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President Seeks Control Of All Afghan Militia Groups
March 1, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
President Hamid Karzai has demanded control of all Afghan militia groups linked to U.S.-led forces amid complaints of abuses by the units.
In a statement issued on February 28, Karzai ordered a delegation to identify groups that cooperate with foreign forces outside Afghan government control.
It gives the international coalition three months to transfer them to Kabul's authority.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said the order did not refer to the Afghan Local Police, which operate under the authority of the Interior Ministry.
Faizi said Karzai was referring to "parallel structures" created by U.S. Special Forces, the CIA, and other military branches.
Those units are separate from the main NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Afghans have complained of torture, illegal detentions, and other abuses at the hands of such units.
Based on reporting by AP and dpa
Afghan civilians suffer casualties in Australian troops operation
By Sayed Jawad - 01 Mar 2013, 9:36 am Khaama Press
According to reports an incident allegedly involving civilian casualties has taken place during an Australian military operation in Afghanistan.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), has confirmed that Australian troops were involved in an “operational incident” in north-west Uruzgan, ABC news reported.
Details of the incident in Oruzgan province are not immediately clear, but there were no Australian Defence Force casualties, a statement from the Department of Defence said.
An ISAF spokesman quoted by ABC news said the incident may have injured civilians but there were no reports of Australian troops casualties.
In the meantime David Feeney, parliamentarian secretary for defense said any reports of civilian deaths and injuries are concerning.
He said, “I am aware that Australian forces have been involved in an operational incident in the north-western part of the Uruzgan province.”
Australian has deployed around 1,000 troops under the NATO-led International security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan.
Minister Claims School Arson Not the Work of Taliban
TOLOnews.com By Jawed Stanikzai Thursday, 28 February 2013
Minister of Education Farooq Wardak has raised the ire of political analysts with claims that the recent arson of Afghan schools is not the work of the Taliban.
Wardak said Thursday that the anti-government groups operating in Afghanistan do not have any intention or aim to set schools alight, actions that Afghan officials, local residents and security organisations have usually attributed to the Taliban.
"In many cases the Afghan Taliban has not committed the arson of schools, but rather it's been done by strangers," said Wardak.
Analysts commented that his statement is dangerous, and it is not the first time that he has made such claims.
"The education minister is not the Taliban's spokesman to dismiss the school arsons," said political analyst Motiullah Kharooti.
Another analyst Yunos Fakoor said the minister is simply trying to get the Taliban on his side.
"The Minister of Education is a [possible] candidate of the President Karzai government for the future presidential election and therefore he is putting effort into getting the Taliban green light and support," he said.
The analysts also commented that such statements might be a way to encourage more support for the Taliban to support the upcoming elections in 2014.
Wardak has said that the Taliban have even cooperated to open some of the schools in the past.
Wardak has also previously stated that some of the suicide attacks are not being planned and executed by the Taliban or that other known anti-government armed groups.
The U.S. may not have money for infrastructure repairs, but Afghanistan does
Washington Post By Walter Pincus 28/02/2013
President Obama’s “Fix-It-First” program to repair bridges, proposed in his State of the Union address on Feb. 12, may be getting a test run in Afghanistan.
Don’t worry about the lack of money in this country that could limit fixing those “nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges” Obama mentioned.
The Afghanistan Security Forces Fund and the Economic Support Fund for Afghanistan have roughly $6 billion in unobligated money from the past two years, enough to cover that country’s projects through 2014, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). And there’s about $6 billion more in the fiscal 2013 budget.
Sequestration is expected to cut the unobligated 2011 and 2012 money by only 9.4 percent, if it takes effect for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to spend up to $25 million to repair four bridges and widen and resurface 20 miles of roadway in the Gulam Khan Transportation Corridor, which runs through Khost province to the border with Pakistan’s North Waziristan Province, according to a Corps description. Fixing the corridor will increase trade by reducing the travel time between the Afghan capital, Kabul, and Karachi, Pakistan’s chief port city.
Poor drainage caused the bridge erosion, so the project’s contractor must install edge drains along the road and provide a new reinforced-concrete bridge deck.
One of the more interesting problems for the contractor is designing what is known as “Friendship Circle,” described as “a traffic direction changing system . . . that will allow vehicles to efficiently change driving sides at the border since Afghanistan and Pakistan drive on opposite sides of the road,” according to the Corps project specifications. Pakistanis drive on the left side; Afghans on the right.
While the United States is withdrawing its combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the Corps is continuing a vast construction program there, primarily providing facilities for the planned 352,000-member Afghan National Security Forces, which include the Afghan army and its border and national police. According to a U.S. Army Web site, in 2012 the Corps office headquartered at Kandahar Airfield alone awarded 11 projects totaling $1.28 billion. During that same period, contractors completed roughly $795 million worth of projects, primarily for the Afghan National Security Forces.
