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Afghan motorcycle bomber kills 14, including 3 NATO troops
By Amir Shah and Heidi Vogt, The Associated Press
KABUL - A suicide bomber driving a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed his bike into a patrol of Afghan and international forces on Monday morning in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 14 people, including three NATO service members and their translator, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which came a day after the U.S. death toll in the war in Afghanistan reached 2,000 troops and as relations between international forces and their Afghan partners have been pushed to the breaking point by a surge in insider attacks by Afghan allies.
The bomber struck a group of Afghan police and international troops shortly after they got out of their vehicles to walk through a market area in Khost city, the capital of Khost province, said provincial government spokesman Baryalai Wakman.
Six civilians and four police officers were killed in the blast, Wakman said. He said the police officers were part of a specialized quick-reaction force.
Blood could be seen on the market road as Afghan police and soldiers tried to clean up the area after the blast. Slippers and bicycle parts were strewn about.
"I heard the explosion and came right to this area. I saw the dead bodies of policemen and of civilians right here," said policeman Hashmat Khan, who ran to the site of the blast from his job as security for a nearby bank.
Coalition spokesman Maj. Adam Wojack would only confirm that three NATO service members and their translator died in a bombing in the east on Monday, without giving an exact location or the nationalities of the dead.
The international military alliance usually waits for individual nations to announce details on deaths. Most of the troops in the east and in Khost province are American. It was not immediately clear if the translator was an Afghan citizen or a foreigner, Wojack said.
Dozens of Afghan civilians were also wounded in the bombing. The city's hospital alone was treating about 30 people injured in the explosion, said Dr. Amir Pacha, a physician working there. He added there could be other victims being treated at nearby private clinics.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in text messages to media that the insurgent group was behind the attack.
Joint patrols between NATO and Afghan forces have become more limited following a tide of attacks by Afghan soldiers and police on their international allies. Last month, the U.S. military issued new orders that require units to get approval from higher-ups before conducting operations with Afghans. Then, two weeks later, U.S. officials said most missions were being conducted with Afghans again, though the system of approvals has remained in place.
The close contact — coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers — is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops by the end of 2014.
But the rising death toll for international troops has increased calls in the U.S. and other allies to get out as soon as possible. On Sunday, a U.S. official confirmed that an American soldier was killed in a firefight that broke out between Afghan and U.S. troops, sparked by either a premeditated attack or confusion about the origins of an insurgent strike.
According to an Associated Press count, that soldier's death brought American troop deaths in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion to 2,000 — a cold reminder of the perils that remain after an 11-year conflict.
Afghan media claim small victory in fight for press freedom
By Miriam Arghandiwal
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan journalists are claiming a small victory in their battle for press freedom after the government agreed to some softening of media restrictions, industry representatives said on Monday.
Journalists have been locked in a row with the government for months after authorities proposed a revision of the existing media law, which looked to significantly tighten Kabul's grip over the fledgling but lively Afghan press corps.
The legislation raised fresh concerns that authorities were trying to appeal to the more conservative side of society ahead of the pullout of most foreign troops by the end of 2014.
A frequent gripe though was that the changes would have forced reporters to "observe the principles of Islam", a vague catch-all stipulation which some journalists say the government uses to detain them.
The Ministry of Information and Culture agreed to five of 19 changes suggested by journalists. They include getting rid of special courts for alleged media violations and a clause that proposed restriction on foreign programming on radio and TV.
"Afghan journalists consider the new proposal of the media law a move in the right direction," said Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, executive director of media advocacy group Nai.
"Taking in the considerations of the (media) community means the government believes in, trusts and recognizes our field."
President Hamid Karzai trumpets the existing 2009 law, which took years to pass, as one of his government's major achievements, though war and an atmosphere of impunity make Afghanistan one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist.
The new draft still presents the media with restrictions, including a heavy government presence on the High Media Council, a 15-member body which has enormous sway over ethics and legal procedures.
"This draft is significantly better than the last one, but the biggest question still remains, which is why there is a need for a new law in the first place," said Heather Barr, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch.
The New York-based organization had called for the draft media law to be withdrawn, saying it "chilled free speech".
A final draft is expected to be sent to the Ministry of Justice which will review it before forwarding it to be approved by parliament and finally rubber-stamped by Karzai.
"I am very happy with the changes... but I hope they will take further consideration of the concerns Afghan journalists have," said TV reporter Houmyain Shohaib from Voice of America.
Many media workers and their representatives not only reject the revised legislation, but want more amendments, including more legal protection, clearer libel laws and greater transparency.
Afghanistan ranks seventh on the "Impunity Index" compiled by New York-based watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.
CPJ said in its annual report in April that while Afghanistan has experienced a slowdown in targeted killings, it had made no progress in prosecuting the killers of journalists.
(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Nick Macfie)
(This story corrects the fourth and 14th paragraphs to revised laws, rather than current)
Exxon yet to inspect Afghanistan's biggest oil project: minister
By Rob Taylor and Hamid Shalizi Sun Sep 30, 2012 8:24am EDT
KABUL - (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's biggest non-state oil company, has not yet accepted an offer to look over a new Afghan oil concession in the country's north, possibly indicating a fading appetite to invest in the conflict-wracked country.
As Afghanistan's government finalizes new laws designed to attract more foreign mining investment, Mining Minister Wahidullah Shahrani told Reuters that Exxon had not turned up for a site tour which closes on Sunday, despite being shortlisted with eight other firms for the Afghan Tajik tender near Mazar-e-Sharif.
"Hopefully at some point they (Exxon) will visit the area. But that visit is not mandatory," Shahrani said in an interview late on Saturday in his Kabul office. A spokeswoman for U.S.-based Exxon said she could not immediately comment.
Exxon's July expression of interest in the Afghan Tajik basin, which holds an estimated 1.9 billion barrels of oil, lent credence to hopes that Kabul may be making progress in efforts to lessen its reliance on aid, through untapped resources worth as much as $1 trillion, despite an ongoing insurgency.
Shahrani said that with an October bid closure deadline looming, shortlisted companies had been invited to inspect the area and meet local community leaders, an offer which closes on September 30, and which would usually be accepted.
"Some companies, they have already visited, some companies are about to visit the area," he said. "Those companies, most of them are well established in the region."
Chinese and Indian companies are already scrambling to lock in access to Afghanistan's mineral wealth, most estimates of which date back to U.S. surveys carried out decades ago. The country has large deposits of gold, copper, iron ore and oil, as well as lithium and rare earths used in high-tech manufacturing.
Chinese firms are leading the race, with China Metallurgical Group (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper winning a 2007 deal to exploit the giant $3 billion Aynak copper mine southeast of the capital Kabul.
MAJOR INTEREST
Exxon's interest fuelled hopes that U.S.-based majors may also compete, despite worries over security and endemic graft, adding urgency to a push for new laws designed to make resource investment more attractive as foreign combat troops withdraw.
Shahrani's ministry will soon resubmit to President Hamid Karzai's cabinet mining laws that Afghan officials and Western donors hope will persuade foreign firms to invest in the country's resources, but which were rejected in July over concerns they were too generous to miners.
The re-draft, backed by Western donors and the World Bank, would remove a 2009 clause separating exploration from an automatic license to exploit finds, a law which led miners to question why they were spending their money on expensive and risky exploration if they could not be assured of profiting.
"It created a lot of discomfort among the potential mining companies and global investors," Shahrani said.
"We have made the provision that whoever gets the license for exploration through the tender, once they conduct the exploration, if they find a deposit to be commercially and economically viable, their exploration license will be automatically converted to an exploitation or production license."
Miners and Western diplomats have not managed to convince the government to include fixed royalty payments in the re-drafted law, though Shahrani admitted that some resources firms thought it lead to greater confidence in planning.
"In the new draft law, we have not mentioned that, and we will leave that to be determined in the bidding process," he said.
Instead, the overhaul would commit the government to more transparency by publishing contract details in local and international newspapers, as well as on its own website, to counter perceptions of graft in Afghanistan's notorious kleptocracy.
The draft laws, he said, should go to Karzai's cabinet in three to four weeks before a November vote in the fractious parliament, where lawmakers have in recent months been testing their muscle with Karzai, sacking key security ministers.
