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Fraud Trial Begins in Multimillion-Dollar Afghan Bank Scandal
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN November 17, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - A major step toward resolving the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars from Kabul Bank began last week with the trial of nearly two dozen people, including the bank’s former chairman and former chief executive, who are accused of being the main architects of a colossal fraud.
The scandal at Kabul Bank, Afghanistan’s largest private financial institution, has laid bare the crony capitalism and corruption that has thrived here in the past decade. The bank was forced into receivership in 2010 under the weight of nearly $900 million in bad loans and missing funds. With this long-stalled trial, the government is trying to demonstrate to Afghans and international donors that it is able to hold powerful people accountable in corruption cases.
International donors, including the United States, the European Union and others, had demanded that the Afghan government take a series of steps to combat corruption in the aftermath of the collapse of Kabul Bank. One of the most important was to prosecute those who had perpetrated the fraud. For a year, the International Monetary Fund suspended Afghanistan’s program largely because of the government’s lack of progress in bringing to justice the people behind the bank debacle.
Now with the trial under way, donors privately say they are cautiously optimistic. And, as important, Afghans are watching as local television stations have begun to broadcast reports of the trial proceedings.
“The Afghans are working it through their legal system, which is what the international community has encouraged them to do,” said a senior American official, who asked not to be quoted by name because of the delicacy of the case. “And we will be watching for the result, as will the Afghans themselves.”
Another Western official said: “This is absolutely one of the two or three big-picture issues in Afghanistan today, along with the security and civilian transition. If this process is not credible, it puts into question a lot of the international commitments made to Afghanistan going forward.”
The three judges hearing the case listened intently on Saturday as two of the defendants made their opening statements. The judges then peppered them with questions about the bank’s practices, the system for transferring money and their failure to detect the fraud.
Ten more defendants facing a variety of charges will present their cases in the coming days, including former Kabul Bank officials and officials at the Central Bank, who prosecutors say should have known about the malfeasance and should have tried to stop it.
The trial opened on Wednesday, and the judges heard from five defendants, including the former bank chairman, Shirkhan Farnood, and the former chief executive officer, Khalilullah Frozi, who are accused of having engineered the fraud. At that hearing, the two, who are now at each other’s throats over who bears more responsibility for the bank’s collapse, lobbed insults and accusations at each other. Mr. Frozi, who also appeared at Saturday’s session, spoke loudly and loomed over the judges’ desk as he tried to make his points.
After Saturday’s nearly five-hour session, the chief judge, Shams Rahman Shams, said the case was not a simple one. “In fact,” he said, “this is a very complicated case and a world issue, and resolving this case cannot be completed in one or two days.”
When asked by local reporters if he was feeling any pressure related to the case, Judge Shams said: “The trial is going very well, it is transparent. We have not received instructions from any institution nor have we have accepted any orders, nor will we accept orders from any organizations.”
The case had appeared to be stalled for months as different government anticorruption commissions gathered information and the attorney general’s office questioned people, seemingly overwhelmed by the case’s complexity and the political connections of many of those involved.
The logjam was broken in April when President Hamid Karzai announced the appointment of a special prosecutor and a special judicial tribunal to handle the case.
Mr. Karzai was forced to act because of the case’s importance to international donors and because he appeared to want to demonstrate to Afghans that his government was willing to clamp down on corruption even when it involved people with close ties to the highest levels of government. The bank’s former leaders, Mr. Farnood and Mr. Frozi, had close ties to the presidential palace and gave shares in the bank to the president’s brother, Mahmoud Karzai, and the vice president’s brother, Hassan Fahim.
The tribunal began to gather evidence four months ago after the Afghan attorney general’s office announced its intention to file charges against nearly two dozen people. Initially, the attorney general named 21 people, but last week 22 defendants were scheduled to appear in court, Judge Shams said. Judge Shams said four or five had fled Afghanistan and would be represented by court-appointed lawyers.
Investigators have yet to complete the painstaking job of tracing where millions of dollars went. The case involves a combination of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, sloppily executed loans that were often made with little regard for the value of the real estate, assets or businesses being financed and outright gifts and perquisites that amounted to millions of dollars, according to officials close to the case.
News of the bank’s troubles began to leak out in August 2010 as it became clear that the amount of cash in the bank was hundreds of millions of dollars less than what depositors had put in. The Central Bank then replaced Mr. Farnood and Mr. Frozi with Massoud Ghazi, who testified on Saturday that when he arrived on Aug. 31, 2010, there was a deficit of $842 million: depositors had put $1.3 billion in the bank but only $448 million was on hand.
Subsequent accounting checks found that more money was missing, said officials familiar with an audit and a recovery of assets report done by Kroll Associates, a forensic accounting firm.
One of the most important questions is whether those accused of being the architects of the fraud will be found guilty under the money-laundering law, which would allow the government to obtain internationally recognized confiscation orders.
Of the roughly $900 million that was either stolen or given out in bad loans, a large portion is believed to have been squirreled away in foreign bank accounts and could be recouped if the Afghan government has confiscation orders, said Western officials familiar with Afghan law and international financial regulations.
Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
Roadside bomb hits police van in northern Afghan town, several injured
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb struck a police van in Kunduz province, 250 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, leaving several injured on Sunday, a local official said.
"The bomb planted by anti-government militants struck a vehicle of Sufi Habib, the police chief of Khan Abad district, in Charshanba Tapa area at around 01:10 p.m. local time today, injuring some people including Sufi Habib and his two sons," Qudratullah told Xinhua.
However, he declined to provide more information, saying investigation is underway.
Meantime, a police officer, Mohammad Kamin, said that four people including Sufi Habib were injured in the blast and Sufi Habib is in critical condition.
Taliban militants who have been fighting the government and largely relying on suicide and roadside bombings have yet to make comment.
News Analysis: Islamabad's Afghan Taliban release major boost to peace process
Xinhua By Muhammad Tahir Nov. 17, 2012
ISLAMABAD - In response to the request of the Afghan Peace Council, Pakistan has freed 13 Afghan Taliban fighters, including a former senior military commander, with both sides now hoping that this gesture would push forward the much- awaited reconciliation process in the war-torn neighboring country.
Islamabad agreed to free the Afghan Taliban detainees during talks with a visiting delegation of the Afghan Peace Council led by its chairman Salahuddin Rabbani earlier this week.
According to an Afghan diplomat who was privy to the Pakistan- Afghan talks in Islamabad, nine of the Afghan Taliban fighters were released at the end of Rabbani's visit while four were freed ahead of the visit as a sign of goodwill on the part of Pakistan.
Pakistan's move was quickly welcomed by the Afghan government and the United States.
Kabul said Islamabad is also considering releasing Taliban second-in-command, Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was arrested in the Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010. An Afghan official said that Mulla Baradar was among the four important Taliban leaders, whose release was sought by the Afghan Peace Council.
The Afghan Taliban also welcomed Pakistan's decision to set free their comrades-in-arms. But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has urged Pakistan to release all Taliban fighters now in Pakistani jails.
