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Afghan suicide attack kills 3, wounds more than 90
By DEB RIECHMANN | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives Friday in eastern Afghanistan, killing three Afghan civilians and wounding more than 90 people, including several Afghan and NATO troops, officials said.
The early morning explosion in Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak province, also destroyed or damaged several government offices and a local prison, said provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid.
The blast occurred in an area that is home to government offices, the provincial governor's office, police headquarters, a prison and a coordination center used by international and Afghan security forces.
Shahid said two men and a woman were killed and 90 people — 75 men, 11 women and four children — were wounded.
U.S. Army Maj. Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the international military coalition, said a half-dozen NATO soldiers also received minor injuries in the explosion.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying in a statement to media that it was in response to the recent execution of four Taliban detainees at the Afghan government's main detention center in Kabul.
The men were convicted and sentenced to death in Afghan courts for a variety of crimes, including murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery and cruelty against children. The Taliban condemned the hangings, saying the detainees were prisoners of war who were unjustly jailed.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said Afghan security troops and prisoners were among the wounded in the Wardak blast. Three prisoners tried to escape from the damaged prison, but were apprehended, he said.
"Unfortunately, it was a very bad explosion and many of our countrymen were injured," he told reporters at a news conference in Kabul. "There was a lot of damage to infrastructure. The buildings that were around the blast were destroyed."
Sediqi did not provide a number for the wounded Afghan troops. He said the government was sending a delegation, including the head of Afghan prisons, to Wardak, to investigate the attack.
The Taliban said the attack involved two suicide bombers and claimed it killed tens of Afghan and international troops. The militants often exaggerate the number of casualties caused in their attacks.
Afghan and international forces have been working to root out insurgents in Wardak, to keep them from moving north into the Afghan capital. The international forces are scheduled to turn over security responsibility to local troops by the end of 2014.
Separately, Sediqi said that police in Kabul had arrested two men with four explosive vests. He said the two, described as experts in making suicide vests, were planning to conduct an attack in Kabul on Saturday, which is the holy day of Ashoura in Afghanistan.
Last year on Ashoura, a suicide bomber on foot struck worshippers at a Shiite shrine in Kabul, killing at least 80 people. It was the country's first major sectarian attack since the fall of the Taliban regime.
Ashoura, which is observed in the Muslim world either on Saturday or Sunday, commemorates the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
Afghanistan Also Pinched by Iran Sanctions
VOA News November 22, 2012
ISLAMABAD — In the span of a few weeks, the Afghan currency has dropped several points against the dollar. Government officials and money exchangers in Kabul say that Iranian businessmen, hungry for foreign exchange in the face of international sanctions, are buying up dollars from the Afghan economy and driving the Afghani down.
Kabul's main currency market is located on the streets and walkways of a open-air bazaar, with dozens of dealers sitting in front of piles of cash from different countries.
Currency rates are set by the daily supply and demand. Dollars come and go quickly here.
The head of Afghan's Exchange, Haji Najeeb Ullah Akhtary, says dollars are moving too quickly, driving the value of the Afghani down.
Much of the pressure, he says, comes from neighboring Iran, where international sanctions and a banking embargo are aimed at pressuring the country to comply with inspections of its suspected nuclear weapons program.
He says the sanctions with Iran are affecting us. He says dealers bring Iranian currency here because they have no way of exchanging it in their country.
"The sanctions with Iran are affecting us," he says. "We have a long border with Iran, and dealers are bringing Iranian currency here, as they have no way of purchasing [foreign exchange] money over there."
U.S. Treasury officials have urged Afghan traders not to process dollar exchanges for Iran. The governor of Afghanistan's Central Bank, Noorullah Delawari says despite those restrictions, the illegal trade in dollars is continuing.
"Because of these external pressures or demand for foreign currency, we see a drain on foreign currency from our market," said Delawari. "More than the $20,000 limit is being smuggled outside. We are working with regional governors or region provinces to stop that, and this month alone we had over five situations where bad people were caught smuggling money out of the country in Herat province alone."
Herat lies on Afghanistan's western border with Iran.
Trade between Iran and Afghanistan is estimated at around $2 billion per year, but the vast majority of that consists of Iranian exports. Iranian ports also provide a key trade link for land-locked Afghanistan. Afghanistan's other main alternative is through Pakistani ports, but contentious relations between the two countries mean that Kabul wants to keep its options open.
Deputy Trade Minister Muzamel Shinwari says sanctions that bar Afghan banks from working with the Iranian banking sector are having a negative impact on Afghanistan's overall economy. Foreign firms that are caught doing business with Iranian companies can themselves be hit with sanctions.
Those restrictions are particularly difficult for Afghanistan, when it comes to fuel imports.
Afghan officials say they mainly import fuel from Turkmenistan, Iraq and Iran. Officials say because of international sanctions, Iranian fuel is cheap, encouraging smuggling.
But Shinwari worries that if sanctions against Iran are tightened, and Afghan businesses are punished, it could further damage the country's fragile economy.
"Now when the fuel is coming under the sanctions, it is creating a bigger problem for us, and we are negotiating that with the United States government on how to better sort that problem, as we don't have the domestic production of fuel," said Shinwari. "And if we stop bringing it from Iran, it will create an economic crisis in the country, which will lead to the political crisis, which will lead to unrest in the region."