Some political analysts have also speculated that Shahrani's problems with the law's initial draft may have been linked to political rivalries over control of potential resource profits.
YEARS UNTIL PRODUCTION
Shahrani said he was optimistic opposition to the laws had faded in cabinet, and that parliament's influential economics and resource committees were also positive about the legislation, which was drafted with World Bank help.
"We have been interacting very closely with parliament's relative committees. I can see a significant degree of support on behalf of the members of those committees," he said.
Despite the risk of global commodity prices falling as a result of concerns about the strength of the Chinese economy and a global economic slowdown, Shahrani said he believed Afghanistan had not missed the peak of the resource boom.
Most projects in Afghanistan, he said, including bids for northeastern gold concessions in Badakhshan now being considered, would take years to reach production.
"If we do award the concessions tomorrow for iron ore and copper, usually it takes at least five to six years for these deposits to get developed," he said. "We hope that by then the demand for commodities will again increase."
(Additional reporting by Jessica Donati in KABUL; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
5 Are Dead After Clash Between U.S. and Afghan Troops
New York Times By ROD NORDLAND September 30, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Only two days after joint operations between American and Afghan forces were said to be returning to normal, five people — two Americans and three Afghans — were killed when a pitched battle broke out between soldiers of the two sides, American and Afghan officials said Sunday.
Afghan officials said that the clash on Saturday was a misunderstanding and that the Americans apparently attacked an Afghan National Army unit in error. A top coalition officer said the Americans were attacked first in what might possibly have been an insurgent attack. Nonetheless, he expressed regret for what ensued.
An initial statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, commonly referred to as ISAF, on Sunday described the episode as “a suspected insider attack,” which killed a foreign soldier and a civilian contractor. If so, that would bring to 53 the number of coalition forces killed in the so-called insider attacks this year.
Whatever happened, the episode clearly was another in a series of setbacks this year, and particularly in the last month, in relations between the American and Afghan militaries. It comes at a delicate moment, when all of the American surge reinforcements have only recently left the country, and NATO has been trying to transfer ever greater responsibility to a growing Afghan military.
Shahidullah Shahid, the spokesman for the governor in Wardak Province, where the fighting occurred, said the deaths came “after a clash ensued between two sides following a misunderstanding.” An Afghan official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to release details, said that a mortar shell had landed amid the American unit, killing a soldier and a civilian contractor and wounding several others. The Americans thought it came from a nearby Afghan National Army checkpoint on a hill overhead and attacked it with small arms and rockets, killing three and wounding three of the seven soldiers there, the official said.
The Wardak provincial police chief, Abdul Qayoum Baqizoi, said the fight broke out when an Afghan soldier among seven soldiers at the checkpoint opened fire on the Americans; in the ensuing gun battle, three Afghan soldiers were killed, including the one who fired first. “We still don’t have a clear picture of what happened,” Mr. Baqizoi said. He quoted the lone Afghan soldier who was unhurt as saying, “ ‘I heard some noise and verbal argument and suddenly heard the shooting and then one of the coalition soldiers threw a hand grenade so I fled from the check post and hid myself behind our Humvee.’ ”
Significantly, according to Afghan officials, the American unit, which was relatively small in size and manning a temporary checkpoint in the Saidabad district, was not partnered with Afghan forces. The unit was conducting a biometric survey, in which details like fingerprints and eye scans are gathered from the local population, often at temporary checkpoints, in an effort to screen for insurgents.
Normally such operations would consist of American and Afghan forces working together, but in recent weeks the American military has issued orders that all joint operations with units smaller than a battalion — 400 to 800 soldiers — need to be approved in advance by a general commanding one of the six military regions in Afghanistan. Most joint operations take place at small unit levels.
At a hastily convened news conference on Sunday, the deputy ISAF commander, Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, read a brief statement that did little to clarify what happened between the ISAF and Afghan National Army, or ANA, soldiers. “What was initially reported to have been a suspected insider attack is now understood to possibly have involved insurgent fire,” General Bradshaw said. “After a short conversation took place between ANA and ISAF personnel, firing occurred, which resulted in the fatal wounding of an ISAF soldier and the death of his civilian colleague. In an ensuing exchange of fire three ANA personnel are reported to have died.”
He added, “We deeply regret the loss of life in this tragic incident.”
Asked if the restrictions on joint patrolling were a factor in Saturday’s clash, General Bradshaw did not respond to the question, saying instead that the restrictions were not a change in strategy but were prompted by increased caution about the reaction in a Muslim country to the incendiary video recently posted on YouTube that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad.
Insider attacks this year have increased greatly compared with 2011, when there were 35 over 12 months, arousing concern in the coalition, as well as in Western capitals. French forces announced that they were leaving by the end of next year, a year earlier than originally planned, after losing four of their soldiers in an insider attack in January.
In addition to restricting joint patrols by small units, the military has also required its forces to wear body armor and carry loaded weapons whenever they are in the presence of Afghan forces. And early in September training activities between Special Operations troops and new Afghan local police recruits were suspended because of several insider attacks involving the militia forces.
While those restrictions remain in force, Pentagon officials on Thursday said that joint operations among smaller units were returning to normal levels because of expedited approvals by higher commanders.
Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.
Ten lessons the U.S. should learn from Afghanistan's history
By William Byrd Monday, October 1, 2012 FOREIGN POLICY
Afghanistan provides all too many examples of the wisdom of Winston Churchill's saying "those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." Great Britain forgot the hard-learned lessons from the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42) and got caught in the misadventure of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80). The Afghan Communist government that took power in a military coup in 1978 did not appear to have learned from the failed westernization and reform experiment of King Amanullah (1919-29); it imposed radical changes and engaged in brutal repression, quickly stirring up a violent reaction that threatened the new regime. The Soviet Union optimistically viewed its military intervention in Afghanistan at the end of 1979 as a limited action with a short time horizon-assumptions that proved unfounded and whose lack of realism would have been apparent from a review of Afghan history. And it does not seem that the United States and its NATO allies reflected on lessons from the Soviet occupation when they initiated the international military intervention in Afghanistan after 9/11, even though, as Bruce Riedel noted: "A country rarely fights the same war twice in one generation, especially from opposite sides. Yet that in many ways describes the U.S. role in Afghanistan today."
Afghanistan and its international partners now face a challenging process of international military drawdown and transition-in security, political, financial, and economic spheres. What can be learned from Afghanistan's history to inform and help guide this process? A recent paper outlines parallels and contrasts between past and present, and distills some historical themes and lessons that may be relevant for the current transition and beyond. It focuses on the change of Soviet strategy and its military withdrawal from Afghanistan (1986-89) and the subsequent Soviet-backed Najibullah regime (1989-92). Of course, any lessons from history must be applied cautiously, in full cognizance of the current situation and major differences from the past. Nevertheless, findings of the paper do shed light on themes and lessons from Afghanistan's history that could inform current transition planning and the path ahead.
First, it is necessary to clear up some myths and misconceptions. Afghanistan is a geographically well-defined country, whose borders were formed during a long period of conflicts and resistance against outside powers, most notably the British and Russian Empires. Dating from 1747, the country has a far longer history as a distinct national entity with continuity to the present than most of its neighbors-such as Pakistan, created in 1947 with artificially demarcated borders in two separate parts, or the central Asian states to the north formed after the break-up of the USSR at the end of 1991. Unlike some of its neighbors, Afghanistan has never had a significant secessionist movement. And the 1933-73 period shows that the country can be stable and effectively governed. The Afghan monarchial state did not penetrate deeply into the countryside, nor was it very successful developmentally, but it did keep the peace and maintain order, was perceived as legitimate internally and externally, maintained reasonable control over its borders, exercised independent diplomacy in a difficult region, and limited and monitored the activities of foreigners within the country-basic state functions which subsequent Afghan governments have struggled to fulfill.
Second, expectations about the pace of progress need to be kept modest. Whether domestically or externally driven, overly ambitious reform efforts with unrealistically short timeframes-particularly those disturbing established power relations in rural areas and affecting religion, culture, and the role of women-have led to sharp domestic reactions that set back development, sometimes for decades.
