledgling Afghan forces may not be able to ensure security.
Karzai said he had been discussing the question with his close advisers for months.
"This is a question that I have had, and I have raised it with my inner circle, if we cannot have all that accomplished in 2014 because of the heavy agenda," he told a press conference in Kabul with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"Can we bring either the transition and the return of international forces to 2013 so we can have the other agenda fulfilled in 2014 with less to do, or should we allow the transition process to complete itself in 2014, but bring the presidential election one year earlier to 2013."
"I have not had a final decision yet and it will not be soon."
Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan William Patey told The Guardian newspaper this month that there "perfectly good arguments" why 2013 would be a better time to hold the presidential election.
Afghan security forces are due to take over security responsibilities from NATO by the end of 2014 when most foreign combat troops will leave.
(Reporting by Rob Taylor and Jack Kimball; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
In Afghanistan, who follows Hamid Karzai?
The Washington Post By David Ignatius Thursday, April 12, 2012
Americans are clamoring to speed up the 2014 security transition in Afghanistan so that U.S. troops can come home sooner. But the buzz in Kabul is about the political transition to a post-Karzai government — and whether that hand¬over should be accelerated.
Under the Afghan constitution, a presidential election must take place before the end of 2014 to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who won a second term in 2009. But there’s growing talk about moving up the election to 2013, when more NATO troops will be there to provide security.
“There are perfectly good arguments why 2013 would be a good time” for the presidential election, William Patey, Britain’s ambassador in Kabul, said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper last week. He added that the British “wouldn’t have any objections.” Afghanistan’s independent election commission would have to approve any change.
One argument for an earlier election is that it would focus attention on the political transition ahead — rather than on just the military situation. An emphasis on military issues at the expense of politics and governance has plagued the U.S. effort in Afghanistan since the beginning.
“We have a very detailed and micromanaged security transition plan, but we don’t really have any functional plan for the transfer of political power,” complains one adviser to the NATO mission in Kabul.
The Obama administration is assuming the election will take place as scheduled in 2014. But regardless of the polling date, some top U.S. officials agree it’s time to focus more on politics and a bit less on the military handover that gets the headlines. Already, Ryan Crocker, the veteran U.S. ambassador in Kabul, is expanding his outreach to Afghan politicians in the hope of encouraging a new generation of leaders, post-Karzai.
I don’t know where this sort of political outreach fits in the toolbox of U.S. power. Some would argue that it should be a CIA function, since it may involve covert contacts and money. But why not do this political work openly, through the embassy? It seems crazy to have spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to stabilize Afghanistan, and then pretend Washington isn’t interested in shaping the political landscape and encouraging a strong and popular successor to Karzai.
A U.S. focus on Afghan politics might confound the Taliban. Right now, the insurgents seem to think that if they can outlast the planned withdrawal of NATO combat troops, who will give up their lead role in mid-2013, then they’re home free. The Taliban might be less sanguine, and more eager to bargain, if they saw the United States encouraging new political leaders.
“There is little doubt in my mind that the U.S. government needs to make an effort to support key moderate leaders in each of the groups,” argues one prominent Afghan business leader. A deal with the Taliban before there’s a new Afghan government “will end in tears,” he warns.
Here are some of the political prospects mentioned by U.S., European and Afghan analysts: Farooq Wardak, a Pashtun who is education minister; Hanif Atmar, a Pashtun former interior minister; Ashraf Ghani, a Pashtun former finance minister who is now helping manage transition efforts; Amrullah Saleh, a Tajik former intelligence chief; Atta Mohammad Noor, the popular Tajik governor of Balkh province; Shukria Barakzai, a Pashtun member of parliament who speaks out on women’s issues; and Razaman Bashardost, a Hazara former planning minister who campaigns against corruption.
Any of these Afghan politicians (and there are a dozen more I could have mentioned) would give the country a more dynamic political face — less corrupt and more competent than the mercurial Karzai has proved to be. “We need a new political dynamic that is stable and aligned with our security interests,” stresses the NATO adviser.
With an election ahead to decide Afghanistan’s political future, why is the U.S. government trying so hard to negotiate a deal now with the Taliban? That’s a good question. Perhaps the Obama administration simply started the process of outreach to the enemy a year too soon, before a new leadership team was forming in Kabul.
The deadlocked negotiations with the Taliban are another reason to focus more on politics — so that a more popular and less tainted Afghan government could bargain over the country’s future with an enemy that, however potent its roadside bombs, is widely disliked.
“Karzai’s departure may very well allow us to press the ‘reset’ button,” says the Afghan businessman. The sooner the better.
davidignatius@washpost.com
NATO Chief Pledges To Meet Afghan Handover Goal
April 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the alliance is on track to fully hand over responsibility for securing Afghanistan to local forces by the end of 2014 as scheduled.
Speaking during a visit to an Afghan special forces facility outside Kabul, Rasmussen said Afghan troops would be ready to take the lead role around the country by mid-2013.
He also pledged that funding and training of Afghan troops by NATO would continue after 2014.
Afghan security forces now number about 330,000 and are to increase to 352,000 by the end of the year.
Rasmussen was to meet President Hamid Karzai during his visit.
With reporting by AP and dpa
US In Afghanistan For the Long Run: Grossman
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 April 2012
The imminent signing of the Afghanistan-US long term pact should signal to Afghans, insurgents and the regional nations alike that the United States is in Afghanistan for the long run, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, said on Tuesday.
The long-term agreement was just part of the message that there will be a US presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Grossman said in a speech at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC.
"The sooner we can sign the [strategic partnership deal] with Afghanistan, people then will have to realise that there is going to be an American presence in Afghanistan for some time to come," he said.