With Kabul already bracing for the exit of international forces in 2014, the continuing sanctions on Iran are likely to add to the struggles of Afghanistan's fragile economy.
Herat Court Sentences Money Smuggler to 3 Years Jail
TOLOnews.com By Jawid Zeyaratjaei Thursday, 22 November 2012
A man in western Herat province has been sentenced to three years jail for attempting to smuggle almost US$1million to Iran, officials said Thursday.
The Herat Primary Court also ruled on Wednesday that the man should pay a fine of $900,000 – the amount confiscated from him – and it should be paid into the state treasury.
Herat resident Faiz Ahmad was captured a few months ago carrying US$900,000 in cash at a border crossing with Iran. He is said to have admitted that the money was his and he was trying to transfer it out of the country.
"After investigating this case, he is sentenced to three years of serving in prison and penalized a US$900,000 cash fine," said the Herat primary court judge Ghulam Rasoul Mansour.
Under Afghan law, it is illegal to transfer cash of more than 1 million Afghanis or its equivalent in a foreign currency to another country.
It is first time in at least a year that a money smuggler has been sentenced to prison in Herat. Judicial institutions say that several other cases are under investigation.
The Herat Primary Court also sentenced a man to three years imprisonment for robbing valuable stones from the shrine of Gawhar Shad Begum's dome.
"This man was charged for the robbery of rocks and the court sentences him to three years jail," Mansour ruled.
Secret courts would mean Afghan torture claims 'went unheard'
Lawyers for man who says he was beaten into false confession tell court his case could have 'gone away forever'
Guardian.co.uk By Richard Norton-Taylor Thursday 22 November 2012
Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, tried to stop a hearing about the transfer of insurgents to Afghan jails where they risked being tortured. But his attempt to do so would not have been disclosed had the government's "secret courts" bill become law, it emerged.
Lawyers acting for Hammond told the high court on Thursday that he was in possession of fresh evidence that had a "significant and serious impact" on the case. But the existence of the evidence would have been secret had the justice and security bill, now going through parliament, been on the statute book.
The court heard earlier this month how the Foreign Office minister Lady Warsi had failed to question assurances by Asadullah Khalid, the head of the Afghan national directorate of security (NDS), even though he was alleged to be widely known to have been personally involved in torture.
"If the justice and security bill had been law today the defence secretary's application for an adjournment would have been heard in secret and it is likely to have been granted without the claimant ever knowing why", said Richard Stein of the law firm Leigh Day, representing Serdar Mohammed, tortured by the Afghan security services after being transferred to their custody by UK forces.
He added: "The judge ruled this cannot be done under our current law and long may it be so. The case could have gone away for months and possibly for ever and we would not have known the reasons why".
After exchanges with the judge, Lord Justice Moses, James Eadie QC, for the defence secretary, told the hearing, "We cannot have a closed material process", in recognition of the fact the only way to keep the new evidence secret under current laws would be to obtain a public interest immunity certificate.
Referring to the House of Lords defeat of key clauses in the proposed justice and security bill on Wednesday, Moses told Eadie: "Not until you can persuade your lordships".
A heavily redacted document presented to the court showed that the government intended to suppress what it knew about Khalid and a Red Cross report on conditions in Afghan jails. The document was drawn up by vetted "special advocates" who expressed concern about the amount of evidence the defence secretary wanted to keep secret.
Eadie argued at the court hearing earlier this month that there was a "pressing need" for British forces to transfer detainees to the Afghan prison at Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. From there, they might be transferred to jails in Kandahar and Kabul, where prisoners had also been tortured, the court heard.
Eadie said delays in transferring the prisoners to what he called "a sovereign state's criminal justice system" could damage the UK's relations with the Afghan government. The hearing, which went into closed session later on Thursday, continues.
Australia Denies Refugee Policy Failure
AFP By Amy Coopes Thursday, 22 November 2012
Australia Thursday denied its policies to combat people-smuggling have failed as a decision to release asylum-seekers into the community with little help or support was blasted as "a new low".
Canberra is struggling with a record influx of asylum-seekers that is overwhelming its offshore camps.
More than 7,500 have arrived since the Labor government launched a harsh new offshore processing policy for boatpeople in August, swamping capacity in Pacific camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
To resolve the impasse Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced Wednesday that some asylum-seekers would be released into the community on severely restricted visas that would still apply even if they gained refugee status.
The temporary visas deny them family reunion, ban them from working, and offer scant financial support, prompting warnings of a new "underclass" in Australia living below the poverty line with few rights.
It is part of a "no advantage" approach by the government to ensure that those who pay people-smugglers get no greater benefits than those who wait years for resettlement in United Nations camps.
"I don't want people to come here and starve," said Senator Doug Cameron, an opponent to the plan from within the ruling Labor party.
"If you have a situation where people are thrown into the community having to rely on charity then you are creating an underclass in this society." Human rights groups have criticised the approach as "extreme" and "cruel", while the conservative opposition declared the policy a failure and said the government had lost control of Australia's borders.
Bowen said he did not accept "one little bit" that the policy was a flop.
"We're dealing with a challenge here," the minister told ABC radio.
"We have implemented offshore processing. We have always said that this was a complex problem which would take time to fix."
