Tweet
Afghanistan, Pakistan leaders in UK for talks
Associated Press – Sun, Feb 3, 2013
LONDON (AP) — The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan are due to hold talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on the Afghan peace process.
Cameron initiated the meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari last year, aiming to boost cooperation between the countries and promote regional stability.
The talks are expected to focus on preventing a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan when British and other NATO troops withdraw from the country next year.
Cameron plans to dine with Karzai and Zardari at his country residence Chequers later Sunday, before holding formal talks with both leaders and their top officials early Monday.
Downing Street says the trilateral meeting will include Afghan and Pakistani army and intelligence chiefs for the first time.
Afghan official: Roadside bomb kills family of 5 in southern Afghanistan
By Mirwais Khan, The Associated Press | Associated Press – Sun, Feb 3, 2013
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - An Afghan government official says a roadside bomb has killed a family of five in the south of the country.
The administrator for Miyanishin district in Helmand province, Shah Mahmood Shafa, says the family was driving through the district in a Toyota Corolla Saturday night when their car struck a bomb. He did not say if the explosion had targeted them, or how the bomb was detonated.
Shafa says two of the dead were young children.
Insurgent roadside bombs and landmines are considered among the most dangerous weapons in Afghanistan for civilians.
Taliban IED attack coordinator captured in Afghan town: coalition
KABUL, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban improvised explosive device attack coordinator was captured in operation carried out by the Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops in the country's northern province of Kunduz, the coalition forces said on Sunday.
"An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban improvised explosive device (IED) attack coordinator in Khanabad district, Kunduz province, Friday," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release.
The captured man planned and executed IED attacks throughout Khanabad in the province 250 km north of Kabul, it said.
"He is believed to have conducted attacks against Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officials as well as Afghan and coalition forces," the release noted, adding that the security force also seized IED-making materials during the raid.
The IEDs used in making suicide vests and roadside bombs has proved a challenge for Afghan and some 100,000 NATO-led forces in the insurgency-hit country, as they are simple but difficult to be detected.
Taliban militants often attack security forces with IEDs and roadside bombs but the lethal weapons also inflict casualties on civilians.
On Saturday, four members of a family and a driver were killed when a vehicle touched off a roadside planted bomb in southern Helmand province.
Afghan Traders Announce Indefinite Protest Against The Killing Of A Kidnapped Child
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan February 3, 2013
HERAT, Afghanistan -- Trade unions and businesses in the western Afghan city of Herat have vowed to protest indefinitely until authorities arrest the killers of a businessman's son.
On February 3, hundreds of mourners participated in the funeral of eight-year-old Ali Sina who was killed on January 31, a month after being kidnapped.
Herat's factories have been shut down for three days to express solidarity with his family.
The victims' uncle Hafizullah says that the kidnappers had demanded $400,000 for releasing Sina, but he was killed even after the family paid them $95,000.
General Abdul Hamid Hamidy, the acting police chief of Herat Province, said that security forces have already detained several suspects.
Herat is a major trading hub and borders Iran and Turkmenistan.
Local traders have protested over a recent spike in crime that often targets their family members.
McManus: What's the Afghanistan mission?
The debate shouldn't be about how fast we withdraw troops or how many will stay. We should ask what we hope to accomplish and how we can do it.
Los Angles Times By Doyle McManus Op-Ed February 3, 2013
Amid partisan questioning from both sides in former Sen. Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearing last week, a major opportunity was lost.
Hagel's fellow Republicans grilled the Defense secretary nominee on past statements about Israel and his opposition to President George W. Bush's 2007 surge in Iraq. Democrats, defending their president's choice, tossed him softballs.
What Hagel wasn't asked about in any depth was Afghanistan, where about 66,000 U.S. troops are still risking their lives for a mission that no longer seems clear.
It will be the next Defense secretary's job not only to bring most of those men and women home, ending an era of big-footprint U.S. combat in the Muslim world, but also to help reimagine the fight against terrorists for an era of belt-tightening.
During the nearly eight hours of Hagel's hearing, no more than 10 minutes were spent on Afghanistan. Only three senators, all Democrats, bothered to ask about the future of the U.S. troop commitment there. No Republican took the opportunity to express any views, whether in favor of President Obama's rapid withdrawal plan or against it.
As far as Congress is concerned, it sounded as if the war was already over. And that's pretty much how Hagel described it as well.
"We have a plan in place to transition out of Afghanistan, continue bringing our troops home and end the war," he said.
Only the war won't be over. Even when most American troops come home, as is scheduled by the end of 2014, the Afghan army and police forces will still be fighting the Taliban. The terrorist Haqqani network, long allied with Al Qaeda, will still be roaming the border with Pakistan. Local warlords will still be vying with the central government for power.
And like it or not, the United States will still have a big stake in the outcome. Americans have understandably lost interest in spending more lives and money to prop up the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai. But as Obama has noted, we still want to make sure Al Qaeda can't regain a foothold in Afghanistan, and we still have to worry about the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan next door.
"We're not winding down the damn war," a former ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald E. Neumann, growls. "We're winding down our participation in the war. That's extraordinarily different."
Most of the debate in Washington has been about how quickly U.S. troops should leave Afghanistan, and how many should remain after 2014.
But those are the wrong questions. What we should be asking is what kind of outcomes the United States can realistically seek and what are the best ways to get there. Then we can discuss how many troops each of the options would require.
In the short run, between now and the end of 2014, the United States wants to do three things: complete the training of 352,000 Afghan security forces, help Afghans hold a reasonably fair election to choose Karzai's successor, and work out terms for any post-2014 U.S. presence.
The just-departed U.S. commander in Kabul, Gen. John R. Allen, has pleaded publicly for as many troops as possible through 2014 to make those tasks easier. The White House has pushed back, insisting that withdrawals begin this spring.
Both options are defensible; it's possible to withdraw some troops without making the rest of the mission impossible. What's not defensible is the lack of clarity in the administration's goals and plans.
That has created a big problem for Afghans, who are adjusting their own allegiances in case the Americans suddenly disappear and the Karzai government suddenly crumbles. Without more clarity, success — even the kind of partial, ramshackle success we are now seeking — becomes more difficult to achieve.
After 2014, when all U.S. combat troops are scheduled to be out of Afghanistan, the Obama administration still foresees two missions for a "residual force": training and advising Afghan forces, and waging counter-terrorist operations against Al Qaeda and its allies.
