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Man With Ties to Karzai Dies in a Military Raid
The New York Times By Azam Ahmed and Taimoor Shah April 10, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - A special operations raid meant to disrupt a Taliban arms operation in southern Afghanistan ended in the death of a man with family ties to the Afghan president’s inner circle, leading to tensions between regional officials and the military, officials say.
The conflict comes at a time of growing tensions over American Special Operations forces in the country, after President Hamid Karzai recently banned their operation in a critical province near the capital. And it highlighted a complex web of Afghan family and factional relations that has led provincial officials allied with Mr. Karzai to defend men that international military officials have identified as insurgents.
The raid, a joint mission involving Afghan commandos and American Special Forces advisers, happened Sunday night near the capital of Oruzgan Province, Tirin Kot. Military officials said the target was a Taliban weapons broker named Hajji Janan.
During the operation, troops shot and killed Mr. Janan’s brother, Khiraullah Janan, after entering a residential compound to search for weapons. According to a statement by the international military coalition, soldiers fired only after being fired on by an “insurgent.” After finding weapons and ammunition in the compound, they then arrested Hajji Janan, the statement said.
But the influential provincial governor and the police chief both dispute that account. Shortly after Mr. Janan’s arrest, they intervened to secure his release, and it is now unclear whether he will face any charges. Both officials released statements criticizing the military as having targeted innocent men and expressing outrage that the raid had not been coordinated with them.
“We asked the coalition forces to provide us with evidence that Hajji Janan was involved in weapons business and to show us the weapons and munitions that they say they have seized in his house, but so far they have not provided us with any evidence,” said Matiullah Khan, the Oruzgan provincial police chief.
The provincial governor, Mullah Amir Akhundzad, insisted that there was no proof that Khiraullah Janan had been armed or involved with the Taliban, and condemned what he called a civilian death in a military action.
Both officials in Oruzgan Province are close allies of Mr. Karzai. The presidential palace did not return messages.
It was complaints by a provincial governor about American Special Operations forces that led to the recent tensions between Mr. Karzai and his American allies. Mr. Karzai banned all American commandos from the province — Wardak, a strategic and dangerous region near the capital — and it took weeks for American and Afghan officials to reach a compromise on restoring even limited operations there.
Over the last week, Mr. Karzai criticized an American airstrike that led to the killing of at least 10 children during an Afghan-led military raid against a Taliban stronghold in Kunar Province. The airstrike was reported to have been called in by American Special Forces advisers to the Afghan military, as Mr. Karzai has forbidden Afghan forces from calling for airstrikes.
Afghan officials said that civilian casualties were an issue in a teleconference between Mr. Karzai and President Obama on Wednesday. But the White House briefing about the conference did not mention the issue.
The often-confusing web of family and political relations in southern Afghanistan presents another potential complication in the Special Operations raid in Oruzgan, a critical province bordering the Taliban heartland.
Khiraullah Janan, who was killed by troops, is the brother-in-law of a Karzai adviser, Mohammed Qaseem, an influential figure within Mr. Karzai’s Populzai tribe and a crucial liaison between the president and tribal leaders in southern Afghanistan. Mr. Qaseem is also a cousin of Mr. Khan, the police chief.
Mr. Qaseem could not be reached for comment.
Bomb Kills Afghan Police Chief, Bodyguards
April 11, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A local police chief and two bodyguards have been killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
Local officials said the police chief of Chora district of southern Uruzgan Province and two of his bodyguards were on patrol when the bomb struck their car overnight.
The province's police spokesman said all three died on the spot and their car was destroyed.
Violence has been escalating around Afghanistan as the spring fighting season has started.
Insurgent attacks usually drop during the harsh winter season.
Based on reporting by AP and dpa
Fresh graduates join Afghan army in western province
HERAT, Afghanistan, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Up to 650 newly graduated army soldiers on Thursday enrolled the county's national army in the western province of Herat, an army source said.
"A total of 650 new graduates on Thursday were commissioned to Afghan National Army (ANA) to provide security for their people," General Taj Mohammad Jahid, commander of army Regional Corps 207 Zaffar, told the audience in a graduation ceremony here.
According to Jahid, the soldiers have received training under NATO and Afghan trainers in the province 640 km west of Kabul.
The Afghan government and the NATO Training Mission in the country have stepped up efforts to train and equip Afghan police and army as local forces are gradually assuming the security charges from NATO-led troops.
The Afghan army and police have already taken security responsibilities of areas where more than 75 percent of the population lives, part of a process which will run through 2014 when the country takes over full leadership of its own security duties.
Afghanistan's future after Nato troops leave uncertain, admits Hammond
Afghans will determine their own fate, says defence secretary, as MPs warns country could descend into civil war within years
The Guardian By Richard Norton-Taylor and Sam Jones Wednesday 10 April 2013
The defence secretary has admitted that no one can predict what will happen to Afghanistan after British, US and other Nato troops end their frontline role there at the end of 2014, and stressed that only the Afghan people can find a lasting solution to the country's violence, corruption and lawlessness.
Philip Hammond's remarks came as the Commons cross-party defence committee warned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war within a few years and suggests that the British government's attitude towards the country is one of simply hoping for the best.
Hammond told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the UK had intervened in Afghanistan to protect its national security and had never intended to stay for a protracted period.
"Afghanistan is an incredibly complex society; a multiethnic society that was very fragmented before we started," he said. "Our ability to influence outcomes is very limited."
He defended the long deployment of British troops, saying their actions had brought about "the removal of international terrorists able to use Afghanistan as a base" and helped train the Afghan national security force, which "can and, increasingly, is holding the ring" on the insurgents.
"The sacrifices have been huge and we will never forget the sacrifice that has been made to deliver the security of Britain and our allies," he said.
"It was always clear that this could not be an open-ended intervention. We had to create the conditions where we would eventually be able to withdraw and allow the Afghans to maintain their own security so our security was protected.
"While the situation is not perfect we have come a long way to being able to deliver that objective."
The defence secretary also said it was clear that "the long-run solution to security has to be an Afghan solution; it cannot be imposed from outside". History, he said, had shown the futility of such attempts.
Asked about the committee's warnings, Hammond said it had been offered a range of views as to Afghanistan's future, which ran from the overly optimistic to the possibility of civil war.
"I completely accept nobody can say with certainty what the future for Afghanistan will be, but what I can say is that the future of Afghanistan will have to be determined by the Afghan people," he said.
