Tweet
Civilian deaths in Afghanistan fall 20 percent: U.N.
Reuters By Jack Kimball Fri May 11, 2012
KABUL - After five years of rising deaths, civilian casualties in Afghanistan dropped 20 percent in the first four months of the year, the United Nations said, a rare piece of good news as foreign combat forces prepare to pull out by the end of 2014.
The killing of civilians has soured the feelings of many ordinary Afghans towards foreign forces and has been a constant strain on ties between the Afghan government and its Western backers in the increasingly unpopular war.
"There are several elements behind this ... there was perhaps less fighting in the first four months," Jan Kubis, the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, said late on Thursday.
"Secondly, indeed, the pro-government forces and notably the international military are taking efforts to reduce civilian casualties. Unfortunately there have been, but they take measures," the former Slovakian foreign minister told Reuters.
Kubis declined to give the number of people killed and injured in the January-April period but said the figure would be published before a meeting in Chicago later this month when NATO leaders discuss funding for the Afghan security forces.
The 20 percent decline was from the same period a year earlier.
The harshest winter in 30 years may also have had something to do with the drop in civilian casualties, which have steadily risen over the years, mostly driven by increased attacks by insurgent groups, rights groups say.
In Afghanistan, fighting usually falls off during the winter months and picks up again once heavy snows melt - insurgents are already mounting a spring campaign of suicide attacks, including high-profile assaults in Kabul.
In 2011, more than 3,000 civilians were killed and another 4,500 injured by roadside bombs, suicide attacks and other bloodshed in the country, a five percent rise from 2010.
"The bulk, the overwhelming majority, of civilian casualties are caused by the actions and activities of the anti-government forces, including such terrible instruments like, increasingly, suicide bombers," said Kubis, who is fluent in five languages.
Despite a Taliban pledge at the start of the summer fighting season that its top priority would be protecting civilian lives, a powerful roadside bomb killed seven Afghans including five children in Helmand province on Thursday.
Following a series of recent civilian casualties blamed on NATO, President Hamid Karzai said a strategic partnership agreement signed with the United States earlier this month was at risk of becoming "meaningless" if Afghans did not feel safe.
Ties between Kabul and Washington have already been strained over a string of incidents involving U.S. forces this year, including the killing of Afghan villagers for which a U.S. soldier was charged and the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran.
Kubis said he saw a "very clear desire" by international forces to prevent civilian casualties.
"Definitely, I see a much stronger effort to address this problem on the side the pro-government forces and on the side of ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force)," he said.
(Reporting by Jack Kimball)
Man in Afghan army uniform kills NATO soldier
KABUL, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A man dressed in Afghan army uniform opened fire and killed a soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the eastern region of Afghanistan on Friday, the military alliance said in a statement released here.
"An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against coalition service members in eastern Afghanistan today, killing one service member," the statement added without giving more details.
Meantime, an official in the eastern Kunar province 185 km east of capital Kabul said an Afghan soldier opened fire and killed a U. S. soldier and injured two others on Friday morning.
"An Afghan soldier opened fire on American troops at around 09: 00 a.m. local time today in Ghazi Abad district, Kunar province killing one soldier and wounding two others," Atta Ullat, the police chief of Ghazi Abad district told Xinhua.
The attacker made his good escape, he further said.
On the other hand, Zabihullah Mujahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit in talks with media via telephone from unknown location contended that the attacker was a Taliban mercenary who after killing several foreign soldiers joined the Taliban militants in the area.
In the past also several foreign soldiers have been killed in attacks by men in Afghan army and police uniform which has caused concern among Afghan and NATO-led forces officials.
U.N. Fund Scrutinized for Afghan Corruption
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE May 10, 2012
KABUL - Allegations of corruption have long swirled around Afghan government and security institutions. Now, such allegations are set to fall on a United Nations body that channels billions of dollars into the country.
An international oversight committee decided Thursday that it would raise concerns about potential mismanagement of the U.N.-administered trust fund that bankrolls Afghanistan's fledgling police force, according to an international official.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, an anticorruption group composed of high-level Afghan and international officials, flagged a "pattern of bad behavior" within the higher echelons of the program and recommended stricter oversight, the official familiar with the decision said.
Among the suspicions are that the group overpaid suppliers for office gear, falsified receipts for goods and paid worker salaries for positions that went unfilled, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The controversy focuses on the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, or Lotfa, a fund administered by the U.N. Development Program that covers salaries, benefits and other operating costs for the Afghan National Police.
Since 2002, the international community has contributed about $2.9 billion to Lotfa, with the U.S. traditionally its largest donor. The fund is expanding as Afghan forces take on increased responsibility for the country's security. The current phase of Lotfa—which runs between January 2011 and March 2013—is budgeted at $1.4 billion.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee plans to make public its concerns about the U.N. Development Program's management of the fund in coming days, and its vulnerability to potential waste, fraud and abuse, the international official said.
UNDP and fund officials said the agency recently concluded a regular annual audit and found no irregularities. Sandeep Kumar, the fund's project manager, said he was unaware of mismanagement or fraud. He added that he encouraged anyone who had problems with Lotfa procurement to come forward. "The climate here is an open one," he said.
“Several of the reviewed documents suggest questions about spending had been raised inside the agency.”
The matter surrounding Lotfa—which was created in 2002, when the international community deemed Afghanistan as lacking in the administration capacity to oversee a large and complex fund—casts a rare spotlight on alleged corruption in Afghanistan that isn't rooted in local institutions. Any new investigation promises to heighten scrutiny on the international community's shortcomings in the decade-long conflict.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee isn't an enforcement agency. Created last year by the Afghans and international donor community, it has three Afghan and three international members—currently, one each from Nigeria, Slovenia and Indonesia—and is funded by international donors, including the U.K. government. It is supposed to meet four times a year to identify problems and make recommendations to both the Afghan government and the international community on how to combat corruption in the country. It is now meeting in Kabul.
Prior to the watchdog group's decision this week, individuals familiar with the money flows at Lotfa said they had flagged concerns of overpayments, lax management and no-show workers.
Several of the reviewed documents suggest questions had been raised inside the agency.
In one internal email dated January 2012, the author alleged that the procedures for hiring contractors to fill positions in Afghanistan's ministry of interior were "quite vague."
