[Afghan News] December 11, 2012

[یاسمینه]

Tehran Temporarily Shuts Herat Consulate In Afghanistan
December 11, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Iran has reportedly shut down its consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat, after protesters attacked the mission's compound.

Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry source on December 11 as saying the consulate would remain closed until further notice and that Tehran had sent a protest note to Afghan officials.

Demonstrators tried to storm the consulate on December 9 to protest the alleged killing of Afghan immigrants by Iranian security forces.

The crowd reportedly threw rocks and broke the mission's windows before security forces drove them back.

The demonstrators called on Tehran to hand over the bodies of 13 Afghans who they say illegally crossed the border into Iran.

The Afghans were reportedly killed in Iran about three months ago.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry source called the allegations "baseless."

Based on reporting by AFP and AP


US report faults Pakistan over Afghan war
AFP By Shaun Tandon 11/12/2012
Despite an easing of tensions with the United States, Pakistan is persistently undermining security in Afghanistan by permitting safe havens for insurgents, a Pentagon report said.

In a biannual war assessment mandated by Congress, the Defense Department said that the 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan and their allies had succeeded in preventing Taliban advances while limiting civilian casualties.

But Taliban havens across the border in Pakistan, the limited capacity of the Afghan government and "endemic corruption" pose the greatest risks as the United States prepares to pull out troops by the end of 2014, the Pentagon said.

The report noted the better US relations with Pakistan, which agreed in July to reopen Western forces' supply routes into Afghanistan. Pakistan had refused access after a US border strike killed 24 of its troops in November 2011.

"However, Pakistan's continued acceptance of sanctuaries for Afghan-focused insurgents and failure to interdict (explosive) materials and components continue to undermine the security of Afghanistan and pose an enduring threat to US, coalition and Afghan forces," the report said.

The report, which covered developments from April through September, said that Pakistan "has contributed to US interests while simultaneously falling short in other areas."

The Pentagon also reported modest progress between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since then, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that an attack last week on the Afghan intelligence chief was planned in Pakistan.

Islamabad denied Karzai's assertion. Many analysts believe Pakistan has sought to keep open ties to militants in Afghanistan in hopes of preserving influence after the NATO withdrawal.

The Pentagon report said that enemy attacks went up one percent from April to September 2011. But it attributed the rise to a shorter poppy harvest, which kept low-level insurgents busy for less time, and said life had improved in urban areas.

Enemy attacks "are now disproportionately occurring outside of populated areas, and the security of many of Afghanistan's largest cities increased substantially during the reporting period," it said.

However, the Pentagon figures showed that enemy attacks were higher than in 2009 before President Barack Obama ramped up troop numbers. The last of the 33,000 "surge" troops withdrew in September this year.

Opinion polls show that most Americans want to end their country's longest-ever war, which was launched following the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda militants living in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

The Pentagon report described "substantial progress" by Afghans in taking the lead in their own security, but acknowledged logistical and management shortcomings in the national forces as well as corruption.

A Defense Department official, briefing reporters on the report on condition of anonymity, said that the goal remained for Afghan forces to be able to operate independently by 2014.

"Is it going to be a challenge? I agree with you, yes," he said. "Will there continue to be a need for training and advising after 2014? Yes."

The report recorded 66 insider attacks on NATO or Afghan national forces, a sharp rise from 43 the year earlier, but voiced hope that new countermeasures would reduce the threat.

The Pentagon gave a positive assessment to efforts to reduce civilian casualties, seen as a major cause of resentment toward the Western-backed government.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO forces decreased by 35 percent compared with the previous year, although overall civilian casualties rose due to attacks by insurgents, the report said.

Representative Mike Honda, co-chair of the peace and security task force of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the uptick in attacks in rural, impoverished areas showed that "we can't continue to kill our way to stability."

"The greatest threats to stability throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to be pervasive poverty, which makes for an enduringly intractable conflict unless it is addressed proactively," he said.


Pentagon reports Taliban attacks up during Afghan fighting season
Reuters By David Alexander 10/12/2012
WASHINGTON - Attacks by Taliban insurgents rose slightly during the main part of the Afghan fighting season this year as some U.S. forces withdrew and the transition to a lead role for Afghan security forces picked up pace, according to a Pentagon report released on Monday.

The report to Congress downplayed the rise in violence, saying the key measure was a dramatic increase in security in the country's main cities. While acknowledging the Taliban can still carry out attacks at the same levels as last year, the report said the greatest threats to stability were elsewhere.

"The insurgency's safe havens in Pakistan, the limited institutional capacity of the Afghan government and endemic corruption remain the greatest risks to long-term stability and sustainable security in Afghanistan," said the semi-annual Pentagon progress report on Afghanistan.

U.S. officials, briefing reporters on the document, said training of Afghan military and police forces was on track for them to take the lead security role nationwide by next summer.

The strategy guiding international forces calls for Afghans to take the security lead next year and full security responsibility by the end of 2014, when most foreign combat forces are due to withdraw.

About 76 percent of the population now lives in areas where Afghan police and troops have the lead role for security, the report said. Planning is under way to transfer additional parts of the country to Afghan security leadership.

So far, very few Afghan units are fully independent from international forces. While some units are capable of carrying out independent operations, they often have to rely on the NATO-led coalition for air power, intelligence and other specialized skills.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said only "a very small percentage" of Afghan units are capable of fully independent operations at this point, "but that's all we would expect right now."

While progress toward full independence is "incremental," the official said, "In terms of the operations that they have to carry out day to day, (they) may be doing those independently all the time."

The report attributed the rise in Taliban attacks between April and September to the increased pace of combat and to a poor, shortened poppy harvest, which freed low-level insurgents to begin the fighting season early.

MORE ATTACKS IN RURAL AREAS

Taliban-launched attacks rose by 1 percent between April and September compared with 2011, the report said. But the increased violence took place mainly in rural areas, with security "dramatically improved" in all but one of the country's five most populous districts, the report said.

Overall since the start of the year, Taliban attacks were down 3 percent, the report said. During that period they fell 22 percent in Kabul compared to 2011, 62 percent in Kandahar, 13 percent in Heart and 88 percent in Mazar-e-Sharif. They were up 2 percent in Kunduz.

The senior defense official said violence in Afghanistan remained higher than it was in 2009, before the United States sent in 33,000 additional troops to try to counter Taliban advances. Those 33,000 troops withdrew over the course of the year and U.S. forces are now back to the 2009 level of 66,000.

"Even though the violence remains high, the fact that it's in the less populated areas shows that it's less effective violence, less effective in terms of altering the view of people in Afghanistan as to where their future lies, whether it lies with the Taliban or with the government," the senior U.S. defense official said.

"If you travel around any of the cities in Afghanistan, particularly, say, Kandahar city, now as opposed to 2009, it's a completely different experience," the official said.

