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Clash leaves 7 Afghan Taliban dead
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces crackdown on Taliban militants in Nad Ali district of Helmand province 555 km south of Kabul on Thursday, killing seven militants, a local official said Friday.
"During cleanup operation which launched in Dasht area of Nad Ali district on Thursday morning and concluded in the evening, seven Taliban rebels were killed and another arrested," district police chief Omar Jan Haqmal told Xinhua.
He did not say if there were any casualties on the security forces.
Meantime, an official in the neighboring Marja district asserted that roadside bomb injured three Afghan soldiers and a police constable on Thursday.
Taliban militants have yet to comment.
Detained militant kills 2 Afghan police
TALUQAN, Afghanistan, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- A detained Taliban fighter snatched a gun, opened fire and killed two policemen in Takhar province 250 km north of Kabul on Friday, police said.
"Police arrested a Taliban rebel on Thursday and kept him in a temporary lockup but the arrested insurgent snatched a gun from police, opened fire and killed two policemen on the spot Friday afternoon," police spokesman in the province Abdul Khalil Asir told Xinhua.
He said that the man was injured in return fire by police and re-arrested.
Feature: China-built hospital helps Afghan war victims in Kandahar
by Farid Behbud, Manan Arghand
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The protracted war and conflicts have converted a China-built general hospital in Kandahar to a main surgical center for the war victims in the southern Afghan region -- a former stronghold for insurgent groups.
"My family shifted me to Chinese Kandahar hospital shortly after I was wounded in a roadside bombing in Uruzgan province days ago. I had two surgery operations in my leg so far. Thanks to doctors of this big hospital," Abdul Ghafoor, 17, told Xinhua at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar, widely-known as Chinese Kandahar hospital among the locals.
"The Mirwais Regional Hospital was build in 1974 by the Chinese government and it began operation with 250 beds in 1979 as a general hospital for Kandahar and neighboring Uruzgan, Zabul, and Helmand provinces," Dr. Daud Farhad, head of the hospital, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Due to an increase in the number of conflict-related victims in the region in 1996, the Afghan Ministry of Health and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) signed an agreement to extend the surgery part to a Surgical Center for war victims, according to Farhad.
"From 1996 up to now, particularly over the past 10 years, the Mirwais hospital in Kandahar is the most important center for war and trauma surgery in southern Afghanistan," said Farhad, also a surgery specialist in the hospital.
"More than 2,870 patients who got wounded in explosions and fightings in Kandahar or neighboring provinces have been treated here throughout 2012," he introduced.
"Due to increase in number of patients, we have set up another 150 beds and now the facility has more than 400 beds. It also has several sections including internal, dental, pediatric and malnutrition, maternal department as well as lab and radiology sections," said the hospital director.
The southern Afghan region has been the scene of intense fighting between Taliban, Afghan troops and foreign forces, but the majority of victims have been civilians, involved against their will in daily firefighting, suicide bombings and attacks.
The Taliban, who ruled the country before they were ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, renewed armed insurgency, staging ambush and suicide attacks, killing combatants as well as civilians.
On Jan. 26, eight Afghan policemen and two detainees were killed and six cops and one captive were wounded when a police van was struck by a roadside bomb in Kandahar city.
"I am really thankful for the people and government of China for building this hospital. But I request more help in providing modern medial equipment and assisting the personnel to get training in treating patients particularly for people who got wounded in war and conflicts," said another patient, Hikmatullah Hazad.
"I think the hospital still needs equipment and ambulances to provide service to the people in Kandahar city with over half a million population."
Dr. Farhad who has been serving in the hospital since 1998 also eyes support from China. "Afghanistan and China are good friends. Chin has been providing donation for Afghanistan in several fields including health sector over the past one decade. We hope Chinese authorities help the Kandahar hospital by sending surgery physicians and help us with modern medical and surgery facilities in future," he said.
Besides China, the hospital has also been supported by the ICRC, a Japanese non-governmental agency and several European states over the past ten years. "We still need assistance and support to help treat people in this region with more than 6 million populations," said Farhad.
"The central heating system of main buildings has broken down and we hope Chinese help us repair the system as we have been facing difficulties during the freezing winters," he said.
More than 3,400 civilians lost their lives in conflicts in 2012 in Afghanistan, according to Afghan officials, while up to 3,021 civilians had been killed in 2011 in the central Asian country.
HRW: Afghan Situation Poor, Risks Increasing
Sharon Behn VOA News January 31, 2013
ISLAMABAD — In its annual global report released Thursday, Human Rights Watch warns that any plans by the international community to decrease aid to Afghanistan as foreign troops leave the country raises the risk of increased human rights abuses in the country.
With international troops set to leave Afghanistan in 2014, the New York-based rights group says that both anti-government and pro-government forces are guilty of human rights abuses. While the Taliban and other militant groups routinely target and harm civilians, the report indicates, Afghan authorities continue to allow warlords and human rights abusers to operate with impunity.
The result is a civilian population caught in the crossfire.
Mohammed Musa Mahmoodi, executive director of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan, says the country has made considerable strides in improving the lives of Afghans in the past decade, but acknowledges more needs to be done.
"Despite all these progresses we have made there are enormous challenges as well," he said. "Insecurity is one of them. Unfortunately, the continuation of war and conflict in Afghanistan has caused a lot of problems to many Afghan civilians."
The report also describes a situation that remains particularly bad for women, with government officials failing to respond effectively to constant militant threats and attacks on female leaders and schoolgirls. The report also cites instances of Afghan police arresting women for trying to escape forced marriages or domestic violence rather than protecting them.
Lawmaker Shinkai Karokhail says that although withdrawal of international troops may see further violence, she remains hopeful.
"We might face lots of challenges, but I am absolutely optimistic we are not going to lose our achievements," she said. "We might face challenges — maybe our progress, our participation might be delayed — but still I am hopeful that we still could maintain."
But according to Heather Barr, Human Rights Watch's expert in Afghanistan, even maintaining the country's recent achievements could prove challenging, and much could be lost if the international community turns its back on Afghanistan in the coming years.
"Afghanistan doesn't have any unnecessary clinics, Afghanistan doesn't have an excessive number of schools," she said. "So any services like this that are lost due to cuts in international funding are going to have an immediate impact on human rights in the country."
Although donors are publicly committed to Afghanistan, Barr says, funds are being cut behind closed doors. As a result, some non-governmental organizations say they are starting to end programs and that this trend is likely to continue.
Afghanistan’s Big Sort: Separating Trash from Treasure in a Container City
By Nate Rawlings / Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar ProvinceJan. 31, 2013time.com
This is the third in a series of dispatches on Afghanistan in retrograde, stories documenting the logistical withdrawal of U.S. forces and matériel from the war-torn country. Retrograde is a military term for the dismantling of installations.
The road from Forward Operating Base Altimur runs mostly downhill during the 20 minutes or so it takes to drive to Forward Operating Base Shank, across a desert valley floor. Every couple of days — sometimes every day when stuff can be loaded fast enough — the troops of Bull Battery, 173rd Airborne Brigade, make the short trip to Shank, hauling away most of the remnants of the American presence up at Altimur.
“Descoping” the base is the first element, and one of the most important, in the process of retrograding America’s matériel presence in Afghanistan. When it comes to ending the longest war in U.S. history, it’s still fairly early in the process, and the key guidance for commanders in the 173rd is to keep the momentum going. “If you can keep those trucks turning,” says Colonel Andrew Rohling, the 173rd’s commander, “that’s the velocity we’re trying to get to.” The paratroopers of the 173rd are hoping that the trips downhill from Altimur to Shank are the beginning of momentum that will carry them home.
But if movement is one crucial piece of the puzzle, organization is perhaps just as important. The soldiers of Bull Battery know what’s in the containers they’re sending down the road — duffle bags filled with personal gear, building material from the base and repair parts. For the most part, they packed them themselves. But at a larger base like Shank, that’s often not the case. When the 173rd landed at Shank in early July last year, 20-ft. containers seemed to be everywhere: they were stacked up behind the gym, arrayed in dirt yards and lined up on the roadways. Rohling ordered his soldiers to count the containers, and on the base of about 6,200 troops, they found more than 8,000.
Inside, they discovered ammunition, broken equipment, building material and years-old pallets of water. For the past few years, especially during the troop surge of 2010, as units needed more equipment and the logistics system focused on pushing goods quickly out to far-flung bases, the giant boxes stacked up in yards and along roads on bases throughout Afghanistan. As units focus more on moving that equipment home, they’re getting some help in the form of a small team called Forward Retrograde Elements. Led by a lieutenant with vast logistics experience in the Air Force, the team is made up of sergeants who have been on previous combat tours.
“Give it to us and we’ll take it” is the unofficial motto of the team, according to First Lieutenant Chad Frizzell. In a small yard in the middle of Forward Operating Base Shank, Frizzell and his team open the containers that the units bring in, sort the equipment and prepare them for convoys traveling to eastern Afghanistan’s logistics base, Bagram Airfield. Much of what they get is equipment that can still be used; some of the goods hauled to them simply need to be trashed; and occasionally they find small treasure troves among the rubble.
On a cloudy day in late January, Frizzell’s team sorted the treasure from the trash. Much of the haul was either repair parts or building materials, which they organized by type. They had separated the scrap into piles to be given to the Afghan government soldiers and another, which must be disposed of by destroying it. Then finally, everything else was lumped in with like equipment. There were bins filled with batteries, piles of tires, collections of rakes and snow shovels, broom handles, folders and binders. On the other side of the yard, Frizzell leaned into a box and pulled out the helmet used by a bomb-disposal team and enough pieces of bomb-resistant suits to outfit a small team.