Former British ambassadors to Afghanistan told the Commons committee that Nato's understanding of the Taliban was limited, that "corruption and abuse of power was intrinsic in Afghan society" and that the country's economy depended heavily on the drugs trade.
The MPs warned that the start of an Afghan-led peace settlement with the Taliban was vital to ensure the country's stability and security after the withdrawal of British troops next year. But they added that coalition forces' lack of progress in reducing violence in the country "does not augur well for improving security and economic development on a long-term sustainable basis".
The committee also criticised the government for failing to combat the perception that the pullout amounted to "withdrawal through fatigue".
Publication of the report came a day after the government announced that the last group of Royal Marines to be deployed in Afghanistan was returning to the UK. Troops from 40 Commando Royal Marines were based in the Nahr-e Saraj district. The 7,200-strong Royal Marine Corps has deployed commandos to Afghanistan 12 times since 2001, and troops from 40 Commando were the first British soldiers in the country that year, securing Bagram airfield and patrolling the streets of Kabul.
The defence committee said the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office took an optimistic view of the future yet gave very little information about how they planned to be involved in Afghanistan beyond 2014,
James Arbuthnot, chairman of the committee, said: "We have received starkly opposing predictions for Afghanistan's outlook, post-2014. The fact is that the UK has limited influence."
The report concludes: "We hope that Afghanistan can become a secure, prosperous and flourishing country but we are concerned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war within a few years."
Some ground may have to be given in negotiations with the Taliban but the committee stressed the importance of open and free elections and said the rule of law and human rights should not be compromised in any settlement. The committee said that all Afghan people, including women, must be involved in the peace process. If women were excluded as a consequence of negotiating with the Taliban, the progress made could easily unravel, the MPs warned.
"If the UK is to continue to provide financial and training support to Afghanistan post-2014, there needs to be a clear articulation of the areas the UK will fund and support and the outcomes it expects to achieve," the report said.
"It must be clear to those engaged in the peace negotiations that, in providing support in the future, the UK will be paying close attention to the progress on the rights of women, children and minority groups, the tackling of corruption and the furtherance of the rule of law".
The report also claimed that not enough was being done to train and equip Afghan security forces properly. Concerns remained over the capability of Afghan forces to fill the gap left by withdrawing coalition forces, particularly in terms of helicopters, close air support and logistics, the committee said.
"We are concerned that the ANSF [Afghan national security forces totalling about 350,000] will reduce its strength by over a third on current plans based on the expectation that the insurgency will have been diminished," the report adds. "The government should urge the international community to develop a contingency plan in case the level of the insurgency does not diminish".
Karzai discuss US-Afghanistan security pact with Afghan senators
By SADAF SHINWARI - 11 Apr 2013, 11:56 am Khaama Press
Afghan president Hamid Karzai said that Afghanistan is holding precise talks with the United States of America over a long term security pact between the two nations.
A spokesperson for the president Hamid Karzai Adela Raz said president Karzai met with the Afghan senators on Tuesday to discuss security pact between Kabul and Washington.
Raz said, “Important national issues were discussed during the meeting including security pact between Kabul and Washinton. It was recalled during the meeting that the Afghan government was following talks over security agreement very precisely and the pact will signed with Washington only if the national interst of Afghanistan is completely considered.”
Karzai once again emphasized on the agreement of the two nations regarding the security pact however he said that the national interest of Afghanistan must be consolidated before signing the agreement.
In the meantime Adela Raz said that president Karzai also insisted that Afghanistan will sign security agreement with United States only if Washington remains committed to support Afghanistan without any conditions.
Karzai said, “United States will have a military presence in Afghanistan only if the conditions of Afghanistan is consolidated in the security pact and
Washinton remains committed to support Afghanistan without any conditions.”
In regards to Afghan peace process Karzai said that the Afghan government remains committed to continue peace talks with the militant groups,
apparently the government has not achieved any significant results so far.
Meanwhile head of the Afghan senate and Afghan senators urged for the reform of Afghan elections and insisted that specialist expertise must be hired in election commission of Afghanistan.
Presidential election is due to be organized during April next year amid preparations by NATO troops to withdraw from the country.
The senators also urged that necessary steps should be taken to guarantee the security of election.
Pentagon underestimates Afghanistan by $10 billion, holds war request until May
Foreign Policy By Kevin Baron April 10, 2013
The Defense Department underestimated the cost of the Afghanistan war in fiscal 2013 by as much as $10 billion, the Pentagon’s top budget official said on Wednesday, and lacking clarity on the number of troops that will remain in the country next year, DOD will not submit a fiscal 2014 budget request for the war to Congress until next month.
The budget blunder, combined with sequestration’s mandated cuts and the fact that Congress has not passed an FY13 appropriations bill, posed yet another challenge for defense officials crafting the FY14 Defense Department spending request, which was released on Wednesday.
“I can’t believe how many things we’re trying to do right now,” Comptroller Robert Hale said.
Pentagon documents show DOD requesting $88 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, formerly known as the Global War on Terror. But the documents caution the request is “a placeholder pending submission of a final OCO request.”
“Here there's a simple story about fiscal '14 OCO budget: We don't have one yet,” Hale said.
Pentagon officials have pledged to protect the war from sequestration cuts, which means DOD must cut more money from the military’s so-called “base” budget.
Hale said that for fiscal 2013, which has been funded through a series of continuing resolutions passed since September, the Pentagon estimates coming up short in Afghanistan by $7 to 10 billion, with half of the fiscal year already passed. So DOD will pull funds from the base budget to make up that loss in the final six months to go, he said. With sequestration, the total shorfall to DOD’s active base FY13 operating budget adds up to between $22 billion and $25 billion.
“We are spending more in our OCO budget than we anticipated two years ago when it was put together, both through the higher operating tempo and higher transportation costs,” Hale said at the Pentagon.
Looking ahead, President Obama requested $526.6 billion for all FY14 defense spending, a 0.9 percent drop from DOD's current estimates. But those are only a rough estimates.
The budget request for the Afghanistan war has always been a bit of a guessing game based on the number of U.S. troops deployed during each fiscal year. This is the second year in a row that the Defense Department has come up short.
Last summer, DOD asked Congress for permission to shift $8 billion in FY12 funds to cover unexpected costs across the department, including $770 million to pay for higher-than-anticipated gas prices related to the war. DOD said costs skyrocketed also because Pakistan closed the border into Afghanistan for NATO war supplies, forcing the military to execute a costly end-around supply route through the Northern Distribution Network.