The author, whose name was redacted in the reviewed version, identifies by name a Lotfa manager as saying that 40 contractors at the ministry were on the fund's budget at the time. This manager alleged that "many of these people do not work and are simply being paid by Lotfa," the author writes.
In a spreadsheet that summarizes seven fund procurement contracts from 2011, a reviewer flagged several transactions as suspicious. It isn't clear who placed these flags in the documents.
The flags highlight what the reviewer cautions may be inflated or falsified prices paid by the fund for equipment and office supplies. Accompanying an expense item for a set of "luxury furniture" costing the equivalent of $6,000, the reviewer notes that there is "no evidence" that the furniture had been purchased. Also flagged was the purchase of a paper shredder for around four times the price quoted by the vendor identified in the purchase order.
Lotfa's total procurement budget in 2011 amounted to $2.2 million.
Mr. Kumar, the project manager, said the fund had invited donors to sit on procurement committees to provide close oversight. Were Lotfa to find indication of wrongdoing, he added, "I personally take complete responsibility and we will take action."
Two U.S. oversight agencies have already raised some questions about the management of the fund. Last year, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a watchdog agency created by the U.S. government to oversee contracting in Afghanistan, criticized how Lotfa tracked its reimbursements of payroll costs for the Afghan National Police, or ANP, recommending "additional procedures" to boost oversight.
"There is limited assurance that only ANP personnel who worked received pay and that Lotfa funds were used to reimburse only eligible ANP costs," the report stated.
Separately, the U.S. Government Accountability Office last year cited "weaknesses" in the Afghan government's payroll system that might hinder efforts by the U.N. Development Program to ensure that the Afghan Ministry of Interior was using Lotfa funds as intended.
Write to Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
Iran threatens to expel Afghan refugees if Kabul ratifies US strategic partnership
Iran has threatened to expel Afghan refugees and workers if Kabul ratifies a 10-year strategic partnership with Washington allowing US troops to remain in Afghanistan
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 10 May 2012
Kabul - Fazel Hadi Muslimyar, speaker of the Afghan senate, said the Iranian ambassador had made the threat last week as he demanded senators reject the deal between Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai.
His intervention triggered a diplomatic row as senators denounced his meddling in Afghan affairs and called for his removal.
"He told me that if we signed the agreement with the Americans then they would kick out the refugees," Mr Muslimyar said.
"We want the ambassador removed. They should send a diplomat, not a dictator." Iran has long lobbied against the partnership, fearing it would result in American bases along its eastern border and permanent encirclement by US forces.
Afghanistan has an estimated one million refugees in Iran and an unknown, but large number of migrant workers.
Their fate is often used by Tehran as a bargaining chip during disputes with the Afghan government.
Tensions between the neighbours were already running high over the strategic partnership with reports Afghan diplomats in Tehran had been intimidated by Iranian security forces since the signing.
Ramin Mehmanparast, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, denounced the agreement at the weekend and said it would only "intensify insecurity and instability in Afghanistan".
Senator Hafez Abdol Qayum said: "Iran is shamelessly interfering in our internal affairs and even trains armed militants. As you know, Iranian ammunition and weapons have been seized many times in Afghanistan. Also, its spies have been detained." Afghan politicians hope the agreement will prevent meddling and intimidation from Iran and Pakistan by showing that America will not abandon the Afghan government after 2014 and will help Kabul resist interference, by military means if necessary.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Iranian first counsellor had been summoned and told Afghanistan could sign agreements with whoever it chose.
"Afghanistan has emphasised many times that it will not allow any country to use Afghan territory against neighbouring countries," it said.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul was unavailable for comment.
Iran fears the agreement will lead to permanent American military bases which will be used to launch attacks or surveillance.
Its fears were illustrated late last year when an advanced American spy drone was launched from a base in Afghanistan and then crashed more than 100 miles inside Iranian territory.
Ryan Crocker, American ambassador, has refused to rule out using Afghanistan as a base for continued drone strikes against terrorist targets in Pakistan after 2014, saying the US had a right to defend itself.
Afghan Police In Spotlight After Foiling Taliban Strike
The New York Times By GRAHAM BOWLEY May 10, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - An attack by six Taliban infiltrators in the eastern province of Paktika on Thursday killed three police officers but was put down before it reached the government offices that were its target, Afghan officials said.
The fighting again put the spotlight on the Afghan Local Police force, which is trained by American Special Operations personnel and is seen as a critical hedge against the Taliban as Western forces begin withdrawing. The Afghan Local Police force, which was part of the response to the Paktika attack, has been the focus of intensified Taliban assaults as the annual fighting season has gotten under way.
The attack began when six gunmen wearing explosive vests under Afghan Local Police uniforms tried to pass through a security checkpoint near the district governor’s building. Police forces stopped the men to question them, and a gun battle broke out, eventually stretching to two hours before the last attacker was killed.
Two attackers detonated their explosives during the fight, but no civilians were hurt. Two members of the Afghan Local Police and one member of the national police force were killed.
Afghan government control has long been spotty in Paktika Province, which is on the border with Pakistan. The Afghan Local Police program is considered crucial in such regions, as the national military and police forces begin to take over full security responsibility from international forces.
On Thursday, an adviser to President Hamid Karzai reported progress in the NATO handover to Afghan control. The official, Ashraf Ghani, said, “Our findings from the first and second tranches of transition show that ever since the transition started, security has either improved or at least it has not deteriorated in the transitioned areas.”
Mr. Karzai is to announce on Sunday which regions will be part of the next stage of transition, expected to begin imminently. Authority over security in regions accounting for about half of the Afghan population has been passed from coalition to Afghan control, with coalition forces taking a supporting role. The next stage, the third of five, is expected to take that figure up to roughly three-quarters of the population, Western officials said.
In a separate briefing at NATO headquarters, American military leaders said Afghan Local Police units had been created in 65 out of the 99 districts identified by the Afghan government in 2010 as requiring the new units.
The force’s numbers are on track to grow to 19,000 by the end of the year and will reach 30,000 as planned by the beginning of 2014, the last year of the NATO mission in Afghanistan, said Col. John Evans, deputy commanding officer of the Special Operations units responsible for training the Afghan Local Police.
The forces themselves have come under increasing suspicion, however, as allegations of violence, theft and human rights abuses have led to fears that Western countries may merely be arming an unreliable militia that could be used by warlords after NATO forces withdraw.