"So Afghans, the Taliban, the region, including Iran, will then say, 'Aha, well now, how do I react to that?"
The negotiations for the pact, which will govern when, where and how the US troops will be deployed after 2014, were well underway, he said.
He pointed out that the transfer of responsibility for Bagram military prison and night operations to Afghan security forces had ensured the finalisation of the long-term agreement soon.
Afghanistan to sell scandal-hit bank in June: Official
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan plans to sell the Kabul Bank in June, two years after seizing it from its former owners who pushed it to the brink of collapse by taking illegal loans, an official said on Thursday.
Renamed 'New Kabul Bank' since being taken over by the government, the Kabul Bank, the country's largest private lender, was bailed out by President Hamid Karzai's administration after its former bosses failed to return US$900 million (S$1.1 billion) they had secretly taken in off-book loans.
'The plan is to sell it back to the private sector in June,' Mr Noorullah Delawari, the governor of Afghanistan's central bank, which controls the war-torn nation's monetary policies, told AFP.
Mr Delawari said another option was for half the shares to be sold to turn the bank into a joint-venture between the government and the private sector. The sale would take place through a tender process, the central bank chief added.
Elite female night raiders break down barriers in Afghanistan
Reuters By Mirwais Harooni 11/04/2012
KABUL - Crouching behind a wooden barrier, 27-year-old Sergeant Sara Delawar fires her M-4 rifle at a target showing the silhouette of a man, part of a training exercise for Afghan special forces.
Anxious to defuse tensions stoked by foreign male soldiers raiding Afghans' homes at night in what is a conservative Muslim country, Afghanistan has begun training elite female troops to join Afghan male soldiers on operations.
"Before we joined this unit, our operations were done by foreign troops and they did not know our culture. People were critical so we joined to help out," Delawar, a former policewoman in Jowzjan province, said.
"I have already fought the Taliban. My comrades were martyred in fights with the Taliban and we have killed them too, but during the night raids I haven't fought insurgents yet."
Fluent in four local languages, Delawar is one of only 12 female soldiers who has been trained to fight and conduct searches in what is an attempt to pay greater respect to cultural sensitivities.
Surprise night raids in pursuit of militants have long stoked anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan, with many locals seeing them as assaults on their privacy and on women's privacy in particular.
In conservative southern areas of the country where the Taliban is strong, such raids have created even more ill will.
On Sunday after months of tense negotiations, Afghanistan and the United States agreed that only Afghan forces would search residential homes or compounds.
As well as seeking to assuage cultural sensitivities, the new strategy is aimed at lowering civilian casualties and shoring up President Hamid Karzai's popularity at a time when foreign combat troops are handing over to Afghan forces.
"It's unacceptable for us to see male soldiers body-searching females. Men are not allowed to touch females," third-lieutenant Binazir, 24, said.
"I'm proud to say that I'm here to serve my country side by side with my brothers. I'm proud that Afghan girls are here and I hope more girls join in order to provide better services for brothers and sisters in the battlefield and save lives."
NO EASY TASK
At a training facility on the outskirts of Kabul, the Afghan capital, suspected militants inside a mock-up house are advised to leave the building via loudspeaker. A hijab-wearing woman cries and asks where the soldiers are taking her brother.
Female soldiers lead her by the arm away from the scene.
"The training they've already received in this unit has had a good outcome during night raids," Captain Mohammad Khalid, head of training at the special forces, said.
"In order to launch our operations in a good manner we have to have 100 female officers in our forces."
The program began two months ago and drew women from the Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen and Hazara ethnic groups, but not from the Pashtun where the Taliban recruit most of their fighters.
The task of finding women has become even more important ahead of a pullout of most NATO combat troops by the end of 2014.
Afghanistan is still recovering from the strict social conservatism of the Taliban, whose hardline laws during their 1996-2001 rule marginalized women, stripping them of the right to work, study or move freely.
The country remains one of the world's worst places for women and setting up female special forces was not an easy task.
Recruitment is especially tricky. Women are put off by the prospect of social rejection and disapproval from their families.
Traditionally confined to their homes, women also face problems their male comrades do not.
"My children were attending school in Jowzjan, but here they don't because I'm not at home and they can't go by themselves," said Delawar, a mother-of-two and a widow.
"I hope there is support for them to get educated especially when I'm out of my house on the duty."
(Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Australia-Afghan Strategic Agreement Drafted for Nato Summit
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Afghanistan is on the cusp of signing a strategic agreement with Australia following the visit of Australia's Defense Minister to Kabul on Wednesday.
Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith said Australia is interested in forging a strategic partnership with Afghanistan during his meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the Presidential Palace, according to a statement from Karzai's office.
The draft of the strategic partnership document has been given to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs for review and is expected to be signed by the leaders of the two nations during the Nato conference in May, the statement said.
"Smith stressed that Australia is also interested in long-term cooperation with Afghanistan and gave assurances that the international community would not leave Afghans alone beyond 2014," it said.
Smith had visited Australian defense forces in southern Afghanistan before the meeting and told Karzai he believed Uruzgan province was "fully prepared" for the third phase of security transition.
Karzai's office said the President thanked Australia for its assistance and cooperation with Afghanistan, especially in building education in Uruzgan, and that the government would review the draft agreement quickly in order for it to be approved by the time of the Nato summit.
Afghanistan is also expected to sign a long-term strategic agreement with the United States at the Nato summit.
It has already signed similar agreements with the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and India.
Australia is the largest non-Nato contributor of foreign soldiers to the Nato-led mission in Afghanistan. It has 1550 soldiers mainly based in Uruzgan province.