It's difficult to imagine that those missions could be very effective if we leave behind only the 3,000 U.S. troops the White House has been said to favor. (The White House has also proposed a "zero option," but that looks mostly like a bargaining ploy in negotiations with Karzai.) Allen and Pentagon officials initially proposed keeping as many as 15,000 troops in place but successively pared the options to a range between 3,000 and 9,000.
Obama is mulling those figures and will probably make a decision in the next several weeks.
But at this point, deciding on a number is less important than deciding on a mission. We shouldn't ask American troops — or our Afghan allies — to risk their lives for a cause that can't be won.
doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com
Follow Doyle McManus on Twitter @DoyleMcManus
Alleged terrorism ties foil some Afghan interpreters’ U.S. visa hopes
Washington Post By Kevin Sieff February 2, 2013
KABUL - According to the U.S. military, Tariq is an interpreter who risked his life to aid the American mission in Afghanistan and for seven years had access to sensitive information about U.S. tactical operations.
According to the State Department, there’s a very good chance he is a terrorist who poses a threat to national security and should never be allowed on American soil.
Tariq, one of southern Afghanistan’s longest-serving interpreters, wants to know: How is it that one man can be praised as a hero and labeled a terrorist by the same government?
For years, Congress has considered amendments to an immigration policy that often brands innocent visa applicants as terrorists, an inadvertent byproduct of a post-9/11 homeland security initiative. But little progress has been made, U.S. officials say, and the government remains unable in many cases to discern the difference between allies and enemies.
The visa applications of several Iraqi interpreters were rejected for terrorism-related reasons during the last years of the Iraq war. And now, as the American military draws down its forces in Afghanistan and more than 6,000 Afghan interpreters seek U.S. visas, the problem is threatening to obstruct the applications of Afghans who risked their lives to serve the U.S. government.
Afghans have been denied visas because of ties to defunct U.S.-backed groups that fought the Soviets in the 1980s but are now designated as terrorist organizations. Others, who grew up under the Taliban, worry that they’ve been rejected based on assumed links to the insurgency.
It is unclear how many Afghans are in the same position as Tariq. Immigration lawyers say the denial — which they and others who follow the issue refer to as the “terrorist bar” — is common for applications from around the world, but particularly Afghanistan. The country’s tumultuous 30-year history of coups, warring tribes and armed uprisings, some say, means that attempts to cull terrorists are preventing U.S. allies from receiving visas they deserve.
“You have people who at some point had contact with the Taliban when they were in power, people who had contacts with the many armed groups that either preceded the Taliban or fought the Taliban,” said Anwen Hughes, a New York-based lawyer at Human Rights First who has handled several such cases. “You have many people being denied visas based on erroneous assumptions and misunderstandings.”
Glowing praise
Tariq, who asked that his last name not be published to avoid Taliban threats, has worked alongside some of the top U.S. commanders in southern Afghanistan since 2006, when he was 17. Like many interpreters, he saw an American visa as his only route of escape from insurgents who regularly target locals aiding the Western military effort.
He first applied in 2008, submitting a stack of recommendations from American officers. One called him “a role model to his fellow citizens.” Another said his commitment had placed “himself and his family at risk.” Another added that he was a “strong supporter of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.”
For years, he checked the status of his application online and added more glowing recommendations to his file.
Last September, Tariq received an e-mail from the State Department that said his application had been denied because he “may be a terrorist or may have provided material support to a terrorist organization.” The letter did not specify which organization. Despite the accusation, his job with the U.S. military at Kandahar Airfield was not terminated.
“I never expected the State Department would take this kind of unfair decision,” Tariq said. “My question is, if I am involved in terrorist activities, why am I still working for U.S. Army?”
Tariq racked his brain to determine what might have triggered the accusation. He had grown up in Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold, which meant he had been forced to attend a madrassa run by the hard-line Islamist group. His father was in the Afghan air force before the Taliban came to power, and, like most of his colleagues, remained in his position under its rule.
But the family by no means supported the Taliban, said Tariq, who jumped at the opportunity to work for U.S. forces after the regime fell.
The Department of Homeland Security occasionally provides exemptions for applicants denied on terrorism-related grounds and has recently agreed to review some cases of long-term visa applicants who are already living in the United States. But in general, those who are turned down have little recourse.
‘Painful and frustrating’
Jamshid, who fled Afghanistan in 1988 and was granted asylum in the United States, received the same denial as Tariq when he applied for permanent residence. Immigration officials wrote in 2008 that Jamshid was ineligible because he had helped carry supplies — what the denial referred to as voluntary material support — for the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan (NIFA), an arm of the U.S.-backed mujaheddin.
NIFA no longer existed, and it was a former U.S. ally. But like several anti-Soviet Afghan groups, it remained on the U.S. government’s list of “Tier III,” or “undesignated” terrorist groups created by the Patriot Act of 2001. Some Iraqi interpreters who were members of groups that fought Saddam Hussein have received similar denials.
“I was helping people getting aid and support from United States. And now they consider me a terrorist here. It’s a painful and frustrating way to live,” Jamshid, 40, said by phone from the United States. He did not want his full name published for fear of jeopardizing his ongoing application process.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has long been critical of the terrorist bar’s broad application, pleading with the government in 2009 to “restore common sense” to the definition of terrorism and material support. Yet there has been little movement. In 2007, Congress passed legislation removing 10 organizations from the list of Tier III terrorist groups, but no related legislation has been introduced.
“Senator Leahy has continued to press the administration on this issue, through letters and requested briefings, to ensure the prompt processing of visas for those men and women who have risked their lives to protect the United States,” said a Judiciary Committee aide who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Of the 6,000 Afghan interpreters who have applied for U.S. visas under a special program tailored to U.S. government employees, only about 50 had been approved by late last year.
Because the State Department does not explain the specific reasons for denying visas to overseas applicants, Tariq was left guessing about his alleged terrorist connections.
“We are prohibited from discussing individual cases. . . . However, we would note that the ‘material support’ bar applies only to those who provided the material support to a terrorist activity, a terrorist group or individual,” a U.S. official said.
There is no appeals process, the official added.
Eastern Afghanistan residents wary of U.S. departure
Residents of Moqur district, long-plagued by the Taliban, are concerned Afghan security forces won't be able to provide security once the U.S. withdraws
USA TODAY By Carmen Gentile, Special for USA TODAY February 2, 2013
MOQUR, GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Along a sprawling roadside market, where butchered animals hang next to tiny, wooden stalls filled with auto parts, an Afghan man squats next to his apple cart, hoping to sell enough produce to feed his family.
