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IG report critical of contractor work in Afghanistan, Army Corps of Engineers
Washington Post By Tony Capaccio October 26, 2012
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has freed DynCorp International, one of the largest U.S. contractors in Afghanistan, of responsibility for construction at an Afghan army garrison even though long-standing deficiencies remain, according to an inspector general’s report.
In a 2010 audit, Pentagon inspectors identified failings at the camp in northern Afghanistan that included “poor site grading” and “serious soil stability issues.” Inspectors returned in March to find “additional structural failures, improper grading and new sinkholes,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report issued Thursday.
DynCorp, which is owned by affiliates of New York-based Cerberus Capital Management, oversaw the construction at Camp Pamir in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province. The project was part of a U.S. effort to train and house the Afghan army, which is growing this year to 195,000 personnel.
“Despite the unsatisfactory performance of the contractor,” officials from the Army Corps’ District North region in Afghanistan “released DynCorp from further contractual liability,” John Sopko, the inspector general, wrote in the report. The company was paid $70.8 million under its contracts, “releasing it from any further liabilities and warranty obligations.”
“We absolutely disagree with several of the report’s conclusions concerning the causes for the issues experienced at this site,” Ashley Burke, a DynCorp spokeswoman, said Thursday in an e-mail. “Further, work was completed and this contract was closed out last year, so we are unable to comment on 2012 site conditions that may or may not exist today.”
DynCorp turned over responsibility for the site in 2011, and the current occupants have been accountable for maintenance and care of the facilities since then, Burke said.
Other contractors were doing additional construction and grading work by the time inspectors returned, she said. The company was still reviewing the report, which it didn’t see in advance of its release, Burke said.
Delays at the Kunduz complex hampered training, the special inspector general found in the April 2010 audit. Afghan troops had to be housed in temporary facilities that exposed them to mud, freezing conditions, sewage and unsafe food storage, auditors told Bloomberg News in June 2010.
The contract release, in the form of a December 2011 settlement, “appears to be on unfavorable terms to the U.S. government,” Sopko said.
Sopko called the settlement terms “questionable” with a “lack of adequate explanation” in a cover letter to Gen. James N. Mattis, head of the U.S. Central Command, and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander Gen. John R. Allen.
Col. John Hurley, deputy commander of the Corps of Engineers Transatlantic Division, said in a written statement included in the inspector general’s report that the organization “has initiated an in-depth review of the rationale for the settlement.”
“Many of the key players involved with the settlement are no longer in country and arrangements are being made to obtain and evaluate their rationale,” Hurley wrote. The Corps wants to complete the review by Nov. 9, he said.
Sopko wrote that the camp is “at risk of further structural failures, the construction contractor is not liable and further remediation to protect the initial investment” will require more funds that should be “justified and closely monitored.”
An example of the lingering deficiencies found in March was an electrical power transformer where inspectors found “a sinkhole developing and general structural settling,” according to Sopko’s report.
“Failure of the transformer would result in a loss of electrical power over a large portion of Camp Pamir, causing significant financial loss and increasing the risk of injury through fire and electrical shock,” he said.
— Bloomberg News
Suicide Bomber Kills Dozens of Worshipers in Afghanistan
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN and SANGAR RAHIMI October 26, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber struck in northern Afghanistan on Friday morning, killing at least 45 people, just as worshipers were emerging from a mosque to celebrate the first day of Id al-Adha, the most important Muslim holiday, officials said. It was one of several attacks in Afghanistan on Friday, and by far the most lethal.
The attack, in Maimana, the capital of Faryab Province, also wounded 60 people.
Among the dead were 25 members of the Afghan national security forces, including the commander of the Afghan National Civil Order Police for Faryab, the head of the police quick-reaction force and the chiefs of police for two districts of Maimana, said Naqibullah Faiq, a member of Parliament from Faryab.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack. “Those who are taking away the happiness of Muslims during the Id al-Adha days are the enemies of Islam, and you cannot call them human or Muslim,” he said in a statement.
Dr. Maroof Samar, a surgeon at a government hospital, said, “The hospital is overwhelmed by dead and wounded bodies; all off-duty doctors were called in.” Dr. Samar said he ran to the hospital from the mosque, where he was among the worshipers.
The province has become increasingly violent over the last year, and it now rivals Kunduz Province for the distinction of being the most troubled province in northern Afghanistan, Western diplomats say. Unlike southern Afghanistan, where the power struggles and attacks are among Pashtuns, the north has troubles tinged with ethnic bias. Ethnic Uzbeks make up a majority in Faryab, and there are smaller groups of ethnic Tajiks and Pashtuns.
A provincial reconstruction team run by Norwegians had been operating in Maimana, but the last of its members left in September, and most of the American military personnel deployed in the province have closed their outposts, local officials said.
Provincial officials who have been fighting the Taliban in Faryab were especially upset, because there had been hopes that recent battles with the insurgents had sapped their strength.
However, it appeared that the attack on Friday was in revenge for Taliban losses earlier in the week. On Wednesday, Afghan security forces fought a battle with Taliban militants in the Pashtun Kot District, killing the shadow governor — the man who ran the Taliban government in the province — and 24 of his men, said Abdul Sattar Bariz, the deputy provincial governor.
Dr. Samar, the surgeon, said: “Everyone was thinking that after their shadow governor was killed, they would not be able to survive anymore in Faryab. So this could be revenge for the shadow governor’s death.”
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, said he had not heard about the attack and requested details so he could check with Taliban fighters in the province. No group took responsibility for the attack.
The provincial council chairman, Rahmatullah Rais, a hard-line opponent of the Taliban, said: “No Muslim would target other Muslims at the mosque. This is not the work of a Muslim. Even an infidel won’t attack a Muslim in the holy days of Id al-Adha.”
The Id al-Adha services are among the most heavily attended, and worshipers frequently overflow from mosques. Larger mosques in Afghanistan are typically surrounded on three sides by courtyards to accommodate those who pray outside and listen to the sermon and prayers over loudspeakers.
Witnesses said the bomber on Friday approached the northern courtyard gate. He was wearing the uniform of an Afghan National Army soldier, several people said.
“The suicide bomber was young. He appeared to be a 15-year-old boy,” said Syed Abdul Sarwar, a witness. “The explosion was very heavy, and all those leaving the north gate at that time were killed, including some police.”
Doctors at the local hospital said four children were killed. Mr. Faiq, the member of Parliament, said: “The children’s dead bodies were still in the hospital. They were wearing their new clothing and clutching their toys in their hands or their pockets.”
It is traditional for parents to buy toys for their children for the holiday. “It would bring tears to anyone’s eyes,” he said.
In a separate episode in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban buried a bomb near the grave of a young man they had killed two weeks before because he worked for a member of the Afghan Parliament, said Gen. Zaman Mamozai, an Interior Ministry official who is a distant relative of the victim. When two of the young man’s nephews went to visit his grave for Id al-Adha, the bomb detonated, killing one boy and wounding the other, General Mamozai said.
