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Karzai Condemns NATO Killing Of Two Boys
March 3, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a NATO helicopter strike in which two boys, both under the age of 7, were shot dead after being mistaken as Taliban insurgents.
The boys were tending livestock and collecting firewood when they were killed on February 28 in the strike in the southern Uruzgan Province.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force says it takes “full responsibility” for the tragedy, which comes amid rising anger among Afghans over the number of civilian deaths caused by international troops.
Australia, whose 1,100 Afghan forces are based mainly in Uruzgan, have also apologized for the incident.
Military officials, however, say it is not clear whether it was Australian or American soldiers who were responsible for the strike.
NATO combat troops are set to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Isaf Apologises for Shooting 2 Boys Dead in Uruzgan
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 02 March 2013
Isaf forces have accidentally shot dead two boys in southern Uruzgan province during a military operation this week, the coalition said in a statement apologising for the mistake.
"It is with deep regret that the International Security Assistance Force announces that its forces were responsible for the unintended death of two young Afghan civilians during an operation Feb. 28 in Shahid-e Hasas District, Uruzgan Province," the statement from the Nato-led forces said.
"I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed," it quoted Isaf commander Gen. Joseph Dunford saying. "I am committed to ensuring we do the right thing for the families of those we harmed, as well as for the community in which they lived. We take full responsibility for this tragedy."
Isaf said the boys were killed when the coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces.
A joint Afghan-Isaf investigation team visited the location today and met with local leaders, Isaf said.
It comes just days after President Hamid Karzai banned US special forces from operating in central Maidan Wardak province following reports of abuse, torture and murder of civilians by Afghan forces subordinate to the US troops.
Reports that the boys were killed by helicopter gunships could not be confirmed. Karzai last month also banned Afghan forces from calling for air support during military operations in an attempt to minimise civilian casualties.
The airpower ban came after as many as 10 civilians were killed by an airstrike targeting Taliban insurgents who were among the civilians in Kunar province.
News analysis: Afghan civilian casualties caused by NATO-led force erode trust
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Repeating mistake and killing non- combatants by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) during operations against Taliban militants in Afghanistan would further damage the already strained relations between Afghan administration and the military alliance, local political analysts say.
In the latest of deadly mistake in Afghanistan, the NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force ISAF had reportedly killed two children during a crackdown operation against Taliban militants in the southern Uruzgan province late last month.
The Australian troops serving within the framework of the NATO- led ISAF had reportedly killed the ill-fated teens, causing anger among the locals.
"Repeating such tragic mistakes, no doubt, disappoints the people and adversely affects their trust towards the NATO-led forces mission," Nazari Pariani, a political analyst and editor-in- chief of the local newspaper the Daily Mandegar, observed in an interview with Xinhua.
Although the alliance had offered apology and expressed regret over the tragic incident, the angry Afghans have been calling for punishment of those behind the erroneous offensive.
To calm down the Afghans' feeling, ISAF has apologized for the killing of the two children.
"It is with deep regret that the International Security Assistance Force announces that its forces were responsible for the unintended death of two young Afghan civilians during an operation Feb. 28 in Shahid-e Hasas District, Uruzgan Province," the ISAF said in a statement released here Saturday.
In the statement, the U.S. commander of some 100,000 strong NATO-led ISAF forces, General Joseph Dunford said, "I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed."
"I am committed to ensuring we do the right thing for the families of those we harmed, as well as for the community in which they lived. We take full responsibility for this tragedy," the top brass said in the statement.
The boys were killed when Coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces, the statement admitted, saying ISAF remains committed to taking appropriate actions to minimize the likelihood of similar occurrences in the future.
This is not the first time and will not be the last one that Afghan civilians are killed by the NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force, Afghan observers said.
The NATO-led forces erroneous attacks or the so-called friendly fire have claimed scores of Afghans lives from both civilians and military over the past decade which prompted President Hamid Karzai to criticize the alliance for its operations in Afghan villages.
In his latest criticism against the military alliance, the Afghan president accused the U.S. Special Forces unit of misconduct including harassing locals in the central Wardak province last week and ordered their eviction from the province within two weeks.
"Killing civilians especially the children by foreign troops would discredit both the government and NATO-led coalition troops at the eyes of Afghans and eventually enable Taliban outfit to recruit fighters from the affected families to avenge," Pariani said.
President Hamid Karzai, in a statement released by his office here Sunday has strongly condemned killing two non-combatants by the NATO-led forces air strike in Uruzgan province over weekend, saying the government of Afghanistan has repeatedly called on international troops to pursue terrorists beyond Afghan borders and not in Afghan villages.
U.S., Afghan officials at odds over fate of military bases
Afghans want the hundreds of bases and other outposts handed over to them as troops withdraw. But the U.S.-led coalition says Afghanistan lacks the capabilities for maintaining and defending all of them.
Los Angeles Times By Shashank Bengali March 2, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Late last year, before leaving Forward Operating Base Tillman for the last time, U.S. troops took apart every inch of the remote outpost near the border with Pakistan, from the dirt-packed barricades to the flat-screen TVs in the intelligence center.
Mohibullah Samim, the governor of Paktika province, where the base was located, called it a waste.
"I was against dismantling it," Samim said. "It would have been better to hand it over to the Afghan army to keep the border area safe."
The mountaintop outpost — named for late NFL player-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman — was long a potent symbol of the American war effort, and military commanders worried that it would be a prime target for Islamist insurgents to seize after U.S. troops departed.
But now it is a symbol of the American withdrawal and the behind-the-scenes debate over how best to provide for the Afghan forces who will soon be fully responsible for defending their country from the Taliban militants who seek to recapture it.
As the U.S.-led military coalition begins to bring home most of its 100,000 troops and tens of billions of dollars in equipment, coalition officials are negotiating with Afghanistan over whether to raze or hand over the hundreds of checkpoints, guard towers, isolated outposts and sprawling bases that American and NATO forces built to wage the 11-year war.
In weekly meetings, Afghans have urged the coalition not to demolish any more bases, arguing that they could continue to serve as security installations or be converted into facilities the government can't afford to build, such as schools.
But while many bases are being handed over, U.S. commanders have told Afghan officials that dozens, including Tillman, would have been too challenging to sustain given Afghanistan's limited capabilities once most foreign troops return home by the end of 2014.
For some Afghans, the loss of these outposts highlights the uneasy reality that they will carry on the war against the Taliban with fewer facilities and far less firepower. Afghan soldiers and police have watched as bases are disassembled, no doubt realizing that coalition troops will be the next to go.
"Even if these bases are remote, at some point they served a security benefit," said Ameen Habibi, a senior Finance Ministry official involved in the talks. "They can continue to serve that purpose."
But coalition officials worry that Afghans will leave strategic outposts unprotected, and perhaps let them fall into enemy hands. They say they're trying to hand over only the infrastructure that Afghan forces will be able to supply and maintain.
The Afghans' "instinct was, at the beginning of this, 'Turn over all your facilities to us and anything you don't want, like Humvees or whatever, leave those behind,'" said a U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss the talks.
"And we said that's the wrong approach. If we were to do that you'd spend all your time, energy and money figuring out what to do with this stuff and how to run it and how to maintain it because you don't have the capacity to do that."
The United States has spent more than $50 billion on training, housing and equipping a force of Afghan soldiers and police officers that's expected to reach a combined strength of 352,000. It was expected to shrink by one-third after 2014 because of concern that Afghanistan couldn't support the cost, but NATO countries now are considering pouring in more money to sustain the larger force through 2018.
Even as their ranks grow, however, the Afghans' logistical shortcomings persist. They rely on U.S. planes for nearly all air operations. As of June, Afghan forces had filled less than 40% of operations and maintenance jobs and lacked personnel trained to manage water, sewage and electrical systems, an audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported.
U.S. officials say that some bases they've ceded to the Afghan government already have been abandoned or fallen into disrepair. Afghans complain that coalition forces have been too hasty to tear down facilities and in some cases have simply abandoned equipment they no longer want.
"Even if the foreigners invested $1, that shouldn't be wasted," said Habibi, the finance official, who co-chairs a joint NATO-Afghan commission on base closures. The group was established last year after Afghan officials found that coalition forces had dismantled an unknown number of military facilities without informing them.
"We hope, as we go forward, to make sure that no more bases are destroyed at all," he said.
As of Feb. 1, the coalition had handed over 376 checkpoints, camps, bases and other facilities to the Afghan government while closing 243 sites. The disposition of 193 other bases — including most of the largest ones — will be determined in negotiations that could stretch into 2014. Most of the bases that survive will remain security facilities, Afghan officials said, while plans call for others to be converted to schools or restored to agricultural land.
Several bases have been shuttered along the rugged Pakistani border, where coalition forces watched — and routinely took fire from — insurgents operating on both sides of the frontier. U.S. officials say those sites, wedged into mountainsides and requiring helicopters to access, would have been extremely difficult for Afghan forces to man and equip, given their limited air assets.