Several security issues remained challenging for international forces, especially the increasing number of attacks on foreign troops by members of the Afghan military, the report said.

"The rise in insider attacks has the potential to adversely affect the coalition's political landscape," it said.

The senior defense official said international and Afghan forces had been able to prevent the Taliban from regaining any significant territorial control during the fighting season.

As in last year, the Taliban has been urging its forces, particularly the leaders, to stay the winter in Afghanistan and step up the fight to make up for their inability to regain lost ground, the official said.

"While they are giving that message to their troops, to their forces, we don't see that actually happening on the ground," the official said.

(Reporting By David Alexander; Editing by Jackie Frank and Christopher Wilson)


Pakistani, Afghan Legislators Discuss Bilateral Ties
By RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal December 11, 2012
ISLAMABAD -- Afghan lawmakers are in Islamabad for two days of talks on bilateral relations with Pakistan.

A delegation of 18 Afghan members of parliament arrived in the Pakistani capital on December 10.

The talks were organized by the Pakistani Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency.

The organizers told journalists that the agenda will include a discussion on relations between Islamabad and Kabul following the withdrawal of NATO-led troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

Last month, the two neighboring countries reached an agreement on Pakistan's release of a group of Taliban prisoners to help the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

On December 11, the Pakistani Interior and Foreign ministries refused to confirm or deny to RFE/RL some Pakistani media reports suggesting that Islamabad released one more Taliban prisoner ahead of the bilateral talks.

With reporting by Newspakistan.pk and Xinhua


Afghan, Pakistani, And Turkish Presidents Hold Talks
December 11, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey are meeting for talks in Turkey.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul is hosting the two-day trilateral meeting in Ankara, which is expected to focus on economic and security cooperation.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai plans separate talks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

They are expected to discuss the suicide bombing last week that wounded Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid.

Karzai said on December 8 that the suicide attack was planned in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

He did not directly blame Pakistan's government but said that "bigger hands were involved."

Karzai said he would raise the issue as part of the investigation into the case.

The Pakistani government has rejected any connection with the attack, saying it was ready to help in the investigation.

With reporting by Xinhua and Dawn.com


News Analysis: Taliban attack on Afghan spy chief could derail ongoing peace efforts by Pakistan
by Muhammad Tahir
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The attack last month by Taliban militants against Afghanistan's intelligence chief could derail Pakistani efforts in helping the peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban after Afghan President Hamid Karzai publicly said that the attacker came from Pakistan.

The Afghan president made this charge a day after the failed attempt to assassinate Asadullah Khalid, head of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) and a close confidant of President Karzai.

Khalid, who was attacked Thursday in one of the highly- protected guest houses of the spy agency in Kabul, was only injured, according to the Afghan media.

The Taliban had immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was done to avenge the recent execution of several Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attacker had posed as a peace messenger.

President Karzai rejected the notion that the attack was conducted by the Taliban alone, saying that it was impossible for the Taliban to carry out what he described as a "complicated attack."

Karzai said that the attack was planned in Pakistan and must be investigated as to who were behind it.

He also claimed that the attack against Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, former Afghan peace envoy, had also been planned in Quetta, Pakistan.

Pakistan, which had quickly condemned the attack on Khalid, showed angry reaction to Karzai's remarks and asked the Afghan government to share evidence instead of leveling allegations in the media.

"Before leveling charges, the Afghan government would do well if they share information or evidence with the government of Pakistan that they might have with regard to the cowardly attack on the head of NDS. They would also do well by ordering an investigation into any lapses in the security arrangements around the NDS chief," a statement from the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said.

Days after President Karzai's remarks, Afghan senators went further by directly charging Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), for its involvement in the high profile attack.

Kabul's charges and Islamabad's angry reaction once again raised doubts on the efficacy of Islamabad's role in the reconciliation talks between Kabul and the Taliban.

Last month, as part of its confidence-building efforts, Pakistan released 13 Afghan Taliban detainees in Pakistani prisons. Kabul had welcomed Taliban release and described it as a 'first practical' step by Pakistan to push the much-anticipated peace move.

Pakistan had also agreed to free more Afghan Taliban to give a boost to the peace process in the war-ravaged Afghanistan ahead of the 2014 withdrawal of all foreign troops to avoid more bloodshed.

The United States and Afghanistan widely believe that Pakistan' s role is key to the political solution in Afghanistan as it still has deep influence on the Afghan Taliban. It was Pakistan that had facilitated Taliban leaders going to Qatar to hold talks with the United States.

Islamabad had also agreed with the U.S. and Afghanistan in April on a 'safe passage' mechanism for those Taliban who want to talk to the Afghan government.

Pakistani officials said they have taken several steps to push the Afghan peace process and was ready to take more in the coming days. However it is thought that the blame game from Afghan leaders can hamper Islamabad's efforts as the country is highly sensitive when it is publicly charged for actions in which it has no role.

Pakistan has always argued that Afghan officials should take up their complaints in bilateral forums to find out solutions to complex matters.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are passing through a difficult time as both Muslims nations are faced with the continuing threat from armed factions in their border areas and who have already killed hundreds of security forces and civilians.

Their bilateral cooperation is a must for a political solution to the Afghan conflict to avoid possibility of another civil war in the post-2014 Afghanistan that could also destabilize Pakistan.

Analysts here said that Pakistan and Afghanistan will both suffer if they fail to resolve their differences and work in tandem in the search for lasting peace in the region.


A decade of western folly has erased hope from Afghanistan
With the exit of US troops the Taliban are poised to fill the gap. The Afghans' mood is febrile and gloomy
The Guardian By Jonathan Steele Monday 10 December 2012
Kabul - Clouds of uncertainty and foreboding hang over Kabul as heavily as the traffic pollution, which obscures its once stunning vista of surrounding mountains. Eleven years after the west's military intervention, the withdrawal of US, British and other international forces has started, but no one knows whether their departure will lead to more or less instability for a country that has been mired in civil war for almost 40 years.

Most Afghans say they are happy to see foreign troops depart, yet many are also concerned at the vacuum they will leave, in spite of international pledges of billions of dollars for the next decade. In seven visits to the country since the Taliban were toppled I have never found the Afghan mood so febrile and gloomy.

Disappointment and bitterness are widespread. Long gone are the high hopes sparked by regime change in 2001. The foreigners delivered far less than they promised. Kabul was transformed into a canyon of concrete blast walls and watchtowers shielding enclaves from which foreign diplomats only emerge in armoured vehicles for official contacts. Journalists, NGO staff and independent westerners who have lived here for years sense a rising mood of anger, and most have stopped going around Kabul on foot for fear of hostile looks, insults hissed in Dari or Pashto, or stones being thrown.