The Australian Council of Social Service condemned temporary visas as a "new low" in the treatment of refugees and described it as a "a clear abdication of our moral, humanitarian and international legal obligations".
"Leaving people found to be refugees on bridging visas indefinitely with no right to work and only basic accommodation assistance and limited financial support is completely unnecessary and immeasurably cruel," said ACOSS chief Cassandra Goldie.
"We know the result of this policy in the past where asylum-seekers were left to live in appalling poverty, with chronic health issues and completely forgotten in detention for many years."
The Refugee Council of Australia also voiced "grave concern".
"Our member agencies, already under enormous strain to provide basic support and emergency care for asylum-seekers and refugees on bridging visas, will be stretched to near breaking point," said chief executive Paul Power.
Bowen conceded there was a "challenge in terms of the arrivals" but said the alternative to bridging visas was "extending offshore processing massively", which was impractical on tiny Nauru and Manus Island in PNG.
He said there had been a "big increase" in Sri Lankan arrivals in particular and noted that 466 had been forcibly deported since August, with another 104 opting to return home instead of being held offshore.
UN, Rights Watchdog Decry Wave Of Afghan Executions
November 22, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The United Nations' human rights body has decried Afghanistan's decision to execute 14 prisoners over a two-day span this week.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on November 22 voiced "serious concern" over the execution of the 14 death row inmates at a prison outside Kabul on 20 and 21 November.
She said that under Afghanistan’s international obligations, capital punishment "must be reserved for the most serious crimes and only applied after the most rigorous judicial process.”
Pillay also noted that "shortcomings in the Afghan judicial procedure have raised serious questions about such cases.”
On November 21, London-based rights group Amnesty International also expressed regret over the executions, asking whether "the executions had more to do with political gain rather than justice."
Amnesty International questioned the timing, noting that the Afghan government had avoided executions in recent years.
Amnesty said it understood that President Hamid Karzai is under pressure to prove he can maintain the rule of law and to advance peace efforts with the Taliban.
The rights watchdog and anti-death-penalty group warned that it had news of more Afghan executions to come.
The Taliban, which maintains an armed insurrection to undermine central government control, has warned of reprisals if any of its members are executed.
Public executions, including by stoning, were a frequent event during Taliban rule of wide swaths of Afghanistan from the mid-90s until the U.S.-led coalition ousted that fundamentalist regime in late 2001.
Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan and RFE/RL
Lawmakers, Scholars React to Taliban Call for End to Executions
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Thursday, 22 November 2012
The Taliban demand to stop the execution of prisoners involved with the militant group met with fierce backlash on Thursday with at least critic calling it "the joke of the century".
Fourteen prisoners were hanged this week, a number of whom were sentenced for their involvement with Taliban-led suicide attacks in Afghanistan.
The Taliban reacted to the executions with a threat that it will attack groups who do not seek to prevent the executions carried out by the Afghan government.
"We want the United Nations, Islamic countries, international human rights organisations and the Red Cross to prevent prisoners' execution. If they have not prevented it Kabul and the involved agencies will face strong attacks by the group," it said in a statement to the media.
Parliamentary committee for women's affairs pointed out that the Taliban regularly executes people without a formal trial.
"Did the Taliban consider human rights when they killed the woman [Najiba] in Ghorband district of Parwan province? Did she not have rights? I believe that the Taliban doesn't know what human rights are," committee leader Fawzia Kofi said.
Executive Director of the Afghan Civil Society Forum Aziz Rafee concurred.
"The Taliban don't believe in human rights. So we can name their statement as the joke of century," he told TOLOnews.
Religious scholars said that fair punishment for those who have killed innocent people is allowed under Islam.
"The killing of innocent people and women is forbidden in Islam. But the government has the right to punish who kill innocent people," Mawlawi Abdul Hadee Hedayat told TOLOnews.
Previously, religious scholar and Kabul MP Abdul Rab Rasool Sayaf said the people who are doing suicide attacks should be hanged publicly.
"Islam's holy book The Quran says to kill those who do suicide attacks," the former Jihadi leader said in September.
"You hang five suicide attackers at the gates of Kabul and if you see bombers ever again, instead of them, hang me."
Fourteen people were executed on Tuesday and Wednesday with President Hamid Karzai's approval after being convicted of rape, murder and robbery, as well as those mentioned with insurgent links.
Maternal health gains under threat in Afghanistan
AFP 23/11/2012
BAHARAK, Afghanistan - Ten years ago there was not a single midwife in the Afghan town of Baharak. Today there are four and the number of women dying in childbirth has fallen dramatically.
Care may still be basic by Western standards, but new midwives like Nasira Karimi mean that in 10 years Afghanistan has seen a staggering improvement in maternal health.
Experts warn these gains are precarious and fear progress could be threatened after NATO combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, when some predict the country will descend into renewed civil strife.
Karimi, 24, says stories about the horrors of childbirth convinced her to apply for a coveted place on a two-year course training midwifes to go back into their communities.
"I heard so many stories about women who died in these circumstances when I was young... There is even a word in Dari, 'Sarefarzan', which means dead in childbirth," she told AFP in Baharak, north of Kabul in the Hindu Kush mountains.
In 2000, one in 12 women died as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. In 2010, it was one in 32, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which ranks only 20 other countries, including 18 in Africa, as having a worse rate.