One such installation was Forward Operating Base Tillman. The base was near the site of the 2004 friendly-fire incident in which Tillman was killed, less than two miles from the border. NATO forces trained Afghan soldiers and border police there, and a high-tech center served as a clearinghouse for intelligence sharing between the coalition and Pakistan.
In negotiations last year, U.S. officials convinced Afghans that the base should be mothballed.
"The biggest concern was it could only be resupplied by air," said Col. Leonard Wells, deputy chief of staff for the coalition's resources unit. "It's a very contested area. It's hard to maintain forces there if you don't have close air support."
Even as American forces were tearing the base down, insurgents continued to shell it. "They took fire every day," a second U.S. official said.
But when word of the decision reached Gov. Samim, he wrote to Afghan defense officials to plead for the base to be transferred to Afghan control. He argued that local officials could have arranged for it to be supplied by road, sending a signal to insurgents that Afghan forces were serious about protecting the border.
The Afghan soldiers and border police who shared the base have since pulled back to an outpost about eight miles away, he said, leaving the border area vulnerable.
"FOB Tillman had a very positive effect on security," Samim said.
Afghan defense officials say they don't have a clear account of how many bases have been torn down. They cite cases in which coalition forces abandoned bases without notifying the Defense Ministry or signed over mounds of used nonlethal equipment — including air-conditioners, generators, printers and mattresses — to junior Afghan officers without the 72-hour notice they had requested.
"Your soldiers have shed their blood here for the last 11 years," said Lt. Gen. Azizuddin Yousofzai, deputy assistant defense minister for acquisition, technology and logistics. "We would like them to be patient for three more days so this transfer process is more transparent."
One night last fall in Kunar province, while villagers slept, U.S. troops pulled out of a base near the border hamlet of Pashangar, leaving behind 40 civilian vehicles, six generators, four buildings and several shipping containers that had housed offices and barracks, said the district governor, Gul Zaman. The families who had leased the land to the military claimed the vehicles and moved into the buildings, which Zaman said had nicer latrines and kitchens than in most of his district.
"The families are happy but this was not a logical decision," Zaman said by phone. He worried that Taliban insurgents would step up attacks in the area if Afghan forces weren't posted there.
"The foreigners spent millions to build the base, but in the end the Afghan government didn't benefit at all."
shashank.bengali@latimes.com
As Marines Exit Afghan Province, a Feeling That a Campaign Was Worth It
New York Times By JAMES DAO March 2, 2013
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - On a whirlwind Christmas tour of Helmand Province in 2010, Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, visited 11 bases in a single day. At one, thousands of Marines showed up for prime rib, dust-covered and grim-faced after weeks of dodging and delivering gunfire, seeing comrades killed, and sleeping on dirt. Helmand had become Marineistan.
Against the judgment of some Pentagon officials, the corps had made the province the defining battleground of its Afghan campaign, concentrating forces here and launching aggressive assaults into Taliban-controlled districts. Along the way, the Marines took some of the heaviest casualties of the war: about 360 killed in action and more than 4,700 wounded, many grievously.
Today, the Marine force in Helmand has shrunk to fewer than 7,000, from a peak of 21,000. Of 240 NATO bases that once dotted the province, just 44 remain. Daily firefights have been replaced by occasional skirmishes, and casualties are rare — one Marine killed in action this year. At sprawling Camp Leatherneck, their headquarters, lots once packed with armored vehicles are as desolate as frontier ghost towns.
As if to put an exclamation point on the exodus, General Amos used a trip last month to visit not just infantrymen but also a logistics company that has been assiduously shipping matériel home, trying to beat the Army to the exit.
“Two years from now, this place is going to be empty,” General Amos told the company. “What you’re doing here will have paid off.”
But as the Marines shift from Helmand to assignments in the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific, a question looms: Was it all worth it?
General Amos says he has little doubt that it was. The number of violent events, from gunshots to roadside bombs, has dropped in almost every district since 2010, Marine commanders say, though the figures are still being finalized. Roads have been paved and markets secured, allowing commerce to grow in places like Marja, Nad Ali and Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. Civilian casualties are down by 20 percent.
As Marine and British forces have drawn down, the Afghan National Army has grown, to almost four brigades with more than 16,000 soldiers. Those forces now patrol much of southern Helmand independently, the Marines say. In a few months, they will be responsible for securing the rest of the province with much less, and more distant, NATO support.
“I think history has proved it was the right thing to do,” General Amos said of the decision to increase the Marine presence in Helmand. “It doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t turn overnight. But I don’t think it’s going to turn.”
Others are not so sure, and they see a Taliban resurgence as soon as the Marines depart. Helmand’s poppy harvest, which provides 40 percent of the world’s opium supply, remains a coveted prize. In several northern districts, violence has gone up in the past year. And government corruption is so rampant — the local police are routinely accused of shaking down and sexually abusing residents — that loyalty to the government remains shaky at best.
“You will never get people to take a risk on behalf of a government that is hurting them,” said Sarah Chayes, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has worked in Afghanistan for most of the past decade, including as a senior adviser to the United States military.
In their internal briefings, the Marines acknowledge widespread lawlessness stemming from conflicts among corrupt officials, tribal leaders and drug gangs. “This is Chicago in the 1930s,” Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus, the departing commander of NATO forces in Helmand, said in one briefing.
And while the Marines see progress by the Afghan Army, they concede that it is lacking basic abilities, including surveillance technology, systems to train and equip troops, helicopters to evacuate casualties, and medical professionals to treat them.
Though NATO is helping build a hospital in Lashkar Gah, American officials do not know whether the Afghan government can staff it.
Yet the Marines express few doubts that they will leave Helmand better off than when they arrived. “We created a security bubble that has allowed governance to shoot up,” General Gurganus said. “I won’t tell you it’s blossomed. But there are leaves.”
Their focus now is on packing — trying to get their equipment through the limited transportation pipeline quickly enough to beat the rush when the Army pullout begins in earnest, but not so fast as to leave units without vital equipment.
At Camp Leatherneck, entire warehouses are filled with Marines inventorying and packaging equipment. Mine-resistant trucks sit in lots awaiting transport to Middle Eastern ports, where they will be loaded onto ships and sailed to the United States, as well as to Okinawa and elsewhere in the Pacific.
During the troop increase, a quarter of all the Marine Corps’ equipment was in Helmand, General Amos estimated. Worried that it would take years to move it all out, the Marines created a special unit under the tutelage of specialists who had worked in Iraq. Since last summer, the unit has moved two-thirds of the Marines’ matériel out of Afghanistan.
Soon, the Marines may shrink Camp Leatherneck itself, wrapping what remains into Camp Bastion, the British base and airfield next door.
There are still combat troops in Helmand, of course, and memories of the fierce fighting are evident along walls of the command center at Camp Leatherneck, where photographs pay homage to every NATO service member killed in Helmand. Two years ago, those memorials fit on one wall; today they hang along three separate corridors.
Yet as General Amos toured outposts in two districts, the war felt all but over.
At Forward Operating Base Jackson in Sangin district, once home to the Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, which lost 25 Marines in seven months between 2010 and 2011, only a few platoons remain.
“Now, Afghans are fighting Afghans,” said Lt. Col. Donald Tomich, the commander of the battalion currently there.
During the height of the troop increase, some Marine battalions were expected to rotate through Helmand more than once. With that history in mind, Lt. Col. Carl Cooper, the battalion commander at Forward Operating Base Geronimo in Nawa district, completed a briefing by declaring, “We’ll be back.”
General Amos corrected him. “You’ll be going somewhere,” he said. “But it won’t be to this part of the world.”
6 militants killed in gunfight in N. Afghanistan: official
FAIZ ABAD, Afghanistan, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to six militants were killed and six Afghan government force members were wounded when Taliban ambushed a convoy in the relatively peaceful northern province of Badakhshan on Saturday.
"Armed Taliban attacked a joint Afghan military convoy in Wardoj district Saturday afternoon, triggering a gunfight lasting for hours," a spokesman for provincial government Maruf Rasikh told Xinhua.
He said six Taliban were killed and three Afghan soldiers and three policemen were wounded in the attack in the province 305 km northeast of capital Kabul.
Two military vehicles were also damaged in the incident, he said.
The Taliban insurgent group has been waging an insurgency since its regime was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
A Taliban purported spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told local media that their rebels were behind the attack, killing several security forces and making captive over a dozen others.
Wardak Provincial Council Fears Ban on US Forces
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry Saturday, 02 March 2013
Maidan Wardak's provincial council Saturday said that the central province will not be secure without the US Special Forces, following a presidential decree banning the elite US forces from the region.
"This is a fact: there will be more threats and the Afghan forces do not have the capability of providing security in those areas," head of the Wardak council Mohammad Rafi Wardak said.