"This is a good step and we welcome it. But we demand that other prisoners in Pakistan should also be released," Mujahid said in a statement.
Mujahid said that the release of the Taliban detainees will definitely boost the trust between the two neighboring countries and their people.
But according to an Afghan official who requested anonymity, all the 13 freed Taliban were not handed over to the Afghan government although they will be allowed to rejoin their families and settle anywhere in Pakistan, Afghanistan and any third country.
The official said that the freed Taliban detainees will neither be stopped nor arrested under the "safe passage" mechanism as agreed by Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States in April this year provided they will express their willingness to participate in the peace process.
The mechanism was put in place after Kabul complained that some Taliban leaders who expressed their willingness to join in the peace talks were either arrested or killed.
Pakistan has also hinted to free more Afghan Taliban detainees after closely reviewing the impact on the Afghan peace process of the release of the prisoners, Pakistani and Afghan officials said.
The Afghan government had sought the release of nearly 40 Taliban prisoners whose names were included in a list that it handed over to Pakistani authorities.
The Afghan government had been asking Islamabad to free the Taliban fighters to boost the reconciliation efforts and to avoid another civil war after the 2014 withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces.
Afghanistan had seen the worst bloodshed in its history as the result of factional fighting in capital Kabul after the 1989 withdrawal of the Soviet troops from the country.
Pakistan is also aware of the possibility of such a situation that could cause a huge influx of Afghan refugees in their country like what happened in l989.
Islamabad had earlier agreed on the "safe passage" mechanism for Afghan Taliban leaders who have indicated their willingness to join in peace talks with the government.
In fact, it was under this mechanism that some Taliban leaders detained in Pakistan were allowed to travel to Qatar for talks with the United States.
All these steps reflect a positive change in Pakistan's policy and are considered to be a major boost to the peace negotiations between the Kabul government and the Taliban which the U.S. has encouraged.
Afghanistan Says Pakistan Will Help in Peace Talks
Associated Press By DEB RIECHMANN and RAHIM FAIEZ November 17, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - A top Afghan peace mediator hailed Pakistan's recent decision to free nine members of the Taliban who favor negotiations, saying Saturday it was a sign Islamabad is willing to help bring the militant group to the table and end Afghanistan's 11-year-old war.
The cooperation of Pakistan, which has longstanding ties to the Taliban, is seen as key to jumpstarting the stalled Afghan peace process. The Afghan and U.S. governments accuse Islamabad of backing insurgents — an allegation Pakistan denies — and say many militant leaders are hiding in the country.
Afghanistan needs Pakistan's help in reaching out to top Taliban leaders, but still insists that peace talks be led by Afghans, saying it will fight those who try to interfere.
Salahuddin Rabbani, the head of the High Peace Council who led a delegation to Islamabad this week, said Pakistan's prisoner release marked a shift in the neighboring country's policy. In the past, the Pakistanis have arrested Taliban figures interested in peace talks with the Afghan government, he said, but now the government is releasing them and pledging to give them safe passage to negotiations.
"It seems that Pakistani officials have realized that a close cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan can be effective for the peace initiative," Rabbani said. "Of course, this is a vision we have been insisting on for a long time."
Rabbani, whose delegation spent four days in Islamabad this week meeting with high-ranking government, political and religious leaders, said Pakistan has pledged to release additional Taliban prisoners who will be allowed to stay in Pakistan, return to Afghanistan or seek residence in a third country. While nothing can guarantee they won't rejoin Taliban fighters, Rabbani said he was confident that they would continue to cooperate with the peace council. "We will be in contact with those released," he said.
Some members of the peace council suggested that Pakistan's religious and political leadership might be having a change of heart — in part because of violence committed by Pakistan's branch of the Taliban movement.
"This is the first time that we really saw some changing of the minds while we were speaking," said Qayumuddin Kashaf, a member of peace council and head of the top religious council in Afghanistan. He said that in the past, Pakistani religious leaders insisted that insurgents were waging a holy war in Afghanistan. "Now we see some changing of the mindset because the security situation in Pakistan is very bad if not worse than Afghanistan."
Others in Kabul believe, however, that Pakistan may simply be playing a waiting game, trying to appease Afghanistan with small gestures until international troops leave Afghanistan and the Taliban can try to mount a comeback.
Despite the prisoner release, the peace process still has little traction and has experienced many setbacks, including the assassination of Rabbani's father in September 2011. Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and the first leader of the peace council, was killed in his Kabul home by a suicide bomber posing as an emissary from the Taliban.
It's unclear whether the Taliban are interested in negotiating peace, but the insurgent group welcomed the release of the prisoners. "Without a doubt, releasing prisoners fosters confidence between two neighboring countries and their nations," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement issued Friday.
During the delegation's trip, both countries appealed to the Taliban to join the peace process and sever ties with al-Qaida and other international terror networks. They said Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States would provide safe passage to members of the Taliban who want to talk with negotiators.
They agreed to work with the international community to remove prospective Taliban negotiators from the U.N. sanctions list so they can participate in any peace talks. The sanctions include a travel ban, arms embargo and assets freeze.
Afghanistan and Pakistan also agreed to hold a conference of religious leaders and scholars from Islamic countries to address violence in the name of Islam, council members said.
The peace council did not identify the prisoners who were freed, but an Afghan official familiar with the peace process gave The Associated Press a list of eight. They were:
—Nooruddin Turabi, former Taliban justice minister.
—Jahangirwal, a special assistant to Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.
—Qutub, a Taliban leader.
—Abdul Salaam, former Taliban governor of Baghlan province.
—Maulvi Matiullah, the Taliban's director of the customs house in Kabul.
—Mahamad, the Taliban's former governor of Kunduz province.
—Sayed Saduddin Agha, a former Taliban commander.
—Allah Dad, the Taliban's former deputy minister of communication.
The ninth prisoner released was Anwarul Haq Mujahid, the son of the late Mohammad Yunus Khalis, who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He has joined his family in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to a cousin and family friend who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Afghan officials are still hoping for the release of the Taliban's former deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was captured in Pakistan in 2010. Baradar was reportedly conducting talks with the Afghan government that were kept secret from the Pakistanis.
Afghans don't see Nato mission as an occupation, says Kite Runner author
Announcing UK stage play of bestselling book, Khaled Hosseini talks of his desire to forge ties between Afghanistan and west
Guardian.co.uk By Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent Saturday 17 November 2012
Six years after his second international bestseller came out, and as he announces the first British stage adaptation of The Kite Runner, the author and doctor Khaled Hosseini has spoken of his duty to the Afghan people – and revealed he has just finished a third novel.
Hosseini, who was born in Kabul but trained as a doctor in the US and worked in a Los Angeles hospital until 2005, said he wanted to build a connection between Afghans and westerners, and avoid the romanticism that can put a distance between cultures.
"There are still myths about Afghanistan in the west, such as that the country is stuck in the 12th century. There is an element of romanticism too, as well as the idea that Afghans hate the west," said Hosseini from his home in California.
"People there do have grievances of course, about the night raids and civilian casualties. It is true too that they don't like having troops on their soil, but they have done the calculation and decided there is good reason for it. They don't see it as an occupation."