While Afghans blame government officials for creaming off much of the aid money, they blame western donors for doing too little to reduce corruption. US military commanders who handed out cash for "quick impact" projects are accused of encouraging it.

Most diplomats still peddle cautious optimism about "progress, albeit fragile", as the US and UK hand military responsibility to hastily trained Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Few Afghans share it. The new rich are getting their money or their families out to Dubai and other Gulf states. Many are putting their houses on the market so as to acquire the cash to leave. Used car agents report more sellers than buyers.

While the official narrative speaks of the ANSF increasingly taking the lead on the battlefield, it is obvious they are inferior in experience and equipment. In many instances US commanders no longer provide close air support or medevac facilities to embattled Afghan units – a dramatic sign that Afghans are on their own. One theory for the recent rise in "green-on-blue" attacks by Afghan troops on their western allies is that it flows directly from the rise in joint operations. Working closely with western troops gives Afghans direct experience of the difference in facilities and "culture". They resent the brutality of raids on family compounds in which they are asked to take part.

The withdrawal of US troops has already meant a loss of territory. In provinces where the US has closed forward operating bases, the Taliban and the other main insurgent group, Hezb-i Islami, have moved in to fill the gap. The trend is likely to grow throughout 2013 as the Afghan countryside becomes a much larger patchwork of areas contested between Taliban and government forces than it is today. Few think Kabul will fall in a hurry, but the Taliban will take hold of hundreds of district centres in the Pashtun south and east. Traffic on the main roads will face an array of checkpoints, some controlled by the ANSF, some by the Taliban, and some by local warlords or armed criminal gangs. For ordinary Afghans there will be a perceptible decline in security.

Ten years of relentless anti-Taliban propaganda, the relative safety of Kabul and infusions of money for school and university expansion have produced a new generation in the capital city who sound optimistic. But some young people are leaving. A broadcast journalist said her son was upset because his friends' families were saving up to pay people-smugglers to get them to Europe. He felt isolated and depressed at not going too. In NGO offices around Kabul, activists in their 20s and 30s are still spending donors' money on a host of projects from women's empowerment to mental health centres and the development of independent media. They know their funds will soon be cut.

A massive surge in unemployment is approaching. The vast army of translators, drivers, cooks and bottle-washers who serve the occupation forces will shrink throughout next year. The provincial reconstruction teams – the bases where foreign advisers and consultants sit and monitor aid delivery – will close. The result will be a dramatic curtailment of projects, since foreigners will no longer be able to supervise them.

Optimists in the Afghan elite believe there is still a chance to win popular support for the government in the two years remaining before foreign troops leave. They want to ensure that the presidential and provincial elections, due in 2014, are clean this time. This would weaken the Taliban claim to provide justice more effectively than the predators and brigands who now dominate local and central government. But many doubt that much improvement can be made in a single year when a decade has produced so little.

Outside Afghanistan, public interest has collapsed. In Europe and the US, people want out, and care little whether the whole adventure is seen as a defeat. It was remarkable how minor a role the war played in the US election. There will be less demand for a grand reckoning of policymakers' blunders than there was for Iraq.

The American and British people were largely complicit, since the revenge attack on Afghanistan after 9/11 had widespread approval, and certainly more than the invasion of Iraq. In Kabul there was a greater welcome for the foreign occupiers than in Baghdad or Basra. The Taliban had less of a support base than Saddam Hussein. But with their failure to anticipate that western armies cannot remain popular for long when they invade Muslim countries, Bush and Blair are guilty of as great a folly as they were in Iraq.


Taliban say they will attend meeting in France on Afghanistan, but won’t talk about peace
Associated Press Dec 10, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban will attend a meeting in France to talk about Afghanistan’s future but will not discuss peace and reconciliation, the militant group’s spokesman said Monday.

The meeting, organized by a French think tank on the outskirts of Paris, is not expected to produce results, but it will produce a rare face-to-face gathering of Afghanistan’s major players. Only one such meeting, far less inclusive, has been held this year with Taliban participation. It was organized by a Japanese university in Kyoto six months ago.

Zabiullah Mujahid said two of the Taliban’s representatives will attend next week’s meeting to outline their policies. Representatives from Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, political parties opposed to the Taliban, and the militant Islamist group Hezb-e-Islami also are expected to attend.

French Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Vincent Floreani said the intra-Afghan conference would take place this month under the auspices of the Foundation for Strategic Research. It will be closed to the media and will involve “all components of Afghan society,” he said. He declined to specify the date or indicate the location, citing security concerns.

Peace talks with the Taliban remained stalled, but there are signs of increasing efforts to get them back on track. U.S.-backed talks broke down last March in a dispute over the release of five Taliban detainees held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the peace talks to be led by his government and the peace council, a body he set up to negotiate with the insurgency.

It was unclear who would represent the Afghan government, but an official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to reporters said that Education Minister Farooq Wardak may attend along with one other official.

Pakistan is also a key player in the peace process, and its release of a number of Taliban prisoners earlier in the month was seen as a key step in its participation. The cooperation of Pakistan, which has long-standing ties to the Taliban, is seen as pivotal in restarting the talks. The United States and its allies are trying to get movement ahead of the Afghan presidential election in 2014, the year that most foreign combat troops are set to leave the country.

“Two people are going from the Taliban side. We are not giving the names now,” Mujahid said. “We are not going to talk about the peace process. We will express our ideas and policy. We are not going to discuss peace. This gathering is not about peace.”

Ghairat Baheer, who will attend and represent his father-in-law Hekmatyar, said Hezb-e-Islami was supporting the initiative by the French because it focused on a discussion among Afghans.

“It is a good forum for exchanging views and expressing oneself and understanding each other’s point of view,” Baheer said. “The intra-Afghan dialogue is the only solution. The Taliban have shown a willingness to participate.”

Muhammad Mohaqeq, a member of the peace council and top leader of Afghan Shiites and the Hazara minority ethnic faction, said the peace process would be a topic for discussion at the meeting.

“There will be people from the government side, from Hezb-e-Islami and the Taliban,” he said. “We are going to talk about the peace process and all sides will be there. We will also talk about the elections and the situation in Afghanistan.”

Mohaqeq, a member of the National Front, which represents members of the former Northern Alliance that fought the Taliban before the U.S. invasion 11 years ago, said he and another two people from the group will attend. One of the two is Ahmad Zia Masood, the brother of the late Northern Alliance chief Ahmad Shah Masood, considered a national hero by anti-Taliban forces.
___
Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Paris and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed.


Afghan forces recapture district in Helmand
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces launched a major military operation and evicted Taliban insurgents from Dishu district in the southern Afghan province of Helmand and established government control there, the provincial administration said Tuesday.

"The Afghan national police, border police and army carried out a six-day military operation ending on Monday recapturing the Dishu district," the government said in a statement.