One of the most exotic Corps projects was to revamp the power plant, lighting, ventilation systems and pavement of the Salang Tunnel, more than 11,000 feet up in the Hindu Kush mountains and a key part of the northern route for supplies going to U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The $12.8 million contract for these short-term fixes to the Soviet-built tunnel was awarded to the Omran Holding Group, an Afghan company that has until October to finish the job. Meanwhile, the tunnel will be needed for U.S. and NATO military equipment both arriving in and leaving Afghanistan.
Just this month there were six other Corps construction contracts offered or amended, including a new $10 million forward-area arming and refueling point for the Afghan air force at Kunduz Civil Airport. It will not be completed until mid-2014. There’s also the fourth phase of the Afghan army’s Kabul training center, the cost of which could go as high as $100 million.
One project was canceled: the designing and building of austere border police stations, to be located “in remote and potentially dangerous locations east of Kabul Province.” They were to house up to 60 people, be served by helicopter and be constructed on site using “quick modular or panelized structures.” Sanitation was to be “outdoor toilets,” and the buildings would have had “simple ceiling fans and minimal lighting supported by minimal power requirements.”
The Corps said it could have been a $25 million or more project. But, it said, “the solicitation produced little competition, and little design innovation.” Now the plan is “to develop an innovative approach using in-house designers.”
As of Dec. 31, U.S. completed or planned construction of facilities for the Afghan army and national police has totaled at least $11.6 billion, according to the recent SIGAR quarterly report.
The special inspector general for Afghanistan, John F. Sopko, on Friday wrote to U.S. government departments and agencies working in that country, seeking details about all the projects underway or planned for the transition. He wants to conduct detailed oversight of the $75 billion appropriated for all Afghan reconstruction funding through the end of last year and to get an indication of what is planned for this year and next.
It is the first time such a request has been made, according to SIGAR officials.
And it’s about time.
Karzai Cannot Offer Govt Positions to Taliban: Muhaqiq
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Thursday, 28 February 2013
President Hamid Karzai cannot offer any government position to the Taliban by way of a peace deal sweetener, but the people could give them any privileges if they so wanted, said political opposition leader Mohammad Muhaqiq on Thursday.
Speaking to TOLOnews, he said that any action the government is taking towards the Taliban and any armed opposition groups should be in close collaboration with the Afghan civil society and political opposition parties.
"Anything that happens should be transparent and all the parties including the political opposition and civil society should be involved in negotiations with Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami. Karzai cannot offer them any government position it is the right of the people," Muhaqiq said.
His comments come after reports from leading media outlets said Wednesday that Karzai had offered the Taliban key positions in the Ministry of Justice. However, these reports were not confirmed by the government and requests for comment from the presidential palace went unanswered today.
The Afghan High Peace Council, which is ostensibly meant to be leading the peace talks, said it is unaware of Karzai's offer.
"We are not aware of this offer - it could be rumors," HPC member Shahzada Shahid told TOLOnews on Thursday.
Other experts said that if the offer is true, it is premature and should have done through the High Peace Council.
"The High Peace Council chairman should have offered this, not President Karzai. [If true], it shows a lack of coordination between the peace council and government. It's also premature," analyst Jawid Kohistani said.
Former Taliban commander Sayed Akbar Agha said he believes that the Taliban would not accept such an offer.
"This offer is premature and it will not have the desired result because Taliban will not accept it," Agha told TOLOnews.
The Afghan authorities and several other countries are trying to take the lead in bringing the Taliban into peace negotiations.
There are reports that the Taliban delegation in Qatar to build negotiations with the Afghan government have left for a short break to Norway to "see the snow".
Afghanistan top priority for Russia’s security council agenda
By Sajad - 01 Mar 2013, 5:59 pm Khaama Press
The rotational presidency of the UN security council was assumed by Russia on Friday amid heightened concern over developments in Afghanistan, Syria and in the Middle East.
Russia is due to initiate talk and debate on the situation in Afghanistan in its leadership role on the security council to discuss the decade long war launched by US-led international forces following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Russia has good reason to be concerned about the situation in Afghanistan: Since the beginning of hostilities, which pitted Coalition forces against a motley crew of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, the region has experienced not only an influx of terrorists but also a massive spike in drug trafficking across Europe and Russia.
According to the Federal Drug Service, 106 tons of illegal drugs – mostly in the form of heroin cultivated from Afghan opium poppy – were seized in Russia last year, a 70 percent jump from 2011.
In the meantime Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will chair on March 19 a UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan. A resolution extending the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will be adopted at the meeting.
The agenda of the Russian presidency will also address the Middle East issues, the settlement of the situation in Kosovo, and the Libyan sanctions regime, among other issues.
An ethnic partition of Afghanistan is best of bad options
The National By Brahma Chellaney Mar 1, 2013
America's unwinnable war in Afghanistan, after exacting a staggering cost in blood and treasure, is finally drawing to an official close. How this development shapes Afghanistan's future will have a significant bearing on the security of countries located far beyond. After all, Afghanistan is not Vietnam: the end of US-led combat operations may not end the war, because the enemy will seek to target western interests wherever located.
