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U.S.-Afghan forces kill Haqqani leader
June 15, 2012 at 2:09 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 15 (UPI) -- Afghan and coalition forces killed Haqqani commander Eid Mohammad and several insurgents in an operation Friday in Paktika province, military officials said.
Mohammed and the militants were killed during in a gunfight with coalition and Afghan forces, the U.S. Defense Department said in a release.
No civilians were hurt in the gunfire exchange, the department said, citing information received from the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force Joint Command.
Mohammed coordinated and conducted attacks against coalition and Afghan forces, officials said. He also provided weapons to Haqqani fighters in the region.
The Pentagon said a combined force killed several insurgents and seized explosives during a search for a Taliban commander in Badakhshan province Friday. The unidentified commander serves directly under the Taliban shadow governor for Badakhshan and coordinates attacks throughout the province.
Coalition and Afghan forces Friday captured a Taliban commander and other suspected insurgents and seized a AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol and multiple AK-47 ammunition magazines in Logar province, the Defense Department said. Besides being responsible for the purchase and distribution of weapons, explosives and ammunition to Taliban insurgents throughout the region, the commander also was a Taliban information officer.
In Khost province Friday, an Afghan-led, coalition-supported force detained two suspects and seized one rifle and some small-arms ammunition during a search for a Haqqani leader in the Sabari district, officials said. The Haqqani leader oversees an improvised explosive device cell that conducts attacks throughout the region.
Afghan police kill 18 militants
KABUL, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police backed by NATO-led troops have killed 18 armed anti-government militants over the past 24 hours across the country, Interior Ministry said in a press release Saturday. "The national police with the support of army and the coalition forces have killed 18 militants in Badakhshan, Helmand, Logar, Khost and Paktiya provinces over the past 24 hours,"the press release said.
Eight more militants have been arrested during the operations, it added.
However, it did not say if there were any casualties on the security forces.
Taliban militants fighting the government have yet to make any comment.
Fears of northern violence after drawdown
KUNDUZ, 14 June 2012 (IRIN) - Recent violence allegedly sparked by the behaviour of local police and militia groups in northern Afghanistan has raised fears that the planned withdrawal of international forces could lead to renewed violence even in the generally more peaceful north.
“Violence has been increasing. Since the Karzai government has been in power we have not seen such high levels of violence here,” said Nadira Geya, head of the Directorate of Women’s Affairs in the northern province of Kunduz. “Before, we didn’t have cases of militia killing women - not even once a year. This year we have already seen several cases.”
The drawdown and handover of power, which has started, will see the Afghan military take over from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) by 2014, but NGOs say the situation in the north is tricky, with rising violence against civilians, growing internal displacement, and increasing protection concerns.
Violence has increased in the north since the drawdown got under way, according to local journalist Matin Sarfraz. “When the US and NGOs were here, these old mujahedin commanders - now ALP [Afghan Local Police] - felt if they did anything wrong they would be held accountable. When they were going to commit a crime, they would think twice. But now they know that every issue ends with the Afghan government and courts, and many of them have strong links with top government officials, so they feel they can do anything they want.”
Making matters worse is the fact that people are re-arming in the north, said Sarfraz. “If the international community is no longer there, many of the commanders and militia think they will have to be responsible for everything and everyone by themselves. There are many feuds in the villages. It’s not uncommon for two commanders from separate villages to have problems with each other. Now that they are re-arming it is easy for them to target each other without anyone overseeing them or holding them responsible.”
Impunity
Human rights groups have raised concerns over the US-backed ALP programme, in which locals are hired to keep the Taliban out of remote areas where Afghan National Police and ISAF have little or no presence.
In a recent report entitled From `Arbaki’ to Local Police: Today’s Challenges and Tomorrow’s Concerns, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) highlighted three areas of major concern as a result of the local police assuming more power: the weakening of the state’s national sovereignty, an increase in violence and insecurity in communities, and growing crime and human rights violations by local police.
Aid workers say questions regarding ALP’s capability to serve local communities, and their awareness of (and ability to comply with) the law, have been raised since the group’s formation in 2010. Now, as they assume more responsibility with fewer oversight mechanisms in place, what human rights groups predicted would happen, is happening: they and other militia groups are committing crimes and escaping punishment.
In Chardara District, Kunduz Province, at least three people have been killed in the past year due to infighting between two rival militia groups. Another district, Khanabad, has seen similar incidents. Villagers from Chardara say militia arrested in connection with the recent murders were released from prison.
“I saw them right back in the village,” one villager told IRIN. “Why is the US looking for Taliban; why are they not capturing this commander that has committed crimes?”
In the most recent high-profile case, some policemen led by one of the province’s first commanders to undergo the US special forces ALP programme, were accused of kidnapping an 18-year-old woman, holding her hostage for five days and repeatedly raping her. Afghan officials initially denied the claim, only later admitting the ALP’s involvement after local and international media highlighted the incident. The commander has still not been arrested. Observers say the case highlights the militia’s impunity.
“When these guys were under the presence of US special forces, 100 percent they did really well,” said Sarfraz. “People told me they were happy with [the commander accused of kidnapping and rape] when the US special forces were here. But since the [US] forces have left, this is the second time [he] has been involved in a rape case. Today, if you ask the people how the situation is they will tell you they are very unhappy. There is no one to keep an eye on him.”
“We know the situation is bad,” said one government official who asked not to be named, “but, the militia are the only way to keep the Taliban out, so what can we do?”
A human rights worker said while they do not specifically track families leaving villages due to ALP and other militia-related conflict, it is “highly likely” that growing abuses on the part of the police and militia are adding to rising numbers of internally displaced persons.
IRIN asked Abdul Mohammad, a driver and farmer from Umar Khel village in Kunduz Province’s Ali Abad District, how he felt about a post-NATO Afghanistan: “Honestly we feel nervous about it… We are afraid, because the people here have arms - everyone has not been disarmed by the government yet, so we’re scared that a war will begin again.”
Afghan quake rescue operation declared over
AFP – Sat, Jun 16, 2012
Afghan rescue teams have ended operations to recover the bodies of dozens of people killed in a landslide that followed earthquakes in the north of the country last week, an official said Saturday.
Two shallow tremors less than half an hour apart on Monday unleashed a deluge of rock and earth that smashed into the remote village of Mullah Jan in Baghlan province, burying as many as 71 people according to villagers.
The director of Afghanistan's Natural Disaster Management Authority, Dayem Kakar said emergency teams ended the search after local elders and religious leaders recommended leaving the bodies buried under the slope and naming it the "hill of martyrs".
"We wanted to continue the search for the bodies as the president had ordered, but after a number of mangled bodies and bodies with limbs missing were recovered, the families of the victims and religious leaders strongly urged us to stop," he told a press conference.
Only five bodies had been recovered, he added.
Authorities and aid agencies have provided temporary camps and relief aid, he said, with the government promising to resettle homeless survivors of the quakes.
The first tremor, with a magnitude of 5.4, struck at 9:32 am (0502 GMT) at a depth of 15 kilometres (10 miles) with the epicentre around 160 kilometres south-west of the town of Faizabad.
A more powerful quake, measured at 5.7 magnitude, hit around 25 minutes later in almost exactly the same place, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Northern Afghanistan and Pakistan are frequently hit by earthquakes, especially around the Hindu Kush range, which lies near the collision of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
A 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan in October 2005 killed 74,000 people and displaced 3.5 million.
Taking over Afghan security control
Foreign Policy By Tom Kutsch Friday, June 15, 2012
Speaking at an international conference in Kabul on Thursday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that he believes Afghanistan will be able to take full control and responsibility over its security in 2013 (Reuters, Dawn, VOA, AP). The conference, a one-day meeting of the so-called ‘Heart of Asia' group, which includes India, China, Pakistan, Iran and Russia, was meant to discuss regional options for stabilizing Afghanistan after the NATO withdrawal in 2014. It comes after a similar conference under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), another regional body which includes Russia, China, and India, met earlier in the month for a discussion on regional solutions to Afghanistan. In terms of taking over its own security, Afghanistan is currently in the third of five stages of transition whereby the centers of all provincial capitals are to be handed over to Afghan security forces.