It's only been in recent months that Abdullah, who like many Afghans goes by a single name, returned to the Moqur market. For years, the Taliban controlled the Moqur district and much of Ghazni province, forcing schools and businesses to close and imposing strict Islamic law.
The U.S. and Afghan forces here pushed out the Taliban fighters and allowed the market's vendors to return, giving hope of a normal life. But now that U.S. forces are preparing to depart, people here live in fear that the Afghan soldiers who are supposed to take over security will not be up to the task.
"There are still a lot of bad guys in the area," says Abdullah, as a crowd on onlookers nods in agreement.
By June 2014, security in every province in Afghanistan will have been turned over to Afghan forces following 11 years of hard-won battles against the Islamist Taliban in which more than 2,000 Americans have died. As NATO stated in its latest report Thursday, the success of the transition will rest on whether the Afghans can ensure that the country never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists.
"Developments over the past year show they can," concluded NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Eastern Afghanistan will be the greatest test of that transition. U.S. Marines and Army soldiers succeeded in vanquishing Taliban fighters from the strongholds in the south in campaigns lasting years in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Rather than reinforce the south, the Taliban attacked to the east, where fighters from militant-infested northwest Pakistan bolstered their forces.
U.S. forces responded last year by shifting troops to the east, intensifying efforts in Ghazni to combat a persistent enemy as a deadline issued by President Obama closes in for U.S. troops to withdraw.
Ghazni is an important thoroughfare for the Taliban and other militant groups in eastern Afghanistan. The country's main route, Highway 1, runs through this market halfway between the country's two largest cities, Kabul and Kandahar. Just off the highway are vast stretches of barren crop fields covered in winter frost and surrounded by snow-topped mountains.
Winter is typically when many Taliban fighters return to Pakistan to rest and re-arm for the spring. But this winter the Taliban remained active, perhaps to test the strength of the Afghan forces that have taken up positions turned over by the U.S. military.
For years a single company of Polish forces represented the entire contingent of anti-Taliban troops in the whole province. The arrival of U.S. troops and Afghan soldiers kept the Taliban out of the bigger population centers. But some locals say the Taliban is still firmly in control of most districts and just waiting for U.S. forces to leave so they can take on the Afghan forces left behind.
"They didn't bring security, the weather did," says Abdul Kaim, waving a bony finger at the American forces in the market as he explained that the recent snowfall is what stopped the fighting by making it too hard for either side to travel.
Lt. Col. Jeremy Schroeder disagreed and said the region was secured well before winter's arrival.
"I guess that's a good problem," says Schroeder, interpreting the Taliban's willingness to brave the cold months in Afghanistan as a sign the militants are concerned about losing too much ground to NATO and Afghan forces come spring. "It means you are having success."
Under the protection of patrolling coalition troops, Afghans fill the Muqor market that acts as an open-air department store with clothes, produce, food and merchandise. During the summer -- when the Taliban controlled the market and much of the province -- Abdullah and other merchants were forbidden from doing business in what is the largest roadside bazaar between Kabul and Kandahar.
Not all areas of eastern Afghanistan have such protection, and they can be at the mercy of the Taliban. Some have begun fighting back.
In nearby Andar District, locals rose up against the Taliban and its strictures, according to the Afghan government. Some have taken up arms against the militants and forced them from villages, allowing Taliban-banned schools and shops to reopen.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said the talk of life without Taliban control is an illusion. Mujahid says that much of Andar and Ghazni remains in Taliban hands.
"People (residents of Ghazni) like to help the mujahadeen, they know it is their responsibility," he says. "But even if they can't help, they aren't making real problems for us."
Townspeople in Moqur District are not banking solely on Afghan troops protecting them once U.S. forces go. A group called the Moqur Movement is helping to keep the Taliban out of the market and village, says the U.S. military. The groups in Andar and Moqur are critical to security because they can readily identify outsiders, particularly those who belong to the Taliban.
"They have a certain amount of access (to the local population) and anonymity that Afghan forces do not," says Schroeder.
Schroeder notes however that the groups can frighten some locals, such as when they enter homes after dark in search of suspected Taliban.
U.S. forces are trying to bring members of the Moqur Movement into the fold of the Afghan Local Police, a constable force trained and equipped by Special Operations Forces. Several members have already been incorporated into the ranks of the ALP, but the police have issues too.
People have complained that some in the ALP abuse their new-found authority by extorting bribes at checkpoints.
"They are taking our money and even torturing us," Mullah Shamsullah, an elder in a nearby village says of the Afghan Local Police.
U.S. forces say there are some ALP abusing their authority but that most cases involve men impersonating the police.
In Afghanistan, where rumors are how many rural towns get their information, there is speculation that the uprisings against the Taliban were manufactured by Kabul to spin a positive storyline out of Ghazni.
"At first it appeared it was a Pashtun (the predominant ethnic group in Ghazni) initiative to rise up," says Saeed Parto, an analyst with the Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization. "Another version is the Afghan government and U.S. forces wanted to see a feel-good story, something to show that Afghanistan is worth saving."
Afghanistan Stresses Strong Relations with Iran
Fars News Agency February 3, 2013
TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Afghan Foreign Ministry official on Sunday lauded the exemplary and unique relations between Tehran and Kabul, and said the two countries have recently increased their mutual cooperation despite the US sanction against Iran.
Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Janan Mosazai described the bilateral ties between the two Muslim neighboring nations as friendly, and said that the US sanctions against Iran will not affect the existing friendly relations between Kabul and Tehran.
The ancient and long-standing relations between the two nations were founded on national sovereignty, he added.
Speaking in his weekly press conference in Kabul in January, Mosazai said Iran and Afghanistan have enjoyed friendly, intimate and effective relations all throughout the past years, and mentioned that the remarkable growth in the number of reciprocal diplomatic visits by the two countries' senior officials is an indication of the very same fact.
Mosazai pointed to the visit of Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili to Kabul, and said that such visits take place in line with broad religious, cultural and historical commonalities between the two countries.
Jalili visited the Afghan capital in early January after a three-day visit to India where he held talks with his counterpart, Shivshankar Menon.
In Afghanistan he also met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
During the meeting held in Kabul at the time, the Iranian official said the strong ties between the governments of Iran and Afghanistan are based on deep and historical friendship between the two nations.
President Karzai, for his part, said relations between Iran and Afghanistan are at an excellent level.
