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Pakistani Army Says Afghan Militants Attacked Border Post
April 4, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Pakistan's Army says two of its soldiers sustained light injuries when Afghan militants attacked a border post.
The army released a statment saying four "terrorists" were killed in a gunbattle on April 4 with Pakistani soldiers at the Bhittai border post.
The incident took place in Kurram, one of the seven tribal agencies along the porous border with Afghanistan.
The reported attack is the latest in a series of cross-border incidents that have escalated tensions between the two neighbors.
Kabul and Islamabad blame each other for violence by militants on their shared border.
Last week, Kabul canceled a visit of Afghan Army officers to the Pakistani city of Quetta for what it termed "unacceptable Pakistani artillery shelling" into eastern Afghanistan.
Islamabad denied the allegations, saying Kabul had "overreacted."
Based on reporting by AFP and Geo Pakistan
United Nations condemns deliberate targeting of civilians in Farah attack
KABUL, 4 April 2013 – The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) strongly condemns an attack against a Government compound in the south-western province of Farah on 3 April that resulted in the deaths of at least 41 civilians, most of whom were civilian Government workers, and injuries to more than 100 others.
Among the civilians killed were two judges and six prosecutors, as well as administration officers and cleaners working at the site. The attack was the deadliest for Afghan civilians since December 2011.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that they intended to target civilian Government employees, in particular workers in the courts and prosecutors’ offices.
“The United Nations again calls on the Taliban to follow through on their previous public commitments to protect civilians,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, Ján Kubiš. “Who is a ‘civilian’ requiring protection is not a matter of controversy; the term is defined in international law and parties to the conflict, including the Taliban, are obliged to abide by this definition.”
UNAMA notes that international humanitarian law defines civilians as all those who do not take a direct part in hostilities and who are not combatants – such as civilian Government employees. Attacks against civilians are prohibited at all times and may amount to war crimes.
The civilian toll of Afghanistan’s armed conflict has already increased in 2013. UNAMA has repeatedly called on all parties to the armed conflict to increase their efforts to protect civilians. With the onset of the spring fighting season, UNAMA again highlights the obligations of parties to take all necessary measures to protect civilians.
UNAMA expresses its deepest condolences to the victims of the attack and their families, and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured.
As U.S. Departs, Afghan Business Dries Up
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE April 3, 2013
BAGRAM, Afghanistan - The Aria Water Plant, built in 2006 north of Kabul, is a state-of-the-art facility that can produce 100,000 cases of purified drinking water per week—an unusual success story from the decadelong American enterprise in Afghanistan.
But with U.S. military involvement in the nation winding down, Aria, like other Afghan companies that sprang up to serve the foreigners, is struggling to survive an uncertain time.
"Should I stay in Afghanistan and carry on with my business, or should I sell the company and say, 'Hasta la vista, Afghanistan?' " wonders Abdul Majeed Zhian, chief of staff of AZ Corp., Aria's parent company, which invested $17 million in the plant.
Aria's troubles are coming to a head as U.S.-Afghan relations are deteriorating. Efforts by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assert Afghan sovereignty and curtail U.S. military operations have led to a series of confrontations with American officials, most recently when he accused the U.S. and the Taliban of colluding to perpetuate instability—a charge flatly denied by the Americans.
U.S. officials, for their part, say they are frustrated by Afghanistan's corrupt business culture, where little can be achieved, they say, without bribing officials. Mr. Karzai has blamed foreigners and their contractors for the endemic corruption.
The Aria Water Plant now finds itself in a classic Catch-22. Managers say the company might have to shut down because of what they describe as extortion demands from an Afghan general whose forces control a checkpoint on the access road and regularly block traffic to the plant, located just outside Bagram Air Field, one of the largest U.S. bases in Afghanistan.
But if Aria knuckles under and pays a bribe, it could lose the business of the U.S. government, its main customer so far. As a condition of doing business with the U.S., it cannot make illicit payments. Aria already operates under a stringent trusteeship agreement following previous management's convictions on a corruption charge brought by U.S. authorities.
According to a recent survey on corruption trends by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Afghanistan's High Office for Oversight and Anticorruption, Afghan citizens paid about $3.9 billion in bribes in 2012—double the country's domestic tax revenue. One out of every two Afghans pay bribes when requesting a public service, the report said.
The water plant's troubles show how precarious it can be to do business in Afghanistan, and how fragile the country's post-2001 economic boom, fueled by American tax dollars, has been.
With U.S. troops slated to withdraw by the end of next year, Aria is expected to lose much of its business supplying American military bases, so it is looking for new customers. The capital city of Kabul is an hour's drive from the plant, and the company hopes it can ship water to embassies, hotels or high-end grocery stores there. But what used to be the plant's primary advantage—its location right outside the fortified perimeter of Bagram Air Field on land owned by the Afghan Ministry of Defense—has turned into a curse.
Aria must truck its supplies and products through a checkpoint manned by the U.S.-funded Afghan National Army. That puts the company at the mercy of Afghan officers, who periodically shut down the road to the factory, causing costly production stoppages and cutting off Aria's access to new business.
The company says the problems began in June 2011 when Gen. Mohammad Asif Kohi, an Afghan commander who oversees government installations, paid an unexpected visit to the plant. Ezelle Santillan, the general manager from the Philippines who supervises the facility, sent an urgent message to company management.
"The general asked for anyone from main office to talk or having a meeting with him to settle issues, issues I don't understand," she wrote, according to email correspondence reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The general then showed up at AZ Corp.'s main office in Kabul, making remarks about "building a friendship" with him, according to company officials who say they interpreted that as a request for a bribe. After Aria didn't act on the hint, these officials say, the general's forces began to shut down the access road to the factory, causing costly production stoppages. The shutdowns continued periodically through 2011 and 2012, according to company correspondence reviewed by the Journal.
"Gen. Kohi, he's actually bothering us quite a lot," said Mr. Zhian, who runs day-to-day operations. "What he's looking for is a bribe, that we should pay him some amount of money." Mr. Zhian said a weeklong stoppage at the beginning of the year had cost Aria about $1 million because it couldn't fill a purchase order to supply water to the U.S. military's primary food supplier.
In a brief telephone conversation with the Journal, Gen. Kohi denied he had sought a bribe and said the company is at fault. AZ Corp., he said, doesn't have the right to operate on government property. He declined to provide documents from the Afghan Ministry of Defense that he said would support his assertion that the company is operating illegally.
During a subsequent phone call, Gen. Kohi yelled at a Journal reporter who tried to verify his name and position: "This is your last time calling me. If you call me again, you will see what happens."
The trustee overseeing AZ Corp., Doug O'Dell, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, said a memorandum of agreement between the U.S. Army and AZ Corp. granted the company use of the ground on which the water plant sits—as a sublease of the master lease between the U.S. government and the Afghan Ministry of Defense for the use of Bagram.