Enayatullah Najafizada contributed reporting from Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, and Jawad Sukhanyar from Kabul.
World, Afghan Leaders Denounce Faryab Suicide Attack
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Saturday, 27 October 2012
The suicide attack in Afghanistan's northern Faryab province on Friday was widely condemned with world leaders pledging to do more to help Afghanistan have a stable future as Afghan political parties decried the failure of the government to prevent such events.
After President Hamid Karzai denounced the attack on Friday by saying that the perpertrators were neither Muslim nor human, the United Nations assistance mission in Afghanistan (Unama) followed with its statement against the bombing as well as leaders from the Europe and Afghan political leaders.
The suicide attack at Faryab's Eid Gah mosque in Maimana on the first day of Islam's Eid al-Adha celebration killed as many as 40 people and wounded around 50 more. It was the deadliest single incident in Afghanistan since the suicide attack at the Shura shrine in Kabul last December killed and wounded more than 180 people.
"This heinous attack at a mosque, killing and injuring Afghan civilians as they celebrated the Eid-ul-Adha religious festival has no justification and should be condemned by all in the strongest possible terms," said Unama's Special Representative for Afghanistan Ján Kubi on Friday in a statement.
Unama spokesperson in Kabul told TOLOnews on Saturday that the attack needed to investigated, reiterating Kubi statement.
"We condemn this barbaric attack. This is a cruel practice and its shows that we should make more effort to end violence in Afghanistan," Dr. Nilab Mubarez said, adding that the insurgents are stopping progress towards a better future.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore also condemned Friday's attack in a joint news conference, describing it as cruel.
"It shows us again that we have to do everything to stop the forces of intolerance and violence and make sure that they can't prevent Afghanistan from having a peaceful and better future," Westerwelle said at the news conference in Berlin.
Gilmore opened his comments at the conference with an expression of sympathy for the Afghans affected by the attack.
"I want to begin by joining with you in expressing sympathy with the families and the people who suffered in this morning," he said.
Meanwhile, the Afghan political parties joined in condemning the attack, saying it went against Islam and natural human law, but also put some blame on the country's intelligence department.
"The condemnation of the attack doesn't help the Afghan families who lost the members of their family. The Afghan intelligence departments need to find a solution to stop such attacks," said deputy leader Rights and Justice Part Moean Mrstyal to TOLOnews on Saturday.
A spokesman for the National Coalition Party Sayed Aqa Fazl Sancaharki said: "More than a hundred families have become victims and President Karzai has again called Taliban brothers, asking them to join in the peace process."
No group including the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Afghan National Front Party said that the Taliban does not believe in peace and has blatantly targeted the civilians.
"The Taliban does not believe in peace, they don't care for the good of the people, they are harsh, they don't believe in the religious ceremonies," a spokesman for the National Front Party Ali Amiri said Saturday.
"And the Afghan government has opted to bring them into the peace process but it is only time consuming. We are losing time and options – nothing more," he added.
On Friday, Minister of Interior Mujtaba Patang took a delegation to Faryab to investigate, while the Minister of Health and Public Works Syria Dalil went with a medical team to help in the treatment of the victims.
"We come to the province to provide good treatment to the victims and to ensure good health services," Dalil said.
New Pakistan outreach could aid Afghan peace deal
Associated Press By SEBASTIAN ABBOT and HEIDI VOGT Oct 27, 2012
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has increased efforts to reach out to some of its biggest enemies in Afghanistan, a significant policy shift that could prove crucial to U.S.-backed efforts to strike a peace deal in the neighboring country.
The target of the diplomatic push has mainly been non-Pashtun political leaders who have been at odds with Pakistan for years because of the country's historical support for the Afghan Taliban, a Pashtun movement.
Many of the leaders fought against the Taliban when the fundamentalist Islamic group seized control of Afghanistan in the 1990s with Pakistan's help, and have accused Islamabad of maintaining support for the insurgents following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 - allegations denied by the government.
Many experts agree that Pakistan continues to see the Taliban as an ally, albeit a shaky one, in countering the influence of archenemy India in Afghanistan. But they also say Islamabad no longer believes the insurgents can take over the country or wants them to, a common misperception in the West.
"A Taliban victory on the other side of the border would give a huge boost to domestic militants fighting the Pakistani state," said Zahid Hussain, a journalist who has written extensively about Islamabad's war against the Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan is also worried that unrest in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of most foreign troops in 2014 could provide the Pakistani Taliban with greater space to establish sanctuaries across the border.
The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have focused on different enemies. The Afghan Taliban have battled local and foreign forces in Afghanistan, while the Pakistani Taliban have mainly waged war against Islamabad.
Pakistan's concerns have led it to conclude that a peace agreement that includes all Afghan groups is in its best interests, and contact with its traditional foes among the non-Pashtuns is necessary to achieve that goal, said Moeed Yusuf, South Asia adviser for the United States Institute of Peace.
"I think the fundamental point here is that there is a serious realization among some people who matter in Pakistan that they can't continue to put all their eggs in the Taliban basket because it is too shaky," said Yusuf. "This is a major shift, and a shift that I think everybody should welcome."
The outreach comes as Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. have stepped up efforts to breathe new life into the Taliban peace process, which has been hamstrung by distrust among all the parties involved.
The U.S. and Pakistan recently set up working groups to identify which Taliban leaders would be open to reconciliation and to ensure those holed up on Pakistani territory would be able to travel to the site of talks. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been in discussions to revive a joint commission set up to discuss the peace process.
Pakistan is seen as key to a peace deal because of its ties with the Taliban, and there is hope that Islamabad's increased engagement with non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan will facilitate the process.
"I think one of Pakistan's realizations is that if you want to play a bigger role to reconcile all these groups, you need to reach out to every group," said Rahimullah Yousufzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban. "They will be pushing the Taliban to share power with all these people, but it won't be easy because the Taliban aren't known to share power and the U.S. doesn't want to give them a major share."
Islamabad's historical support for the Taliban and other Pashtuns in Afghanistan, who make up about 40 percent of the population of 30 million, is partly rooted in the sizable number of Pashtuns who live in Pakistan. The ethnic group has always been seen as the best bet for furthering Pakistan's interests in the country.
Pakistan first advertised its overtures to non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan in February when Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar met with a range of ethnic Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara leaders during a visit to Kabul. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf followed suit in July when he traveled to Afghanistan and invited the group to the opening of the new Pakistani Embassy in Kabul.
There have also been less publicized contacts by Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul, Mohammad Sadiq, and the country's army and intelligence service, according to Pakistani and Afghan officials.
Khar said the policy shift had been in the works for a while but was like a steering a large ship in a new direction.
"You're not able to do it immediately," said the foreign minister.
Pakistan's powerful army is the true arbiter of the country's Afghan policy, but experts expressed doubt that the Foreign Ministry would have pushed ahead without the support of the generals, who have historically had the closest relationship to the Taliban.