“This is where the rubber meets the road,” Frizzell says, pointing to the far side of the yard, where his troops do the sorting. “And that’s where the money meets the pocketbook,” he adds, gesturing toward the road where trucks will line up to haul the equipment away. In a way, it’s both. Each truck, a contracted vehicle driven by an Afghan driver, costs about $5,000 for a haul to Bagram. So it makes little sense to send boxes filled with junk or half-full containers.
The other thing Frizzell’s team tries to do is to keep unnecessary convoys off the road. Most of the trips to Bagram have escort teams, and every drive down the highway is another chance for insurgents to attack.
There is nothing glamorous about the great sort. But it is the first step in figuring out what’s reusable and what’s not, all of which should help get the U.S. out of Afghanistan sooner and save money. “Why are we retrograding? It’s not just to get out of Afghanistan,” says Major Adam Lackey, the 173rd Airborne Brigade executive officer who oversees much of the retrograde of Forward Operating Base Shank. “It’s so that we can recoup some of the taxpayer dollars we’ve dumped into here.”
Perhaps no one is happier about Frizzell’s team’s efforts than a group of local Afghans who rolled into the yard at midmorning. Without much fanfare, half a dozen men picked pieces from a pile of wood, and in the span of about 10 minutes, they filled the back of their white, flat-bed truck with plywood and random pieces of lumber that were once used to frame a room for soldiers at the small outposts.
The lumber could just as easily become one more pile of junk to scrap before moving. But not to the locals. When asked what they’ll do with the small mountain of wood, the men said they might use some for a small building, but most will wind up as heating fuel. That night, as the sun dipped behind the mountains and the temperature dropped below freezing, several families in the villages around Shank likely slept a little bit warmer, while on the base, containers and trucks sat stuffed and ready, waiting for the signal to begin the next part of the journey down the road.
Afghan Military’s Illiteracy Complicating U.S. Departure
Bloomberg By Gopal Ratnam & Tony Capaccio Jan 31, 2013
The U.S. effort to extricate its forces from Afghanistan is complicated by the challenge of teaching mostly illiterate Afghan troops how to carry out independent military operations.
Training Afghan troops to operate on their own and to use sophisticated weaponry is especially difficult in a country where almost nine out of ten people can’t read or write, according to U.S. military officers in Afghanistan and Pentagon officials.
Illiteracy among Afghans “is a huge challenge and one that we have confronted for five or six years,” Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in an interview this week in his Pentagon office. Preparing Afghan troops for military roles must include “basic literacy training -- training people to count and write basic sentences,” he said.
President Barack Obama said after meeting with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai this month that “coalition forces will move to a support role this spring” as “Afghans take the lead.” Obama has pledged to remove most of the 66,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
As of the end of September, only one Afghan brigade out of 23 was ranked as capable of operating independently even with the help of advisers, according to a Pentagon report to Congress in December.
Afghan troops are held back from operating independently by limits on “their ability to sustain themselves,” U.S. Major General Robert Abrams, regional commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Kandahar, told reporters in December, when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited the country.
Planes, Mortars
While Afghans have a system for conducting operations, “it’s challenging them because as you know 85 percent of the population of Afghanistan is illiterate,” Abrams said.
At the Pentagon, Carter is overseeing efforts to step up the U.S. transition by sending the Afghans transport planes, mortars and armored vehicles.
Carter said the Pentagon is providing Afghans with four C-130 transport planes built by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) for airlift within the country, in place of the C-27A made by Alenia Aeronautica SpA of Italy.
The C-27A airplanes were bought “at a time when Afghan airlift was not much of a priority,” Carter said.
Afghans need the C-130s from Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed because their “commanders need to be able to go around the battlefield,” Carter said. The planes will be provided from the current U.S. fleet, he said.
Mortars, Vehicles
The U.S. also is providing the Afghan military with mortars and armored vehicles, Carter said.
Mortars will help Afghan troops “to do their own indirect fires” as the U.S. scales back air support, Carter said. The “Afghan leadership is familiar with mortars from the Soviet period,” he said.
The Pentagon also is working “through acquisition issues” in order to provide Afghanistan with a light-attack plane, Carter said.
The Pentagon is providing some armored vehicles from its fleet of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, as well as a new security vehicle “that we are procuring especially for their purpose,” Carter said.
The new Mobile Strike Force Vehicle is made by Textron Inc. (TXT), based in Providence, Rhode Island, according to James Swartout, a spokesman for Carter.
The U.S. may leave behind some of its MRAPs -- a version of which was designed especially for the rugged Afghan terrain -- when its forces withdraw from Afghanistan, Carter said.
Mobile Teams
In addition to supplying equipment, the U.S. is sending mobile teams to train Afghans in using and maintaining the hardware, Carter said.
To sidestep the illiteracy challenge, the U.S. is working with “elite units that operate specialized equipment,” Carter said. Some of these units have “literacy and pre-existing skills that are helpful.”
Some U.S. trainers are likely to remain in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 withdrawal date, Navy Commander Bill Speaks, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an e-mail. That means Afghan troops won’t have to “absorb all the training for operations and maintenance of this equipment before 2014,” he said.
The NATO-led coalition force will have invested about $200 million in literacy programs for the Afghan security forces by 2014, Canadian Captain Karina Holder, a spokeswoman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s training mission in Afghanistan, said in an e-mail. The program began in 2009.
Literacy Levels
The goal is to have 50 percent of Afghan security forces reach Level 3 literacy, Holder said. Level 3, the highest of the three literacy levels, translates into an ability to read, write and comprehend short paragraphs, as well as add and subtract using six digits and to multiply and divide with three-digit numbers, she said.
As of September, about 168,000 Afghan security forces personnel had passed a Level 1 literacy program; 64,386 had completed Level 2; and 42,177 finished Level 3, according to the Pentagon’s report to Congress in December.
The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction yesterday said it was starting an audit of the literacy program to assess whether it was meeting its goals.
“Illiteracy in the Afghan National Security Force remains a major obstacle to effectively developing a capable and self- sustaining force that can operate independently and defend the Afghan people,” the watchdog agency said in its quarterly report.
Audit’s Focus
The audit will assess whether the three contractors hired to operate the program provided “qualified instructors and services, the extent to which” the U.S. monitored the contractors’ performance and training results, and whether “the contracts are meeting the goal of providing basic, sustainable levels of literacy.”
Getting Afghan commanders to send their troops to classrooms was an obstacle, the Pentagon said in its report. “Convincing local commanders to provide forces with sufficient time to complete literacy training is a primary challenge,” according to the report.
At ISAF’s Regional Command South, based in Kandahar, coalition forces are trying to reach the absentees through a “radio-in-box” literacy program, Army Lieutenant Colonel Ben Garrett, spokesman for the command, said in an e-mail. Classes are broadcast over local radio stations to help military officers as well as the local population, he said.
Even with all these efforts, improving literacy “takes time,” Abrams, the regional commander said. “We have to get the right people with the right education, the right intellect and skills to be able to run these systems. It is today one of the biggest challenges and frustrations.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington atgratnam1@bloomberg.net; Tony Capaccio in Washington atacapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott atjwalcott9@bloomberg.net
As NATO Prepares for Afghan Withdrawal, Uzbekistan Seeks War’s Leftovers
New York Times By ANDREW E. KRAMER January 31, 2013
MOSCOW - With planning for the Western military withdrawal from Afghanistan in full swing, officials in Uzbekistan want to make a deal: we will provide the roads out if you leave some of those extra vehicles and supplies behind for us.
Uzbek officials have quietly contacted American, German and British officials with the offer, in their latest bid to supplement their military despite international embargoes, according to officials in NATO countries, human rights advocates and German news reports. On the wish list are armored vehicles, mine detectors, helicopters, navigation equipment and night-vision goggles — used and dusty would be fine.
It is a proposal that has won the attention of Western capitals and that is said to have annoyed the Kremlin enough that it is pushing through an arms deal with Uzbekistan’s neighbor, Kyrgyzstan.
“The Uzbeks see this as their window of bargaining leverage,” Alexander Cooley, a professor at Barnard College and an authority on the former Soviet states of Central Asia, said in a telephone interview. Both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were once Soviet republics.
Uzbekistan is ranked as the sixth most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International and has been banned from most arms purchases in Europe and the United States since political prisoners were discovered to have died in detention a decade ago from scalding water — from, in fact, being boiled alive.
But what Uzbek officials are offering, however, has value. Over the next two years, NATO forces are expected to remove about 70,000 vehicles and 120,000 shipping containers from Afghanistan, and the way out will require rail lines and well-surfaced roads.
Although Pakistani ports are seen as the most efficient avenue for the cargo’s withdrawal, alternatives will be important, and allied officials are mindful of a potential disruption if Pakistan ever decides to again close the routes or ask for more money, as it did during a diplomatic crisis with the United States in 2011 and 2012.
The United States government has taken the Uzbek proposal seriously enough to partially lift a set of arms sales restrictions that have been in place for about a decade. And it has held interagency meetings in Washington this month to consider the latest Uzbek proposal, according to nongovernmental experts on American policy in the region.
The Uzbek request illustrates the difficult logistics of winding down the war, an unglamorous coda to a fight that began with troops parachuting in out of the night sky.