Hosseini said the Nottingham Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman theatres had secured the rights to stage the European premiere of Matthew Spangler's award-winning stage adaptation of The Kite Runner, first produced by the San Jose Repertory in 2009.
Hosseini's first novel was published in 2003 and has since been published in 70 countries. His second, A Thousand Splendid Suns, came out in 2007 and also spent months at the top of the bestseller charts. Together his two novels have sold more than 38m copies.
Hosseini said his third novel, now in draft form, was called And the Mountains Echoed, and would be published in May. He would not reveal where it was set, but said it was a family saga dealing with relationships between siblings.
The author, who now works as a goodwill envoy for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), has set up his own foundation to help his birth country. He said he felt it was fine for the war to be used in popular entertainment, such as the TV series Homeland, "as long as it is done in a responsible way" and not simply to provide an edge or to push an agenda. "People do have to be told a story. And people who pick up my books want to be told a story too."
He said the play of The Kite Runner was closer to his book than the film directed by Marc Forster in 2007, because it kept a strong sense of the narrator's perspective. Spangler showed Hosseini his adaptation and the author made alterations.
The artistic director of the Nottingham Playhouse, Giles Croft, said he wanted to bring the play to Europe because of "its many striking resonances", including its treatment of immigrant experiences. "But it seems to me that it has another profound connection to Britain; as we move towards a complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan it is good, and important, to be reminded of the Afghans' own stories and histories.
"We have inevitably become bound up in the tragedies and politics of this most recent Afghan war and the experiences of western troops," he said. "It is easy to forget that the Afghans are a people with a complex and rich culture, with their own story to tell, and that story won't stop, or cease to be relevant when our troops come home."
Hosseini said he remained optimistic about the future of Afghanistan despite the increased physical danger in some areas of the country. "My own view is that the immediate future of Afghanistan is going to have some setbacks and some spikes in violence on its slow march to peace," he said.
"If I compare it to 10 years ago, when I first went back, it is worlds better in terms of things like the number of children in school and child mortality and the average lifespan and the technology that is available. On the other hand, there is a lack of security in parts of the north. Places I can't go with the UNHCR any more."
Education was the most important priority: "And I mean secondary education too. The country is going to need technocrats and engineers."
NATO report exposed danger of Afghan 'insider attacks'
A damning report exposing the causes of a surge in “insider attacks” by Afghan troops was suppressed by military commanders, The Telegraph has learnt.
Telegraph.co.uk By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent 17 Nov 2012
Nato chiefs were warned last year, in a document they commissioned, that the attacks were “part of a growing and systematic threat” that was undermining the war effort.
But the report, from Dr Jeffrey Bordin, an American behavioural scientist, was declared secret, and he was removed from his job and forced to leave Afghanistan.
Since the report was produced, a third of British casualties have been the result of so-called green on blue attacks, with 12 soldiers shot dead by the Afghan police or army in Helmand province this year.
Last weekend Capt Walter Barrie, 41, of The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Bn The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was the latest to die when he was shot by a member of the Afghan army after a football match following a Remembrance Sunday service.
The report contained a series of warnings about the risk from Afghan forces to their western allies. It said that attacks were not “isolated incidents”, as had been suggested by both British and US commanders, but were part of a worsening trend.
It added that the attacks were the result of a “crisis of trust” between Afghan and Nato troops that was not being acknowledged by senior commanders.
Days after the report was published, in May last year, Dr Bordin’s research was roundly criticised by the military and the document was classified “Secret”.
Dr Bordin was removed from his job as a “Red Team Leader”, at the head of a research group formed to find weaknesses in military plans, and told to leave Afghanistan, where he had spent four years working for Nato.
Senior officers at the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) described the document’s findings as “inconsistent with our assessment”, and said that the study was “was systematically flawed and suffered from generalisations, narrow sample sets, unprofessional rhetoric, and sensationalism”.
By declaring it secret, it could not be shared among officers across Afghanistan. Although Isaf is American-led, its deputy commander is always British, and other senior staff are drawn from British ranks, meaning it is highly likely that senior British officers saw the report.
Dr Bordin strongly criticised the decision to keep it secret.
“That was the height of immoral behaviour,” he said.
“I have knowledge that can help save American lives and I was ordered not to give that information out to another military entity.
"My fear is that if urgent action is not taken in terms of vetting and the recruitment process, we could see this happen with groups [of Afghan troops].”
Almost 18 months after the report was published, senior Nato commanders are now re-evaluating its contents and putting some of Dr Bordin’s suggestions into action.
Lt Gen Adrian Bradshaw, a British officer who has just finished serving as the deputy commander of Isaf in Kabul, said: “Certainly the military did push back on certain aspects of that report.
"But I think the key point is that it has been recognised since the beginning of this campaign that cultural awareness, the ability to work closely with our Afghan colleagues, is absolutely central to delivering mission success.”
It is understood that British troops arriving in Helmand are now specifically briefed that the Uniformed Afghan Police represent a “significant threat to their security” and “should not be trusted”.
After interviewing more than 600 US and Afghan soldiers, Dr Bordin recognised “a rapidly growing systemic homicide threat (a magnitude of which may be unprecedented between 'allies’ in modern military history)”. His 70-page report, entitled“A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility”, spoke of a breakdown in relations between Western soldiers and their Afghan colleagues.
Afghans, it found, had been provoked into fights, and even attempts to kill, by behaviour that included Western soldiers “urinating in public, their cursing at, insulting and being rude and vulgar to ANSF members, and unnecessarily shooting animals”.
Western troops, especially Americans, regarded the Afghans they were fighting alongside as untrustworthy, dishonest, incompetent and practising “repulsive hygiene”.
Cross-Border Shelling From Pakistan Will Cease: Afghan Officials
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 17 November 2012
The Pakistan government has promised to the Afghan peace delegation that the Pakistan military will not shell the eastern parts of Afghanistan, Afghan officials said.
"They promised that the missiles which hit the eastern parts of Afghanistan in Nangarhar or Kunar will stop after this," the High Peace Council deputy chief Attaullah Ludin told TOLOnews on Friday.
"The missiles harm people and can destroy the ties between the two countries," he added.
The pledge came during the three-day visit of the High Peace Council to Islamabad last week, led by Salahuddin Rabbani, in an attempt to resume peace talks suspended since the assassination of former HPC chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani last year.
Kunar provincial governor Fazlullah Wahidi said Friday that the missiles falling into Kunar province had seemingly stopped for the time being.
"In the past a week, no missile has landed in the province. Previously if it stopped for some time, missiles would [later] start again to be fired. Now we hope that after the delegation has visited Pakistan the shelling will not start again," he told TOLOnews.
For over a year, hundreds of missiles have reportedly landed in eastern parts of Afghanistan. Despite there being little impact in terms of human casualties, the provincial chiefs have said hundreds of families have been displaced after fleeing their homes because of the threat.
It comes as Pakistan released at least nine prisoners of the former Taliban regime on Afghanistan's request to indicate its support for the peace process.