In similar remarks earlier this year, Mosazai said that Kabul attaches great importance to its ties with the neighboring countries, Iran in particular, and would respect their considerations when dealing and interacting with the trans-regional countries.
"National interests and considerations of the neighboring states are being respected in Afghanistan's relations with all trans-regional countries," Mosazai said, speaking in his weekly press conference in Kabul at the time.
As regards his country's ties with Iran, Mosazai said, "Tehran-Kabul relations, as two neighboring states with common culture, are very important for the government of Afghanistan."
Iran is one of the most important donors to Afghanistan which has kept its promises to help to the reconstruction of the war-hit country.
Iran has built some roads, power transmission lines, and border stations, among the other infrastructure projects which would better link the two nations.
Election Law Delay May Damage 2014 Presidential Poll: IEC
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Saturday, 02 February 2013
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) Saturday warned that further delay in the parliament's approval of the election law will create more problems for the 2014 presidential poll.
The IEC told TOLOnews that every task to prepare for the upcoming presidential election is on schedule and in order – expect for the approval of the election law which governs the structure and competencies of the IEC.
"We are continuing all our work based on the commission's schedule. So far we have had no other challenges apart from the election law not being approved, and therefore we want the parliament to approve the law soon," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.
IEC officials said there are six key tasks needed to complete a successful election: registration of presidential candidates, registration of new voting cards, specifying the election date, specifying the polling centres, counting of the votes, and finalising the poll result.
Deputy parliamentary secretary Mohammad Farhad Azimi said Saturday that "the parliament will decide on the election law approval once [the MPs] return from their winter holidays."
"I reassure the Independent Election Commission that approving the law will be on the agenda after [we hold] the elections for the parliament's administrative board," he added.
Parliament is expected to reconvene early March.
It is understood that the IEC is looking to employ 16,000 additional staff to monitor the polling booths and count the votes.
Pakistan’s Offer to Train Afghan Forces Draws Critics
TOLOnews.com By Azem Arash Saturday, 02 February 2013
Afghan Minister of Defence has welcomed the offer for Pakistan to help train his country's forces training, saying Pakistan is the best place for the women in the Afghan security forces to receive training, a Chinese news agency wrote Friday.
Bismillah Khan Mohammadi reportedly made the comments following his meetings with Pakistan defence officials in Islamabad in the past week.
However, some experts do not believe Islamabad is looking to train security personnel for Afghanistan but rather that it is a new strategy aimed at turning the recruits to work for Pakistani aims.
"Pakistan is professional in training terrorists, not in training military forces, and it is looking for its own interests in Afghanistan. This time it is trying a new strategy," Afghan military analyst Miagol Waseeq told TOLOnews.
Mohammadi's visit to Pakistan was said by the Ministry of Defence to have increased optimism around negotiations with Islamabad on the fight against insurgency in the region and border security.
This is a shift from previous attitudes which regarded Pakistan as unsupportive of Afghanistan's war against insurgency.
Pakistan Fines Afghan Traders $50m for Stalled Containers
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 02 February 2013
Pakistan has fined Afghan traders a combined $50 million over the past three months for their containers which are stalled in Karachi port, Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) said Saturday.
According to ACCI officials, Pakistan has forcibly stopped the containers for about 85 days and proceeded to demand daily fines for the containers using the port space.
ACCI deputy director Khan Jan Alokozai said Pakistan has repeatedly ignored the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Agreement (APTA) and is benefiting from the fines.
"We pay almost $1 million a day [in fines] and so far we have paid $50 million. So Pakistan is ignoring APTA, which anticipated such transit problems between the two neighboring countries and suggested some strategies to solve the likely problems," he said.
With around 3700 containers carrying Afghan-owned goods including foodstuffs stalled at the port in Pakistan's south, the fines are expected to continue.
Alokozai pointed out that article 23 in the APTA says "the two sides must attempt to strengthen the transit of goods and give priority to the transport of business goods and they should avoid unnecessary delays."
Afghan traders whose containers are in the port blamed the Afghan government for failing to enforce the contents of agreement.
"We pay $160 for each container [per day]. Neither the Ministry of Commerce nor the Ministry of Finance is addressing the problem so we have failed to implement APTA," trader Ahmad Shah Ahmadi told TOLOnews.
However, Ministry of Commerce and Industries spokesman says the government is making a serious effort to resolve the issue.
"We also did the same action in Torkham port," Wahidullah Ghazikhil said.
Pakistan has previously stopped Afghan containers in Torkham port, receiving $7 million from Afghan traders in fines.
Afghanistan mostly exports its goods via Pakistan and Iran ports but recently government officials have looked at using the middle Asian countries' ports to avoid the problem of trade being blocked.
Logar, Wardak Insecurity Threatens Kabul: Officials
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Saturday, 02 February 2013
The government's disregard towards the two provinces bordering Kabul – Logar and Maiden Wardak – has worsened security conditions and increased the threats in Kabul city, according to Afghanistan's Transition Coordination Commission (TCC) chief.
At a conference in Kabul discussing security, development, and governance in Logar and Maidan Wardak, TCC head Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said that the insecurity within the provinces is a primary concern that should have been addressed as seriously as security in the capital itself,
"One of the reasons behind insecurity in the provinces of Logar and Maidan Wardak is that the people do not cooperate with the government because the government has not addressed the residents' needs. Kabul will never be secure if these provinces are not secure," he told the conference Saturday.
Both Logar and Wardak provincial governors attended along with a number of security officials.
The Minister of Education Farooq Wardak, who is a former Wardak resident, agreed with the TCC's claim that the government had neglected the two provinces.
"The security condition in Maidan Wardak and Logar was very good in 2006 and 2007. However, it became worse because of the inconsideration of the government.
The security in these provinces will not improve unless the people's support is obtained by the government," he said.
Wardak provincial governor Majid Khogiani warned that Kabul's security will similarly deteriorate if more security forces are not deployed to the vulnerable areas.
"If the number of security forces in vulnerable areas of Maidan Wardak province is not increased, the situation in Kabul next year will become similar to the current bad situation in this province," he said.
"There should be serious considerations given to improving security in this province," he added.
Logar provincial governor spoke of a "distance" between the people living in the province and the central government.
"The main problem is that people have turned their faces from the government and there is a gap between the people and the government, which has led people to not cooperate with the government and so insecurity has grown," Iqbal Azizi said.