As was the case in the withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, the cost of shipping used equipment to the United States often exceeds its value. The Army left tens of thousands of air-conditioned residential trailers in Iraq, and many of the armored vehicles that were rolled across the border into Kuwait were mothballed there.
A legacy of abandoned weapons is a common one in battle zones, including Afghanistan, which became a bustling secondhand arms bazaar after the Soviet pullout in 1989.
The State Department issued a statement saying that it was “premature to speculate on plans for any transfer of excess equipment, or even what equipment may be declared excess” after the withdrawal, but it clarified the parameters for any potential deals with Central Asian countries. “Only equipment deemed in excess of operational needs by the Department of Defense would be provided to foreign countries, including Northern Distribution Network host nations in Central Asia,” the statement said, referring to the name of the northern supply lines into Afghanistan.
Delighted with that possibility, the Uzbeks have been broadening the scope of their demands, said a senior American official directly involved in the diplomacy of the Afghan logistical routes, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate negotiations.
The requests have gone from relatively common items like night-vision goggles to large and expensive American-made goods like MRAP vehicles, the 14-ton armored utility trucks that help protect troops from roadside bombs.
Other items that the Uzbeks have eyed in the American arsenal in Afghanistan are small arms, mine detectors, navigation equipment and possibly drones, according to Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, suggesting that the Uzbeks are looking at the pullout next year as a sort of everything-must-go moment for military shopping.
The government is trying to broaden its scope beyond Russian military equipment standards, lest Uzbekistan be beholden to Moscow in regional conflicts over water rights or border enclaves with its neighbors.
In December, Uzbekistan pulled out of Russia’s regional security bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, as it stepped up its requests for Western weapons. Russia responded by offering a $1 billion arms deal to Kyrgyzstan.
Against the backdrop of its dispute with Moscow, the Uzbek government is said to have quietly conveyed its requests for military surplus to officials from NATO countries.
After years of watching helicopters fly in and out of Termez airfield, which is used as a German base in Uzbekistan, the government in March told Germany’s defense minister, Thomas de Maizière, who was visiting, that it would not mind getting its hands on a few of them, the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.
A British delegation passed through in July. On the diplomatic agenda between the two countries, according to Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and now a critic of British policy in the region, is the handover of used Land Rovers or other military vehicles as partial payment for shipping out other items.
Such talks have alarmed members of the German Parliament, who requested clarification from their government.
“Either the Uzbeks want money, and quite a lot, or they want weapons,” Viola von Cramon, a member of Parliament, said in a telephone interview. “What I’ve heard from informed sources is they are not interested in civil assistance, or anything progressive like university exchanges. It’s really hard in that respect. They really prefer the military sector.”
Human rights groups harbor apprehensions at the thought of a second life for Western military hardware in Uzbekistan.
“Uzbekistan has one of the most abysmal and atrocious records of any of the countries we work on here at Human Rights Watch, which is well over 100 countries,” Steve Swerdlow, the group’s Central Asia researcher, who was expelled from Uzbekistan in 2010, said in a telephone interview.
In one horrific episode, the Uzbek military fired on protesters in a public square in Andijon in 2005, killing as many as 745 people, according to an opposition party. And the nation’s economy depends heavily on the forced labor of children and adults in cotton fields.
While Western militaries still deal with Uzbekistan, more than 100 apparel brands, including H & M, Gap and Walmart, have signed a pledge not to buy Uzbek cotton.
Afghan 'Buzkashi Boys' bank on Internet campaign for Oscar trip
Reuters Jan 31, 2013
LOS ANGELES - The teenage stars of an Oscar-nominated short film from Afghanistan hope to walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards in February thanks to donations that are pouring in to pay for their travel.
A representative for the "Buzkashi Boys" film said on Thursday that an online campaign is two-thirds of its way to the $10,000 needed for 14-year-olds Fawad Mohammadi and Jawanmard Paiz to travel from Kabul to Los Angeles in time for Hollywood's biggest night on Feb. 24.
"Buzkashi Boys" is about two children growing up in Kabul who dream of becoming Buzkashi riders, horsemen who compete in the dangerous Afghan national sport similar to polo, in which riders try to carry a headless goat across a goal-line.
So far, some 120 people have donated money to the travel fund from countries that include the United States, Germany, Afghanistan, Canada and Australia. Extra cash raised will go to a college fund for Mohammadi .
The teens hope to arrive a few days before the annual Academy Awards in which the film "Buzkashi Boys" by U.S. director Sam French is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film.
"I'm sure we'll get there one way or another," the film's publicist Leonard Morpurgo told Reuters.
"They need that money to get them over here," he said, adding that the film did not have the budget for the teens to travel to the Oscars.
Mohammadi, an amateur actor with piercing green eyes, gained international attention following the film's release last year for his personal story as a fatherless youth who grew up selling maps of Kabul to tourists in its Chicken Street market.
One of the boys is a street kid like Mohammadi, the other the son of a blacksmith forced to spend long hours in his father's dark workshop sharpening ax heads.
"Buzkashi Boys," which runs for just 28 minutes, is the first film to be produced by the Afghan Film Project, a non-profit group that aims to train filmmakers in Afghanistan. (Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)
Iran fuel may be part of U.S.-funded Afghan supply deals - report
Reuters By Daniel Fineren Thu Jan 31, 2013
DUBAI - Fuel purchases made for Afghan security forces using U.S. government funds may have included Iranian petroleum products in violation of U.S. sanctions, investigators said in a report published late on Wednesday.
Afghanistan relies heavily on imported fuel and Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan are the leading countries of origin, the report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says.
But the watchdog said it could not rule out the possibility of sanctions violations in purchases for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) that are financed by the U.S. taxpayer.
"Despite actions taken by the Department of Defence to prevent the purchase of Iranian fuel with U.S. funds, risks remain that U.S. economic sanctions could be violated," Special Inspector General John Sopko said in the report.
U.S. sanctions intended to starve oil-export dependent Tehran of funds for its disputed nuclear programme ban nearly all U.S. trade with Iran, including financing Iranian petroleum product purchases.
Since December Sigar, created by Congress to oversee reconstruction activities in Afghanistan, has investigated allegations of potential sanctions violations in fuel purchasing for the ANSF.
TIGHTENING CONTROLS
It concludes that while the U.S. Department of Defence (DOD) has made some progress in tightening controls over fuel sourcing for Afghan security services since November, there remains a risk that U.S. taxpayer dollars could continue to flow to Iran.
"DOD is unable to determine if any of the $1.1 billion in fuel purchased for the Afghan National Army (ANA) between fiscal year 2007 and 2012 came from Iran, in violation of U.S. economic sanctions," Sopko said in his report to U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The multinational Combined Security Transition Command (CSTC-A) currently buys fuel - under contracts administered by the U.S. Central Command's Joint Theater Support Contracting Command (CJTSCC) - for Afghan forces from eight separate Afghan importers.
Between 2007 and November 2012, those vendors were not required to provide information on their sources, or certify that their fuel purchases complied with U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran, the report says.
Since late 2012, they have been required to sign contracts that prohibit purchases of supplies from Iran and to certify the origin of the fuel.
BLENDED FUEL
Earlier this month, CJTSCC provided investigators with certificates from four of the eight vendors which said Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were the "main sources" of fuel they delivered. But it remains unclear whether there is a system to verify the fuel's origin, Sigar said.
Fuel imported from Russia and Turkmenistan is usually blended and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Sigar it is possible that fuel blended in Turkmenistan could contain Iranian fuel.
"It is important that adequate measures are in place to test the validity of the certifications and ensure that subcontractors are abiding by the prohibitions regarding Iranian fuel," Sopko said in his concluding remarks.
Washington may need to increase safeguards on its direct assistance funding — expected to exceed $1 billion for ANSF fuel from 2013-2018 — to prevent funds from reaching Iran, he said.
At the end of 2011, Kabul and Tehran signed a trade deal allowing the Afghan government and private sector to buy about 308 million gallons of fuel a year from Iran.
The U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Task Force 2010 is still trying to establish whether any of the eight vendors supplying Afghan security services through the U.S. government contracting system has registered to import fuel from Iran under the terms of that trade deal, the report notes.
(Reporting by Daniel Fineren)
Young Afghans Face Backlash Over Music
Wall Street Journal By MARGHERITA STANCATI February 1, 2013
KABUL - Laila Nabizadeh, a 13-year-old Afghan drummer, will be performing in New York's Carnegie Hall this month, as part of Afghanistan's only national orchestra, which has been touted as a symbol of the country's progress since the Taliban's downfall.
But when she returns from her U.S. tour, the new, more conservative winds blowing in Kabul are threatening her budding music career.
Ms. Nabizadeh and 10 other members of the youth orchestra are residents of a charity-run girls' shelter in Kabul. She was sent here to get an education by her parents, who live in the remote eastern province of Nuristan, much of which is under Taliban control.
The tour was planned in late 2011, but in September, Afghanistan's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs ordered the shelter to halt its music program and replace it with religious classes. Music other than the national anthem and patriotic songs risks "tempting people toward immorality and is against Islam," said Wasil Noor Momand, the deputy minister for social affairs who signed the order. "Afghanistan is an Islamic country and we want our children to be raised in an Islamic way."
The order added that once the girls turn 18, they must leave the shelter, and return to their families in the countryside. Ms. Nabizadeh doesn't know what she will do if she can't become a drummer. But she knows for sure that she doesn't want to go back to her home valley, where girls marry young and music is taboo. "I love playing the drums," she said in an interview at the Kabul shelter. "I want to stay here."