The Associated Press on Friday reported that the son of a legendary Afghan mujahedeen leader was among the group of Taliban prisoners released.
Anwarul Haq Mujahid, son of the late Maulawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was released Thursday and joined his family in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, AP quoted a cousin and a family friend saying.
Khalis, who was once invited to the White House by former President Ronald Regan, died in 2006, according to AP.
Peace Council Seeks Immunity, Lift on Sanctions for Taliban
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 17 November 2012
Taliban officials who join peace negotiations with the Afghan government will have their names removed from the United Nations sanctions list and will receive immunity from prosecution, the head of the High Peace Council (HPC) said Saturday.
HPC chairman Salahuddin Rabbani said in a press conference said that the agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table involve five key points apart from the much-reported prisoner release.
1. The involved countries Afghanistan, Pakistan and US should facilitate to allow immunity from prosecution for those joining the national negotiations of peace and reconciliation.
2. Afghanistan and Pakistan will work with the help of the United Nations to remove the names of Taliban who are joining to negotiations from sanctions list of the UN.
3. Afghanistan and Pakistan will hold a joint meeting of the Islamic Ulema in their respective countries or in Saudi Arabia with the aim of assessing suicide attacks and other military action of the Taliban under the viewpoint of Islamic law.
4. Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to abstain from blaming each other as the cause of the problem and government officials making speeches against each other.
5. Afghanistan and Pakistan will search for suitable ways to prevent shelling into Afghanistan by way of a two-sided mechanism to ensure cross-border attacks stop completely.
Rabbani said the peace delegation, which was in Islamabad for three days of meetings with officials last week, was not only trying to secure the release of the Talib prisoners.
"The release of the Talib prisoners was not the only aim of the delegation. Getting this support from Pakistan in peace negotiations is so important and has been promised by the Pakistan government," he said.
Meanwhile HPC spokesman Maulvi Qayamuddin Kashaf said that Pakistan's religious leaders including Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Maulvi Fazlul Rahman now support the peace process led by Afghanistan whereas previously they were calling Afghanistan's war a Jihad.
"They promised to cooperate in every way with the peace process," Kashaf said. "As well, they said they were talking with our Ulema to hold the meeting of the Ulema."
Security Forces Abusing Professional Privileges: MPs
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Saturday, 17 November 2012
Afghan National Army and National Police officials are abusing their professional privileges and using government property for personal use, lawmakers said on Saturday.
Parliamentarians said the use of army or police vehicles on vacation days and for family recreation is illegal and needs to be stopped.
"We saw lots of families in the vacation days like Eid using police vehicles – that is against law," Herat MP Naheed Farid said.
Khost MP Kamal Naser Osolee said some officials are also allowing their children to use the government property.
"High officials of the Interior and Defense Ministries are using governmental vehicles for their personal purposes and give the vehicles to their sons," he said.
They also added that these security officials drive too fast, ignoring traffic laws, by using their privilege.
"We repeatedly have seen that in recreational places in Kabul and in the provinces, the people who are going to a picnic use police cars and the sirens," MP Mohammad Reza Khoshak Watandost said.
The Ministry of Defense responded to the claims saying says any official found to be doing these things will face prosecution.
"Some trafficking disorders exist in the city and we hope to solve them in near future. Whoever makes disorder with their car will be stopped," Defense Ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zaher Azimi said.
The Interior Ministry said the actions are a clear violation of the law and the ministry will more closely supervise the issue, Head of Criminal Investigation Department of Kabul Police Mohammad Zaher said.
Parliamentarians said that if the abuses continue, it will increase security challenges.
Central Bank in Nuristan Robbed by Police Guards
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 17 November 2012
Two of the three local police accused of robbing the Nuristan branch of central bank Da Afghanistan Bank on Thursday night have been captured, but the third suspect and the money is still missing, local officials said Saturday.
The three police officers guarding the central bank branch in Nuristan capital Paroon on Thursday night are accused of robbing as much as 10 million Afghani [US$200,000] and running away, head of the provincial governor's office Mohammad Zarin told TOLOnews.
Two of the police were captured in the Kantiwa area of Paroon on Friday night but the hunt for the third is ongoing.
"Two of them were captured on Friday night by security forces, and police are investigating. It's not yet clear whether they helped steal all the money or not," he said.
Zarin said that initial reports indicate that the money was stolen after most of the locks on the safe deposit boxes were broken.
Meanwhile, local security officials said that some of other bank employees have also been detained as part of the investigation.
Karzai Condemns Israel Airstrikes
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 17 November 2012
President Hamid Karzai on Saturday condemned the airstrikes by Israel in Palestinian territory that have escalated in recent days and threaten to spill into a ground assault by the Israeli army.
In a statement from the presidential office, Karzai said that Palestinian sources say at least 30 people have been killed and 270 others wounded in the airstrikes which began Wednesday.
"Harming civilians is unjustifiable on any side and anywhere," Karzai said in the statement on behalf of Afghanistan, and condemned "in the strongest terms such attacks that have continued for years now".
Karzai added that Afghanistan supports any efforts that can ensure a ceasefire.
According to media reports, Israel struck the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes early Saturday, including hitting the Hamas headquarters and a police compound, while they continue to target the weapons storage facilities and underground rocket launching sites.
Israel is also calling up thousands of reservists and has massed troops, tanks and other armored vehicles along the border with Gaza, signaling a ground invasion could be imminent.
MPs Call for Release of Land Grabber Names
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 17 November 2012
A number of lawmakers on Saturday called for the names of any officials found to have illegally confiscated land to be publically named.
The MPs said that the Presidential Palace knows the confiscators very well and these names should be disclosed by them before it is disclosed by any than any other source.
"It's good if top government officials and those who are in the leadership review their deeds. I believe that they know who the land grabbers are.
There are land grabbers among the Presidential Palace to us MPs. This is what people already know very well," Farah MP Samiullah Samim said Saturday.
"Those who have a political presence, especially those in the government, are able to confiscate lands as they have the power to do so but the ordinary people can't," said Kunduz MP Fatima Aziz.
It is estimated that around four million acres of government land has been misappropriated by officials for personal use, not only in remote areas but even in cities and the Afghan capital Kabul.
The Ministry of Agriculture has started a special office to take back this land.
"Throughout the decades of war, and specially over the past ten years, more than 4 million acres of land in the country has been confiscated and Ministry of Agriculture is extremely concerned for the matter.
We have begun taking action to reclaim these lands, founding the Office of Lands of Afghanistan and have started identifying the land grabbers," spokesman of Ministry of Agriculture Majidullah Qarar said.
Officials have been acutely aware of the problem for years, with Second Vice President Mohammed Karim Khalili resembling land grabbing as a cancerous tumor a few years ago.
More recently Khalili questioned the failure to act on land grabbing.
"Why is there land grabbing every day and we haven't been able to do anything towards it? Those who are behind this issue should be made known. If it's the government, it should be reformed. If it's the related offices, they should be made known.