Can the fate of Afghanistan be different from two other Muslim countries where the United States militarily intervened - Iraq and Libya? Iraq has been partitioned in all but name into Shia, Sunni and Kurdish sections, while Libya seems headed towards a similar three-way, tribal-based partition. Will there be an Iraq-style "soft partition" of Afghanistan, with protracted strife eventually creating a "hard partition"?
Afghanistan's large ethnic minorities already enjoy de facto autonomy, which they secured after the Northern Alliance played a central role in the US-led defeat of the Afghan Taliban in late 2001. Having enjoyed autonomy for years now, the minorities will resist coming under the sway of the ethnic Pashtuns, who formerly ruled the country.
For their part, the Pashtuns, despite tribal divisions, will not rest content with being in charge of just a rump of the eastern and southeastern provinces. Given the large Pashtun population resident across the British-drawn Durand Line that separates Afghanistan from Pakistan, they are likely to revive their long-dormant campaign for a Greater Pashtunistan - a development that could affect the territorial integrity of another artificial modern construct, Pakistan.
The ethnic minorities are actually ethnic majorities in distinct geographical zones in the north and the west, which makes Afghanistan's partitioning possible and more likely to last, unlike the colonial-era geographical lines. The ethnic minorities account for more than half of Afghanistan - both in land area and population size. The Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara communities alone make up close to 50 per cent of Afghanistan's population.
The US effort for an honourable exit by cutting a deal with the Pakistan-backed Afghan Taliban, paradoxically, is deepening Afghanistan's ethnic fissures and increasing the partitioning risk. With President Barack Obama choosing his second-term national security team and his 2014 deadline to end combat operations approaching, the US effort to strike a deal with the Taliban is on the front burner.
This effort, being pursued in coordination with Afghan President Hamid Karzai amid the gradual withdrawal of US and Nato troops, is stirring deep unease among the Afghan minorities, who fought the Taliban and its five-year rule fiercely and suffered greatly. The Taliban's rule, for example, was marked by several large-scale massacres of members of the historically persecuted Hazara.
The rupturing of Mr Karzai's political alliance with ethnic-minority leaders has also aided ethnic polarisation. Some non-Pashtun power brokers remain with Mr Karzai, but most others now lead the opposition National Front.
The minority communities are unlikely to accept any power-sharing arrangement that includes the Taliban. In fact, they suspect Mr Karzai's intention is to restore Pashtun dominance across Afghanistan. Mr Karzai, however, does not belong to the mainstream Pashtun tribes, whose traditional homeland straddles the Durand Line; rather, like key Taliban leaders, he is from the tribally marginal Kandahar region.
The minorities' misgivings have been strengthened by the "Peace Process Roadmap to 2015" put forward recently by the Karzai-constituted Afghan High Peace Council, empowered to negotiate with the Taliban. The document sketches several striking concessions to the Taliban and to Islamabad, ranging from the Taliban's recognition as a political party to a role for Pakistan in Afghanistan's affairs.
The ethnic tensions, which threaten to undermine cohesion in the fledgling, multi-ethnic Afghan Army, are breaking along the same lines as when the Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, an exit that led to civil war and the Taliban's subsequent capture of Kabul. This time, though, the minority communities are better armed and prepared to defend their interests after the US exit.
A new civil war, however, would likely tear Afghanistan apart, Balkanising the country into distinct warlord-controlled zones. This raises a fundamental question: is the territorial unity of Afghanistan essential for regional or international security? In other words, should the policies of outside powers seek to keep Afghanistan united?
First, the sanctity of existing borders has become a powerful norm in world politics. Border fixity is seen as essential for peace and stability. Yet this norm, paradoxically, has allowed the emergence of weak states, whose internal wars spill across international boundaries and create serious regional tensions and insecurity.
Second, outside forces, in any event, are hardly in a position to prevent Afghanistan's partitioning along Iraqi or Yugoslavian lines, with the bloodiest battles expected in ethnically mixed strategic areas, including Kabul.
A weak, partitioned Afghanistan may not be the best outcome. Yet it will be far better than an Afghanistan that dissolves into chaos and bloodletting. And infinitely better than one in which the medieval Taliban returns to power and begins a fresh pogrom. Indeed, it may be the only way to thwart transnational terrorists from rebuilding a base of operations there and to prevent the country from sliding into a large-scale civil war.
Brahma Chellaney is the author of Asian Juggernaut and the forthcoming Water, Peace, and War
Afghan Govt Rejects Hagel's India Remarks
TOLOnews.com By Anisa Shahid Thursday, 28 February 2013
The Afghan government on Thursday stressed that it will not allow any other country to use Afghanistan to target other countries, seeking to downplay the fracas over comments made by the newly-appointed US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel on the India-Afghan relationship.
Hagel was quoted as saying that India is using Afghanistan as a "second front" against its old rival Pakistan, but the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that any relations with the Indian government are based on goodwill and for Afghanistan's reconstruction.