As the U.S.-led coalition withdraws in coming years, the move against young musicians is one sign Afghanistan is backsliding on basic rights acquired following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime, which considered music un-Islamic and banned it.
Although the central government's official position is that it supports music education among children, music is viewed as blasphemous by Taliban mullahs and some Afghan government officials, and girls face an even-stronger backlash.
"We support the promotion of music, especially of Afghan music," said Aimal Faizi, spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who he said wasn't aware of the ministry's order.
But political uncertainty and the possibility of a Taliban comeback, is emboldening some officials to promote more conservative agendas.
"Everyone is getting more conservative because they are worried that the Taliban will come back or join the government," said Afghan lawmaker Elay Ershad, a member of a parliamentary committee that pushed for a ban on teaching music—a decision she opposed. "It's killing me."
The Afghan Child Education and Caring Organization runs Ms. Nabizadeh's shelter. Some 30 other girls studying music live there, many of them from the country's most violent regions. The charity running the shelter partners with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the country's recently established music academy, which encourages the girls to audition. Ms. Nabizadeh, who moved to Kabul at the age of 9, enrolled in the academy two years ago.
For now, in the shelter's basement-turned-music room, drum rhythms still accompany the piano. Andeisha Farid, who runs the charity, said she has launched a complaint against the ministry's order and is still waiting for a reply. The parliamentary committee is also reviewing her request to let the girls continue their music classes.
It isn't clear, however, how long she could resist the crackdown. "We are scared these voices will get louder," she said. "It's not only under the Taliban—it's still very difficult for these girls to play music."
Years of Taliban rule and war took a toll on the country's once-flourishing music scene.
"The Taliban destroyed all my instruments and hanged some of them from trees," said Ustad Amruden, a player of dilruba, a traditional Afghan stringed instrument. The frail-looking, soft-spoken 70-year-old, who is now a teacher at the music academy, recounted having to flee overnight to Quetta, Pakistan, fearing for his life.
Though the Taliban have softened their prohibitions on photography, television and girls' education in recent years, "Music is strictly forbidden in Islam," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The music academy where Mr. Amruden teaches and Ms. Nabizadeh studies has around 140 students, boys and girls from the age of 9. Sponsored chiefly by the World Bank, the academy operates under the auspices of Afghanistan's Ministry of Education.
Ahmad Naser Sarmast, the academy's director, said he is confident that music education will survive.
"The time when children were deprived of music is gone now," said Mr. Sarmast, a musicologist who started the academy three years ago with the aim of reviving the country's moribund music scene. He said the academy—unlike the girls' shelter— hasn't faced pressure to curb its music-education program.
As part of the school's policy, half of the student body comes from underprivileged backgrounds. A majority of them, like Ms. Nabizadeh, were recruited from shelters scattered around the Afghan capital. Others are former street hawkers, who sold chewing gum and plastic bags in Kabul before taking up clarinets, violins and cellos.
One recent morning, boys and girls carrying tablas, xylophones and guitars shuffled noisily between classrooms, as members of the school's orchestra crammed in a wood-paneled room for rehearsals ahead of their U.S. trip.
They played "The Four Seasons of Afghanistan," a version of Antonio Vivaldi's violin concertos adapted to include Afghan instruments like the plucked string rabab.
Their tour, partly funded by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, includes stops at Washington's John F. Kennedy Center on Feb. 7, and a performance in New York's Carnegie Hall on Feb. 12.
The young musicians said they are looking forward to the trip. For most, it will be their first time outside Afghanistan, or on a plane. "I'm really happy to be going to America," said Sapna Rahmati, an aspiring pianist.
But she is aware of music's uncertain position in her country.
"The Taliban don't want the music school, and they don't want girls to go to school," said the 10-year-old, who lives in the same shelter as Ms. Nabizadeh.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said it wouldn't welcome attempts to restrict music education for children.
"Music and music education teaches tolerance, it brings everyone together in a spirit of peace," said embassy spokesman David Snepp. "Once that happens, it's very difficult to reverse."
But Ms. Ershad, the lawmaker, fears what will end up happening as U.S.-led troops leave and the global spotlight shifts away from Afghanistan.
"Women's rights and music are soft targets," said Ms. Ershad, a former government adviser on gender issues and a mother of two. "I'm really worried." —Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com
Nato Will Not Leave Afghanistan Despite Defence Cuts
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Thursday, 31 January 2013
Nato Thursday released its annual report in Brussels saying that it will not allow Afghanistan to become the save haven of insurgents, even as it flagged serious gaps in defence spending from its partner countries.
In the first part of the report which addresses Afghanistan, Nato is optimistic about the future of the country saying its strategy in Afghanistan will not change and the mobilisation and support of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) will continue.
However, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen released the report saying that defence spending among the allies is increasingly uneven, not just between North America and Europe, but also among European allies.
"If these spending trends continue, we could find ourselves facing three serious gaps that would place Nato's military capacity and political credibility at risk in the years to come," he said.
Rasmussen said the main risk was that "while some European allies will continue to acquire modern and deployable defence capabilities, others might find it increasingly difficult to do so," adding that no country will be safe without investment in defence.
Nevertheless, the confidence of the 28-member coalition in the Afghan mission remains strong, according to the report.
It said that 23 out of 34 provinces are under the security lead of ANSF - representing about 78 percent of the country's population.
Furthermore, in first nine months of 2012, terrorist attacks declined in areas where most of the Afghan population lives, notably 22 percent in Kabul, 62 percent in Kandahar, 13 percent in Herat and 88 percent in Mazar-e-Sharif.
The report said that 80 percent of the insurgent's attacks happened in the places where 20 percent of the population lives and while insurgents launched a number of spectacular attacks in the capital, most of these were rapidly contained.
The report also noted that during 2012, some 5600 opposition fighters joined the government peace and reconciliation programme.
Looking ahead, Nato is optimistic that it will reach the required 120,000 extra ANSF personnel needed over the next two years. It said that after 2014, the decision of whether to increase or decrease these total numbers forces will belong to the Afghanistan Government, while Nato will continue to train and support them.
Kidnappers Kill Son of Herat Businessman After Ransom Paid
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 31 January 2013
The son of a Herat businessman has been killed by his captors 35 days after he was kidnapped and held for ransom, local officials said Thursday.
The father of the boy said the kidnappers had initially asked him to pay US$400,000 for his son's release. This was negotiated down to US$90,000, which he paid, but the boy was still killed and buried - probably in order to protect their identities, the father told TOLOnews.
A number of Herat province residents brought the unearthed body of the boy before the governor's office and demanded harsh punishments for the perpetrators.
Gen. Abdul Hamid Hamidi, acting police commander of Herat province, told TOLOnews that the boy was kidnapped near his house 35 days ago. The police have detained six men and two women as key persons in the kidnapping, with one person still missing.
"We detained six men and two women in connection with this and they have confessed their crime," Hamidi said.
Cases of kidnappings in Herat have dropped in the last two months compared to six months ago, however the recent incident has reignited concerns for the ruthless criminal behaviour.
ADB to Fund $300m of Infrastructure Projects in 2013
TOLOnews.com By Zabihullah Jhanmal Thursday, 31 January 2013
Asian Development Bank said it will provide more than US$300 million to fund projects in Afghanistan in 2013, indicating the funds will be spent in three main areas.
The three most prominent projects for the ADB are to import electricity from Turkmenistan to three southern provinces, to construct a number of average dams on rivers in Bamiyan and Badakhshan and reconstructing irrigation systems, and providing investment opportunities for the country's mines.
"For this year, as a minimum we are allocating about $300 million, and this will be increased with the support from the co-financing funds. This shows our commitment to the country, and our full commitment to see after 2014," said Joji Tokeshi, Country Director for ADB Afghanistan at a press conference Thursday.
Marking the bank's interest in hydropower projects, the ADB director pointed out the bank is making a master plan of the energy sector along with the government and other donors to the country.
"We are interested in supporting the hydropower development, however it would be irresponsible if we just put in the money...because the important part of infrastructure is operation and maintenance of the infrastructure. So for that purpose we have to be very careful about that and what are the priorities. There are many projects, [but] what is the priority? That is why ADB is preparing with the government and other donors what is called the master plan of the energy sector in which we will make the priorities," Tokeshi said.
The ADB is one of the largest donors to Afghanistan, committing US$1.2 billion by the end of 2016 at the Tokyo Summit in July.
Electronic ID Card Distribution to Begin February
TOLOnews.com By Azim Arash Thursday, 31 January 2013
President Hamid Karzai has ordered the distribution of electronic identification cards to begin as scheduled in early February.
The Ministries of Interior, Finance, Communication and Information Technology, and the Office of the Administrative Affairs are all involved in getting the process underway, while the order also entails security organisations to ensure all security considerations are in place.
"In this seven-article decree from the president, the ministries that are related to distribution of electronic identifications have been asked to begin the process very soon," said Rafi Seddiqi, spokesman of Secretariat of Council of Ministers.
The decree orders the communications ministry to provide equipment for the distribution of the cards, the finance ministry to provide the budget, interior ministry to commence the distribution, and administrative affairs to observe the process and report to the president's office on a weekly basis.
It is said that the electronic IDs will include biometric data such as finger prints and eye scans and will cost an estimated US$120 million to be issued to every Afghan citizen.