The Dishu district had been ruled by Taliban for the past nine years.

During the operation three policemen were killed and one sustained injuries, said Hamidullah Siddiqi, a senior border police commander in Helmand.

"The security forces also cleared the militants from Bibi Jani area, the last stronghold of the Taliban in the district bordering Pakistan," Siddiqi told Xinhua.

He stressed the search operation is underway for Taliban fighters hiding among the locals.

More than 600 Afghan security forces took part in the operation in the district about 100 km south of provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

Notorious for growing poppy and militancy, Helmand province has been branded as Taliban hotbed.


UN Cites Progress In Protecting Afghan Women From Violence, But Not Enough
December 11, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The United Nations says Afghanistan "still has a long way to go" to fully protect women and girls from violence.

The UN's mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) issued a report on December 11 showing some progress in applying 2009 legislation that criminalizes violence against women. But it adds there are gaps in its implementation.

However, at a news conference in Kabul on December 11, Georgette Gagnon, human rights director for UNAMA, said the law was not being implemented consistently.

"Although prosecutors and courts were increasingly applying the law in a growing number of reported incidents of violence against women, the overall use of the law remained low, indicating there is still a long way to go for women and girls in Afghanistan to be protected from violence through this law," she said.

The UN mission says the number of reported attacks has increased and calls this "an encouraging development" because historically, women have been too afraid to make official complaints.

Gagnon said that the report still did not reflect the full extent of the violence against women.

"Incidents of violence against women still remain largely underreported due to cultural constraints, social norms and taboos, customary practices, and discrimination against women," she said.

"Also, prevailing insecurity and weak rule of law have hampered women's access to formal justice institutions."

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission recorded 4,010 cases of violence against women in the seven months between March and October this year -- nearly twice as many as in the previous 12 months.

The report also notes that only a small percentage of reported incidents are duly processed and result in convictions.

Violence Continues

It says beating and cutting are the most common forms of violence, but also notes an increase in so-called honor killings, the murder of women for allegedly dishonoring the family in some way, such as committing adultery.

It also says that instead of following legal procedures, prosecutors often refer reports of violence to tribal councils.

Such councils have been known to order a raped woman to marry her rapist.

The report also says police have been reluctant to pursue perpetrators of violence against women if they are linked to armed groups, whether Taliban insurgents or warlords.

Gagnon of the UNAMA said the Afghan authorities needed to take bolder action.

"We are calling on the Afghan authorities to take, of course, much greater steps to both facilitate reporting of incidents of violence against women and actually open investigations and take on prosecutions," she said.

The UN report comes after a series of highly publicized cases of violence against women.

Those range from a woman's summary execution in front of a mob after being accused of adultery to the beheading of a girl, allegedly after her father rejected a marriage proposal for her.

Advances in women's rights are seen as a major success in the Afghan conflict after the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban in the U.S.-led invasion.

There are concerns, however, that the gains made by women will be eroded after NATO and the United States withdraw most of their forces by the end of 2014.

With reporting by AP, BBC, and dpa


Draft Army Handbook Wades Into Divisive Afghan Issue
Wall Street Journal By DION NISSENBAUM December 11, 2012
WASHINGTON - American soldiers should brace for a "social-cultural shock" when meeting Afghan soldiers and avoid potentially fatal confrontations by steering clear of subjects including women's rights, religion and Taliban misdeeds, according to a controversial draft of a military handbook being prepared for troops heading to the region.

The proposed Army handbook suggests that Western ignorance of Afghan culture, not Taliban infiltration, has helped drive the recent spike in deadly attacks by Afghan soldiers against the coalition forces.

"Many of the confrontations occur because of [coalition] ignorance of, or lack of empathy for, Muslim and/or Afghan cultural norms, resulting in a violent reaction from the [Afghan security force] member," according to the draft handbook prepared by Army researchers.

The 75-page manual, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, is part of a continuing effort by the U.S. military to combat a rise in attacks by Afghan security forces aimed at coalition troops.

But it has drawn criticism from U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top military commander in Afghanistan, who aides said hasn't—and wouldn't—endorse the manual as written. Gen. Allen also rejected a proposed foreword that Army officials drafted in his name.

"Gen. Allen did not author, nor does he intend to provide, a foreword," said Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. "He does not approve of its contents."

Gen. Allen hadn't seen the proposed foreword until a portion of the handbook was called to his attention by the Journal, Col. Collins said. Military officials wouldn't spell out his precise objections. But the handbook's conclusion that cultural insensitivity is driving insider attacks goes beyond the view most commonly expressed by U.S. officials.

The version reviewed by the Journal—marked "final coordinating draft" and sent out for review in November—was going through more revisions, said Lt. Gen. David Perkins, commander of the Army's Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., whose Center for Army Lessons Learned wrote the manual.

The proposed foreword was prepared by Army staff for Gen. Allen's eventual consideration, and the general's concerns will be taken into account as the military moves ahead with more revisions, he added.

The proposed handbook embraces a hotly debated theory that American cultural ignorance has sparked many so-called insider attacks—more than three dozen of which have claimed the lives of some 63 members of the U.S.-led coalition this year. The rise in insider attacks has created one of the biggest threats to American plans to end its major combat missions in Afghanistan next year and transfer full security control to Afghan forces in 2014.

Afghan leaders say Taliban infiltrators are responsible for most insider attacks. U.S. officials say the attacks are largely rooted in personal feuds between Afghan and coalition troops, though not necessarily the result of cultural insensitivity.

Last year, the U.S.-led coalition rejected an internal military study that concluded that cultural insensitivity was in part to blame for insider killings, which it called a growing threat that represented "a severe and rapidly metastasizing malignancy" for the coalition in Afghanistan.

The study was reported last year by The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. military at the time said the study was flawed by "unprofessional rhetoric and sensationalism."

The 2011 report—"A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility"—is now a centerpiece of the draft handbook's advice to soldiers heading to Afghanistan, and it is listed under the draft's references and recommended reading. The report's findings also informed the current manual for troops in Afghanistan, which was released in February, according to Gen. Perkins.

U.S. Army officials didn't make the current version of the manual available for review.

The Army officer who headed up the 2011 study, Maj. Jeffrey Bordin, now is serving as the Army center's liaison to Gen. Allen's coalition headquarters in Kabul.

Maj. Bordin's work was included in the manual as part of a broader assessment of the insider threat in Afghanistan, said Gen. Perkins.

"We are very serious in trying to solve this problem, so we are not discounting any insights that we think are useful," he said. "We are pulling out all the stops to do everything we can to gather lessons learned."

Maj. Bordin didn't respond to email requests to comment, and the military didn't make him available for an interview.

The study, based on interviews with 600 members of the Afghan security forces and 200 American soldiers, painted a grim portrait of opposing cultures with simmering disdain for their counterparts.