In a highly critical study released in September, Human Rights Watch detailed allegations that some Afghan Local Police forces had killed and raped civilians, stolen land, and carried out other abuses against villagers.
In a report responding to the study in December, the American military admitted that some of the allegations were credible but rebutted others.
On Thursday, Colonel Evans said that he had confidence in the vetting process and that the police were showing that, for the most part, they could hold their own. In an analysis of 1,000 armed episodes across 65 districts where the Afghan Local Police forces faced activity by insurgents, in about 80 percent of the cases they stood and fought, he said.
“The test is how they performed under fire, and they have done remarkably well,” Colonel Evans said. “They are paying the price in blood every day.”
An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Khost Province, Afghanistan.
Aid cuts could cripple Afghan peace
The Age (Australia) By Ben Doherty May 11, 2012
THE sudden withdrawal of aid money and foreign troops from Afghanistan after 2014, could shock the country's fragile economy and pose a serious threat to security, the World Bank has warned.
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an economy overwhelmingly dependent on foreign aid money. While the average per capita income in Afghanistan has risen to $528 a year, more than three times the figure from 2000, the year before the war began, more than a third of the population still lives in absolute poverty, and three-quarters remain illiterate.
And the World Bank's report, Transitional Afghanistan: Looking Beyond 2014, paints a grim picture of the country's capacity for financial independence, estimating that donor grants remain 50 per cent of the government's budget.
In 2010-11, the total donor assistance given to Afghanistan, including civilian and security-related aid, was $US15.7 billion, equivalent to 98 per cent of the country's GDP.
The bank's report, released on Wednesday, warns that that supply of aid money to Afghanistan will dry up with the withdrawal of foreign troops, leaving a funding hole the government cannot fill.
''Aid has funded the delivery of essential services, including education and health, infrastructure investments as well as government administration,'' it says.
''The level of public spending that has been financed by such high aid flows will be fiscally unsustainable for Afghanistan once donor funds decline.''
Aid reduction will raise unemployment and send some back to the illegal opium economy, the report says. Afghanistan will need to be slowly weaned off its dependence on foreign money and the fledgling local economy supported to avoid a recession.
''A rapid decline could lead to economic instability and serious socioeconomic consequences rather than declining aid, however, deteriorating security and governance are likely the largest risks to the economic outlook.''
The UN's humanitarian affairs chief, Valerie Amos, said many of the people who would be worst hit by an economic downturn were already living in intolerable conditions.
''The transition over the next couple of years will result in a lot of people losing work,'' she said.
''Expecting people to keep on living in these kinds of conditions is simply not acceptable.''
At NATO's annual summit, to be held in Chicago this month, member states are expected to agree on the details of Afghanistan's transition and aid funding beyond 2014.
Evidence of Afghanistan's dependence on foreign money is apparent across the country, but especially in Kabul. The capital has grown from about 1.5 million people to more than 5 million in the past decade, as rural Afghans seeking security and, if possible, a foreign-sponsored job, flooded the city.
Afghans who win contracts with embassies, NGOs or foreign contractors, can earn up to $US1500 a month. But public sector wages remain between $US50 and $US250 a month.
Gleaming new malls and apartment complexes have sprung up in the city centre for the newly rich, but these are countered by crowded internal refugee camps at its outskirts for the poor.
Property prices in central Kabul now rival Western capitals. In 2009, house prices in some parts rose 75 per cent. Rents went with them, forcing thousands out.
The impending pull-out of Western forces and aid groups is already affecting business.
Just this week, the Milli Boot Factory in Kabul has begun packing the last of its orders, after control of the contract to supply boots to the military was handed over to the Afghan government, who opted to import cheaper, Chinese-made boots.
with Associated Press
Aid cuts could cripple Afghan peace
The Age (Australia) By Ben Doherty May 11, 2012
THE sudden withdrawal of aid money and foreign troops from Afghanistan after 2014, could shock the country's fragile economy and pose a serious threat to security, the World Bank has warned.
A young beggar has been awarded hundreds of pounds, land and a bursary to study after it was discovered he had a birthmark on his chest resembling the map of Afghanistan.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 10 May 2012
Kabul - The nine year old boy, called Gran, has become a celebrity in his town of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, after the blotch on his body was first publicised last month.
The family, which has been too poor to send Gran to school, have since been inundated with offers of help from patriotic well wishers.
Local businessmen have led the donations, with the Helmand Chamber of Commerce giving the family a grant of £900 so he can give up begging and then a further monthly donation until he has finished school.
Ali Ahmad Naseri, chairman of the chamber, said: "Every member of his family will be paid 5,000 Afghani (£62 pounds) each month till the time this boy gets to higher education." The family had also been given a plot of land to build a house, he said.
Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand governor, said traders at a second hand car lot had spotted the birthmark after they told the boy to wash himself because he was so filthy.
The boy had had the mark for as long as he could remember, but had not previously noticed the resemblance.
Mr Ahmadi said: "The businessmen saw it looked like a map of Afghanistan and they have decided to give him money so he can go to school. The governor has rung him to congratulate him." The birthmark on his left side appears to include the Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan's most distinctive cartographical feature, extending into his armpit.
The finger-like corridor in north eastern Afghanistan is a relic of the nineteenth century Great Game when imperial agreements left it as a buffer separating Russian Central Asia from British India.
Gran told local reporters that before the discovery of his birthmark, he had eked out a living begging at the car lot and burning wild seeds which were supposed to ward off evil from newly purchased vehicles.
His father, a cobbler called Sher Agha, had beaten him unless he brought home at least £2.50 each day, he claimed.
Afghans See No Signs of Security Handover in North
In Balkh province, residents say foreign troops are conducting searches just the same as before.
IWPR By Abdul Latif Sahak 10 May 12
Afghanistan - Although NATO-led troops officially handed over to their Afghan counterparts in the northern Balkh province in January, residents complain that they are still as visible as ever.
As part of a phased transition ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops by the end of 2014, responsibility for taking the lead on security was formally transferred to Afghan forces at a ceremony in Mazar-e Sharif on January 25.
In formal terms, the transition has been completed in Balkh, as well as in the neighbouring provinces of Samangan and Sar-e Pol, and in Shiberghan, the main town of Jowzjan, also in the north. The handover process began in the central Bamian province in 2011, and is expected to be complete by mid-2013.