"Afghanistan is a moderate country and will not allow anyone to insecure other countries from its soil. Our relationship with India is based goodwill and for the purpose of reconstruction of the country," Deputy Ministry Spokesman Siamak Herawi told TOLOnews.
"There are proven documents that many terrorists are being trained in Pakistan," he added.
The Indian government already reacted to the report of Hagel's comments made in 2011 at an Oaklahoma university but which were re-reported this week by an online news outlet.
India has defended its presence in Afghanistan and has also somewhat defended Hagel's appointment as Secretary of Defence.
"He has made no such statement. You are talking about some lecture given in a university two years ago. So I don't think it is correct to comment on a lecture given by a person two years ago," said Salman Khurshid, Indian Foreign Minister, according to Reuters.
However, India's main opposition leader Murli Manohar Joshi has spoken against Hagel's appointment.
"That is a very serious statement and such a person, if his office is confirmed by the government in the US, I think it will not be a very happy event for us," Reuters reported Joshi saying.
APPF Deploys to Secure Herat-Kandahar Highway
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini Thursday, 28 February 2013
The Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) has started deploying forces to provide security to the Herat-Kandahar Highway, a key road in Afghanistan connecting southern and western provinces frequently attacked by insurgents, officials said Thursday.
More than 200 new graduates from the force will be positioned to secure the highway following a recent ban of private security companies whose main weapons and positions are now in use by the police force, the general officer of APPF in Herat Zone 606 Ansar told TOLOnews.
"We assure our citizens that we would work better than the private companies; we will provide security for the highway," Abdulhameed Azizi told TOLOnews.
Six private security companies were recently banned from operating in the vicinity of the Herat-Kandahar Highway for reports that they were involved in attacks in the area.
According to the Herat APPF officials, the Afghan forces of Zone 606 Ansar have completed their training and are ready to be deployed for security of Herat-Kandahar Highway as well as providing security for the construction of the Herat-Badghis section of the national ring road.
Azizi said he is confident they have sufficient artillery and they are capable of operating in a more professional manner than private companies.
The men making up the force were also confident they can secure the highway.
"We are wearing the outfit of a lion and will not withhold any efforts to defend our nation," one of the soldiers told TOLOnews.
"We are not afraid, and will defend the nation until the very last moment," another said.
Although the private companies have been banned from the area, there are reports suggesting there are still some operating despite having their licenses revoked.
Herat Protestors Warn of Violence Over Iran Executions
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 28 February 2013
A number of citizens of western Herat province Thursday protested against the execution of Afghans in neighbouring Iran, warning their protests will escalate if the Afghan government does not act soon.
The protestors blocked the Herat-Islam Qala road which connects the two countries for a couple of hours and warned they will continue to protest until the bodies of the executed are transported back to Afghanistan.
According to protestors from the Kohsan district, a number of people from their district had travelled to Iran for work but were arrested by Iranian border forces on the way, and were later transferred to another city and shot to death by a firing squad.
"It's been two months now that we have been to the provincial government, the provincial council, the international affairs office, but no one, no single organisation hears us," one of the protestors told TOLOnews.
"We will carry out violence if this refusal continues," he added.
Another protestor called upon President Hamid Karzai to address the matter.
"We want the government and the president to give us a positive response as soon as possible and to resolve our problem, otherwise there will be bad consequences," he said.
Herat governor spokesman said that the authorities are looking at the matter with documents proving the protestors' claims already sent to the foreign ministry.
"This is an issue of the national scale. The top officials should discuss this over it in the capital and make a decision," Mohiuddin Noori told TOLOnews.
"We have sent to the foreign ministry whatever we have that can prove the claims," he said.
Despite numerous attempts, consulate officials at the Iranian consulate in Herat have not responded to TOLOnews' calls to comment on the issue.
AISA Presents Plan to Attract Investors
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaie Thursday, 28 February 2013
The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) Thursday presented a four-year blueprint to attract investors into Afghanistan with a hope that plan will be funded by international donors.
AISA officials said that they have presented the blueprint to the donors, telling them that they need to fund these projects if they are to see the country stand on its own feet.
The plan includes the creation of industrial parks, awareness programmes for attracting investors, vocational training centers, a fund to support investors, and other methods of encouraging donors to invest in Afghanistan's private sector.
"We project our plan will cost around $200 million. If the donor countries want Afghanistan to stand on its own feet they should fund the projects. Most of the donors have promised to fund it after some assessment," AISA chief Wafiullah Eftkhar said.
Head of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance Zdravko Shami welcomed the plan.
"It is a four-year $100 million dollar project that targets the development of the private sector in Afghanistan. The main focus of the project activities will be the development of private sector alliances and developing and introducing new technology, new techniques, new productions to facilitate the development and generation of new jobs and generation of income, facilitating domestic production, and expanding exports," he said.