The situation in Badakhshan, Karimi's home province, was particularly dire.
According to UNICEF, 6,500 out of 100,000 women died as a result of pregnancy, childbirth or post-delivery complications in Badakhshan in 2002, compared to a national average of 1,600.
AFP could not obtain any recent statistics from the province, but Karimi says the situation has improved significantly.
"Today women from Baharak rarely die from pregnancy," she said.
National child mortality figures are also down. In 2009, one out of five children did not reach their fifth birthday, according to UNICEF, but today it is one in 10, according to the Afghan health ministry.
Tragedies still occur as a result of ignorance or transport problems in a region where villages can be cut off by snow for up to six months a year.
"Two months ago, a woman died after delivering. She had a haemorrhage. We told her brother and her husband that she had to go to hospital in Faizabad. But they refused. We couldn't do anything for her, so she died," one of Karimi's fellow midwives said.
Even if the family had agreed, the woman would still have faced a bone-crunching two-and-a-half hour journey over potholed roads spanning the 45 kilometres (30 miles) to the provincial capital.
Karimi is a product of a programme run by the Agha Khan Foundation, which between 2005 and next spring will have trained more than 100 midwives.
At the provincial training centre in Badakhshan's capital Faizabad, 30 young women soak up the words of the instructor and do exercises on the blackboard.
"The students, chosen by their community, have to pass an exam before being taken on. Everyone makes a written commitment to working for at least five years in their community," says Sairam Saadad, the coordinator of the programme.
"In 2010, there were only four midwives in Badakhshan, all based in Faizabad. Now there 28 districts are all covered. It's a success!" she said.
But as NATO's 2014 deadline approaches, fears are growing that the gains made since the end of Taliban rule in 2001 could be under threat, and in September insurgents launched an attack in Warduj district, near Baharak.
Doctor Soroush Janbush, who works at the hospital in Baharak, said in the wake of the attack patient numbers fell from 400 a day to 120.
"When people are frightened, they stop coming to the hospital," he said.
There are also financial issues. In July, the international community committed $16 billion for Afghanistan until 2015, conditional on democratic elections as well as progress on fighting corruption and promoting human rights.
But without this money the government will not be able to maintain health programmes.
"In 2002, the situation was there," said Janbush, drawing a basic graph on a piece of paper and pointing to the bottom.
"Since 2012, we have progressed, but we can also go back very quickly to the point of departure," he added, drawing the curve up -- and then back down.
Senate Criticised for Rejecting Foreign Commissioners
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini Thursday, 22 November 2012
Lawmakers and Afghanistan's election watchdog on Thursday lashed out the Upper House decision to reject having two foreign commissioners on the board of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) warning that the 2014 presidential election has a higher risk of fraud.
As the Senate decision was welcomed by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), lawmakers scoffed at the notion that the presence of the two foreigners at the ECC violates national sovereignty.
"If the presence of these two internationals is a violation of our national sovereignty then we have had no national sovereignty in the past ten years," MP Ghulam Farooq Majrooh said Thursday.
Parliament in October approved the new election law which allowed for two foreign commissioners at the ECC, but President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly opposed the foreign commissioners as an affront to Afghanistan's self-government.
The Senate this week rejected the election law clause allowing for foreign commissioners, but approved the law's remaining 35 articles.
The Senate rejection did not come as a surprise because many of the senators have been appointed by Karzai himself.
"It was expected that the Senate would oppose the presence of these two internationals because most of the [Upper House] members are appointed and support the view of the president," executive director of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan Jandad Spinghar told TOLOnews.
However the Senate has dismissed this accusation.
"The only senators that haven't opposed it are the appointed [by Karzai] ones. Many other senators are against the presence of these two international at the Independent Election Commission," said Senate Deputy Chief Mohammed Alam Izadyar.
The IEC has previously said it does not have an opinion on the matter and the decision rests with the government. Today, it said it supported the Senate vote.
"We support the decision of the Senate. We see it as a fine step," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammed Noor told TOLOnews.
Some MPs have said that those who oppose having foreigners at the ECC are not willing to have a transparent and fair election.
Afghan Cabinet Promises Kandahar is 'Priority' in Visit
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 22 November 2012
Several members of cabinet on Thursday travelled to southern Kandahar province to meet with government officials and tribal elders, promising it will deliver on projects aimed at improving the province.
Ministers and deputy ministers including those from Higher Education, Education, Agriculture, Public Health, Rural Rehabilitation and Urban Development pledged support for several projects emphasising that the province was a priority.
"We will do whatever we can do for this province," Agriculture Minister Mohammad Asif Rahimi said in a gathering with provincial officials and tribal elders.
Public Works Minister Najibullah Ozhan said that the construction projects will be awarded to the local companies to support Afghan businesses.
"It will be better if we offer the construction projects to local companies. We will try this," Ozhan said.
But the provincial leaders criticised the government officials for not implementing projects previously promised.
"This province has not been taken into consideration as much as other provinces," provincial governor Toryalai Wesa said.
The tribal elders said that as winter is closing in the residents of the southern province will face major challenges already outlined to the central government in previous requests for assistance.
"None of the government's commitments were met," one of the tribal elders said.