Following the conference, which was held at the request of the president and National Security Council, a number of drafts from the province's officials will be sent to the security council to offer solutions to improve security and gain the support of residents.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Associated Press – Sun, Feb 3, 2013
LONDON (AP) — The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan are due to hold talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on the Afghan peace process.
Cameron initiated the meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari last year, aiming to boost cooperation between the countries and promote regional stability.
The talks are expected to focus on preventing a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan when British and other NATO troops withdraw from the country next year.
Cameron plans to dine with Karzai and Zardari at his country residence Chequers later Sunday, before holding formal talks with both leaders and their top officials early Monday.
Downing Street says the trilateral meeting will include Afghan and Pakistani army and intelligence chiefs for the first time.
Afghan official: Roadside bomb kills family of 5 in southern Afghanistan
By Mirwais Khan, The Associated Press | Associated Press – Sun, Feb 3, 2013
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - An Afghan government official says a roadside bomb has killed a family of five in the south of the country.
The administrator for Miyanishin district in Helmand province, Shah Mahmood Shafa, says the family was driving through the district in a Toyota Corolla Saturday night when their car struck a bomb. He did not say if the explosion had targeted them, or how the bomb was detonated.
Shafa says two of the dead were young children.
Insurgent roadside bombs and landmines are considered among the most dangerous weapons in Afghanistan for civilians.
Taliban IED attack coordinator captured in Afghan town: coalition
KABUL, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban improvised explosive device attack coordinator was captured in operation carried out by the Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops in the country's northern province of Kunduz, the coalition forces said on Sunday.
"An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban improvised explosive device (IED) attack coordinator in Khanabad district, Kunduz province, Friday," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release.
The captured man planned and executed IED attacks throughout Khanabad in the province 250 km north of Kabul, it said.
"He is believed to have conducted attacks against Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officials as well as Afghan and coalition forces," the release noted, adding that the security force also seized IED-making materials during the raid.
The IEDs used in making suicide vests and roadside bombs has proved a challenge for Afghan and some 100,000 NATO-led forces in the insurgency-hit country, as they are simple but difficult to be detected.
Taliban militants often attack security forces with IEDs and roadside bombs but the lethal weapons also inflict casualties on civilians.
On Saturday, four members of a family and a driver were killed when a vehicle touched off a roadside planted bomb in southern Helmand province.
Afghan Traders Announce Indefinite Protest Against The Killing Of A Kidnapped Child
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan February 3, 2013
HERAT, Afghanistan -- Trade unions and businesses in the western Afghan city of Herat have vowed to protest indefinitely until authorities arrest the killers of a businessman's son.
On February 3, hundreds of mourners participated in the funeral of eight-year-old Ali Sina who was killed on January 31, a month after being kidnapped.
Herat's factories have been shut down for three days to express solidarity with his family.
The victims' uncle Hafizullah says that the kidnappers had demanded $400,000 for releasing Sina, but he was killed even after the family paid them $95,000.
General Abdul Hamid Hamidy, the acting police chief of Herat Province, said that security forces have already detained several suspects.
Herat is a major trading hub and borders Iran and Turkmenistan.
Local traders have protested over a recent spike in crime that often targets their family members.
McManus: What's the Afghanistan mission?
The debate shouldn't be about how fast we withdraw troops or how many will stay. We should ask what we hope to accomplish and how we can do it.
Los Angles Times By Doyle McManus Op-Ed February 3, 2013
Amid partisan questioning from both sides in former Sen. Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearing last week, a major opportunity was lost.
Hagel's fellow Republicans grilled the Defense secretary nominee on past statements about Israel and his opposition to President George W. Bush's 2007 surge in Iraq. Democrats, defending their president's choice, tossed him softballs.
What Hagel wasn't asked about in any depth was Afghanistan, where about 66,000 U.S. troops are still risking their lives for a mission that no longer seems clear.
It will be the next Defense secretary's job not only to bring most of those men and women home, ending an era of big-footprint U.S. combat in the Muslim world, but also to help reimagine the fight against terrorists for an era of belt-tightening.
During the nearly eight hours of Hagel's hearing, no more than 10 minutes were spent on Afghanistan. Only three senators, all Democrats, bothered to ask about the future of the U.S. troop commitment there. No Republican took the opportunity to express any views, whether in favor of President Obama's rapid withdrawal plan or against it.
As far as Congress is concerned, it sounded as if the war was already over. And that's pretty much how Hagel described it as well.
"We have a plan in place to transition out of Afghanistan, continue bringing our troops home and end the war," he said.
Only the war won't be over. Even when most American troops come home, as is scheduled by the end of 2014, the Afghan army and police forces will still be fighting the Taliban. The terrorist Haqqani network, long allied with Al Qaeda, will still be roaming the border with Pakistan. Local warlords will still be vying with the central government for power.
And like it or not, the United States will still have a big stake in the outcome. Americans have understandably lost interest in spending more lives and money to prop up the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai. But as Obama has noted, we still want to make sure Al Qaeda can't regain a foothold in Afghanistan, and we still have to worry about the stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan next door.
"We're not winding down the damn war," a former ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald E. Neumann, growls. "We're winding down our participation in the war. That's extraordinarily different."
Most of the debate in Washington has been about how quickly U.S. troops should leave Afghanistan, and how many should remain after 2014.
But those are the wrong questions. What we should be asking is what kind of outcomes the United States can realistically seek and what are the best ways to get there. Then we can discuss how many troops each of the options would require.
In the short run, between now and the end of 2014, the United States wants to do three things: complete the training of 352,000 Afghan security forces, help Afghans hold a reasonably fair election to choose Karzai's successor, and work out terms for any post-2014 U.S. presence.
The just-departed U.S. commander in Kabul, Gen. John R. Allen, has pleaded publicly for as many troops as possible through 2014 to make those tasks easier. The White House has pushed back, insisting that withdrawals begin this spring.
Both options are defensible; it's possible to withdraw some troops without making the rest of the mission impossible. What's not defensible is the lack of clarity in the administration's goals and plans.
That has created a big problem for Afghans, who are adjusting their own allegiances in case the Americans suddenly disappear and the Karzai government suddenly crumbles. Without more clarity, success — even the kind of partial, ramshackle success we are now seeking — becomes more difficult to achieve.
After 2014, when all U.S. combat troops are scheduled to be out of Afghanistan, the Obama administration still foresees two missions for a "residual force": training and advising Afghan forces, and waging counter-terrorist operations against Al Qaeda and its allies.