Dawlat Waziri, an Afghan Ministry of Defense spokesman, said he is unaware of problems at the facility. He said that if Gen. Kohi was attempting to extort from the factory, the company should have made a formal complaint against him. "This isn't the way to talk about such issues—going to the media rather than filing a complaint," Mr. Waziri said.
Mr. O'Dell said AZ Corp. hasn't submitted an official complaint to the ministry because there doesn't appear to be a formal way to address such grievances. Informal appeals to the deputy Afghan minister of defense have so far succeeded in temporarily reopening the access road whenever it was shut down by Gen. Kohi, Mr. O'Dell said.
Other companies are facing different predicaments related to the planned troop withdrawals. Ghulam Rasoul Tarshi, general manager of Kabul-based United Infrastructure Projects, saw his construction business boom during the U.S. military surge. At the height of the war, his company was managing up to $300 million worth of U.S.-funded road-building projects per year, part of a military strategy to connect Afghan communities with the central government.
Now, Mr. Tarshi's asphalt plants, gravel crushers, bulldozers and concrete mixers stand idle. "There are no projects to bid," he complained. The cash-strapped Afghan government hasn't provided new orders—and even if it had, he said, requests for bribes and an impenetrable bureaucracy would have made such work unprofitable. "Working with the Afghan government, for us, it's very difficult," he said.
The Afghan government has pledged to boost transparency as a condition of continuing to receive international assistance. Afghan officials say U.S. and coalition contractors often try to avoid legitimate taxes and fees.
AZ Corp. was founded by Assad John Ramin, an Afghan immigrant who came to the U.S. as a teenager during the Soviet occupation. At first, the company trucked supplies to the U.S. military, built fortified watchtowers and converted steel shipping containers into showers and latrines at new American bases.
The water plant was its signature accomplishment. The facility is modern, and AZ Corp. took out substantial bank loans to import modern bottling equipment to meet the stringent hygiene standards of the U.S. military.
The water project enjoyed support from the highest levels of the U.S. military. The groundbreaking ceremony at Bagram was attended by the top-ranking military officers in Afghanistan at the time, including Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, then commanding general for U.S. and coalition forces.
In 2008, Mr. Ramin and his brother, Tahir Ramin, received an invitation from the U.S. government to attend a conference in Columbus, Ohio. They were told they would be recognized for their service in Afghanistan.
It was a ruse. Tahir Ramin and two other Afghan businessmen traveling to the conference were arrested when they entered the country at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The Ramin brothers were indicted in federal court in Chicago in connection with alleged contracting fraud at Bagram.
That indictment and a separate federal indictment in Hawaii alleged that Illinois and Hawaii National Guardsmen supervising base operations while deployed to Bagram arranged to award contracts for bunkers and barriers and asphalt-paving services in exchange for bribes. Prosecutors also alleged that contracting officials at Bagram received bribes to facilitate the award of a trucking contract to AZ Corp.
The Ramin brothers pleaded guilty in 2011 to a single count of paying an unlawful $50,000 gratuity to retired Army Sgt. Charles Finch, who pleaded guilty in 2011 to bribery and conspiracy charges for his role in accepting money for the award of a trucking contract in Afghanistan. Another defendant, Sgt. Maj. Gary Canteen, pleaded guilty in 2011 to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and to defraud the U.S. According to court documents, the bribe was paid through a Honolulu T-shirt and souvenir shop owned by Sgt. Maj. Canteen.
The two brothers were incarcerated in a minimum-security prison in the U.S. The case ruined the Ramins financially and nearly drove the AZ Corp. into bankruptcy. The company was suspended from contracting with the U.S. government.
Before the 2008 indictment, AZ Corp. had annual revenue of $30 million and employed approximately 1,500 people. By early 2011, company officials say, it was on life support and the water plant was essentially dormant. Ms. Santillan, the Filipino general manager, stayed on at the plant, firing up the machinery once a week to keep everything in working order. The plant produced 10 or 15 pallets of bottled water a week.
Following the convictions, the U.S. Army threw the company a lifeline. U.S. officials involved in the suspension and debarment allowed AZ Corp. to resume contracting for the government—provided a trustee was appointed who would install new management independent of the imprisoned owners. The company would have to operate under stringent ethical guidelines.
Mr. O'Dell, who became AZ Corp.'s trustee, said the company had been successful enough to pay off all the Ramins' legal debts and a number of personal debts connected with their legal expenses.
"We've turned it around, and I've had the time of my life doing it," said Mr. O'Dell, who lives in the U.S. and travels occasionally to the region. "I'm as energized as I was as a 30-year-old company commander leading young Marines."
The turnaround, however, led to the recent troubles with Gen. Kohi.
Trying to solve its checkpoint problem, Aria has engaged a U.S. lawyer and proposed expanding the perimeter of Bagram Air Field to include the adjacent water plant. The U.S. is in negotiations with the Afghan government about a small, post-2014 presence, and Bagram is a candidate for one of the handful of bases that may remain.
"We would be willing to void the lease with the U.S. government and enter into a lease directly with the Ministry of Defense. But we can get nowhere in the labyrinth of Afghan government," Mr. O'Dell said.
At the same time, the company is trying to diversify its customer base to be less dependent on the military.
The U.S. military, focused on withdrawing troops and equipment ahead of next year's deadline, appears to be uninterested in getting involved in Aria's dispute.
"We are aware that Aria is currently in discussion with MoD and [the government of Afghanistan] about their concerns, which is the proper course of action to resolve their own issues," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Haverstick, a spokesman for the coalition's Bagram-based Regional Command-East.
While the water plant abuts the Bagram base, he said, it is in a separate compound that is managed and secured by Afghan security forces, which are also responsible for securing the roads in the area. "After all, such roads are theirs," he said.
The bottling company's woes, Lt. Col. Haverstick explained, didn't pose a military problem. "Aria is one of several water-distribution companies that provide bottled water to us," he said. "Rest assured we are well hydrated." —Ziaulhaq Sultani and Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.
Karazi says history to judge his record as Afghan president
By MEENA HASEEB - 04 Apr 2013, 1:33 pm Khaama Press
As Afghanistan is getting close to presidential election which is due to be organized in early 2014 amid NATO troops withdrawal, Afghan president Hamid Karazi has said that history will judge his track record in office.
Karzai became Afghan president in 2001 after the US launched a military offensive against Taliban militants and he is barred by the Afghan constitution from seeking a third term in next year’s elections.
While speaking during an exclusive interview with the Al Jazeera, president Karzai said, “My place in history will be judged by Afghan history; by what I have done and it will be judged better after 2014 when I am no longer the president.”
Pointing towards several acheivements, including makeing Afghanistan “home for all Afghans once again”, president Karzai said, all Afghans had been fighting one another and running away from each other” were now living side by side.
“Let’s leave it to then, and I hope it will be good.”, Karzai said.
In regards to growing violence across the country presidnet Hamid Karzai denied he had failed to rein in the Taliban and to restore security across the country.