Kandahar is considered one of the more insecure of Afghanistan's 34 provinces with high levels of insurgent activity.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By DEB RIECHMANN | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives Friday in eastern Afghanistan, killing three Afghan civilians and wounding more than 90 people, including several Afghan and NATO troops, officials said.
The early morning explosion in Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak province, also destroyed or damaged several government offices and a local prison, said provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid.
The blast occurred in an area that is home to government offices, the provincial governor's office, police headquarters, a prison and a coordination center used by international and Afghan security forces.
Shahid said two men and a woman were killed and 90 people — 75 men, 11 women and four children — were wounded.
U.S. Army Maj. Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the international military coalition, said a half-dozen NATO soldiers also received minor injuries in the explosion.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying in a statement to media that it was in response to the recent execution of four Taliban detainees at the Afghan government's main detention center in Kabul.
The men were convicted and sentenced to death in Afghan courts for a variety of crimes, including murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery and cruelty against children. The Taliban condemned the hangings, saying the detainees were prisoners of war who were unjustly jailed.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said Afghan security troops and prisoners were among the wounded in the Wardak blast. Three prisoners tried to escape from the damaged prison, but were apprehended, he said.
"Unfortunately, it was a very bad explosion and many of our countrymen were injured," he told reporters at a news conference in Kabul. "There was a lot of damage to infrastructure. The buildings that were around the blast were destroyed."
Sediqi did not provide a number for the wounded Afghan troops. He said the government was sending a delegation, including the head of Afghan prisons, to Wardak, to investigate the attack.
The Taliban said the attack involved two suicide bombers and claimed it killed tens of Afghan and international troops. The militants often exaggerate the number of casualties caused in their attacks.
Afghan and international forces have been working to root out insurgents in Wardak, to keep them from moving north into the Afghan capital. The international forces are scheduled to turn over security responsibility to local troops by the end of 2014.
Separately, Sediqi said that police in Kabul had arrested two men with four explosive vests. He said the two, described as experts in making suicide vests, were planning to conduct an attack in Kabul on Saturday, which is the holy day of Ashoura in Afghanistan.
Last year on Ashoura, a suicide bomber on foot struck worshippers at a Shiite shrine in Kabul, killing at least 80 people. It was the country's first major sectarian attack since the fall of the Taliban regime.
Ashoura, which is observed in the Muslim world either on Saturday or Sunday, commemorates the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
Afghanistan Also Pinched by Iran Sanctions
VOA News November 22, 2012
ISLAMABAD — In the span of a few weeks, the Afghan currency has dropped several points against the dollar. Government officials and money exchangers in Kabul say that Iranian businessmen, hungry for foreign exchange in the face of international sanctions, are buying up dollars from the Afghan economy and driving the Afghani down.
Kabul's main currency market is located on the streets and walkways of a open-air bazaar, with dozens of dealers sitting in front of piles of cash from different countries.
Currency rates are set by the daily supply and demand. Dollars come and go quickly here.
The head of Afghan's Exchange, Haji Najeeb Ullah Akhtary, says dollars are moving too quickly, driving the value of the Afghani down.
Much of the pressure, he says, comes from neighboring Iran, where international sanctions and a banking embargo are aimed at pressuring the country to comply with inspections of its suspected nuclear weapons program.
He says the sanctions with Iran are affecting us. He says dealers bring Iranian currency here because they have no way of exchanging it in their country.
"The sanctions with Iran are affecting us," he says. "We have a long border with Iran, and dealers are bringing Iranian currency here, as they have no way of purchasing [foreign exchange] money over there."
U.S. Treasury officials have urged Afghan traders not to process dollar exchanges for Iran. The governor of Afghanistan's Central Bank, Noorullah Delawari says despite those restrictions, the illegal trade in dollars is continuing.
"Because of these external pressures or demand for foreign currency, we see a drain on foreign currency from our market," said Delawari. "More than the $20,000 limit is being smuggled outside. We are working with regional governors or region provinces to stop that, and this month alone we had over five situations where bad people were caught smuggling money out of the country in Herat province alone."
Herat lies on Afghanistan's western border with Iran.
Trade between Iran and Afghanistan is estimated at around $2 billion per year, but the vast majority of that consists of Iranian exports. Iranian ports also provide a key trade link for land-locked Afghanistan. Afghanistan's other main alternative is through Pakistani ports, but contentious relations between the two countries mean that Kabul wants to keep its options open.
Deputy Trade Minister Muzamel Shinwari says sanctions that bar Afghan banks from working with the Iranian banking sector are having a negative impact on Afghanistan's overall economy. Foreign firms that are caught doing business with Iranian companies can themselves be hit with sanctions.
Those restrictions are particularly difficult for Afghanistan, when it comes to fuel imports.
Afghan officials say they mainly import fuel from Turkmenistan, Iraq and Iran. Officials say because of international sanctions, Iranian fuel is cheap, encouraging smuggling.
But Shinwari worries that if sanctions against Iran are tightened, and Afghan businesses are punished, it could further damage the country's fragile economy.
"Now when the fuel is coming under the sanctions, it is creating a bigger problem for us, and we are negotiating that with the United States government on how to better sort that problem, as we don't have the domestic production of fuel," said Shinwari. "And if we stop bringing it from Iran, it will create an economic crisis in the country, which will lead to the political crisis, which will lead to unrest in the region."