One key Afghan leader who has met with the Pakistanis, Abdullah Abdullah, said he appreciated the country's recent attempt to reach out because it was done publicly. The influential politician, who was runner-up to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 election, said Pakistani intelligence officials contacted him in previous years, but he refused to speak with them because he did not believe communication should be carried out in secret.
"I see a lot of good in reaching out, in engagement, in dialogue," said Abdullah, who is half Pashtun but draws much of his support from the Tajik community.
The outreach has rattled the Taliban, who have warned Pakistani officials that they can't trust the non-Pashtuns, Yousufzai said.
Pakistan will have to overcome significant distrust among the non-Pashtuns. The government has old ties to some of the leaders, who worked with Pakistan in the 1980s to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan, but Islamabad's subsequent support for the Taliban created a huge amount of bad blood.
Despite that, the Pakistanis are hopeful.
"The Pakistani side's view of Afghan negotiations is that you kill on one day and kiss on the next, so while this will be very tough, they think that it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that they may actually get somewhere," said Yusuf, the South Asia analyst.
----
Vogt reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.
Afghanistan may never be 'viable state' warn MPs
25 October 2012 BBC News
The UK might have to recognise that creating a viable state in Afghanistan is not achievable, an influential group of MPs has said.
The Commons international development committee said the UK should reconsider its ambition of building Afghan government institutions in favour of more traditional aid targets.
These especially included improving the lives of Afghan women, the MPs said.
Ministers said much had been achieved but "massive challenges" remained.
The report said it was vitally important not to abandon the people of Afghanistan - especially the country's women - after UK troops end their combat role in the country at the end of 2014.
After this point the country's future was uncertain and the Department for International Development (DfID) needed to be flexible in its approach, the MPs said - this should involve moving its focus away from building a viable state to more traditional aid projects. 'Litmus test'
In a debate on the report in Parliament, committee chairman, Lib Dem MP Sir Malcolm Bruce said: "Of course the committee would wish to see, in due course, that Afghanistan can function as a normal state and certainly not a rogue state.
"But we have some degree of scepticism whether a British government fund of £178m a year can in itself really achieve a viable state.
"The danger is if that becomes the overriding focus it may be at the expense of delivering material, practical progress in terms of livelihoods, the rights of women, health and education."
Sir Malcolm said that while DfID would not be able to maintain a base in Helmand province when UK troops withdraw, aid projects must continue through local partners.
International development minister Alan Duncan told MPs that "nobody is yet suggesting" that Afghanistan was a fully functional state.
But he said UK efforts had made "a big difference" to a lot of people by helping to improve basic services and support economic growth.
"Our commitment to this desperately poor country will continue for many years to come," he added.
The MPs' report also expressed concerns that talk about women's rights in the country had not been followed by "practical action".
Women in Afghanistan had made gains since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, the cross-party committee said, but they continued to face "enormous disadvantages".
On a recent fact-finding trip, the MPs were concerned the situation for women appeared "to have deteriorated in some respects since our last visit in 2007". 'Big difference'
The committee urged the government to do more "to combat violence against women through support for women's shelters and legal services" and to ensure education for women and girls was a major focus.
It said the treatment of women after troops left would be the "litmus test" of whether the UK had improved the lives of Afghans.
Mr Duncan welcomed the committee's recommendations on women's rights.
He said: "We completely agree that our focus should be on the position of women and girls and this will remain a key focus of our development work in Afghanistan."
For Labour, international development spokeswoman Rushanara Ali said human rights and female empowerment should be much more central to the aid agenda and the goals of economic development and poverty eradication were "too narrow".
The charity Oxfam said international aid had meant a record number of boys and girls now went to school in Afghanistan.
But it added: "Huge challenges of extreme poverty, the position of women and corruption remain.
"The hard-won gains of recent years need to be secured and aid needs to target the most vulnerable, boost the position of women and support local initiatives to hold Afghanistan's authorities to account."
British Ministers: Women's Rights Key to Stable Afghanistan
Voice of America Selah Hennessy October 26, 2012
LONDON - British ministers say the development program in Afghanistan is failing to protect the rights of Afghan women. A new government report says Britain should reconsider its ambition of building Afghan government institutions and instead focus on more traditional aid targets, especially women's rights.
British parliamentarian Malcolm Bruce chaired a new study advising Britain's Department for International Development on its program in Afghanistan. Bruce says Britain is not doing enough to make sure women's rights are protected.
"They have benefited a lot from the end of the Taliban and from the period if you like of international engagement," said Bruce. "Many of them are really concerned that the gains could be lost and there is certainly evidence that it is being pushed back."
Of nearly 100 projects funded by Britain in Afghanistan, Bruce says only two of those are directly or explicitly focused on women.
In some regions of Afghanistan women's rights have improved since the Taliban fell over a decade ago.
3.2 million girls are now studying, that's a concrete improvement following the ban on female education under Taliban rule in the 1990s.
But Afghanistan is still considered one of the worst countries for women to live and progress has not come without sacrifices.
The United Nations says in 2011 there were at least 185 attacks on schools and hospitals in Afghanistan, the majority in opposition to girls' education.
In its report the International Development Select Committee said Britain is wasting its roughly $300 million annual budget for Afghanistan.
Bruce says too much is spent on bolstering the Afghan government, money he thinks could be better spent elsewhere.
"Whilst a lot has been achieved and it would be wrong to underestimate that, building a viable state has not happened and is not really going to happen any time soon and yet that is supposedly the British government mission," said Bruce. "So I think our view was rather than focus exclusively on that you really should concentrate on the things that you can achieve recognizing you may have to be fleet of foot and very flexible as the situation changes on the ground."
Bruce says when international combat forces leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the British government should work alongside local non-governmental organizations to support the most vulnerable.
In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Department for International Development said it is committed to effective development work that alleviates poverty and that women's rights should be at the heart of its work in Afghanistan.
The department said it has helped get millions of girls into school.
Gareth Price is an expert on Afghanistan at the London-based research group Chatham House. He says Britain's aim of bolstering the Afghan government is a good one, despite the challenges.
"Building up the Afghan state has to be a priority," said Price. "You want to build up the state system, not leave it to NGOs [non-governmental organizations] who will be very vulnerable in the event of things taking a downturn after 2014."
Strengthening the state, he says, is the best way to fortify education and women's rights.
China ratifies border agreement with Tajikistan, Afghanistan
Xinhua 26-10-2012
BEIJING - The China-Tajikistan-Afghanistan agreement on the definition of the tri-junction point for national boundaries was ratified on Friday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.
The agreement is based on relevant border pacts with Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and it was reached through negotiations among the three nations, said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who was entrusted by the State Council to explain the agreement to the NPC Standing Committee.
"The ratification of the agreement is of great significance to maintain peace along the border areas, and will further promote friendship among the three countries," he said.
In 2010, China held border negotiations and signed a draft agreement with Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
In June 2012, the foreign ministers from the three countries signed the agreement in Beijing.
Kunar Wants Better Weapons to Respond to Shelling
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Saturday, 27 October 2012
The governor of Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province said that the continued shelling of districts close to the Pakistani border require a response, but the Afghan security forces are too poorly equipped.