Speaking in Kabul at the same conference, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar reiterated her call for the U.S. to apologize over the November 2011 errant NATO strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. "Pakistan still wants an unconditional apology," she said, "and the reassurance that the Salala type of incident does not happen again (Dawn)." Calls for an official apology have been met positively by at least one U.S. lawmaker. On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, after noting that the "National security of the U.S. will be better served with a positive relationship with Pakistan," said "it would do well to apologize" for mistakes made (Dawn). In her remarks to a Senate meeting on the 2013 budget, she referred explicitly to the positive impact that such an apology would have on the current impasse over NATO supply routes going through Pakistan.
Too "in your face" on Pakistan?
U.S. Senator John McCain criticized the Obama administration on Thursday for its "in your face" attitude on Pakistan (PBS). Calling it a very "delicate situation", McCain argued that "to further antagonize Pakistan unnecessarily is not something I would particularly think is appropriate", especially as the Pakistanis "are supporting organizations that are killing Americans." McCain was referring not only to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's recent harsh tone on Pakistan -- who said last week that the U.S. was "reaching the limits of our patience" with the country -- but also U.S. overtures to India this month to encourage the country to play a more active role in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, on Thursday the 2,000th U.S. soldier died in Operation Enduring Freedom, the official name for the ‘war on terror' that the Bush administration began over 10 years ago in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks (CNN, HuffPo). While these casualty figures include soldiers killed in a number of countries, the overwhelming majority of them have occurred in the Afghan theater.
Fashionistas set their sights on Karachi
At the end of August, Karachi is set to host Men's Fashion Week (MFW), the first male-only fashion show to be held in Pakistan. Munib Nawaz, the creative director for MFW, said men's clothing was the fastest growing industry in the country and noted that "it's time we understand that a vast clientele of Pakistani fashion is men who really want to dress up (ET)."
--Tom Kutsch
NATO pact should be a partnership for peace
Sydney Morning Herald June 16, 2012
THE partnership agreement signed this week between Australia and NATO is part of a web of alliances stretching across the Asia-Pacific, a top official says.
It's a ''community of values'', according to the Secretary-General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, but one that China is not qualified to join.
Mr Rasmussen said that because the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation had been the guarantor of the longest peace in the known history of Europe, it was ''the most successful peace movement ever''.
Conceived as a US-Western European alliance to hold Soviet communism in check, NATO now hoped to extend its reach as a ''hub'' of security arrangements around the world, he told the Herald in an interview in Sydney yesterday.
Through its partnership agreements with Japan and South Korea in north-east Asia and now Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, NATO was building ''a community of values of liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law'' in the Asia-Pacific.
But China, because of ''obvious differences'', was not a suitable partner, he said. Yet, he added, ''I would very much like to develop a structured dialogue with China.'' China was the only one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with which NATO had no formal relationship, he said.
Mr Rasmussen signed a NATO partnership agreement with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, on Thursday in Canberra to maintain the co-operation developed on the battlefields of Afghanistan.
''We want to maintain the capability to work together,'' Mr Rasmussen said, ''in case it's needed in the future.''
Australia is the biggest non-NATO contributor to the coalition, or International Security Assistance Force, in Afghanistan.
Ms Gillard described the agreement as ''a statement that's underpinned by our shared values and our interests in a stable international order and the peaceful resolution of disputes''.
Mr Rasmussen said that cyber warfare, maritime security and counter-terrorism were three prospective areas for more co-operation with Australia.
But reflecting the long-standing Australian scepticism of NATO's relevance to Australia, a former head of strategy with the Australian Defence Department, Paul Dibb, said he wanted to know ''under what circumstances would NATO come to the defence of Australia?''
Asked this question, Mr Rasmussen said: ''I don't expect Australia to be attacked. The essence of such a partnership is to prevent and manage crises in such a manner that we avoid attacks.''
Dr Dibb, unimpressed, responded that NATO had been ''rudderless and adrift since the end of the Cold War,'' seeking a purpose. ''They found Sarajevo and a few things and then they found Afghanistan,'' he said.
''Should the balloon ever go up in the Taiwan Straits, God help us '' - presuming a clash between the US and China as Washington defended Taiwan - ''do we think NATO will come galloping across to help?
''Of course not.''
Mr Rasmussen yesterday also maintained the NATO position that it was not about to gallop across to Syria to help.
Karzai says Afghanistan confident of 2013 transfer
By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi | Reuters – Thu, Jun 14, 2012
tKABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan is confident it can take full control of its security next year, President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday, despite steadily rising Taliban violence.
The insurgents have struck in the east and south as well as in the diplomatic heart of Kabul as part of their spring offensive, raising fears that Afghan forces will struggle to keep the peace after Western combat forces withdraw in 2014.
But Karzai, speaking at an international conference on Afghanistan's future, voiced no such doubts.
"We are certain that this transition will be completed in 2013 whereby the entire country, the Afghan population their security, well-being and matters related to governance will be handled by the Afghan government alone," Karzai said.
He said that 2014 would see the "complete withdrawal" of foreign forces from Afghanistan, although the international community will continue to provide a certain amount of support.
The one-day conference is aimed at building support for Afghanistan among its neighbors and allies further afield, to help stabilize the country as it takes responsibility for its security after nearly 11 years of international support.
Foreign ministers or their deputies from 15 countries including China, India, Pakistan, Iran and Russia are attending the "Heart of Asia" conference.
Another regional bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, comprising China, Russia and the Central Asia states also signaled this month its plans to play a larger role in Afghanistan.
Karzai said greater cooperation would help in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and the region.
Afghanistan is in the third phase of a five-stage transition in which the centers of all provincial capitals including in the violence-plagued south and east will be handed to Afghan forces.
Four French soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack last week in the eastern province of Kapisa, one of the areas marked for transition this year.
Earlier, 20 civilians were killed and 50 wounded when a pair of suicide bombers struck within minutes of each other outside a NATO base in the southern city of Kandahar, the bloodiest attack in weeks.
(Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editng by Robert Birsel)
China's Afghan oil deal on the skids
By M K Bhadrakumar Asia Times Online Jun 13, 2012
Within a week of the Afghan government's resolve to take its relationship with China to a "new strategic level", Sino-Afghan ties have run into bad weather. China finds itself in the middle of a cesspool of first-class political intrigue, sleaze and power plays that could sully its good-neighborly image among the people of northern Afghanistan.
The facts are as follows. Toward the end of last year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the fateful decision to award the first contract for exploring, developing and extracting oil in the Amu Darya basin. In a crisply worded statement, Karzai's office put his personal stamp on the decision: "The Afghan cabinet has ordered Mines Minister Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an oil exploration contract for Amu Darya with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)."
The deal generated a lot of interest in world capitals, as it constituted a major win for China, giving it access to not only the Amu Darya basin, which is estimated to hold around 87 million barrels of oil, but also gave it an advantage in chasing bigger Afghan reserves.
The Afghan-Tajik basin, a geological zone in the northeast, is estimated to hold 1.9 billion barrels of oil and natural gas liquids with gas deposits equivalent to 1.5 billion barrels of oil, according to US Geological Survey data.
Most important, the deal testified to the astounding success of Chinese diplomacy in Kabul. China already figures as Afghanistan's biggest foreign investor. In 2007, it won a multi-billion deal to mine Afghanistan's biggest copper deposit at Aynak and also build a coal mine, power plant, smelter and a railroad.
Three blocks of the Amu Darya basin form part of a geological zone that extends to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where Chinese oil and gas companies are already well-established and China has built a pipeline grid to evacuate the oil and gas to Xinjiang.
Again, Aynak and the Amu Darya basin and the Afghan-Tajik basin all lie in proximity to China's western frontier and Beijing is eager to boost incomes in Xinjiang and accelerate the development of its border province. To be sure, the Amu Darya oil deal is of strategic importance to China.