With Kabul already bracing for the exit of international forces in 2014, the continuing sanctions on Iran are likely to add to the struggles of Afghanistan's fragile economy.
Herat Court Sentences Money Smuggler to 3 Years Jail
TOLOnews.com By Jawid Zeyaratjaei Thursday, 22 November 2012
A man in western Herat province has been sentenced to three years jail for attempting to smuggle almost US$1million to Iran, officials said Thursday.
The Herat Primary Court also ruled on Wednesday that the man should pay a fine of $900,000 – the amount confiscated from him – and it should be paid into the state treasury.
Herat resident Faiz Ahmad was captured a few months ago carrying US$900,000 in cash at a border crossing with Iran. He is said to have admitted that the money was his and he was trying to transfer it out of the country.
"After investigating this case, he is sentenced to three years of serving in prison and penalized a US$900,000 cash fine," said the Herat primary court judge Ghulam Rasoul Mansour.
Under Afghan law, it is illegal to transfer cash of more than 1 million Afghanis or its equivalent in a foreign currency to another country.
It is first time in at least a year that a money smuggler has been sentenced to prison in Herat. Judicial institutions say that several other cases are under investigation.
The Herat Primary Court also sentenced a man to three years imprisonment for robbing valuable stones from the shrine of Gawhar Shad Begum's dome.
"This man was charged for the robbery of rocks and the court sentences him to three years jail," Mansour ruled.
Secret courts would mean Afghan torture claims 'went unheard'
Lawyers for man who says he was beaten into false confession tell court his case could have 'gone away forever'
Guardian.co.uk By Richard Norton-Taylor Thursday 22 November 2012
Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, tried to stop a hearing about the transfer of insurgents to Afghan jails where they risked being tortured. But his attempt to do so would not have been disclosed had the government's "secret courts" bill become law, it emerged.
Lawyers acting for Hammond told the high court on Thursday that he was in possession of fresh evidence that had a "significant and serious impact" on the case. But the existence of the evidence would have been secret had the justice and security bill, now going through parliament, been on the statute book.
The court heard earlier this month how the Foreign Office minister Lady Warsi had failed to question assurances by Asadullah Khalid, the head of the Afghan national directorate of security (NDS), even though he was alleged to be widely known to have been personally involved in torture.
"If the justice and security bill had been law today the defence secretary's application for an adjournment would have been heard in secret and it is likely to have been granted without the claimant ever knowing why", said Richard Stein of the law firm Leigh Day, representing Serdar Mohammed, tortured by the Afghan security services after being transferred to their custody by UK forces.
He added: "The judge ruled this cannot be done under our current law and long may it be so. The case could have gone away for months and possibly for ever and we would not have known the reasons why".
After exchanges with the judge, Lord Justice Moses, James Eadie QC, for the defence secretary, told the hearing, "We cannot have a closed material process", in recognition of the fact the only way to keep the new evidence secret under current laws would be to obtain a public interest immunity certificate.
Referring to the House of Lords defeat of key clauses in the proposed justice and security bill on Wednesday, Moses told Eadie: "Not until you can persuade your lordships".
A heavily redacted document presented to the court showed that the government intended to suppress what it knew about Khalid and a Red Cross report on conditions in Afghan jails. The document was drawn up by vetted "special advocates" who expressed concern about the amount of evidence the defence secretary wanted to keep secret.
Eadie argued at the court hearing earlier this month that there was a "pressing need" for British forces to transfer detainees to the Afghan prison at Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. From there, they might be transferred to jails in Kandahar and Kabul, where prisoners had also been tortured, the court heard.
Eadie said delays in transferring the prisoners to what he called "a sovereign state's criminal justice system" could damage the UK's relations with the Afghan government. The hearing, which went into closed session later on Thursday, continues.
Australia Denies Refugee Policy Failure
AFP By Amy Coopes Thursday, 22 November 2012
Australia Thursday denied its policies to combat people-smuggling have failed as a decision to release asylum-seekers into the community with little help or support was blasted as "a new low".
Canberra is struggling with a record influx of asylum-seekers that is overwhelming its offshore camps.
More than 7,500 have arrived since the Labor government launched a harsh new offshore processing policy for boatpeople in August, swamping capacity in Pacific camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
To resolve the impasse Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced Wednesday that some asylum-seekers would be released into the community on severely restricted visas that would still apply even if they gained refugee status.
The temporary visas deny them family reunion, ban them from working, and offer scant financial support, prompting warnings of a new "underclass" in Australia living below the poverty line with few rights.
It is part of a "no advantage" approach by the government to ensure that those who pay people-smugglers get no greater benefits than those who wait years for resettlement in United Nations camps.
"I don't want people to come here and starve," said Senator Doug Cameron, an opponent to the plan from within the ruling Labor party.
"If you have a situation where people are thrown into the community having to rely on charity then you are creating an underclass in this society." Human rights groups have criticised the approach as "extreme" and "cruel", while the conservative opposition declared the policy a failure and said the government had lost control of Australia's borders.
Bowen said he did not accept "one little bit" that the policy was a flop.
"We're dealing with a challenge here," the minister told ABC radio.
"We have implemented offshore processing. We have always said that this was a complex problem which would take time to fix."