In Balkh, the main responsibility for security previously lay with the 500 soldiers of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, which in this province is run by Swedish and Finnish forces under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, and with American units also stationed in the area.
NATO envisages the transition as an ongoing process, so that its troops will still be active while Afghan units take the lead and assume a growing operational role. But many Balkh residents thought the handover meant the NATO units would disappear from sight, and they are angry that this has not happened.
“We were pleased that Afghans had taken over responsibility. That would have resolved our problems, as we share a common language, faith and culture. But we see that nothing has changed,” said Golboddin, a resident of the Chimtal district. “The foreigners enter people’s houses whenever they want. They search homes and they stop and search people on the roads.”
Amir Mohammad Weqar, currently local government chief in Balkh’s Daulatabad district and now head of Charbolak district, said international forces were operating in both places just as they used to.
“All processes called ‘transitional’ are symbolic,” he said. “In the past [the foreign forces] said they were performing military duties and now they say they are engaged in reconstruction, but their goal is the same – to maintain a presence in Afghanistan,” he claimed.
Charbolak resident Sharif said patrols and “harassment” by foreign units continued. In late April, troops with dogs searched a house and took one person away with them, he said.
In a statement on March 13, Lieutenant-Colonel Joni Lindeman, commander of the Finnish contingent, said the PRT had been renamed a Transition Support Team, but there would be “no major changes” in his troops’ role.
“We will continue to fulfil the tasks we have been assigned, as we have done until now,” he said.
Provincial governor Atta Mohammad Nur says he had been expecting the NATO troops to roll back their operations more than they have done.
“We believed that all the parallel structures created by the foreigners would be eliminated when the security transition process started, but that has not happened yet,” he said. “This has meant that arbitrary actions continue to take place.”
At the same time, the governor acknowledged that the Afghan military was unprepared for a complete NATO withdrawal.
“The Afghan forces have no air or ground defence capacity,” he said. “They have not been equipped, and all the assistance given to them has been futile.”
While Balkh residents may be keen to see the back of foreign troops, others question the ability of Afghan forces to secure the country after foreign troops leave. Recent insurgent attacks in Kabul and other cities have done little to boost confidence in the national army and police. (See Afghan Forces Criticised After Kabul Battles.)
Abdullah Khan, a retired colonel who is now a defence expert, dismissed the security handover as a show.
“The transition of responsibilities cannot be done just by raising the Afghan flag and lowering the flags of foreign countries,” he said.
Political analyst Arif Musavi argued that announcements about handing over control of security might be a ruse by NATO-member governments to persuade their own populations that more progress had been made than was really the case.
Another analyst, Fahim Hamdard, argued that Afghan forces were not independent anyway.
“There are foreign advisors present in all sections of the Afghan security forces,” he said. “Afghan forces can’t do anything without their permission, so how can one claim that responsibility has been transferred?”
Abdul Latif Sahak is an IWPR-trained reporter in Balkh.
Karzai Mulls Early Afghan Election
President says foreign troop withdrawal could make 2014 poll impossible.
IWPR By Mina Habib 10 May 12
Afghanistan - Afghan president Hamid Karzai has said he may bring the next presidential election forward by a year, to reduce pressure on the government during the 2014 withdrawal of foreign troops.
“I have been talking about this for some time now,” Karzai said of a 2013 election, in remarks he made at a press conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on April 12. “With all the changes that are taking place, with the complete return of international forces to their homes from Afghanistan and the holding of the presidential election at the same time, [the question is] whether that will be an agenda that we can handle at the same time.
Since Karzai was elected to a second term in 2009, the next presidential election is not due until 2014.
The Afghan authorities will be left with full responsibility for national security when the NATO-led force leaves by the end of 2014, and some fear this will result in an upsurge of insurgent violence that would make it hard to hold any kind of election, let alone an inclusive and fair one.
The constitution bars Karzai from running for a third term, so his comments may indicate that he intends to step away from power before the international withdrawal.
“I have not had a final decision yet, and it will not be soon... but I am thinking about this and I will do what is good for this country,” he said at the press conference.
Karzai was elected president in October 2004, nearly three years after he was appointed interim head of a post-Taleban administration. When he stood for a second term in August 2009, the poll was marred by poor security, low turnout and allegations of widespread electoral fraud. A second round was cancelled after Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s main challenger, pulled out.
For now at least, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, IEC, is ruling out any change in date, and its chairman Fazel Ahmad Manawi said the move would be unconstitutional.
“There is no reason to hold the election earlier, and no one can break the law,” he said.
Several analysts interviewed by IWPR backed the proposal, as the departure of foreign troops could mean the country is in no state to hold an election in 2014.
Many Afghans are leaving the country, in large part due to fears of what will happen following the troop withdrawal. (See Afghans Vote With Their Feet.)
Wahid Mozhda, a political analyst in Kabul, said an early election would make sense.
“If there is an outbreak of civil war, the government won’t be able to handle two things at the same time,” he said. “This will lead to the presidential election being delayed, or not being held at all.”
Others see Karzai’s comments as a worrying admission that the Afghan army and police might not be able to keep a lid on things.
“If the president has no confidence in the Afghan security forces, why is he bluffing about their capacity?” Shahla Farid, a law lecturer at Kabul University, asked. “He should admit that they are unable to assume responsibility for security.”
The National Coalition, an opposition bloc that includes Abdullah’s Change and Hope group, said a change of date would be unconstitutional, as presidents have to serve out their five-year terms. National Coalition spokesman Sayed Hussein Fazel Sancharaki said Karzai should stick to the 2014 schedule.
“This way, we won’t be breaking the law, people will be ready for a transparent election,” he said. “The early election issue is just a political game pursued for specific objectives.”
Mozhda, however, suggested that the main objections to an earlier poll date came from politicians who were not yet ready to contest an election.
Kabul residents were similarly divided on the merits of a 2013 ballot.
“The Afghan constitution is like a notebook where statesmen write whatever they want, and then strike it out,” she said. Sima, a 32-year-old teacher, said. “The election should take place in line with the law, on schedule.”
But Kabir, a 34-year-old shopkeeper, said an early election would be better than no election at all once foreign troops leave.
“If the president’s initiative is in the national interest, it should implemented even if it violates the Afghan constitution,” he added.
Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained contributor in Kabul.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Reuters By Jack Kimball Fri May 11, 2012
KABUL - After five years of rising deaths, civilian casualties in Afghanistan dropped 20 percent in the first four months of the year, the United Nations said, a rare piece of good news as foreign combat forces prepare to pull out by the end of 2014.
The killing of civilians has soured the feelings of many ordinary Afghans towards foreign forces and has been a constant strain on ties between the Afghan government and its Western backers in the increasingly unpopular war.
"There are several elements behind this ... there was perhaps less fighting in the first four months," Jan Kubis, the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, said late on Thursday.
"Secondly, indeed, the pro-government forces and notably the international military are taking efforts to reduce civilian casualties. Unfortunately there have been, but they take measures," the former Slovakian foreign minister told Reuters.
Kubis declined to give the number of people killed and injured in the January-April period but said the figure would be published before a meeting in Chicago later this month when NATO leaders discuss funding for the Afghan security forces.
The 20 percent decline was from the same period a year earlier.
The harshest winter in 30 years may also have had something to do with the drop in civilian casualties, which have steadily risen over the years, mostly driven by increased attacks by insurgent groups, rights groups say.
In Afghanistan, fighting usually falls off during the winter months and picks up again once heavy snows melt - insurgents are already mounting a spring campaign of suicide attacks, including high-profile assaults in Kabul.
In 2011, more than 3,000 civilians were killed and another 4,500 injured by roadside bombs, suicide attacks and other bloodshed in the country, a five percent rise from 2010.
"The bulk, the overwhelming majority, of civilian casualties are caused by the actions and activities of the anti-government forces, including such terrible instruments like, increasingly, suicide bombers," said Kubis, who is fluent in five languages.
Despite a Taliban pledge at the start of the summer fighting season that its top priority would be protecting civilian lives, a powerful roadside bomb killed seven Afghans including five children in Helmand province on Thursday.
Following a series of recent civilian casualties blamed on NATO, President Hamid Karzai said a strategic partnership agreement signed with the United States earlier this month was at risk of becoming "meaningless" if Afghans did not feel safe.
Ties between Kabul and Washington have already been strained over a string of incidents involving U.S. forces this year, including the killing of Afghan villagers for which a U.S. soldier was charged and the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran.
Kubis said he saw a "very clear desire" by international forces to prevent civilian casualties.
"Definitely, I see a much stronger effort to address this problem on the side the pro-government forces and on the side of ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force)," he said.
(Reporting by Jack Kimball)
Man in Afghan army uniform kills NATO soldier
KABUL, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A man dressed in Afghan army uniform opened fire and killed a soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the eastern region of Afghanistan on Friday, the military alliance said in a statement released here.
"An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against coalition service members in eastern Afghanistan today, killing one service member," the statement added without giving more details.
Meantime, an official in the eastern Kunar province 185 km east of capital Kabul said an Afghan soldier opened fire and killed a U. S. soldier and injured two others on Friday morning.
"An Afghan soldier opened fire on American troops at around 09: 00 a.m. local time today in Ghazi Abad district, Kunar province killing one soldier and wounding two others," Atta Ullat, the police chief of Ghazi Abad district told Xinhua.
The attacker made his good escape, he further said.
On the other hand, Zabihullah Mujahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit in talks with media via telephone from unknown location contended that the attacker was a Taliban mercenary who after killing several foreign soldiers joined the Taliban militants in the area.
In the past also several foreign soldiers have been killed in attacks by men in Afghan army and police uniform which has caused concern among Afghan and NATO-led forces officials.
U.N. Fund Scrutinized for Afghan Corruption
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE May 10, 2012
KABUL - Allegations of corruption have long swirled around Afghan government and security institutions. Now, such allegations are set to fall on a United Nations body that channels billions of dollars into the country.
An international oversight committee decided Thursday that it would raise concerns about potential mismanagement of the U.N.-administered trust fund that bankrolls Afghanistan's fledgling police force, according to an international official.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, an anticorruption group composed of high-level Afghan and international officials, flagged a "pattern of bad behavior" within the higher echelons of the program and recommended stricter oversight, the official familiar with the decision said.
Among the suspicions are that the group overpaid suppliers for office gear, falsified receipts for goods and paid worker salaries for positions that went unfilled, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The controversy focuses on the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, or Lotfa, a fund administered by the U.N. Development Program that covers salaries, benefits and other operating costs for the Afghan National Police.
Since 2002, the international community has contributed about $2.9 billion to Lotfa, with the U.S. traditionally its largest donor. The fund is expanding as Afghan forces take on increased responsibility for the country's security. The current phase of Lotfa—which runs between January 2011 and March 2013—is budgeted at $1.4 billion.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee plans to make public its concerns about the U.N. Development Program's management of the fund in coming days, and its vulnerability to potential waste, fraud and abuse, the international official said.
UNDP and fund officials said the agency recently concluded a regular annual audit and found no irregularities. Sandeep Kumar, the fund's project manager, said he was unaware of mismanagement or fraud. He added that he encouraged anyone who had problems with Lotfa procurement to come forward. "The climate here is an open one," he said.
“Several of the reviewed documents suggest questions about spending had been raised inside the agency.”
The matter surrounding Lotfa—which was created in 2002, when the international community deemed Afghanistan as lacking in the administration capacity to oversee a large and complex fund—casts a rare spotlight on alleged corruption in Afghanistan that isn't rooted in local institutions. Any new investigation promises to heighten scrutiny on the international community's shortcomings in the decade-long conflict.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee isn't an enforcement agency. Created last year by the Afghans and international donor community, it has three Afghan and three international members—currently, one each from Nigeria, Slovenia and Indonesia—and is funded by international donors, including the U.K. government. It is supposed to meet four times a year to identify problems and make recommendations to both the Afghan government and the international community on how to combat corruption in the country. It is now meeting in Kabul.
Prior to the watchdog group's decision this week, individuals familiar with the money flows at Lotfa said they had flagged concerns of overpayments, lax management and no-show workers.
Several of the reviewed documents suggest questions had been raised inside the agency.
In one internal email dated January 2012, the author alleged that the procedures for hiring contractors to fill positions in Afghanistan's ministry of interior were "quite vague."