It is not expected that all the cards will be distributed in time for the presidential election in April 2014, mainly because of challenges in reaching the remote areas of Afghanistan.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces crackdown on Taliban militants in Nad Ali district of Helmand province 555 km south of Kabul on Thursday, killing seven militants, a local official said Friday.
"During cleanup operation which launched in Dasht area of Nad Ali district on Thursday morning and concluded in the evening, seven Taliban rebels were killed and another arrested," district police chief Omar Jan Haqmal told Xinhua.
He did not say if there were any casualties on the security forces.
Meantime, an official in the neighboring Marja district asserted that roadside bomb injured three Afghan soldiers and a police constable on Thursday.
Taliban militants have yet to comment.
Detained militant kills 2 Afghan police
TALUQAN, Afghanistan, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- A detained Taliban fighter snatched a gun, opened fire and killed two policemen in Takhar province 250 km north of Kabul on Friday, police said.
"Police arrested a Taliban rebel on Thursday and kept him in a temporary lockup but the arrested insurgent snatched a gun from police, opened fire and killed two policemen on the spot Friday afternoon," police spokesman in the province Abdul Khalil Asir told Xinhua.
He said that the man was injured in return fire by police and re-arrested.
Feature: China-built hospital helps Afghan war victims in Kandahar
by Farid Behbud, Manan Arghand
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The protracted war and conflicts have converted a China-built general hospital in Kandahar to a main surgical center for the war victims in the southern Afghan region -- a former stronghold for insurgent groups.
"My family shifted me to Chinese Kandahar hospital shortly after I was wounded in a roadside bombing in Uruzgan province days ago. I had two surgery operations in my leg so far. Thanks to doctors of this big hospital," Abdul Ghafoor, 17, told Xinhua at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar, widely-known as Chinese Kandahar hospital among the locals.
"The Mirwais Regional Hospital was build in 1974 by the Chinese government and it began operation with 250 beds in 1979 as a general hospital for Kandahar and neighboring Uruzgan, Zabul, and Helmand provinces," Dr. Daud Farhad, head of the hospital, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Due to an increase in the number of conflict-related victims in the region in 1996, the Afghan Ministry of Health and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) signed an agreement to extend the surgery part to a Surgical Center for war victims, according to Farhad.
"From 1996 up to now, particularly over the past 10 years, the Mirwais hospital in Kandahar is the most important center for war and trauma surgery in southern Afghanistan," said Farhad, also a surgery specialist in the hospital.
"More than 2,870 patients who got wounded in explosions and fightings in Kandahar or neighboring provinces have been treated here throughout 2012," he introduced.
"Due to increase in number of patients, we have set up another 150 beds and now the facility has more than 400 beds. It also has several sections including internal, dental, pediatric and malnutrition, maternal department as well as lab and radiology sections," said the hospital director.
The southern Afghan region has been the scene of intense fighting between Taliban, Afghan troops and foreign forces, but the majority of victims have been civilians, involved against their will in daily firefighting, suicide bombings and attacks.
The Taliban, who ruled the country before they were ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, renewed armed insurgency, staging ambush and suicide attacks, killing combatants as well as civilians.
On Jan. 26, eight Afghan policemen and two detainees were killed and six cops and one captive were wounded when a police van was struck by a roadside bomb in Kandahar city.
"I am really thankful for the people and government of China for building this hospital. But I request more help in providing modern medial equipment and assisting the personnel to get training in treating patients particularly for people who got wounded in war and conflicts," said another patient, Hikmatullah Hazad.
"I think the hospital still needs equipment and ambulances to provide service to the people in Kandahar city with over half a million population."
Dr. Farhad who has been serving in the hospital since 1998 also eyes support from China. "Afghanistan and China are good friends. Chin has been providing donation for Afghanistan in several fields including health sector over the past one decade. We hope Chinese authorities help the Kandahar hospital by sending surgery physicians and help us with modern medical and surgery facilities in future," he said.
Besides China, the hospital has also been supported by the ICRC, a Japanese non-governmental agency and several European states over the past ten years. "We still need assistance and support to help treat people in this region with more than 6 million populations," said Farhad.
"The central heating system of main buildings has broken down and we hope Chinese help us repair the system as we have been facing difficulties during the freezing winters," he said.
More than 3,400 civilians lost their lives in conflicts in 2012 in Afghanistan, according to Afghan officials, while up to 3,021 civilians had been killed in 2011 in the central Asian country.
HRW: Afghan Situation Poor, Risks Increasing
Sharon Behn VOA News January 31, 2013
ISLAMABAD — In its annual global report released Thursday, Human Rights Watch warns that any plans by the international community to decrease aid to Afghanistan as foreign troops leave the country raises the risk of increased human rights abuses in the country.
With international troops set to leave Afghanistan in 2014, the New York-based rights group says that both anti-government and pro-government forces are guilty of human rights abuses. While the Taliban and other militant groups routinely target and harm civilians, the report indicates, Afghan authorities continue to allow warlords and human rights abusers to operate with impunity.
The result is a civilian population caught in the crossfire.
Mohammed Musa Mahmoodi, executive director of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan, says the country has made considerable strides in improving the lives of Afghans in the past decade, but acknowledges more needs to be done.
"Despite all these progresses we have made there are enormous challenges as well," he said. "Insecurity is one of them. Unfortunately, the continuation of war and conflict in Afghanistan has caused a lot of problems to many Afghan civilians."
The report also describes a situation that remains particularly bad for women, with government officials failing to respond effectively to constant militant threats and attacks on female leaders and schoolgirls. The report also cites instances of Afghan police arresting women for trying to escape forced marriages or domestic violence rather than protecting them.
Lawmaker Shinkai Karokhail says that although withdrawal of international troops may see further violence, she remains hopeful.
"We might face lots of challenges, but I am absolutely optimistic we are not going to lose our achievements," she said. "We might face challenges — maybe our progress, our participation might be delayed — but still I am hopeful that we still could maintain."
But according to Heather Barr, Human Rights Watch's expert in Afghanistan, even maintaining the country's recent achievements could prove challenging, and much could be lost if the international community turns its back on Afghanistan in the coming years.
"Afghanistan doesn't have any unnecessary clinics, Afghanistan doesn't have an excessive number of schools," she said. "So any services like this that are lost due to cuts in international funding are going to have an immediate impact on human rights in the country."
Although donors are publicly committed to Afghanistan, Barr says, funds are being cut behind closed doors. As a result, some non-governmental organizations say they are starting to end programs and that this trend is likely to continue.
Afghanistan’s Big Sort: Separating Trash from Treasure in a Container City
By Nate Rawlings / Forward Operating Base Shank, Logar ProvinceJan. 31, 2013time.com
This is the third in a series of dispatches on Afghanistan in retrograde, stories documenting the logistical withdrawal of U.S. forces and matériel from the war-torn country. Retrograde is a military term for the dismantling of installations.
The road from Forward Operating Base Altimur runs mostly downhill during the 20 minutes or so it takes to drive to Forward Operating Base Shank, across a desert valley floor. Every couple of days — sometimes every day when stuff can be loaded fast enough — the troops of Bull Battery, 173rd Airborne Brigade, make the short trip to Shank, hauling away most of the remnants of the American presence up at Altimur.
“Descoping” the base is the first element, and one of the most important, in the process of retrograding America’s matériel presence in Afghanistan. When it comes to ending the longest war in U.S. history, it’s still fairly early in the process, and the key guidance for commanders in the 173rd is to keep the momentum going. “If you can keep those trucks turning,” says Colonel Andrew Rohling, the 173rd’s commander, “that’s the velocity we’re trying to get to.” The paratroopers of the 173rd are hoping that the trips downhill from Altimur to Shank are the beginning of momentum that will carry them home.
But if movement is one crucial piece of the puzzle, organization is perhaps just as important. The soldiers of Bull Battery know what’s in the containers they’re sending down the road — duffle bags filled with personal gear, building material from the base and repair parts. For the most part, they packed them themselves. But at a larger base like Shank, that’s often not the case. When the 173rd landed at Shank in early July last year, 20-ft. containers seemed to be everywhere: they were stacked up behind the gym, arrayed in dirt yards and lined up on the roadways. Rohling ordered his soldiers to count the containers, and on the base of about 6,200 troops, they found more than 8,000.
Inside, they discovered ammunition, broken equipment, building material and years-old pallets of water. For the past few years, especially during the troop surge of 2010, as units needed more equipment and the logistics system focused on pushing goods quickly out to far-flung bases, the giant boxes stacked up in yards and along roads on bases throughout Afghanistan. As units focus more on moving that equipment home, they’re getting some help in the form of a small team called Forward Retrograde Elements. Led by a lieutenant with vast logistics experience in the Air Force, the team is made up of sergeants who have been on previous combat tours.
“Give it to us and we’ll take it” is the unofficial motto of the team, according to First Lieutenant Chad Frizzell. In a small yard in the middle of Forward Operating Base Shank, Frizzell and his team open the containers that the units bring in, sort the equipment and prepare them for convoys traveling to eastern Afghanistan’s logistics base, Bagram Airfield. Much of what they get is equipment that can still be used; some of the goods hauled to them simply need to be trashed; and occasionally they find small treasure troves among the rubble.
On a cloudy day in late January, Frizzell’s team sorted the treasure from the trash. Much of the haul was either repair parts or building materials, which they organized by type. They had separated the scrap into piles to be given to the Afghan government soldiers and another, which must be disposed of by destroying it. Then finally, everything else was lumped in with like equipment. There were bins filled with batteries, piles of tires, collections of rakes and snow shovels, broom handles, folders and binders. On the other side of the yard, Frizzell leaned into a box and pulled out the helmet used by a bomb-disposal team and enough pieces of bomb-resistant suits to outfit a small team.