It's difficult to imagine that those missions could be very effective if we leave behind only the 3,000 U.S. troops the White House has been said to favor. (The White House has also proposed a "zero option," but that looks mostly like a bargaining ploy in negotiations with Karzai.) Allen and Pentagon officials initially proposed keeping as many as 15,000 troops in place but successively pared the options to a range between 3,000 and 9,000.
Obama is mulling those figures and will probably make a decision in the next several weeks.
But at this point, deciding on a number is less important than deciding on a mission. We shouldn't ask American troops — or our Afghan allies — to risk their lives for a cause that can't be won.
doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com
Follow Doyle McManus on Twitter @DoyleMcManus
Alleged terrorism ties foil some Afghan interpreters’ U.S. visa hopes
Washington Post By Kevin Sieff February 2, 2013
KABUL - According to the U.S. military, Tariq is an interpreter who risked his life to aid the American mission in Afghanistan and for seven years had access to sensitive information about U.S. tactical operations.
According to the State Department, there’s a very good chance he is a terrorist who poses a threat to national security and should never be allowed on American soil.
Tariq, one of southern Afghanistan’s longest-serving interpreters, wants to know: How is it that one man can be praised as a hero and labeled a terrorist by the same government?
For years, Congress has considered amendments to an immigration policy that often brands innocent visa applicants as terrorists, an inadvertent byproduct of a post-9/11 homeland security initiative. But little progress has been made, U.S. officials say, and the government remains unable in many cases to discern the difference between allies and enemies.
The visa applications of several Iraqi interpreters were rejected for terrorism-related reasons during the last years of the Iraq war. And now, as the American military draws down its forces in Afghanistan and more than 6,000 Afghan interpreters seek U.S. visas, the problem is threatening to obstruct the applications of Afghans who risked their lives to serve the U.S. government.
Afghans have been denied visas because of ties to defunct U.S.-backed groups that fought the Soviets in the 1980s but are now designated as terrorist organizations. Others, who grew up under the Taliban, worry that they’ve been rejected based on assumed links to the insurgency.
It is unclear how many Afghans are in the same position as Tariq. Immigration lawyers say the denial — which they and others who follow the issue refer to as the “terrorist bar” — is common for applications from around the world, but particularly Afghanistan. The country’s tumultuous 30-year history of coups, warring tribes and armed uprisings, some say, means that attempts to cull terrorists are preventing U.S. allies from receiving visas they deserve.
“You have people who at some point had contact with the Taliban when they were in power, people who had contacts with the many armed groups that either preceded the Taliban or fought the Taliban,” said Anwen Hughes, a New York-based lawyer at Human Rights First who has handled several such cases. “You have many people being denied visas based on erroneous assumptions and misunderstandings.”
Glowing praise
Tariq, who asked that his last name not be published to avoid Taliban threats, has worked alongside some of the top U.S. commanders in southern Afghanistan since 2006, when he was 17. Like many interpreters, he saw an American visa as his only route of escape from insurgents who regularly target locals aiding the Western military effort.
He first applied in 2008, submitting a stack of recommendations from American officers. One called him “a role model to his fellow citizens.” Another said his commitment had placed “himself and his family at risk.” Another added that he was a “strong supporter of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.”
For years, he checked the status of his application online and added more glowing recommendations to his file.
Last September, Tariq received an e-mail from the State Department that said his application had been denied because he “may be a terrorist or may have provided material support to a terrorist organization.” The letter did not specify which organization. Despite the accusation, his job with the U.S. military at Kandahar Airfield was not terminated.
“I never expected the State Department would take this kind of unfair decision,” Tariq said. “My question is, if I am involved in terrorist activities, why am I still working for U.S. Army?”
Tariq racked his brain to determine what might have triggered the accusation. He had grown up in Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold, which meant he had been forced to attend a madrassa run by the hard-line Islamist group. His father was in the Afghan air force before the Taliban came to power, and, like most of his colleagues, remained in his position under its rule.
But the family by no means supported the Taliban, said Tariq, who jumped at the opportunity to work for U.S. forces after the regime fell.
The Department of Homeland Security occasionally provides exemptions for applicants denied on terrorism-related grounds and has recently agreed to review some cases of long-term visa applicants who are already living in the United States. But in general, those who are turned down have little recourse.
‘Painful and frustrating’
Jamshid, who fled Afghanistan in 1988 and was granted asylum in the United States, received the same denial as Tariq when he applied for permanent residence. Immigration officials wrote in 2008 that Jamshid was ineligible because he had helped carry supplies — what the denial referred to as voluntary material support — for the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan (NIFA), an arm of the U.S.-backed mujaheddin.
NIFA no longer existed, and it was a former U.S. ally. But like several anti-Soviet Afghan groups, it remained on the U.S. government’s list of “Tier III,” or “undesignated” terrorist groups created by the Patriot Act of 2001. Some Iraqi interpreters who were members of groups that fought Saddam Hussein have received similar denials.
“I was helping people getting aid and support from United States. And now they consider me a terrorist here. It’s a painful and frustrating way to live,” Jamshid, 40, said by phone from the United States. He did not want his full name published for fear of jeopardizing his ongoing application process.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has long been critical of the terrorist bar’s broad application, pleading with the government in 2009 to “restore common sense” to the definition of terrorism and material support. Yet there has been little movement. In 2007, Congress passed legislation removing 10 organizations from the list of Tier III terrorist groups, but no related legislation has been introduced.
“Senator Leahy has continued to press the administration on this issue, through letters and requested briefings, to ensure the prompt processing of visas for those men and women who have risked their lives to protect the United States,” said a Judiciary Committee aide who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Of the 6,000 Afghan interpreters who have applied for U.S. visas under a special program tailored to U.S. government employees, only about 50 had been approved by late last year.
Because the State Department does not explain the specific reasons for denying visas to overseas applicants, Tariq was left guessing about his alleged terrorist connections.
“We are prohibited from discussing individual cases. . . . However, we would note that the ‘material support’ bar applies only to those who provided the material support to a terrorist activity, a terrorist group or individual,” a U.S. official said.
There is no appeals process, the official added.
Eastern Afghanistan residents wary of U.S. departure
Residents of Moqur district, long-plagued by the Taliban, are concerned Afghan security forces won't be able to provide security once the U.S. withdraws
USA TODAY By Carmen Gentile, Special for USA TODAY February 2, 2013
MOQUR, GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Along a sprawling roadside market, where butchered animals hang next to tiny, wooden stalls filled with auto parts, an Afghan man squats next to his apple cart, hoping to sell enough produce to feed his family.