The author, whose name was redacted in the reviewed version, identifies by name a Lotfa manager as saying that 40 contractors at the ministry were on the fund's budget at the time. This manager alleged that "many of these people do not work and are simply being paid by Lotfa," the author writes.
In a spreadsheet that summarizes seven fund procurement contracts from 2011, a reviewer flagged several transactions as suspicious. It isn't clear who placed these flags in the documents.
The flags highlight what the reviewer cautions may be inflated or falsified prices paid by the fund for equipment and office supplies. Accompanying an expense item for a set of "luxury furniture" costing the equivalent of $6,000, the reviewer notes that there is "no evidence" that the furniture had been purchased. Also flagged was the purchase of a paper shredder for around four times the price quoted by the vendor identified in the purchase order.
Lotfa's total procurement budget in 2011 amounted to $2.2 million.
Mr. Kumar, the project manager, said the fund had invited donors to sit on procurement committees to provide close oversight. Were Lotfa to find indication of wrongdoing, he added, "I personally take complete responsibility and we will take action."
Two U.S. oversight agencies have already raised some questions about the management of the fund. Last year, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a watchdog agency created by the U.S. government to oversee contracting in Afghanistan, criticized how Lotfa tracked its reimbursements of payroll costs for the Afghan National Police, or ANP, recommending "additional procedures" to boost oversight.
"There is limited assurance that only ANP personnel who worked received pay and that Lotfa funds were used to reimburse only eligible ANP costs," the report stated.
Separately, the U.S. Government Accountability Office last year cited "weaknesses" in the Afghan government's payroll system that might hinder efforts by the U.N. Development Program to ensure that the Afghan Ministry of Interior was using Lotfa funds as intended.
Write to Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
Iran threatens to expel Afghan refugees if Kabul ratifies US strategic partnership
Iran has threatened to expel Afghan refugees and workers if Kabul ratifies a 10-year strategic partnership with Washington allowing US troops to remain in Afghanistan
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 10 May 2012
Kabul - Fazel Hadi Muslimyar, speaker of the Afghan senate, said the Iranian ambassador had made the threat last week as he demanded senators reject the deal between Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai.
His intervention triggered a diplomatic row as senators denounced his meddling in Afghan affairs and called for his removal.
"He told me that if we signed the agreement with the Americans then they would kick out the refugees," Mr Muslimyar said.
"We want the ambassador removed. They should send a diplomat, not a dictator." Iran has long lobbied against the partnership, fearing it would result in American bases along its eastern border and permanent encirclement by US forces.
Afghanistan has an estimated one million refugees in Iran and an unknown, but large number of migrant workers.
Their fate is often used by Tehran as a bargaining chip during disputes with the Afghan government.
Tensions between the neighbours were already running high over the strategic partnership with reports Afghan diplomats in Tehran had been intimidated by Iranian security forces since the signing.
Ramin Mehmanparast, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, denounced the agreement at the weekend and said it would only "intensify insecurity and instability in Afghanistan".
Senator Hafez Abdol Qayum said: "Iran is shamelessly interfering in our internal affairs and even trains armed militants. As you know, Iranian ammunition and weapons have been seized many times in Afghanistan. Also, its spies have been detained." Afghan politicians hope the agreement will prevent meddling and intimidation from Iran and Pakistan by showing that America will not abandon the Afghan government after 2014 and will help Kabul resist interference, by military means if necessary.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Iranian first counsellor had been summoned and told Afghanistan could sign agreements with whoever it chose.
"Afghanistan has emphasised many times that it will not allow any country to use Afghan territory against neighbouring countries," it said.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul was unavailable for comment.
Iran fears the agreement will lead to permanent American military bases which will be used to launch attacks or surveillance.
Its fears were illustrated late last year when an advanced American spy drone was launched from a base in Afghanistan and then crashed more than 100 miles inside Iranian territory.
Ryan Crocker, American ambassador, has refused to rule out using Afghanistan as a base for continued drone strikes against terrorist targets in Pakistan after 2014, saying the US had a right to defend itself.
Afghan Police In Spotlight After Foiling Taliban Strike
The New York Times By GRAHAM BOWLEY May 10, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - An attack by six Taliban infiltrators in the eastern province of Paktika on Thursday killed three police officers but was put down before it reached the government offices that were its target, Afghan officials said.
The fighting again put the spotlight on the Afghan Local Police force, which is trained by American Special Operations personnel and is seen as a critical hedge against the Taliban as Western forces begin withdrawing. The Afghan Local Police force, which was part of the response to the Paktika attack, has been the focus of intensified Taliban assaults as the annual fighting season has gotten under way.
The attack began when six gunmen wearing explosive vests under Afghan Local Police uniforms tried to pass through a security checkpoint near the district governor’s building. Police forces stopped the men to question them, and a gun battle broke out, eventually stretching to two hours before the last attacker was killed.
Two attackers detonated their explosives during the fight, but no civilians were hurt. Two members of the Afghan Local Police and one member of the national police force were killed.
Afghan government control has long been spotty in Paktika Province, which is on the border with Pakistan. The Afghan Local Police program is considered crucial in such regions, as the national military and police forces begin to take over full security responsibility from international forces.
On Thursday, an adviser to President Hamid Karzai reported progress in the NATO handover to Afghan control. The official, Ashraf Ghani, said, “Our findings from the first and second tranches of transition show that ever since the transition started, security has either improved or at least it has not deteriorated in the transitioned areas.”
Mr. Karzai is to announce on Sunday which regions will be part of the next stage of transition, expected to begin imminently. Authority over security in regions accounting for about half of the Afghan population has been passed from coalition to Afghan control, with coalition forces taking a supporting role. The next stage, the third of five, is expected to take that figure up to roughly three-quarters of the population, Western officials said.
In a separate briefing at NATO headquarters, American military leaders said Afghan Local Police units had been created in 65 out of the 99 districts identified by the Afghan government in 2010 as requiring the new units.
The force’s numbers are on track to grow to 19,000 by the end of the year and will reach 30,000 as planned by the beginning of 2014, the last year of the NATO mission in Afghanistan, said Col. John Evans, deputy commanding officer of the Special Operations units responsible for training the Afghan Local Police.
The forces themselves have come under increasing suspicion, however, as allegations of violence, theft and human rights abuses have led to fears that Western countries may merely be arming an unreliable militia that could be used by warlords after NATO forces withdraw.