“This is where the rubber meets the road,” Frizzell says, pointing to the far side of the yard, where his troops do the sorting. “And that’s where the money meets the pocketbook,” he adds, gesturing toward the road where trucks will line up to haul the equipment away. In a way, it’s both. Each truck, a contracted vehicle driven by an Afghan driver, costs about $5,000 for a haul to Bagram. So it makes little sense to send boxes filled with junk or half-full containers.
The other thing Frizzell’s team tries to do is to keep unnecessary convoys off the road. Most of the trips to Bagram have escort teams, and every drive down the highway is another chance for insurgents to attack.
There is nothing glamorous about the great sort. But it is the first step in figuring out what’s reusable and what’s not, all of which should help get the U.S. out of Afghanistan sooner and save money. “Why are we retrograding? It’s not just to get out of Afghanistan,” says Major Adam Lackey, the 173rd Airborne Brigade executive officer who oversees much of the retrograde of Forward Operating Base Shank. “It’s so that we can recoup some of the taxpayer dollars we’ve dumped into here.”
Perhaps no one is happier about Frizzell’s team’s efforts than a group of local Afghans who rolled into the yard at midmorning. Without much fanfare, half a dozen men picked pieces from a pile of wood, and in the span of about 10 minutes, they filled the back of their white, flat-bed truck with plywood and random pieces of lumber that were once used to frame a room for soldiers at the small outposts.
The lumber could just as easily become one more pile of junk to scrap before moving. But not to the locals. When asked what they’ll do with the small mountain of wood, the men said they might use some for a small building, but most will wind up as heating fuel. That night, as the sun dipped behind the mountains and the temperature dropped below freezing, several families in the villages around Shank likely slept a little bit warmer, while on the base, containers and trucks sat stuffed and ready, waiting for the signal to begin the next part of the journey down the road.
Afghan Military’s Illiteracy Complicating U.S. Departure
Bloomberg By Gopal Ratnam & Tony Capaccio Jan 31, 2013
The U.S. effort to extricate its forces from Afghanistan is complicated by the challenge of teaching mostly illiterate Afghan troops how to carry out independent military operations.
Training Afghan troops to operate on their own and to use sophisticated weaponry is especially difficult in a country where almost nine out of ten people can’t read or write, according to U.S. military officers in Afghanistan and Pentagon officials.
Illiteracy among Afghans “is a huge challenge and one that we have confronted for five or six years,” Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in an interview this week in his Pentagon office. Preparing Afghan troops for military roles must include “basic literacy training -- training people to count and write basic sentences,” he said.
President Barack Obama said after meeting with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai this month that “coalition forces will move to a support role this spring” as “Afghans take the lead.” Obama has pledged to remove most of the 66,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
As of the end of September, only one Afghan brigade out of 23 was ranked as capable of operating independently even with the help of advisers, according to a Pentagon report to Congress in December.
Afghan troops are held back from operating independently by limits on “their ability to sustain themselves,” U.S. Major General Robert Abrams, regional commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Kandahar, told reporters in December, when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited the country.
Planes, Mortars
While Afghans have a system for conducting operations, “it’s challenging them because as you know 85 percent of the population of Afghanistan is illiterate,” Abrams said.
At the Pentagon, Carter is overseeing efforts to step up the U.S. transition by sending the Afghans transport planes, mortars and armored vehicles.
Carter said the Pentagon is providing Afghans with four C-130 transport planes built by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) for airlift within the country, in place of the C-27A made by Alenia Aeronautica SpA of Italy.
The C-27A airplanes were bought “at a time when Afghan airlift was not much of a priority,” Carter said.
Afghans need the C-130s from Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed because their “commanders need to be able to go around the battlefield,” Carter said. The planes will be provided from the current U.S. fleet, he said.
Mortars, Vehicles
The U.S. also is providing the Afghan military with mortars and armored vehicles, Carter said.
Mortars will help Afghan troops “to do their own indirect fires” as the U.S. scales back air support, Carter said. The “Afghan leadership is familiar with mortars from the Soviet period,” he said.
The Pentagon also is working “through acquisition issues” in order to provide Afghanistan with a light-attack plane, Carter said.
The Pentagon is providing some armored vehicles from its fleet of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, as well as a new security vehicle “that we are procuring especially for their purpose,” Carter said.
The new Mobile Strike Force Vehicle is made by Textron Inc. (TXT), based in Providence, Rhode Island, according to James Swartout, a spokesman for Carter.
The U.S. may leave behind some of its MRAPs -- a version of which was designed especially for the rugged Afghan terrain -- when its forces withdraw from Afghanistan, Carter said.
Mobile Teams
In addition to supplying equipment, the U.S. is sending mobile teams to train Afghans in using and maintaining the hardware, Carter said.
To sidestep the illiteracy challenge, the U.S. is working with “elite units that operate specialized equipment,” Carter said. Some of these units have “literacy and pre-existing skills that are helpful.”
Some U.S. trainers are likely to remain in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 withdrawal date, Navy Commander Bill Speaks, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an e-mail. That means Afghan troops won’t have to “absorb all the training for operations and maintenance of this equipment before 2014,” he said.
The NATO-led coalition force will have invested about $200 million in literacy programs for the Afghan security forces by 2014, Canadian Captain Karina Holder, a spokeswoman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s training mission in Afghanistan, said in an e-mail. The program began in 2009.
Literacy Levels
The goal is to have 50 percent of Afghan security forces reach Level 3 literacy, Holder said. Level 3, the highest of the three literacy levels, translates into an ability to read, write and comprehend short paragraphs, as well as add and subtract using six digits and to multiply and divide with three-digit numbers, she said.
As of September, about 168,000 Afghan security forces personnel had passed a Level 1 literacy program; 64,386 had completed Level 2; and 42,177 finished Level 3, according to the Pentagon’s report to Congress in December.
The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction yesterday said it was starting an audit of the literacy program to assess whether it was meeting its goals.
“Illiteracy in the Afghan National Security Force remains a major obstacle to effectively developing a capable and self- sustaining force that can operate independently and defend the Afghan people,” the watchdog agency said in its quarterly report.
Audit’s Focus
The audit will assess whether the three contractors hired to operate the program provided “qualified instructors and services, the extent to which” the U.S. monitored the contractors’ performance and training results, and whether “the contracts are meeting the goal of providing basic, sustainable levels of literacy.”
Getting Afghan commanders to send their troops to classrooms was an obstacle, the Pentagon said in its report. “Convincing local commanders to provide forces with sufficient time to complete literacy training is a primary challenge,” according to the report.
At ISAF’s Regional Command South, based in Kandahar, coalition forces are trying to reach the absentees through a “radio-in-box” literacy program, Army Lieutenant Colonel Ben Garrett, spokesman for the command, said in an e-mail. Classes are broadcast over local radio stations to help military officers as well as the local population, he said.
Even with all these efforts, improving literacy “takes time,” Abrams, the regional commander said. “We have to get the right people with the right education, the right intellect and skills to be able to run these systems. It is today one of the biggest challenges and frustrations.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington atgratnam1@bloomberg.net; Tony Capaccio in Washington atacapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott atjwalcott9@bloomberg.net
As NATO Prepares for Afghan Withdrawal, Uzbekistan Seeks War’s Leftovers
New York Times By ANDREW E. KRAMER January 31, 2013
MOSCOW - With planning for the Western military withdrawal from Afghanistan in full swing, officials in Uzbekistan want to make a deal: we will provide the roads out if you leave some of those extra vehicles and supplies behind for us.
Uzbek officials have quietly contacted American, German and British officials with the offer, in their latest bid to supplement their military despite international embargoes, according to officials in NATO countries, human rights advocates and German news reports. On the wish list are armored vehicles, mine detectors, helicopters, navigation equipment and night-vision goggles — used and dusty would be fine.
It is a proposal that has won the attention of Western capitals and that is said to have annoyed the Kremlin enough that it is pushing through an arms deal with Uzbekistan’s neighbor, Kyrgyzstan.
“The Uzbeks see this as their window of bargaining leverage,” Alexander Cooley, a professor at Barnard College and an authority on the former Soviet states of Central Asia, said in a telephone interview. Both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were once Soviet republics.
Uzbekistan is ranked as the sixth most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International and has been banned from most arms purchases in Europe and the United States since political prisoners were discovered to have died in detention a decade ago from scalding water — from, in fact, being boiled alive.
But what Uzbek officials are offering, however, has value. Over the next two years, NATO forces are expected to remove about 70,000 vehicles and 120,000 shipping containers from Afghanistan, and the way out will require rail lines and well-surfaced roads.
Although Pakistani ports are seen as the most efficient avenue for the cargo’s withdrawal, alternatives will be important, and allied officials are mindful of a potential disruption if Pakistan ever decides to again close the routes or ask for more money, as it did during a diplomatic crisis with the United States in 2011 and 2012.
The United States government has taken the Uzbek proposal seriously enough to partially lift a set of arms sales restrictions that have been in place for about a decade. And it has held interagency meetings in Washington this month to consider the latest Uzbek proposal, according to nongovernmental experts on American policy in the region.
The Uzbek request illustrates the difficult logistics of winding down the war, an unglamorous coda to a fight that began with troops parachuting in out of the night sky.