Or is the Mafia so powerful now that is capable of doing its work unhindered?" Khalili said.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN November 17, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - A major step toward resolving the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars from Kabul Bank began last week with the trial of nearly two dozen people, including the bank’s former chairman and former chief executive, who are accused of being the main architects of a colossal fraud.
The scandal at Kabul Bank, Afghanistan’s largest private financial institution, has laid bare the crony capitalism and corruption that has thrived here in the past decade. The bank was forced into receivership in 2010 under the weight of nearly $900 million in bad loans and missing funds. With this long-stalled trial, the government is trying to demonstrate to Afghans and international donors that it is able to hold powerful people accountable in corruption cases.
International donors, including the United States, the European Union and others, had demanded that the Afghan government take a series of steps to combat corruption in the aftermath of the collapse of Kabul Bank. One of the most important was to prosecute those who had perpetrated the fraud. For a year, the International Monetary Fund suspended Afghanistan’s program largely because of the government’s lack of progress in bringing to justice the people behind the bank debacle.
Now with the trial under way, donors privately say they are cautiously optimistic. And, as important, Afghans are watching as local television stations have begun to broadcast reports of the trial proceedings.
“The Afghans are working it through their legal system, which is what the international community has encouraged them to do,” said a senior American official, who asked not to be quoted by name because of the delicacy of the case. “And we will be watching for the result, as will the Afghans themselves.”
Another Western official said: “This is absolutely one of the two or three big-picture issues in Afghanistan today, along with the security and civilian transition. If this process is not credible, it puts into question a lot of the international commitments made to Afghanistan going forward.”
The three judges hearing the case listened intently on Saturday as two of the defendants made their opening statements. The judges then peppered them with questions about the bank’s practices, the system for transferring money and their failure to detect the fraud.
Ten more defendants facing a variety of charges will present their cases in the coming days, including former Kabul Bank officials and officials at the Central Bank, who prosecutors say should have known about the malfeasance and should have tried to stop it.
The trial opened on Wednesday, and the judges heard from five defendants, including the former bank chairman, Shirkhan Farnood, and the former chief executive officer, Khalilullah Frozi, who are accused of having engineered the fraud. At that hearing, the two, who are now at each other’s throats over who bears more responsibility for the bank’s collapse, lobbed insults and accusations at each other. Mr. Frozi, who also appeared at Saturday’s session, spoke loudly and loomed over the judges’ desk as he tried to make his points.
After Saturday’s nearly five-hour session, the chief judge, Shams Rahman Shams, said the case was not a simple one. “In fact,” he said, “this is a very complicated case and a world issue, and resolving this case cannot be completed in one or two days.”
When asked by local reporters if he was feeling any pressure related to the case, Judge Shams said: “The trial is going very well, it is transparent. We have not received instructions from any institution nor have we have accepted any orders, nor will we accept orders from any organizations.”
The case had appeared to be stalled for months as different government anticorruption commissions gathered information and the attorney general’s office questioned people, seemingly overwhelmed by the case’s complexity and the political connections of many of those involved.
The logjam was broken in April when President Hamid Karzai announced the appointment of a special prosecutor and a special judicial tribunal to handle the case.
Mr. Karzai was forced to act because of the case’s importance to international donors and because he appeared to want to demonstrate to Afghans that his government was willing to clamp down on corruption even when it involved people with close ties to the highest levels of government. The bank’s former leaders, Mr. Farnood and Mr. Frozi, had close ties to the presidential palace and gave shares in the bank to the president’s brother, Mahmoud Karzai, and the vice president’s brother, Hassan Fahim.
The tribunal began to gather evidence four months ago after the Afghan attorney general’s office announced its intention to file charges against nearly two dozen people. Initially, the attorney general named 21 people, but last week 22 defendants were scheduled to appear in court, Judge Shams said. Judge Shams said four or five had fled Afghanistan and would be represented by court-appointed lawyers.
Investigators have yet to complete the painstaking job of tracing where millions of dollars went. The case involves a combination of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, sloppily executed loans that were often made with little regard for the value of the real estate, assets or businesses being financed and outright gifts and perquisites that amounted to millions of dollars, according to officials close to the case.
News of the bank’s troubles began to leak out in August 2010 as it became clear that the amount of cash in the bank was hundreds of millions of dollars less than what depositors had put in. The Central Bank then replaced Mr. Farnood and Mr. Frozi with Massoud Ghazi, who testified on Saturday that when he arrived on Aug. 31, 2010, there was a deficit of $842 million: depositors had put $1.3 billion in the bank but only $448 million was on hand.
Subsequent accounting checks found that more money was missing, said officials familiar with an audit and a recovery of assets report done by Kroll Associates, a forensic accounting firm.
One of the most important questions is whether those accused of being the architects of the fraud will be found guilty under the money-laundering law, which would allow the government to obtain internationally recognized confiscation orders.
Of the roughly $900 million that was either stolen or given out in bad loans, a large portion is believed to have been squirreled away in foreign bank accounts and could be recouped if the Afghan government has confiscation orders, said Western officials familiar with Afghan law and international financial regulations.
Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
Roadside bomb hits police van in northern Afghan town, several injured
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb struck a police van in Kunduz province, 250 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, leaving several injured on Sunday, a local official said.
"The bomb planted by anti-government militants struck a vehicle of Sufi Habib, the police chief of Khan Abad district, in Charshanba Tapa area at around 01:10 p.m. local time today, injuring some people including Sufi Habib and his two sons," Qudratullah told Xinhua.
However, he declined to provide more information, saying investigation is underway.
Meantime, a police officer, Mohammad Kamin, said that four people including Sufi Habib were injured in the blast and Sufi Habib is in critical condition.
Taliban militants who have been fighting the government and largely relying on suicide and roadside bombings have yet to make comment.
News Analysis: Islamabad's Afghan Taliban release major boost to peace process
Xinhua By Muhammad Tahir Nov. 17, 2012
ISLAMABAD - In response to the request of the Afghan Peace Council, Pakistan has freed 13 Afghan Taliban fighters, including a former senior military commander, with both sides now hoping that this gesture would push forward the much- awaited reconciliation process in the war-torn neighboring country.
Islamabad agreed to free the Afghan Taliban detainees during talks with a visiting delegation of the Afghan Peace Council led by its chairman Salahuddin Rabbani earlier this week.
According to an Afghan diplomat who was privy to the Pakistan- Afghan talks in Islamabad, nine of the Afghan Taliban fighters were released at the end of Rabbani's visit while four were freed ahead of the visit as a sign of goodwill on the part of Pakistan.
Pakistan's move was quickly welcomed by the Afghan government and the United States.
Kabul said Islamabad is also considering releasing Taliban second-in-command, Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was arrested in the Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010. An Afghan official said that Mulla Baradar was among the four important Taliban leaders, whose release was sought by the Afghan Peace Council.
The Afghan Taliban also welcomed Pakistan's decision to set free their comrades-in-arms. But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has urged Pakistan to release all Taliban fighters now in Pakistani jails.
"This is a good step and we welcome it. But we demand that other prisoners in Pakistan should also be released," Mujahid said in a statement.