He said the decree of President Hamid Karzai was decided on "hastily".
Wardak, which borders Kabul province and has a population of more than half a million, has some of the most insecure areas of Afghanistan and is also of strategic significance for its closeness to the nation's capital.
Karzai last week ordered his defense ministry to expel US Special Forces from the province within two weeks after reports of Afghan forces subordinate to the US forces allegedly ill-treating, torturing, and even murdering civilians.
In a meeting with Afghanistan's Chief of Army Staff Shir Mohammad Karimi, victims of the Wardak incidents, and provincial authorities, Karimi said that investigations into the allegations were ongoing, something the US officials have been urging.
"They will continue their investigations and [the findings] will be presented to convince you [of the reports]," Karimi said.
Many officials from the province including the governor and the police chief have declined to provide any comment to TOLOnews on this matter.
Firing in capital Kabul leaves one dead, two injured
By Ghanizada - 03 Mar 2013, 8:36 pm Khaama Press
According to reports at least one Afghan woman was killed and two others were injured following shooting in capital Kabul city on Sunday evening.
The incident reportedly took place in Kart-e-Seh area of Kabul city after security guards of Jamil Karzai, former Afghan parliament opened fire on a civilian vehicle.
The vehicle was targeted by security guards of Jamil Karzai mistaking it to suspected militants.
In the meantime Kabul security commandment chief Gen. Ayoub Salangi said a Toyota Town Ace vehicle ignored the Afghan police forces orders to stop the car which led to firing by Afghan security forces.
He said Afghan police forces had received information regarding a suspected vehicle earlier and therefore ordered the vehicle to stop for checking purposes.
Gen. Salangi also added that a woman was killed and another man was injured following the incident however eyewitnesses in the area are saying that Afghan police forces have cordoned off the area near the Jamil Karzai’s house.
How Afghanistan Is On the Leading Edge of a Tech Revolution
TIME By Erik Heinrich March 02, 2013
In the eyes of the rest of the world, war-torn Afghanistan is a place with a beaten-down infrastructure, the minimum of modern amenities and certainly none of the services made possible by the latest technological advances powering the Internet, financial services and telecommunications.
Surprisingly, however, Afghanistan is on the leading edge of the mobile-money and banking revolution sweeping through developing countries from Kenya to Indonesia. For example, these days it’s not at all unusual to see an Afghan policeman on Kabul’s security cordon, known as the Ring of Steel, checking his Nokia 1101 to verify that his monthly salary has been transferred to his mobile wallet. Then, just as quickly, texting a sum of money to his wife’s mobile phone in rural Afghanistan so she can buy groceries for the family or a new propane tank for the kitchen.
Nothing this slick exists in the U.S. or most other G7 countries, but in Afghanistan – a country of 30 million where nearly 70% of the population is illiterate and fewer than 5% of people have a bank account – this scenario is part of reality. “I’m not aware of any such deployment in the U.S.,” says Tomasz Smilowicz, managing director with Citi’s Global Transaction Services in New York, referring to Afghanistan’s mobile-money service, known locally as M-Paisa . “It’s a success, no questions about it.”
M-Paisa was first introduced in this country in 2009 as a trial to pay the Afghan national police with mobile money instead of cash. The results were immediate and dramatic: costs dropped by 10% due to removal of phantom payments to non-existent officers being pocketed by middlemen. And the rest of the force thought they had received a 30% salary increase because these same middlemen were no longer able to skim cash from legitimate salaries.
Fast forward to the present and M-Paisa – a joint venture between Afghanistan’s biggest telecom provider Roshan and British multi-national Vodafone – has more than 1.2 million subscribers, according to the Afghan Mobile Money Operators Association (AMMOA). And it’s growing at double-digit rates on the strength that 40% of Afghans own mobile phones, according to Citi. The service’s functionality has also grown beyond direct payroll deposits in the public sector to include mobile person-to-person (P2P) transfers, point-of-sale merchant payments and microfinance loan disbursements and repayments. Western Union signed an agreement with Roshan last year to enable international money transfers to be sent directly to M-Paisa mobile subscribers in Afghanistan.
“M-Paisa has made a big contribution toward eliminating corruption and theft in Afghanistan’s public sector,” says Laurence Chandy, an analyst who specializes in development issues at the Brookings Institution in Washington. That’s saying a lot given that Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, surpassed only by Somalia and North Korea. But perhaps M-Paisa’s most important role is as a catalyst for economic development. “It fundamentally changes what it means to be poor,” says Chandy of Brookings.
Chandy points out that 2.5 billion people on the planet have no access to financial services of any kind. But thanks to the intersection between mobile phones with financial services in recent years, the world’s poor have a new ladder up to increased prosperity and financial stability.
Afghanistan’s banking system is a corrupt mess and the country’s financial institutions are not trusted. M-Paisa has gotten around this barrier to acceptance by taking the country’s banks out of the equation, at least in the early stages. To use the service you don’t need a bank account, and in place of ATMs, mobile provider Roshan uses a network of agents, mostly mom-and-pop shops, that not only accept M-Paisa payments for groceries and supplies, but also dispense money to M-Paisa subscribers. “Mobile money brings people outside the formal economy into a much bigger market,” says Chandy. ” They suddenly become able to borrow money to buy fertilizer, pay for health care or save money for education.”
M-Paisa also creates the opportunity for government donors and charities to distribute aid directly to Afghans who can use it to buy exactly what they need. Once again bypassing corrupt middlemen and local bank who illegally pocket money.
Despite problems with Afghan banks, Roshan is at present working to integrate them into M-Paisa in order to roll out new services, including e-payment of monthly utility bills. Whether that’s successful remains to be seen because people will first need to regain trust in the financial system “Over 80,000 utility customers received SMS messages in February informing them that their next bill will arrive via text message,” says Kevin O’Loughlin, a senior development outreach officer on the ground with USAID in Kabul. “They will then be instructed on how to pay future bills with mobile money.” It remains to be seen if this pilot project works, but many in the test group already use banks to pay their bills and have built up some degree of trust in the financial system.
M-Paisa has proven itself to be a success, but like other mobile-money deployments – including Kenya’s M-Pesa, also launched by Vodafone and considered to be the benchmark of m-banking solutions- it faces challenges. In addition to a corrupt banking system, it needs to expand its network of retail agents outside the capital Kabul. That’s because if an agent in rural Afghanistan runs out of cash another may be very far away, and Afghan banks cannot pick up the slack because they operate few branches outside city centers.
Roshan’s three main competitors, Afghan Wireless, Etisalat, and MTN, launched their own mobile money offerings in 2012. As they roll out services interoperability will become an issue that could stall growth unless a roaming agreement is put in place that allows subscribers to use their mobile wallets on any wireless network. Says Smilowicz of Citi: “The challenge will be to convert mobile money in Afghanistan into an open system.”
Afghanistan condemn Pakistani Ulema’s Fatwa on suicide attack
By Ghanizada - 03 Mar 2013, 1:48 pm Khaama Press
Afghan National Security Adviser criticized Pakistan religious scholar Maulana Ashraf Tahiri’s remarks regarding the suicide attack and holy war which is permitted in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine.
Maulana Tahir Ashrafi said suicide attack and Jihad (holy war) is permitted in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine which was widely condemned in Afghanistan.
Rangin Dadfar Spanta, national security adviser for president Hamid Karzai on Saturday said the Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar chief shows the mainstream of violence which threatens the peaceful lives of the Afghan people.
Maulana Tahir Ashrafi’s remarks were also widely condemned by various political movements, religious clerics and civil activists in the country.
Afghan religious scholars said such attacks are not allowed in Islam and accused Pakistan’s military intelligence for being involved in issuing such a Fatwa.
In the meantime Rangin Dadfar Spanta called on various political and civil movements in the country to stand against the Pakistani religious scholar’s Fatwa.
He said, “Our political opposition movements, the civil society and other prominent Afghan leaders should unitedly stand to defend our country and our soil and let those know, who are sending the suicide bombers that the Afghan people will never be defeated by these bombers.”
The National Coalition of Afghanistan — main political opposition coalition of the Afghan government also condemned the Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar and said such remarks will further boost war in the region.
This comes as the Afghan security institutions, specifically the National Directorate of Security (NDS) warned that all the suicide bombers coming in Afghanistan are being trained in Pakistan.
The Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar chief comes amid Pakistani clerics decision to boycott a regional Islamic conference in capital Kabul. The religious scholars of the two nations were due to discuss suicide attacks and Jihad (holy war) during the conference.
On the other hand there are concerns that the latest Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar chief will flame more violence in Afghanistan.
Pakistani Ulema’s remarks may harm Pak-Afghan relations
By Meena Haseeb - 03 Mar 2013, 7:49 pm Khaama Press
Afghan foreign affairs ministry on Sunday condemned the remarks by Pakistani religious scholar chief remarks calling it a political statement rather than having any religious motive.