The draft handbook uses Maj. Bordin's conclusions to psychologically prepare troops for serving in Afghanistan. A summary includes views of some U.S. soldiers that Afghan forces engage in thievery, are "gutless in combat," are "basically stupid," "profoundly dishonest," and engage in "treasonous collusion and alliances with enemy forces."

The draft handbook offers a list of "taboo conversation topics" that soldiers should avoid, including "making derogatory comments about the Taliban," "advocating women's rights," "any criticism of pedophilia," "directing any criticism towards Afghans," "mentioning homosexuality and homosexual conduct" or "anything related to Islam."

"Bottom line: Troops may experience social-cultural shock and/or discomfort when interacting with" Afghan security forces, the handbook states. "Better situational awareness/understanding of Afghan culture will help better prepare [troops] to more effectively partner and to avoid cultural conflict that can lead toward green-on-blue violence."

Write to Dion Nissenbaum at dion.nissenbaum@wsj.com


Election Commission Urges Voter Registration to Start
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry Monday, 10 December 2012
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Monday warned of greater challenges and corruption in the upcoming presidential election if voter registration does not kick off soon.

IEC chief Fazel Ahmad Manawe said that the major preparation needed for the voter registration is not yet underway and fears that fraud is far more likely if this process is not completed in time.

"The most important and difficult thing not yet done is the voter registration process," Manawe said in a joint gathering with the civil society and political parties in Kabul.

"There is a limited time left and we are still at the beginning," he added.

Experts believe that to avoid the fraud prevalent in previous elections the existing voting cards should be nullified and ballot boxes should not placed in the house of tribal elders and Mullahs.

"Please be cautious that do not place the voting boxes in the house of Mullah's and tribal elders, otherwise elections should be full of fraud," Afghan military expert Atiqullah Amarkhil said Monday.

"The previous voting cards should be nullified," Afghan political expert Fazel Rahman Orya told those at the gathering.

According to previous reports, there will be 450 voting centers and 1086 registration centers across Afghanistan.

The next presidential election will be held in April 5 2014.


New Details Emerge Regarding Death Of Afghan Health Worker
By Frud Bezhan and Ahmed Hanayesh December 10, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
When a young Afghan health worker was shot dead last week by armed men in eastern Afghanistan, suspicion immediately fell on the Taliban.

After all, the hard-line Islamist group has a history of violence against women. And is it no secret that some within the Taliban strongly oppose the type of polio immunization the health worker, identified only as Anisa, was working on when she was slain.

An ongoing investigation into the December 1 killing in the eastern Kapisa Province, however, has uncovered new details that offer a broader range of motives and possible suspects.

After Afghan President Hamid Karzai dispatched a commission of five high-ranking government officials from Kabul on December 7 to probe her death, investigators now say Taliban involvement is just one of several leads they are pursuing.

Kapisa Province Governor Mehrabuddin Safi has said investigations have yet to determine any Taliban involvement in the killing of Anisa, who died when two armed men on motorcycles shot her at least six times in the abdomen. She was rushed to the hospital in her hometown of Kohistan, but died several hours later from excessive bleeding.

Safi believes that Anisa may have been caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between the two unidentified men. Safi also rejects reports by local officials and comments from her family that say the 20-year-old was a health worker for a polio-vaccination program. He says Anisa, who had only recently completed the 10th grade, aspired to join the campaign but had not yet done so.

"So far our investigation has shown that the incident was a criminal action and not a politically motivated incident [carried out by the Taliban]," Safi says. "But our investigation into this is still ongoing."

Safi says security forces have arrested three people in connection with Anisa's death, but did not reveal the names or the affiliations of the individuals.

Breaking From Traditional Role

No organization or individual has yet claimed responsibility for her death, and the newest information does not discard the possibility that the Taliban was responsible or that her death was no accident.

The day before her death, Anisa survived another attempt on her life when unidentified gunmen opened fire on her as she returned home from school.

According to Afghan media reports Anisa, who survived the attack by hiding in a neighbor's house, received several threatening phone calls in the days prior to her death warning her to cease her work.

Abdul Ahmad, Anisa's brother, says investigators are currently looking into whether Anisa's death stemmed from a domestic dispute related to her decision to go to school and work outside the home, which is still rare in many parts of Afghanistan. Ahmad says police, who did not say if he was a suspect, have already questioned him several times.

Ahmad rejects the possibility, insisting that the family strongly supported Anisa's decision to go to school and to work for the local health department's polio-eradication program, which saw her travel to distant villages to oversee vaccinations.

"Because our family was poor, Anisa took work as a polio-vaccination worker. She was carrying out vaccinations while studying at the same time," Ahmad says, noting that when she was killed "she was going to the office to get vaccines to do her work. She had just finished her school exams."

Dangerous Work

Anisa was reportedly working on a polio-immunization program funded by the United Nations, which along with the World Health Organization takes a leading role in working to eliminate the crippling and deadly disease.

Polio is spread when people eat food or drink water contaminated by feces. Afghanistan is one of just three countries (Pakistan and Nigeria are the others) where polio is endemic, according to the United Nations.

Taliban factions, particularly inside Pakistan, have condemned the UN immunization drive and their threats of violence have stopped programs in Taliban-controlled areas in Pakistan's northwest and even some border areas inside Afghanistan.

Anisa's death comes after the Women's Affairs Ministry announced last month that cases of "extreme or brutal violence" against women increased this year. The ministry reported some 3,500 cases of violence against women in the first six months of this year.

The growing number of cases of violence against women prompted a demonstration in Kabul on December 10, the International Day of Human Rights. Dozens of female activists demanded an end to violence against women and called on the authorities to apprehend those responsible for Anisa's killing.

According to a statement from President Karzai's office, the commission is expected to report to him within the coming days on the circumstances of Anisa's death.


Khalid to Receive Medical Treatment Abroad
AFP Monday, 10 December 2012
Afghanistan's spy chief will be evacuated abroad for specialist treatment after being wounded by a Taliban suicide bomber, the government said Monday as further details emerged of the brazen attack.

President Hamid Karzai told his national security team that Asadullah Khalid's condition was improving at a US-run military hospital near Kabul but that he will be flown abroad for better treatment.

A statement from the presidential palace did not specify which country Khalid would be sent to. As some of Khalid's family live in the United States it is seen as likely that he will be flown there, an official said.

Khalid was wounded Thursday by a man posing as a Taliban peace envoy, who detonated a bomb hidden in his underpants at a guest house run by the intelligence agency in Kabul.

A senior government official told AFP that Khalid, who suffered injuries to his abdomen, was unable to speak but none of his major organs were damaged.

"He's conscious, he recognises people but can't talk. He waved his hand when Karzai met him," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

Citing US military doctors, the official said the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) was expected to remain in hospital for up to three months.