Mujahid said that the release of the Taliban detainees will definitely boost the trust between the two neighboring countries and their people.
But according to an Afghan official who requested anonymity, all the 13 freed Taliban were not handed over to the Afghan government although they will be allowed to rejoin their families and settle anywhere in Pakistan, Afghanistan and any third country.
The official said that the freed Taliban detainees will neither be stopped nor arrested under the "safe passage" mechanism as agreed by Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States in April this year provided they will express their willingness to participate in the peace process.
The mechanism was put in place after Kabul complained that some Taliban leaders who expressed their willingness to join in the peace talks were either arrested or killed.
Pakistan has also hinted to free more Afghan Taliban detainees after closely reviewing the impact on the Afghan peace process of the release of the prisoners, Pakistani and Afghan officials said.
The Afghan government had sought the release of nearly 40 Taliban prisoners whose names were included in a list that it handed over to Pakistani authorities.
The Afghan government had been asking Islamabad to free the Taliban fighters to boost the reconciliation efforts and to avoid another civil war after the 2014 withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces.
Afghanistan had seen the worst bloodshed in its history as the result of factional fighting in capital Kabul after the 1989 withdrawal of the Soviet troops from the country.
Pakistan is also aware of the possibility of such a situation that could cause a huge influx of Afghan refugees in their country like what happened in l989.
Islamabad had earlier agreed on the "safe passage" mechanism for Afghan Taliban leaders who have indicated their willingness to join in peace talks with the government.
In fact, it was under this mechanism that some Taliban leaders detained in Pakistan were allowed to travel to Qatar for talks with the United States.
All these steps reflect a positive change in Pakistan's policy and are considered to be a major boost to the peace negotiations between the Kabul government and the Taliban which the U.S. has encouraged.
Afghanistan Says Pakistan Will Help in Peace Talks
Associated Press By DEB RIECHMANN and RAHIM FAIEZ November 17, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - A top Afghan peace mediator hailed Pakistan's recent decision to free nine members of the Taliban who favor negotiations, saying Saturday it was a sign Islamabad is willing to help bring the militant group to the table and end Afghanistan's 11-year-old war.
The cooperation of Pakistan, which has longstanding ties to the Taliban, is seen as key to jumpstarting the stalled Afghan peace process. The Afghan and U.S. governments accuse Islamabad of backing insurgents — an allegation Pakistan denies — and say many militant leaders are hiding in the country.
Afghanistan needs Pakistan's help in reaching out to top Taliban leaders, but still insists that peace talks be led by Afghans, saying it will fight those who try to interfere.
Salahuddin Rabbani, the head of the High Peace Council who led a delegation to Islamabad this week, said Pakistan's prisoner release marked a shift in the neighboring country's policy. In the past, the Pakistanis have arrested Taliban figures interested in peace talks with the Afghan government, he said, but now the government is releasing them and pledging to give them safe passage to negotiations.
"It seems that Pakistani officials have realized that a close cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan can be effective for the peace initiative," Rabbani said. "Of course, this is a vision we have been insisting on for a long time."
Rabbani, whose delegation spent four days in Islamabad this week meeting with high-ranking government, political and religious leaders, said Pakistan has pledged to release additional Taliban prisoners who will be allowed to stay in Pakistan, return to Afghanistan or seek residence in a third country. While nothing can guarantee they won't rejoin Taliban fighters, Rabbani said he was confident that they would continue to cooperate with the peace council. "We will be in contact with those released," he said.
Some members of the peace council suggested that Pakistan's religious and political leadership might be having a change of heart — in part because of violence committed by Pakistan's branch of the Taliban movement.
"This is the first time that we really saw some changing of the minds while we were speaking," said Qayumuddin Kashaf, a member of peace council and head of the top religious council in Afghanistan. He said that in the past, Pakistani religious leaders insisted that insurgents were waging a holy war in Afghanistan. "Now we see some changing of the mindset because the security situation in Pakistan is very bad if not worse than Afghanistan."
Others in Kabul believe, however, that Pakistan may simply be playing a waiting game, trying to appease Afghanistan with small gestures until international troops leave Afghanistan and the Taliban can try to mount a comeback.
Despite the prisoner release, the peace process still has little traction and has experienced many setbacks, including the assassination of Rabbani's father in September 2011. Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and the first leader of the peace council, was killed in his Kabul home by a suicide bomber posing as an emissary from the Taliban.
It's unclear whether the Taliban are interested in negotiating peace, but the insurgent group welcomed the release of the prisoners. "Without a doubt, releasing prisoners fosters confidence between two neighboring countries and their nations," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement issued Friday.
During the delegation's trip, both countries appealed to the Taliban to join the peace process and sever ties with al-Qaida and other international terror networks. They said Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States would provide safe passage to members of the Taliban who want to talk with negotiators.
They agreed to work with the international community to remove prospective Taliban negotiators from the U.N. sanctions list so they can participate in any peace talks. The sanctions include a travel ban, arms embargo and assets freeze.
Afghanistan and Pakistan also agreed to hold a conference of religious leaders and scholars from Islamic countries to address violence in the name of Islam, council members said.
The peace council did not identify the prisoners who were freed, but an Afghan official familiar with the peace process gave The Associated Press a list of eight. They were:
—Nooruddin Turabi, former Taliban justice minister.
—Jahangirwal, a special assistant to Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.
—Qutub, a Taliban leader.
—Abdul Salaam, former Taliban governor of Baghlan province.
—Maulvi Matiullah, the Taliban's director of the customs house in Kabul.
—Mahamad, the Taliban's former governor of Kunduz province.
—Sayed Saduddin Agha, a former Taliban commander.
—Allah Dad, the Taliban's former deputy minister of communication.
The ninth prisoner released was Anwarul Haq Mujahid, the son of the late Mohammad Yunus Khalis, who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He has joined his family in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to a cousin and family friend who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Afghan officials are still hoping for the release of the Taliban's former deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was captured in Pakistan in 2010. Baradar was reportedly conducting talks with the Afghan government that were kept secret from the Pakistanis.
Afghans don't see Nato mission as an occupation, says Kite Runner author
Announcing UK stage play of bestselling book, Khaled Hosseini talks of his desire to forge ties between Afghanistan and west
Guardian.co.uk By Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent Saturday 17 November 2012
Six years after his second international bestseller came out, and as he announces the first British stage adaptation of The Kite Runner, the author and doctor Khaled Hosseini has spoken of his duty to the Afghan people – and revealed he has just finished a third novel.
Hosseini, who was born in Kabul but trained as a doctor in the US and worked in a Los Angeles hospital until 2005, said he wanted to build a connection between Afghans and westerners, and avoid the romanticism that can put a distance between cultures.
"There are still myths about Afghanistan in the west, such as that the country is stuck in the 12th century. There is an element of romanticism too, as well as the idea that Afghans hate the west," said Hosseini from his home in California.
"People there do have grievances of course, about the night raids and civilian casualties. It is true too that they don't like having troops on their soil, but they have done the calculation and decided there is good reason for it. They don't see it as an occupation."