In a highly critical study released in September, Human Rights Watch detailed allegations that some Afghan Local Police forces had killed and raped civilians, stolen land, and carried out other abuses against villagers.
In a report responding to the study in December, the American military admitted that some of the allegations were credible but rebutted others.
On Thursday, Colonel Evans said that he had confidence in the vetting process and that the police were showing that, for the most part, they could hold their own. In an analysis of 1,000 armed episodes across 65 districts where the Afghan Local Police forces faced activity by insurgents, in about 80 percent of the cases they stood and fought, he said.
“The test is how they performed under fire, and they have done remarkably well,” Colonel Evans said. “They are paying the price in blood every day.”
An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Khost Province, Afghanistan.
Aid cuts could cripple Afghan peace
The Age (Australia) By Ben Doherty May 11, 2012
THE sudden withdrawal of aid money and foreign troops from Afghanistan after 2014, could shock the country's fragile economy and pose a serious threat to security, the World Bank has warned.
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an economy overwhelmingly dependent on foreign aid money. While the average per capita income in Afghanistan has risen to $528 a year, more than three times the figure from 2000, the year before the war began, more than a third of the population still lives in absolute poverty, and three-quarters remain illiterate.
And the World Bank's report, Transitional Afghanistan: Looking Beyond 2014, paints a grim picture of the country's capacity for financial independence, estimating that donor grants remain 50 per cent of the government's budget.
In 2010-11, the total donor assistance given to Afghanistan, including civilian and security-related aid, was $US15.7 billion, equivalent to 98 per cent of the country's GDP.
The bank's report, released on Wednesday, warns that that supply of aid money to Afghanistan will dry up with the withdrawal of foreign troops, leaving a funding hole the government cannot fill.
''Aid has funded the delivery of essential services, including education and health, infrastructure investments as well as government administration,'' it says.
''The level of public spending that has been financed by such high aid flows will be fiscally unsustainable for Afghanistan once donor funds decline.''
Aid reduction will raise unemployment and send some back to the illegal opium economy, the report says. Afghanistan will need to be slowly weaned off its dependence on foreign money and the fledgling local economy supported to avoid a recession.
''A rapid decline could lead to economic instability and serious socioeconomic consequences rather than declining aid, however, deteriorating security and governance are likely the largest risks to the economic outlook.''
The UN's humanitarian affairs chief, Valerie Amos, said many of the people who would be worst hit by an economic downturn were already living in intolerable conditions.
''The transition over the next couple of years will result in a lot of people losing work,'' she said.
''Expecting people to keep on living in these kinds of conditions is simply not acceptable.''
At NATO's annual summit, to be held in Chicago this month, member states are expected to agree on the details of Afghanistan's transition and aid funding beyond 2014.
Evidence of Afghanistan's dependence on foreign money is apparent across the country, but especially in Kabul. The capital has grown from about 1.5 million people to more than 5 million in the past decade, as rural Afghans seeking security and, if possible, a foreign-sponsored job, flooded the city.
Afghans who win contracts with embassies, NGOs or foreign contractors, can earn up to $US1500 a month. But public sector wages remain between $US50 and $US250 a month.
Gleaming new malls and apartment complexes have sprung up in the city centre for the newly rich, but these are countered by crowded internal refugee camps at its outskirts for the poor.
Property prices in central Kabul now rival Western capitals. In 2009, house prices in some parts rose 75 per cent. Rents went with them, forcing thousands out.
The impending pull-out of Western forces and aid groups is already affecting business.
Just this week, the Milli Boot Factory in Kabul has begun packing the last of its orders, after control of the contract to supply boots to the military was handed over to the Afghan government, who opted to import cheaper, Chinese-made boots.
with Associated Press
Aid cuts could cripple Afghan peace
The Age (Australia) By Ben Doherty May 11, 2012
THE sudden withdrawal of aid money and foreign troops from Afghanistan after 2014, could shock the country's fragile economy and pose a serious threat to security, the World Bank has warned.
A young beggar has been awarded hundreds of pounds, land and a bursary to study after it was discovered he had a birthmark on his chest resembling the map of Afghanistan.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer 10 May 2012
Kabul - The nine year old boy, called Gran, has become a celebrity in his town of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, after the blotch on his body was first publicised last month.
The family, which has been too poor to send Gran to school, have since been inundated with offers of help from patriotic well wishers.
Local businessmen have led the donations, with the Helmand Chamber of Commerce giving the family a grant of £900 so he can give up begging and then a further monthly donation until he has finished school.
Ali Ahmad Naseri, chairman of the chamber, said: "Every member of his family will be paid 5,000 Afghani (£62 pounds) each month till the time this boy gets to higher education." The family had also been given a plot of land to build a house, he said.
Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand governor, said traders at a second hand car lot had spotted the birthmark after they told the boy to wash himself because he was so filthy.
The boy had had the mark for as long as he could remember, but had not previously noticed the resemblance.
Mr Ahmadi said: "The businessmen saw it looked like a map of Afghanistan and they have decided to give him money so he can go to school. The governor has rung him to congratulate him." The birthmark on his left side appears to include the Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan's most distinctive cartographical feature, extending into his armpit.
The finger-like corridor in north eastern Afghanistan is a relic of the nineteenth century Great Game when imperial agreements left it as a buffer separating Russian Central Asia from British India.
Gran told local reporters that before the discovery of his birthmark, he had eked out a living begging at the car lot and burning wild seeds which were supposed to ward off evil from newly purchased vehicles.
His father, a cobbler called Sher Agha, had beaten him unless he brought home at least £2.50 each day, he claimed.
Afghans See No Signs of Security Handover in North
In Balkh province, residents say foreign troops are conducting searches just the same as before.
IWPR By Abdul Latif Sahak 10 May 12
Afghanistan - Although NATO-led troops officially handed over to their Afghan counterparts in the northern Balkh province in January, residents complain that they are still as visible as ever.
As part of a phased transition ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops by the end of 2014, responsibility for taking the lead on security was formally transferred to Afghan forces at a ceremony in Mazar-e Sharif on January 25.
In formal terms, the transition has been completed in Balkh, as well as in the neighbouring provinces of Samangan and Sar-e Pol, and in Shiberghan, the main town of Jowzjan, also in the north. The handover process began in the central Bamian province in 2011, and is expected to be complete by mid-2013.