Based on the witness account of a man who survived the attack, the official said the attacker was about a metre from the spy chief when he detonated the bomb.

"When Khalid arrived, the bomber was eating with another guy from the NDS," he said.

"Khalid arrived with another colleague named Massoud. At the begining the attacker seemed like he was not sure which one was Khalid.


The many faces of Afghanistan's spy chief
As he recovers from an attempt on his life, Asadullah Khalid's controversial past clouds his rising political influence.
Aljazeera By Ali M Latifi and Qais Azimy 10 Dec 2012
For those that know him best, Asadullah Khalid has always been "a man of action".

His reputation for "assertiveness" has ingratiated the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) - the Afghan intelligence agency - with some of the most powerful figures in the nation.

But Khalid's literally hands-on methods have also earned him powerful enemies abroad and a reputation for ruthlessness. He has been accused of assassinations, torture, and drug-dealing as governor of Ghazni and Kandahar provinces.

Despite the allegations, Khalid is a favourite among Afghan President Hamid Karzai's inner circle. So it came as little surprise when Karzai rushed to a Kabul hospital to visit his spy chief hours after a December 6 suicide attack wounded him.

The assailant pretended to be a "messenger of peace and negotation from the Taliban side" before detonating explosives hidden in his underwear at a government guesthouse, an intelligence agency spokesman said. Khalid survived and is now in a US-run military hospital, though the seriousness of his wounds remains unclear.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the fifth attempt on Khalid's life in five years.

"Karzai was in shock. His reaction was the same as when he got the news about Ahmad Wali," a high-ranking cabinet official said, referring to the July 2011 assassination of the president's half-brother, who was close to Khalid.

That closeness earned Khalid the respect of the elder Karzai, who named him Afghanistan's intelligence chief in September.

Wahid Monawar, former permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations in Vienna, described Khalid as genuinely loyal to the president, a rare trait that earned the 42-year-old many high-level posts, including governor of Kandahar province.

Karzai's man

Three high-level officials spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, all citing a fear of offending Khalid and his powerful allies.

An intelligence official within the NDS said Khalid hadn't waited for a ministerial post to begin his fight against the Taliban and foreign elements. Khalid first went up against the Taliban as part of the forces of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a current member of parliament and former warlord during the 1990s.

Those who spoke to Al Jazeera all pointed to Khalid as a driving force against the Taliban. When fighters launched an attack in the Arghandab Valley during the summer of 2008, Khalid flew back from the United States "and picked up a gun himself", said the cabinet official.

Khalid has also faced allegations of using his influence to assist Karzai during the 2009 presidential election. Already there's speculation of the role he might play in the next presidential vote, scheduled for April 2014, an official in the Electoral Complaints Commission said.

But some say Khalid represents the exact kind of leadership that is lacking in the Central Asian nation.

Afghans appreciate his style, said the cabinet official, because they know "democracy will not work in Afghanistan. Instead, we need something more akin to dictatorship".

As evidence that a hardline approach works in Afghanistan, the cabinet official highlighted the November executions of 16 "terrorists, murderers, kidnappers, and rapists".

Others in the international community, however, disagree with that approach. Citing "the weakness of the Afghan legal system", New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Kabul government to halt the "sudden surge of executions".

The European Union, which recently suspended $25m in judicial aid because of a lack of progress in fighting corruption, urged the Afghan government to take "a first step toward definitive abolition of capital punishment".

Support of ordinary Afghans

But the cabinet official said the executions were largely supported by the Afghan people.

"This is not a democratic mindset, but it is prevalent. This is why people support someone like Khalid. He takes definitive steps," the official said.

People have also been swayed by the confidence the NDS chief exudes.

When asked about him, many Afghans cite Khalid as one of the only high-level ministers who walks around freely without a bodyguard.

The NDS official told Al Jazeera that Khalid "did everything on his own accord, he rarely ever consulted anyone else".

But Monawar said that in his conversations with officials in US and Afghan intelligence, it is clear Khalid's "self-realisation and political maturity was borne with his appointment as NDS chief. In a very short period of time, he had impressed many in Washington while managing to make Islamabad increasingly nervous".

Karzai claimed Khalid's attacker entered the country through Pakistan - without implicating the Pakistani state outright. Afghan lawmaker Fawzia Koofi of Badakhshan province was less coy. "For the Afghan government and people, the message of such attacks is to know that Pakistan wants to impose its agendas in Afghanistan."

Not everyone's convinced, though.

Colin Cookman, a security policy analyst with the Center for American Progress, a Washington DC-based think-tank, said it was unlikely the attack originated in Islamabad.

"It's not clear to me that Khalid was so uniquely hostile to Pakistani interests as to merit targeted assassination during a period of broader rapprochement. That would suggest either a serious disconnect within the Pakistani security establishment, or minimal involvement on its part."

Torture and trafficking

Khalid's reputation among rights groups and Western governments - unlike the Afghan government - is far less positive.

The cabinet official said Khalid was "a constant point of contention between Karzai and the Canadians" while he was governor of Ghazni and Kandahar provinces.

Richard Colvin, a former Canadian deputy ambassador to Afghanistan who worked closely with Khalid, testified before the Canadian parliament in 2009 that Khalid was directly involved in torture.

Citing "very credible evidence", Colvin said as far back as the summer of 2006, Khalid was known "to have had a dungeon in Ghazni ... where he used to detain people for money ... He was known to be running a narcotics operation. He had a criminal gang. He had people killed who got in his way."

Josh Shahryar is an Afghan journalist based in the United States who met Khalid in 2005.

"Khalid's 'assertiveness' is in essence his disregard for laws and taking matters into his own hands to deal with a problem for which there is the Afghan National Police," said Shahryar.

Khalid's reputation was again called into question by Monawar when he served as Afghanistan's permanent representative to the United Nations in Vienna in 2007. As the leader of the province with the highest rate of poppy production, Khalid was one of two governors invited by the UN to give presentations on creating poppy-free provinces.

"Khalid seemed scattered and often missed important meetings," Monawar said. "He had no clear plan on how to eradicate opium in Kandahar, or even to follow through with existing plans."

What he did have, however, was an excellent rapport with tribal elders, added Monawar.

A 2009 report by Kabul Press, a local syndicated media outlet, cited sources in the presidential palace calling Khalid "the most crucial member of a narcotics producing and smuggling syndicate".

Khalid dismissed the charges as "just propaganda", but when he was being considered for the NDS post in August, Human Rights Watch called on Karzai to appoint a new spy chief whose "integrity and commitment to human rights is above reproach".

Karzai's decision to award him the post despite the outcry "indicates the degree to which Karzai trusts Khalid to protect his interests", said Cookman.

With questions now surrounding Khalid's health, it remains to be seen if the controversial figure will continue to be a major power-broker in Afghanistan's future.