2 children killed in roadside bombing in S Afghanistan
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Two children were killed and six other civilians injured Thursday when a roadside bomb went off in the country's southern province of Helmand, a spokesman for the provincial government said.
"Two innocent children were killed and six other civilians injured when a vehicle touched off a roadside bomb on a road at about 9 a.m. local time in Safar area of Garmasir district," spokesman Daud Ahmadi told Xinhua.
He blamed Taliban for the attack.
Taliban militants have used Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or roadside bombs and suicide bombers in their attacks which also inflicted casualties on civilians.
A total of 3,021 Afghan civilians were killed in 2011, up by 8 percent compared with 2010, according to a United Nations annual report released in Kabul in February.
360 graduates join Afghan National Police
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, April 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 360 newly-graduated policemen joined the Afghan National Police ( ANP) after completion of training in the country's northern province of Balkh, an official said on Thursday.
"A total of 360 policemen including 120 police officers were commissioned to the ANP on Thursday morning after completion of six-month training period in a police training center in provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif city," Abdul Shukor, an official with the training center of Police 303 Pamir Zone, told Xinhua.
"These policemen have been put through a curriculum, which is practical in nature and covers a police skill which has been very important in law enforcement mission in this period of time in Afghanistan." Shukor added.
The Afghan government and NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A) have stepped up efforts to train and equip Afghan police and army as NATO-led ISAF forces have handed over the security responsibilities of several areas across the country to Afghanistan.
Transition of security responsibilities from NATO forces to Afghan army and police began in July last year and lasts till 2014 when Afghanistan is due to take over its full security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.
Post-ABC News poll shows drop in Republican support for Afghan war
Washington Post By Scott Wilson and Jon Cohen Thursday, April 12, 2012
A majority of Republicans say for the first time that the war in Afghanistan has not been worth fighting, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that comes as the continuing U.S. presence in that country is emerging as a key point of contention in the presidential race.
The poll findings are likely to present a challenge for Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, who has said that the goal in Afghanistan should be to defeat the Taliban on the battlefield.
President Obama stepped back from that goal during his 2009 strategy review and has set the end of 2014 as the departure date for all U.S. combat forces.
Overall, the Post-ABC News poll reflects a country bone-weary of war after more than a decade of fighting in Afghanistan and, until late last year, an almost nine-year engagement in Iraq.
Public support for the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan has fallen to an all-time low, with only 30 percent of respondents saying it has been worth fighting.
Since the 2001 invasion, almost 2,000 U.S. troops have been killed and more than 15,000 have been wounded in Afghanistan. According to the poll, two-thirds of Americans think the war has not been worth fighting, equaling the most negative public assessments of the U.S. war effort in Iraq.
Although foreign policy has been a peripheral issue in the presidential campaign, the poll’s findings highlight the difficulty Obama and Romney face in explaining U.S. policy to an increasingly war-weary electorate.
Obama, who announced the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan at the end of 2009, is now drawing down those forces with the goal of turning over security responsibilities to Afghan troops by the end of next year. The president intends to bring home all U.S. combat troops by the end of 2014 — and he is tapping into the nation’s war fatigue on the campaign trail.
“For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq,” Obama told an audience in Hollywood, Fla., at a campaign fundraising event Tuesday. “And we’ve begun to transition in Afghanistan to put Afghans in the lead, bring our troops home.”
But Romney, whose résuméis thin on foreign-policy experience, has criticized Obama’s management of the Afghanistan war.
In particular, the former Massachusetts governor has said that he would have listened more closely to his commanding generals, who have urged Obama to keep troops in place longer, and not set a specific timeline for withdrawal. Romney says that Obama’s doing so has allowed the Taliban to simply wait out the U.S. military.
“The governor’s position is that Americans are understandably tired of this war, and he recognizes that, in the end, the Afghan people have to prevail,” Richard S. Williamson, a senior foreign policy adviser to the Romney campaign, said in a recent interview. “But we have handicapped them by setting early withdrawal dates, by not being able to forge a more stable NATO coalition and by not broadening the political base in the country.”
The war effort has been rocky, and Obama at times has had trouble convincing his political advisers that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a trustworthy partner in a risky endeavor to change the course of the war.
As public support for the war has faded — except for the ephemeral bump that followed the killing of Osama bin Laden — Obama heads toward November with Afghanistan as an uncertain asset in his reelection bid.
The Post-ABC News poll found that 48 percent of the public support his handling of the war and that 43 percent disapprove.
Almost two weeks after he outlined his surge policy at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in December 2009, a Post-ABC News poll found that a slight majority approved of Obama’s management of the war.
For Romney’s campaign, the slip in Republican support for the war could pose political difficulties, placing him outside the majority view of his party. For the first time, more Republicans and GOP-leaning independents oppose the war than support it, with 55 percent saying it has not been worth the costs.
The findings come a month after a U.S. soldier is alleged to have killed 17 Afghan civilians in what witnesses said was a house-to-house rampage. The soldier, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, had deployed three times to Iraq before arriving in Afghanistan in December.
The poll found that Americans are unsure about what, if anything, the incident reveals about the toll of the war on U.S. troops.
But eight in 10 of those polled say there should be limits on how long service members can be deployed to combat areas.
Two foreign troops killed by insurgents in Afghanistan
April 12, 2012 NEW YORK POST
KABUL -- Two members of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed by insurgents in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday.
In separate statements, ISAF said one of the troops was killed during an improvised explosive device attack, while the other was killed during an insurgent attack.
As per its policy, ISAF did not identify the troops or their country of origin.
Separately, ISAF said one of its helicopters made a hard landing in eastern Afghanistan Thursday morning, but no fatalities were recorded.