“We never planned to eliminate the Taliban. Not me, not the Afghan people, not the Afghan government.”, he told Al Jazeera during his meeting in Qatar to discuss Afghan peace talks with the Qatar officials.
He said, “The moment I was declared the head of the interim government in Bonn, Germany, I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan, [and] I declared a complete amnesty to Taliban and Afwa, to the Taliban, from the leadership to everybody else.”
Karzai also insisted that he wanted to reintegrate Taliban militants into Afghan society “like all other Afghans”.
He said, “I’m still calling them brothers. I’m still trying to have them be part of the country again and participate in the Afghan life, as we all do, the Afghans.”
Karzai also said his Sunday talks with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani centred on how the energy-rich Gulf state can “facilitate the peace process.”
The Afghan president previously opposed a Taliban office in Qatar over fears that his government would be frozen out of any future peace deal involving the Islamic extremists and the United States.
Afghanistan and Turkey close to finalize strategic pact
By SADAF SHINWARI - 04 Apr 2013, 3:15 pm Khaama Press
According to Afghan presidential palace officials, the governments of Afghanistan and Turkey are close to finalize a long term strategic cooperation agreement.
Presidential palace media office following a statement announced, “President Hamid Karzai met today with Ismet Yilmaz, Turkish Defense Minister to discuss issues of mutual interest.”
The source further added, “At the meeting held in the Presidential Palace, President Karzai called Afghan-Turk relations as good and historic and thanked Turkey- a friend and brother for its assistance, describing as important the Turkish presence beyond 2014 in Afghanistan.”
“The two sides discussed the progress towards concluding a long-term strategic partnership document to be signed between Afghanistan and Turkey” the statement said adding that, “They also underscored to finalize the document as soon as possible.”
Turkish Defense Minister quoted in the statement released by presidential palace said that his country was ready to continue its training beyond 2014 as long as Afghanistan demands it.
He also expressed his pleasure over successful progress of the security transition, declaring that Turkey is prepared to provide any cooperation for peace, stability and welfare of Afghanistan.
This comes as Afghanistan signed similar strategic cooperation agreements with US, Italy, UK, France, Germany, Australia and India.
Afghan foreign ministry earlier also announced to sign long term strategic cooperation agreement with all the NATO member countries.
The strategic cooperation agreements will focus on equipment and training for Afghan national security forces and economic cooperation for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
The strategic pact was signed by Afghanistan and Norway earlier in February this year during president Hamid Karzai’s visit to Oslo.
New Zealand Governor-General in talks with Afghan leader amid troop withdrawals
WELLINGTON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae and Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman have held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to mark the withdrawal on New Zealand troops from Afghanistan.
Radio New Zealand reported Thursday that Mateparae said Karzai had been very grateful for New Zealand's commitment to Afghanistan and that the service and sacrifice over 10 years was valued by the Afghan people.
Karzai viewed New Zealand's service in Afghanistan as having no ulterior motive, Mateparae said in the report.
New Zealand troops in the Bamyan Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) are preparing to leave the country after 10 years as the country winds down its military commitment.
Mateparae paid tribute to the thousands New Zealanders who had served in Bamyan from the New Zealand Defence Force, New Zealand Police, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and civilian contractors.
"They came here knowing the risks that service here entailed, and the dangers that claimed 10 young lives. They came here because they were proud to follow in the footsteps of all New Zealanders who have left our shores to resist tyranny, to defend democratic values and to bring peace to troubled lands," Mateparae said in a statement from his office.
Since 2003, New Zealand troops had served in 21 PRT and 11 Special Air Service special forces rotations involving about 2,800 military personnel, and 10 personnel had died in Afghanistan.
Mateparae's visit to Afghanistan was the second stop in a five- nation tour of the Middle East, following the United Arab Emirates, before he continues to Jordan, Kuwait and Oman.
The tour was aimed at demonstrating New Zealand's commitment to a region with which engagement was growing across the political, security and trading spheres.
Engagement with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries alone was increasingly important for New Zealand, with trade totaling more than 5 billion NZ dollars (4.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the year to June 2012.
"New Zealand is committed to supporting the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the Middle East, as demonstrated through the involvement of New Zealand peacekeepers in places such as the Sinai, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan," he said in the statement.
Hidden enemies: Afghanistan combats landmines
DW 03/04/2013
There are landmines hidden in nearly all of Afghanistan's provinces. Playing children are especially at risk of detonating the devices, which have already cost thousands of lives in the country.
The 13-year-old Firoz Ali Alizada was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he decided to take a short cut on the way to school with a few friends. He stepped on a landmine that instantly went off and had to be rushed to hospital. Doctors said they would have to amputate his legs if there was any chance for him to survive. But before doctors would even see him, his parents had to bribe them with a handsome sum of money. In the end, the operation was carried out and young Firoz lost his legs.
He was one of very few who survive such blasts. "I was lucky. It is a miracle that I survived despite losing my legs and nearly all of my blood."
Each month, between 30 and 60 Afghans have an encounter with landmines. They are either killed or badly injured. "Compared to the 1990s, that number has gone down, but it is still the highest rate in the world," Alizada explains.
Unknown number of casualties
Today Firoz Ali Alizada works as a campaign manager at the Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), a network of over 1,200 NGOs all working towards an international ban on landmines.
Despite the ban on mines in Afghanistan, the country still has the highest number of hidden mines world wide, says Dr. Eva Maria Fischer of Handicap International, adding that exact figures for casualties were very difficult to assess.
"The exact numbers are not known because the statistics are not complete in Afghanistan," according to Fischer.
Children most at risk
According to Fischer, there are around 5,000 areas in Afghanistan that are considered risk zones for mines. And the people who live there could fall victim to them at any time.
Handicap International has been working with victims of landmines in Afghanistan since the end of the 1980s. The organization offers them support and rehabilitation programs. It also promotes child awareness programs.
According to figures provided by the UN Mine Action Coordination Center of Afghanistan (MACCA), it is predominantly children who are at risk of falling victim to landmines. Over 50 percent of the victims are girls and boys under the age of 18. Most of them end up handicaped for the rest of their lives.
Life with a handicap
Over half of the handicaps in Afghanistan were caused by landmine explosions. "Our figures vary depending on the province. In some provinces, 70 percent of people with handicaps have them because of landmines. But if you take all provinces, between 50 and 60 percent of all physical handicaps can be traced back to mines," according to Mohammad al-Din Qani from the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled.
Despite rehabilitation programs, victims of landmine explosions have a very difficult time getting back into normal life. The Afghan government offers a retirement pension of between $5 and $10 (between 3.90 and 7.80 euros) per month. But that is not enough to feed a family. People with physical handicaps only rarely have a chance on the job market.
Widespread discrimination
Victims often face discrimination on a number of levels. Firoz Ali Alizada speaks from personal experience: "People cannot put themselves in disadvantaged people's shoes if they have never lived with a disability themselves in Afghanistan." Not only are these people faced with their physical handicaps and poverty, there is a real lack of compassion, he adds. "I was told very rudely that I would not be able to study at university because I am handicapped."