The new request assumes “for pricing only” that the 34,000 troops President Obama said he would withdraw from Afghanistan next year will not be pulled until the end of fiscal 2014, a year from September.
Balkh Governor Says US, Nato Failed in Afghanistan
TOLOnews By Karim Amini 09 April 2013
Atta Mohammad Noor, Balkh provincial governor and possible presidential candidate, on Wednesday said the US and Nato have failed in their mission in Afghanistan, although he conceded that some positives have come as a result of the foreign presence.
In an interview with TOLOnews, Noor said the US-led mission was full of mistakes and so had not reached its desired goals.
"The Nato mission has had a lot of mistakes such as the killing of civilians which is still going on. And compared to the money which has flowed here, not much work has happened. The goal was to bring security and eliminate violence, but this they didn't reach," he said.
Noor criticised the peace process adopted by the Afghan government, saying he did not expect it to yield any results.
"The [High] Peace Council is wasting its time and spending its money. What is the response? Suicide and the killing of our elders and leaders," he said. "Unless Pakistan cooperates honestly, there will not be any lasting peace nor will there ever be a sovereign government in Afghanistan."
Noor said the plan to open an office for the Taliban in Qatar was only done because the Americans first plan had failed.
"The US couldn't provide security and decrease violence and so now, in a second attempt, it is turning to peace talks in order to maintain its hegemony in the region and the world. The US conducted the Qatar process to turn the Taliban into a political movement and bring them onto the scene," he said.
The Taliban has repeatedly refused to enter into peace talks with the Afghan government, but were meeting with the US until the start of 2012.
Noor is not entirely critical of the outcomes of the foreign military presence, pointing out that some good has come as a result.
"But here were positive points too, like the fledgling democracy in the country, in education with most students going to school, and lots of other good things," he said.
"With all this, it must be said that Afghanistan needed the international community, and still needs it."
However, he is opposed to any ongoing military presence.
"I must say that I am against having US permanent bases in the country because we want to stand on our own feet and we should not rely on others," he said.
Uzbek fighters gain support in Afghan north
An al-Qaeda-linked group is increasing its appeal among youth in Takhar, where government dissatisfaction runs high.
AlJazeera By Bethany Matta 10 Apr 2013
Taloqan, Afghanistan - More than a decade ago, the people od the predominately Uzbek province of Takhar in the country's north fiercely resisted the Taliban's desire to impose Sharia on the region.
Indeed, in January 2001, Taloqan, the provincial capital, was the final major Afghan city to fall under Taliban control.
Months later, aerial bombardment by US and NATO forces rid the province of the Taliban, allowing security forces to turn their attention to heart of the insurgency - the Pashtun-dominated south and east.
But if international forces forgot about the Tajik and Uzbek-dominated north, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) - an ethnic Uzbek insurgent group with reported close links to al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency - did not.
"For the past three years, the IMU has become stronger in the north," said General Baba Jan, commander of the 303rd Pamir Police Zone.
As US forces withdraw, joint Afghan and coalition raids targeting the IMU are increasing. In the first three months of 2012, the number of operations targeting the IMU nationwide totalled six, half taking place in the country's northeast. In the January to March period this year, raids doubled, with all but one carried out in northern Afghanistan.
"IMU fighters are the main focus of our special forces operations. They are all over north-eastern Afghanistan," said General Zalmai Wesa, 209th ANA Corps commander in the north. "They train locals in IEDs, suicide attacks and other sophisticated attacks and are behind the assassination of a number of officials and tribal elders.
"They're like a virus, the more they spread, the more they spread the disease."
Striking shift
The growing popularity of the IMU among Uzbeks in the north suggests a striking shift in ideology among a population that previously welcomed the overthrow of the Taliban.
"What's ironic is after ten years, the kids whose fathers and elder brothers fought bravely to keep the Taliban out of Takhar, are now joining the Taliban and IMU," said an Afghan official speaking on condition of anonymity.
This raises questions about the ability of Afghan forces to contain the highly effective, adaptive and growing IMU in a strategic part of the country: the Tajik border on one end, a major narco-hub and gateway into Central Asia, and Kunduz on the other, a key northern province that houses some of the country's largest al-Qaeda and Taliban havens and training centres.
IMU fighters have a shared history with the Taliban that dates back to the early 1990s, when the group's founders, Tohir Yuldeshev and Juma Namangani, sought refuge in the country after fleeing Uzbek president Islam Karimov's crackdown on armed groups.
The 2001 US-led invasion killed Namangani and drove Yuldeshev into Pakistan's North Waziristan. Tensions flared when Wazir residents accused the Uzbek fighters of secretly killing tribal elders. Taliban leader Mullah Omar relocated the group to South Waziristan under the control of Baitullah Mehsud, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader. It was, however, a move not without restrictions imposed. Trust between the groups diminished after rumours began to swirl that Yuldeshev had close relations with Pakistan's ISI. Amid tensions and increasing drone attacks, killing both Yuldeshev and his predecessor Usman Adil, many fighters headed back to Afghanistan.
Takhar, according to 2009 provincial reports, was in bad shape. The province had one of the highest illiteracy rates in the north, with poverty rates dropping below the national average. Uzbeks were growing frustrated over a lack of representation in the government and inadequate schooling - the majority still relying on Pakistan's free religious education.
Budding insurgency
Around early 2009, the first signs of a budding insurgency emerged in mosques, said residents. Clerics began preaching an ultra-conservative strain of Islam.
"No one took the group seriously, because the Taliban are usually active in Pashtun areas," said the Afghan official.
"Suddenly, they took up arms. People were like: 'Wow, there's an insurgency emerging.'
"When you are young and uneducated, or educated but no-one in the government gives you a job - and then, on the other hand, you see people who look like you, speaking your language and campaigning against the government, of course you're attracted."
Most here blame both the international community and the Afghan government.
"This is the weakness of the government that al-Qaeda came here. The international community and Afghan government promised to help us build roads and schools, but everything goes to other provinces," said Haji Jamshid, a provincial council representative. "Not even two percent of President Karzai's administration is Uzbek. How can he say we're unified?"
Nearly all official posts, police, intelligence and civil servant positions in the area are held by Tajiks, said observers.
And there is another problem. People here still rely on Pakistan's madrassas, or religious schools, to educate their youth.