It's only been in recent months that Abdullah, who like many Afghans goes by a single name, returned to the Moqur market. For years, the Taliban controlled the Moqur district and much of Ghazni province, forcing schools and businesses to close and imposing strict Islamic law.
The U.S. and Afghan forces here pushed out the Taliban fighters and allowed the market's vendors to return, giving hope of a normal life. But now that U.S. forces are preparing to depart, people here live in fear that the Afghan soldiers who are supposed to take over security will not be up to the task.
"There are still a lot of bad guys in the area," says Abdullah, as a crowd on onlookers nods in agreement.
By June 2014, security in every province in Afghanistan will have been turned over to Afghan forces following 11 years of hard-won battles against the Islamist Taliban in which more than 2,000 Americans have died. As NATO stated in its latest report Thursday, the success of the transition will rest on whether the Afghans can ensure that the country never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists.
"Developments over the past year show they can," concluded NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Eastern Afghanistan will be the greatest test of that transition. U.S. Marines and Army soldiers succeeded in vanquishing Taliban fighters from the strongholds in the south in campaigns lasting years in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Rather than reinforce the south, the Taliban attacked to the east, where fighters from militant-infested northwest Pakistan bolstered their forces.
U.S. forces responded last year by shifting troops to the east, intensifying efforts in Ghazni to combat a persistent enemy as a deadline issued by President Obama closes in for U.S. troops to withdraw.
Ghazni is an important thoroughfare for the Taliban and other militant groups in eastern Afghanistan. The country's main route, Highway 1, runs through this market halfway between the country's two largest cities, Kabul and Kandahar. Just off the highway are vast stretches of barren crop fields covered in winter frost and surrounded by snow-topped mountains.
Winter is typically when many Taliban fighters return to Pakistan to rest and re-arm for the spring. But this winter the Taliban remained active, perhaps to test the strength of the Afghan forces that have taken up positions turned over by the U.S. military.
For years a single company of Polish forces represented the entire contingent of anti-Taliban troops in the whole province. The arrival of U.S. troops and Afghan soldiers kept the Taliban out of the bigger population centers. But some locals say the Taliban is still firmly in control of most districts and just waiting for U.S. forces to leave so they can take on the Afghan forces left behind.
"They didn't bring security, the weather did," says Abdul Kaim, waving a bony finger at the American forces in the market as he explained that the recent snowfall is what stopped the fighting by making it too hard for either side to travel.
Lt. Col. Jeremy Schroeder disagreed and said the region was secured well before winter's arrival.
"I guess that's a good problem," says Schroeder, interpreting the Taliban's willingness to brave the cold months in Afghanistan as a sign the militants are concerned about losing too much ground to NATO and Afghan forces come spring. "It means you are having success."
Under the protection of patrolling coalition troops, Afghans fill the Muqor market that acts as an open-air department store with clothes, produce, food and merchandise. During the summer -- when the Taliban controlled the market and much of the province -- Abdullah and other merchants were forbidden from doing business in what is the largest roadside bazaar between Kabul and Kandahar.
Not all areas of eastern Afghanistan have such protection, and they can be at the mercy of the Taliban. Some have begun fighting back.
In nearby Andar District, locals rose up against the Taliban and its strictures, according to the Afghan government. Some have taken up arms against the militants and forced them from villages, allowing Taliban-banned schools and shops to reopen.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said the talk of life without Taliban control is an illusion. Mujahid says that much of Andar and Ghazni remains in Taliban hands.
"People (residents of Ghazni) like to help the mujahadeen, they know it is their responsibility," he says. "But even if they can't help, they aren't making real problems for us."
Townspeople in Moqur District are not banking solely on Afghan troops protecting them once U.S. forces go. A group called the Moqur Movement is helping to keep the Taliban out of the market and village, says the U.S. military. The groups in Andar and Moqur are critical to security because they can readily identify outsiders, particularly those who belong to the Taliban.
"They have a certain amount of access (to the local population) and anonymity that Afghan forces do not," says Schroeder.
Schroeder notes however that the groups can frighten some locals, such as when they enter homes after dark in search of suspected Taliban.
U.S. forces are trying to bring members of the Moqur Movement into the fold of the Afghan Local Police, a constable force trained and equipped by Special Operations Forces. Several members have already been incorporated into the ranks of the ALP, but the police have issues too.
People have complained that some in the ALP abuse their new-found authority by extorting bribes at checkpoints.
"They are taking our money and even torturing us," Mullah Shamsullah, an elder in a nearby village says of the Afghan Local Police.
U.S. forces say there are some ALP abusing their authority but that most cases involve men impersonating the police.
In Afghanistan, where rumors are how many rural towns get their information, there is speculation that the uprisings against the Taliban were manufactured by Kabul to spin a positive storyline out of Ghazni.
"At first it appeared it was a Pashtun (the predominant ethnic group in Ghazni) initiative to rise up," says Saeed Parto, an analyst with the Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization. "Another version is the Afghan government and U.S. forces wanted to see a feel-good story, something to show that Afghanistan is worth saving."
Afghanistan Stresses Strong Relations with Iran
Fars News Agency February 3, 2013
TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Afghan Foreign Ministry official on Sunday lauded the exemplary and unique relations between Tehran and Kabul, and said the two countries have recently increased their mutual cooperation despite the US sanction against Iran.
Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Janan Mosazai described the bilateral ties between the two Muslim neighboring nations as friendly, and said that the US sanctions against Iran will not affect the existing friendly relations between Kabul and Tehran.
The ancient and long-standing relations between the two nations were founded on national sovereignty, he added.
Speaking in his weekly press conference in Kabul in January, Mosazai said Iran and Afghanistan have enjoyed friendly, intimate and effective relations all throughout the past years, and mentioned that the remarkable growth in the number of reciprocal diplomatic visits by the two countries' senior officials is an indication of the very same fact.
Mosazai pointed to the visit of Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili to Kabul, and said that such visits take place in line with broad religious, cultural and historical commonalities between the two countries.
Jalili visited the Afghan capital in early January after a three-day visit to India where he held talks with his counterpart, Shivshankar Menon.
In Afghanistan he also met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
During the meeting held in Kabul at the time, the Iranian official said the strong ties between the governments of Iran and Afghanistan are based on deep and historical friendship between the two nations.
President Karzai, for his part, said relations between Iran and Afghanistan are at an excellent level.