Being barred from studying was the last straw for Firoz Ali Alizada which finally made him decide to become a campaigner for the rights of handicapped people and for the ban of landmines. He says he has already been able to witness positive changes. Last year, Afghanistan signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and has also imlemented a law to protect the convention, though, Alizada adds, the laws could be better.
In order to reach long-term improvement, it is still of vital importance, that the country get rid of landmines. All of Afghanistan's provinces, with the exception of Daikundi in Central Afghanistan, face the problem of hidden landmines and unexploded ordnance devices. Up to now, only 121 districts have been cleared of landmines. And in the south of the country, there have not been many results at all. The ongoing war is the greatest obstacle, as the Taliban use landmines and IEDs as weapons.
International pull-out threatens Afghan de-mining
AFP April 4, 2013
SANGAW, Afghanistan - Since Haji Abdul Samad lost his leg in a minefield more than 20 years ago, he has unearthed at least 1,000 explosives and become one of Afghanistan's most experienced de-miners.
"After my accident, I told myself that I had to do work to save lives. I had to clean the rivers, hills, villages," Samad, who was fighting against the Soviets when he stepped on a mine in 1989, told AFP.
"But I'm not afraid of mines," he added, at a site being cleared outside the capital Kabul, ahead of the UN International Day for Mine Awareness on Thursday.
"I will continue to work as long as even just one remains in the country," he vowed.
Samad, a father of eight children originally from the southern city of Kandahar, is part of the huge de-mining effort taking place in Afghanistan, which is dotted with minefields after decades of conflict.
Since 1989, when the Soviets left, more than 4,000 people have been killed and 17,000 injured by mines, not including devices laid in the current conflict, according to an estimate by the UN's Mine Action Coordination Center of Afghanistan (MACCA).
Afghanistan remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world and an average of 42 civilians -- most of them boys under 18 -- are killed or injured each month by mines and other leftover war explosives.
But as the NATO-led combat mission ends next year and international attention towards Afghanistan fades, donor funding for mine clearing is already drying up despite the huge amount of work still to be done.
"We are doing our best. We are appealing for more help," said Mohammad Sediq Rashid, the head of MACCA, which is $25 million short of its $84 million annual fundraising budget.
"Donors are aware of the situation. Now it is up to them to respond," he said, describing the countless remaining mines as a threat to the future development of the country.
"If the programme is continued the problem can be addressed, but now it's not solved. We have lost 1,000 de-miners because of very unstable funding."
De-mining of some description continued even through the civil war and the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, and huge progress has been made in recent years since the Islamic extremists were ousted by a US-led invasion.
Sangaw hill, where Haji Abdul Samad works for the Danish Demining Group (DDG), was a forward position for Soviet soldiers, who protected themselves with several belts of meticulously hidden mines.
After the Soviets retreated, the Taliban took control of the strategic position, located halfway between Kabul and Bagram airbase, and laid their own explosives in the rough, rocky landscape.
Over the last 30 years at least 13 people have died and 22 have been injured by mines on Sangaw hill alone, the latest casualty losing a leg while herding cattle six months ago.
Since last October, except for a break in the harshest weeks of winter, more than 40 DDG de-miners have been at work to make the slopes of Sangaw safe for farmers and livestock.
"So far, we found more than 600 mines and 1,000 UXO (unexploded ordnance)," said Megan Latimer, DDG Technical Advisor.
"There are a lot of items for a small area, but we hope to finish this section within three weeks."
The site, silent except for the beep of metal detectors, is now dotted with red and white stones indicating safe places to walk as teams of de-miners in helmets and blue armoured vests clear further ground.
A line of yellow painted stones higher up the mountain mark where explosives have been found, while nearby a de-miner scrapes the ground and finds another deadly device during a visit by AFP.
"This is very dangerous work," said Samad, in his late 50s. He says he knows of 20 to 30 de-miners killed or injured while on the job.
Samad, whose weather-beaten face reveals his years working outdoors, refuses to contemplate retirement and there appears to be no end in sight for the mammoth task.
About 1.2 million mines and 16 million pieces of unexploded ordnance have been destroyed since 1989, and 21,000 battlefields have been cleared, but at least 4,900 "risk areas" remain, according to MACCA.
As funding has fallen, DDG has had to release 450 local employees, mostly de-miners, over the last year.
Clearing mines, an industry than employs 12,000 people nationwide, is one of the major achievements of the international effort in Afghanistan since 2001.
And de-mining groups are desperate to keep pushing ahead with their work. "When you start something, you must finish it," said Rashid.
Afghan Court Sentences 7 to Death
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Kabul primary court on Wednesday has sentenced 7 people to death.
The court officials said 7 out of a group of 13 people who were accused of murder, robbery and rape, were sentenced to death. Five others were sentenced from 16 to 20 years prison.
According to the court officials, all 13 were working in a private production company where they were planning their actions.
" According to the 15th article of the law on crimes against internal and external security, we sentence each of you Shir Hamza son of Mullah Mohammad, Mohammad Sabor son of Ghulam Dastagir, Kambiz son of Abdul Karim, Sayed Azim son of Haji Islam, Abdul Qadir son of Abdul Kabir, Aabdul Raouf son of Abdul Rahim to capital punishment, death,"
Head of Primary Court Abdul Basit Bakhtyari said.
Meanwhile, the court officials added the offenders misused girls and women at a production which worked in film and advertising fields.
Badakhshan’s Warduj District Cleared of Insurgents: Officials
TOLOnews.com By Azim Arash Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Following joint German-Afghan air and ground operations commenced a month ago, Warduj district of north-eastern province of Badakhshan is now secured and cleared of insurgents, officials said Tuesday.
Over the past weeks, the Taliban experienced heavy losses, however Afghan forces as well suffered casualties with Taliban shooting to death 16 of the Afghan army soldiers in a volley of bullets in the district.
Afghan security officials visited the area on the last days of the operation in Warduj where now they believe is a safe place.
"Warduj district has returned to a normal situation now," Defence Minister General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi told TOLOnews, "The Taliban suffered heavy losses in the battle."
Pictures from the operations – in which the German forces backed Afghans forces by air – show that the Taliban were involved in the battle using heavy artillery.
Being close to Pakistan, China, and Tajikistan is said to be the motive for insurgents to choose Warduj as a haven to the group.
"These attacks caused the development projects not to be implemented entirely and cause our schools to be shut down," said Dawlat Mohammad Khawari, Warduj district governor.
The transition process for Badakhshan province started a year ago.
It comes as there is still some fear that Warduj district will eventually lose its calmness, will be insecure and filled with insurgency once again.
"Stop the attacks in this district for the sake of God," one of the residents of Warduj told TOLOnews.