Six months ago, Uzbek farmer Dilshod* received a phone call. His cousin, freshly returned from studying in a Pakistani madrassa, had been arrested outside a mosque in downtown Taloqan, holding a jug of explosives - minutes, possibly seconds, before detonating.
"My uncle sent him to study in Pakistan so he could teach children and preach in a mosque," said Dilshod. "He didn't say to become a suicide attacker."
Dilshod's cousin, now 28, is serving out his sentence in Kabul's Pol-e-Charkhi prison.
"My uncle died a month ago because he was so sad about his son's situation," he told Al Jazeera
Reversing the insurgency
In an attempt to reverse the sprawling insurgency, military operations began in the autumn of 2011. "With the help of special forces, we cleaned three districts of insurgents," said the provincial council's Jamshid. "After, the most dangerous Taliban and al-Qaeda came to our area."
Also in 2011, General Daud Daud, commander of the 303rd Pamir Zone of the north, and Abdul Mutalib Bek, a powerful leader, were both killed in attacks bearing the hallmarks of the IMU: suicide bombers targeting officials at large, usually outdoor, gatherings.
The International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, declined to comment on questions regarding the IMU, saying only: "At the tactical level, the insurgency [comprising the IMU, Taliban and al-Qaeda] is considered a single entity."
The response seemingly reflects the changing face of an adaptive insurgency in the north. One in which a growing number of commanders and fighters have ties to a variety of armed groups - many operating in one area for one group, while simultaneously coordinating attacks for another.
"Today, the IMU doesn't have a front," said Mullah Omar, a district governor. "They have presence in smaller groups to avoid special forces."
Uktam*, the son of an Uzbek farmer, is also a university student. Clean-shaven and dressed in a freshly pressed salwar kameez, he is part of this dispersed front Governor Omar speaks of.
"About six or seven of us meet once a week. Sometimes top commanders attend, sometimes the meetings are held for the local community. All the meetings are different; we change times, though it's usually late at night, and places. It's very secretive because NDS [the National Security Directorate, Afghanistan's intelligence agency] is constantly searching for us."
Uktam, however, is not a fighter. He prefers "talking logically" with people, similar to campaigning, he said - telling people why non-Muslims are in the country.
Takhar and Kunduz residents told Al Jazeera that the increase in military operations targeting the group had brought relative stability to the north. Yet last month in Kunduz, a suicide bomber targeting officials at a buzkashi match killed eight. The attack, said officials and experts, was IMU-linked.
"The IMU have started spreading their message," said journalist Najibullah Mutahari. "They say: 'We will take over the government when the foreign forces leave in 2014.'"
*Some names in this report have been changed to protect individuals' identity
Success in Taliban stronghold might not be lasting
Stars and Stripes By Josh Smith April 10, 2013
FOB ZANGABAD, Afghanistan - The sniper and mortar teams were just finding their positions when automatic gunfire rang out from a distant tree line. The staccato sounds echoed over rows of mud walls as the soldiers scrambled first for cover, then to spot the source of the shots. Squinting out over the rural Afghan landscape, nobody saw anything, and no more shots were heard.
After the initial excitement, the soldiers, members of Company C, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, went back to setting up their positions perched on the sagging mud roof of an Afghan police fort in the heart of Panjwai District while the rest of their platoon patrolled through a nearby village.
The morning’s gunfire were the only shots heard that day, and even that was unusual.
“Isn’t it crazy how different this place is now?” asked Spc. Damian Trice, as he looked through the scope on his sniper rifle. Just a few months earlier, these soldiers say, they could barely make a move in this area without drawing fire.
The area has long been a fertile recruiting ground for the Taliban, prompting U.S. forces to label Panjwai and other nearby districts the “Birthplace of the Taliban.”
Whether the new relative quiet is indicative of diminished Taliban influence or a strategic move to wait out the departure of foreign troops is a question being asked across Afghanistan as troops prepare to leave security in the hands of local security officials.
In between their routine duties, the men urinate in bottles and politely decline the marijuana joints offered them by Afghan police. One sniper trades a ballpoint pen for a pan of fried potatoes, fresh green onions and flat bread, which are then shared by the soldiers and the police. As the last spring fighting season looms for most foreign troops, U.S. officials are looking to local forces like these police to control the insurgency.
Ominous radio intercepts indicate that Taliban still observe the troops’ positions, but no one comes out to fight. That leaves the soldiers on the rooftop post a little disappointed, but their leaders are hoping that the quiet days indicate their forces have created a level of stability in Panjwai District that will outlast NATO’s dwindling mission. 'Quite a slugfest'
Panjwai is infamous for the the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers outside Camp Belambay, just over a mile from FOB Zangabad, in March 2012. An American soldier, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, has been charged in those killings and is facing a court martial. It’s a memory that Army officers are reluctant to revisit, and it’s only complicated efforts to reach out to Panjwai’s residents.
“It’s been quite a slugfest in Panjwai district since 2006 it’s certainly been the focus of our attention for the last couple of years,” Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of Regional Command South, told reporters last month.
In recent weeks, Abrams and his commanders on the ground have been touting eroding support for the Taliban among local residents as indicated by an “uprising” earlier this year.
“The Taliban, frankly, have been kicked out of all but about four villages left in southwestern and western Panjwai district,” Abrams said. “And I suspect the rest of those villages will fall here in short order.”
Army officers are attributing the Panjwai backlash to a new, more energized local police commander, as well as an incident when young Taliban members humiliated a village elder.
“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Abrams said. “Within 15 minutes, they were on the phone to the district chief of police. And that started a series of ... operations that got us to where we are today.”
Afghan and coalition forces have detained or killed more than three dozen suspected insurgents in Panjwai since the beginning of the year, according to NATO reports. And late last month, they killed the district’s ranking Taliban official.
While the “uprising” is significant for happening in the Taliban’s heartland, the true extent of the anti-Taliban backlash remains to be seen, and similar events have been trumpeted before only to fail to dent a resilient insurgency, said the American Enterprise Institute’s Ahmad Majidyar.
“While the Afghan government and coalition should welcome and support these uprisings, it’s premature to assume that the local uprisings would have a decisive role in defeating the Taliban and ensuring peace and stability,” he said. Local support, local shortcomings
Even in areas where things have calmed down, U.S. troops still face pushback. During a routine patrol into a market just outside the walls of Combat Outpost Talukan near Zangabad, soldiers with Company B dealt with irate villagers who politely but insistently complained about the troops’ efforts to search vehicles and question local men.