Janan Mosazai, general director for the media department of the Afghan foreign ministry said Afghan people are Muslims and are strictly following Islamic principles.
Mr. Mosazai said the Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar chief does not have any logic and is having more political motive. He said the Fatwa by Saudi Arabia grand Mufti has stimulated the religious scholars of Pakistan.
Allama Tahir Ashrafi chief of the Pakistan’s religious scholar council recently said that suicide attacks and holy war (Jihad) is permitted in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine since Afghanistan has been occupied by America, Kashmir has been occupied by India and Palestine has been occupied by Isreal.
His remarks were hardly condemned by various political parties, civil society organizations and the people of Afghanistan.
Afghan foreign ministry also said Allama Ashraf Tahiri’s remarks are ridiculous and baseless since Afghanistan is a sovereign nation despite over 50 countries have contributed troops to fight terrorism in the country.
He said Allama Ashraf Tahiri’s comments will create barriers for peace talks in Afghanistan and will also harm political relations between Kabul and Islamabad.
Afghan religious scholars council also condemned suicide attacks and said only ordinary civilians are suffering casualties from such attacks.
Watchdog Says Afghan Government Must Act To Protect Media Gains
March 2, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Mustafa Sarwar
The closure of a local radio station in southeastern Afghanistan has prompted calls for the central government to step in to protect media freedoms.
The Voice of Qalat, a radio station based in the city of Qalat in Zabul Province, was taken off the air and a number of its journalists were detained by local police on February 28.
Station director Timor Shah Shazada told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that the action came after Voice of Qalat "recently aired a report on peaceful protests against the local authorities."
NAI, an independent free-media watchdog, responded on March 1 by condemning the station's closure and calling on the Afghan government to do more to prevent governors and regional officials from censoring media.
NAI head Siddiqullah Tawhidi told a press conference in Kabul that Voice of Qalat had been broadcasting "freely and independently" and that the local authorities had no right to shut it down.
"Only a court can shut down a medium," Tawhidi said. "A local governor, ministers, the police, and even the president are not allowed to stop the media. We are concerned about what has been done."
ISAF Role
The closure was the first for Voice Of Qalat, which has received funding from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) since it was founded about two years ago.
Shahzada said participants in the recent protests accused the local administration of corruption and called for the removal of Zabul Province Governor Ashraf Nasiry.
Among the participants were Zabul residents and several local members of the High Peace Council, the body tasked by the Afghan president with facilitating peace negotiations with the Taliban.
In a press release posted on its website, NAI said that several Voice of Qalat employees were detained by local police for four hours.
In comments to RFE/RL, Zabul Deputy Governor Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar said that the ISAF, and not local authorities, were responsible for the station's closure.
Attempts to reach ISAF for comment were unsuccessful.
Changing Climate
It is unclear whether the closure of the Voice of Qalat is permanent or for what duration, if temporary. But NAI sees the development as a worrying sign for Afghan media as international forces prepare to withdraw all of most of their troops by the end of 2014.
Nearly 50 TV stations, most of them private channels, and around 100 radio stations currently operate in Afghanistan.
NAI said in its press statement that the emergence of free media in Afghanistan is one of the major successes of the last decade and that freedom of speech will be at high risk unless the Afghan government takes steps to protect this hard-won achievement.
Would-Be Bomber, 7 Insurgents Arrested in Nangarhar
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 02 March 2013
A would-be suicide bomber and seven others insurgents have been arrested during two Afghan security forces operations in eastern Nangarhar province, local officials said Saturday.
The operations took place in the Achin and Ghanikhil districts of the province to clear areas of insurgents, according to east Afghanistan border police commander Mohammad Ayoub Hussiankhil.
"During the operations, the security force has been captured a Pakistani national with suicide vast and seven other insurgents," he said.
The forces also seized many weapons in the operations.
"We have started investigating them. The forces also seized improvised explosive devices and weapons in the operations," he said.
The arrested insurgents were part of the insecurity of the province and had launched several attacks against the security forces, he added.
Nangarhar province borders Pakistan and insurgents frequently target the local security forces and government officials.
New Plan to Help Afghanistan's Internal Refugees
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Saturday, 02 March 2013
A new plan to tackle the problem of Afghanistan's half a million internally displaced persons (IDPs) has been made in a meeting of a number of international organisations in Kabul Saturday.
The meeting focused on how to strengthen housing rights for the displaced, especially women who suffer more from the problem of displacement.
The plan will be delivered to the Afghan government to act upon with the strong recommendations of the organisations, including the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA head Aidan O'Leary said a change was needed because the current plan of attack is not working.
"At this point in time, there are almost half a million IDPs identified across the country as result of the conflict in Afghanistan. When we actually engage with the populations there, the main solution that is on the table is 'return' - return from the place of origin, from where the people have been displaced. In practice that's simply not working and we have many instances where many people have been living away from the place of origin for ten years or more," he said.
"What we need to be looking at is increasingly moving forward are issues of local integration and also issues of resettlement and third locations," he added.
O'Leary said there is a very strong push to create Afghanistan's first ever IDP policy which will clearly define who are the IDPs to be focused on, and what are the real solutions in both humanitarian response and durable solutions.
"What we would like to make sure is that this policy is as informed as possible about the reality on the ground," he added.
Norwegian Refugee Council country director for Afghanistan said global research is helping find solutions.
"There is global research which is going on in different contexts, conflict and non-conflict protected emergencies of rights of women, and their abilities to access especially the property and land rights in this conflict and conflict situation.
This is going across four or five countries including the occupied Palestinian territories, South Sudan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and based on all the findings we will come out with the recommendations," Prasant Naik said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MORR) said Saturday it will also provide the Council of Ministers with a strategy to address IDPs within the next two months.
"The workshop today aimed to find solutions for the issues of displaced women regarding their right of access to properties, land, and houses. We found some solutions and we discussed these and took the suggestions from our partners who work for the internally displaced persons.
These suggestions will help us enrich the policy towards internally displaced persons that we are currently working on," MORR Deputy Minister Abdulsamad Hami said.
"Those who are displaced across the country are vulnerable, and women are more vulnerable than men, even when not displaced. When they are displaced they bear even more vulnerability and will have less rights to house, land, or other properties," he added.
Ghor, Daykundi Provinces Trump Higher Education Exam
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini Saturday, 02 March 2013
The top two scores for Afghanistan's tertiary entrance exam went to students from the central Ghor province, but the bulk of the top scores came from Daykundi province which had 16 students in top 20.
There were no women among the top 30 scores, with the highest female achiever – who also came from Daykundi – ranking 33rd.
More than 175,000 students sat the test across Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
The top two scorers went to the same school in Ghor province, Sultan Alauddin, and received equal scores of 333 out of 360. The third-highest score was close behind with 332 from a student of Daykundi province.
The top female student received a score of 328.
The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) reported that a total of 42,168 students made it through to their preferred higher education institution, with another 13,617 making the cut for their preferred technical college.
A further 18,000 students who did not make the score for their higher education institutions will be allowed to attend a "middle education" institute – typically a two-year diploma type course which can be upgraded to a bachelor degree later on.
"The students who failed to succeed in the higher education university entrance will be drawn into the middle education institutions mostly in the provinces in three areas: technical and vocational education institutes, teacher training centers, and religious training centers," MoHE Deputy Minister for Students Affairs Barai Sediqi said in press conference Saturday.
Another 8500 who did not achieve the necessary entrance score are expected to head to private education centres, he added.
Meanwhile, 542 people were caught cheating or violating the rules of the Kankor with a number of them presented to the attorney general, Sediqi said.
In total, 67,956 students achieved scores above the average 167.7 out of 360. Another 49,638 failed.
MoHE officials said that a complaints commission is now open for students to address results they are not satisfied with and it will be active until March 15.
It is expected that over 1000 students with highest scores will receive government scholarships in India, Pakistan, Russia and Kazakhstan.
The results of 2688 students attending religious schools is yet to be announced, the ministry said.
ISAF finance Salang tunnel renovation
Khaama Press By Sajad 03 Mar 2013
ISAF pays for renovation of Salang tunnels which has been damaged during years of civil wars, official said.
Ahmad Shah Wahid, deputy Public Works Ministry said on Saturday that Salang tunnels will be renovated at cost of $ 11 million financed by ISAF.
Construction work has started a week ago. Traffic will be allowed during day time only while it will be blocked due to construction performance at night time.
Gen. Rajab, the highway maintenance chief said his team is prepared to face situations arising from the closure of the tunnel at night. He also added that passengers’ vehicles will be allowed to travel in daytime and heavy vehicles are scheduled on alternate days basis; one day from north and the other day from south.
The tunnel will be opened for the people visiting Mazar-e-Sharif for the New Year celebrations on March 21st.