The officials said that the lack of standard industrial parks is a big challenge against investment in the country. They believe that the plan will pave the way for up to $2 billion in investment if the projects can find donors to build the initial phases.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
March 1, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
President Hamid Karzai has demanded control of all Afghan militia groups linked to U.S.-led forces amid complaints of abuses by the units.
In a statement issued on February 28, Karzai ordered a delegation to identify groups that cooperate with foreign forces outside Afghan government control.
It gives the international coalition three months to transfer them to Kabul's authority.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said the order did not refer to the Afghan Local Police, which operate under the authority of the Interior Ministry.
Faizi said Karzai was referring to "parallel structures" created by U.S. Special Forces, the CIA, and other military branches.
Those units are separate from the main NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Afghans have complained of torture, illegal detentions, and other abuses at the hands of such units.
Based on reporting by AP and dpa
Afghan civilians suffer casualties in Australian troops operation
By Sayed Jawad - 01 Mar 2013, 9:36 am Khaama Press
According to reports an incident allegedly involving civilian casualties has taken place during an Australian military operation in Afghanistan.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), has confirmed that Australian troops were involved in an “operational incident” in north-west Uruzgan, ABC news reported.
Details of the incident in Oruzgan province are not immediately clear, but there were no Australian Defence Force casualties, a statement from the Department of Defence said.
An ISAF spokesman quoted by ABC news said the incident may have injured civilians but there were no reports of Australian troops casualties.
In the meantime David Feeney, parliamentarian secretary for defense said any reports of civilian deaths and injuries are concerning.
He said, “I am aware that Australian forces have been involved in an operational incident in the north-western part of the Uruzgan province.”
Australian has deployed around 1,000 troops under the NATO-led International security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan.
Minister Claims School Arson Not the Work of Taliban
TOLOnews.com By Jawed Stanikzai Thursday, 28 February 2013
Minister of Education Farooq Wardak has raised the ire of political analysts with claims that the recent arson of Afghan schools is not the work of the Taliban.
Wardak said Thursday that the anti-government groups operating in Afghanistan do not have any intention or aim to set schools alight, actions that Afghan officials, local residents and security organisations have usually attributed to the Taliban.
"In many cases the Afghan Taliban has not committed the arson of schools, but rather it's been done by strangers," said Wardak.
Analysts commented that his statement is dangerous, and it is not the first time that he has made such claims.
"The education minister is not the Taliban's spokesman to dismiss the school arsons," said political analyst Motiullah Kharooti.
Another analyst Yunos Fakoor said the minister is simply trying to get the Taliban on his side.
"The Minister of Education is a [possible] candidate of the President Karzai government for the future presidential election and therefore he is putting effort into getting the Taliban green light and support," he said.
The analysts also commented that such statements might be a way to encourage more support for the Taliban to support the upcoming elections in 2014.
Wardak has said that the Taliban have even cooperated to open some of the schools in the past.
Wardak has also previously stated that some of the suicide attacks are not being planned and executed by the Taliban or that other known anti-government armed groups.
The U.S. may not have money for infrastructure repairs, but Afghanistan does
Washington Post By Walter Pincus 28/02/2013
President Obama’s “Fix-It-First” program to repair bridges, proposed in his State of the Union address on Feb. 12, may be getting a test run in Afghanistan.
Don’t worry about the lack of money in this country that could limit fixing those “nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges” Obama mentioned.
The Afghanistan Security Forces Fund and the Economic Support Fund for Afghanistan have roughly $6 billion in unobligated money from the past two years, enough to cover that country’s projects through 2014, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). And there’s about $6 billion more in the fiscal 2013 budget.
Sequestration is expected to cut the unobligated 2011 and 2012 money by only 9.4 percent, if it takes effect for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to spend up to $25 million to repair four bridges and widen and resurface 20 miles of roadway in the Gulam Khan Transportation Corridor, which runs through Khost province to the border with Pakistan’s North Waziristan Province, according to a Corps description. Fixing the corridor will increase trade by reducing the travel time between the Afghan capital, Kabul, and Karachi, Pakistan’s chief port city.
Poor drainage caused the bridge erosion, so the project’s contractor must install edge drains along the road and provide a new reinforced-concrete bridge deck.
One of the more interesting problems for the contractor is designing what is known as “Friendship Circle,” described as “a traffic direction changing system . . . that will allow vehicles to efficiently change driving sides at the border since Afghanistan and Pakistan drive on opposite sides of the road,” according to the Corps project specifications. Pakistanis drive on the left side; Afghans on the right.
While the United States is withdrawing its combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the Corps is continuing a vast construction program there, primarily providing facilities for the planned 352,000-member Afghan National Security Forces, which include the Afghan army and its border and national police. According to a U.S. Army Web site, in 2012 the Corps office headquartered at Kandahar Airfield alone awarded 11 projects totaling $1.28 billion. During that same period, contractors completed roughly $795 million worth of projects, primarily for the Afghan National Security Forces.