The villagers were joined in their dissent by Hbib Gul of the Afghan Civil Order Police, who leads a small contingent of police from a tiny, ramshackle checkpoint.
Voicing concerns on behalf of some of the villagers, Gul also aimed his criticism at Afghan national leaders, who he said have practically abandoned them. “We are not getting help from [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai,” he said.
His criticism highlights one of the more intractable problems faced by coalition forces as they prepare to leave. Local Afghans may be turning away from the Taliban, but that doesn’t mean they will automatically support the national government. As NATO troops pull out, it will be up to the Afghan government and local forces to earn the backing of their countrymen.
In February, President Barack Obama announced that half of the 68,000 American troops still in Afghanistan will leave by February 2014. The rest of the combat forces will be withdrawn after the 2014 Afghan National Elections.
Analysts say it is almost impossible to truly determine the security situation based on current unclassified reporting, and Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that the Taliban and other groups have few incentives to meet NATO forces head-on at this point.
“Rather than attempt to win tactical battles, these groups can wait out the departure of most ISAF forces, concentrate on building influence, carry out politically high profile attacks designed to accelerate ISAF’s withdrawal, intimidate Afghans, and focus on softer Afghan government and ANSF targets,” he wrote in a draft report released in March.
Long-term success, Cordesman wrote, will come not from pitched battles with the Taliban, but from more nuanced political successes like winning over local populations.
Col. Michael Getchell, who oversees the forces in Panjwai as commander of 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, said he’s convinced that a “certain amount” of violence is because of the U.S. presence.
At a recent weekly meeting with Panjwai District Governor Haji Faisel Mohammad, Getchell was told about efforts to boost involvement with the national government while there is continued American support in the district. “We need to take this fight to the Taliban, but we need your cooperation,” Mohammad told Getchell.
Mohammad said it is important to reach out to those Afghans who may be supporting or fighting for the Taliban out of a need for food and money, or out of a hatred for Americans or the national government, rather than because of a radical ideology.
Battalion commander Lt. Col. James Dooghan, based out of FOB Zangabad, attributes much of the progress in his corner of Panjwai to expanded Afghan police presence. Still, he admits that local police influence often only extends a few hundred yards from their checkpoints.
Local police have been involved in several recent extrajudicial killings, Dooghan said, and the long-term challenge will be to professionalize the security forces. It’s because of these well-known shortcomings that officials were encouraged when villagers turned to the police when they became angry with the Taliban.
Getchell also acknowledged that “there are a few Tony Sopranos” among the local Afghan leaders, but he said success in Panjwai will depend on local leaders who know the area, have deep connections, and have a lasting interest in its security. “I think we tend not to give the Afghans their due,” Getchell said. “They’re running a marathon while we’re sprinting.”
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Afghanistan, the drug addiction capital
BBC News By Tahir Qadiry 10 April 2013
Kabul - Afghanistan produces 90% of all opiate drugs in the world, but until recently was not a major consumer. Now, out of a population of 35 million, more than a million are addicted to drugs - proportionately the highest figure in the world.
Right in the heart of Kabul, on the stony banks of the Kabul River, drug addicts gather to buy and use heroin. It's a place of misery and degradation.
In broad daylight about a dozen men and teenage boys sit huddled in pairs smoking and injecting. Among them are some educated people - a doctor, an engineer and an interpreter.
Tariq Sulaiman, from Najat, a local addiction charity, comes here regularly to try to persuade addicts to get treatment.
"We are already losing our children to suicide attacks, rocket and bomb attacks," he says. "But now addiction is another sort of terrorism which is killing our countrymen."
At the age of 18, Jawid, originally from Badakhshan in the north of Afghanistan, has already been hooked on heroin for 10 years. His uncle introduced him to drugs when he was a small child, to make him work harder on the land.
"I hate my life. Everyone hates me. I should have been at school at this age, but I am a junkie," he says.
His father is dead. His disabled mother worries about her son constantly. All she wants from life is for him to get clean, but she begs on the streets to pay for his daily dose to prevent him stealing.
"I always tell Jawid if I die, he will end up sleeping under the bridge with other addicts," she says.
This is the fate of the most hardcore addicts, whose fires can be seen at night. Police regularly beat and disperse them, and sometimes throw them in the river.
The reasons why so many Afghans are turning to drugs are complex. It's clear that decades of violence have played a part.
Many of those who fled during the violence of the last 30 years took refuge in Iran and Pakistan, where addiction rates have long been high. They're now returning and bringing their drug problems with them, officials say.
Unemployment - which currently stands at nearly 40% - is also taking its toll.
"If I had a job, I wouldn't be here," says Farooq, one of the addicts by the river, who has a degree in medicine and once worked as a hospital manager.
He says he takes drugs "to be calm and to relax" - but that he would prefer to be dead than a junkie, as he now is.
Another factor is the increasing availability of heroin, which over the last decade has begun to be refined from raw opium in Afghanistan itself.
To buy heroin in Kabul is "as easy as buying yourself something to eat", addicts say. One gram costs about $6 (£3.91), and it's available in every corner of the city.
"Traditionally, what we tend to argue is that the demand causes the supply," says Jean-Luc Lemahieu, regional representative of the UN drugs agency UNODC - one of the few organisations working on drug eradication in Afghanistan.
"What we have forgotten, though, is that the sheer appearance of that product on the market causes a local demand."
When foreign troops arrived in Afghanistan in 2001, one of their goals was to stem drug production. Instead, they have concentrated on fighting insurgents, and have often been accused of turning a blind eye to the poppy fields.
Opium has been around in Afghanistan for centuries, used as a kind of medical cure-all.
In a hospital in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, I met an Afghan woman, Fatima, who had taken opium while suffering from bleeding after childbirth, because it was cheaper than going to a doctor.
Then she gave it to her baby to stop her coughing during breastfeeding - and now both are addicted.
Women and children account for 40% of the country's drug addicts.
While Fatima and her baby are getting treatment at a public hospital, few Afghan addicts get any help at all.
All told, the health ministry runs 95 addiction treatment centres around the country, with enough bed space for 2,305 people.
Its entire budget for treating the country's one million drug addicts is just $2.2m (£1.4m) per annum - a little over $2 per addict, per year.
Jawid alone consumes heroin worth about three times that every day.
While I was in Kabul, he got a place at the centre run by Tariq Sulaiman's Najat charity. The treatment consists of going "cold turkey" for 72 hours.