Follow Ali M Latifi on Twitter: @alibomaye


Pentagon Says Afghan Forces Still Need Assistance
New York Times By ELISABETH BUMILLER December 10, 2012
WASHINGTON - As President Obama considers how quickly to withdraw the remaining 68,000 American troops in Afghanistan and turn over the war to Afghan security forces, a bleak new Pentagon report has found that only one of the Afghan National Army’s 23 brigades is able to operate independently without air or other military support from the United States and NATO partners.

The report, released Monday, also found that violence in Afghanistan is higher than it was before the surge of American forces into the country two years ago, although it is down from a high in the summer of 2010.

The assessment found that the Taliban remain resilient, that widespread corruption continues to weaken the central Afghan government and that Pakistan persists in providing critical support to the insurgency. Insider attacks by Afghan security forces on their NATO coalition partners, while still small, are up significantly: there have been 37 so far in 2012, compared with 2 in 2007.

As bright spots the report identified the continued transition by Afghan security forces into taking the lead on most routine patrols throughout the country and a decline in violence in populated areas like Kabul, the Afghan capital, and Kandahar, the largest city in the south.

The assessment, “Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” is required twice a year by Congress and covers the six-month period from April 1 through the end of September. Although the problems in the report have been familiar for years to national security officials in Washington, the report’s publication comes at an important juncture in the war.

American officials say that Gen. John R. Allen, the senior American commander in Afghanistan, wants to keep a large majority of the 68,000 troops in Afghanistan through the fighting season next fall so that Afghan forces have as much support as possible as they move out on their own by 2014. But military officials anticipate that the White House may push for a more rapid withdrawal to cut losses in an increasingly unpopular war.

More than 2,000 American service members have died in the war, which has cost the United States more than $500 billion since 2001. More than 1,200 American service members have died in Afghanistan from the beginning of 2010 to the present, which is roughly the period of the surge.

Obama administration officials have said that progress in the war in large part depends on whether the Taliban could rebuild after the hammering it took during the surge, when American forces, with 33,000 additional troops, aggressively pursued insurgents and drove them from critical territory in the south.

But the report was blunt in its assessment of the Taliban’s current strength. “The Taliban-led insurgency remains adaptive and determined, and retains the capability to emplace substantial numbers of I.E.D.s and to conduct isolated high-profile attacks,” the report said, using the term for homemade bombs. “The insurgency also retains a significant regenerative capacity.”

The report said that although the insurgents had less capability to directly attack American and Afghan forces, they had increasingly resorted to “assassinations, kidnappings, intimidation tactics, encouraging insider attacks and strategic messaging campaigns.”

A defense official who briefed reporters at the Pentagon sought to offer a more positive picture of the Afghan security forces’ abilities than the report would suggest. Acknowledging that the progress of the security forces had been “incremental,” the official said that many of the forces patrol and carry out some operations independently, without help from NATO. “They often don’t rely on any assistance from us at all,” said the official, who declined to be named under ground rules imposed by the Pentagon.

But the official said there were nonetheless broad problems with the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police, which together number 350,000 personnel. The security forces still depend over all on American air power, communications, intelligence gathering, logistics and leadership. That is true especially at the level of a brigade, which typically is composed of 3, 000 to 5,000 troops.

The official acknowledged that it would be a “challenge” to have the security forces ready to defend their own country by the end of 2014, when most American troops are to be out of Afghanistan. The White House is debating how many American forces should be left in the country after 2014 and it has opened negotiations with the Afghans on what their mission should be.

The defense official said that the rise in violence in Afghanistan — measured by what the report termed “enemy initiated attacks” — was a result of Afghan security forces pushing into Taliban-dominated areas, forcing the Taliban to fight back. The official cited three volatile districts in Kandahar Province — Maiwand, Panjwai and Zhari — as highly contested, violent areas.

Although the report did not provide month-by-month specific numbers of enemy-initiated attacks, it plotted them on a bar graph that showed, for example, that in July 2012 there were slightly more than 3,000 enemy-initiated attacks. In July 2009, before the surge began, the graph showed some 2,000 enemy-initiated attacks.

The official said it was a sign of progress that the report found that enemy-initiated attacks had declined in the city of Kandahar by 62 percent from a year ago.

The report found many problems with the Afghan government that American security officials have been aware of for years. The government, the report said, suffers from “widespread corruption, limited human capacity, lack of access to rural areas due to a lack of security, a lack of coordination between the central government and the Afghan provinces and districts, and an uneven distribution of power among the judicial, legislative and executive branches.”

One area of improvement, the report said, was the American relationship with Pakistan, which has been acrimonious in recent years. The report noted that the Pakistanis had agreed to reopen their country to trucks transporting matériel for the war in Afghanistan. However, the report said that “tensions remain” over insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan and cross-border attacks.

The report had been due to be released in early November, before the presidential election, but was delayed. The Pentagon did not give a reason for the delay.

Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting.


Sanctions on Iran hit Afghan refugees
Financial Times By Monavar Khalaj December 10, 2012
When Nasser, an Afghan labourer, illegally crossed the border to Iran to work last summer, he hoped to support his family and pay off his debts.

But Nasser quickly realised that he had miscalculated, as Iran’s economy had changed a lot compared with a year ago when he returned to his home village near Mazar-e Sharif, northern Afghanistan, to get married.

Iran’s national currency, the rial, has fallen more than 35 per cent this year because of international sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear programme. The consequent rise in consumer prices – which is officially put at about 25 per cent but is believed to be far higher – has made Iran’s job market far less profitable for Afghans.

“I owe [relatives] 80m rials (about $6,400) for my marriage costs and must also pay 10m rials to smugglers who brought me here,” says Nasser, a 27-year-old slim man who is not registered as a refugee. “But now I do not know how I can pay my debts and I cannot go back to Afghanistan because I owe people money and will have no job there.”

For the past three decades, an influx of Afghani refugees crossed the border to Iran, fleeing wars and poverty and in search for jobs. Iran is the world’s second biggest host to a refugee population after Pakistan with more than 2m Afghan refugees, only 860,000 of whom are registered. The representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Tehran, Bernard Doyle, forecasts no significant reduction in the Afghan population even though high inflation and the fall of rial have made their lives more difficult.

Voluntary repatriation, which Iran pushed for after the fall of the Taliban, only led to 18,600 Afghans leaving Iran last year and about 14,143 up to the end of October, Mr Doyle adds.

Some politicians and officials say the return of Afghan immigrants to their home country will help Iran’s jobless youth but employers, especially in the services and building sectors, do not agree.

Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, interior minister, says “about 3m Afghans are living and working in Iran . . . which is not a problem’’ but is concerned that there are no jobs for Iranian youth.

Employers prefer Afghan labourers to their Iranian peers because they are cheaper and employment does not carry compulsory local insurance.