In Balkh, the main responsibility for security previously lay with the 500 soldiers of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, which in this province is run by Swedish and Finnish forces under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, and with American units also stationed in the area.
NATO envisages the transition as an ongoing process, so that its troops will still be active while Afghan units take the lead and assume a growing operational role. But many Balkh residents thought the handover meant the NATO units would disappear from sight, and they are angry that this has not happened.
“We were pleased that Afghans had taken over responsibility. That would have resolved our problems, as we share a common language, faith and culture. But we see that nothing has changed,” said Golboddin, a resident of the Chimtal district. “The foreigners enter people’s houses whenever they want. They search homes and they stop and search people on the roads.”
Amir Mohammad Weqar, currently local government chief in Balkh’s Daulatabad district and now head of Charbolak district, said international forces were operating in both places just as they used to.
“All processes called ‘transitional’ are symbolic,” he said. “In the past [the foreign forces] said they were performing military duties and now they say they are engaged in reconstruction, but their goal is the same – to maintain a presence in Afghanistan,” he claimed.
Charbolak resident Sharif said patrols and “harassment” by foreign units continued. In late April, troops with dogs searched a house and took one person away with them, he said.
In a statement on March 13, Lieutenant-Colonel Joni Lindeman, commander of the Finnish contingent, said the PRT had been renamed a Transition Support Team, but there would be “no major changes” in his troops’ role.
“We will continue to fulfil the tasks we have been assigned, as we have done until now,” he said.
Provincial governor Atta Mohammad Nur says he had been expecting the NATO troops to roll back their operations more than they have done.
“We believed that all the parallel structures created by the foreigners would be eliminated when the security transition process started, but that has not happened yet,” he said. “This has meant that arbitrary actions continue to take place.”
At the same time, the governor acknowledged that the Afghan military was unprepared for a complete NATO withdrawal.
“The Afghan forces have no air or ground defence capacity,” he said. “They have not been equipped, and all the assistance given to them has been futile.”
While Balkh residents may be keen to see the back of foreign troops, others question the ability of Afghan forces to secure the country after foreign troops leave. Recent insurgent attacks in Kabul and other cities have done little to boost confidence in the national army and police. (See Afghan Forces Criticised After Kabul Battles.)
Abdullah Khan, a retired colonel who is now a defence expert, dismissed the security handover as a show.
“The transition of responsibilities cannot be done just by raising the Afghan flag and lowering the flags of foreign countries,” he said.
Political analyst Arif Musavi argued that announcements about handing over control of security might be a ruse by NATO-member governments to persuade their own populations that more progress had been made than was really the case.
Another analyst, Fahim Hamdard, argued that Afghan forces were not independent anyway.
“There are foreign advisors present in all sections of the Afghan security forces,” he said. “Afghan forces can’t do anything without their permission, so how can one claim that responsibility has been transferred?”
Abdul Latif Sahak is an IWPR-trained reporter in Balkh.
Karzai Mulls Early Afghan Election
President says foreign troop withdrawal could make 2014 poll impossible.
IWPR By Mina Habib 10 May 12
Afghanistan - Afghan president Hamid Karzai has said he may bring the next presidential election forward by a year, to reduce pressure on the government during the 2014 withdrawal of foreign troops.
“I have been talking about this for some time now,” Karzai said of a 2013 election, in remarks he made at a press conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on April 12. “With all the changes that are taking place, with the complete return of international forces to their homes from Afghanistan and the holding of the presidential election at the same time, [the question is] whether that will be an agenda that we can handle at the same time.
Since Karzai was elected to a second term in 2009, the next presidential election is not due until 2014.
The Afghan authorities will be left with full responsibility for national security when the NATO-led force leaves by the end of 2014, and some fear this will result in an upsurge of insurgent violence that would make it hard to hold any kind of election, let alone an inclusive and fair one.
The constitution bars Karzai from running for a third term, so his comments may indicate that he intends to step away from power before the international withdrawal.
“I have not had a final decision yet, and it will not be soon... but I am thinking about this and I will do what is good for this country,” he said at the press conference.
Karzai was elected president in October 2004, nearly three years after he was appointed interim head of a post-Taleban administration. When he stood for a second term in August 2009, the poll was marred by poor security, low turnout and allegations of widespread electoral fraud. A second round was cancelled after Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s main challenger, pulled out.
For now at least, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, IEC, is ruling out any change in date, and its chairman Fazel Ahmad Manawi said the move would be unconstitutional.
“There is no reason to hold the election earlier, and no one can break the law,” he said.
Several analysts interviewed by IWPR backed the proposal, as the departure of foreign troops could mean the country is in no state to hold an election in 2014.
Many Afghans are leaving the country, in large part due to fears of what will happen following the troop withdrawal. (See Afghans Vote With Their Feet.)
Wahid Mozhda, a political analyst in Kabul, said an early election would make sense.
“If there is an outbreak of civil war, the government won’t be able to handle two things at the same time,” he said. “This will lead to the presidential election being delayed, or not being held at all.”
Others see Karzai’s comments as a worrying admission that the Afghan army and police might not be able to keep a lid on things.
“If the president has no confidence in the Afghan security forces, why is he bluffing about their capacity?” Shahla Farid, a law lecturer at Kabul University, asked. “He should admit that they are unable to assume responsibility for security.”
The National Coalition, an opposition bloc that includes Abdullah’s Change and Hope group, said a change of date would be unconstitutional, as presidents have to serve out their five-year terms. National Coalition spokesman Sayed Hussein Fazel Sancharaki said Karzai should stick to the 2014 schedule.
“This way, we won’t be breaking the law, people will be ready for a transparent election,” he said. “The early election issue is just a political game pursued for specific objectives.”
Mozhda, however, suggested that the main objections to an earlier poll date came from politicians who were not yet ready to contest an election.
Kabul residents were similarly divided on the merits of a 2013 ballot.
“The Afghan constitution is like a notebook where statesmen write whatever they want, and then strike it out,” she said. Sima, a 32-year-old teacher, said. “The election should take place in line with the law, on schedule.”
But Kabir, a 34-year-old shopkeeper, said an early election would be better than no election at all once foreign troops leave.
“If the president’s initiative is in the national interest, it should implemented even if it violates the Afghan constitution,” he added.
Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained contributor in Kabul.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com