Governor Fazlullah Wahidi has raised the matter of an ongoing cross-border shelling from Pakistan for almost two years, without much attention given to it by Kabul until recent months.
However, Wahidi stepped up his warnings of worsening security on Saturday and is now calling for the Afghan security forces to be better armed to retaliate to the attacks.
"We have a complete security force, but we don't have the improved weapons to react back," he told TOLOnews, adding that the shellings pose a major threat for the province.
"We have control in the districts and there is security to some extent – schools are open – but insecurity is increasing because of the shelling attacks from outside, and still the foreign security forces are not cooperating with us to solve it," he said.
Wahidi urged those countries which have signed the strategic long term deals with Afghanistan to take action and protect the provinces or the Afghan people will lose their trust in such agreements.
Kunar province is where the Pakistan government claimed this week that Mullah Fazlullah – an insurgent leader suspected of ordering the shooting of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai – is living.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khan last weekend asked for US help to get Mullah Fazlullah extradited back to Pakistan for his involvement in the shooting as well as directing numerous attacks against the Pakistani military.
Islamabad claimed to have shared its intelligence dossier on the Mullah with Kabul and Isaf, saying that he is located in the Kamadesh and Chapa Dara districts in the border provinces of Nuristan and Kunar.
However, the Karzai government responded with outright denial that the Mullah is in Afghanistan, choosing instead to make the point that because Pakistan has not dealt with the insurgent networks in its tribal north-west or handed over Afghan Taliban leaders as requested in the past, it too would not move against Fazlullah.
"There are terrorists living on the Pakistani soil for many, many years and no action has been taken against them", Afghan Interior Ministry Sediq Sediqi said Wednesday.
The Afghan government has paid more attention to the cross-border shelling in recent months, most notably after the lawmakers sacked the country's defense and interior ministers in August over the lack of action on the matter.
When the new Interior Minister Mujtaba Patang was appointed in September, one of his first decisions was to say he will bulk up the police along the border.
Karzai Calls for Pakistan's Cooperation Amid Fazlullah Disagreement
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 27 October 2012
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday warned that without Pakistan's cooperation in fighting terrorism it will be impossible for the countries to be secure.
"We want for Afghanistan and Pakistan be secure from terrorism, but with Pakistan's honest cooperation, it's impossible," Karzai said after the Eid al-Adha prayers at the Presidential Palace on Friday.
Karzai made the comments after a tense week of the two countries arguing over the location of a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leader, Mullah Fazlullah, whom Pakistan says is responsible for giving the order to shoot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai as well as a number of attacks on its military.
Kabul has refused to accept Islamabad's claim that Fazlullah is in eastern Afghanistan, despite Pakistan sharing its intelligence dossier with both Isaf and Afghanistan on the grounds of wanting him extradited back to Pakistan.
"There are terrorists living on the Pakistani soil for many, many years and no action has been taken against them", the Afghan Ministry of Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqi said on Wednesday, suggesting that Afghanistan's refusal to act on the information while also denying Fazlullah's presence is a retaliatory move for Pakistan failing to shut down the Taliban and Haqqani networks in North Waziristan.
President Karzai on Friday also urged the Taliban and other insurgents groups to renounce violence and join in the peace process, days after the militant leader Mullah Mohammad Omar called on his followers to shun the peace process.
"Once again I ask for the Taliban to accept Afghanistan's constitution, to renounce violence and the destruction of schools and their country," Karzai said. Mullah Omar on Wednesday urged in his Eid message for his followers to continue to kill foreign soldiers until they leave the country, and said Afghanistan will not be at peace until the Taliban return to power.
Karzai also emphasised that the country would not face any security challenges after the 2014 drawdown of Nato-led combat troops from Afghanistan.
"I assure the people that Afghanistan will move towards stability and development after the 2014 withdrawal of international troops," he said.
There are concerns that the foreign troops withdrawal from Afghanistan will mean worse security, but the Afghan National Security Forces have already been handed official responsibility for 75 percent of the country, according to Nato and Afghan leaders.
The ANSF will take full security responsibility of the country by the end of 2014.
The Eid celebrations were marred on Friday by the massive suicide bombing of a mosque in northern Faryab province after the special morning prayers.
As many as 40 people were killed and up to 50 more were wounded in the suicide attack which has yet to be claimed by any militant and anti-government group.
On the same day there were three improvised explosive devices roadside blasts separately reported in the southern Helmand, eastern Laghman and western Herat provinces.
The blast in Helmand's capital Lashkar Gah killed one Afghan army soldier. The blast in Laghman's Alingar district killed one civilian and wounded two, while the blast in Herat's Atraskan district injured the district governor and one of his bodyguards.
Meanwhile in western Farah province, the chief of the National Directorate of Security survived an assassination attempt when a gunman shot at him but failed to hit him. The gunman has since been arrested.
And from eastern Ghazni province's Andar district there were reports that militants stopped a bus on the road headed to Kandahar and pulled five occupants off the vehicle before shooting them on the spot. The bodies were recovered on Saturday, the Associated Press said. None of the shooters were apprehended and the motive or reasons for the shooting are yet to be determined.
Andar is the district where it was first reported in June that Afghan residents had taken up arms against the local Taliban insurgents to drive them out of their region.
Kabul Cards: there's life beyond Taliban
Hindustan Times By Shalvi Mangaokar October 26, 2012
Mumbai - Afghanistan is usually associated with suicide bombers and large-scale violence. But in an attempt to showcase the multi-faceted civilian life largely ignored by the international media, three young women, Sahar Fetrat (16), Sadaf Fetrat (20) and Nargis Azaryun (19) carried hand-held cameras to document their daily life in Kabul and made a film, Kabul Cards, that was screened at the Mumbai Film festival.
“We want to explain to the world that Kabul, Afghanistan, is a very normal place to live in,” says Nargis. “All the things written and said about Afghanistan in the international media are about explosions and the Taliban. That’s not the whole reality. There’s a big civilian life over there and we feel that should be reflected too.” She adds, “Whenever we’ve spoken to any foreigner about Afghanistan, they say, ‘Oh, the terror place. The Taliban.’ All documentaries usually made in and about Afghanistan focus only on one issue — terrorism and women. But problems exist all over the world. Why can’t they show the happier side of Afghanistan? A coin has two sides.”
Saher adds that Afghanis have a very active and normal daily life. “With this film we want to show that there are people in Afghanistan who are fighting to reduce challenges and problems,” she says. “Street harassment of women is a big issue in Kabul, but there are organisations helping us.”
Says Sadaf, “It’s not bad living there. The international media is horrible about Afghanistan. People study there, there are universities and I don’t think we’ve missed out on anything. There’s a rich culture back home.”
It wasn’t as difficult as you might believe for three young women in Kabul to make a film and then travel abroad to promote it.
“Our parents aren’t educated, but they understand us and our initiative,” says Sadaf. “They’re glad we’re doing this.” Nargis adds, “My father is a doctor and my mother is a working woman. They encouraged me to pursue this dream.”