Third, the possibility of Afghanistan's neighbors playing "spoiler" roles and of regional rivalries undermining transition is very real. Historical experience and the current situation in Pakistan indicate that there may be a need to plan around, or at a minimum for contingency planning, with respect to Pakistan for example preventing a meaningful peace agreement with the Taliban. Iran and to a lesser extent other regional countries may also raise issues for the transition. More generally, the Soviet withdrawal period shows both the difficulties in reaching a peaceful solution to a conflict during military withdrawal, and the adverse consequences of failure to do so.
Fourth, Afghanistan's history has been characterized by chronic succession problems and associated conflict. Indeed not since 1933, and only three times since 1747, was there a smooth succession from one ruler to the next. Of the eight leaders of Afghanistan during 1973-2001, all but one died violent deaths or were ousted/exiled from power. Thus history highlights the challenges associated with the 2014 political transition and underlines the need for effective election preparations and a political strategy to maximize the prospects for smooth elections. If successful and not followed by post-election violence, the next Presidential election would comprise an unprecedented peaceful transfer of government leadership in Afghanistan's recent history.
Fifth, the post-Soviet withdrawal period shows the potential and limitations of Afghan security forces: holding onto Kabul and other large cities is probably the most that can be hoped for. Indeed, more risks may be associated with the Afghan National Army during and after the current transition given greater ethnic factionalization; parts of the ANA could fragment or desert earlier rather than later, whereas the post-Soviet Afghan army held together reasonably well until near the end.
Sixth, the Soviet and post-Soviet experience with arming and paying militias suggests that this approach is fraught with danger, risking instability given dependence on payments to militia leaders and exacerbating grievances and drivers of conflict due to predatory behavior of many militias. A "political marketplace" as seen in some African countries, where factionalized and short-term patronage is used for political and security management to hold together different ethnic groups and regional interests, and where deals reached can be-and frequently are-re-opened including through violence, is unstable and does not provide a good foundation for successful transition or sustained political progress.
Seventh, effective Afghan leadership, pursuing a national agenda, has been critical for achieving positive outcomes in times of change and transition in Afghanistan, including foreign military withdrawals. International experience also underlines the importance of effective national leadership during transitions, as emphasized in the 2011 World Development Report Conflict, Security, and Development.
Eighth, Afghanistan during most of its history has depended on outside financial support in various forms, and the current transition and following period will be no exception. While aid certainly can and should decline from the extraordinarily high levels seen in recent years, abruptly stopping or suddenly cutting back support would be a recipe for disaster, as occurred most notably in 1991-92 when the Soviet Union in its final days stopped all support to the Najibullah regime and it quickly collapsed.
Ninth, the Afghan economy currently is in much better shape than during the Soviet and post-Soviet period, having seen recovery and rapid growth over the past decade in contrast to the widespread destruction of infrastructure and the rural economic base and massive displacement of population during the 1980s and early 1990s. In coming years the destabilizing effects of a deep economic contraction must be avoided, which will depend on maintaining political stability, avoiding deterioration in security, and building confidence, as well as gradual rather than abrupt declines in international aid.
Finally, it is also important not to overlearn some apparent lessons from history. For example, Afghanistan's problematic experience over the past five decades with divisive, ideologically and ethnically driven political parties has made political parties in general an anathema to many Afghans. But effective political parties are an essential ingredient in successful democracies around the world, and a signal failure of the post-2001 period has been that more nationally oriented political parties have not emerged and developed.
In conclusion, some lessons from Afghanistan's turbulent history constitute warnings and cautionary themes about what can go wrong. This reflects the reality of the country's history, and both Afghans and international partners should move forward with eyes open so problems and risks can be managed better and mitigated to the extent possible. Certainly Afghanistan, the region, and the world cannot afford a repeat of the disastrous history of the 1990s-a worst-case outcome whose ramifications and damaging effects continue to be felt to this day. All parties must make strong efforts to ensure that such a repetition of history is avoided.
William Byrd is a visiting senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace. The views expressed here are his own.
Afghanistan's Development of 'Utmost Importance': Tajikistan
TOLOnews.com By Mir Aqa Sunday, 30 September 2012
Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarif on Saturday said that Afghanistan's economic rehabilitation was of "utmost importance" not only to the region but to the world.
Zarif called on the international community in his address to the United Nations 67th General Assembly in New York to give exclusive importance to helping Afghanistan develop.
"Within the context of the withdrawal of the Isaf from Afghanistan, the country will require an exclusive importance not only for the region but for the entire world," Zarifi said.
"For this reason, international assistance rendered to Afghanistan should be aimed, first and foremost, at its utmost economic rehabilitation, further strengthening of its social sphere, job creation, etcetera. In this regard, the realization of projects on construction of railways, motorways, power transmission lines, gas pipelines, etcetera that connect Afghanistan with Tajikistan and other countries of the region is of utmost importance."
He also urged the creation of an international strategy for drug control.
"One of the important areas that demand cooperative efforts on the part of the international community is the prevention of illicit drug trafficking. It is essential that the international community unite in measures aimed at reducing both the demand and the supply of drugs, and integrate efforts undertaken at the national level into the international strategy for drug control," the Minister said.
Afghanistan and Tajikistan share more than 1300km of national border, separated by the Pyandzh River (known as Amu Darya)
Fearing the infiltration of Afghan insurgents, Tajikistan has closed the land-crossings on its side to Afghanistan, only allowing Nato supply trucks to cross over.
Russian has nearly 6,000 troops stationed in Tajikistan, a move regarded as a buffer against any threat of Islamist violence spilling across the border after Nato-led forces leave Afghanistan.
Tajikistan is one of the poorest of 15 former Soviet republics.
Taliban supported openly in Afghanistan
GlobalPost.com By Chris Sands Sep 30, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Mawlawi Ataullah Faizani took time out from teaching Islamic studies at a girls’ school in Kabul to explain why Afghans have a duty to resist the occupation of their country.
He quoted sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, spoke of foreign troops humiliating civilians, and ridiculed the corruption that runs through the heart of the government.
“This anarchy has been created by the West,” he told GlobalPost. “The West is never happy to let Muslims be united.”
Faizani’s views are common among members of the powerful religious establishment here. Clerics and scholars now openly sympathize with the Taliban and question much of what NATO claims to have achieved.
Far from being radical, their message is part of a mainstream demand for the creation of an independent state that would impose corporal punishment, stricter dress codes for women and greater censorship of the media.
Their complaints about life in Afghanistan post-2001 inevitably begin with the presence of foreign troops. The occupation, they believe, has actively encouraged a litany of personal and political ills in an effort to weaken the bedrock of society: Islam.
The sheer depth of this anger and suspicion was evident in February, when Qurans were set on fire at a US military base. NATO issued an immediate apology but nationwide protests erupted regardless.
The anger has since been seen in demonstrations over an anti-Islam video released on YouTube, and in a number of incidents involving Afghan security forces deliberately shooting their foreign counterparts, suggesting that tensions between two very different cultures may be near a breaking point.
When he is not teaching at a girls’ school, Faizani is an imam at a mosque in Kabul. He said that non-Muslims who are guests in an Islamic society have the same rights as Muslims.
But he added that this rule does not apply to soldiers, who he insisted are a legitimate target for attacks, including suicide bombings. “People cannot just sit down with their hands under their beards, they should react,” he said.
Away from the battlefield, clerics feel a more insidious fight is being waged against their religion. They believe this can be witnessed in the government corruption and empowerment of warlords that have become a feature of life since the US-led invasion.
More mundane issues are also of concern. The media has flourished during the last decade and private TV channels that did not exist under the Taliban regime are now broadcasting music concerts, dramas and Indian films.
In cities, meanwhile, young women often wear American or European-style clothing with their compulsory Islamic headscarves.
Members of the religious establishment claim these seemingly innocuous developments — along with the illicit sale of alcohol, drugs and prostitution — have contributed to the deteriorating security situation by encouraging immoral behavior.
“There is a difference between Islamic freedom and Western freedom,” said Abdul Zaher Dayee, a professor in the Sharia Law faculty at Kabul University.
For him the relaxation of social conventions, the actions of foreign troops and the pervasive administrative corruption have combined to create an environment where the Taliban are able to gain support.