Warduj district lies along the highway leading into the Wakhan Corridor, an area of very high mountains bordered by China and Pakistan, and one that is popular with foreign trekkers.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
April 4, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Pakistan's Army says two of its soldiers sustained light injuries when Afghan militants attacked a border post.
The army released a statment saying four "terrorists" were killed in a gunbattle on April 4 with Pakistani soldiers at the Bhittai border post.
The incident took place in Kurram, one of the seven tribal agencies along the porous border with Afghanistan.
The reported attack is the latest in a series of cross-border incidents that have escalated tensions between the two neighbors.
Kabul and Islamabad blame each other for violence by militants on their shared border.
Last week, Kabul canceled a visit of Afghan Army officers to the Pakistani city of Quetta for what it termed "unacceptable Pakistani artillery shelling" into eastern Afghanistan.
Islamabad denied the allegations, saying Kabul had "overreacted."
Based on reporting by AFP and Geo Pakistan
United Nations condemns deliberate targeting of civilians in Farah attack
KABUL, 4 April 2013 – The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) strongly condemns an attack against a Government compound in the south-western province of Farah on 3 April that resulted in the deaths of at least 41 civilians, most of whom were civilian Government workers, and injuries to more than 100 others.
Among the civilians killed were two judges and six prosecutors, as well as administration officers and cleaners working at the site. The attack was the deadliest for Afghan civilians since December 2011.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that they intended to target civilian Government employees, in particular workers in the courts and prosecutors’ offices.
“The United Nations again calls on the Taliban to follow through on their previous public commitments to protect civilians,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, Ján Kubiš. “Who is a ‘civilian’ requiring protection is not a matter of controversy; the term is defined in international law and parties to the conflict, including the Taliban, are obliged to abide by this definition.”
UNAMA notes that international humanitarian law defines civilians as all those who do not take a direct part in hostilities and who are not combatants – such as civilian Government employees. Attacks against civilians are prohibited at all times and may amount to war crimes.
The civilian toll of Afghanistan’s armed conflict has already increased in 2013. UNAMA has repeatedly called on all parties to the armed conflict to increase their efforts to protect civilians. With the onset of the spring fighting season, UNAMA again highlights the obligations of parties to take all necessary measures to protect civilians.
UNAMA expresses its deepest condolences to the victims of the attack and their families, and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured.
As U.S. Departs, Afghan Business Dries Up
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE April 3, 2013
BAGRAM, Afghanistan - The Aria Water Plant, built in 2006 north of Kabul, is a state-of-the-art facility that can produce 100,000 cases of purified drinking water per week—an unusual success story from the decadelong American enterprise in Afghanistan.
But with U.S. military involvement in the nation winding down, Aria, like other Afghan companies that sprang up to serve the foreigners, is struggling to survive an uncertain time.
"Should I stay in Afghanistan and carry on with my business, or should I sell the company and say, 'Hasta la vista, Afghanistan?' " wonders Abdul Majeed Zhian, chief of staff of AZ Corp., Aria's parent company, which invested $17 million in the plant.
Aria's troubles are coming to a head as U.S.-Afghan relations are deteriorating. Efforts by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assert Afghan sovereignty and curtail U.S. military operations have led to a series of confrontations with American officials, most recently when he accused the U.S. and the Taliban of colluding to perpetuate instability—a charge flatly denied by the Americans.
U.S. officials, for their part, say they are frustrated by Afghanistan's corrupt business culture, where little can be achieved, they say, without bribing officials. Mr. Karzai has blamed foreigners and their contractors for the endemic corruption.
The Aria Water Plant now finds itself in a classic Catch-22. Managers say the company might have to shut down because of what they describe as extortion demands from an Afghan general whose forces control a checkpoint on the access road and regularly block traffic to the plant, located just outside Bagram Air Field, one of the largest U.S. bases in Afghanistan.
But if Aria knuckles under and pays a bribe, it could lose the business of the U.S. government, its main customer so far. As a condition of doing business with the U.S., it cannot make illicit payments. Aria already operates under a stringent trusteeship agreement following previous management's convictions on a corruption charge brought by U.S. authorities.
According to a recent survey on corruption trends by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Afghanistan's High Office for Oversight and Anticorruption, Afghan citizens paid about $3.9 billion in bribes in 2012—double the country's domestic tax revenue. One out of every two Afghans pay bribes when requesting a public service, the report said.
The water plant's troubles show how precarious it can be to do business in Afghanistan, and how fragile the country's post-2001 economic boom, fueled by American tax dollars, has been.
With U.S. troops slated to withdraw by the end of next year, Aria is expected to lose much of its business supplying American military bases, so it is looking for new customers. The capital city of Kabul is an hour's drive from the plant, and the company hopes it can ship water to embassies, hotels or high-end grocery stores there. But what used to be the plant's primary advantage—its location right outside the fortified perimeter of Bagram Air Field on land owned by the Afghan Ministry of Defense—has turned into a curse.
Aria must truck its supplies and products through a checkpoint manned by the U.S.-funded Afghan National Army. That puts the company at the mercy of Afghan officers, who periodically shut down the road to the factory, causing costly production stoppages and cutting off Aria's access to new business.
The company says the problems began in June 2011 when Gen. Mohammad Asif Kohi, an Afghan commander who oversees government installations, paid an unexpected visit to the plant. Ezelle Santillan, the general manager from the Philippines who supervises the facility, sent an urgent message to company management.
"The general asked for anyone from main office to talk or having a meeting with him to settle issues, issues I don't understand," she wrote, according to email correspondence reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The general then showed up at AZ Corp.'s main office in Kabul, making remarks about "building a friendship" with him, according to company officials who say they interpreted that as a request for a bribe. After Aria didn't act on the hint, these officials say, the general's forces began to shut down the access road to the factory, causing costly production stoppages. The shutdowns continued periodically through 2011 and 2012, according to company correspondence reviewed by the Journal.
"Gen. Kohi, he's actually bothering us quite a lot," said Mr. Zhian, who runs day-to-day operations. "What he's looking for is a bribe, that we should pay him some amount of money." Mr. Zhian said a weeklong stoppage at the beginning of the year had cost Aria about $1 million because it couldn't fill a purchase order to supply water to the U.S. military's primary food supplier.
In a brief telephone conversation with the Journal, Gen. Kohi denied he had sought a bribe and said the company is at fault. AZ Corp., he said, doesn't have the right to operate on government property. He declined to provide documents from the Afghan Ministry of Defense that he said would support his assertion that the company is operating illegally.
During a subsequent phone call, Gen. Kohi yelled at a Journal reporter who tried to verify his name and position: "This is your last time calling me. If you call me again, you will see what happens."
The trustee overseeing AZ Corp., Doug O'Dell, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, said a memorandum of agreement between the U.S. Army and AZ Corp. granted the company use of the ground on which the water plant sits—as a sublease of the master lease between the U.S. government and the Afghan Ministry of Defense for the use of Bagram.