One of the most exotic Corps projects was to revamp the power plant, lighting, ventilation systems and pavement of the Salang Tunnel, more than 11,000 feet up in the Hindu Kush mountains and a key part of the northern route for supplies going to U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The $12.8 million contract for these short-term fixes to the Soviet-built tunnel was awarded to the Omran Holding Group, an Afghan company that has until October to finish the job. Meanwhile, the tunnel will be needed for U.S. and NATO military equipment both arriving in and leaving Afghanistan.
Just this month there were six other Corps construction contracts offered or amended, including a new $10 million forward-area arming and refueling point for the Afghan air force at Kunduz Civil Airport. It will not be completed until mid-2014. There’s also the fourth phase of the Afghan army’s Kabul training center, the cost of which could go as high as $100 million.
One project was canceled: the designing and building of austere border police stations, to be located “in remote and potentially dangerous locations east of Kabul Province.” They were to house up to 60 people, be served by helicopter and be constructed on site using “quick modular or panelized structures.” Sanitation was to be “outdoor toilets,” and the buildings would have had “simple ceiling fans and minimal lighting supported by minimal power requirements.”
The Corps said it could have been a $25 million or more project. But, it said, “the solicitation produced little competition, and little design innovation.” Now the plan is “to develop an innovative approach using in-house designers.”
As of Dec. 31, U.S. completed or planned construction of facilities for the Afghan army and national police has totaled at least $11.6 billion, according to the recent SIGAR quarterly report.
The special inspector general for Afghanistan, John F. Sopko, on Friday wrote to U.S. government departments and agencies working in that country, seeking details about all the projects underway or planned for the transition. He wants to conduct detailed oversight of the $75 billion appropriated for all Afghan reconstruction funding through the end of last year and to get an indication of what is planned for this year and next.
It is the first time such a request has been made, according to SIGAR officials.
And it’s about time.
Karzai Cannot Offer Govt Positions to Taliban: Muhaqiq
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Thursday, 28 February 2013
President Hamid Karzai cannot offer any government position to the Taliban by way of a peace deal sweetener, but the people could give them any privileges if they so wanted, said political opposition leader Mohammad Muhaqiq on Thursday.
Speaking to TOLOnews, he said that any action the government is taking towards the Taliban and any armed opposition groups should be in close collaboration with the Afghan civil society and political opposition parties.
"Anything that happens should be transparent and all the parties including the political opposition and civil society should be involved in negotiations with Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami. Karzai cannot offer them any government position it is the right of the people," Muhaqiq said.
His comments come after reports from leading media outlets said Wednesday that Karzai had offered the Taliban key positions in the Ministry of Justice. However, these reports were not confirmed by the government and requests for comment from the presidential palace went unanswered today.
The Afghan High Peace Council, which is ostensibly meant to be leading the peace talks, said it is unaware of Karzai's offer.
"We are not aware of this offer - it could be rumors," HPC member Shahzada Shahid told TOLOnews on Thursday.
Other experts said that if the offer is true, it is premature and should have done through the High Peace Council.
"The High Peace Council chairman should have offered this, not President Karzai. [If true], it shows a lack of coordination between the peace council and government. It's also premature," analyst Jawid Kohistani said.
Former Taliban commander Sayed Akbar Agha said he believes that the Taliban would not accept such an offer.
"This offer is premature and it will not have the desired result because Taliban will not accept it," Agha told TOLOnews.
The Afghan authorities and several other countries are trying to take the lead in bringing the Taliban into peace negotiations.
There are reports that the Taliban delegation in Qatar to build negotiations with the Afghan government have left for a short break to Norway to "see the snow".
Afghanistan top priority for Russia’s security council agenda
By Sajad - 01 Mar 2013, 5:59 pm Khaama Press
The rotational presidency of the UN security council was assumed by Russia on Friday amid heightened concern over developments in Afghanistan, Syria and in the Middle East.
Russia is due to initiate talk and debate on the situation in Afghanistan in its leadership role on the security council to discuss the decade long war launched by US-led international forces following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Russia has good reason to be concerned about the situation in Afghanistan: Since the beginning of hostilities, which pitted Coalition forces against a motley crew of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, the region has experienced not only an influx of terrorists but also a massive spike in drug trafficking across Europe and Russia.
According to the Federal Drug Service, 106 tons of illegal drugs – mostly in the form of heroin cultivated from Afghan opium poppy – were seized in Russia last year, a 70 percent jump from 2011.
In the meantime Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will chair on March 19 a UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan. A resolution extending the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will be adopted at the meeting.
The agenda of the Russian presidency will also address the Middle East issues, the settlement of the situation in Kosovo, and the Libyan sanctions regime, among other issues.
An ethnic partition of Afghanistan is best of bad options
The National By Brahma Chellaney Mar 1, 2013
America's unwinnable war in Afghanistan, after exacting a staggering cost in blood and treasure, is finally drawing to an official close. How this development shapes Afghanistan's future will have a significant bearing on the security of countries located far beyond. After all, Afghanistan is not Vietnam: the end of US-led combat operations may not end the war, because the enemy will seek to target western interests wherever located.