"ISAF is still in the process of assessing the circumstances to determine more facts. However, initial reporting indicates that there was no enemy activity in the area," an ISAF statement said.
"All crew members have recovered with no reported fatalities and the site of the incident is secure."
NATO has 130,000 soldiers helping Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government fight the Taliban but is scheduled to hand responsibility for security across the country to Afghans and withdraw most of its troops by the end of 2014, AFP reported.
But relations between the allies were strained this year by a series of killings of Western troops by Afghan security personnel, a massacre of 17 civilians blamed on a US soldier and the burning of Korans at a US base.
A Stable Afghanistan Is Still Possible
The insurgency persists, but if the U.S. doesn't withdraw prematurely, Afghan security forces will be able to contain it by 2014.
Wall Street Journal By MICHAEL O'HANLON And BRUCE RIEDEL April 11, 2012
There is no easy victory in sight in Afghanistan, but we are closer to accomplishing our goals than many assume. By late 2014 it will no longer be necessary to keep significant numbers of combat troops there.
The recent accord transferring main night-raid responsibility to Afghan forces, while perhaps a bit hurried at Afghan insistence, nonetheless reflects progress and is welcome news. At a time when discussion of the war has become very negative in the U.S., we need to bear these points in mind—and resist self-fulfilling fatalism and a premature withdrawal.
The good news is that the Obama administration appears unlikely to waver anytime soon. Its officials have declared that no further draw downs will be considered until the current one, bringing U.S. troops down to 68,000 from 100,000 by the end of September, is complete. In particular, we need to see how conditions evolve in the east, where this year's main anti-insurgency efforts will likely occur. However, the more worrisome news is that in a political year, with electoral pressures rising, a steady policy hand in the White House should not be assumed indefinitely into the future.
Overall, while NATO and the Afghan government have plenty of problems, the Taliban have been losing the war on the battlefield and remain hugely unpopular among the Afghan population. Our problems pale next to the enemy's. It can still win by exploiting our vulnerabilities, but only if we let it.
The Taliban narrative goes something like this: President Hamid Karzai's government is a corrupt puppet that will fall once NATO troops depart. NATO nations are irresolute infidels, looking for any excuse to leave a war they know they can't win. The massacre of 17 Afghans by U.S. Sgt. Robert Bales last month is more proof that Westerners don't care about the Afghan people. All security trends favor the Taliban, as spectacular attacks—like the assault last September on the U.S. Embassy—from Kabul to Kandahar to Kunduz reveal over the last two years.
Every point in this account is something between a huge exaggeration and a cynical lie:
In fact, Kabul is a fairly safe city—and it's safe largely because Afghan forces protect it. Less than 1% of all enemy-initiated attacks occur there; statistically it is far less dangerous than Iraq's Baghdad or Pakistan's Karachi. Yet the narrative reinforced by Taliban media releases emphasizes the spectacular attacks. There hasn't been one in months, but the daily news cycle tends not to note such favorable trends.
Violence in the south is down by a third to half, despite the Bales tragedy and a recent "green on blue" incident in which an Afghan killed two British soldiers. Many if not most Taliban weapons caches are gone, NATO officials say, and governance has improved substantially in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. The north and west are worse than they were in 2002-07 but somewhat better than in 2009-10. The situation in these regions is no longer deteriorating.
Afghan security forces are leading 40% of operations nationwide. According to the commander of U.S. forces, Gen. John Allen, these soldiers are "better than we thought." The Taliban are acutely aware that Afghan security forces are now 330,000-strong and much improved. That is why the Taliban are desperate to disrupt their partnership with NATO.
Mr. Karzai is still a challenge. We cannot afford a repeat of the 2009 undemocratic presidential election. Mr. Obama's handling of that process was his biggest mistake in the war. But the huge news is that Mr. Karzai has firmed up his plans to step down in 2014. We now need to get on with supporting Afghan political parties, opposition candidates and parliament to create the ingredients for a good 2014 election to replace him.
The Taliban may talk with bravado, yet they have been decimated in many ways. Sanctuaries in Pakistan provided by that country's Inter-Services Intelligence organization still protect Taliban leaders. But we have been taking hundreds of local Taliban commanders off the battlefield per year, with the result that the average age of those who remain has declined to 23 or so, from 35. In short, we are hurting, but the enemy is hurting more. Their actions demonstrate it. For instance, While it is regrettable that the Taliban have suspended peace talks, their mere interest in such talks is unprecedented. It probably reflects their own, and Pakistan's, sense of their vulnerabilities.
Afghanistan still has huge problems, and no clear victory is within reach by 2014. We lost that opportunity years ago, and the insurgency is likely to persist. But the goal can and should be that Afghan forces will increasingly contain and combat it on their own. At that point, perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 foreign forces can suffice—to mentor Afghan units in the field, and for air power and intelligence support, training and special operations.
Moving to such a small force prematurely, however, would leave the country's east too infiltrated by insurgents. It would also prevent the partnering and apprenticeship work with Afghan units in the field—which requires NATO combat formations, not just advisers. Things are better than many realize. We have an exit strategy that is already being implemented. So it is important not to rush it.
Mr. O'Hanlon is co-author, with Martin Indyk and Kenneth Lieberthal, of the new book, "Bending History: Barack Obama's Foreign Policy" (Brookings). Mr. Riedel is the author of "Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America and the Future of the Global Jihad (Brookings, 2011). Both are senior fellows at the Brookings Institution.
Putin signals support for NATO Afghan supply hub
Reuters By Gleb Bryanski April 11, 2012
MOSCOW - President-elect Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called NATO a relic of the Cold War but said he supported letting the alliance use a Russian airport as a supply hub in support of its mission in Afghanistan.