The participants began by getting their heads shaved. After one day, Jawid was in pain, but he could deal with it. Then, on the second night, he started shouting and crying and banging his head against a wall.
When I met him on the street, he denied that he was back on heroin, but his glazed eyes and rambling speech told a different story.
As he disappeared into the snowy twilight, his chances of kicking his habit seemed bleak.
And as Afghanistan faces so many problems on so many fronts, its chances of winning the wider war on drugs seem equally uncertain.
Karzai Promises Obama to Keep Dangerous Detainees in Prison
TOLOnews.com 10 April 2013
President Hamid Karzai spoke by telephone with his US counterpart Barack Obama on Tuesday, whereby Karzai pledged to not release dangerous detainees from Afghan prisons, the White House said in a statement.
More than a year after signing an agreement to transfer Bagram prison from US to Afghan control - and two weeks after the final handover took place - US concerns about the release of some detainees remain high.
According to the White House statement, the two leaders agreed that officials from the US and Afghanistan would strive to "keep dangerous detainees off the battlefield, and work in partnership at the facility, consistent with Afghan sovereignty".
More than 1,376 detainees have been released from the prison since September when the Afghan government took control of most of the facility, the attorney general's office told TOLOnews on Sunday.
Karzai and Obama also discussed the upcoming presidential and provincial polls during which Karzai affirmed his support for fair and inclusive elections, the White House said.
The two leaders also discussed progress in transferring responsibility for security to Afghan forces from the US-led coalition, with both "looking forward" to Afghan security forces taking the lead role, the statement said.
Obama welcomed Karzai's meetings last month with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, to advance peace talks with the Taliban, the statement added.
Their conversation comes a month after the tense visit of the US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel to Kabul when Karzai suggested the US were meeting with the Taliban secretly.
US Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to Kabul two weeks later and soothed the strained relationship with messages of understanding for Karzai and speeches that pledged the two countries will come to an agreement on some US forces remaining after 2014.
Obama has pledged to bring most US troops home from Afghanistan by the end of next year. Around 10,000 US troops may remain although this is still to be confirmed via an agreement between the two nations.
Nadery Counted Among World Leaders for Human Rights
TOLOnews.com 10 April 2013
Afghanistan's former human rights commissioner Nader Nadery has been profiled alongside the world's leaders in human rights in a book titled "Justice" as compiled by photographer Marianne Cook.
Nadery, currently the chief of the Fair and Free Election Foundation of Afghanistan, is counted among internationally renowned leaders and activists profiled in the book, including Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition politician, and Nobel Peace Prize recipients Kofi Anan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Jimmy Carter former president of the US, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African anti-apartheid activist.
"I am honored to be in the company of these great individuals who have made such contributions to make our world a better place. Some of whom, like Aung San Suu Kyi and Desmond Tutu, have been my heroes," Nadery told TOLOnews via an email from New York where he is for the book launch.
Cook, who both photographed and wrote the profiles of the personalities in "Justice", describes her interest in Nadery's personal story.
"What I want to know is why he is the only one of his nine siblings who has not left Afghanistan. Why does he choose to remain at risk with his wife and young child? His brothers and sisters grew up with the same parents in the same period of history in the same country—what is it that makes him stay and fight?" She states in a quote from the book.
Nadery was Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commissioner for five years until December 2011.
Distribution of Electronic IDs to Begin Next Week
TOLOnews By Azem Arash 10 April 2013
The distribution of electronic national identification cards will begin by Thursday next week, the Ministry of Interior said Wednesday, with as many as 18 million Afghans expected to be issued the new cards ahead of the upcoming presidential and provincial elections.
"The distribution of the electronic ID cards will begin by next Thursday (April 18). Our people are confident that we will distribute 12 to 18 million electronic ID cards within one year," said Mohammad Masoom Farhad, Interior Ministry's general director for distribution of the electronic ID cards.
Many political parties and civil society organisations have hailed the electronic ID cards as a way to reduce fraud in the elections, but had sought it for each voting citizen – a plan quashed by the government as impossible to achieve by the April elections next year.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MOCIT), all of the equipment and materials for printing, distributing, and identifying the citizens are ready and available for the task ahead.
"All the equipment needed for the distribution of the electronic ID cards have been provided by the ministry to the joint committee of the distribution of ID cards," said Bariyalai Hussam, deputy minister MOCIT.
Some have objected that the new cards do not indicate the tribe of the card holder, claiming that the current version – which only states nationality as "Afghan" – is just as divisive because a certain pronunciation of the word is understood to only refer to the Pashtun tribe.
"My family and I might not accept the electronic ID card if the tribe and nationality are not mentioned in it," said Atta Mohammad Noor, Balkh provincial governor.
In order to meet the quota for the new cards, the machines will make produce up to 80,000 cards a day with each machine able to print 400 an hour, the interior ministry said.
Figures suggest that distribution of the electronic national ID cards – aimed to eventually reach all 30 million citizens – will cost about US$120 million.
MPs Seek Ministries to Disclose Corrupt Lawmakers
TOLOnews By Rafi Sediqi 10 April 2013
Lawmakers on Wednesday called on the government ministries to reveal the names of the members of parliament who accepted money for votes during last week's attempt to impeach ministers.
During Wednesday's parliamentary session, MPs repeated the accusations which began last week that some lawmakers sought money from the ministers who were summoned for questioning to parliament in return for their vote of confidence.
They called on the government ministers to reveal the names of these MPs in order for them to be introduced to the judicial organs.
"The ministers should makes reports to reveal which lawmakers went [to the ministries], how many times they went to the ministries, and for what purpose in order to find the names of those lawmakers who are going for personal purposes," Kabul MP Baktash Siyawash said.
"Not all lawmakers should be blamed for taking money [as bribes]. It should be clear which lawmakers got money and have made the house unpopular," MP Ghulam Hussain Nasiri said.
"The corrupt lawmakers should be identified and introduced to the attorney general," MP Ramazan Bashardost said.
Eleven government ministers were summoned to parliament last week to explain their ministries apparent failure to spend more than 50 percent of their allocated development budget in solar year 1390 (March 2011-March 2012).
The ministers did answer the summons, but the plan to dismiss most of them was stopped in some cases before the vote was even taken amid claims that lawmakers had taken money in order to guarantee their vote of confidence for the ministers when the time came.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
The New York Times By Azam Ahmed and Taimoor Shah April 10, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - A special operations raid meant to disrupt a Taliban arms operation in southern Afghanistan ended in the death of a man with family ties to the Afghan president’s inner circle, leading to tensions between regional officials and the military, officials say.