Unsurprisingly, the CNPC chose the Watan Group as its local partner. Watan is owned by the Popal brothers who are cousins of Karzai. According to a New York Times report, Watan's largest shareholder could be Qayum Karzai, brother of President Karzai, who denies it. (The New York Times recently reported that Qayum Karzai was possibly mulling a run for the presidency when his brother steps down.)
Evidently, China kept a low profile and quietly worked its way through the Byzantine corridors of power in Kabul to reach the most powerful family in Afghanistan. Indeed, Watan has proven credentials. It serves as war contractors for the United States by providing logistics, security services, etc. It protects convoys of trucks carrying supplies for US forces between Kabul and Kandahar. (There are allegations that the company paid the Taliban to the tune of 10% of their $360-million contract so that the insurgents would not attack the US convoys.)
Now, just when everything seemed to be going brilliantly for the CNPC, trouble has appeared out of nowhere. Chinese engineers from CNPC are being intimidated from working on the oil project in the northern province of Sar-e Pul by local strongmen demanding hefty bribes and kickbacks.
Skating on thin ice It may seem a storm in a tea cup for Watan, but then, Sar-e Pul is also the fiefdom of Rashid Dostum, the leader of the Junbish-e Mili Party and a key figure in the erstwhile anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. To give a bit of a figurative touch, no leaf turns on a tree in Sar-e Pul and no bird takes off in that mountainous province of rugged territory without Dostum knowing and approving. And Sar-e Pul also belongs to Afghanistan's "Wild West", teeming with highway bandits and thieves, corrupt militiamen and police where people die in mysterious road accidents.
In retrospect, CNPC should have known that Kabul was far away from the Amu Darya region. Maybe it trusted Watan's ingenuity; maybe, Watan wanted to keep Dostum at arm's length knowing his rough methods and his persistence. Or, China didn't want to consort with Dostum, who is at present opposed to Karzai - although he played a crucial role in ensuring Karzai's victory in the 2009 presidential election.
It seems China raised the CNPC's woes with Karzai during his recent visit to Beijing to attend the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (which granted "observer" status to Afghanistan). Following talks between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Karzai, a declaration was issued in Beijing on Friday in which China pledged "sincere and selfless help to the Afghanistan side". Hu told Karzai at their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, "At present, Afghanistan has entered into a critical transition period. China is a trustworthy neighbor and friend of Afghanistan."
Hu's message was direct: China is prepared to go the extra mile to shore up ties with Afghanistan and enter into wide-ranging cooperation in preparation for the departure of the bulk of the US troops at the end of 2014. Significantly, Karzai pledged at the meeting with Hu that his government will take "tangible measures" to protect the Chinese citizens and institutions in Afghanistan.
At any rate, immediately after his return to Kabul from Beijing on Friday, Karzai ticked off Dostum. On Sunday, the National Security Council in Kabul (which reports to Karzai) accused Dostum of "undermining national interest" by intimidating Chinese engineers working at the Sar-e Pul site. The NSC has since directed the Attorney General's Office in Kabul to investigate. A joint team from the Afghan intelligence and the Attorney General's office has been directed to book Dostum, if need be.
But putting handcuffs on Dostum's powerful wrists and dumping him in a dingy prison cell is not so easy. China is skating on thin ice. Karzai may end up offending Dostum, who commands a huge following in the Amu Darya region where the CNPC hopes to work for years if not decades.
Meanwhile, former vice president and leading opposition figure, Ahmad Zia Massoud (brother of slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud), has come out in defense of Dostum and the searchlight gets turned on the CNPC's oil deal. Massoud scoffed at Karzai's moral right to speak of "national interests". He told a press conference in Kabul on Monday:
Those who looted $900 million from Kabul are national traitors, those who built private houses on the property of Ministry of Defense in Kandahar are national traitors, and those who misused the Ghori Cement plant and took financial benefit from it are national traitors.
The reference is to the alleged role of Karzai's family members in the scandal surrounding the Kabul Bank (which lost about $900 million in insider deals, much of it ending up in secret bank accounts in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates).
Crab mentality There could be a sense of deja vu, since corruption and political sleaze are not exactly the stuff of "breaking news" in present-day Afghanistan. But some serious issues arise.
The line-up - Karzai versus Massoud and Dostum - shows the acute political polarization in Afghan politics. The opposition has got a fresh issue to agitate and the CNPC deal itself may come under public scrutiny.
At the root of the current dispute is the local leadership's claim on "revenue-sharing". This is somewhat similar to the tussle in Iraq between the central government in Baghdad and the local leadership in northern Kurdistan province over the sharing of oil revenue. Plainly put, Dostum wants his share of any kickback from the CNPC that the people in Kabul might have got, because the oil happens to be in the territory under his control.
The highly centralized Afghan polity is showing signs of fatigue when it rubs against strong local leaderships. The Afghan opposition has been demanding a decentralized form of government with delegation of powers to directly elected local powers. (Unsurprisingly, Karzai doggedly resists the opposition demands.)
In the period ahead, Kabul's decisions to award contracts to foreign parties in the extraction industry are going to be increasingly controversial. The point is, the scramble for Afghanistan's mineral resources has begun. China and India are in the forefront. The US's New Silk Road is a barely-disguised project to gain control of Central Asia's natural resources.
The Indian and Afghan governments will be co-chairing a Regional and International Investors meeting in New Delhi on June 28 to discuss the strategies to boost foreign investment in Afghanistan. It is notionally a "private sector" meeting, but government entities are also asked to attend, as the government "plays a role in further exploring and promoting investments in Afghanistan over the long term and lays down better opportunities".
Interestingly, the first announcement of the conference was made last weekend from Washington. The US and India are interested in jointly pursuing business opportunities in Afghanistan's mining sector, which seems to be the optimal way of countering competition from Chinese companies.
The US is enamored of India's "soft power" in Afghanistan, which it obviously lacks; on the other hand, Washington can bring in the "hard power" component. The resultant US-Indian "smart power" - to use Joseph Nye's famous expression - is expected to be more than a match for China.
The ground reality is that China's towering economic presence in Afghanistan has become an eyesore. Competing foreign players tend to develop the "crab mentality" - pulling each other down - in a business milieu lacking a level playing field. This is where Dostum's entanglement with the CNPC becomes a little more interesting than money.
Dostum always kept up links with foreign powers. Originally trained in the KGB school in the Soviet era, his mentors ranged from Uzbekistan to Turkey to Pakistan and the US. There is always scope to speculate whether he is acting on someone else's behalf.
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
Iran warns US over military bases in Afghanistan
By Usman Sharifi | AFP – Thu, Jun 14, 2012
Iran on Thursday warned a key international conference that a long-term US military presence in Afghanistan would fan regional insecurity and could plunge the war-torn country back into further chaos.
Representatives from 29 countries gathered in Kabul for the conference, weeks after NATO agreed at a summit in Chicago to stick to plans to withdraw the bulk of 130,000 foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The Taliban militia leading a 10-year insurgency against President Hamid Karzai's government has begun the annual fighting season with a series of attacks which saw US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta admit that violence was rising.
Karzai sought to reassure neighbours that strategic partnership deals signed by Kabul with several Western powers -- particularly the United States -- to govern relations beyond 2014, would not damage ties.
But the foreign minister of Iran, an enemy of the United States that welcomes NATO's departure from its eastern border, alluded to the Kabul-Washington pact by saying it added to security concerns among Afghanistan's neighbours.
"A particular country intends to prolong its military presence in Afghanistan in pursuit of its extra regional objectives. This certainly adds to the security concerns of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries," said Ali Akbar Salehi.
The strategic partnership deal and efforts to establish foreign military bases in Afghanistan ran against regional and international moves to achieve peace, and "could turn this country once again into scene of security rivalries" he said.
Afghanistan has long been a focus of imperial rivalry and scene of foreign intervention, most recently since the 2001 US-led invasion but also in the 1980s uprising against Russian troops that ultimately helped bring down the Soviet Union.
Washington denies it is seeking to establish permanent military bases in Afghanistan, but American military sources say they envisage around 15,000 forces remaining in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal.