Moscow is studying a request from NATO for use of facilities at an airport in the Volga River city of Ulyanovsk as a transit point for shipments of non-lethal supplies to and from Afghanistan by air, rail and road.
Russia has allowed Afghan-bound NATO transport through its territory since 2009 as an alternative to convoys through Pakistan, which have been subject to militant attacks, but no permanent facility was involved.
"I consider NATO ... a throwback to the Cold War era. It was created at a time when there was a bipolar system of international relations," said Putin, who has frequently criticized the alliance and its eastward expansion. But, in his last address to parliament as prime minister before his return to the Kremlin next month, Putin dismissed fears that NATO's use of the Ulyanovsk facility could represent a threat in Russia's heartland.
"There will be no NATO base there," he said, but only "a hop over pad" for military cargo transit.
"Therefore I assure you that nothing unusual, not corresponding to our national interests, is happening there. On the contrary, everything that is being done in this sphere fully corresponds to the national interests of our people," he told parliament's lower house.
In remarks that suggested Russia does not intend to decrease cooperation in Afghanistan, Putin said "in some cases NATO is playing the role of a stabiliser in global affairs" and included the Afghan mission among such cases.
Moscow's support is crucial to the United States and NATO ahead of the pullout of most combat troops by the end of 2014.
Putin has used vocal anti-Western rhetoric in his presidential campaign, criticizing NATO over its operation in Libya last year and accusing the United States of fomenting protests against his rule. He employed some of that rhetoric on Wednesday, saying that NATO "often sticks its nose where it is not necessary and oversteps its authority".
Russia says it opposes a long-term Western military presence in Afghanistan, but has also expressed fears that the spread of drugs and Islamist militancy toward its borders could worsen if NATO forces leave without first ensuring stability.
"We don't want our soldiers to fight on Tajik-Afghan border," Putin said.
The Soviet Union fought a disastrous war in Afghanistan and Russia ruled out sending troops to aid the U.S.-led invasion after the September 11, 2001, attacks, but Putin - president at the time - offered the use of Russian airspace and other support.
(Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
Turkmenistan Will Deliver Gas to Afghanistan for 30 Years
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Turkmenistan will sell gas to Afghanistan for the 30 years following the construction of its trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline to India and Pakistan, Afghan Minister of Mines, Wahidullah Shahrani, said Wednesday.
Shahrani, who recently returned from Turkmenistan, said Turkmen President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, has promised to deliver to Afghanistan around 500 million cubic meters of gas per year at "appropriate prices", and that the project would begin soon.
Shahrani added that in an economic meeting held in Kabul recently and attended by Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, Berdimuhamedov had indicated that he was satisfied with the progress of talks on gas prices and transit issues with India and Pakistan.
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline agreement recognises Afghanistan has rights to a certain amount of gas.
Shahrani rejected the recent statement of Pakistan's Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources, Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry, that Afghanistan had given up its share of 500 million cubic meters gas.
Karzai has assured Turkmenistan that the Afghan government will strive to co-operate with the implementation of the TAPI project.
The TAPI pipeline is expected to transfer 33 billion cubic meters of gas each year. It will stretch for 1800 kilometres from Turkmenistan, through Kandahar and Chaman, to Pakistan and India.
The practical phase of the project will start by 2014.
Parliament Calls for Deputy Finance Minister to be Sacked
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Afghanistan's House of Representatives called for the Minister of Finance to fire his deputy on Wednesday, or the House would call for the Finance Minister to take responsibility for his deputy's "disrespectful" comments.
Deputy Finance Minister, Mustafa Mastor, reportedly told journalists that parliamentary members had rejected the federal budget put forward by the Finance Ministry because they were not happy with their monthly salary.
Afghan legislators said such comments were not true and were disrespectful against the country's lawmakers.
Speaker for the House Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said the Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal had until Saturday to fire the deputy minister and "restore the parliament's honor".
A number of parliamentarians said the statement was irresponsible and must be brought to the attention of the Attorney General.
Kabul parliamentary representative Shukria Barekzai said: "Vilification is itself a crime according to our laws and we call for the deputy minister to be fired as the law says."
The Parliament has twice rejected the budget proposed by the Finance Ministry for the current fiscal year, saying it was unbalanced in its allocation of funds to different provinces and for the allocation of $80 million to bailout Kabul Bank, among other things.
Afghanistan War: Special Operations War Plan Proposed
By KIMBERLY DOZIER The Huffington Post - Apr 12 08:19am
WASHINGTON -- Adm. Bill McRaven, the head of U.S. special operations, is mapping out a potential Afghanistan war plan that would replace thousands of U.S. troops with small special operations teams paired with Afghans to help an inexperienced Afghan force withstand a Taliban onslaught as U.S. troops withdraw.
While the overall campaign would still be led by conventional military, the handfuls of special operators would become the leading force to help Afghans secure the large tracts of territory won in more than a decade of U.S. combat. They would give the Afghans practical advice on how to repel attacks, intelligence to help spot the enemy and communications to help call for U.S. air support if overwhelmed by a superior force.
The Associated Press learned new details of the draft plan this week.
The special operations proposal was sketched out at special operations headquarters in Tampa, Fla., in mid-February, with Central Command's Gen. James Mattis and overall Afghanistan war commander Gen. John Allen taking part, according to several high-level special operations officials and other U.S. officials involved in the war planning. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal has not yet been presented to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta or the White House.
If approved by the administration, the pared-down structure could become the enduring force that Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak indicated Tuesday at the Pentagon that his country needs, possibly long after the U.S. drawdown date of 2014.