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Washington Post By Tony Capaccio October 26, 2012
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has freed DynCorp International, one of the largest U.S. contractors in Afghanistan, of responsibility for construction at an Afghan army garrison even though long-standing deficiencies remain, according to an inspector general’s report.
In a 2010 audit, Pentagon inspectors identified failings at the camp in northern Afghanistan that included “poor site grading” and “serious soil stability issues.” Inspectors returned in March to find “additional structural failures, improper grading and new sinkholes,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report issued Thursday.
DynCorp, which is owned by affiliates of New York-based Cerberus Capital Management, oversaw the construction at Camp Pamir in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province. The project was part of a U.S. effort to train and house the Afghan army, which is growing this year to 195,000 personnel.
“Despite the unsatisfactory performance of the contractor,” officials from the Army Corps’ District North region in Afghanistan “released DynCorp from further contractual liability,” John Sopko, the inspector general, wrote in the report. The company was paid $70.8 million under its contracts, “releasing it from any further liabilities and warranty obligations.”
“We absolutely disagree with several of the report’s conclusions concerning the causes for the issues experienced at this site,” Ashley Burke, a DynCorp spokeswoman, said Thursday in an e-mail. “Further, work was completed and this contract was closed out last year, so we are unable to comment on 2012 site conditions that may or may not exist today.”
DynCorp turned over responsibility for the site in 2011, and the current occupants have been accountable for maintenance and care of the facilities since then, Burke said.
Other contractors were doing additional construction and grading work by the time inspectors returned, she said. The company was still reviewing the report, which it didn’t see in advance of its release, Burke said.
Delays at the Kunduz complex hampered training, the special inspector general found in the April 2010 audit. Afghan troops had to be housed in temporary facilities that exposed them to mud, freezing conditions, sewage and unsafe food storage, auditors told Bloomberg News in June 2010.
The contract release, in the form of a December 2011 settlement, “appears to be on unfavorable terms to the U.S. government,” Sopko said.
Sopko called the settlement terms “questionable” with a “lack of adequate explanation” in a cover letter to Gen. James N. Mattis, head of the U.S. Central Command, and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander Gen. John R. Allen.
Col. John Hurley, deputy commander of the Corps of Engineers Transatlantic Division, said in a written statement included in the inspector general’s report that the organization “has initiated an in-depth review of the rationale for the settlement.”
“Many of the key players involved with the settlement are no longer in country and arrangements are being made to obtain and evaluate their rationale,” Hurley wrote. The Corps wants to complete the review by Nov. 9, he said.
Sopko wrote that the camp is “at risk of further structural failures, the construction contractor is not liable and further remediation to protect the initial investment” will require more funds that should be “justified and closely monitored.”
An example of the lingering deficiencies found in March was an electrical power transformer where inspectors found “a sinkhole developing and general structural settling,” according to Sopko’s report.
“Failure of the transformer would result in a loss of electrical power over a large portion of Camp Pamir, causing significant financial loss and increasing the risk of injury through fire and electrical shock,” he said.
— Bloomberg News
Suicide Bomber Kills Dozens of Worshipers in Afghanistan
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN and SANGAR RAHIMI October 26, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber struck in northern Afghanistan on Friday morning, killing at least 45 people, just as worshipers were emerging from a mosque to celebrate the first day of Id al-Adha, the most important Muslim holiday, officials said. It was one of several attacks in Afghanistan on Friday, and by far the most lethal.
The attack, in Maimana, the capital of Faryab Province, also wounded 60 people.
Among the dead were 25 members of the Afghan national security forces, including the commander of the Afghan National Civil Order Police for Faryab, the head of the police quick-reaction force and the chiefs of police for two districts of Maimana, said Naqibullah Faiq, a member of Parliament from Faryab.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack. “Those who are taking away the happiness of Muslims during the Id al-Adha days are the enemies of Islam, and you cannot call them human or Muslim,” he said in a statement.
Dr. Maroof Samar, a surgeon at a government hospital, said, “The hospital is overwhelmed by dead and wounded bodies; all off-duty doctors were called in.” Dr. Samar said he ran to the hospital from the mosque, where he was among the worshipers.
The province has become increasingly violent over the last year, and it now rivals Kunduz Province for the distinction of being the most troubled province in northern Afghanistan, Western diplomats say. Unlike southern Afghanistan, where the power struggles and attacks are among Pashtuns, the north has troubles tinged with ethnic bias. Ethnic Uzbeks make up a majority in Faryab, and there are smaller groups of ethnic Tajiks and Pashtuns.
A provincial reconstruction team run by Norwegians had been operating in Maimana, but the last of its members left in September, and most of the American military personnel deployed in the province have closed their outposts, local officials said.
Provincial officials who have been fighting the Taliban in Faryab were especially upset, because there had been hopes that recent battles with the insurgents had sapped their strength.
However, it appeared that the attack on Friday was in revenge for Taliban losses earlier in the week. On Wednesday, Afghan security forces fought a battle with Taliban militants in the Pashtun Kot District, killing the shadow governor — the man who ran the Taliban government in the province — and 24 of his men, said Abdul Sattar Bariz, the deputy provincial governor.
Dr. Samar, the surgeon, said: “Everyone was thinking that after their shadow governor was killed, they would not be able to survive anymore in Faryab. So this could be revenge for the shadow governor’s death.”
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, said he had not heard about the attack and requested details so he could check with Taliban fighters in the province. No group took responsibility for the attack.
The provincial council chairman, Rahmatullah Rais, a hard-line opponent of the Taliban, said: “No Muslim would target other Muslims at the mosque. This is not the work of a Muslim. Even an infidel won’t attack a Muslim in the holy days of Id al-Adha.”
The Id al-Adha services are among the most heavily attended, and worshipers frequently overflow from mosques. Larger mosques in Afghanistan are typically surrounded on three sides by courtyards to accommodate those who pray outside and listen to the sermon and prayers over loudspeakers.
Witnesses said the bomber on Friday approached the northern courtyard gate. He was wearing the uniform of an Afghan National Army soldier, several people said.
“The suicide bomber was young. He appeared to be a 15-year-old boy,” said Syed Abdul Sarwar, a witness. “The explosion was very heavy, and all those leaving the north gate at that time were killed, including some police.”
Doctors at the local hospital said four children were killed. Mr. Faiq, the member of Parliament, said: “The children’s dead bodies were still in the hospital. They were wearing their new clothing and clutching their toys in their hands or their pockets.”
It is traditional for parents to buy toys for their children for the holiday. “It would bring tears to anyone’s eyes,” he said.
In a separate episode in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban buried a bomb near the grave of a young man they had killed two weeks before because he worked for a member of the Afghan Parliament, said Gen. Zaman Mamozai, an Interior Ministry official who is a distant relative of the victim. When two of the young man’s nephews went to visit his grave for Id al-Adha, the bomb detonated, killing one boy and wounding the other, General Mamozai said.
Enayatullah Najafizada contributed reporting from Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, and Jawad Sukhanyar from Kabul.