Dawlat Waziri, an Afghan Ministry of Defense spokesman, said he is unaware of problems at the facility. He said that if Gen. Kohi was attempting to extort from the factory, the company should have made a formal complaint against him. "This isn't the way to talk about such issues—going to the media rather than filing a complaint," Mr. Waziri said.
Mr. O'Dell said AZ Corp. hasn't submitted an official complaint to the ministry because there doesn't appear to be a formal way to address such grievances. Informal appeals to the deputy Afghan minister of defense have so far succeeded in temporarily reopening the access road whenever it was shut down by Gen. Kohi, Mr. O'Dell said.
Other companies are facing different predicaments related to the planned troop withdrawals. Ghulam Rasoul Tarshi, general manager of Kabul-based United Infrastructure Projects, saw his construction business boom during the U.S. military surge. At the height of the war, his company was managing up to $300 million worth of U.S.-funded road-building projects per year, part of a military strategy to connect Afghan communities with the central government.
Now, Mr. Tarshi's asphalt plants, gravel crushers, bulldozers and concrete mixers stand idle. "There are no projects to bid," he complained. The cash-strapped Afghan government hasn't provided new orders—and even if it had, he said, requests for bribes and an impenetrable bureaucracy would have made such work unprofitable. "Working with the Afghan government, for us, it's very difficult," he said.
The Afghan government has pledged to boost transparency as a condition of continuing to receive international assistance. Afghan officials say U.S. and coalition contractors often try to avoid legitimate taxes and fees.
AZ Corp. was founded by Assad John Ramin, an Afghan immigrant who came to the U.S. as a teenager during the Soviet occupation. At first, the company trucked supplies to the U.S. military, built fortified watchtowers and converted steel shipping containers into showers and latrines at new American bases.
The water plant was its signature accomplishment. The facility is modern, and AZ Corp. took out substantial bank loans to import modern bottling equipment to meet the stringent hygiene standards of the U.S. military.
The water project enjoyed support from the highest levels of the U.S. military. The groundbreaking ceremony at Bagram was attended by the top-ranking military officers in Afghanistan at the time, including Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, then commanding general for U.S. and coalition forces.
In 2008, Mr. Ramin and his brother, Tahir Ramin, received an invitation from the U.S. government to attend a conference in Columbus, Ohio. They were told they would be recognized for their service in Afghanistan.
It was a ruse. Tahir Ramin and two other Afghan businessmen traveling to the conference were arrested when they entered the country at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The Ramin brothers were indicted in federal court in Chicago in connection with alleged contracting fraud at Bagram.
That indictment and a separate federal indictment in Hawaii alleged that Illinois and Hawaii National Guardsmen supervising base operations while deployed to Bagram arranged to award contracts for bunkers and barriers and asphalt-paving services in exchange for bribes. Prosecutors also alleged that contracting officials at Bagram received bribes to facilitate the award of a trucking contract to AZ Corp.
The Ramin brothers pleaded guilty in 2011 to a single count of paying an unlawful $50,000 gratuity to retired Army Sgt. Charles Finch, who pleaded guilty in 2011 to bribery and conspiracy charges for his role in accepting money for the award of a trucking contract in Afghanistan. Another defendant, Sgt. Maj. Gary Canteen, pleaded guilty in 2011 to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and to defraud the U.S. According to court documents, the bribe was paid through a Honolulu T-shirt and souvenir shop owned by Sgt. Maj. Canteen.
The two brothers were incarcerated in a minimum-security prison in the U.S. The case ruined the Ramins financially and nearly drove the AZ Corp. into bankruptcy. The company was suspended from contracting with the U.S. government.
Before the 2008 indictment, AZ Corp. had annual revenue of $30 million and employed approximately 1,500 people. By early 2011, company officials say, it was on life support and the water plant was essentially dormant. Ms. Santillan, the Filipino general manager, stayed on at the plant, firing up the machinery once a week to keep everything in working order. The plant produced 10 or 15 pallets of bottled water a week.
Following the convictions, the U.S. Army threw the company a lifeline. U.S. officials involved in the suspension and debarment allowed AZ Corp. to resume contracting for the government—provided a trustee was appointed who would install new management independent of the imprisoned owners. The company would have to operate under stringent ethical guidelines.
Mr. O'Dell, who became AZ Corp.'s trustee, said the company had been successful enough to pay off all the Ramins' legal debts and a number of personal debts connected with their legal expenses.
"We've turned it around, and I've had the time of my life doing it," said Mr. O'Dell, who lives in the U.S. and travels occasionally to the region. "I'm as energized as I was as a 30-year-old company commander leading young Marines."
The turnaround, however, led to the recent troubles with Gen. Kohi.
Trying to solve its checkpoint problem, Aria has engaged a U.S. lawyer and proposed expanding the perimeter of Bagram Air Field to include the adjacent water plant. The U.S. is in negotiations with the Afghan government about a small, post-2014 presence, and Bagram is a candidate for one of the handful of bases that may remain.
"We would be willing to void the lease with the U.S. government and enter into a lease directly with the Ministry of Defense. But we can get nowhere in the labyrinth of Afghan government," Mr. O'Dell said.
At the same time, the company is trying to diversify its customer base to be less dependent on the military.
The U.S. military, focused on withdrawing troops and equipment ahead of next year's deadline, appears to be uninterested in getting involved in Aria's dispute.
"We are aware that Aria is currently in discussion with MoD and [the government of Afghanistan] about their concerns, which is the proper course of action to resolve their own issues," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Haverstick, a spokesman for the coalition's Bagram-based Regional Command-East.
While the water plant abuts the Bagram base, he said, it is in a separate compound that is managed and secured by Afghan security forces, which are also responsible for securing the roads in the area. "After all, such roads are theirs," he said.
The bottling company's woes, Lt. Col. Haverstick explained, didn't pose a military problem. "Aria is one of several water-distribution companies that provide bottled water to us," he said. "Rest assured we are well hydrated." —Ziaulhaq Sultani and Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.
Karazi says history to judge his record as Afghan president
By MEENA HASEEB - 04 Apr 2013, 1:33 pm Khaama Press
As Afghanistan is getting close to presidential election which is due to be organized in early 2014 amid NATO troops withdrawal, Afghan president Hamid Karazi has said that history will judge his track record in office.
Karzai became Afghan president in 2001 after the US launched a military offensive against Taliban militants and he is barred by the Afghan constitution from seeking a third term in next year’s elections.
While speaking during an exclusive interview with the Al Jazeera, president Karzai said, “My place in history will be judged by Afghan history; by what I have done and it will be judged better after 2014 when I am no longer the president.”
Pointing towards several acheivements, including makeing Afghanistan “home for all Afghans once again”, president Karzai said, all Afghans had been fighting one another and running away from each other” were now living side by side.
“Let’s leave it to then, and I hope it will be good.”, Karzai said.
In regards to growing violence across the country presidnet Hamid Karzai denied he had failed to rein in the Taliban and to restore security across the country.