McRaven's proposal amounts to a slimmed-down counterinsurgency strategy aimed at protecting the Afghan population as well as hunting the Taliban and al-Qaida. It's not the counterterrorist plan advanced by Vice President Joe Biden, which would leave Afghan forces to fend for themselves while keeping U.S. special operators in protected bases from which they could hunt terrorists with minimum risk, according to a senior special operations official reached this week.
Thousands of U.S. troops could remain in harm's way well after the end of combat operations in 2014, tasked with helping Afghans protect territory won by U.S. forces.
The Pentagon asked the top officials to draft this and other proposals to present to the White House after NATO allies decide how large a force to keep in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official familiar with the administration's deliberations.
Leaders of NATO nations are to meet May 20-21 in Chicago to discuss the war, among other issues.
The Pentagon by September will draw down the 23,000 troops that remain from the surge of 33,000 troops sent to Afghanistan in 2010 to buy time for the Afghan military and government to build both the numbers and expertise necessary to defend and govern themselves. Plans for the remaining 68,000 troops in Afghanistan are not yet complete, but most U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Allen, the commander of forces in Afghanistan, has indicated he would like to keep as many troops on the ground for as long as possible. But with a solid majority of Americans now against the continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan and the sped-up departure of some of America's NATO allies from the war zone, the Obama administration is feeling some pressure toward a faster drawdown.
The McRaven plan could provide a way to shrink troop numbers quickly without leaving a security vacuum as U.S. troops depart, as has happened in Afghanistan before when NATO forces left an area.
"This is the least bad option," said retired Marine Col. T.X. Hammes, senior fellow at the National Defense University and longtime critic of the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. "It's probably the smartest thing we could do to keep the Afghan government functioning long enough to safely withdraw."
In the back-of-the-envelope version of the strategy, a couple thousand special operators, like Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force, would keep working with Afghan special forces to raid terrorist targets, the senior special operations official explained.
U.S. commanders would seek to keep the same number of defense intelligence troops in country to feed data to the smaller force and would also rely heavily on the CIA for intelligence, while an as-yet-undetermined number of conventional forces would provide everything from air to logistical support to keep all the special operations teams running, officials said.
Some two-thirds of the roughly 6,000-strong special operations force would head to Afghanistan's rural towns and villages to advise inexperienced Afghan forces. This would include expanding the Village Stability Operations program in Afghan villages, in which special operators help what is essentially an Afghan government-backed armed neighborhood watch to keep the peace.
Reliance on the program already had forced it to grow so quickly, however, that U.S. commanders had put regular military forces into some of the sites. That is how Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a regular soldier with no prior Afghanistan experience, ended up at one of the sites. He stands accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers in a shooting spree last month.
U.S. officials say they will take more care with selecting who gets deployed into such sensitive and remote posts in the future.
The commanders building the new team also would draw heavily from the group known as "Afghan Pakistan hands," the 700-plus force of troops and civilians given months of extra language training in Pashtu, Dari or Urdu, the three main languages of Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials say. Around 50 of the "hands" are deployed to the Village Stability Operations to serve as translators, both of language and culture, between special operations troops, Afghan government officials and local villagers.
The insider knowledge of both the "hands" group and the special operators with multiple Afghan tours is intended to minimize the chance of further antagonizing Afghans and driving them to support the Taliban.
U.S.-Afghan relations have been strained in the past year, exacerbated by the killings of at least 16 U.S. and NATO troops by their Afghan allies in recent months, the inadvertent burnings of Qurans by U.S. troops in January and the shootings of the 17 Afghan villagers. Afghan President Hamid Karzai initially asked that the U.S. retreat from rural areas.
Taliban Wages a Poppy War to Protect a Cash Crop
New York Times By TAIMOOR SHAH and ALISSA J. RUBIN April 11, 2012
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - So focused are the Taliban on securing this year’s opium poppy crop — and the support of the farmers tending it — that in the early days of their spring offensive in the south, they are targeting not only the officials trying to eradicate the plants, but also the tractors they use.
This year, the poppy fields that are so beautiful right now, carpeted with lithe red blossoms, are also sown with land mines — the product of the increased cooperation between poppy farmers and the militants they see as protectors of their economic interests, government officials say.
“This year there is more poppy cultivation in Helmand, especially in places where people have confiscated the government lands and in places that were desert,” said Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the governor in Helmand Province. “The reason is that the Taliban promised and persuaded farmers to grow poppy and told them they would protect them.”
One suicide attack this week in Helmand Province, the poppy-growing capital not just of Afghanistan but of the world, was indicative of the far larger fight being taken up to control the crop across the southern opium belt, say government officials and the people who live there.
The multifaceted attack included a team of three suicide bombers, wearing police uniforms, who entered the Musa Qala district police headquarters intent on killing the police chief, who has been aggressive in his poppy-eradication efforts. Four officers died, and the chief was injured.
In the bazaar outside, other Taliban fighters strategically positioned two motorcycles loaded with explosives as close as possible to the tractors used in the anti-poppy campaign, said Niamatullah Khan, the Musa Qala district governor. A third explosives-laden motorcycle detonated elsewhere in the bazaar, killing three more police officers.
In Helmand, the government has embraced eradication as part of a comprehensive program to discourage farmers from growing poppies and to subsidize alternative crops. The program has been most successful in the Helmand River valley, and the Musa Qala district is far from the heart of the effort.
The program has been met with hostility by many local residents who say they are reduced to poverty without the income from the poppy crop. A study by the sociologist David Mansfeld, a researcher for Tufts University, noted that families who grow poppies eat meat more frequently and are more likely to be able to afford to marry off their children — weddings often come with crippling costs in Afghanistan, where relatives far and near must be hosted and fed.