World, Afghan Leaders Denounce Faryab Suicide Attack
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Saturday, 27 October 2012
The suicide attack in Afghanistan's northern Faryab province on Friday was widely condemned with world leaders pledging to do more to help Afghanistan have a stable future as Afghan political parties decried the failure of the government to prevent such events.
After President Hamid Karzai denounced the attack on Friday by saying that the perpertrators were neither Muslim nor human, the United Nations assistance mission in Afghanistan (Unama) followed with its statement against the bombing as well as leaders from the Europe and Afghan political leaders.
The suicide attack at Faryab's Eid Gah mosque in Maimana on the first day of Islam's Eid al-Adha celebration killed as many as 40 people and wounded around 50 more. It was the deadliest single incident in Afghanistan since the suicide attack at the Shura shrine in Kabul last December killed and wounded more than 180 people.
"This heinous attack at a mosque, killing and injuring Afghan civilians as they celebrated the Eid-ul-Adha religious festival has no justification and should be condemned by all in the strongest possible terms," said Unama's Special Representative for Afghanistan Ján Kubi on Friday in a statement.
Unama spokesperson in Kabul told TOLOnews on Saturday that the attack needed to investigated, reiterating Kubi statement.
"We condemn this barbaric attack. This is a cruel practice and its shows that we should make more effort to end violence in Afghanistan," Dr. Nilab Mubarez said, adding that the insurgents are stopping progress towards a better future.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore also condemned Friday's attack in a joint news conference, describing it as cruel.
"It shows us again that we have to do everything to stop the forces of intolerance and violence and make sure that they can't prevent Afghanistan from having a peaceful and better future," Westerwelle said at the news conference in Berlin.
Gilmore opened his comments at the conference with an expression of sympathy for the Afghans affected by the attack.
"I want to begin by joining with you in expressing sympathy with the families and the people who suffered in this morning," he said.
Meanwhile, the Afghan political parties joined in condemning the attack, saying it went against Islam and natural human law, but also put some blame on the country's intelligence department.
"The condemnation of the attack doesn't help the Afghan families who lost the members of their family. The Afghan intelligence departments need to find a solution to stop such attacks," said deputy leader Rights and Justice Part Moean Mrstyal to TOLOnews on Saturday.
A spokesman for the National Coalition Party Sayed Aqa Fazl Sancaharki said: "More than a hundred families have become victims and President Karzai has again called Taliban brothers, asking them to join in the peace process."
No group including the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Afghan National Front Party said that the Taliban does not believe in peace and has blatantly targeted the civilians.
"The Taliban does not believe in peace, they don't care for the good of the people, they are harsh, they don't believe in the religious ceremonies," a spokesman for the National Front Party Ali Amiri said Saturday.
"And the Afghan government has opted to bring them into the peace process but it is only time consuming. We are losing time and options – nothing more," he added.
On Friday, Minister of Interior Mujtaba Patang took a delegation to Faryab to investigate, while the Minister of Health and Public Works Syria Dalil went with a medical team to help in the treatment of the victims.
"We come to the province to provide good treatment to the victims and to ensure good health services," Dalil said.
New Pakistan outreach could aid Afghan peace deal
Associated Press By SEBASTIAN ABBOT and HEIDI VOGT Oct 27, 2012
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has increased efforts to reach out to some of its biggest enemies in Afghanistan, a significant policy shift that could prove crucial to U.S.-backed efforts to strike a peace deal in the neighboring country.
The target of the diplomatic push has mainly been non-Pashtun political leaders who have been at odds with Pakistan for years because of the country's historical support for the Afghan Taliban, a Pashtun movement.
Many of the leaders fought against the Taliban when the fundamentalist Islamic group seized control of Afghanistan in the 1990s with Pakistan's help, and have accused Islamabad of maintaining support for the insurgents following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 - allegations denied by the government.
Many experts agree that Pakistan continues to see the Taliban as an ally, albeit a shaky one, in countering the influence of archenemy India in Afghanistan. But they also say Islamabad no longer believes the insurgents can take over the country or wants them to, a common misperception in the West.
"A Taliban victory on the other side of the border would give a huge boost to domestic militants fighting the Pakistani state," said Zahid Hussain, a journalist who has written extensively about Islamabad's war against the Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan is also worried that unrest in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of most foreign troops in 2014 could provide the Pakistani Taliban with greater space to establish sanctuaries across the border.
The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have focused on different enemies. The Afghan Taliban have battled local and foreign forces in Afghanistan, while the Pakistani Taliban have mainly waged war against Islamabad.
Pakistan's concerns have led it to conclude that a peace agreement that includes all Afghan groups is in its best interests, and contact with its traditional foes among the non-Pashtuns is necessary to achieve that goal, said Moeed Yusuf, South Asia adviser for the United States Institute of Peace.
"I think the fundamental point here is that there is a serious realization among some people who matter in Pakistan that they can't continue to put all their eggs in the Taliban basket because it is too shaky," said Yusuf. "This is a major shift, and a shift that I think everybody should welcome."
The outreach comes as Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. have stepped up efforts to breathe new life into the Taliban peace process, which has been hamstrung by distrust among all the parties involved.
The U.S. and Pakistan recently set up working groups to identify which Taliban leaders would be open to reconciliation and to ensure those holed up on Pakistani territory would be able to travel to the site of talks. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been in discussions to revive a joint commission set up to discuss the peace process.
Pakistan is seen as key to a peace deal because of its ties with the Taliban, and there is hope that Islamabad's increased engagement with non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan will facilitate the process.
"I think one of Pakistan's realizations is that if you want to play a bigger role to reconcile all these groups, you need to reach out to every group," said Rahimullah Yousufzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban. "They will be pushing the Taliban to share power with all these people, but it won't be easy because the Taliban aren't known to share power and the U.S. doesn't want to give them a major share."
Islamabad's historical support for the Taliban and other Pashtuns in Afghanistan, who make up about 40 percent of the population of 30 million, is partly rooted in the sizable number of Pashtuns who live in Pakistan. The ethnic group has always been seen as the best bet for furthering Pakistan's interests in the country.
Pakistan first advertised its overtures to non-Pashtuns in Afghanistan in February when Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar met with a range of ethnic Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara leaders during a visit to Kabul. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf followed suit in July when he traveled to Afghanistan and invited the group to the opening of the new Pakistani Embassy in Kabul.
There have also been less publicized contacts by Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul, Mohammad Sadiq, and the country's army and intelligence service, according to Pakistani and Afghan officials.
Khar said the policy shift had been in the works for a while but was like a steering a large ship in a new direction.
"You're not able to do it immediately," said the foreign minister.
Pakistan's powerful army is the true arbiter of the country's Afghan policy, but experts expressed doubt that the Foreign Ministry would have pushed ahead without the support of the generals, who have historically had the closest relationship to the Taliban.
One key Afghan leader who has met with the Pakistanis, Abdullah Abdullah, said he appreciated the country's recent attempt to reach out because it was done publicly. The influential politician, who was runner-up to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 election, said Pakistani intelligence officials contacted him in previous years, but he refused to speak with them because he did not believe communication should be carried out in secret.