As was the case in the withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, the cost of shipping used equipment to the United States often exceeds its value. The Army left tens of thousands of air-conditioned residential trailers in Iraq, and many of the armored vehicles that were rolled across the border into Kuwait were mothballed there.
A legacy of abandoned weapons is a common one in battle zones, including Afghanistan, which became a bustling secondhand arms bazaar after the Soviet pullout in 1989.
The State Department issued a statement saying that it was “premature to speculate on plans for any transfer of excess equipment, or even what equipment may be declared excess” after the withdrawal, but it clarified the parameters for any potential deals with Central Asian countries. “Only equipment deemed in excess of operational needs by the Department of Defense would be provided to foreign countries, including Northern Distribution Network host nations in Central Asia,” the statement said, referring to the name of the northern supply lines into Afghanistan.
Delighted with that possibility, the Uzbeks have been broadening the scope of their demands, said a senior American official directly involved in the diplomacy of the Afghan logistical routes, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate negotiations.
The requests have gone from relatively common items like night-vision goggles to large and expensive American-made goods like MRAP vehicles, the 14-ton armored utility trucks that help protect troops from roadside bombs.
Other items that the Uzbeks have eyed in the American arsenal in Afghanistan are small arms, mine detectors, navigation equipment and possibly drones, according to Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, suggesting that the Uzbeks are looking at the pullout next year as a sort of everything-must-go moment for military shopping.
The government is trying to broaden its scope beyond Russian military equipment standards, lest Uzbekistan be beholden to Moscow in regional conflicts over water rights or border enclaves with its neighbors.
In December, Uzbekistan pulled out of Russia’s regional security bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, as it stepped up its requests for Western weapons. Russia responded by offering a $1 billion arms deal to Kyrgyzstan.
Against the backdrop of its dispute with Moscow, the Uzbek government is said to have quietly conveyed its requests for military surplus to officials from NATO countries.
After years of watching helicopters fly in and out of Termez airfield, which is used as a German base in Uzbekistan, the government in March told Germany’s defense minister, Thomas de Maizière, who was visiting, that it would not mind getting its hands on a few of them, the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.
A British delegation passed through in July. On the diplomatic agenda between the two countries, according to Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and now a critic of British policy in the region, is the handover of used Land Rovers or other military vehicles as partial payment for shipping out other items.
Such talks have alarmed members of the German Parliament, who requested clarification from their government.
“Either the Uzbeks want money, and quite a lot, or they want weapons,” Viola von Cramon, a member of Parliament, said in a telephone interview. “What I’ve heard from informed sources is they are not interested in civil assistance, or anything progressive like university exchanges. It’s really hard in that respect. They really prefer the military sector.”
Human rights groups harbor apprehensions at the thought of a second life for Western military hardware in Uzbekistan.
“Uzbekistan has one of the most abysmal and atrocious records of any of the countries we work on here at Human Rights Watch, which is well over 100 countries,” Steve Swerdlow, the group’s Central Asia researcher, who was expelled from Uzbekistan in 2010, said in a telephone interview.
In one horrific episode, the Uzbek military fired on protesters in a public square in Andijon in 2005, killing as many as 745 people, according to an opposition party. And the nation’s economy depends heavily on the forced labor of children and adults in cotton fields.
While Western militaries still deal with Uzbekistan, more than 100 apparel brands, including H & M, Gap and Walmart, have signed a pledge not to buy Uzbek cotton.
Afghan 'Buzkashi Boys' bank on Internet campaign for Oscar trip
Reuters Jan 31, 2013
LOS ANGELES - The teenage stars of an Oscar-nominated short film from Afghanistan hope to walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards in February thanks to donations that are pouring in to pay for their travel.
A representative for the "Buzkashi Boys" film said on Thursday that an online campaign is two-thirds of its way to the $10,000 needed for 14-year-olds Fawad Mohammadi and Jawanmard Paiz to travel from Kabul to Los Angeles in time for Hollywood's biggest night on Feb. 24.
"Buzkashi Boys" is about two children growing up in Kabul who dream of becoming Buzkashi riders, horsemen who compete in the dangerous Afghan national sport similar to polo, in which riders try to carry a headless goat across a goal-line.
So far, some 120 people have donated money to the travel fund from countries that include the United States, Germany, Afghanistan, Canada and Australia. Extra cash raised will go to a college fund for Mohammadi .
The teens hope to arrive a few days before the annual Academy Awards in which the film "Buzkashi Boys" by U.S. director Sam French is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film.
"I'm sure we'll get there one way or another," the film's publicist Leonard Morpurgo told Reuters.
"They need that money to get them over here," he said, adding that the film did not have the budget for the teens to travel to the Oscars.
Mohammadi, an amateur actor with piercing green eyes, gained international attention following the film's release last year for his personal story as a fatherless youth who grew up selling maps of Kabul to tourists in its Chicken Street market.
One of the boys is a street kid like Mohammadi, the other the son of a blacksmith forced to spend long hours in his father's dark workshop sharpening ax heads.
"Buzkashi Boys," which runs for just 28 minutes, is the first film to be produced by the Afghan Film Project, a non-profit group that aims to train filmmakers in Afghanistan. (Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)
Iran fuel may be part of U.S.-funded Afghan supply deals - report
Reuters By Daniel Fineren Thu Jan 31, 2013
DUBAI - Fuel purchases made for Afghan security forces using U.S. government funds may have included Iranian petroleum products in violation of U.S. sanctions, investigators said in a report published late on Wednesday.
Afghanistan relies heavily on imported fuel and Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan are the leading countries of origin, the report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says.
But the watchdog said it could not rule out the possibility of sanctions violations in purchases for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) that are financed by the U.S. taxpayer.
"Despite actions taken by the Department of Defence to prevent the purchase of Iranian fuel with U.S. funds, risks remain that U.S. economic sanctions could be violated," Special Inspector General John Sopko said in the report.
U.S. sanctions intended to starve oil-export dependent Tehran of funds for its disputed nuclear programme ban nearly all U.S. trade with Iran, including financing Iranian petroleum product purchases.
Since December Sigar, created by Congress to oversee reconstruction activities in Afghanistan, has investigated allegations of potential sanctions violations in fuel purchasing for the ANSF.
TIGHTENING CONTROLS
It concludes that while the U.S. Department of Defence (DOD) has made some progress in tightening controls over fuel sourcing for Afghan security services since November, there remains a risk that U.S. taxpayer dollars could continue to flow to Iran.
"DOD is unable to determine if any of the $1.1 billion in fuel purchased for the Afghan National Army (ANA) between fiscal year 2007 and 2012 came from Iran, in violation of U.S. economic sanctions," Sopko said in his report to U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The multinational Combined Security Transition Command (CSTC-A) currently buys fuel - under contracts administered by the U.S. Central Command's Joint Theater Support Contracting Command (CJTSCC) - for Afghan forces from eight separate Afghan importers.
Between 2007 and November 2012, those vendors were not required to provide information on their sources, or certify that their fuel purchases complied with U.S. sanctions on trade with Iran, the report says.
Since late 2012, they have been required to sign contracts that prohibit purchases of supplies from Iran and to certify the origin of the fuel.
BLENDED FUEL
Earlier this month, CJTSCC provided investigators with certificates from four of the eight vendors which said Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were the "main sources" of fuel they delivered. But it remains unclear whether there is a system to verify the fuel's origin, Sigar said.
Fuel imported from Russia and Turkmenistan is usually blended and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Sigar it is possible that fuel blended in Turkmenistan could contain Iranian fuel.
"It is important that adequate measures are in place to test the validity of the certifications and ensure that subcontractors are abiding by the prohibitions regarding Iranian fuel," Sopko said in his concluding remarks.
Washington may need to increase safeguards on its direct assistance funding — expected to exceed $1 billion for ANSF fuel from 2013-2018 — to prevent funds from reaching Iran, he said.
At the end of 2011, Kabul and Tehran signed a trade deal allowing the Afghan government and private sector to buy about 308 million gallons of fuel a year from Iran.
The U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Task Force 2010 is still trying to establish whether any of the eight vendors supplying Afghan security services through the U.S. government contracting system has registered to import fuel from Iran under the terms of that trade deal, the report notes.
(Reporting by Daniel Fineren)
Young Afghans Face Backlash Over Music
Wall Street Journal By MARGHERITA STANCATI February 1, 2013
KABUL - Laila Nabizadeh, a 13-year-old Afghan drummer, will be performing in New York's Carnegie Hall this month, as part of Afghanistan's only national orchestra, which has been touted as a symbol of the country's progress since the Taliban's downfall.
But when she returns from her U.S. tour, the new, more conservative winds blowing in Kabul are threatening her budding music career.
Ms. Nabizadeh and 10 other members of the youth orchestra are residents of a charity-run girls' shelter in Kabul. She was sent here to get an education by her parents, who live in the remote eastern province of Nuristan, much of which is under Taliban control.
The tour was planned in late 2011, but in September, Afghanistan's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs ordered the shelter to halt its music program and replace it with religious classes. Music other than the national anthem and patriotic songs risks "tempting people toward immorality and is against Islam," said Wasil Noor Momand, the deputy minister for social affairs who signed the order. "Afghanistan is an Islamic country and we want our children to be raised in an Islamic way."
The order added that once the girls turn 18, they must leave the shelter, and return to their families in the countryside. Ms. Nabizadeh doesn't know what she will do if she can't become a drummer. But she knows for sure that she doesn't want to go back to her home valley, where girls marry young and music is taboo. "I love playing the drums," she said in an interview at the Kabul shelter. "I want to stay here."