Can the fate of Afghanistan be different from two other Muslim countries where the United States militarily intervened - Iraq and Libya? Iraq has been partitioned in all but name into Shia, Sunni and Kurdish sections, while Libya seems headed towards a similar three-way, tribal-based partition. Will there be an Iraq-style "soft partition" of Afghanistan, with protracted strife eventually creating a "hard partition"?
Afghanistan's large ethnic minorities already enjoy de facto autonomy, which they secured after the Northern Alliance played a central role in the US-led defeat of the Afghan Taliban in late 2001. Having enjoyed autonomy for years now, the minorities will resist coming under the sway of the ethnic Pashtuns, who formerly ruled the country.
For their part, the Pashtuns, despite tribal divisions, will not rest content with being in charge of just a rump of the eastern and southeastern provinces. Given the large Pashtun population resident across the British-drawn Durand Line that separates Afghanistan from Pakistan, they are likely to revive their long-dormant campaign for a Greater Pashtunistan - a development that could affect the territorial integrity of another artificial modern construct, Pakistan.
The ethnic minorities are actually ethnic majorities in distinct geographical zones in the north and the west, which makes Afghanistan's partitioning possible and more likely to last, unlike the colonial-era geographical lines. The ethnic minorities account for more than half of Afghanistan - both in land area and population size. The Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara communities alone make up close to 50 per cent of Afghanistan's population.
The US effort for an honourable exit by cutting a deal with the Pakistan-backed Afghan Taliban, paradoxically, is deepening Afghanistan's ethnic fissures and increasing the partitioning risk. With President Barack Obama choosing his second-term national security team and his 2014 deadline to end combat operations approaching, the US effort to strike a deal with the Taliban is on the front burner.
This effort, being pursued in coordination with Afghan President Hamid Karzai amid the gradual withdrawal of US and Nato troops, is stirring deep unease among the Afghan minorities, who fought the Taliban and its five-year rule fiercely and suffered greatly. The Taliban's rule, for example, was marked by several large-scale massacres of members of the historically persecuted Hazara.
The rupturing of Mr Karzai's political alliance with ethnic-minority leaders has also aided ethnic polarisation. Some non-Pashtun power brokers remain with Mr Karzai, but most others now lead the opposition National Front.
The minority communities are unlikely to accept any power-sharing arrangement that includes the Taliban. In fact, they suspect Mr Karzai's intention is to restore Pashtun dominance across Afghanistan. Mr Karzai, however, does not belong to the mainstream Pashtun tribes, whose traditional homeland straddles the Durand Line; rather, like key Taliban leaders, he is from the tribally marginal Kandahar region.
The minorities' misgivings have been strengthened by the "Peace Process Roadmap to 2015" put forward recently by the Karzai-constituted Afghan High Peace Council, empowered to negotiate with the Taliban. The document sketches several striking concessions to the Taliban and to Islamabad, ranging from the Taliban's recognition as a political party to a role for Pakistan in Afghanistan's affairs.
The ethnic tensions, which threaten to undermine cohesion in the fledgling, multi-ethnic Afghan Army, are breaking along the same lines as when the Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, an exit that led to civil war and the Taliban's subsequent capture of Kabul. This time, though, the minority communities are better armed and prepared to defend their interests after the US exit.
A new civil war, however, would likely tear Afghanistan apart, Balkanising the country into distinct warlord-controlled zones. This raises a fundamental question: is the territorial unity of Afghanistan essential for regional or international security? In other words, should the policies of outside powers seek to keep Afghanistan united?
First, the sanctity of existing borders has become a powerful norm in world politics. Border fixity is seen as essential for peace and stability. Yet this norm, paradoxically, has allowed the emergence of weak states, whose internal wars spill across international boundaries and create serious regional tensions and insecurity.
Second, outside forces, in any event, are hardly in a position to prevent Afghanistan's partitioning along Iraqi or Yugoslavian lines, with the bloodiest battles expected in ethnically mixed strategic areas, including Kabul.
A weak, partitioned Afghanistan may not be the best outcome. Yet it will be far better than an Afghanistan that dissolves into chaos and bloodletting. And infinitely better than one in which the medieval Taliban returns to power and begins a fresh pogrom. Indeed, it may be the only way to thwart transnational terrorists from rebuilding a base of operations there and to prevent the country from sliding into a large-scale civil war.
Brahma Chellaney is the author of Asian Juggernaut and the forthcoming Water, Peace, and War
Afghan Govt Rejects Hagel's India Remarks
TOLOnews.com By Anisa Shahid Thursday, 28 February 2013
The Afghan government on Thursday stressed that it will not allow any other country to use Afghanistan to target other countries, seeking to downplay the fracas over comments made by the newly-appointed US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel on the India-Afghan relationship.
Hagel was quoted as saying that India is using Afghanistan as a "second front" against its old rival Pakistan, but the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that any relations with the Indian government are based on goodwill and for Afghanistan's reconstruction.