“There is no democracy and no Islam, there is a kind of anarchy: people are looting land and houses, they are raping. No law exists, ” he said.
Although the Afghan government has occasionally executed prisoners it accuses of serious offenses, that is not enough for men like Dayee who claim President Hamid Karzai is a puppet of the United States.
Instead, they want systematic capital and corporal punishment to be introduced. In certain instances this would include thieves having a hand cut off — a practice commonly carried out in public under the Taliban regime.
“If the Americans truly leave and stop their interference we will set up an Islamic state,” Dayee said. “But if they continue to interfere and bankroll some people here then we will have to fight them.”
In an effort to curb dissent and possibly help bring insurgents to the negotiating table, the government has already shown signs of adopting a tougher stance on issues such as women’s rights and freedom of the press.
The Taliban have also been enforcing their own strict laws in places they control, further emphasizing that this conflict is not only about the presence of foreign troops.
For the rebels and the many officials and ordinary citizens who share similar views to them, the war will continue until Afghanistan is again ruled by a hardline regime adhering to an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam.
Mawlawi Abdul Salam Abed heads the department responsible for preparing the Islamic curriculum for all state run schools and madrassas. He told GlobalPost the current situation is unacceptable.
“You know and I know what the Taliban and the nation want, but when the government of Afghanistan is not implementing Sharia law it means the government does not have independence, it is in the hands of others,” he said.
“If there is even one percent of Islam you are not implementing, you are an infidel. It’s a total program.”
Baghlan Kidnappers Suspected of Rape, Murder Arrested
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 30 September 2012
Two kidnappers involved in the suspected murder of a 13-year-old boy and rape of a 13-year-old girl in northern Baghlan province were arrested by Afghan police Thursday, officials confirmed Sunday.
Security forces launched an operation to free the girl on Thursday after she was taken on Wednesday night at around 10:00PM, according to local sources.
The Afghan forces apprehended the two kidnappers in Seya Sang village of Baghlan's Khenjan district and also seized some weapons in the operation, provincial deputy police chief Sayed Rahmanuddin Husaini told TOLOnews Sunday.
"The girl was freed and we informed her family. Now she is at home. But she said that kidnappers have raped her," Husaini said, adding that the provincial doctors examined her and confirmed that she was raped.
Husaini said that the kidnappers were also suspected of killing a 13-year-old boy and investigations are underway, however he did not give any details of the circumstances of the boy's death.
The incident comes amid an apparent increase in news of violence against women in Afghanistan, including the mullah-led lashing of a 16-year-old girl in the Jaghorie district of eastern Ghazni province.
Afghan MPs have said that they will investigate the Ghazni lashing ordered by local mullahs as they are concerned about people delivering "justice" outside of the country's laws.
The secretariat of the parliament gave responsibility to the committee of justice and the committee of women's affairs to examine that incident.
Ghazni mullahs fined a young man 80,000 Afs and ordered the girl to be whipped for their so-called "illegal" relationship. It was not clear if there was abuse involved as officials declined at the time to discuss the matter, but the head of Ghazni's head of women's affairs Shukria Wali had expressed concern that the man was freely living in the district.
Afghans Hostage to Corruption
Everyone knows it’s undermining the country, but no one has a solution.
IWPR By Gulab Shah Bawer 29 Sep 12
Afghanistan - The mayor of Mazar-e Sharif was outlining how the Afghan authorities were tackling corruption, when an elderly man stopped him in his tracks.
"If you want to fight corruption, the greatest corruption exists in your own administration, the municipality,” said the man, Nek Baba. “You should reform yourself first."
The event was a “corruption awareness workshop”, held at the municipal offices in the north Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif with an invited audience of 300 local elders and dignitaries.
Nek Baba’s particular grievance was that land-plots were being handed out free of charge to the rich and powerful, instead of to people who needed them.
In response, Mayor Yunos Moqim acknowledged that Nek Baba was largely right. He accepted that corrupt practices took place in the city government, but promised that he was serious about rooting them out.
The encounter neatly encapsulates the problem with corruption in Afghanistan. Everyone agrees it exists. Everyone, including officials, says something needs to be done about it. But little tangible progress has been made in making the bureaucracy more honest over the last decade. Few are arrested, few are held accountable.
Residents of northern Afghanistan say they cannot get anything done without paying off some official.
"People have to pay bribes just to get what’s legally due to them. If they won’t pay up, they get harassed under a range of pretexts, their affairs don’t get processed, and obstacles are placed in their way," Mazar-e Sharif resident Gholam Sakhi said.
He should know. As community leader of Qarghan Kocha, a neighbourhood of Mazar-e Sharif, Gholam Sakhi has to cope with daily requests from residents to accompany them to local government offices and help sort out their affairs.
He explained how the system worked. "Every office has middlemen. When somebody goes to the office to get some paperwork processed, the staff hassle him so much that he’s forced to turn to the middlemen, who then do the processing for money."
He said district and other local-level leaders like himself had been issued with official seals and stamps which – in theory – should be recognised as proof of their status, but in reality officials ignore them.
"Corruption in government offices undermines our confidence in them,” he said. “The staff there don’t care about anyone or anything except money."
Afghans are frustrated by the impact that bribery and other corrupt practices has on their lives. But many feel powerless to fight back, saying there is little chance of change at day-to-day level unless the culture of impunity is reformed from the top down.
"If high-ranking officials weren’t involved in corruption, lower-level employees would never be corrupt," said a trader who rents a shop at the Balkh Bazaar in Mazar-e Sharif.
He described how he had to accept things as they were.
"Look, this document shows how we’ve been charged for six square metres of floorspace, while they’ve only given us three square metres,” he said. “These ground-floor shops are owned by a senior official in the [provincial] governor's office. How are we going to file a complaint against him? He has the prosecution, judiciary and police in his pockets. If we said anything, he’s got his own armed men who could kill us."
According to Wakil Matin, a social affairs expert in Balkh province, "The fundamental roots of administrative corruption lie in the capital, and they’ve spread into the provinces from there. If the president gets serious about it and launches a proper effort in the capital, it will take two days to eliminate administrative corruption in the provinces.”
President Hamid Karzai has in fact said he is serious about dealing with corruption on more than on occasion, most recently in a June speech clearly intended to reassure international donors, followed by a wide-ranging, 164-point decree setting out plans to improve governance and rule of law, combat corruption, and make the country more self-reliant. (See Karzai's Anti-Graft Call Gets Lukewarm Response.)
The head of the High Office for Oversight and Anti-Corruption, Azizullah Ludin, has made public allegations against two cabinet ministers, Ismail Khan and Hazrat Omar Zakhelwal, but so far both have robustly defended their positions.
In Herat, the western region of which Water and Energy Minister Ismail Khan was once governor and where the anti-corruption chief accuses him of misappropriating land, his supporters staged protests against Ludin.
Finance Minister Zakhelwal roundly rejects allegations that the large sums of money in his bank account are anything other than honest earnings. He told the BBC, “I have earned a million dollars over ten years. There are individuals in the system who earn one million in a day."
Ludin said he was also looking into the affairs of other officials, but it was too early to reveal details.
In Balkh province, counter-corruption chief Shamsullah Jawid, says he too is digging away at official malpractice.
He believes inadequate public-sector pay, the general atmosphere of impunity and lawlessness, poor levels of education, and a sense of despondency about Afghanistan’s future all contribute to dishonest practices.
"Not only in Balkh, in the entire northern zone, administrative corruption has proliferated to a level where people have completely lost faith in government," he said. "I have identified some corrupt individuals in the northern zone, and I will shortly be handing them over to the law."
At the same time, Jawid acknowledged that corruption was at its worst in the legal system itself.
He added, “Although I have received direct and indirect threats that I should stop, I am resolved to fight corruption fearlessly in my area of responsibility."
At the anti-graft meeting in Mazar-e Sharif, Nek Baba had little faith that the authorities had any intention of changing things.
"This gathering is an attempt to deceive people," he said. “For God's sake, do not pour salt on our wounds any more. Stop making fun of us. Halt this performance."