Hosseini said the Nottingham Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman theatres had secured the rights to stage the European premiere of Matthew Spangler's award-winning stage adaptation of The Kite Runner, first produced by the San Jose Repertory in 2009.
Hosseini's first novel was published in 2003 and has since been published in 70 countries. His second, A Thousand Splendid Suns, came out in 2007 and also spent months at the top of the bestseller charts. Together his two novels have sold more than 38m copies.
Hosseini said his third novel, now in draft form, was called And the Mountains Echoed, and would be published in May. He would not reveal where it was set, but said it was a family saga dealing with relationships between siblings.
The author, who now works as a goodwill envoy for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), has set up his own foundation to help his birth country. He said he felt it was fine for the war to be used in popular entertainment, such as the TV series Homeland, "as long as it is done in a responsible way" and not simply to provide an edge or to push an agenda. "People do have to be told a story. And people who pick up my books want to be told a story too."
He said the play of The Kite Runner was closer to his book than the film directed by Marc Forster in 2007, because it kept a strong sense of the narrator's perspective. Spangler showed Hosseini his adaptation and the author made alterations.
The artistic director of the Nottingham Playhouse, Giles Croft, said he wanted to bring the play to Europe because of "its many striking resonances", including its treatment of immigrant experiences. "But it seems to me that it has another profound connection to Britain; as we move towards a complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan it is good, and important, to be reminded of the Afghans' own stories and histories.
"We have inevitably become bound up in the tragedies and politics of this most recent Afghan war and the experiences of western troops," he said. "It is easy to forget that the Afghans are a people with a complex and rich culture, with their own story to tell, and that story won't stop, or cease to be relevant when our troops come home."
Hosseini said he remained optimistic about the future of Afghanistan despite the increased physical danger in some areas of the country. "My own view is that the immediate future of Afghanistan is going to have some setbacks and some spikes in violence on its slow march to peace," he said.
"If I compare it to 10 years ago, when I first went back, it is worlds better in terms of things like the number of children in school and child mortality and the average lifespan and the technology that is available. On the other hand, there is a lack of security in parts of the north. Places I can't go with the UNHCR any more."
Education was the most important priority: "And I mean secondary education too. The country is going to need technocrats and engineers."
NATO report exposed danger of Afghan 'insider attacks'
A damning report exposing the causes of a surge in “insider attacks” by Afghan troops was suppressed by military commanders, The Telegraph has learnt.
Telegraph.co.uk By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent 17 Nov 2012
Nato chiefs were warned last year, in a document they commissioned, that the attacks were “part of a growing and systematic threat” that was undermining the war effort.
But the report, from Dr Jeffrey Bordin, an American behavioural scientist, was declared secret, and he was removed from his job and forced to leave Afghanistan.
Since the report was produced, a third of British casualties have been the result of so-called green on blue attacks, with 12 soldiers shot dead by the Afghan police or army in Helmand province this year.
Last weekend Capt Walter Barrie, 41, of The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Bn The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was the latest to die when he was shot by a member of the Afghan army after a football match following a Remembrance Sunday service.
The report contained a series of warnings about the risk from Afghan forces to their western allies. It said that attacks were not “isolated incidents”, as had been suggested by both British and US commanders, but were part of a worsening trend.
It added that the attacks were the result of a “crisis of trust” between Afghan and Nato troops that was not being acknowledged by senior commanders.
Days after the report was published, in May last year, Dr Bordin’s research was roundly criticised by the military and the document was classified “Secret”.
Dr Bordin was removed from his job as a “Red Team Leader”, at the head of a research group formed to find weaknesses in military plans, and told to leave Afghanistan, where he had spent four years working for Nato.
Senior officers at the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) described the document’s findings as “inconsistent with our assessment”, and said that the study was “was systematically flawed and suffered from generalisations, narrow sample sets, unprofessional rhetoric, and sensationalism”.
By declaring it secret, it could not be shared among officers across Afghanistan. Although Isaf is American-led, its deputy commander is always British, and other senior staff are drawn from British ranks, meaning it is highly likely that senior British officers saw the report.
Dr Bordin strongly criticised the decision to keep it secret.
“That was the height of immoral behaviour,” he said.
“I have knowledge that can help save American lives and I was ordered not to give that information out to another military entity.
"My fear is that if urgent action is not taken in terms of vetting and the recruitment process, we could see this happen with groups [of Afghan troops].”
Almost 18 months after the report was published, senior Nato commanders are now re-evaluating its contents and putting some of Dr Bordin’s suggestions into action.
Lt Gen Adrian Bradshaw, a British officer who has just finished serving as the deputy commander of Isaf in Kabul, said: “Certainly the military did push back on certain aspects of that report.
"But I think the key point is that it has been recognised since the beginning of this campaign that cultural awareness, the ability to work closely with our Afghan colleagues, is absolutely central to delivering mission success.”
It is understood that British troops arriving in Helmand are now specifically briefed that the Uniformed Afghan Police represent a “significant threat to their security” and “should not be trusted”.
After interviewing more than 600 US and Afghan soldiers, Dr Bordin recognised “a rapidly growing systemic homicide threat (a magnitude of which may be unprecedented between 'allies’ in modern military history)”. His 70-page report, entitled“A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility”, spoke of a breakdown in relations between Western soldiers and their Afghan colleagues.
Afghans, it found, had been provoked into fights, and even attempts to kill, by behaviour that included Western soldiers “urinating in public, their cursing at, insulting and being rude and vulgar to ANSF members, and unnecessarily shooting animals”.
Western troops, especially Americans, regarded the Afghans they were fighting alongside as untrustworthy, dishonest, incompetent and practising “repulsive hygiene”.
Cross-Border Shelling From Pakistan Will Cease: Afghan Officials
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 17 November 2012
The Pakistan government has promised to the Afghan peace delegation that the Pakistan military will not shell the eastern parts of Afghanistan, Afghan officials said.
"They promised that the missiles which hit the eastern parts of Afghanistan in Nangarhar or Kunar will stop after this," the High Peace Council deputy chief Attaullah Ludin told TOLOnews on Friday.
"The missiles harm people and can destroy the ties between the two countries," he added.
The pledge came during the three-day visit of the High Peace Council to Islamabad last week, led by Salahuddin Rabbani, in an attempt to resume peace talks suspended since the assassination of former HPC chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani last year.
Kunar provincial governor Fazlullah Wahidi said Friday that the missiles falling into Kunar province had seemingly stopped for the time being.
"In the past a week, no missile has landed in the province. Previously if it stopped for some time, missiles would [later] start again to be fired. Now we hope that after the delegation has visited Pakistan the shelling will not start again," he told TOLOnews.
For over a year, hundreds of missiles have reportedly landed in eastern parts of Afghanistan. Despite there being little impact in terms of human casualties, the provincial chiefs have said hundreds of families have been displaced after fleeing their homes because of the threat.
It comes as Pakistan released at least nine prisoners of the former Taliban regime on Afghanistan's request to indicate its support for the peace process.