In similar remarks earlier this year, Mosazai said that Kabul attaches great importance to its ties with the neighboring countries, Iran in particular, and would respect their considerations when dealing and interacting with the trans-regional countries.
"National interests and considerations of the neighboring states are being respected in Afghanistan's relations with all trans-regional countries," Mosazai said, speaking in his weekly press conference in Kabul at the time.
As regards his country's ties with Iran, Mosazai said, "Tehran-Kabul relations, as two neighboring states with common culture, are very important for the government of Afghanistan."
Iran is one of the most important donors to Afghanistan which has kept its promises to help to the reconstruction of the war-hit country.
Iran has built some roads, power transmission lines, and border stations, among the other infrastructure projects which would better link the two nations.
Election Law Delay May Damage 2014 Presidential Poll: IEC
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Saturday, 02 February 2013
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) Saturday warned that further delay in the parliament's approval of the election law will create more problems for the 2014 presidential poll.
The IEC told TOLOnews that every task to prepare for the upcoming presidential election is on schedule and in order – expect for the approval of the election law which governs the structure and competencies of the IEC.
"We are continuing all our work based on the commission's schedule. So far we have had no other challenges apart from the election law not being approved, and therefore we want the parliament to approve the law soon," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.
IEC officials said there are six key tasks needed to complete a successful election: registration of presidential candidates, registration of new voting cards, specifying the election date, specifying the polling centres, counting of the votes, and finalising the poll result.
Deputy parliamentary secretary Mohammad Farhad Azimi said Saturday that "the parliament will decide on the election law approval once [the MPs] return from their winter holidays."
"I reassure the Independent Election Commission that approving the law will be on the agenda after [we hold] the elections for the parliament's administrative board," he added.
Parliament is expected to reconvene early March.
It is understood that the IEC is looking to employ 16,000 additional staff to monitor the polling booths and count the votes.
Pakistan’s Offer to Train Afghan Forces Draws Critics
TOLOnews.com By Azem Arash Saturday, 02 February 2013
Afghan Minister of Defence has welcomed the offer for Pakistan to help train his country's forces training, saying Pakistan is the best place for the women in the Afghan security forces to receive training, a Chinese news agency wrote Friday.
Bismillah Khan Mohammadi reportedly made the comments following his meetings with Pakistan defence officials in Islamabad in the past week.
However, some experts do not believe Islamabad is looking to train security personnel for Afghanistan but rather that it is a new strategy aimed at turning the recruits to work for Pakistani aims.
"Pakistan is professional in training terrorists, not in training military forces, and it is looking for its own interests in Afghanistan. This time it is trying a new strategy," Afghan military analyst Miagol Waseeq told TOLOnews.
Mohammadi's visit to Pakistan was said by the Ministry of Defence to have increased optimism around negotiations with Islamabad on the fight against insurgency in the region and border security.
This is a shift from previous attitudes which regarded Pakistan as unsupportive of Afghanistan's war against insurgency.
Pakistan Fines Afghan Traders $50m for Stalled Containers
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 02 February 2013
Pakistan has fined Afghan traders a combined $50 million over the past three months for their containers which are stalled in Karachi port, Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) said Saturday.
According to ACCI officials, Pakistan has forcibly stopped the containers for about 85 days and proceeded to demand daily fines for the containers using the port space.
ACCI deputy director Khan Jan Alokozai said Pakistan has repeatedly ignored the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Agreement (APTA) and is benefiting from the fines.
"We pay almost $1 million a day [in fines] and so far we have paid $50 million. So Pakistan is ignoring APTA, which anticipated such transit problems between the two neighboring countries and suggested some strategies to solve the likely problems," he said.
With around 3700 containers carrying Afghan-owned goods including foodstuffs stalled at the port in Pakistan's south, the fines are expected to continue.
Alokozai pointed out that article 23 in the APTA says "the two sides must attempt to strengthen the transit of goods and give priority to the transport of business goods and they should avoid unnecessary delays."
Afghan traders whose containers are in the port blamed the Afghan government for failing to enforce the contents of agreement.
"We pay $160 for each container [per day]. Neither the Ministry of Commerce nor the Ministry of Finance is addressing the problem so we have failed to implement APTA," trader Ahmad Shah Ahmadi told TOLOnews.
However, Ministry of Commerce and Industries spokesman says the government is making a serious effort to resolve the issue.
"We also did the same action in Torkham port," Wahidullah Ghazikhil said.
Pakistan has previously stopped Afghan containers in Torkham port, receiving $7 million from Afghan traders in fines.
Afghanistan mostly exports its goods via Pakistan and Iran ports but recently government officials have looked at using the middle Asian countries' ports to avoid the problem of trade being blocked.
Logar, Wardak Insecurity Threatens Kabul: Officials
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Saturday, 02 February 2013
The government's disregard towards the two provinces bordering Kabul – Logar and Maiden Wardak – has worsened security conditions and increased the threats in Kabul city, according to Afghanistan's Transition Coordination Commission (TCC) chief.
At a conference in Kabul discussing security, development, and governance in Logar and Maidan Wardak, TCC head Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said that the insecurity within the provinces is a primary concern that should have been addressed as seriously as security in the capital itself,
"One of the reasons behind insecurity in the provinces of Logar and Maidan Wardak is that the people do not cooperate with the government because the government has not addressed the residents' needs. Kabul will never be secure if these provinces are not secure," he told the conference Saturday.
Both Logar and Wardak provincial governors attended along with a number of security officials.
The Minister of Education Farooq Wardak, who is a former Wardak resident, agreed with the TCC's claim that the government had neglected the two provinces.
"The security condition in Maidan Wardak and Logar was very good in 2006 and 2007. However, it became worse because of the inconsideration of the government.
The security in these provinces will not improve unless the people's support is obtained by the government," he said.
Wardak provincial governor Majid Khogiani warned that Kabul's security will similarly deteriorate if more security forces are not deployed to the vulnerable areas.
"If the number of security forces in vulnerable areas of Maidan Wardak province is not increased, the situation in Kabul next year will become similar to the current bad situation in this province," he said.
"There should be serious considerations given to improving security in this province," he added.
Logar provincial governor spoke of a "distance" between the people living in the province and the central government.
"The main problem is that people have turned their faces from the government and there is a gap between the people and the government, which has led people to not cooperate with the government and so insecurity has grown," Iqbal Azizi said.
Following the conference, which was held at the request of the president and National Security Council, a number of drafts from the province's officials will be sent to the security council to offer solutions to improve security and gain the support of residents.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com