Last month, Karzai warned that tough talks with Washington lay ahead over a security pact that would address the US presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, including the crucial issue of the legal status of foreign troops.
At the one-day conference, he asked neighbouring and international powers to invest in economic growth and peace in his impoverished country.
He also called on Pakistan, one of the historic sponsors of the Taliban, directly to support nascent efforts to end the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
"Support from these global powers and our neighbours is very important to Afghanistan and to the continued progress of Afghanistan towards stability and economic development," Karzai told delegates.
Karzai is keen to broker a peace deal with the Taliban, but the militants publicly refuse to talk to his government. Earlier this year, it also announced that it had pulled the plug on nascent contacts with the Americans in Qatar.
Karzai said the head of the Afghan High Peace Council would soon visit Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but gave no dates, and urged Islamabad to support peace efforts.
Afghanistan's relations with Pakistan have been clouded by mutual blame for Islamist violence plaguing both countries.
Karzai has consistently called on Pakistan to demolish terror sanctuaries in its semi-autonomous tribal belt.
Last week, Panetta also warned that the United States was running out of patience with Pakistan for not eliminating safe-havens of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network and other militants who attack US troops.
Islamabad denies any support for Haqqani activities and says it is doing everything possible to fight terrorism, saying no country has suffered more.
British Foreign Minister William Hague said he would use talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the conference to press Moscow to use its influence to rein in the Syrian regime.
Monitors say more than 14,100 people have been killed in the 15-month uprising against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Moscow, long an ally of Damascus, has refused to halt weapons sales.
The next talks on Afghanistan will be in Tokyo next month and will focus on ways to ensure social progress -- governance, economic prospects, health and education.
Embraer, Hawker Beechcraft face off again over planes for Afghanistan
McClatchy Newspapers By Vinod Sreeharsha Friday, June 15, 2012
BRASILIA, Brazil - After conducting an internal investigation, bringing in senior staff and briefing members of Congress, the U.S. Air Force expects this month to restart a contentious competition to purchase single-engine turboprop attack aircraft for Afghanistan that pits the Brazilian company Embraer and its A-29 Super Tucano against Wichita, Kan.,-based Hawker Beechcraft and its AT-6.
Embraer, however, is concerned about getting a fair shake in the new competition, the outcome of which will affect not only the two companies, but also possibly the future of growing Brazil-U.S. military cooperation as well as the prospects for U.S. defense companies seeking to do business in Brazil.
In March the Air Force abruptly canceled a $355 million contract it had just awarded Embraer to build 20 light air support aircraft for the Afghan air force after losing bidder Hawker Beechcraft sued the Pentagon. A subsequent internal Air Force investigation reportedly found internal administrative problems in the procurement process. The contract was rebid, with the final proposal due next Monday.
The U.S. Air Force expects to announce the new winner early next year, but the aircraft haven’t been requested for delivery until 18 months after that – as U.S. troops are supposed to be winding down their deployment in Afghanistan.
Unlike the original competition, the new one lacks a flight evaluation, in which the two planes would be flown under similar conditions. It also won’t accept data from the prior competition, a concern to Embraer. Hawker Beechcraft’s older planes, such as its T-6, are better known to U.S. military.
“They think that they are at a significant disadvantage because of a lack of a fly-off or use of prior data,” a senior staffer for a Florida member of Congress said, describing meetings with Embraer. The staffer, like several people interviewed for this story, spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Officials on both sides acknowledge that the handling of the contract has hurt a bilateral defense relationship that “has advanced pretty dramatically,” said the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon.
Brazil has long harbored resentment over what it sees as slights in the way it’s treated in military matters. Past Brazilian officials thought the country never got the recognition it deserved for sending troops to fight alongside the Allies in World War II. Brazil also is still smarting over its abandonment of its nuclear weapons program under U.S. pressure, only to see India develop nuclear weapons and continue to resist signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while still receiving favorable treatment from Washington.
In recent years, U.S. officials have tried to improve defense relations with Brazil, the largest country in South America and the world’s sixth largest economy. A 2010 agreement that originated in the George W. Bush administration called for increased sharing of military systems and equipment.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, visited the country in March and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited in April, launching the U.S.-Brazil Defense Cooperation Dialogue with Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim.
Marco Aurelio Garcia, a foreign policy adviser to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, said: “We have a very good relation with the U.S. and we want to continue to develop it. But a decision like this creates problems not only in military relations but in economic and commercial relations.”
Embraer officials declined to comment. The company’s U.S. headquarters are in Florida, where the planes for Afghanistan would be assembled.
Embraer still questions why it was stripped of the contract in the first place, according to another person who has direct knowledge of the company’s deliberations on the contract. If the problems were mainly administrative, rebidding the contract “is disproportionate” as a resolution, the person said, adding that suspicions in Brazil are high that the new competition “is tilted in favor of Hawker Beechcraft.”
Hawker Beechcraft hasn’t objected to the absence of a fly-off, but it has other concerns about the bidding process. For one, it thinks the Pentagon has lowered the standards for the aircraft’s ejection-seat system, said Derek Hess, the company’s vice president for light attack programs. That shaves an edge, he said, because Hawker Beechcraft seats accommodate a wider variety of pilots, something the Air Force told congressional staffers in April was unnecessary because only Afghans would pilot the planes.
On Tuesday, Embraer’s partner in the competition, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp., said it had sued the Air Force to have the original contract reinstated. Observers described it as a significant move as the U.S. government is a major Sierra Nevada customer, but the corporation said it planned to continue the competition.
Taco Gilbert, a vice president at Sierra Nevada Corp., said in a recent interview that, “We remain concerned that there is no fly-off. All we have ever asked for is integrity in the process and a fair and open competition.”
Buying planes for the U.S. military and the nascent Afghan air force has been subject to political interference from the beginning. Embraer initially had the support of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal when he was the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, according to a second congressional staffer. But the program was killed in Congress under pressure from Kansas legislators.
Brazilian politicians also are concerned about the handling of the contract. In an interview at the presidential palace in Brasilia, Garcia said he thought that the initial award of the contract to Embraer “was made strictly under technical criteria” but subsequent developments were the result of “political interference” and “protectionist and political intervention.”
Peter Hakim, the president emeritus of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington research center, was also critical. “Not only was it insulting to cancel the contract at the last minute, but the explanation was so thin,” he said. “It made it look like the U.S. can act arbitrarily.”
Shannon, the U.S. ambassador, said that for Brazil, the cancellation of the contract “provoked latent concerns about the confidence we have in them and the confidence they have in us as a long-term partner. So we have been trying to reassure them that we are looking for a defense partnership that can be enduring.”
The U.S., which for decades had assumed the sole responsibility for the Western Hemisphere’s defense, now wants Brazil to assume a greater share of the burden. Brazil, where a military dictatorship reigned until the 1980s, is modernizing its once-discredited military, a process that began during the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
That modernization has potential benefits for American companies. Brazil bought UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters from Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. of Stratford, Conn. Esterline Corp. of Bellevue, Wash., has a contract to provide equipment to Embraer’s KC-390 military tankers.
While in Rio de Janeiro, Panetta said the U.S. had approved nearly 4,000 licenses a year to export technology to Brazil, “ranging from weapons and aircraft to integrated combat systems for navy ships and submarines.”
“This is on a par with the U.S. government’s license approval rate for treaty allies, for our closest partners,” he said.
A U.S. concern is whether the outcome of the bidding for the Afghan planes will affect a $4.4 billion contract to sell Brazil 36 fighter jets. Boeing is competing with France’s Dassault Aviation and Sweden’s Saab for the deal. It’s unclear whether that contract could be affected if Brazil continues to harbor doubts about the Pentagon’s process for deciding on the Super Tucano A-29 – the pride of the Brazilian air force – for Afghanistan.
“They are humans with sentiments and they have long memories,” a Brazilian official said, referring to the Brazilian military. “I recently met a military official complaining about some slight from 15 years ago.” Copyright 2012 McClatchy Newspapers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Sreeharsha is a McClatchy special correspondent.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
June 15, 2012 at 2:09 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 15 (UPI) -- Afghan and coalition forces killed Haqqani commander Eid Mohammad and several insurgents in an operation Friday in Paktika province, military officials said.