"I see a lot of good in reaching out, in engagement, in dialogue," said Abdullah, who is half Pashtun but draws much of his support from the Tajik community.
The outreach has rattled the Taliban, who have warned Pakistani officials that they can't trust the non-Pashtuns, Yousufzai said.
Pakistan will have to overcome significant distrust among the non-Pashtuns. The government has old ties to some of the leaders, who worked with Pakistan in the 1980s to push the Soviets out of Afghanistan, but Islamabad's subsequent support for the Taliban created a huge amount of bad blood.
Despite that, the Pakistanis are hopeful.
"The Pakistani side's view of Afghan negotiations is that you kill on one day and kiss on the next, so while this will be very tough, they think that it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that they may actually get somewhere," said Yusuf, the South Asia analyst.
----
Vogt reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.
Afghanistan may never be 'viable state' warn MPs
25 October 2012 BBC News
The UK might have to recognise that creating a viable state in Afghanistan is not achievable, an influential group of MPs has said.
The Commons international development committee said the UK should reconsider its ambition of building Afghan government institutions in favour of more traditional aid targets.
These especially included improving the lives of Afghan women, the MPs said.
Ministers said much had been achieved but "massive challenges" remained.
The report said it was vitally important not to abandon the people of Afghanistan - especially the country's women - after UK troops end their combat role in the country at the end of 2014.
After this point the country's future was uncertain and the Department for International Development (DfID) needed to be flexible in its approach, the MPs said - this should involve moving its focus away from building a viable state to more traditional aid projects. 'Litmus test'
In a debate on the report in Parliament, committee chairman, Lib Dem MP Sir Malcolm Bruce said: "Of course the committee would wish to see, in due course, that Afghanistan can function as a normal state and certainly not a rogue state.
"But we have some degree of scepticism whether a British government fund of £178m a year can in itself really achieve a viable state.
"The danger is if that becomes the overriding focus it may be at the expense of delivering material, practical progress in terms of livelihoods, the rights of women, health and education."
Sir Malcolm said that while DfID would not be able to maintain a base in Helmand province when UK troops withdraw, aid projects must continue through local partners.
International development minister Alan Duncan told MPs that "nobody is yet suggesting" that Afghanistan was a fully functional state.
But he said UK efforts had made "a big difference" to a lot of people by helping to improve basic services and support economic growth.
"Our commitment to this desperately poor country will continue for many years to come," he added.
The MPs' report also expressed concerns that talk about women's rights in the country had not been followed by "practical action".
Women in Afghanistan had made gains since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, the cross-party committee said, but they continued to face "enormous disadvantages".
On a recent fact-finding trip, the MPs were concerned the situation for women appeared "to have deteriorated in some respects since our last visit in 2007". 'Big difference'
The committee urged the government to do more "to combat violence against women through support for women's shelters and legal services" and to ensure education for women and girls was a major focus.
It said the treatment of women after troops left would be the "litmus test" of whether the UK had improved the lives of Afghans.
Mr Duncan welcomed the committee's recommendations on women's rights.
He said: "We completely agree that our focus should be on the position of women and girls and this will remain a key focus of our development work in Afghanistan."
For Labour, international development spokeswoman Rushanara Ali said human rights and female empowerment should be much more central to the aid agenda and the goals of economic development and poverty eradication were "too narrow".
The charity Oxfam said international aid had meant a record number of boys and girls now went to school in Afghanistan.
But it added: "Huge challenges of extreme poverty, the position of women and corruption remain.
"The hard-won gains of recent years need to be secured and aid needs to target the most vulnerable, boost the position of women and support local initiatives to hold Afghanistan's authorities to account."
British Ministers: Women's Rights Key to Stable Afghanistan
Voice of America Selah Hennessy October 26, 2012
LONDON - British ministers say the development program in Afghanistan is failing to protect the rights of Afghan women. A new government report says Britain should reconsider its ambition of building Afghan government institutions and instead focus on more traditional aid targets, especially women's rights.
British parliamentarian Malcolm Bruce chaired a new study advising Britain's Department for International Development on its program in Afghanistan. Bruce says Britain is not doing enough to make sure women's rights are protected.
"They have benefited a lot from the end of the Taliban and from the period if you like of international engagement," said Bruce. "Many of them are really concerned that the gains could be lost and there is certainly evidence that it is being pushed back."
Of nearly 100 projects funded by Britain in Afghanistan, Bruce says only two of those are directly or explicitly focused on women.
In some regions of Afghanistan women's rights have improved since the Taliban fell over a decade ago.
3.2 million girls are now studying, that's a concrete improvement following the ban on female education under Taliban rule in the 1990s.
But Afghanistan is still considered one of the worst countries for women to live and progress has not come without sacrifices.
The United Nations says in 2011 there were at least 185 attacks on schools and hospitals in Afghanistan, the majority in opposition to girls' education.
In its report the International Development Select Committee said Britain is wasting its roughly $300 million annual budget for Afghanistan.
Bruce says too much is spent on bolstering the Afghan government, money he thinks could be better spent elsewhere.
"Whilst a lot has been achieved and it would be wrong to underestimate that, building a viable state has not happened and is not really going to happen any time soon and yet that is supposedly the British government mission," said Bruce. "So I think our view was rather than focus exclusively on that you really should concentrate on the things that you can achieve recognizing you may have to be fleet of foot and very flexible as the situation changes on the ground."
Bruce says when international combat forces leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the British government should work alongside local non-governmental organizations to support the most vulnerable.
In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Department for International Development said it is committed to effective development work that alleviates poverty and that women's rights should be at the heart of its work in Afghanistan.
The department said it has helped get millions of girls into school.
Gareth Price is an expert on Afghanistan at the London-based research group Chatham House. He says Britain's aim of bolstering the Afghan government is a good one, despite the challenges.
"Building up the Afghan state has to be a priority," said Price. "You want to build up the state system, not leave it to NGOs [non-governmental organizations] who will be very vulnerable in the event of things taking a downturn after 2014."
Strengthening the state, he says, is the best way to fortify education and women's rights.
China ratifies border agreement with Tajikistan, Afghanistan
Xinhua 26-10-2012
BEIJING - The China-Tajikistan-Afghanistan agreement on the definition of the tri-junction point for national boundaries was ratified on Friday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.
The agreement is based on relevant border pacts with Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and it was reached through negotiations among the three nations, said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who was entrusted by the State Council to explain the agreement to the NPC Standing Committee.
"The ratification of the agreement is of great significance to maintain peace along the border areas, and will further promote friendship among the three countries," he said.
In 2010, China held border negotiations and signed a draft agreement with Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
In June 2012, the foreign ministers from the three countries signed the agreement in Beijing.
Kunar Wants Better Weapons to Respond to Shelling
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Saturday, 27 October 2012
The governor of Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province said that the continued shelling of districts close to the Pakistani border require a response, but the Afghan security forces are too poorly equipped.