The conflict comes at a time of growing tensions over American Special Operations forces in the country, after President Hamid Karzai recently banned their operation in a critical province near the capital. And it highlighted a complex web of Afghan family and factional relations that has led provincial officials allied with Mr. Karzai to defend men that international military officials have identified as insurgents.
The raid, a joint mission involving Afghan commandos and American Special Forces advisers, happened Sunday night near the capital of Oruzgan Province, Tirin Kot. Military officials said the target was a Taliban weapons broker named Hajji Janan.
During the operation, troops shot and killed Mr. Janan’s brother, Khiraullah Janan, after entering a residential compound to search for weapons. According to a statement by the international military coalition, soldiers fired only after being fired on by an “insurgent.” After finding weapons and ammunition in the compound, they then arrested Hajji Janan, the statement said.
But the influential provincial governor and the police chief both dispute that account. Shortly after Mr. Janan’s arrest, they intervened to secure his release, and it is now unclear whether he will face any charges. Both officials released statements criticizing the military as having targeted innocent men and expressing outrage that the raid had not been coordinated with them.
“We asked the coalition forces to provide us with evidence that Hajji Janan was involved in weapons business and to show us the weapons and munitions that they say they have seized in his house, but so far they have not provided us with any evidence,” said Matiullah Khan, the Oruzgan provincial police chief.
The provincial governor, Mullah Amir Akhundzad, insisted that there was no proof that Khiraullah Janan had been armed or involved with the Taliban, and condemned what he called a civilian death in a military action.
Both officials in Oruzgan Province are close allies of Mr. Karzai. The presidential palace did not return messages.
It was complaints by a provincial governor about American Special Operations forces that led to the recent tensions between Mr. Karzai and his American allies. Mr. Karzai banned all American commandos from the province — Wardak, a strategic and dangerous region near the capital — and it took weeks for American and Afghan officials to reach a compromise on restoring even limited operations there.
Over the last week, Mr. Karzai criticized an American airstrike that led to the killing of at least 10 children during an Afghan-led military raid against a Taliban stronghold in Kunar Province. The airstrike was reported to have been called in by American Special Forces advisers to the Afghan military, as Mr. Karzai has forbidden Afghan forces from calling for airstrikes.
Afghan officials said that civilian casualties were an issue in a teleconference between Mr. Karzai and President Obama on Wednesday. But the White House briefing about the conference did not mention the issue.
The often-confusing web of family and political relations in southern Afghanistan presents another potential complication in the Special Operations raid in Oruzgan, a critical province bordering the Taliban heartland.
Khiraullah Janan, who was killed by troops, is the brother-in-law of a Karzai adviser, Mohammed Qaseem, an influential figure within Mr. Karzai’s Populzai tribe and a crucial liaison between the president and tribal leaders in southern Afghanistan. Mr. Qaseem is also a cousin of Mr. Khan, the police chief.
Mr. Qaseem could not be reached for comment.
Bomb Kills Afghan Police Chief, Bodyguards
April 11, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A local police chief and two bodyguards have been killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
Local officials said the police chief of Chora district of southern Uruzgan Province and two of his bodyguards were on patrol when the bomb struck their car overnight.
The province's police spokesman said all three died on the spot and their car was destroyed.
Violence has been escalating around Afghanistan as the spring fighting season has started.
Insurgent attacks usually drop during the harsh winter season.
Based on reporting by AP and dpa
Fresh graduates join Afghan army in western province
HERAT, Afghanistan, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Up to 650 newly graduated army soldiers on Thursday enrolled the county's national army in the western province of Herat, an army source said.
"A total of 650 new graduates on Thursday were commissioned to Afghan National Army (ANA) to provide security for their people," General Taj Mohammad Jahid, commander of army Regional Corps 207 Zaffar, told the audience in a graduation ceremony here.
According to Jahid, the soldiers have received training under NATO and Afghan trainers in the province 640 km west of Kabul.
The Afghan government and the NATO Training Mission in the country have stepped up efforts to train and equip Afghan police and army as local forces are gradually assuming the security charges from NATO-led troops.
The Afghan army and police have already taken security responsibilities of areas where more than 75 percent of the population lives, part of a process which will run through 2014 when the country takes over full leadership of its own security duties.
Afghanistan's future after Nato troops leave uncertain, admits Hammond
Afghans will determine their own fate, says defence secretary, as MPs warns country could descend into civil war within years
The Guardian By Richard Norton-Taylor and Sam Jones Wednesday 10 April 2013
The defence secretary has admitted that no one can predict what will happen to Afghanistan after British, US and other Nato troops end their frontline role there at the end of 2014, and stressed that only the Afghan people can find a lasting solution to the country's violence, corruption and lawlessness.
Philip Hammond's remarks came as the Commons cross-party defence committee warned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war within a few years and suggests that the British government's attitude towards the country is one of simply hoping for the best.
Hammond told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the UK had intervened in Afghanistan to protect its national security and had never intended to stay for a protracted period.
"Afghanistan is an incredibly complex society; a multiethnic society that was very fragmented before we started," he said. "Our ability to influence outcomes is very limited."
He defended the long deployment of British troops, saying their actions had brought about "the removal of international terrorists able to use Afghanistan as a base" and helped train the Afghan national security force, which "can and, increasingly, is holding the ring" on the insurgents.
"The sacrifices have been huge and we will never forget the sacrifice that has been made to deliver the security of Britain and our allies," he said.
"It was always clear that this could not be an open-ended intervention. We had to create the conditions where we would eventually be able to withdraw and allow the Afghans to maintain their own security so our security was protected.
"While the situation is not perfect we have come a long way to being able to deliver that objective."
The defence secretary also said it was clear that "the long-run solution to security has to be an Afghan solution; it cannot be imposed from outside". History, he said, had shown the futility of such attempts.
Asked about the committee's warnings, Hammond said it had been offered a range of views as to Afghanistan's future, which ran from the overly optimistic to the possibility of civil war.
"I completely accept nobody can say with certainty what the future for Afghanistan will be, but what I can say is that the future of Afghanistan will have to be determined by the Afghan people," he said.
Former British ambassadors to Afghanistan told the Commons committee that Nato's understanding of the Taliban was limited, that "corruption and abuse of power was intrinsic in Afghan society" and that the country's economy depended heavily on the drugs trade.