The Australian Council of Social Service condemned temporary visas as a "new low" in the treatment of refugees and described it as a "a clear abdication of our moral, humanitarian and international legal obligations".
"Leaving people found to be refugees on bridging visas indefinitely with no right to work and only basic accommodation assistance and limited financial support is completely unnecessary and immeasurably cruel," said ACOSS chief Cassandra Goldie.
"We know the result of this policy in the past where asylum-seekers were left to live in appalling poverty, with chronic health issues and completely forgotten in detention for many years."
The Refugee Council of Australia also voiced "grave concern".
"Our member agencies, already under enormous strain to provide basic support and emergency care for asylum-seekers and refugees on bridging visas, will be stretched to near breaking point," said chief executive Paul Power.
Bowen conceded there was a "challenge in terms of the arrivals" but said the alternative to bridging visas was "extending offshore processing massively", which was impractical on tiny Nauru and Manus Island in PNG.
He said there had been a "big increase" in Sri Lankan arrivals in particular and noted that 466 had been forcibly deported since August, with another 104 opting to return home instead of being held offshore.
UN, Rights Watchdog Decry Wave Of Afghan Executions
November 22, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The United Nations' human rights body has decried Afghanistan's decision to execute 14 prisoners over a two-day span this week.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on November 22 voiced "serious concern" over the execution of the 14 death row inmates at a prison outside Kabul on 20 and 21 November.
She said that under Afghanistan’s international obligations, capital punishment "must be reserved for the most serious crimes and only applied after the most rigorous judicial process.”
Pillay also noted that "shortcomings in the Afghan judicial procedure have raised serious questions about such cases.”
On November 21, London-based rights group Amnesty International also expressed regret over the executions, asking whether "the executions had more to do with political gain rather than justice."
Amnesty International questioned the timing, noting that the Afghan government had avoided executions in recent years.
Amnesty said it understood that President Hamid Karzai is under pressure to prove he can maintain the rule of law and to advance peace efforts with the Taliban.
The rights watchdog and anti-death-penalty group warned that it had news of more Afghan executions to come.
The Taliban, which maintains an armed insurrection to undermine central government control, has warned of reprisals if any of its members are executed.
Public executions, including by stoning, were a frequent event during Taliban rule of wide swaths of Afghanistan from the mid-90s until the U.S.-led coalition ousted that fundamentalist regime in late 2001.
Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan and RFE/RL
Lawmakers, Scholars React to Taliban Call for End to Executions
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Thursday, 22 November 2012
The Taliban demand to stop the execution of prisoners involved with the militant group met with fierce backlash on Thursday with at least critic calling it "the joke of the century".
Fourteen prisoners were hanged this week, a number of whom were sentenced for their involvement with Taliban-led suicide attacks in Afghanistan.
The Taliban reacted to the executions with a threat that it will attack groups who do not seek to prevent the executions carried out by the Afghan government.
"We want the United Nations, Islamic countries, international human rights organisations and the Red Cross to prevent prisoners' execution. If they have not prevented it Kabul and the involved agencies will face strong attacks by the group," it said in a statement to the media.
Parliamentary committee for women's affairs pointed out that the Taliban regularly executes people without a formal trial.
"Did the Taliban consider human rights when they killed the woman [Najiba] in Ghorband district of Parwan province? Did she not have rights? I believe that the Taliban doesn't know what human rights are," committee leader Fawzia Kofi said.
Executive Director of the Afghan Civil Society Forum Aziz Rafee concurred.
"The Taliban don't believe in human rights. So we can name their statement as the joke of century," he told TOLOnews.
Religious scholars said that fair punishment for those who have killed innocent people is allowed under Islam.
"The killing of innocent people and women is forbidden in Islam. But the government has the right to punish who kill innocent people," Mawlawi Abdul Hadee Hedayat told TOLOnews.
Previously, religious scholar and Kabul MP Abdul Rab Rasool Sayaf said the people who are doing suicide attacks should be hanged publicly.
"Islam's holy book The Quran says to kill those who do suicide attacks," the former Jihadi leader said in September.
"You hang five suicide attackers at the gates of Kabul and if you see bombers ever again, instead of them, hang me."
Fourteen people were executed on Tuesday and Wednesday with President Hamid Karzai's approval after being convicted of rape, murder and robbery, as well as those mentioned with insurgent links.
Maternal health gains under threat in Afghanistan
AFP 23/11/2012
BAHARAK, Afghanistan - Ten years ago there was not a single midwife in the Afghan town of Baharak. Today there are four and the number of women dying in childbirth has fallen dramatically.
Care may still be basic by Western standards, but new midwives like Nasira Karimi mean that in 10 years Afghanistan has seen a staggering improvement in maternal health.
Experts warn these gains are precarious and fear progress could be threatened after NATO combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, when some predict the country will descend into renewed civil strife.
Karimi, 24, says stories about the horrors of childbirth convinced her to apply for a coveted place on a two-year course training midwifes to go back into their communities.
"I heard so many stories about women who died in these circumstances when I was young... There is even a word in Dari, 'Sarefarzan', which means dead in childbirth," she told AFP in Baharak, north of Kabul in the Hindu Kush mountains.
In 2000, one in 12 women died as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. In 2010, it was one in 32, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which ranks only 20 other countries, including 18 in Africa, as having a worse rate.