Golab Shah Bawar is a freelance journalist in Balkh.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Amir Shah and Heidi Vogt, The Associated Press
KABUL - A suicide bomber driving a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed his bike into a patrol of Afghan and international forces on Monday morning in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 14 people, including three NATO service members and their translator, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which came a day after the U.S. death toll in the war in Afghanistan reached 2,000 troops and as relations between international forces and their Afghan partners have been pushed to the breaking point by a surge in insider attacks by Afghan allies.
The bomber struck a group of Afghan police and international troops shortly after they got out of their vehicles to walk through a market area in Khost city, the capital of Khost province, said provincial government spokesman Baryalai Wakman.
Six civilians and four police officers were killed in the blast, Wakman said. He said the police officers were part of a specialized quick-reaction force.
Blood could be seen on the market road as Afghan police and soldiers tried to clean up the area after the blast. Slippers and bicycle parts were strewn about.
"I heard the explosion and came right to this area. I saw the dead bodies of policemen and of civilians right here," said policeman Hashmat Khan, who ran to the site of the blast from his job as security for a nearby bank.
Coalition spokesman Maj. Adam Wojack would only confirm that three NATO service members and their translator died in a bombing in the east on Monday, without giving an exact location or the nationalities of the dead.
The international military alliance usually waits for individual nations to announce details on deaths. Most of the troops in the east and in Khost province are American. It was not immediately clear if the translator was an Afghan citizen or a foreigner, Wojack said.
Dozens of Afghan civilians were also wounded in the bombing. The city's hospital alone was treating about 30 people injured in the explosion, said Dr. Amir Pacha, a physician working there. He added there could be other victims being treated at nearby private clinics.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in text messages to media that the insurgent group was behind the attack.
Joint patrols between NATO and Afghan forces have become more limited following a tide of attacks by Afghan soldiers and police on their international allies. Last month, the U.S. military issued new orders that require units to get approval from higher-ups before conducting operations with Afghans. Then, two weeks later, U.S. officials said most missions were being conducted with Afghans again, though the system of approvals has remained in place.
The close contact — coalition forces working side by side with Afghan troops as advisers, mentors and trainers — is a key part of the U.S. strategy for putting the Afghans in the lead as the U.S. and other nations prepare to pull out their last combat troops by the end of 2014.
But the rising death toll for international troops has increased calls in the U.S. and other allies to get out as soon as possible. On Sunday, a U.S. official confirmed that an American soldier was killed in a firefight that broke out between Afghan and U.S. troops, sparked by either a premeditated attack or confusion about the origins of an insurgent strike.
According to an Associated Press count, that soldier's death brought American troop deaths in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion to 2,000 — a cold reminder of the perils that remain after an 11-year conflict.
Afghan media claim small victory in fight for press freedom
By Miriam Arghandiwal
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan journalists are claiming a small victory in their battle for press freedom after the government agreed to some softening of media restrictions, industry representatives said on Monday.
Journalists have been locked in a row with the government for months after authorities proposed a revision of the existing media law, which looked to significantly tighten Kabul's grip over the fledgling but lively Afghan press corps.
The legislation raised fresh concerns that authorities were trying to appeal to the more conservative side of society ahead of the pullout of most foreign troops by the end of 2014.
A frequent gripe though was that the changes would have forced reporters to "observe the principles of Islam", a vague catch-all stipulation which some journalists say the government uses to detain them.
The Ministry of Information and Culture agreed to five of 19 changes suggested by journalists. They include getting rid of special courts for alleged media violations and a clause that proposed restriction on foreign programming on radio and TV.
"Afghan journalists consider the new proposal of the media law a move in the right direction," said Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, executive director of media advocacy group Nai.
"Taking in the considerations of the (media) community means the government believes in, trusts and recognizes our field."
President Hamid Karzai trumpets the existing 2009 law, which took years to pass, as one of his government's major achievements, though war and an atmosphere of impunity make Afghanistan one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist.
The new draft still presents the media with restrictions, including a heavy government presence on the High Media Council, a 15-member body which has enormous sway over ethics and legal procedures.
"This draft is significantly better than the last one, but the biggest question still remains, which is why there is a need for a new law in the first place," said Heather Barr, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch.
The New York-based organization had called for the draft media law to be withdrawn, saying it "chilled free speech".
A final draft is expected to be sent to the Ministry of Justice which will review it before forwarding it to be approved by parliament and finally rubber-stamped by Karzai.
"I am very happy with the changes... but I hope they will take further consideration of the concerns Afghan journalists have," said TV reporter Houmyain Shohaib from Voice of America.
Many media workers and their representatives not only reject the revised legislation, but want more amendments, including more legal protection, clearer libel laws and greater transparency.
Afghanistan ranks seventh on the "Impunity Index" compiled by New York-based watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.
CPJ said in its annual report in April that while Afghanistan has experienced a slowdown in targeted killings, it had made no progress in prosecuting the killers of journalists.
(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Nick Macfie)
(This story corrects the fourth and 14th paragraphs to revised laws, rather than current)
Exxon yet to inspect Afghanistan's biggest oil project: minister
By Rob Taylor and Hamid Shalizi Sun Sep 30, 2012 8:24am EDT
KABUL - (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's biggest non-state oil company, has not yet accepted an offer to look over a new Afghan oil concession in the country's north, possibly indicating a fading appetite to invest in the conflict-wracked country.
As Afghanistan's government finalizes new laws designed to attract more foreign mining investment, Mining Minister Wahidullah Shahrani told Reuters that Exxon had not turned up for a site tour which closes on Sunday, despite being shortlisted with eight other firms for the Afghan Tajik tender near Mazar-e-Sharif.
"Hopefully at some point they (Exxon) will visit the area. But that visit is not mandatory," Shahrani said in an interview late on Saturday in his Kabul office. A spokeswoman for U.S.-based Exxon said she could not immediately comment.
Exxon's July expression of interest in the Afghan Tajik basin, which holds an estimated 1.9 billion barrels of oil, lent credence to hopes that Kabul may be making progress in efforts to lessen its reliance on aid, through untapped resources worth as much as $1 trillion, despite an ongoing insurgency.
Shahrani said that with an October bid closure deadline looming, shortlisted companies had been invited to inspect the area and meet local community leaders, an offer which closes on September 30, and which would usually be accepted.
"Some companies, they have already visited, some companies are about to visit the area," he said. "Those companies, most of them are well established in the region."
Chinese and Indian companies are already scrambling to lock in access to Afghanistan's mineral wealth, most estimates of which date back to U.S. surveys carried out decades ago. The country has large deposits of gold, copper, iron ore and oil, as well as lithium and rare earths used in high-tech manufacturing.
Chinese firms are leading the race, with China Metallurgical Group (MCC) and Jiangxi Copper winning a 2007 deal to exploit the giant $3 billion Aynak copper mine southeast of the capital Kabul.
MAJOR INTEREST
Exxon's interest fuelled hopes that U.S.-based majors may also compete, despite worries over security and endemic graft, adding urgency to a push for new laws designed to make resource investment more attractive as foreign combat troops withdraw.
Shahrani's ministry will soon resubmit to President Hamid Karzai's cabinet mining laws that Afghan officials and Western donors hope will persuade foreign firms to invest in the country's resources, but which were rejected in July over concerns they were too generous to miners.
The re-draft, backed by Western donors and the World Bank, would remove a 2009 clause separating exploration from an automatic license to exploit finds, a law which led miners to question why they were spending their money on expensive and risky exploration if they could not be assured of profiting.
"It created a lot of discomfort among the potential mining companies and global investors," Shahrani said.
"We have made the provision that whoever gets the license for exploration through the tender, once they conduct the exploration, if they find a deposit to be commercially and economically viable, their exploration license will be automatically converted to an exploitation or production license."
Miners and Western diplomats have not managed to convince the government to include fixed royalty payments in the re-drafted law, though Shahrani admitted that some resources firms thought it lead to greater confidence in planning.
"In the new draft law, we have not mentioned that, and we will leave that to be determined in the bidding process," he said.
Instead, the overhaul would commit the government to more transparency by publishing contract details in local and international newspapers, as well as on its own website, to counter perceptions of graft in Afghanistan's notorious kleptocracy.