Mohammed and the militants were killed during in a gunfight with coalition and Afghan forces, the U.S. Defense Department said in a release.
No civilians were hurt in the gunfire exchange, the department said, citing information received from the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force Joint Command.
Mohammed coordinated and conducted attacks against coalition and Afghan forces, officials said. He also provided weapons to Haqqani fighters in the region.
The Pentagon said a combined force killed several insurgents and seized explosives during a search for a Taliban commander in Badakhshan province Friday. The unidentified commander serves directly under the Taliban shadow governor for Badakhshan and coordinates attacks throughout the province.
Coalition and Afghan forces Friday captured a Taliban commander and other suspected insurgents and seized a AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol and multiple AK-47 ammunition magazines in Logar province, the Defense Department said. Besides being responsible for the purchase and distribution of weapons, explosives and ammunition to Taliban insurgents throughout the region, the commander also was a Taliban information officer.
In Khost province Friday, an Afghan-led, coalition-supported force detained two suspects and seized one rifle and some small-arms ammunition during a search for a Haqqani leader in the Sabari district, officials said. The Haqqani leader oversees an improvised explosive device cell that conducts attacks throughout the region.
Afghan police kill 18 militants
KABUL, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police backed by NATO-led troops have killed 18 armed anti-government militants over the past 24 hours across the country, Interior Ministry said in a press release Saturday. "The national police with the support of army and the coalition forces have killed 18 militants in Badakhshan, Helmand, Logar, Khost and Paktiya provinces over the past 24 hours,"the press release said.
Eight more militants have been arrested during the operations, it added.
However, it did not say if there were any casualties on the security forces.
Taliban militants fighting the government have yet to make any comment.
Fears of northern violence after drawdown
KUNDUZ, 14 June 2012 (IRIN) - Recent violence allegedly sparked by the behaviour of local police and militia groups in northern Afghanistan has raised fears that the planned withdrawal of international forces could lead to renewed violence even in the generally more peaceful north.
“Violence has been increasing. Since the Karzai government has been in power we have not seen such high levels of violence here,” said Nadira Geya, head of the Directorate of Women’s Affairs in the northern province of Kunduz. “Before, we didn’t have cases of militia killing women - not even once a year. This year we have already seen several cases.”
The drawdown and handover of power, which has started, will see the Afghan military take over from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) by 2014, but NGOs say the situation in the north is tricky, with rising violence against civilians, growing internal displacement, and increasing protection concerns.
Violence has increased in the north since the drawdown got under way, according to local journalist Matin Sarfraz. “When the US and NGOs were here, these old mujahedin commanders - now ALP [Afghan Local Police] - felt if they did anything wrong they would be held accountable. When they were going to commit a crime, they would think twice. But now they know that every issue ends with the Afghan government and courts, and many of them have strong links with top government officials, so they feel they can do anything they want.”
Making matters worse is the fact that people are re-arming in the north, said Sarfraz. “If the international community is no longer there, many of the commanders and militia think they will have to be responsible for everything and everyone by themselves. There are many feuds in the villages. It’s not uncommon for two commanders from separate villages to have problems with each other. Now that they are re-arming it is easy for them to target each other without anyone overseeing them or holding them responsible.”
Impunity
Human rights groups have raised concerns over the US-backed ALP programme, in which locals are hired to keep the Taliban out of remote areas where Afghan National Police and ISAF have little or no presence.
In a recent report entitled From `Arbaki’ to Local Police: Today’s Challenges and Tomorrow’s Concerns, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) highlighted three areas of major concern as a result of the local police assuming more power: the weakening of the state’s national sovereignty, an increase in violence and insecurity in communities, and growing crime and human rights violations by local police.
Aid workers say questions regarding ALP’s capability to serve local communities, and their awareness of (and ability to comply with) the law, have been raised since the group’s formation in 2010. Now, as they assume more responsibility with fewer oversight mechanisms in place, what human rights groups predicted would happen, is happening: they and other militia groups are committing crimes and escaping punishment.
In Chardara District, Kunduz Province, at least three people have been killed in the past year due to infighting between two rival militia groups. Another district, Khanabad, has seen similar incidents. Villagers from Chardara say militia arrested in connection with the recent murders were released from prison.
“I saw them right back in the village,” one villager told IRIN. “Why is the US looking for Taliban; why are they not capturing this commander that has committed crimes?”
In the most recent high-profile case, some policemen led by one of the province’s first commanders to undergo the US special forces ALP programme, were accused of kidnapping an 18-year-old woman, holding her hostage for five days and repeatedly raping her. Afghan officials initially denied the claim, only later admitting the ALP’s involvement after local and international media highlighted the incident. The commander has still not been arrested. Observers say the case highlights the militia’s impunity.
“When these guys were under the presence of US special forces, 100 percent they did really well,” said Sarfraz. “People told me they were happy with [the commander accused of kidnapping and rape] when the US special forces were here. But since the [US] forces have left, this is the second time [he] has been involved in a rape case. Today, if you ask the people how the situation is they will tell you they are very unhappy. There is no one to keep an eye on him.”
“We know the situation is bad,” said one government official who asked not to be named, “but, the militia are the only way to keep the Taliban out, so what can we do?”
A human rights worker said while they do not specifically track families leaving villages due to ALP and other militia-related conflict, it is “highly likely” that growing abuses on the part of the police and militia are adding to rising numbers of internally displaced persons.
IRIN asked Abdul Mohammad, a driver and farmer from Umar Khel village in Kunduz Province’s Ali Abad District, how he felt about a post-NATO Afghanistan: “Honestly we feel nervous about it… We are afraid, because the people here have arms - everyone has not been disarmed by the government yet, so we’re scared that a war will begin again.”
Afghan quake rescue operation declared over
AFP – Sat, Jun 16, 2012
Afghan rescue teams have ended operations to recover the bodies of dozens of people killed in a landslide that followed earthquakes in the north of the country last week, an official said Saturday.
Two shallow tremors less than half an hour apart on Monday unleashed a deluge of rock and earth that smashed into the remote village of Mullah Jan in Baghlan province, burying as many as 71 people according to villagers.
The director of Afghanistan's Natural Disaster Management Authority, Dayem Kakar said emergency teams ended the search after local elders and religious leaders recommended leaving the bodies buried under the slope and naming it the "hill of martyrs".
"We wanted to continue the search for the bodies as the president had ordered, but after a number of mangled bodies and bodies with limbs missing were recovered, the families of the victims and religious leaders strongly urged us to stop," he told a press conference.
Only five bodies had been recovered, he added.
Authorities and aid agencies have provided temporary camps and relief aid, he said, with the government promising to resettle homeless survivors of the quakes.
The first tremor, with a magnitude of 5.4, struck at 9:32 am (0502 GMT) at a depth of 15 kilometres (10 miles) with the epicentre around 160 kilometres south-west of the town of Faizabad.
A more powerful quake, measured at 5.7 magnitude, hit around 25 minutes later in almost exactly the same place, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Northern Afghanistan and Pakistan are frequently hit by earthquakes, especially around the Hindu Kush range, which lies near the collision of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
A 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan in October 2005 killed 74,000 people and displaced 3.5 million.
Taking over Afghan security control
Foreign Policy By Tom Kutsch Friday, June 15, 2012
Speaking at an international conference in Kabul on Thursday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that he believes Afghanistan will be able to take full control and responsibility over its security in 2013 (Reuters, Dawn, VOA, AP). The conference, a one-day meeting of the so-called ‘Heart of Asia' group, which includes India, China, Pakistan, Iran and Russia, was meant to discuss regional options for stabilizing Afghanistan after the NATO withdrawal in 2014. It comes after a similar conference under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), another regional body which includes Russia, China, and India, met earlier in the month for a discussion on regional solutions to Afghanistan. In terms of taking over its own security, Afghanistan is currently in the third of five stages of transition whereby the centers of all provincial capitals are to be handed over to Afghan security forces.