Salang is one of the important high-ways connecting South and North provinces.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
March 3, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a NATO helicopter strike in which two boys, both under the age of 7, were shot dead after being mistaken as Taliban insurgents.
The boys were tending livestock and collecting firewood when they were killed on February 28 in the strike in the southern Uruzgan Province.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force says it takes “full responsibility” for the tragedy, which comes amid rising anger among Afghans over the number of civilian deaths caused by international troops.
Australia, whose 1,100 Afghan forces are based mainly in Uruzgan, have also apologized for the incident.
Military officials, however, say it is not clear whether it was Australian or American soldiers who were responsible for the strike.
NATO combat troops are set to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Isaf Apologises for Shooting 2 Boys Dead in Uruzgan
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 02 March 2013
Isaf forces have accidentally shot dead two boys in southern Uruzgan province during a military operation this week, the coalition said in a statement apologising for the mistake.
"It is with deep regret that the International Security Assistance Force announces that its forces were responsible for the unintended death of two young Afghan civilians during an operation Feb. 28 in Shahid-e Hasas District, Uruzgan Province," the statement from the Nato-led forces said.
"I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed," it quoted Isaf commander Gen. Joseph Dunford saying. "I am committed to ensuring we do the right thing for the families of those we harmed, as well as for the community in which they lived. We take full responsibility for this tragedy."
Isaf said the boys were killed when the coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces.
A joint Afghan-Isaf investigation team visited the location today and met with local leaders, Isaf said.
It comes just days after President Hamid Karzai banned US special forces from operating in central Maidan Wardak province following reports of abuse, torture and murder of civilians by Afghan forces subordinate to the US troops.
Reports that the boys were killed by helicopter gunships could not be confirmed. Karzai last month also banned Afghan forces from calling for air support during military operations in an attempt to minimise civilian casualties.
The airpower ban came after as many as 10 civilians were killed by an airstrike targeting Taliban insurgents who were among the civilians in Kunar province.
News analysis: Afghan civilian casualties caused by NATO-led force erode trust
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Repeating mistake and killing non- combatants by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) during operations against Taliban militants in Afghanistan would further damage the already strained relations between Afghan administration and the military alliance, local political analysts say.
In the latest of deadly mistake in Afghanistan, the NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force ISAF had reportedly killed two children during a crackdown operation against Taliban militants in the southern Uruzgan province late last month.
The Australian troops serving within the framework of the NATO- led ISAF had reportedly killed the ill-fated teens, causing anger among the locals.
"Repeating such tragic mistakes, no doubt, disappoints the people and adversely affects their trust towards the NATO-led forces mission," Nazari Pariani, a political analyst and editor-in- chief of the local newspaper the Daily Mandegar, observed in an interview with Xinhua.
Although the alliance had offered apology and expressed regret over the tragic incident, the angry Afghans have been calling for punishment of those behind the erroneous offensive.
To calm down the Afghans' feeling, ISAF has apologized for the killing of the two children.
"It is with deep regret that the International Security Assistance Force announces that its forces were responsible for the unintended death of two young Afghan civilians during an operation Feb. 28 in Shahid-e Hasas District, Uruzgan Province," the ISAF said in a statement released here Saturday.
In the statement, the U.S. commander of some 100,000 strong NATO-led ISAF forces, General Joseph Dunford said, "I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed."
"I am committed to ensuring we do the right thing for the families of those we harmed, as well as for the community in which they lived. We take full responsibility for this tragedy," the top brass said in the statement.
The boys were killed when Coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces, the statement admitted, saying ISAF remains committed to taking appropriate actions to minimize the likelihood of similar occurrences in the future.
This is not the first time and will not be the last one that Afghan civilians are killed by the NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force, Afghan observers said.
The NATO-led forces erroneous attacks or the so-called friendly fire have claimed scores of Afghans lives from both civilians and military over the past decade which prompted President Hamid Karzai to criticize the alliance for its operations in Afghan villages.
In his latest criticism against the military alliance, the Afghan president accused the U.S. Special Forces unit of misconduct including harassing locals in the central Wardak province last week and ordered their eviction from the province within two weeks.
"Killing civilians especially the children by foreign troops would discredit both the government and NATO-led coalition troops at the eyes of Afghans and eventually enable Taliban outfit to recruit fighters from the affected families to avenge," Pariani said.
President Hamid Karzai, in a statement released by his office here Sunday has strongly condemned killing two non-combatants by the NATO-led forces air strike in Uruzgan province over weekend, saying the government of Afghanistan has repeatedly called on international troops to pursue terrorists beyond Afghan borders and not in Afghan villages.
U.S., Afghan officials at odds over fate of military bases
Afghans want the hundreds of bases and other outposts handed over to them as troops withdraw. But the U.S.-led coalition says Afghanistan lacks the capabilities for maintaining and defending all of them.
Los Angeles Times By Shashank Bengali March 2, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Late last year, before leaving Forward Operating Base Tillman for the last time, U.S. troops took apart every inch of the remote outpost near the border with Pakistan, from the dirt-packed barricades to the flat-screen TVs in the intelligence center.
Mohibullah Samim, the governor of Paktika province, where the base was located, called it a waste.
"I was against dismantling it," Samim said. "It would have been better to hand it over to the Afghan army to keep the border area safe."
The mountaintop outpost — named for late NFL player-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman — was long a potent symbol of the American war effort, and military commanders worried that it would be a prime target for Islamist insurgents to seize after U.S. troops departed.
But now it is a symbol of the American withdrawal and the behind-the-scenes debate over how best to provide for the Afghan forces who will soon be fully responsible for defending their country from the Taliban militants who seek to recapture it.
As the U.S.-led military coalition begins to bring home most of its 100,000 troops and tens of billions of dollars in equipment, coalition officials are negotiating with Afghanistan over whether to raze or hand over the hundreds of checkpoints, guard towers, isolated outposts and sprawling bases that American and NATO forces built to wage the 11-year war.
In weekly meetings, Afghans have urged the coalition not to demolish any more bases, arguing that they could continue to serve as security installations or be converted into facilities the government can't afford to build, such as schools.
But while many bases are being handed over, U.S. commanders have told Afghan officials that dozens, including Tillman, would have been too challenging to sustain given Afghanistan's limited capabilities once most foreign troops return home by the end of 2014.
For some Afghans, the loss of these outposts highlights the uneasy reality that they will carry on the war against the Taliban with fewer facilities and far less firepower. Afghan soldiers and police have watched as bases are disassembled, no doubt realizing that coalition troops will be the next to go.
"Even if these bases are remote, at some point they served a security benefit," said Ameen Habibi, a senior Finance Ministry official involved in the talks. "They can continue to serve that purpose."
But coalition officials worry that Afghans will leave strategic outposts unprotected, and perhaps let them fall into enemy hands. They say they're trying to hand over only the infrastructure that Afghan forces will be able to supply and maintain.
The Afghans' "instinct was, at the beginning of this, 'Turn over all your facilities to us and anything you don't want, like Humvees or whatever, leave those behind,'" said a U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss the talks.
"And we said that's the wrong approach. If we were to do that you'd spend all your time, energy and money figuring out what to do with this stuff and how to run it and how to maintain it because you don't have the capacity to do that."
The United States has spent more than $50 billion on training, housing and equipping a force of Afghan soldiers and police officers that's expected to reach a combined strength of 352,000. It was expected to shrink by one-third after 2014 because of concern that Afghanistan couldn't support the cost, but NATO countries now are considering pouring in more money to sustain the larger force through 2018.
Even as their ranks grow, however, the Afghans' logistical shortcomings persist. They rely on U.S. planes for nearly all air operations. As of June, Afghan forces had filled less than 40% of operations and maintenance jobs and lacked personnel trained to manage water, sewage and electrical systems, an audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported.
U.S. officials say that some bases they've ceded to the Afghan government already have been abandoned or fallen into disrepair. Afghans complain that coalition forces have been too hasty to tear down facilities and in some cases have simply abandoned equipment they no longer want.
"Even if the foreigners invested $1, that shouldn't be wasted," said Habibi, the finance official, who co-chairs a joint NATO-Afghan commission on base closures. The group was established last year after Afghan officials found that coalition forces had dismantled an unknown number of military facilities without informing them.
"We hope, as we go forward, to make sure that no more bases are destroyed at all," he said.
As of Feb. 1, the coalition had handed over 376 checkpoints, camps, bases and other facilities to the Afghan government while closing 243 sites. The disposition of 193 other bases — including most of the largest ones — will be determined in negotiations that could stretch into 2014. Most of the bases that survive will remain security facilities, Afghan officials said, while plans call for others to be converted to schools or restored to agricultural land.
Several bases have been shuttered along the rugged Pakistani border, where coalition forces watched — and routinely took fire from — insurgents operating on both sides of the frontier. U.S. officials say those sites, wedged into mountainsides and requiring helicopters to access, would have been extremely difficult for Afghan forces to man and equip, given their limited air assets.