The situation in Badakhshan, Karimi's home province, was particularly dire.
According to UNICEF, 6,500 out of 100,000 women died as a result of pregnancy, childbirth or post-delivery complications in Badakhshan in 2002, compared to a national average of 1,600.
AFP could not obtain any recent statistics from the province, but Karimi says the situation has improved significantly.
"Today women from Baharak rarely die from pregnancy," she said.
National child mortality figures are also down. In 2009, one out of five children did not reach their fifth birthday, according to UNICEF, but today it is one in 10, according to the Afghan health ministry.
Tragedies still occur as a result of ignorance or transport problems in a region where villages can be cut off by snow for up to six months a year.
"Two months ago, a woman died after delivering. She had a haemorrhage. We told her brother and her husband that she had to go to hospital in Faizabad. But they refused. We couldn't do anything for her, so she died," one of Karimi's fellow midwives said.
Even if the family had agreed, the woman would still have faced a bone-crunching two-and-a-half hour journey over potholed roads spanning the 45 kilometres (30 miles) to the provincial capital.
Karimi is a product of a programme run by the Agha Khan Foundation, which between 2005 and next spring will have trained more than 100 midwives.
At the provincial training centre in Badakhshan's capital Faizabad, 30 young women soak up the words of the instructor and do exercises on the blackboard.
"The students, chosen by their community, have to pass an exam before being taken on. Everyone makes a written commitment to working for at least five years in their community," says Sairam Saadad, the coordinator of the programme.
"In 2010, there were only four midwives in Badakhshan, all based in Faizabad. Now there 28 districts are all covered. It's a success!" she said.
But as NATO's 2014 deadline approaches, fears are growing that the gains made since the end of Taliban rule in 2001 could be under threat, and in September insurgents launched an attack in Warduj district, near Baharak.
Doctor Soroush Janbush, who works at the hospital in Baharak, said in the wake of the attack patient numbers fell from 400 a day to 120.
"When people are frightened, they stop coming to the hospital," he said.
There are also financial issues. In July, the international community committed $16 billion for Afghanistan until 2015, conditional on democratic elections as well as progress on fighting corruption and promoting human rights.
But without this money the government will not be able to maintain health programmes.
"In 2002, the situation was there," said Janbush, drawing a basic graph on a piece of paper and pointing to the bottom.
"Since 2012, we have progressed, but we can also go back very quickly to the point of departure," he added, drawing the curve up -- and then back down.
Senate Criticised for Rejecting Foreign Commissioners
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini Thursday, 22 November 2012
Lawmakers and Afghanistan's election watchdog on Thursday lashed out the Upper House decision to reject having two foreign commissioners on the board of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) warning that the 2014 presidential election has a higher risk of fraud.
As the Senate decision was welcomed by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), lawmakers scoffed at the notion that the presence of the two foreigners at the ECC violates national sovereignty.
"If the presence of these two internationals is a violation of our national sovereignty then we have had no national sovereignty in the past ten years," MP Ghulam Farooq Majrooh said Thursday.
Parliament in October approved the new election law which allowed for two foreign commissioners at the ECC, but President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly opposed the foreign commissioners as an affront to Afghanistan's self-government.
The Senate this week rejected the election law clause allowing for foreign commissioners, but approved the law's remaining 35 articles.
The Senate rejection did not come as a surprise because many of the senators have been appointed by Karzai himself.
"It was expected that the Senate would oppose the presence of these two internationals because most of the [Upper House] members are appointed and support the view of the president," executive director of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan Jandad Spinghar told TOLOnews.
However the Senate has dismissed this accusation.
"The only senators that haven't opposed it are the appointed [by Karzai] ones. Many other senators are against the presence of these two international at the Independent Election Commission," said Senate Deputy Chief Mohammed Alam Izadyar.
The IEC has previously said it does not have an opinion on the matter and the decision rests with the government. Today, it said it supported the Senate vote.
"We support the decision of the Senate. We see it as a fine step," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammed Noor told TOLOnews.
Some MPs have said that those who oppose having foreigners at the ECC are not willing to have a transparent and fair election.
Afghan Cabinet Promises Kandahar is 'Priority' in Visit
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 22 November 2012
Several members of cabinet on Thursday travelled to southern Kandahar province to meet with government officials and tribal elders, promising it will deliver on projects aimed at improving the province.
Ministers and deputy ministers including those from Higher Education, Education, Agriculture, Public Health, Rural Rehabilitation and Urban Development pledged support for several projects emphasising that the province was a priority.
"We will do whatever we can do for this province," Agriculture Minister Mohammad Asif Rahimi said in a gathering with provincial officials and tribal elders.
Public Works Minister Najibullah Ozhan said that the construction projects will be awarded to the local companies to support Afghan businesses.
"It will be better if we offer the construction projects to local companies. We will try this," Ozhan said.
But the provincial leaders criticised the government officials for not implementing projects previously promised.
"This province has not been taken into consideration as much as other provinces," provincial governor Toryalai Wesa said.
The tribal elders said that as winter is closing in the residents of the southern province will face major challenges already outlined to the central government in previous requests for assistance.
"None of the government's commitments were met," one of the tribal elders said.
Kandahar is considered one of the more insecure of Afghanistan's 34 provinces with high levels of insurgent activity.
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