But Mr Doyle says the central government in Tehran has not changed its policy toward Afghans, which is to provide asylum to refugees and a legal framework for Afghan migrant labour.

Nasser is unaware that sanctions against Iran have been the main reason behind his lower income. Working in a restaurant in a hiking area in northern Tehran since his return in August, he is paid 270,000 rials a day.

He says 10m rials was equivalent to 25,000 afghanis ($480), his country’s national currency, when he resumed his job but now earns him about 13,000 afghanis.

Nasser has no plans to leave Iran, despite his shrinking income. His employer is keen that he stays.

He has not left the restaurant for a month to avoid transport costs and stay safe. “The owner has good connections and can help prevent my arrest and deportation to Afghanistan.’’


Afghans Probe Corruption at Borders
Commission Investigates Claims of Illegal Taxes, as Kabul Shuts Operation Where Governor Allegedly Collected Levies
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE December 10, 2012
KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has launched a crackdown on unofficial taxes that have allegedly enriched the country's power brokers, a move that senior officials said was prompted by a Wall Street Journal article about an influential governor.

As a result, Kabul has shut down an operation at the Torkham Gate border crossing on the route from Kabul to Peshawar, according to Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal. Officials at the crossing levied an unauthorized tax, on top of the legitimate tax collected there, U.S. officials have said. They allege the operation was a lucrative source of revenue for Nangarhar Gov. Gul Agha Shirzai, a presidential aspirant who was once a favorite of U.S. military commanders.

Gov. Shirzai, who has previously dismissed the allegations that he was running an illegal tax-collection operation as politically motivated, couldn't be reached to comment.

Mr. Karzai last month created a commission to probe unauthorized revenue collection at Afghanistan's border crossings and customs-collection points, said Mr. Karzai's spokesman, Aimal Faizi. The aim was "to see where there were cases of illegal tax, and to report it to the palace," Mr. Faizi said.

Members of the commission—headed by Mohammad Tahir Safi, an adviser to Mr. Karzai—have visited 12 provinces mostly in the eastern and northern parts of the country, said Mr. Faizi. They arrived Monday in the southern city of Kandahar, a trade hub for goods brought in from Pakistan, provincial officials said.

The commission's initial report, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and covers only the northern provinces, recommended the dismissal of the governor of the border province of Takhar, as well as intelligence officials overseeing the main crossings into Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Afghan governors are appointed, rather than elected, and can be fired by presidential decree.

The initial report didn't list any findings on Nangarhar province, site of the recently closed revenue-collection point at the Torkham Gate crossing.

The Torkham crossing was the subject of an early November article in the Journal that several officials said had spurred Mr. Karzai's probe. The article, which cited U.S. diplomatic communications and officials, as well as local truck drivers, detailed how drivers hauling goods from Pakistan through Nangarhar province regularly paid contributions to the so-called Shirzai Fund that was openly collected at the border.

Gov. Shirzai allegedly amassed a personal fortune through this revenue-collection scheme, which brought in as much as $4 million a month, according to official U.S. assessments.

A spokesman for Gov. Shirzai didn't respond to repeated requests to comment. Gov. Shirzai is "fully cooperating" with the Afghan government's commission, said Mr. Faizi, the presidential spokesman.

Illegal taxation, a widespread problem for Afghanistan's government, was discussed in the meeting of Mr. Karzai's council of ministers on Monday, according to Afghan officials.

A particular concern is graft in provincial governments, particularly those situated along important trade routes, where powerful regional leaders have often levied their own informal taxes on trucks crisscrossing the country. During the country's civil war in the 1990s, local warlords often demanded bribes from drivers; Taliban commanders also impose taxes on cargo moving through their territory.

According to the commission's report, Gov. Ahmad Faisal Begzad of Takhar province failed to respond to the president's directive to stop what the report called illegal taxation schemes. The commission recommended his removal.

"Extortion continues in Takhar, and government agents are beating and taking money from drivers in the name of the municipality," the report states. "Similarly, the head of the Takhar office of the Ministry of Mines was collecting money from the drivers who were transporting sand, stone and clay."

Gov. Begzad denied in an interview the existence any illegal revenue collection in the province but said two forms of "minor taxation" had existed there: one that funded a municipal office in Taloqan, the other a road tax paid to the country's Ministry of Finance. He said both had been shut down. He wasn't aware of the recommendation that he be fired, he added.

"Before the delegation from the palace arrived in Takhar, we heard about the president's decree," Gov. Begzad said. "Three days before the arrival of the delegation, we removed all types of taxation in Takhar."

The special commission also recommended the dismissal of the National Directorate of Security chiefs overseeing the border crossings of Hairaton and Sher Khan Bandar. A representative for the intelligence agency said he wasn't aware of that recommendation.

The commission's initial findings also praised the Gen. Mohammed Atta Noor, the governor of northern Balkh province, a prominent former warlord who in the past has been accused by Afghan officials of skimming customs revenues. —Ziaulhaq Sultani and Yaroslav Trofimov contributed to this article.

Write to Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com

Govt Blamed for Increase of Human Rights Violations
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Monday, 10 December 2012
Human rights workers in Afghanistan on Monday blamed the government for the ongoing abuses in the country, saying that the situation was largely undermined by the government's weak response to the problem.

This year's International Day of Human Rights on December 10 passed without fanfare in Afghanistan – no ceremonies or meetings were held in the capital. But activists and observers called for the government to step up its action on the matter.

"Since most of the government officials are human rights violators, undoubtedly that undermines the efforts to improve the situation here," head of Afghanistan Civil Society Association Azizullah Rafee told TOLOnews.

Activists are concerned at the alarming increase of violence. This year's statistics recorded some 3500 cases of violence against women happened since late March – a major increase compared to the last seven years. In the past three months, there were 38 case of rape reported and 90 percent of the victims were children.

"The armed opposition groups and powerful figures within the Afghan government have been a major blow to the improvement of human rights in Afghanistan," civil society activist Ajmal Balloch said.

A researcher for an international Human Rights Watch Heather Barr, who is based in Kabul, said the lack of government support for human rights organisation is a key factor in feeding the violence in the country.

"There are many organisations which are working very hard, but there is one organisation which is most important because it's part of the government and that is the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission which is having a very difficult time to do its job properly these days because of the decision that President [Hamid] Karzai has made to not appoint talented and committed people to the commission," Barr said.

"I can say that it's very difficult – you know that there are many other countries where there is also a war going, where the people are very poor. I can't say Afghanistan is the worst, but I can say that the situation here is very difficult for all Afghans," she said.

Insecurity, crimes against humanity, increasing violence against women, appointing children as soldiers, lack of access to education, torture and killing of the innocent people are just some of the human rights violations happening in the country.

www.afghanistannewscenter.com