Speaking in Kabul at the same conference, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar reiterated her call for the U.S. to apologize over the November 2011 errant NATO strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. "Pakistan still wants an unconditional apology," she said, "and the reassurance that the Salala type of incident does not happen again (Dawn)." Calls for an official apology have been met positively by at least one U.S. lawmaker. On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, after noting that the "National security of the U.S. will be better served with a positive relationship with Pakistan," said "it would do well to apologize" for mistakes made (Dawn). In her remarks to a Senate meeting on the 2013 budget, she referred explicitly to the positive impact that such an apology would have on the current impasse over NATO supply routes going through Pakistan.
Too "in your face" on Pakistan?
U.S. Senator John McCain criticized the Obama administration on Thursday for its "in your face" attitude on Pakistan (PBS). Calling it a very "delicate situation", McCain argued that "to further antagonize Pakistan unnecessarily is not something I would particularly think is appropriate", especially as the Pakistanis "are supporting organizations that are killing Americans." McCain was referring not only to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's recent harsh tone on Pakistan -- who said last week that the U.S. was "reaching the limits of our patience" with the country -- but also U.S. overtures to India this month to encourage the country to play a more active role in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, on Thursday the 2,000th U.S. soldier died in Operation Enduring Freedom, the official name for the ‘war on terror' that the Bush administration began over 10 years ago in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks (CNN, HuffPo). While these casualty figures include soldiers killed in a number of countries, the overwhelming majority of them have occurred in the Afghan theater.
Fashionistas set their sights on Karachi
At the end of August, Karachi is set to host Men's Fashion Week (MFW), the first male-only fashion show to be held in Pakistan. Munib Nawaz, the creative director for MFW, said men's clothing was the fastest growing industry in the country and noted that "it's time we understand that a vast clientele of Pakistani fashion is men who really want to dress up (ET)."
--Tom Kutsch
NATO pact should be a partnership for peace
Sydney Morning Herald June 16, 2012
THE partnership agreement signed this week between Australia and NATO is part of a web of alliances stretching across the Asia-Pacific, a top official says.
It's a ''community of values'', according to the Secretary-General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, but one that China is not qualified to join.
Mr Rasmussen said that because the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation had been the guarantor of the longest peace in the known history of Europe, it was ''the most successful peace movement ever''.
Conceived as a US-Western European alliance to hold Soviet communism in check, NATO now hoped to extend its reach as a ''hub'' of security arrangements around the world, he told the Herald in an interview in Sydney yesterday.
Through its partnership agreements with Japan and South Korea in north-east Asia and now Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, NATO was building ''a community of values of liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law'' in the Asia-Pacific.
But China, because of ''obvious differences'', was not a suitable partner, he said. Yet, he added, ''I would very much like to develop a structured dialogue with China.'' China was the only one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with which NATO had no formal relationship, he said.
Mr Rasmussen signed a NATO partnership agreement with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, on Thursday in Canberra to maintain the co-operation developed on the battlefields of Afghanistan.
''We want to maintain the capability to work together,'' Mr Rasmussen said, ''in case it's needed in the future.''
Australia is the biggest non-NATO contributor to the coalition, or International Security Assistance Force, in Afghanistan.
Ms Gillard described the agreement as ''a statement that's underpinned by our shared values and our interests in a stable international order and the peaceful resolution of disputes''.
Mr Rasmussen said that cyber warfare, maritime security and counter-terrorism were three prospective areas for more co-operation with Australia.
But reflecting the long-standing Australian scepticism of NATO's relevance to Australia, a former head of strategy with the Australian Defence Department, Paul Dibb, said he wanted to know ''under what circumstances would NATO come to the defence of Australia?''
Asked this question, Mr Rasmussen said: ''I don't expect Australia to be attacked. The essence of such a partnership is to prevent and manage crises in such a manner that we avoid attacks.''
Dr Dibb, unimpressed, responded that NATO had been ''rudderless and adrift since the end of the Cold War,'' seeking a purpose. ''They found Sarajevo and a few things and then they found Afghanistan,'' he said.
''Should the balloon ever go up in the Taiwan Straits, God help us '' - presuming a clash between the US and China as Washington defended Taiwan - ''do we think NATO will come galloping across to help?
''Of course not.''
Mr Rasmussen yesterday also maintained the NATO position that it was not about to gallop across to Syria to help.
Karzai says Afghanistan confident of 2013 transfer
By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi | Reuters – Thu, Jun 14, 2012
tKABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan is confident it can take full control of its security next year, President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday, despite steadily rising Taliban violence.
The insurgents have struck in the east and south as well as in the diplomatic heart of Kabul as part of their spring offensive, raising fears that Afghan forces will struggle to keep the peace after Western combat forces withdraw in 2014.
But Karzai, speaking at an international conference on Afghanistan's future, voiced no such doubts.
"We are certain that this transition will be completed in 2013 whereby the entire country, the Afghan population their security, well-being and matters related to governance will be handled by the Afghan government alone," Karzai said.
He said that 2014 would see the "complete withdrawal" of foreign forces from Afghanistan, although the international community will continue to provide a certain amount of support.
The one-day conference is aimed at building support for Afghanistan among its neighbors and allies further afield, to help stabilize the country as it takes responsibility for its security after nearly 11 years of international support.
Foreign ministers or their deputies from 15 countries including China, India, Pakistan, Iran and Russia are attending the "Heart of Asia" conference.
Another regional bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, comprising China, Russia and the Central Asia states also signaled this month its plans to play a larger role in Afghanistan.
Karzai said greater cooperation would help in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and the region.
Afghanistan is in the third phase of a five-stage transition in which the centers of all provincial capitals including in the violence-plagued south and east will be handed to Afghan forces.
Four French soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack last week in the eastern province of Kapisa, one of the areas marked for transition this year.
Earlier, 20 civilians were killed and 50 wounded when a pair of suicide bombers struck within minutes of each other outside a NATO base in the southern city of Kandahar, the bloodiest attack in weeks.
(Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editng by Robert Birsel)
China's Afghan oil deal on the skids
By M K Bhadrakumar Asia Times Online Jun 13, 2012
Within a week of the Afghan government's resolve to take its relationship with China to a "new strategic level", Sino-Afghan ties have run into bad weather. China finds itself in the middle of a cesspool of first-class political intrigue, sleaze and power plays that could sully its good-neighborly image among the people of northern Afghanistan.
The facts are as follows. Toward the end of last year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the fateful decision to award the first contract for exploring, developing and extracting oil in the Amu Darya basin. In a crisply worded statement, Karzai's office put his personal stamp on the decision: "The Afghan cabinet has ordered Mines Minister Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an oil exploration contract for Amu Darya with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)."
The deal generated a lot of interest in world capitals, as it constituted a major win for China, giving it access to not only the Amu Darya basin, which is estimated to hold around 87 million barrels of oil, but also gave it an advantage in chasing bigger Afghan reserves.
The Afghan-Tajik basin, a geological zone in the northeast, is estimated to hold 1.9 billion barrels of oil and natural gas liquids with gas deposits equivalent to 1.5 billion barrels of oil, according to US Geological Survey data.
Most important, the deal testified to the astounding success of Chinese diplomacy in Kabul. China already figures as Afghanistan's biggest foreign investor. In 2007, it won a multi-billion deal to mine Afghanistan's biggest copper deposit at Aynak and also build a coal mine, power plant, smelter and a railroad.
Three blocks of the Amu Darya basin form part of a geological zone that extends to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where Chinese oil and gas companies are already well-established and China has built a pipeline grid to evacuate the oil and gas to Xinjiang.
Again, Aynak and the Amu Darya basin and the Afghan-Tajik basin all lie in proximity to China's western frontier and Beijing is eager to boost incomes in Xinjiang and accelerate the development of its border province. To be sure, the Amu Darya oil deal is of strategic importance to China.