One such installation was Forward Operating Base Tillman. The base was near the site of the 2004 friendly-fire incident in which Tillman was killed, less than two miles from the border. NATO forces trained Afghan soldiers and border police there, and a high-tech center served as a clearinghouse for intelligence sharing between the coalition and Pakistan.
In negotiations last year, U.S. officials convinced Afghans that the base should be mothballed.
"The biggest concern was it could only be resupplied by air," said Col. Leonard Wells, deputy chief of staff for the coalition's resources unit. "It's a very contested area. It's hard to maintain forces there if you don't have close air support."
Even as American forces were tearing the base down, insurgents continued to shell it. "They took fire every day," a second U.S. official said.
But when word of the decision reached Gov. Samim, he wrote to Afghan defense officials to plead for the base to be transferred to Afghan control. He argued that local officials could have arranged for it to be supplied by road, sending a signal to insurgents that Afghan forces were serious about protecting the border.
The Afghan soldiers and border police who shared the base have since pulled back to an outpost about eight miles away, he said, leaving the border area vulnerable.
"FOB Tillman had a very positive effect on security," Samim said.
Afghan defense officials say they don't have a clear account of how many bases have been torn down. They cite cases in which coalition forces abandoned bases without notifying the Defense Ministry or signed over mounds of used nonlethal equipment — including air-conditioners, generators, printers and mattresses — to junior Afghan officers without the 72-hour notice they had requested.
"Your soldiers have shed their blood here for the last 11 years," said Lt. Gen. Azizuddin Yousofzai, deputy assistant defense minister for acquisition, technology and logistics. "We would like them to be patient for three more days so this transfer process is more transparent."
One night last fall in Kunar province, while villagers slept, U.S. troops pulled out of a base near the border hamlet of Pashangar, leaving behind 40 civilian vehicles, six generators, four buildings and several shipping containers that had housed offices and barracks, said the district governor, Gul Zaman. The families who had leased the land to the military claimed the vehicles and moved into the buildings, which Zaman said had nicer latrines and kitchens than in most of his district.
"The families are happy but this was not a logical decision," Zaman said by phone. He worried that Taliban insurgents would step up attacks in the area if Afghan forces weren't posted there.
"The foreigners spent millions to build the base, but in the end the Afghan government didn't benefit at all."
shashank.bengali@latimes.com
As Marines Exit Afghan Province, a Feeling That a Campaign Was Worth It
New York Times By JAMES DAO March 2, 2013
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - On a whirlwind Christmas tour of Helmand Province in 2010, Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, visited 11 bases in a single day. At one, thousands of Marines showed up for prime rib, dust-covered and grim-faced after weeks of dodging and delivering gunfire, seeing comrades killed, and sleeping on dirt. Helmand had become Marineistan.
Against the judgment of some Pentagon officials, the corps had made the province the defining battleground of its Afghan campaign, concentrating forces here and launching aggressive assaults into Taliban-controlled districts. Along the way, the Marines took some of the heaviest casualties of the war: about 360 killed in action and more than 4,700 wounded, many grievously.
Today, the Marine force in Helmand has shrunk to fewer than 7,000, from a peak of 21,000. Of 240 NATO bases that once dotted the province, just 44 remain. Daily firefights have been replaced by occasional skirmishes, and casualties are rare — one Marine killed in action this year. At sprawling Camp Leatherneck, their headquarters, lots once packed with armored vehicles are as desolate as frontier ghost towns.
As if to put an exclamation point on the exodus, General Amos used a trip last month to visit not just infantrymen but also a logistics company that has been assiduously shipping matériel home, trying to beat the Army to the exit.
“Two years from now, this place is going to be empty,” General Amos told the company. “What you’re doing here will have paid off.”
But as the Marines shift from Helmand to assignments in the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific, a question looms: Was it all worth it?
General Amos says he has little doubt that it was. The number of violent events, from gunshots to roadside bombs, has dropped in almost every district since 2010, Marine commanders say, though the figures are still being finalized. Roads have been paved and markets secured, allowing commerce to grow in places like Marja, Nad Ali and Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. Civilian casualties are down by 20 percent.
As Marine and British forces have drawn down, the Afghan National Army has grown, to almost four brigades with more than 16,000 soldiers. Those forces now patrol much of southern Helmand independently, the Marines say. In a few months, they will be responsible for securing the rest of the province with much less, and more distant, NATO support.
“I think history has proved it was the right thing to do,” General Amos said of the decision to increase the Marine presence in Helmand. “It doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t turn overnight. But I don’t think it’s going to turn.”
Others are not so sure, and they see a Taliban resurgence as soon as the Marines depart. Helmand’s poppy harvest, which provides 40 percent of the world’s opium supply, remains a coveted prize. In several northern districts, violence has gone up in the past year. And government corruption is so rampant — the local police are routinely accused of shaking down and sexually abusing residents — that loyalty to the government remains shaky at best.
“You will never get people to take a risk on behalf of a government that is hurting them,” said Sarah Chayes, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has worked in Afghanistan for most of the past decade, including as a senior adviser to the United States military.
In their internal briefings, the Marines acknowledge widespread lawlessness stemming from conflicts among corrupt officials, tribal leaders and drug gangs. “This is Chicago in the 1930s,” Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus, the departing commander of NATO forces in Helmand, said in one briefing.
And while the Marines see progress by the Afghan Army, they concede that it is lacking basic abilities, including surveillance technology, systems to train and equip troops, helicopters to evacuate casualties, and medical professionals to treat them.
Though NATO is helping build a hospital in Lashkar Gah, American officials do not know whether the Afghan government can staff it.
Yet the Marines express few doubts that they will leave Helmand better off than when they arrived. “We created a security bubble that has allowed governance to shoot up,” General Gurganus said. “I won’t tell you it’s blossomed. But there are leaves.”
Their focus now is on packing — trying to get their equipment through the limited transportation pipeline quickly enough to beat the rush when the Army pullout begins in earnest, but not so fast as to leave units without vital equipment.
At Camp Leatherneck, entire warehouses are filled with Marines inventorying and packaging equipment. Mine-resistant trucks sit in lots awaiting transport to Middle Eastern ports, where they will be loaded onto ships and sailed to the United States, as well as to Okinawa and elsewhere in the Pacific.
During the troop increase, a quarter of all the Marine Corps’ equipment was in Helmand, General Amos estimated. Worried that it would take years to move it all out, the Marines created a special unit under the tutelage of specialists who had worked in Iraq. Since last summer, the unit has moved two-thirds of the Marines’ matériel out of Afghanistan.
Soon, the Marines may shrink Camp Leatherneck itself, wrapping what remains into Camp Bastion, the British base and airfield next door.
There are still combat troops in Helmand, of course, and memories of the fierce fighting are evident along walls of the command center at Camp Leatherneck, where photographs pay homage to every NATO service member killed in Helmand. Two years ago, those memorials fit on one wall; today they hang along three separate corridors.
Yet as General Amos toured outposts in two districts, the war felt all but over.
At Forward Operating Base Jackson in Sangin district, once home to the Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, which lost 25 Marines in seven months between 2010 and 2011, only a few platoons remain.
“Now, Afghans are fighting Afghans,” said Lt. Col. Donald Tomich, the commander of the battalion currently there.
During the height of the troop increase, some Marine battalions were expected to rotate through Helmand more than once. With that history in mind, Lt. Col. Carl Cooper, the battalion commander at Forward Operating Base Geronimo in Nawa district, completed a briefing by declaring, “We’ll be back.”
General Amos corrected him. “You’ll be going somewhere,” he said. “But it won’t be to this part of the world.”
6 militants killed in gunfight in N. Afghanistan: official
FAIZ ABAD, Afghanistan, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to six militants were killed and six Afghan government force members were wounded when Taliban ambushed a convoy in the relatively peaceful northern province of Badakhshan on Saturday.
"Armed Taliban attacked a joint Afghan military convoy in Wardoj district Saturday afternoon, triggering a gunfight lasting for hours," a spokesman for provincial government Maruf Rasikh told Xinhua.
He said six Taliban were killed and three Afghan soldiers and three policemen were wounded in the attack in the province 305 km northeast of capital Kabul.
Two military vehicles were also damaged in the incident, he said.
The Taliban insurgent group has been waging an insurgency since its regime was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
A Taliban purported spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told local media that their rebels were behind the attack, killing several security forces and making captive over a dozen others.
Wardak Provincial Council Fears Ban on US Forces
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry Saturday, 02 March 2013
Maidan Wardak's provincial council Saturday said that the central province will not be secure without the US Special Forces, following a presidential decree banning the elite US forces from the region.
"This is a fact: there will be more threats and the Afghan forces do not have the capability of providing security in those areas," head of the Wardak council Mohammad Rafi Wardak said.
He said the decree of President Hamid Karzai was decided on "hastily".