Governor Fazlullah Wahidi has raised the matter of an ongoing cross-border shelling from Pakistan for almost two years, without much attention given to it by Kabul until recent months.
However, Wahidi stepped up his warnings of worsening security on Saturday and is now calling for the Afghan security forces to be better armed to retaliate to the attacks.
"We have a complete security force, but we don't have the improved weapons to react back," he told TOLOnews, adding that the shellings pose a major threat for the province.
"We have control in the districts and there is security to some extent – schools are open – but insecurity is increasing because of the shelling attacks from outside, and still the foreign security forces are not cooperating with us to solve it," he said.
Wahidi urged those countries which have signed the strategic long term deals with Afghanistan to take action and protect the provinces or the Afghan people will lose their trust in such agreements.
Kunar province is where the Pakistan government claimed this week that Mullah Fazlullah – an insurgent leader suspected of ordering the shooting of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai – is living.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khan last weekend asked for US help to get Mullah Fazlullah extradited back to Pakistan for his involvement in the shooting as well as directing numerous attacks against the Pakistani military.
Islamabad claimed to have shared its intelligence dossier on the Mullah with Kabul and Isaf, saying that he is located in the Kamadesh and Chapa Dara districts in the border provinces of Nuristan and Kunar.
However, the Karzai government responded with outright denial that the Mullah is in Afghanistan, choosing instead to make the point that because Pakistan has not dealt with the insurgent networks in its tribal north-west or handed over Afghan Taliban leaders as requested in the past, it too would not move against Fazlullah.
"There are terrorists living on the Pakistani soil for many, many years and no action has been taken against them", Afghan Interior Ministry Sediq Sediqi said Wednesday.
The Afghan government has paid more attention to the cross-border shelling in recent months, most notably after the lawmakers sacked the country's defense and interior ministers in August over the lack of action on the matter.
When the new Interior Minister Mujtaba Patang was appointed in September, one of his first decisions was to say he will bulk up the police along the border.
Karzai Calls for Pakistan's Cooperation Amid Fazlullah Disagreement
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 27 October 2012
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday warned that without Pakistan's cooperation in fighting terrorism it will be impossible for the countries to be secure.
"We want for Afghanistan and Pakistan be secure from terrorism, but with Pakistan's honest cooperation, it's impossible," Karzai said after the Eid al-Adha prayers at the Presidential Palace on Friday.
Karzai made the comments after a tense week of the two countries arguing over the location of a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leader, Mullah Fazlullah, whom Pakistan says is responsible for giving the order to shoot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai as well as a number of attacks on its military.
Kabul has refused to accept Islamabad's claim that Fazlullah is in eastern Afghanistan, despite Pakistan sharing its intelligence dossier with both Isaf and Afghanistan on the grounds of wanting him extradited back to Pakistan.
"There are terrorists living on the Pakistani soil for many, many years and no action has been taken against them", the Afghan Ministry of Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqi said on Wednesday, suggesting that Afghanistan's refusal to act on the information while also denying Fazlullah's presence is a retaliatory move for Pakistan failing to shut down the Taliban and Haqqani networks in North Waziristan.
President Karzai on Friday also urged the Taliban and other insurgents groups to renounce violence and join in the peace process, days after the militant leader Mullah Mohammad Omar called on his followers to shun the peace process.
"Once again I ask for the Taliban to accept Afghanistan's constitution, to renounce violence and the destruction of schools and their country," Karzai said. Mullah Omar on Wednesday urged in his Eid message for his followers to continue to kill foreign soldiers until they leave the country, and said Afghanistan will not be at peace until the Taliban return to power.
Karzai also emphasised that the country would not face any security challenges after the 2014 drawdown of Nato-led combat troops from Afghanistan.
"I assure the people that Afghanistan will move towards stability and development after the 2014 withdrawal of international troops," he said.
There are concerns that the foreign troops withdrawal from Afghanistan will mean worse security, but the Afghan National Security Forces have already been handed official responsibility for 75 percent of the country, according to Nato and Afghan leaders.
The ANSF will take full security responsibility of the country by the end of 2014.
The Eid celebrations were marred on Friday by the massive suicide bombing of a mosque in northern Faryab province after the special morning prayers.
As many as 40 people were killed and up to 50 more were wounded in the suicide attack which has yet to be claimed by any militant and anti-government group.
On the same day there were three improvised explosive devices roadside blasts separately reported in the southern Helmand, eastern Laghman and western Herat provinces.
The blast in Helmand's capital Lashkar Gah killed one Afghan army soldier. The blast in Laghman's Alingar district killed one civilian and wounded two, while the blast in Herat's Atraskan district injured the district governor and one of his bodyguards.
Meanwhile in western Farah province, the chief of the National Directorate of Security survived an assassination attempt when a gunman shot at him but failed to hit him. The gunman has since been arrested.
And from eastern Ghazni province's Andar district there were reports that militants stopped a bus on the road headed to Kandahar and pulled five occupants off the vehicle before shooting them on the spot. The bodies were recovered on Saturday, the Associated Press said. None of the shooters were apprehended and the motive or reasons for the shooting are yet to be determined.
Andar is the district where it was first reported in June that Afghan residents had taken up arms against the local Taliban insurgents to drive them out of their region.
Kabul Cards: there's life beyond Taliban
Hindustan Times By Shalvi Mangaokar October 26, 2012
Mumbai - Afghanistan is usually associated with suicide bombers and large-scale violence. But in an attempt to showcase the multi-faceted civilian life largely ignored by the international media, three young women, Sahar Fetrat (16), Sadaf Fetrat (20) and Nargis Azaryun (19) carried hand-held cameras to document their daily life in Kabul and made a film, Kabul Cards, that was screened at the Mumbai Film festival.
“We want to explain to the world that Kabul, Afghanistan, is a very normal place to live in,” says Nargis. “All the things written and said about Afghanistan in the international media are about explosions and the Taliban. That’s not the whole reality. There’s a big civilian life over there and we feel that should be reflected too.” She adds, “Whenever we’ve spoken to any foreigner about Afghanistan, they say, ‘Oh, the terror place. The Taliban.’ All documentaries usually made in and about Afghanistan focus only on one issue — terrorism and women. But problems exist all over the world. Why can’t they show the happier side of Afghanistan? A coin has two sides.”
Saher adds that Afghanis have a very active and normal daily life. “With this film we want to show that there are people in Afghanistan who are fighting to reduce challenges and problems,” she says. “Street harassment of women is a big issue in Kabul, but there are organisations helping us.”
Says Sadaf, “It’s not bad living there. The international media is horrible about Afghanistan. People study there, there are universities and I don’t think we’ve missed out on anything. There’s a rich culture back home.”
It wasn’t as difficult as you might believe for three young women in Kabul to make a film and then travel abroad to promote it.
“Our parents aren’t educated, but they understand us and our initiative,” says Sadaf. “They’re glad we’re doing this.” Nargis adds, “My father is a doctor and my mother is a working woman. They encouraged me to pursue this dream.”
www.afghanistannewscenter.com