Unsurprisingly, the CNPC chose the Watan Group as its local partner. Watan is owned by the Popal brothers who are cousins of Karzai. According to a New York Times report, Watan's largest shareholder could be Qayum Karzai, brother of President Karzai, who denies it. (The New York Times recently reported that Qayum Karzai was possibly mulling a run for the presidency when his brother steps down.)
Evidently, China kept a low profile and quietly worked its way through the Byzantine corridors of power in Kabul to reach the most powerful family in Afghanistan. Indeed, Watan has proven credentials. It serves as war contractors for the United States by providing logistics, security services, etc. It protects convoys of trucks carrying supplies for US forces between Kabul and Kandahar. (There are allegations that the company paid the Taliban to the tune of 10% of their $360-million contract so that the insurgents would not attack the US convoys.)
Now, just when everything seemed to be going brilliantly for the CNPC, trouble has appeared out of nowhere. Chinese engineers from CNPC are being intimidated from working on the oil project in the northern province of Sar-e Pul by local strongmen demanding hefty bribes and kickbacks.
Skating on thin ice It may seem a storm in a tea cup for Watan, but then, Sar-e Pul is also the fiefdom of Rashid Dostum, the leader of the Junbish-e Mili Party and a key figure in the erstwhile anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. To give a bit of a figurative touch, no leaf turns on a tree in Sar-e Pul and no bird takes off in that mountainous province of rugged territory without Dostum knowing and approving. And Sar-e Pul also belongs to Afghanistan's "Wild West", teeming with highway bandits and thieves, corrupt militiamen and police where people die in mysterious road accidents.
In retrospect, CNPC should have known that Kabul was far away from the Amu Darya region. Maybe it trusted Watan's ingenuity; maybe, Watan wanted to keep Dostum at arm's length knowing his rough methods and his persistence. Or, China didn't want to consort with Dostum, who is at present opposed to Karzai - although he played a crucial role in ensuring Karzai's victory in the 2009 presidential election.
It seems China raised the CNPC's woes with Karzai during his recent visit to Beijing to attend the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (which granted "observer" status to Afghanistan). Following talks between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Karzai, a declaration was issued in Beijing on Friday in which China pledged "sincere and selfless help to the Afghanistan side". Hu told Karzai at their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, "At present, Afghanistan has entered into a critical transition period. China is a trustworthy neighbor and friend of Afghanistan."
Hu's message was direct: China is prepared to go the extra mile to shore up ties with Afghanistan and enter into wide-ranging cooperation in preparation for the departure of the bulk of the US troops at the end of 2014. Significantly, Karzai pledged at the meeting with Hu that his government will take "tangible measures" to protect the Chinese citizens and institutions in Afghanistan.
At any rate, immediately after his return to Kabul from Beijing on Friday, Karzai ticked off Dostum. On Sunday, the National Security Council in Kabul (which reports to Karzai) accused Dostum of "undermining national interest" by intimidating Chinese engineers working at the Sar-e Pul site. The NSC has since directed the Attorney General's Office in Kabul to investigate. A joint team from the Afghan intelligence and the Attorney General's office has been directed to book Dostum, if need be.
But putting handcuffs on Dostum's powerful wrists and dumping him in a dingy prison cell is not so easy. China is skating on thin ice. Karzai may end up offending Dostum, who commands a huge following in the Amu Darya region where the CNPC hopes to work for years if not decades.
Meanwhile, former vice president and leading opposition figure, Ahmad Zia Massoud (brother of slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud), has come out in defense of Dostum and the searchlight gets turned on the CNPC's oil deal. Massoud scoffed at Karzai's moral right to speak of "national interests". He told a press conference in Kabul on Monday:
Those who looted $900 million from Kabul are national traitors, those who built private houses on the property of Ministry of Defense in Kandahar are national traitors, and those who misused the Ghori Cement plant and took financial benefit from it are national traitors.
The reference is to the alleged role of Karzai's family members in the scandal surrounding the Kabul Bank (which lost about $900 million in insider deals, much of it ending up in secret bank accounts in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates).
Crab mentality There could be a sense of deja vu, since corruption and political sleaze are not exactly the stuff of "breaking news" in present-day Afghanistan. But some serious issues arise.
The line-up - Karzai versus Massoud and Dostum - shows the acute political polarization in Afghan politics. The opposition has got a fresh issue to agitate and the CNPC deal itself may come under public scrutiny.
At the root of the current dispute is the local leadership's claim on "revenue-sharing". This is somewhat similar to the tussle in Iraq between the central government in Baghdad and the local leadership in northern Kurdistan province over the sharing of oil revenue. Plainly put, Dostum wants his share of any kickback from the CNPC that the people in Kabul might have got, because the oil happens to be in the territory under his control.
The highly centralized Afghan polity is showing signs of fatigue when it rubs against strong local leaderships. The Afghan opposition has been demanding a decentralized form of government with delegation of powers to directly elected local powers. (Unsurprisingly, Karzai doggedly resists the opposition demands.)
In the period ahead, Kabul's decisions to award contracts to foreign parties in the extraction industry are going to be increasingly controversial. The point is, the scramble for Afghanistan's mineral resources has begun. China and India are in the forefront. The US's New Silk Road is a barely-disguised project to gain control of Central Asia's natural resources.
The Indian and Afghan governments will be co-chairing a Regional and International Investors meeting in New Delhi on June 28 to discuss the strategies to boost foreign investment in Afghanistan. It is notionally a "private sector" meeting, but government entities are also asked to attend, as the government "plays a role in further exploring and promoting investments in Afghanistan over the long term and lays down better opportunities".
Interestingly, the first announcement of the conference was made last weekend from Washington. The US and India are interested in jointly pursuing business opportunities in Afghanistan's mining sector, which seems to be the optimal way of countering competition from Chinese companies.
The US is enamored of India's "soft power" in Afghanistan, which it obviously lacks; on the other hand, Washington can bring in the "hard power" component. The resultant US-Indian "smart power" - to use Joseph Nye's famous expression - is expected to be more than a match for China.
The ground reality is that China's towering economic presence in Afghanistan has become an eyesore. Competing foreign players tend to develop the "crab mentality" - pulling each other down - in a business milieu lacking a level playing field. This is where Dostum's entanglement with the CNPC becomes a little more interesting than money.
Dostum always kept up links with foreign powers. Originally trained in the KGB school in the Soviet era, his mentors ranged from Uzbekistan to Turkey to Pakistan and the US. There is always scope to speculate whether he is acting on someone else's behalf.
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
Iran warns US over military bases in Afghanistan
By Usman Sharifi | AFP – Thu, Jun 14, 2012
Iran on Thursday warned a key international conference that a long-term US military presence in Afghanistan would fan regional insecurity and could plunge the war-torn country back into further chaos.
Representatives from 29 countries gathered in Kabul for the conference, weeks after NATO agreed at a summit in Chicago to stick to plans to withdraw the bulk of 130,000 foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The Taliban militia leading a 10-year insurgency against President Hamid Karzai's government has begun the annual fighting season with a series of attacks which saw US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta admit that violence was rising.
Karzai sought to reassure neighbours that strategic partnership deals signed by Kabul with several Western powers -- particularly the United States -- to govern relations beyond 2014, would not damage ties.
But the foreign minister of Iran, an enemy of the United States that welcomes NATO's departure from its eastern border, alluded to the Kabul-Washington pact by saying it added to security concerns among Afghanistan's neighbours.
"A particular country intends to prolong its military presence in Afghanistan in pursuit of its extra regional objectives. This certainly adds to the security concerns of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries," said Ali Akbar Salehi.
The strategic partnership deal and efforts to establish foreign military bases in Afghanistan ran against regional and international moves to achieve peace, and "could turn this country once again into scene of security rivalries" he said.
Afghanistan has long been a focus of imperial rivalry and scene of foreign intervention, most recently since the 2001 US-led invasion but also in the 1980s uprising against Russian troops that ultimately helped bring down the Soviet Union.
Washington denies it is seeking to establish permanent military bases in Afghanistan, but American military sources say they envisage around 15,000 forces remaining in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal.