Wardak, which borders Kabul province and has a population of more than half a million, has some of the most insecure areas of Afghanistan and is also of strategic significance for its closeness to the nation's capital.
Karzai last week ordered his defense ministry to expel US Special Forces from the province within two weeks after reports of Afghan forces subordinate to the US forces allegedly ill-treating, torturing, and even murdering civilians.
In a meeting with Afghanistan's Chief of Army Staff Shir Mohammad Karimi, victims of the Wardak incidents, and provincial authorities, Karimi said that investigations into the allegations were ongoing, something the US officials have been urging.
"They will continue their investigations and [the findings] will be presented to convince you [of the reports]," Karimi said.
Many officials from the province including the governor and the police chief have declined to provide any comment to TOLOnews on this matter.
Firing in capital Kabul leaves one dead, two injured
By Ghanizada - 03 Mar 2013, 8:36 pm Khaama Press
According to reports at least one Afghan woman was killed and two others were injured following shooting in capital Kabul city on Sunday evening.
The incident reportedly took place in Kart-e-Seh area of Kabul city after security guards of Jamil Karzai, former Afghan parliament opened fire on a civilian vehicle.
The vehicle was targeted by security guards of Jamil Karzai mistaking it to suspected militants.
In the meantime Kabul security commandment chief Gen. Ayoub Salangi said a Toyota Town Ace vehicle ignored the Afghan police forces orders to stop the car which led to firing by Afghan security forces.
He said Afghan police forces had received information regarding a suspected vehicle earlier and therefore ordered the vehicle to stop for checking purposes.
Gen. Salangi also added that a woman was killed and another man was injured following the incident however eyewitnesses in the area are saying that Afghan police forces have cordoned off the area near the Jamil Karzai’s house.
How Afghanistan Is On the Leading Edge of a Tech Revolution
TIME By Erik Heinrich March 02, 2013
In the eyes of the rest of the world, war-torn Afghanistan is a place with a beaten-down infrastructure, the minimum of modern amenities and certainly none of the services made possible by the latest technological advances powering the Internet, financial services and telecommunications.
Surprisingly, however, Afghanistan is on the leading edge of the mobile-money and banking revolution sweeping through developing countries from Kenya to Indonesia. For example, these days it’s not at all unusual to see an Afghan policeman on Kabul’s security cordon, known as the Ring of Steel, checking his Nokia 1101 to verify that his monthly salary has been transferred to his mobile wallet. Then, just as quickly, texting a sum of money to his wife’s mobile phone in rural Afghanistan so she can buy groceries for the family or a new propane tank for the kitchen.
Nothing this slick exists in the U.S. or most other G7 countries, but in Afghanistan – a country of 30 million where nearly 70% of the population is illiterate and fewer than 5% of people have a bank account – this scenario is part of reality. “I’m not aware of any such deployment in the U.S.,” says Tomasz Smilowicz, managing director with Citi’s Global Transaction Services in New York, referring to Afghanistan’s mobile-money service, known locally as M-Paisa . “It’s a success, no questions about it.”
M-Paisa was first introduced in this country in 2009 as a trial to pay the Afghan national police with mobile money instead of cash. The results were immediate and dramatic: costs dropped by 10% due to removal of phantom payments to non-existent officers being pocketed by middlemen. And the rest of the force thought they had received a 30% salary increase because these same middlemen were no longer able to skim cash from legitimate salaries.
Fast forward to the present and M-Paisa – a joint venture between Afghanistan’s biggest telecom provider Roshan and British multi-national Vodafone – has more than 1.2 million subscribers, according to the Afghan Mobile Money Operators Association (AMMOA). And it’s growing at double-digit rates on the strength that 40% of Afghans own mobile phones, according to Citi. The service’s functionality has also grown beyond direct payroll deposits in the public sector to include mobile person-to-person (P2P) transfers, point-of-sale merchant payments and microfinance loan disbursements and repayments. Western Union signed an agreement with Roshan last year to enable international money transfers to be sent directly to M-Paisa mobile subscribers in Afghanistan.
“M-Paisa has made a big contribution toward eliminating corruption and theft in Afghanistan’s public sector,” says Laurence Chandy, an analyst who specializes in development issues at the Brookings Institution in Washington. That’s saying a lot given that Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, surpassed only by Somalia and North Korea. But perhaps M-Paisa’s most important role is as a catalyst for economic development. “It fundamentally changes what it means to be poor,” says Chandy of Brookings.
Chandy points out that 2.5 billion people on the planet have no access to financial services of any kind. But thanks to the intersection between mobile phones with financial services in recent years, the world’s poor have a new ladder up to increased prosperity and financial stability.
Afghanistan’s banking system is a corrupt mess and the country’s financial institutions are not trusted. M-Paisa has gotten around this barrier to acceptance by taking the country’s banks out of the equation, at least in the early stages. To use the service you don’t need a bank account, and in place of ATMs, mobile provider Roshan uses a network of agents, mostly mom-and-pop shops, that not only accept M-Paisa payments for groceries and supplies, but also dispense money to M-Paisa subscribers. “Mobile money brings people outside the formal economy into a much bigger market,” says Chandy. ” They suddenly become able to borrow money to buy fertilizer, pay for health care or save money for education.”
M-Paisa also creates the opportunity for government donors and charities to distribute aid directly to Afghans who can use it to buy exactly what they need. Once again bypassing corrupt middlemen and local bank who illegally pocket money.
Despite problems with Afghan banks, Roshan is at present working to integrate them into M-Paisa in order to roll out new services, including e-payment of monthly utility bills. Whether that’s successful remains to be seen because people will first need to regain trust in the financial system “Over 80,000 utility customers received SMS messages in February informing them that their next bill will arrive via text message,” says Kevin O’Loughlin, a senior development outreach officer on the ground with USAID in Kabul. “They will then be instructed on how to pay future bills with mobile money.” It remains to be seen if this pilot project works, but many in the test group already use banks to pay their bills and have built up some degree of trust in the financial system.
M-Paisa has proven itself to be a success, but like other mobile-money deployments – including Kenya’s M-Pesa, also launched by Vodafone and considered to be the benchmark of m-banking solutions- it faces challenges. In addition to a corrupt banking system, it needs to expand its network of retail agents outside the capital Kabul. That’s because if an agent in rural Afghanistan runs out of cash another may be very far away, and Afghan banks cannot pick up the slack because they operate few branches outside city centers.
Roshan’s three main competitors, Afghan Wireless, Etisalat, and MTN, launched their own mobile money offerings in 2012. As they roll out services interoperability will become an issue that could stall growth unless a roaming agreement is put in place that allows subscribers to use their mobile wallets on any wireless network. Says Smilowicz of Citi: “The challenge will be to convert mobile money in Afghanistan into an open system.”
Afghanistan condemn Pakistani Ulema’s Fatwa on suicide attack
By Ghanizada - 03 Mar 2013, 1:48 pm Khaama Press
Afghan National Security Adviser criticized Pakistan religious scholar Maulana Ashraf Tahiri’s remarks regarding the suicide attack and holy war which is permitted in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine.
Maulana Tahir Ashrafi said suicide attack and Jihad (holy war) is permitted in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine which was widely condemned in Afghanistan.
Rangin Dadfar Spanta, national security adviser for president Hamid Karzai on Saturday said the Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar chief shows the mainstream of violence which threatens the peaceful lives of the Afghan people.
Maulana Tahir Ashrafi’s remarks were also widely condemned by various political movements, religious clerics and civil activists in the country.
Afghan religious scholars said such attacks are not allowed in Islam and accused Pakistan’s military intelligence for being involved in issuing such a Fatwa.
In the meantime Rangin Dadfar Spanta called on various political and civil movements in the country to stand against the Pakistani religious scholar’s Fatwa.
He said, “Our political opposition movements, the civil society and other prominent Afghan leaders should unitedly stand to defend our country and our soil and let those know, who are sending the suicide bombers that the Afghan people will never be defeated by these bombers.”
The National Coalition of Afghanistan — main political opposition coalition of the Afghan government also condemned the Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar and said such remarks will further boost war in the region.
This comes as the Afghan security institutions, specifically the National Directorate of Security (NDS) warned that all the suicide bombers coming in Afghanistan are being trained in Pakistan.
The Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar chief comes amid Pakistani clerics decision to boycott a regional Islamic conference in capital Kabul. The religious scholars of the two nations were due to discuss suicide attacks and Jihad (holy war) during the conference.
On the other hand there are concerns that the latest Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar chief will flame more violence in Afghanistan.
Pakistani Ulema’s remarks may harm Pak-Afghan relations
By Meena Haseeb - 03 Mar 2013, 7:49 pm Khaama Press
Afghan foreign affairs ministry on Sunday condemned the remarks by Pakistani religious scholar chief remarks calling it a political statement rather than having any religious motive.