“We never planned to eliminate the Taliban. Not me, not the Afghan people, not the Afghan government.”, he told Al Jazeera during his meeting in Qatar to discuss Afghan peace talks with the Qatar officials.
He said, “The moment I was declared the head of the interim government in Bonn, Germany, I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan, [and] I declared a complete amnesty to Taliban and Afwa, to the Taliban, from the leadership to everybody else.”
Karzai also insisted that he wanted to reintegrate Taliban militants into Afghan society “like all other Afghans”.
He said, “I’m still calling them brothers. I’m still trying to have them be part of the country again and participate in the Afghan life, as we all do, the Afghans.”
Karzai also said his Sunday talks with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani centred on how the energy-rich Gulf state can “facilitate the peace process.”
The Afghan president previously opposed a Taliban office in Qatar over fears that his government would be frozen out of any future peace deal involving the Islamic extremists and the United States.
Afghanistan and Turkey close to finalize strategic pact
By SADAF SHINWARI - 04 Apr 2013, 3:15 pm Khaama Press
According to Afghan presidential palace officials, the governments of Afghanistan and Turkey are close to finalize a long term strategic cooperation agreement.
Presidential palace media office following a statement announced, “President Hamid Karzai met today with Ismet Yilmaz, Turkish Defense Minister to discuss issues of mutual interest.”
The source further added, “At the meeting held in the Presidential Palace, President Karzai called Afghan-Turk relations as good and historic and thanked Turkey- a friend and brother for its assistance, describing as important the Turkish presence beyond 2014 in Afghanistan.”
“The two sides discussed the progress towards concluding a long-term strategic partnership document to be signed between Afghanistan and Turkey” the statement said adding that, “They also underscored to finalize the document as soon as possible.”
Turkish Defense Minister quoted in the statement released by presidential palace said that his country was ready to continue its training beyond 2014 as long as Afghanistan demands it.
He also expressed his pleasure over successful progress of the security transition, declaring that Turkey is prepared to provide any cooperation for peace, stability and welfare of Afghanistan.
This comes as Afghanistan signed similar strategic cooperation agreements with US, Italy, UK, France, Germany, Australia and India.
Afghan foreign ministry earlier also announced to sign long term strategic cooperation agreement with all the NATO member countries.
The strategic cooperation agreements will focus on equipment and training for Afghan national security forces and economic cooperation for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
The strategic pact was signed by Afghanistan and Norway earlier in February this year during president Hamid Karzai’s visit to Oslo.
New Zealand Governor-General in talks with Afghan leader amid troop withdrawals
WELLINGTON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae and Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman have held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to mark the withdrawal on New Zealand troops from Afghanistan.
Radio New Zealand reported Thursday that Mateparae said Karzai had been very grateful for New Zealand's commitment to Afghanistan and that the service and sacrifice over 10 years was valued by the Afghan people.
Karzai viewed New Zealand's service in Afghanistan as having no ulterior motive, Mateparae said in the report.
New Zealand troops in the Bamyan Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) are preparing to leave the country after 10 years as the country winds down its military commitment.
Mateparae paid tribute to the thousands New Zealanders who had served in Bamyan from the New Zealand Defence Force, New Zealand Police, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and civilian contractors.
"They came here knowing the risks that service here entailed, and the dangers that claimed 10 young lives. They came here because they were proud to follow in the footsteps of all New Zealanders who have left our shores to resist tyranny, to defend democratic values and to bring peace to troubled lands," Mateparae said in a statement from his office.
Since 2003, New Zealand troops had served in 21 PRT and 11 Special Air Service special forces rotations involving about 2,800 military personnel, and 10 personnel had died in Afghanistan.
Mateparae's visit to Afghanistan was the second stop in a five- nation tour of the Middle East, following the United Arab Emirates, before he continues to Jordan, Kuwait and Oman.
The tour was aimed at demonstrating New Zealand's commitment to a region with which engagement was growing across the political, security and trading spheres.
Engagement with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries alone was increasingly important for New Zealand, with trade totaling more than 5 billion NZ dollars (4.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the year to June 2012.
"New Zealand is committed to supporting the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the Middle East, as demonstrated through the involvement of New Zealand peacekeepers in places such as the Sinai, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan," he said in the statement.
Hidden enemies: Afghanistan combats landmines
DW 03/04/2013
There are landmines hidden in nearly all of Afghanistan's provinces. Playing children are especially at risk of detonating the devices, which have already cost thousands of lives in the country.
The 13-year-old Firoz Ali Alizada was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he decided to take a short cut on the way to school with a few friends. He stepped on a landmine that instantly went off and had to be rushed to hospital. Doctors said they would have to amputate his legs if there was any chance for him to survive. But before doctors would even see him, his parents had to bribe them with a handsome sum of money. In the end, the operation was carried out and young Firoz lost his legs.
He was one of very few who survive such blasts. "I was lucky. It is a miracle that I survived despite losing my legs and nearly all of my blood."
Each month, between 30 and 60 Afghans have an encounter with landmines. They are either killed or badly injured. "Compared to the 1990s, that number has gone down, but it is still the highest rate in the world," Alizada explains.
Unknown number of casualties
Today Firoz Ali Alizada works as a campaign manager at the Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), a network of over 1,200 NGOs all working towards an international ban on landmines.
Despite the ban on mines in Afghanistan, the country still has the highest number of hidden mines world wide, says Dr. Eva Maria Fischer of Handicap International, adding that exact figures for casualties were very difficult to assess.
"The exact numbers are not known because the statistics are not complete in Afghanistan," according to Fischer.
Children most at risk
According to Fischer, there are around 5,000 areas in Afghanistan that are considered risk zones for mines. And the people who live there could fall victim to them at any time.
Handicap International has been working with victims of landmines in Afghanistan since the end of the 1980s. The organization offers them support and rehabilitation programs. It also promotes child awareness programs.
According to figures provided by the UN Mine Action Coordination Center of Afghanistan (MACCA), it is predominantly children who are at risk of falling victim to landmines. Over 50 percent of the victims are girls and boys under the age of 18. Most of them end up handicaped for the rest of their lives.
Life with a handicap
Over half of the handicaps in Afghanistan were caused by landmine explosions. "Our figures vary depending on the province. In some provinces, 70 percent of people with handicaps have them because of landmines. But if you take all provinces, between 50 and 60 percent of all physical handicaps can be traced back to mines," according to Mohammad al-Din Qani from the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled.
Despite rehabilitation programs, victims of landmine explosions have a very difficult time getting back into normal life. The Afghan government offers a retirement pension of between $5 and $10 (between 3.90 and 7.80 euros) per month. But that is not enough to feed a family. People with physical handicaps only rarely have a chance on the job market.
Widespread discrimination
Victims often face discrimination on a number of levels. Firoz Ali Alizada speaks from personal experience: "People cannot put themselves in disadvantaged people's shoes if they have never lived with a disability themselves in Afghanistan." Not only are these people faced with their physical handicaps and poverty, there is a real lack of compassion, he adds. "I was told very rudely that I would not be able to study at university because I am handicapped."