The Associated Press on Friday reported that the son of a legendary Afghan mujahedeen leader was among the group of Taliban prisoners released.
Anwarul Haq Mujahid, son of the late Maulawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was released Thursday and joined his family in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, AP quoted a cousin and a family friend saying.
Khalis, who was once invited to the White House by former President Ronald Regan, died in 2006, according to AP.
Peace Council Seeks Immunity, Lift on Sanctions for Taliban
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 17 November 2012
Taliban officials who join peace negotiations with the Afghan government will have their names removed from the United Nations sanctions list and will receive immunity from prosecution, the head of the High Peace Council (HPC) said Saturday.
HPC chairman Salahuddin Rabbani said in a press conference said that the agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table involve five key points apart from the much-reported prisoner release.
1. The involved countries Afghanistan, Pakistan and US should facilitate to allow immunity from prosecution for those joining the national negotiations of peace and reconciliation.
2. Afghanistan and Pakistan will work with the help of the United Nations to remove the names of Taliban who are joining to negotiations from sanctions list of the UN.
3. Afghanistan and Pakistan will hold a joint meeting of the Islamic Ulema in their respective countries or in Saudi Arabia with the aim of assessing suicide attacks and other military action of the Taliban under the viewpoint of Islamic law.
4. Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to abstain from blaming each other as the cause of the problem and government officials making speeches against each other.
5. Afghanistan and Pakistan will search for suitable ways to prevent shelling into Afghanistan by way of a two-sided mechanism to ensure cross-border attacks stop completely.
Rabbani said the peace delegation, which was in Islamabad for three days of meetings with officials last week, was not only trying to secure the release of the Talib prisoners.
"The release of the Talib prisoners was not the only aim of the delegation. Getting this support from Pakistan in peace negotiations is so important and has been promised by the Pakistan government," he said.
Meanwhile HPC spokesman Maulvi Qayamuddin Kashaf said that Pakistan's religious leaders including Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Maulvi Fazlul Rahman now support the peace process led by Afghanistan whereas previously they were calling Afghanistan's war a Jihad.
"They promised to cooperate in every way with the peace process," Kashaf said. "As well, they said they were talking with our Ulema to hold the meeting of the Ulema."
Security Forces Abusing Professional Privileges: MPs
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Saturday, 17 November 2012
Afghan National Army and National Police officials are abusing their professional privileges and using government property for personal use, lawmakers said on Saturday.
Parliamentarians said the use of army or police vehicles on vacation days and for family recreation is illegal and needs to be stopped.
"We saw lots of families in the vacation days like Eid using police vehicles – that is against law," Herat MP Naheed Farid said.
Khost MP Kamal Naser Osolee said some officials are also allowing their children to use the government property.
"High officials of the Interior and Defense Ministries are using governmental vehicles for their personal purposes and give the vehicles to their sons," he said.
They also added that these security officials drive too fast, ignoring traffic laws, by using their privilege.
"We repeatedly have seen that in recreational places in Kabul and in the provinces, the people who are going to a picnic use police cars and the sirens," MP Mohammad Reza Khoshak Watandost said.
The Ministry of Defense responded to the claims saying says any official found to be doing these things will face prosecution.
"Some trafficking disorders exist in the city and we hope to solve them in near future. Whoever makes disorder with their car will be stopped," Defense Ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zaher Azimi said.
The Interior Ministry said the actions are a clear violation of the law and the ministry will more closely supervise the issue, Head of Criminal Investigation Department of Kabul Police Mohammad Zaher said.
Parliamentarians said that if the abuses continue, it will increase security challenges.
Central Bank in Nuristan Robbed by Police Guards
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 17 November 2012
Two of the three local police accused of robbing the Nuristan branch of central bank Da Afghanistan Bank on Thursday night have been captured, but the third suspect and the money is still missing, local officials said Saturday.
The three police officers guarding the central bank branch in Nuristan capital Paroon on Thursday night are accused of robbing as much as 10 million Afghani [US$200,000] and running away, head of the provincial governor's office Mohammad Zarin told TOLOnews.
Two of the police were captured in the Kantiwa area of Paroon on Friday night but the hunt for the third is ongoing.
"Two of them were captured on Friday night by security forces, and police are investigating. It's not yet clear whether they helped steal all the money or not," he said.
Zarin said that initial reports indicate that the money was stolen after most of the locks on the safe deposit boxes were broken.
Meanwhile, local security officials said that some of other bank employees have also been detained as part of the investigation.
Karzai Condemns Israel Airstrikes
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 17 November 2012
President Hamid Karzai on Saturday condemned the airstrikes by Israel in Palestinian territory that have escalated in recent days and threaten to spill into a ground assault by the Israeli army.
In a statement from the presidential office, Karzai said that Palestinian sources say at least 30 people have been killed and 270 others wounded in the airstrikes which began Wednesday.
"Harming civilians is unjustifiable on any side and anywhere," Karzai said in the statement on behalf of Afghanistan, and condemned "in the strongest terms such attacks that have continued for years now".
Karzai added that Afghanistan supports any efforts that can ensure a ceasefire.
According to media reports, Israel struck the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes early Saturday, including hitting the Hamas headquarters and a police compound, while they continue to target the weapons storage facilities and underground rocket launching sites.
Israel is also calling up thousands of reservists and has massed troops, tanks and other armored vehicles along the border with Gaza, signaling a ground invasion could be imminent.
MPs Call for Release of Land Grabber Names
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 17 November 2012
A number of lawmakers on Saturday called for the names of any officials found to have illegally confiscated land to be publically named.
The MPs said that the Presidential Palace knows the confiscators very well and these names should be disclosed by them before it is disclosed by any than any other source.
"It's good if top government officials and those who are in the leadership review their deeds. I believe that they know who the land grabbers are.
There are land grabbers among the Presidential Palace to us MPs. This is what people already know very well," Farah MP Samiullah Samim said Saturday.
"Those who have a political presence, especially those in the government, are able to confiscate lands as they have the power to do so but the ordinary people can't," said Kunduz MP Fatima Aziz.
It is estimated that around four million acres of government land has been misappropriated by officials for personal use, not only in remote areas but even in cities and the Afghan capital Kabul.
The Ministry of Agriculture has started a special office to take back this land.
"Throughout the decades of war, and specially over the past ten years, more than 4 million acres of land in the country has been confiscated and Ministry of Agriculture is extremely concerned for the matter.
We have begun taking action to reclaim these lands, founding the Office of Lands of Afghanistan and have started identifying the land grabbers," spokesman of Ministry of Agriculture Majidullah Qarar said.
Officials have been acutely aware of the problem for years, with Second Vice President Mohammed Karim Khalili resembling land grabbing as a cancerous tumor a few years ago.
More recently Khalili questioned the failure to act on land grabbing.
"Why is there land grabbing every day and we haven't been able to do anything towards it? Those who are behind this issue should be made known. If it's the government, it should be reformed. If it's the related offices, they should be made known.
Or is the Mafia so powerful now that is capable of doing its work unhindered?" Khalili said.
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