“No one wants to see his poppy field destroyed. A farmer is even ready to fight for his poppy field,” said a merchant in Musa Qala who asked not to be named because the subject was so delicate. “If a son of a farmer is in the government and wants to destroy his father’s poppy field, the father would be happy if his son is killed by Taliban.”
Complicating matters is the hold that poppy profits have on government officials. Local farmers say that eradication is selective, meaning that officials often exempt the fields of relatives or of people who bribe them sufficiently.
In Musa Qala, the police chief — who is known locally only as Koka — has a reputation as a ruthless fighter against the Taliban. He has made it a cause to destroy their poppy fields, but not necessarily those of others, like the policemen who work for him, said several local residents.
While only a small part of the total income from poppies goes to the Taliban — roughly 10 percent, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime — but that adds up to a lot in a $4 billion-plus harvest.
“The police chief made a plan to eradicate the poppy fields of Taliban commanders first and then kill the poppy fields of those who are sympathetic with the Taliban, like landlords who help Taliban or those farmers whose sons or relatives are with Taliban,” the merchant said. “This decision really infuriated Taliban commanders, and by any means the Taliban wanted to kill Koka, so that’s why yesterday they made a big effort. You cannot imagine how lucky he was to survive.”
Mr. Khan, the district governor, described a chaotic scene: after the suicide bombers made their way into the police headquarters — their initial attacks muffled by silencers on their pistols — the chief burst out of his office. But then he hesitated, evidently confused by the attackers’ police uniforms.
One of the chief’s officers shouted, “They are not the real police,” Mr. Khan said. The chief pulled out his pistol and shot one of the attackers; as he did, the man’s suicide vest exploded, wounding the other two bombers and the chief himself. The chief was taken to a NATO hospital, local government officials said.
Mr. Ahmadi, the spokesman in the Helmand Province governor’s office, said the police chief did not give preferential treatment to some farmers while going after the Taliban, but he admitted that the government had found such a pattern in Marja, in central Helmand, with members of the police and the local council being allowed to grow poppies. That has since changed, he said.
He said that the militant leadership known as the Quetta Shura, in need of cash, had instructed the Taliban to plant poppies.
“The only means of income they are relying on now is the poppy in Afghanistan, especially in Helmand Province, so that’s why they are planting mines in poppy fields, staging direct attacks, ambushing the eradication campaign and sometimes engaging in prolonged firefights,” Mr. Ahmadi said.
The intense resistance to eradication means that there will be a substantial poppy harvest in Helmand and that the campaign may create dangerous resentment, Mr. Ahmadi said.
“I do not think it will be possible for the eradication campaign to destroy all the poppy fields in Helmand,” he said. “And any person whose fields are destroyed, he is becoming Taliban.”
Trade Through West Afghan Province on the Up
Traders say exports rising thanks to better business climate and security.
IWPR By mohammadali.jawed, Harun Hakimi 11 Apr 12
Afghanistan - Exports from the western Afghan province of Herat have leapt by over a third as a result of a relaxation of customs rules, better international trade links and improved security, businessmen said.
Herat lies on ancient trade routes linking the Middle East with Central and South Asia, and borders on Turkmenistan as well as being Afghanistan’s major gateway to Iran.
The province produces saffron, rugs, cumin, marble, animal skins and wool, and should be prospering. But as in much of Afghanistan, businessmen frequently complain that free trade is hampered by continued conflict, endemic corruption, poor government policies, and a lack of markets abroad.
That situation is now improving, according to businessmen and officials, who credit a reduction in red tape and a supportive provincial chamber of commerce.
Officially-recorded exports from Herat province amounted to more than 30 million US dollars between March and September 2011, a 36 per cent increase on the figure reported for the same period of 2010, according to Amrullah Qalandarzoi, head of exports at the provincial customs department.
Some of the goods were bound for neighbouring Iran and Turkmenistan, while others were heading for the Middle East, India, Turkey and Europe.
Mohammad Rasul Fayeq, head of the rug makers’ association in Herat, said the carpet industry, which employs some 3,000 workers, most of them female, in western Afghanistan, had benefited significantly. Nearly 60 per cent more rugs were exported to Iran and on to Europe between March and September 2011 than in the same period of 2010.
The boom has prompted Herat’s biggest carpet trader, Abdol Zaher, to raise the wages he pays his workers from 60 to 300 dollars a month.
“I export about 30,000 square metres of carpets to Italy every year,” he said. “A lot of people put food on the table because of this Afghan industry.”
One of his employees is Nuria, 36, who became the breadwinner in her family when she lost her husband six years ago.
Before the pay rise, she could barely pay the rent and her two sons had to work to support the family, one in a bakery and the other selling plastic bags.
With the pay increase, Nuria hopes to send both sons to school.
Gholam Sediq Nuri, who sells rugs, cumin and saffron to the Middle East via Iran, said the chamber of commerce in Herat had been a great help. In the past, he had difficulty getting visas for Iran and other countries, often having to make a large down-payment.
“When the chamber of commerce introduced me to the embassies, however, I was able to get visas very easily,” he said. “Our trade has grown because Arab and European countries have opened their doors to Afghan traders, because we are producing more, and because – relatively speaking – security is fine.”
Khalil Ahmad Yarmand, the chamber’s executive manager, said it had helped exporters to market their goods and held trade fairs to attract foreign buyers.
“If things continue like this, Herat’s exports and people’s incomes will increase massively,” Yarmand said.
Although the security situation remains volatile in Herat, officials estimate than one third of the insurgents in the province have been “reintegrated” to civilian life over the last year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Economic analyst Mohammad Jawad Panahi predicted that a continued rise in production and employment would in turn improve the security environment and cut drug smuggling.