Being barred from studying was the last straw for Firoz Ali Alizada which finally made him decide to become a campaigner for the rights of handicapped people and for the ban of landmines. He says he has already been able to witness positive changes. Last year, Afghanistan signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and has also imlemented a law to protect the convention, though, Alizada adds, the laws could be better.
In order to reach long-term improvement, it is still of vital importance, that the country get rid of landmines. All of Afghanistan's provinces, with the exception of Daikundi in Central Afghanistan, face the problem of hidden landmines and unexploded ordnance devices. Up to now, only 121 districts have been cleared of landmines. And in the south of the country, there have not been many results at all. The ongoing war is the greatest obstacle, as the Taliban use landmines and IEDs as weapons.
International pull-out threatens Afghan de-mining
AFP April 4, 2013
SANGAW, Afghanistan - Since Haji Abdul Samad lost his leg in a minefield more than 20 years ago, he has unearthed at least 1,000 explosives and become one of Afghanistan's most experienced de-miners.
"After my accident, I told myself that I had to do work to save lives. I had to clean the rivers, hills, villages," Samad, who was fighting against the Soviets when he stepped on a mine in 1989, told AFP.
"But I'm not afraid of mines," he added, at a site being cleared outside the capital Kabul, ahead of the UN International Day for Mine Awareness on Thursday.
"I will continue to work as long as even just one remains in the country," he vowed.
Samad, a father of eight children originally from the southern city of Kandahar, is part of the huge de-mining effort taking place in Afghanistan, which is dotted with minefields after decades of conflict.
Since 1989, when the Soviets left, more than 4,000 people have been killed and 17,000 injured by mines, not including devices laid in the current conflict, according to an estimate by the UN's Mine Action Coordination Center of Afghanistan (MACCA).
Afghanistan remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world and an average of 42 civilians -- most of them boys under 18 -- are killed or injured each month by mines and other leftover war explosives.
But as the NATO-led combat mission ends next year and international attention towards Afghanistan fades, donor funding for mine clearing is already drying up despite the huge amount of work still to be done.
"We are doing our best. We are appealing for more help," said Mohammad Sediq Rashid, the head of MACCA, which is $25 million short of its $84 million annual fundraising budget.
"Donors are aware of the situation. Now it is up to them to respond," he said, describing the countless remaining mines as a threat to the future development of the country.
"If the programme is continued the problem can be addressed, but now it's not solved. We have lost 1,000 de-miners because of very unstable funding."
De-mining of some description continued even through the civil war and the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, and huge progress has been made in recent years since the Islamic extremists were ousted by a US-led invasion.
Sangaw hill, where Haji Abdul Samad works for the Danish Demining Group (DDG), was a forward position for Soviet soldiers, who protected themselves with several belts of meticulously hidden mines.
After the Soviets retreated, the Taliban took control of the strategic position, located halfway between Kabul and Bagram airbase, and laid their own explosives in the rough, rocky landscape.
Over the last 30 years at least 13 people have died and 22 have been injured by mines on Sangaw hill alone, the latest casualty losing a leg while herding cattle six months ago.
Since last October, except for a break in the harshest weeks of winter, more than 40 DDG de-miners have been at work to make the slopes of Sangaw safe for farmers and livestock.
"So far, we found more than 600 mines and 1,000 UXO (unexploded ordnance)," said Megan Latimer, DDG Technical Advisor.
"There are a lot of items for a small area, but we hope to finish this section within three weeks."
The site, silent except for the beep of metal detectors, is now dotted with red and white stones indicating safe places to walk as teams of de-miners in helmets and blue armoured vests clear further ground.
A line of yellow painted stones higher up the mountain mark where explosives have been found, while nearby a de-miner scrapes the ground and finds another deadly device during a visit by AFP.
"This is very dangerous work," said Samad, in his late 50s. He says he knows of 20 to 30 de-miners killed or injured while on the job.
Samad, whose weather-beaten face reveals his years working outdoors, refuses to contemplate retirement and there appears to be no end in sight for the mammoth task.
About 1.2 million mines and 16 million pieces of unexploded ordnance have been destroyed since 1989, and 21,000 battlefields have been cleared, but at least 4,900 "risk areas" remain, according to MACCA.
As funding has fallen, DDG has had to release 450 local employees, mostly de-miners, over the last year.
Clearing mines, an industry than employs 12,000 people nationwide, is one of the major achievements of the international effort in Afghanistan since 2001.
And de-mining groups are desperate to keep pushing ahead with their work. "When you start something, you must finish it," said Rashid.
Afghan Court Sentences 7 to Death
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Kabul primary court on Wednesday has sentenced 7 people to death.
The court officials said 7 out of a group of 13 people who were accused of murder, robbery and rape, were sentenced to death. Five others were sentenced from 16 to 20 years prison.
According to the court officials, all 13 were working in a private production company where they were planning their actions.
" According to the 15th article of the law on crimes against internal and external security, we sentence each of you Shir Hamza son of Mullah Mohammad, Mohammad Sabor son of Ghulam Dastagir, Kambiz son of Abdul Karim, Sayed Azim son of Haji Islam, Abdul Qadir son of Abdul Kabir, Aabdul Raouf son of Abdul Rahim to capital punishment, death,"
Head of Primary Court Abdul Basit Bakhtyari said.
Meanwhile, the court officials added the offenders misused girls and women at a production which worked in film and advertising fields.
Badakhshan’s Warduj District Cleared of Insurgents: Officials
TOLOnews.com By Azim Arash Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Following joint German-Afghan air and ground operations commenced a month ago, Warduj district of north-eastern province of Badakhshan is now secured and cleared of insurgents, officials said Tuesday.
Over the past weeks, the Taliban experienced heavy losses, however Afghan forces as well suffered casualties with Taliban shooting to death 16 of the Afghan army soldiers in a volley of bullets in the district.
Afghan security officials visited the area on the last days of the operation in Warduj where now they believe is a safe place.
"Warduj district has returned to a normal situation now," Defence Minister General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi told TOLOnews, "The Taliban suffered heavy losses in the battle."
Pictures from the operations – in which the German forces backed Afghans forces by air – show that the Taliban were involved in the battle using heavy artillery.
Being close to Pakistan, China, and Tajikistan is said to be the motive for insurgents to choose Warduj as a haven to the group.
"These attacks caused the development projects not to be implemented entirely and cause our schools to be shut down," said Dawlat Mohammad Khawari, Warduj district governor.
The transition process for Badakhshan province started a year ago.
It comes as there is still some fear that Warduj district will eventually lose its calmness, will be insecure and filled with insurgency once again.
"Stop the attacks in this district for the sake of God," one of the residents of Warduj told TOLOnews.
Warduj district lies along the highway leading into the Wakhan Corridor, an area of very high mountains bordered by China and Pakistan, and one that is popular with foreign trekkers.
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