The draft laws, he said, should go to Karzai's cabinet in three to four weeks before a November vote in the fractious parliament, where lawmakers have in recent months been testing their muscle with Karzai, sacking key security ministers.
Some political analysts have also speculated that Shahrani's problems with the law's initial draft may have been linked to political rivalries over control of potential resource profits.
YEARS UNTIL PRODUCTION
Shahrani said he was optimistic opposition to the laws had faded in cabinet, and that parliament's influential economics and resource committees were also positive about the legislation, which was drafted with World Bank help.
"We have been interacting very closely with parliament's relative committees. I can see a significant degree of support on behalf of the members of those committees," he said.
Despite the risk of global commodity prices falling as a result of concerns about the strength of the Chinese economy and a global economic slowdown, Shahrani said he believed Afghanistan had not missed the peak of the resource boom.
Most projects in Afghanistan, he said, including bids for northeastern gold concessions in Badakhshan now being considered, would take years to reach production.
"If we do award the concessions tomorrow for iron ore and copper, usually it takes at least five to six years for these deposits to get developed," he said. "We hope that by then the demand for commodities will again increase."
(Additional reporting by Jessica Donati in KABUL; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
5 Are Dead After Clash Between U.S. and Afghan Troops
New York Times By ROD NORDLAND September 30, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Only two days after joint operations between American and Afghan forces were said to be returning to normal, five people — two Americans and three Afghans — were killed when a pitched battle broke out between soldiers of the two sides, American and Afghan officials said Sunday.
Afghan officials said that the clash on Saturday was a misunderstanding and that the Americans apparently attacked an Afghan National Army unit in error. A top coalition officer said the Americans were attacked first in what might possibly have been an insurgent attack. Nonetheless, he expressed regret for what ensued.
An initial statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, commonly referred to as ISAF, on Sunday described the episode as “a suspected insider attack,” which killed a foreign soldier and a civilian contractor. If so, that would bring to 53 the number of coalition forces killed in the so-called insider attacks this year.
Whatever happened, the episode clearly was another in a series of setbacks this year, and particularly in the last month, in relations between the American and Afghan militaries. It comes at a delicate moment, when all of the American surge reinforcements have only recently left the country, and NATO has been trying to transfer ever greater responsibility to a growing Afghan military.
Shahidullah Shahid, the spokesman for the governor in Wardak Province, where the fighting occurred, said the deaths came “after a clash ensued between two sides following a misunderstanding.” An Afghan official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to release details, said that a mortar shell had landed amid the American unit, killing a soldier and a civilian contractor and wounding several others. The Americans thought it came from a nearby Afghan National Army checkpoint on a hill overhead and attacked it with small arms and rockets, killing three and wounding three of the seven soldiers there, the official said.
The Wardak provincial police chief, Abdul Qayoum Baqizoi, said the fight broke out when an Afghan soldier among seven soldiers at the checkpoint opened fire on the Americans; in the ensuing gun battle, three Afghan soldiers were killed, including the one who fired first. “We still don’t have a clear picture of what happened,” Mr. Baqizoi said. He quoted the lone Afghan soldier who was unhurt as saying, “ ‘I heard some noise and verbal argument and suddenly heard the shooting and then one of the coalition soldiers threw a hand grenade so I fled from the check post and hid myself behind our Humvee.’ ”
Significantly, according to Afghan officials, the American unit, which was relatively small in size and manning a temporary checkpoint in the Saidabad district, was not partnered with Afghan forces. The unit was conducting a biometric survey, in which details like fingerprints and eye scans are gathered from the local population, often at temporary checkpoints, in an effort to screen for insurgents.
Normally such operations would consist of American and Afghan forces working together, but in recent weeks the American military has issued orders that all joint operations with units smaller than a battalion — 400 to 800 soldiers — need to be approved in advance by a general commanding one of the six military regions in Afghanistan. Most joint operations take place at small unit levels.
At a hastily convened news conference on Sunday, the deputy ISAF commander, Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, read a brief statement that did little to clarify what happened between the ISAF and Afghan National Army, or ANA, soldiers. “What was initially reported to have been a suspected insider attack is now understood to possibly have involved insurgent fire,” General Bradshaw said. “After a short conversation took place between ANA and ISAF personnel, firing occurred, which resulted in the fatal wounding of an ISAF soldier and the death of his civilian colleague. In an ensuing exchange of fire three ANA personnel are reported to have died.”
He added, “We deeply regret the loss of life in this tragic incident.”
Asked if the restrictions on joint patrolling were a factor in Saturday’s clash, General Bradshaw did not respond to the question, saying instead that the restrictions were not a change in strategy but were prompted by increased caution about the reaction in a Muslim country to the incendiary video recently posted on YouTube that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad.
Insider attacks this year have increased greatly compared with 2011, when there were 35 over 12 months, arousing concern in the coalition, as well as in Western capitals. French forces announced that they were leaving by the end of next year, a year earlier than originally planned, after losing four of their soldiers in an insider attack in January.
In addition to restricting joint patrols by small units, the military has also required its forces to wear body armor and carry loaded weapons whenever they are in the presence of Afghan forces. And early in September training activities between Special Operations troops and new Afghan local police recruits were suspended because of several insider attacks involving the militia forces.
While those restrictions remain in force, Pentagon officials on Thursday said that joint operations among smaller units were returning to normal levels because of expedited approvals by higher commanders.
Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.
Ten lessons the U.S. should learn from Afghanistan's history
By William Byrd Monday, October 1, 2012 FOREIGN POLICY
Afghanistan provides all too many examples of the wisdom of Winston Churchill's saying "those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." Great Britain forgot the hard-learned lessons from the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42) and got caught in the misadventure of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80). The Afghan Communist government that took power in a military coup in 1978 did not appear to have learned from the failed westernization and reform experiment of King Amanullah (1919-29); it imposed radical changes and engaged in brutal repression, quickly stirring up a violent reaction that threatened the new regime. The Soviet Union optimistically viewed its military intervention in Afghanistan at the end of 1979 as a limited action with a short time horizon-assumptions that proved unfounded and whose lack of realism would have been apparent from a review of Afghan history. And it does not seem that the United States and its NATO allies reflected on lessons from the Soviet occupation when they initiated the international military intervention in Afghanistan after 9/11, even though, as Bruce Riedel noted: "A country rarely fights the same war twice in one generation, especially from opposite sides. Yet that in many ways describes the U.S. role in Afghanistan today."
Afghanistan and its international partners now face a challenging process of international military drawdown and transition-in security, political, financial, and economic spheres. What can be learned from Afghanistan's history to inform and help guide this process? A recent paper outlines parallels and contrasts between past and present, and distills some historical themes and lessons that may be relevant for the current transition and beyond. It focuses on the change of Soviet strategy and its military withdrawal from Afghanistan (1986-89) and the subsequent Soviet-backed Najibullah regime (1989-92). Of course, any lessons from history must be applied cautiously, in full cognizance of the current situation and major differences from the past. Nevertheless, findings of the paper do shed light on themes and lessons from Afghanistan's history that could inform current transition planning and the path ahead.
First, it is necessary to clear up some myths and misconceptions. Afghanistan is a geographically well-defined country, whose borders were formed during a long period of conflicts and resistance against outside powers, most notably the British and Russian Empires. Dating from 1747, the country has a far longer history as a distinct national entity with continuity to the present than most of its neighbors-such as Pakistan, created in 1947 with artificially demarcated borders in two separate parts, or the central Asian states to the north formed after the break-up of the USSR at the end of 1991. Unlike some of its neighbors, Afghanistan has never had a significant secessionist movement. And the 1933-73 period shows that the country can be stable and effectively governed. The Afghan monarchial state did not penetrate deeply into the countryside, nor was it very successful developmentally, but it did keep the peace and maintain order, was perceived as legitimate internally and externally, maintained reasonable control over its borders, exercised independent diplomacy in a difficult region, and limited and monitored the activities of foreigners within the country-basic state functions which subsequent Afghan governments have struggled to fulfill.
Second, expectations about the pace of progress need to be kept modest. Whether domestically or externally driven, overly ambitious reform efforts with unrealistically short timeframes-particularly those disturbing established power relations in rural areas and affecting religion, culture, and the role of women-have led to sharp domestic reactions that set back development, sometimes for decades.