As the U.S.-led coalition withdraws in coming years, the move against young musicians is one sign Afghanistan is backsliding on basic rights acquired following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime, which considered music un-Islamic and banned it.
Although the central government's official position is that it supports music education among children, music is viewed as blasphemous by Taliban mullahs and some Afghan government officials, and girls face an even-stronger backlash.
"We support the promotion of music, especially of Afghan music," said Aimal Faizi, spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who he said wasn't aware of the ministry's order.
But political uncertainty and the possibility of a Taliban comeback, is emboldening some officials to promote more conservative agendas.
"Everyone is getting more conservative because they are worried that the Taliban will come back or join the government," said Afghan lawmaker Elay Ershad, a member of a parliamentary committee that pushed for a ban on teaching music—a decision she opposed. "It's killing me."
The Afghan Child Education and Caring Organization runs Ms. Nabizadeh's shelter. Some 30 other girls studying music live there, many of them from the country's most violent regions. The charity running the shelter partners with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the country's recently established music academy, which encourages the girls to audition. Ms. Nabizadeh, who moved to Kabul at the age of 9, enrolled in the academy two years ago.
For now, in the shelter's basement-turned-music room, drum rhythms still accompany the piano. Andeisha Farid, who runs the charity, said she has launched a complaint against the ministry's order and is still waiting for a reply. The parliamentary committee is also reviewing her request to let the girls continue their music classes.
It isn't clear, however, how long she could resist the crackdown. "We are scared these voices will get louder," she said. "It's not only under the Taliban—it's still very difficult for these girls to play music."
Years of Taliban rule and war took a toll on the country's once-flourishing music scene.
"The Taliban destroyed all my instruments and hanged some of them from trees," said Ustad Amruden, a player of dilruba, a traditional Afghan stringed instrument. The frail-looking, soft-spoken 70-year-old, who is now a teacher at the music academy, recounted having to flee overnight to Quetta, Pakistan, fearing for his life.
Though the Taliban have softened their prohibitions on photography, television and girls' education in recent years, "Music is strictly forbidden in Islam," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The music academy where Mr. Amruden teaches and Ms. Nabizadeh studies has around 140 students, boys and girls from the age of 9. Sponsored chiefly by the World Bank, the academy operates under the auspices of Afghanistan's Ministry of Education.
Ahmad Naser Sarmast, the academy's director, said he is confident that music education will survive.
"The time when children were deprived of music is gone now," said Mr. Sarmast, a musicologist who started the academy three years ago with the aim of reviving the country's moribund music scene. He said the academy—unlike the girls' shelter— hasn't faced pressure to curb its music-education program.
As part of the school's policy, half of the student body comes from underprivileged backgrounds. A majority of them, like Ms. Nabizadeh, were recruited from shelters scattered around the Afghan capital. Others are former street hawkers, who sold chewing gum and plastic bags in Kabul before taking up clarinets, violins and cellos.
One recent morning, boys and girls carrying tablas, xylophones and guitars shuffled noisily between classrooms, as members of the school's orchestra crammed in a wood-paneled room for rehearsals ahead of their U.S. trip.
They played "The Four Seasons of Afghanistan," a version of Antonio Vivaldi's violin concertos adapted to include Afghan instruments like the plucked string rabab.
Their tour, partly funded by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, includes stops at Washington's John F. Kennedy Center on Feb. 7, and a performance in New York's Carnegie Hall on Feb. 12.
The young musicians said they are looking forward to the trip. For most, it will be their first time outside Afghanistan, or on a plane. "I'm really happy to be going to America," said Sapna Rahmati, an aspiring pianist.
But she is aware of music's uncertain position in her country.
"The Taliban don't want the music school, and they don't want girls to go to school," said the 10-year-old, who lives in the same shelter as Ms. Nabizadeh.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said it wouldn't welcome attempts to restrict music education for children.
"Music and music education teaches tolerance, it brings everyone together in a spirit of peace," said embassy spokesman David Snepp. "Once that happens, it's very difficult to reverse."
But Ms. Ershad, the lawmaker, fears what will end up happening as U.S.-led troops leave and the global spotlight shifts away from Afghanistan.
"Women's rights and music are soft targets," said Ms. Ershad, a former government adviser on gender issues and a mother of two. "I'm really worried." —Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com
Nato Will Not Leave Afghanistan Despite Defence Cuts
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Thursday, 31 January 2013
Nato Thursday released its annual report in Brussels saying that it will not allow Afghanistan to become the save haven of insurgents, even as it flagged serious gaps in defence spending from its partner countries.
In the first part of the report which addresses Afghanistan, Nato is optimistic about the future of the country saying its strategy in Afghanistan will not change and the mobilisation and support of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) will continue.
However, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen released the report saying that defence spending among the allies is increasingly uneven, not just between North America and Europe, but also among European allies.
"If these spending trends continue, we could find ourselves facing three serious gaps that would place Nato's military capacity and political credibility at risk in the years to come," he said.
Rasmussen said the main risk was that "while some European allies will continue to acquire modern and deployable defence capabilities, others might find it increasingly difficult to do so," adding that no country will be safe without investment in defence.
Nevertheless, the confidence of the 28-member coalition in the Afghan mission remains strong, according to the report.
It said that 23 out of 34 provinces are under the security lead of ANSF - representing about 78 percent of the country's population.
Furthermore, in first nine months of 2012, terrorist attacks declined in areas where most of the Afghan population lives, notably 22 percent in Kabul, 62 percent in Kandahar, 13 percent in Herat and 88 percent in Mazar-e-Sharif.
The report said that 80 percent of the insurgent's attacks happened in the places where 20 percent of the population lives and while insurgents launched a number of spectacular attacks in the capital, most of these were rapidly contained.
The report also noted that during 2012, some 5600 opposition fighters joined the government peace and reconciliation programme.
Looking ahead, Nato is optimistic that it will reach the required 120,000 extra ANSF personnel needed over the next two years. It said that after 2014, the decision of whether to increase or decrease these total numbers forces will belong to the Afghanistan Government, while Nato will continue to train and support them.
Kidnappers Kill Son of Herat Businessman After Ransom Paid
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 31 January 2013
The son of a Herat businessman has been killed by his captors 35 days after he was kidnapped and held for ransom, local officials said Thursday.
The father of the boy said the kidnappers had initially asked him to pay US$400,000 for his son's release. This was negotiated down to US$90,000, which he paid, but the boy was still killed and buried - probably in order to protect their identities, the father told TOLOnews.
A number of Herat province residents brought the unearthed body of the boy before the governor's office and demanded harsh punishments for the perpetrators.
Gen. Abdul Hamid Hamidi, acting police commander of Herat province, told TOLOnews that the boy was kidnapped near his house 35 days ago. The police have detained six men and two women as key persons in the kidnapping, with one person still missing.
"We detained six men and two women in connection with this and they have confessed their crime," Hamidi said.
Cases of kidnappings in Herat have dropped in the last two months compared to six months ago, however the recent incident has reignited concerns for the ruthless criminal behaviour.
ADB to Fund $300m of Infrastructure Projects in 2013
TOLOnews.com By Zabihullah Jhanmal Thursday, 31 January 2013
Asian Development Bank said it will provide more than US$300 million to fund projects in Afghanistan in 2013, indicating the funds will be spent in three main areas.
The three most prominent projects for the ADB are to import electricity from Turkmenistan to three southern provinces, to construct a number of average dams on rivers in Bamiyan and Badakhshan and reconstructing irrigation systems, and providing investment opportunities for the country's mines.
"For this year, as a minimum we are allocating about $300 million, and this will be increased with the support from the co-financing funds. This shows our commitment to the country, and our full commitment to see after 2014," said Joji Tokeshi, Country Director for ADB Afghanistan at a press conference Thursday.
Marking the bank's interest in hydropower projects, the ADB director pointed out the bank is making a master plan of the energy sector along with the government and other donors to the country.
"We are interested in supporting the hydropower development, however it would be irresponsible if we just put in the money...because the important part of infrastructure is operation and maintenance of the infrastructure. So for that purpose we have to be very careful about that and what are the priorities. There are many projects, [but] what is the priority? That is why ADB is preparing with the government and other donors what is called the master plan of the energy sector in which we will make the priorities," Tokeshi said.
The ADB is one of the largest donors to Afghanistan, committing US$1.2 billion by the end of 2016 at the Tokyo Summit in July.
Electronic ID Card Distribution to Begin February
TOLOnews.com By Azim Arash Thursday, 31 January 2013
President Hamid Karzai has ordered the distribution of electronic identification cards to begin as scheduled in early February.
The Ministries of Interior, Finance, Communication and Information Technology, and the Office of the Administrative Affairs are all involved in getting the process underway, while the order also entails security organisations to ensure all security considerations are in place.
"In this seven-article decree from the president, the ministries that are related to distribution of electronic identifications have been asked to begin the process very soon," said Rafi Seddiqi, spokesman of Secretariat of Council of Ministers.
The decree orders the communications ministry to provide equipment for the distribution of the cards, the finance ministry to provide the budget, interior ministry to commence the distribution, and administrative affairs to observe the process and report to the president's office on a weekly basis.
It is said that the electronic IDs will include biometric data such as finger prints and eye scans and will cost an estimated US$120 million to be issued to every Afghan citizen.
It is not expected that all the cards will be distributed in time for the presidential election in April 2014, mainly because of challenges in reaching the remote areas of Afghanistan.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com