Panahi attributes these improvements to greater efficiency at the customs office, and says the finance ministry has also negotiated with Afghanistan’s neighbours to allow freer border trade.
Mohammad Qasem, a farmer from Gozara district, 20 kilometres south of Herat city, has expanded his business as export opportunities have increased.
He grew cumin for many years, but earned little from it because he could only sell to Iranian and Pakistani buyers at low prices. Now he can trade with countries further afield, and he has bought two tractors with the profits and gone into business with his two brothers, who have returned from Iran where they were working.
“In the past, we grew tired of working because no one would buy our products and we couldn’t cover our costs,” he said. “Our fields are worth working now.”
Despite the improvements, no one is under any illusion about the many obstacles to trade that still exist.
Fayeq pointed out that while increasing amounts of carpets are exported to Iran through legitimate routes, 95 per cent are still smuggled illegally into Pakistan.
Gholam Mohammad, a saffron trader in Gozara, said that although trade conditions were better than ever before, security and “massive corruption” remained major problems.
Officials continued to demand a percentage from legitimate businesses, he said, adding, “If you want to launch an import-export company, you need to bear in mind that you aren’t the only shareholder. Government officials are your shareholders as well.”
Mohammad Ali Jawed and Harun Hakimi are IWPR-trained reporters in Herat province.
Harun Hakimi is an IWPR-trained reporter in Herat province, Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: Shia Clerics Ban Marriage Payments
Some women in Helmand say decision will reduce respect for them.
PR By Gol Ahmad Ehsan 11 Apr 12
Afghanistan - Shia Muslim scholars in Helmand have ruled against the traditional payment of a “bride price”, a view that has also been supported by some Sunni clerics in the southern province.
The prohibition has proved unpopular amongst some Shia women, who say that if a marriage is not sealed by a financial transaction, brides will lose the respect of their in-laws and the wider community.
Although Helmand’s residents are mostly Sunni Muslims, there are an estimated 40,000 Shia in the province.
Among this community, the bride price ranges between 2,000 and 30,000 US dollars, whereas in other parts of Afghanistan, the payment is made in livestock.
Raising the cash imposes a heavy burden on families, and young men who want to avoid the real risk of remaining single are prepared to travel abroad to earn the money. Often travelling to Iran, these illegal migrants are vulnerable to imprisonment, deportation, injury and worse.
Shokria, a high school student in Helmand’s main town Lashkar Gah, said the size of the bride price would determine the value her future husband’s family would place on her. Lack of payment would raise questions about her virginity.
“If a family doesn’t get a bride price for their daughter, people will think the girl had poor morals and was a burden to her father,” Shokria said. “Paying a bride price protects a girl from such accusations. If my father doesn’t obtain a price for me, I won’t be prepared to get married.”
However, Qasem Ali Jafari, who chairs the Shia religious council in Helmand, disagreed with those who believed marriage payment determined a woman’s worth.
“If they think a woman’s value is in money, they are wrong,” he said. “Money does not reflect the value of women. A woman gains value through love and friendship, and the value of a husband and a wife comes only from love and trust.”
Jafari said the council believed the custom went against Islamic precepts, and predicted that the ban would ultimately win public support.
“We gathered all the religious scholars and tribal elders together and came to a decision that will benefit the public,” he said. “We made the decision because the cost of living has increased. People have been spending a lot of money, and it’s become a competition, with thousands of people invited to some weddings. The public will therefore welcome our decision.”
He said enforcing the ban would be easy, because it counted as a religious ruling.
“It also benefits the public, so they will put it into practice and support the decision themselves,” he added, noting that the council would be meeting every six months to discuss the decision and people’s response to it.
Some Sunni religious scholars in Helmand, like Maulavi Abdorrahim, agree that the practice went entirely against Islam.
“Receiving money for one’s daughter from her husband is like eating the flesh from dead bodies,” Abdorrahim said. “It is unlawful to use such money to buy food, to spend it or to do business with it.”
Abdorrahim said a woman’s value could not be quantified in cash.
“Are those girls who think the bride price enhances their value aware that many men have to kill, rob, smuggle and engage in other illegal activities to pay it?” he asked. “Have they thought about how they are going to live if their husband is in debt?”
In what was seen as an attempt to win popular support, the Sunni Taleban issued an edict in 2010 restricting the maximum bride-price in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, north of Kabul. (See Taleban Try Hearts-and-Minds Tactics .)
But others say the council has chosen to ignore practical issues.
Karima, a student at the Malalay high school in Lashkar Gah, said some families needed the payment in order to set their daughters up in married life. Sometimes the money was used to buy home appliances and thus it counted as part of the dowry of household goods which a bride is expected to bring when, as tradition dictates, she sets up home with the groom’s family.
“There are people on the [Shia] religious council who are well-off and who don’t need money in return for their daughters,” she said. “They can give their daughters all the items they need once they are married. But my father has nothing, and he can’t afford to provide me with the things I will need in my future life.”
Shakila, a housewife, said the ban might encourage men to marry more than one woman and then treat them unfairly.
“If paying a bride price is forbidden, every man will marry two women because there will be no need for him to have money. And if a man has two or three wives, there will be big problems in the family,” she said, adding, “I would never let my husband get married again. If he insisted, I would leave.”
But those who face paying the bride price seem happier about the decision.
Abdolhaq, 28, said his life had been dogged by the pressure of trying to raise the sums required.
“My father-in-law asked me for 20,000 dollars,” he said. “I tried to raise the sum for a full five years. I went to Iran, where my friends and I were imprisoned for a year for having no passports. We then returned home and I did get married. But I still owe people for the bride price.”
Gol Ahmad Ehsan is an IWPR-trained reporter in Helmand.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com