Third, the possibility of Afghanistan's neighbors playing "spoiler" roles and of regional rivalries undermining transition is very real. Historical experience and the current situation in Pakistan indicate that there may be a need to plan around, or at a minimum for contingency planning, with respect to Pakistan for example preventing a meaningful peace agreement with the Taliban. Iran and to a lesser extent other regional countries may also raise issues for the transition. More generally, the Soviet withdrawal period shows both the difficulties in reaching a peaceful solution to a conflict during military withdrawal, and the adverse consequences of failure to do so.
Fourth, Afghanistan's history has been characterized by chronic succession problems and associated conflict. Indeed not since 1933, and only three times since 1747, was there a smooth succession from one ruler to the next. Of the eight leaders of Afghanistan during 1973-2001, all but one died violent deaths or were ousted/exiled from power. Thus history highlights the challenges associated with the 2014 political transition and underlines the need for effective election preparations and a political strategy to maximize the prospects for smooth elections. If successful and not followed by post-election violence, the next Presidential election would comprise an unprecedented peaceful transfer of government leadership in Afghanistan's recent history.
Fifth, the post-Soviet withdrawal period shows the potential and limitations of Afghan security forces: holding onto Kabul and other large cities is probably the most that can be hoped for. Indeed, more risks may be associated with the Afghan National Army during and after the current transition given greater ethnic factionalization; parts of the ANA could fragment or desert earlier rather than later, whereas the post-Soviet Afghan army held together reasonably well until near the end.
Sixth, the Soviet and post-Soviet experience with arming and paying militias suggests that this approach is fraught with danger, risking instability given dependence on payments to militia leaders and exacerbating grievances and drivers of conflict due to predatory behavior of many militias. A "political marketplace" as seen in some African countries, where factionalized and short-term patronage is used for political and security management to hold together different ethnic groups and regional interests, and where deals reached can be-and frequently are-re-opened including through violence, is unstable and does not provide a good foundation for successful transition or sustained political progress.
Seventh, effective Afghan leadership, pursuing a national agenda, has been critical for achieving positive outcomes in times of change and transition in Afghanistan, including foreign military withdrawals. International experience also underlines the importance of effective national leadership during transitions, as emphasized in the 2011 World Development Report Conflict, Security, and Development.
Eighth, Afghanistan during most of its history has depended on outside financial support in various forms, and the current transition and following period will be no exception. While aid certainly can and should decline from the extraordinarily high levels seen in recent years, abruptly stopping or suddenly cutting back support would be a recipe for disaster, as occurred most notably in 1991-92 when the Soviet Union in its final days stopped all support to the Najibullah regime and it quickly collapsed.
Ninth, the Afghan economy currently is in much better shape than during the Soviet and post-Soviet period, having seen recovery and rapid growth over the past decade in contrast to the widespread destruction of infrastructure and the rural economic base and massive displacement of population during the 1980s and early 1990s. In coming years the destabilizing effects of a deep economic contraction must be avoided, which will depend on maintaining political stability, avoiding deterioration in security, and building confidence, as well as gradual rather than abrupt declines in international aid.
Finally, it is also important not to overlearn some apparent lessons from history. For example, Afghanistan's problematic experience over the past five decades with divisive, ideologically and ethnically driven political parties has made political parties in general an anathema to many Afghans. But effective political parties are an essential ingredient in successful democracies around the world, and a signal failure of the post-2001 period has been that more nationally oriented political parties have not emerged and developed.
In conclusion, some lessons from Afghanistan's turbulent history constitute warnings and cautionary themes about what can go wrong. This reflects the reality of the country's history, and both Afghans and international partners should move forward with eyes open so problems and risks can be managed better and mitigated to the extent possible. Certainly Afghanistan, the region, and the world cannot afford a repeat of the disastrous history of the 1990s-a worst-case outcome whose ramifications and damaging effects continue to be felt to this day. All parties must make strong efforts to ensure that such a repetition of history is avoided.
William Byrd is a visiting senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace. The views expressed here are his own.
Afghanistan's Development of 'Utmost Importance': Tajikistan
TOLOnews.com By Mir Aqa Sunday, 30 September 2012
Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarif on Saturday said that Afghanistan's economic rehabilitation was of "utmost importance" not only to the region but to the world.
Zarif called on the international community in his address to the United Nations 67th General Assembly in New York to give exclusive importance to helping Afghanistan develop.
"Within the context of the withdrawal of the Isaf from Afghanistan, the country will require an exclusive importance not only for the region but for the entire world," Zarifi said.
"For this reason, international assistance rendered to Afghanistan should be aimed, first and foremost, at its utmost economic rehabilitation, further strengthening of its social sphere, job creation, etcetera. In this regard, the realization of projects on construction of railways, motorways, power transmission lines, gas pipelines, etcetera that connect Afghanistan with Tajikistan and other countries of the region is of utmost importance."
He also urged the creation of an international strategy for drug control.
"One of the important areas that demand cooperative efforts on the part of the international community is the prevention of illicit drug trafficking. It is essential that the international community unite in measures aimed at reducing both the demand and the supply of drugs, and integrate efforts undertaken at the national level into the international strategy for drug control," the Minister said.
Afghanistan and Tajikistan share more than 1300km of national border, separated by the Pyandzh River (known as Amu Darya)
Fearing the infiltration of Afghan insurgents, Tajikistan has closed the land-crossings on its side to Afghanistan, only allowing Nato supply trucks to cross over.
Russian has nearly 6,000 troops stationed in Tajikistan, a move regarded as a buffer against any threat of Islamist violence spilling across the border after Nato-led forces leave Afghanistan.
Tajikistan is one of the poorest of 15 former Soviet republics.
Taliban supported openly in Afghanistan
GlobalPost.com By Chris Sands Sep 30, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Mawlawi Ataullah Faizani took time out from teaching Islamic studies at a girls’ school in Kabul to explain why Afghans have a duty to resist the occupation of their country.
He quoted sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, spoke of foreign troops humiliating civilians, and ridiculed the corruption that runs through the heart of the government.
“This anarchy has been created by the West,” he told GlobalPost. “The West is never happy to let Muslims be united.”
Faizani’s views are common among members of the powerful religious establishment here. Clerics and scholars now openly sympathize with the Taliban and question much of what NATO claims to have achieved.
Far from being radical, their message is part of a mainstream demand for the creation of an independent state that would impose corporal punishment, stricter dress codes for women and greater censorship of the media.
Their complaints about life in Afghanistan post-2001 inevitably begin with the presence of foreign troops. The occupation, they believe, has actively encouraged a litany of personal and political ills in an effort to weaken the bedrock of society: Islam.
The sheer depth of this anger and suspicion was evident in February, when Qurans were set on fire at a US military base. NATO issued an immediate apology but nationwide protests erupted regardless.
The anger has since been seen in demonstrations over an anti-Islam video released on YouTube, and in a number of incidents involving Afghan security forces deliberately shooting their foreign counterparts, suggesting that tensions between two very different cultures may be near a breaking point.
When he is not teaching at a girls’ school, Faizani is an imam at a mosque in Kabul. He said that non-Muslims who are guests in an Islamic society have the same rights as Muslims.
But he added that this rule does not apply to soldiers, who he insisted are a legitimate target for attacks, including suicide bombings. “People cannot just sit down with their hands under their beards, they should react,” he said.
Away from the battlefield, clerics feel a more insidious fight is being waged against their religion. They believe this can be witnessed in the government corruption and empowerment of warlords that have become a feature of life since the US-led invasion.
More mundane issues are also of concern. The media has flourished during the last decade and private TV channels that did not exist under the Taliban regime are now broadcasting music concerts, dramas and Indian films.
In cities, meanwhile, young women often wear American or European-style clothing with their compulsory Islamic headscarves.
Members of the religious establishment claim these seemingly innocuous developments — along with the illicit sale of alcohol, drugs and prostitution — have contributed to the deteriorating security situation by encouraging immoral behavior.
“There is a difference between Islamic freedom and Western freedom,” said Abdul Zaher Dayee, a professor in the Sharia Law faculty at Kabul University.