Last month, Karzai warned that tough talks with Washington lay ahead over a security pact that would address the US presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, including the crucial issue of the legal status of foreign troops.
At the one-day conference, he asked neighbouring and international powers to invest in economic growth and peace in his impoverished country.
He also called on Pakistan, one of the historic sponsors of the Taliban, directly to support nascent efforts to end the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
"Support from these global powers and our neighbours is very important to Afghanistan and to the continued progress of Afghanistan towards stability and economic development," Karzai told delegates.
Karzai is keen to broker a peace deal with the Taliban, but the militants publicly refuse to talk to his government. Earlier this year, it also announced that it had pulled the plug on nascent contacts with the Americans in Qatar.
Karzai said the head of the Afghan High Peace Council would soon visit Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but gave no dates, and urged Islamabad to support peace efforts.
Afghanistan's relations with Pakistan have been clouded by mutual blame for Islamist violence plaguing both countries.
Karzai has consistently called on Pakistan to demolish terror sanctuaries in its semi-autonomous tribal belt.
Last week, Panetta also warned that the United States was running out of patience with Pakistan for not eliminating safe-havens of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network and other militants who attack US troops.
Islamabad denies any support for Haqqani activities and says it is doing everything possible to fight terrorism, saying no country has suffered more.
British Foreign Minister William Hague said he would use talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the conference to press Moscow to use its influence to rein in the Syrian regime.
Monitors say more than 14,100 people have been killed in the 15-month uprising against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Moscow, long an ally of Damascus, has refused to halt weapons sales.
The next talks on Afghanistan will be in Tokyo next month and will focus on ways to ensure social progress -- governance, economic prospects, health and education.
Embraer, Hawker Beechcraft face off again over planes for Afghanistan
McClatchy Newspapers By Vinod Sreeharsha Friday, June 15, 2012
BRASILIA, Brazil - After conducting an internal investigation, bringing in senior staff and briefing members of Congress, the U.S. Air Force expects this month to restart a contentious competition to purchase single-engine turboprop attack aircraft for Afghanistan that pits the Brazilian company Embraer and its A-29 Super Tucano against Wichita, Kan.,-based Hawker Beechcraft and its AT-6.
Embraer, however, is concerned about getting a fair shake in the new competition, the outcome of which will affect not only the two companies, but also possibly the future of growing Brazil-U.S. military cooperation as well as the prospects for U.S. defense companies seeking to do business in Brazil.
In March the Air Force abruptly canceled a $355 million contract it had just awarded Embraer to build 20 light air support aircraft for the Afghan air force after losing bidder Hawker Beechcraft sued the Pentagon. A subsequent internal Air Force investigation reportedly found internal administrative problems in the procurement process. The contract was rebid, with the final proposal due next Monday.
The U.S. Air Force expects to announce the new winner early next year, but the aircraft haven’t been requested for delivery until 18 months after that – as U.S. troops are supposed to be winding down their deployment in Afghanistan.
Unlike the original competition, the new one lacks a flight evaluation, in which the two planes would be flown under similar conditions. It also won’t accept data from the prior competition, a concern to Embraer. Hawker Beechcraft’s older planes, such as its T-6, are better known to U.S. military.
“They think that they are at a significant disadvantage because of a lack of a fly-off or use of prior data,” a senior staffer for a Florida member of Congress said, describing meetings with Embraer. The staffer, like several people interviewed for this story, spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Officials on both sides acknowledge that the handling of the contract has hurt a bilateral defense relationship that “has advanced pretty dramatically,” said the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon.
Brazil has long harbored resentment over what it sees as slights in the way it’s treated in military matters. Past Brazilian officials thought the country never got the recognition it deserved for sending troops to fight alongside the Allies in World War II. Brazil also is still smarting over its abandonment of its nuclear weapons program under U.S. pressure, only to see India develop nuclear weapons and continue to resist signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while still receiving favorable treatment from Washington.
In recent years, U.S. officials have tried to improve defense relations with Brazil, the largest country in South America and the world’s sixth largest economy. A 2010 agreement that originated in the George W. Bush administration called for increased sharing of military systems and equipment.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, visited the country in March and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited in April, launching the U.S.-Brazil Defense Cooperation Dialogue with Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim.
Marco Aurelio Garcia, a foreign policy adviser to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, said: “We have a very good relation with the U.S. and we want to continue to develop it. But a decision like this creates problems not only in military relations but in economic and commercial relations.”
Embraer officials declined to comment. The company’s U.S. headquarters are in Florida, where the planes for Afghanistan would be assembled.
Embraer still questions why it was stripped of the contract in the first place, according to another person who has direct knowledge of the company’s deliberations on the contract. If the problems were mainly administrative, rebidding the contract “is disproportionate” as a resolution, the person said, adding that suspicions in Brazil are high that the new competition “is tilted in favor of Hawker Beechcraft.”
Hawker Beechcraft hasn’t objected to the absence of a fly-off, but it has other concerns about the bidding process. For one, it thinks the Pentagon has lowered the standards for the aircraft’s ejection-seat system, said Derek Hess, the company’s vice president for light attack programs. That shaves an edge, he said, because Hawker Beechcraft seats accommodate a wider variety of pilots, something the Air Force told congressional staffers in April was unnecessary because only Afghans would pilot the planes.
On Tuesday, Embraer’s partner in the competition, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp., said it had sued the Air Force to have the original contract reinstated. Observers described it as a significant move as the U.S. government is a major Sierra Nevada customer, but the corporation said it planned to continue the competition.
Taco Gilbert, a vice president at Sierra Nevada Corp., said in a recent interview that, “We remain concerned that there is no fly-off. All we have ever asked for is integrity in the process and a fair and open competition.”
Buying planes for the U.S. military and the nascent Afghan air force has been subject to political interference from the beginning. Embraer initially had the support of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal when he was the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, according to a second congressional staffer. But the program was killed in Congress under pressure from Kansas legislators.
Brazilian politicians also are concerned about the handling of the contract. In an interview at the presidential palace in Brasilia, Garcia said he thought that the initial award of the contract to Embraer “was made strictly under technical criteria” but subsequent developments were the result of “political interference” and “protectionist and political intervention.”
Peter Hakim, the president emeritus of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington research center, was also critical. “Not only was it insulting to cancel the contract at the last minute, but the explanation was so thin,” he said. “It made it look like the U.S. can act arbitrarily.”
Shannon, the U.S. ambassador, said that for Brazil, the cancellation of the contract “provoked latent concerns about the confidence we have in them and the confidence they have in us as a long-term partner. So we have been trying to reassure them that we are looking for a defense partnership that can be enduring.”
The U.S., which for decades had assumed the sole responsibility for the Western Hemisphere’s defense, now wants Brazil to assume a greater share of the burden. Brazil, where a military dictatorship reigned until the 1980s, is modernizing its once-discredited military, a process that began during the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
That modernization has potential benefits for American companies. Brazil bought UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters from Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. of Stratford, Conn. Esterline Corp. of Bellevue, Wash., has a contract to provide equipment to Embraer’s KC-390 military tankers.
While in Rio de Janeiro, Panetta said the U.S. had approved nearly 4,000 licenses a year to export technology to Brazil, “ranging from weapons and aircraft to integrated combat systems for navy ships and submarines.”
“This is on a par with the U.S. government’s license approval rate for treaty allies, for our closest partners,” he said.
A U.S. concern is whether the outcome of the bidding for the Afghan planes will affect a $4.4 billion contract to sell Brazil 36 fighter jets. Boeing is competing with France’s Dassault Aviation and Sweden’s Saab for the deal. It’s unclear whether that contract could be affected if Brazil continues to harbor doubts about the Pentagon’s process for deciding on the Super Tucano A-29 – the pride of the Brazilian air force – for Afghanistan.
“They are humans with sentiments and they have long memories,” a Brazilian official said, referring to the Brazilian military. “I recently met a military official complaining about some slight from 15 years ago.” Copyright 2012 McClatchy Newspapers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Sreeharsha is a McClatchy special correspondent.
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