"Afghanistan is a moderate country and will not allow anyone to insecure other countries from its soil. Our relationship with India is based goodwill and for the purpose of reconstruction of the country," Deputy Ministry Spokesman Siamak Herawi told TOLOnews.
"There are proven documents that many terrorists are being trained in Pakistan," he added.
The Indian government already reacted to the report of Hagel's comments made in 2011 at an Oaklahoma university but which were re-reported this week by an online news outlet.
India has defended its presence in Afghanistan and has also somewhat defended Hagel's appointment as Secretary of Defence.
"He has made no such statement. You are talking about some lecture given in a university two years ago. So I don't think it is correct to comment on a lecture given by a person two years ago," said Salman Khurshid, Indian Foreign Minister, according to Reuters.
However, India's main opposition leader Murli Manohar Joshi has spoken against Hagel's appointment.
"That is a very serious statement and such a person, if his office is confirmed by the government in the US, I think it will not be a very happy event for us," Reuters reported Joshi saying.
APPF Deploys to Secure Herat-Kandahar Highway
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini Thursday, 28 February 2013
The Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) has started deploying forces to provide security to the Herat-Kandahar Highway, a key road in Afghanistan connecting southern and western provinces frequently attacked by insurgents, officials said Thursday.
More than 200 new graduates from the force will be positioned to secure the highway following a recent ban of private security companies whose main weapons and positions are now in use by the police force, the general officer of APPF in Herat Zone 606 Ansar told TOLOnews.
"We assure our citizens that we would work better than the private companies; we will provide security for the highway," Abdulhameed Azizi told TOLOnews.
Six private security companies were recently banned from operating in the vicinity of the Herat-Kandahar Highway for reports that they were involved in attacks in the area.
According to the Herat APPF officials, the Afghan forces of Zone 606 Ansar have completed their training and are ready to be deployed for security of Herat-Kandahar Highway as well as providing security for the construction of the Herat-Badghis section of the national ring road.
Azizi said he is confident they have sufficient artillery and they are capable of operating in a more professional manner than private companies.
The men making up the force were also confident they can secure the highway.
"We are wearing the outfit of a lion and will not withhold any efforts to defend our nation," one of the soldiers told TOLOnews.
"We are not afraid, and will defend the nation until the very last moment," another said.
Although the private companies have been banned from the area, there are reports suggesting there are still some operating despite having their licenses revoked.
Herat Protestors Warn of Violence Over Iran Executions
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 28 February 2013
A number of citizens of western Herat province Thursday protested against the execution of Afghans in neighbouring Iran, warning their protests will escalate if the Afghan government does not act soon.
The protestors blocked the Herat-Islam Qala road which connects the two countries for a couple of hours and warned they will continue to protest until the bodies of the executed are transported back to Afghanistan.
According to protestors from the Kohsan district, a number of people from their district had travelled to Iran for work but were arrested by Iranian border forces on the way, and were later transferred to another city and shot to death by a firing squad.
"It's been two months now that we have been to the provincial government, the provincial council, the international affairs office, but no one, no single organisation hears us," one of the protestors told TOLOnews.
"We will carry out violence if this refusal continues," he added.
Another protestor called upon President Hamid Karzai to address the matter.
"We want the government and the president to give us a positive response as soon as possible and to resolve our problem, otherwise there will be bad consequences," he said.
Herat governor spokesman said that the authorities are looking at the matter with documents proving the protestors' claims already sent to the foreign ministry.
"This is an issue of the national scale. The top officials should discuss this over it in the capital and make a decision," Mohiuddin Noori told TOLOnews.
"We have sent to the foreign ministry whatever we have that can prove the claims," he said.
Despite numerous attempts, consulate officials at the Iranian consulate in Herat have not responded to TOLOnews' calls to comment on the issue.
AISA Presents Plan to Attract Investors
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaie Thursday, 28 February 2013
The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) Thursday presented a four-year blueprint to attract investors into Afghanistan with a hope that plan will be funded by international donors.
AISA officials said that they have presented the blueprint to the donors, telling them that they need to fund these projects if they are to see the country stand on its own feet.
The plan includes the creation of industrial parks, awareness programmes for attracting investors, vocational training centers, a fund to support investors, and other methods of encouraging donors to invest in Afghanistan's private sector.
"We project our plan will cost around $200 million. If the donor countries want Afghanistan to stand on its own feet they should fund the projects. Most of the donors have promised to fund it after some assessment," AISA chief Wafiullah Eftkhar said.
Head of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance Zdravko Shami welcomed the plan.
"It is a four-year $100 million dollar project that targets the development of the private sector in Afghanistan. The main focus of the project activities will be the development of private sector alliances and developing and introducing new technology, new techniques, new productions to facilitate the development and generation of new jobs and generation of income, facilitating domestic production, and expanding exports," he said.
The officials said that the lack of standard industrial parks is a big challenge against investment in the country. They believe that the plan will pave the way for up to $2 billion in investment if the projects can find donors to build the initial phases.
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