For him the relaxation of social conventions, the actions of foreign troops and the pervasive administrative corruption have combined to create an environment where the Taliban are able to gain support.
“There is no democracy and no Islam, there is a kind of anarchy: people are looting land and houses, they are raping. No law exists, ” he said.
Although the Afghan government has occasionally executed prisoners it accuses of serious offenses, that is not enough for men like Dayee who claim President Hamid Karzai is a puppet of the United States.
Instead, they want systematic capital and corporal punishment to be introduced. In certain instances this would include thieves having a hand cut off — a practice commonly carried out in public under the Taliban regime.
“If the Americans truly leave and stop their interference we will set up an Islamic state,” Dayee said. “But if they continue to interfere and bankroll some people here then we will have to fight them.”
In an effort to curb dissent and possibly help bring insurgents to the negotiating table, the government has already shown signs of adopting a tougher stance on issues such as women’s rights and freedom of the press.
The Taliban have also been enforcing their own strict laws in places they control, further emphasizing that this conflict is not only about the presence of foreign troops.
For the rebels and the many officials and ordinary citizens who share similar views to them, the war will continue until Afghanistan is again ruled by a hardline regime adhering to an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam.
Mawlawi Abdul Salam Abed heads the department responsible for preparing the Islamic curriculum for all state run schools and madrassas. He told GlobalPost the current situation is unacceptable.
“You know and I know what the Taliban and the nation want, but when the government of Afghanistan is not implementing Sharia law it means the government does not have independence, it is in the hands of others,” he said.
“If there is even one percent of Islam you are not implementing, you are an infidel. It’s a total program.”
Baghlan Kidnappers Suspected of Rape, Murder Arrested
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 30 September 2012
Two kidnappers involved in the suspected murder of a 13-year-old boy and rape of a 13-year-old girl in northern Baghlan province were arrested by Afghan police Thursday, officials confirmed Sunday.
Security forces launched an operation to free the girl on Thursday after she was taken on Wednesday night at around 10:00PM, according to local sources.
The Afghan forces apprehended the two kidnappers in Seya Sang village of Baghlan's Khenjan district and also seized some weapons in the operation, provincial deputy police chief Sayed Rahmanuddin Husaini told TOLOnews Sunday.
"The girl was freed and we informed her family. Now she is at home. But she said that kidnappers have raped her," Husaini said, adding that the provincial doctors examined her and confirmed that she was raped.
Husaini said that the kidnappers were also suspected of killing a 13-year-old boy and investigations are underway, however he did not give any details of the circumstances of the boy's death.
The incident comes amid an apparent increase in news of violence against women in Afghanistan, including the mullah-led lashing of a 16-year-old girl in the Jaghorie district of eastern Ghazni province.
Afghan MPs have said that they will investigate the Ghazni lashing ordered by local mullahs as they are concerned about people delivering "justice" outside of the country's laws.
The secretariat of the parliament gave responsibility to the committee of justice and the committee of women's affairs to examine that incident.
Ghazni mullahs fined a young man 80,000 Afs and ordered the girl to be whipped for their so-called "illegal" relationship. It was not clear if there was abuse involved as officials declined at the time to discuss the matter, but the head of Ghazni's head of women's affairs Shukria Wali had expressed concern that the man was freely living in the district.
Afghans Hostage to Corruption
Everyone knows it’s undermining the country, but no one has a solution.
IWPR By Gulab Shah Bawer 29 Sep 12
Afghanistan - The mayor of Mazar-e Sharif was outlining how the Afghan authorities were tackling corruption, when an elderly man stopped him in his tracks.
"If you want to fight corruption, the greatest corruption exists in your own administration, the municipality,” said the man, Nek Baba. “You should reform yourself first."
The event was a “corruption awareness workshop”, held at the municipal offices in the north Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif with an invited audience of 300 local elders and dignitaries.
Nek Baba’s particular grievance was that land-plots were being handed out free of charge to the rich and powerful, instead of to people who needed them.
In response, Mayor Yunos Moqim acknowledged that Nek Baba was largely right. He accepted that corrupt practices took place in the city government, but promised that he was serious about rooting them out.
The encounter neatly encapsulates the problem with corruption in Afghanistan. Everyone agrees it exists. Everyone, including officials, says something needs to be done about it. But little tangible progress has been made in making the bureaucracy more honest over the last decade. Few are arrested, few are held accountable.
Residents of northern Afghanistan say they cannot get anything done without paying off some official.
"People have to pay bribes just to get what’s legally due to them. If they won’t pay up, they get harassed under a range of pretexts, their affairs don’t get processed, and obstacles are placed in their way," Mazar-e Sharif resident Gholam Sakhi said.
He should know. As community leader of Qarghan Kocha, a neighbourhood of Mazar-e Sharif, Gholam Sakhi has to cope with daily requests from residents to accompany them to local government offices and help sort out their affairs.
He explained how the system worked. "Every office has middlemen. When somebody goes to the office to get some paperwork processed, the staff hassle him so much that he’s forced to turn to the middlemen, who then do the processing for money."
He said district and other local-level leaders like himself had been issued with official seals and stamps which – in theory – should be recognised as proof of their status, but in reality officials ignore them.
"Corruption in government offices undermines our confidence in them,” he said. “The staff there don’t care about anyone or anything except money."
Afghans are frustrated by the impact that bribery and other corrupt practices has on their lives. But many feel powerless to fight back, saying there is little chance of change at day-to-day level unless the culture of impunity is reformed from the top down.
"If high-ranking officials weren’t involved in corruption, lower-level employees would never be corrupt," said a trader who rents a shop at the Balkh Bazaar in Mazar-e Sharif.
He described how he had to accept things as they were.
"Look, this document shows how we’ve been charged for six square metres of floorspace, while they’ve only given us three square metres,” he said. “These ground-floor shops are owned by a senior official in the [provincial] governor's office. How are we going to file a complaint against him? He has the prosecution, judiciary and police in his pockets. If we said anything, he’s got his own armed men who could kill us."
According to Wakil Matin, a social affairs expert in Balkh province, "The fundamental roots of administrative corruption lie in the capital, and they’ve spread into the provinces from there. If the president gets serious about it and launches a proper effort in the capital, it will take two days to eliminate administrative corruption in the provinces.”
President Hamid Karzai has in fact said he is serious about dealing with corruption on more than on occasion, most recently in a June speech clearly intended to reassure international donors, followed by a wide-ranging, 164-point decree setting out plans to improve governance and rule of law, combat corruption, and make the country more self-reliant. (See Karzai's Anti-Graft Call Gets Lukewarm Response.)
The head of the High Office for Oversight and Anti-Corruption, Azizullah Ludin, has made public allegations against two cabinet ministers, Ismail Khan and Hazrat Omar Zakhelwal, but so far both have robustly defended their positions.
In Herat, the western region of which Water and Energy Minister Ismail Khan was once governor and where the anti-corruption chief accuses him of misappropriating land, his supporters staged protests against Ludin.
Finance Minister Zakhelwal roundly rejects allegations that the large sums of money in his bank account are anything other than honest earnings. He told the BBC, “I have earned a million dollars over ten years. There are individuals in the system who earn one million in a day."
Ludin said he was also looking into the affairs of other officials, but it was too early to reveal details.
In Balkh province, counter-corruption chief Shamsullah Jawid, says he too is digging away at official malpractice.
He believes inadequate public-sector pay, the general atmosphere of impunity and lawlessness, poor levels of education, and a sense of despondency about Afghanistan’s future all contribute to dishonest practices.
"Not only in Balkh, in the entire northern zone, administrative corruption has proliferated to a level where people have completely lost faith in government," he said. "I have identified some corrupt individuals in the northern zone, and I will shortly be handing them over to the law."
At the same time, Jawid acknowledged that corruption was at its worst in the legal system itself.
He added, “Although I have received direct and indirect threats that I should stop, I am resolved to fight corruption fearlessly in my area of responsibility."
At the anti-graft meeting in Mazar-e Sharif, Nek Baba had little faith that the authorities had any intention of changing things.
"This gathering is an attempt to deceive people," he said. “For God's sake, do not pour salt on our wounds any more. Stop making fun of us. Halt this performance."
Golab Shah Bawar is a freelance journalist in Balkh.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com