Janan Mosazai, general director for the media department of the Afghan foreign ministry said Afghan people are Muslims and are strictly following Islamic principles.
Mr. Mosazai said the Fatwa by Pakistani religious scholar chief does not have any logic and is having more political motive. He said the Fatwa by Saudi Arabia grand Mufti has stimulated the religious scholars of Pakistan.
Allama Tahir Ashrafi chief of the Pakistan’s religious scholar council recently said that suicide attacks and holy war (Jihad) is permitted in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine since Afghanistan has been occupied by America, Kashmir has been occupied by India and Palestine has been occupied by Isreal.
His remarks were hardly condemned by various political parties, civil society organizations and the people of Afghanistan.
Afghan foreign ministry also said Allama Ashraf Tahiri’s remarks are ridiculous and baseless since Afghanistan is a sovereign nation despite over 50 countries have contributed troops to fight terrorism in the country.
He said Allama Ashraf Tahiri’s comments will create barriers for peace talks in Afghanistan and will also harm political relations between Kabul and Islamabad.
Afghan religious scholars council also condemned suicide attacks and said only ordinary civilians are suffering casualties from such attacks.
Watchdog Says Afghan Government Must Act To Protect Media Gains
March 2, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Mustafa Sarwar
The closure of a local radio station in southeastern Afghanistan has prompted calls for the central government to step in to protect media freedoms.
The Voice of Qalat, a radio station based in the city of Qalat in Zabul Province, was taken off the air and a number of its journalists were detained by local police on February 28.
Station director Timor Shah Shazada told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that the action came after Voice of Qalat "recently aired a report on peaceful protests against the local authorities."
NAI, an independent free-media watchdog, responded on March 1 by condemning the station's closure and calling on the Afghan government to do more to prevent governors and regional officials from censoring media.
NAI head Siddiqullah Tawhidi told a press conference in Kabul that Voice of Qalat had been broadcasting "freely and independently" and that the local authorities had no right to shut it down.
"Only a court can shut down a medium," Tawhidi said. "A local governor, ministers, the police, and even the president are not allowed to stop the media. We are concerned about what has been done."
ISAF Role
The closure was the first for Voice Of Qalat, which has received funding from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) since it was founded about two years ago.
Shahzada said participants in the recent protests accused the local administration of corruption and called for the removal of Zabul Province Governor Ashraf Nasiry.
Among the participants were Zabul residents and several local members of the High Peace Council, the body tasked by the Afghan president with facilitating peace negotiations with the Taliban.
In a press release posted on its website, NAI said that several Voice of Qalat employees were detained by local police for four hours.
In comments to RFE/RL, Zabul Deputy Governor Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar said that the ISAF, and not local authorities, were responsible for the station's closure.
Attempts to reach ISAF for comment were unsuccessful.
Changing Climate
It is unclear whether the closure of the Voice of Qalat is permanent or for what duration, if temporary. But NAI sees the development as a worrying sign for Afghan media as international forces prepare to withdraw all of most of their troops by the end of 2014.
Nearly 50 TV stations, most of them private channels, and around 100 radio stations currently operate in Afghanistan.
NAI said in its press statement that the emergence of free media in Afghanistan is one of the major successes of the last decade and that freedom of speech will be at high risk unless the Afghan government takes steps to protect this hard-won achievement.
Would-Be Bomber, 7 Insurgents Arrested in Nangarhar
TOLOnews.com Saturday, 02 March 2013
A would-be suicide bomber and seven others insurgents have been arrested during two Afghan security forces operations in eastern Nangarhar province, local officials said Saturday.
The operations took place in the Achin and Ghanikhil districts of the province to clear areas of insurgents, according to east Afghanistan border police commander Mohammad Ayoub Hussiankhil.
"During the operations, the security force has been captured a Pakistani national with suicide vast and seven other insurgents," he said.
The forces also seized many weapons in the operations.
"We have started investigating them. The forces also seized improvised explosive devices and weapons in the operations," he said.
The arrested insurgents were part of the insecurity of the province and had launched several attacks against the security forces, he added.
Nangarhar province borders Pakistan and insurgents frequently target the local security forces and government officials.
New Plan to Help Afghanistan's Internal Refugees
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Saturday, 02 March 2013
A new plan to tackle the problem of Afghanistan's half a million internally displaced persons (IDPs) has been made in a meeting of a number of international organisations in Kabul Saturday.
The meeting focused on how to strengthen housing rights for the displaced, especially women who suffer more from the problem of displacement.
The plan will be delivered to the Afghan government to act upon with the strong recommendations of the organisations, including the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA head Aidan O'Leary said a change was needed because the current plan of attack is not working.
"At this point in time, there are almost half a million IDPs identified across the country as result of the conflict in Afghanistan. When we actually engage with the populations there, the main solution that is on the table is 'return' - return from the place of origin, from where the people have been displaced. In practice that's simply not working and we have many instances where many people have been living away from the place of origin for ten years or more," he said.
"What we need to be looking at is increasingly moving forward are issues of local integration and also issues of resettlement and third locations," he added.
O'Leary said there is a very strong push to create Afghanistan's first ever IDP policy which will clearly define who are the IDPs to be focused on, and what are the real solutions in both humanitarian response and durable solutions.
"What we would like to make sure is that this policy is as informed as possible about the reality on the ground," he added.
Norwegian Refugee Council country director for Afghanistan said global research is helping find solutions.
"There is global research which is going on in different contexts, conflict and non-conflict protected emergencies of rights of women, and their abilities to access especially the property and land rights in this conflict and conflict situation.
This is going across four or five countries including the occupied Palestinian territories, South Sudan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and based on all the findings we will come out with the recommendations," Prasant Naik said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MORR) said Saturday it will also provide the Council of Ministers with a strategy to address IDPs within the next two months.
"The workshop today aimed to find solutions for the issues of displaced women regarding their right of access to properties, land, and houses. We found some solutions and we discussed these and took the suggestions from our partners who work for the internally displaced persons.
These suggestions will help us enrich the policy towards internally displaced persons that we are currently working on," MORR Deputy Minister Abdulsamad Hami said.
"Those who are displaced across the country are vulnerable, and women are more vulnerable than men, even when not displaced. When they are displaced they bear even more vulnerability and will have less rights to house, land, or other properties," he added.
Ghor, Daykundi Provinces Trump Higher Education Exam
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini Saturday, 02 March 2013
The top two scores for Afghanistan's tertiary entrance exam went to students from the central Ghor province, but the bulk of the top scores came from Daykundi province which had 16 students in top 20.
There were no women among the top 30 scores, with the highest female achiever – who also came from Daykundi – ranking 33rd.
More than 175,000 students sat the test across Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
The top two scorers went to the same school in Ghor province, Sultan Alauddin, and received equal scores of 333 out of 360. The third-highest score was close behind with 332 from a student of Daykundi province.
The top female student received a score of 328.
The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) reported that a total of 42,168 students made it through to their preferred higher education institution, with another 13,617 making the cut for their preferred technical college.
A further 18,000 students who did not make the score for their higher education institutions will be allowed to attend a "middle education" institute – typically a two-year diploma type course which can be upgraded to a bachelor degree later on.
"The students who failed to succeed in the higher education university entrance will be drawn into the middle education institutions mostly in the provinces in three areas: technical and vocational education institutes, teacher training centers, and religious training centers," MoHE Deputy Minister for Students Affairs Barai Sediqi said in press conference Saturday.
Another 8500 who did not achieve the necessary entrance score are expected to head to private education centres, he added.
Meanwhile, 542 people were caught cheating or violating the rules of the Kankor with a number of them presented to the attorney general, Sediqi said.
In total, 67,956 students achieved scores above the average 167.7 out of 360. Another 49,638 failed.
MoHE officials said that a complaints commission is now open for students to address results they are not satisfied with and it will be active until March 15.
It is expected that over 1000 students with highest scores will receive government scholarships in India, Pakistan, Russia and Kazakhstan.
The results of 2688 students attending religious schools is yet to be announced, the ministry said.
ISAF finance Salang tunnel renovation
Khaama Press By Sajad 03 Mar 2013
ISAF pays for renovation of Salang tunnels which has been damaged during years of civil wars, official said.
Ahmad Shah Wahid, deputy Public Works Ministry said on Saturday that Salang tunnels will be renovated at cost of $ 11 million financed by ISAF.
Construction work has started a week ago. Traffic will be allowed during day time only while it will be blocked due to construction performance at night time.
Gen. Rajab, the highway maintenance chief said his team is prepared to face situations arising from the closure of the tunnel at night. He also added that passengers’ vehicles will be allowed to travel in daytime and heavy vehicles are scheduled on alternate days basis; one day from north and the other day from south.
The tunnel will be opened for the people visiting Mazar-e-Sharif for the New Year celebrations on March 21st.
Salang is one of the important high-ways connecting South and North provinces.
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