The MPs warned that the start of an Afghan-led peace settlement with the Taliban was vital to ensure the country's stability and security after the withdrawal of British troops next year. But they added that coalition forces' lack of progress in reducing violence in the country "does not augur well for improving security and economic development on a long-term sustainable basis".
The committee also criticised the government for failing to combat the perception that the pullout amounted to "withdrawal through fatigue".
Publication of the report came a day after the government announced that the last group of Royal Marines to be deployed in Afghanistan was returning to the UK. Troops from 40 Commando Royal Marines were based in the Nahr-e Saraj district. The 7,200-strong Royal Marine Corps has deployed commandos to Afghanistan 12 times since 2001, and troops from 40 Commando were the first British soldiers in the country that year, securing Bagram airfield and patrolling the streets of Kabul.
The defence committee said the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office took an optimistic view of the future yet gave very little information about how they planned to be involved in Afghanistan beyond 2014,
James Arbuthnot, chairman of the committee, said: "We have received starkly opposing predictions for Afghanistan's outlook, post-2014. The fact is that the UK has limited influence."
The report concludes: "We hope that Afghanistan can become a secure, prosperous and flourishing country but we are concerned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war within a few years."
Some ground may have to be given in negotiations with the Taliban but the committee stressed the importance of open and free elections and said the rule of law and human rights should not be compromised in any settlement. The committee said that all Afghan people, including women, must be involved in the peace process. If women were excluded as a consequence of negotiating with the Taliban, the progress made could easily unravel, the MPs warned.
"If the UK is to continue to provide financial and training support to Afghanistan post-2014, there needs to be a clear articulation of the areas the UK will fund and support and the outcomes it expects to achieve," the report said.
"It must be clear to those engaged in the peace negotiations that, in providing support in the future, the UK will be paying close attention to the progress on the rights of women, children and minority groups, the tackling of corruption and the furtherance of the rule of law".
The report also claimed that not enough was being done to train and equip Afghan security forces properly. Concerns remained over the capability of Afghan forces to fill the gap left by withdrawing coalition forces, particularly in terms of helicopters, close air support and logistics, the committee said.
"We are concerned that the ANSF [Afghan national security forces totalling about 350,000] will reduce its strength by over a third on current plans based on the expectation that the insurgency will have been diminished," the report adds. "The government should urge the international community to develop a contingency plan in case the level of the insurgency does not diminish".
Karzai discuss US-Afghanistan security pact with Afghan senators
By SADAF SHINWARI - 11 Apr 2013, 11:56 am Khaama Press
Afghan president Hamid Karzai said that Afghanistan is holding precise talks with the United States of America over a long term security pact between the two nations.
A spokesperson for the president Hamid Karzai Adela Raz said president Karzai met with the Afghan senators on Tuesday to discuss security pact between Kabul and Washington.
Raz said, “Important national issues were discussed during the meeting including security pact between Kabul and Washinton. It was recalled during the meeting that the Afghan government was following talks over security agreement very precisely and the pact will signed with Washington only if the national interst of Afghanistan is completely considered.”
Karzai once again emphasized on the agreement of the two nations regarding the security pact however he said that the national interest of Afghanistan must be consolidated before signing the agreement.
In the meantime Adela Raz said that president Karzai also insisted that Afghanistan will sign security agreement with United States only if Washington remains committed to support Afghanistan without any conditions.
Karzai said, “United States will have a military presence in Afghanistan only if the conditions of Afghanistan is consolidated in the security pact and
Washinton remains committed to support Afghanistan without any conditions.”
In regards to Afghan peace process Karzai said that the Afghan government remains committed to continue peace talks with the militant groups,
apparently the government has not achieved any significant results so far.
Meanwhile head of the Afghan senate and Afghan senators urged for the reform of Afghan elections and insisted that specialist expertise must be hired in election commission of Afghanistan.
Presidential election is due to be organized during April next year amid preparations by NATO troops to withdraw from the country.
The senators also urged that necessary steps should be taken to guarantee the security of election.
Pentagon underestimates Afghanistan by $10 billion, holds war request until May
Foreign Policy By Kevin Baron April 10, 2013
The Defense Department underestimated the cost of the Afghanistan war in fiscal 2013 by as much as $10 billion, the Pentagon’s top budget official said on Wednesday, and lacking clarity on the number of troops that will remain in the country next year, DOD will not submit a fiscal 2014 budget request for the war to Congress until next month.
The budget blunder, combined with sequestration’s mandated cuts and the fact that Congress has not passed an FY13 appropriations bill, posed yet another challenge for defense officials crafting the FY14 Defense Department spending request, which was released on Wednesday.
“I can’t believe how many things we’re trying to do right now,” Comptroller Robert Hale said.
Pentagon documents show DOD requesting $88 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, formerly known as the Global War on Terror. But the documents caution the request is “a placeholder pending submission of a final OCO request.”
“Here there's a simple story about fiscal '14 OCO budget: We don't have one yet,” Hale said.
Pentagon officials have pledged to protect the war from sequestration cuts, which means DOD must cut more money from the military’s so-called “base” budget.
Hale said that for fiscal 2013, which has been funded through a series of continuing resolutions passed since September, the Pentagon estimates coming up short in Afghanistan by $7 to 10 billion, with half of the fiscal year already passed. So DOD will pull funds from the base budget to make up that loss in the final six months to go, he said. With sequestration, the total shorfall to DOD’s active base FY13 operating budget adds up to between $22 billion and $25 billion.
“We are spending more in our OCO budget than we anticipated two years ago when it was put together, both through the higher operating tempo and higher transportation costs,” Hale said at the Pentagon.
Looking ahead, President Obama requested $526.6 billion for all FY14 defense spending, a 0.9 percent drop from DOD's current estimates. But those are only a rough estimates.
The budget request for the Afghanistan war has always been a bit of a guessing game based on the number of U.S. troops deployed during each fiscal year. This is the second year in a row that the Defense Department has come up short.
Last summer, DOD asked Congress for permission to shift $8 billion in FY12 funds to cover unexpected costs across the department, including $770 million to pay for higher-than-anticipated gas prices related to the war. DOD said costs skyrocketed also because Pakistan closed the border into Afghanistan for NATO war supplies, forcing the military to execute a costly end-around supply route through the Northern Distribution Network.
The new request assumes “for pricing only” that the 34,000 troops President Obama said he would withdraw from Afghanistan next year will not be pulled until the end of fiscal 2014, a year from September.
Balkh Governor Says US, Nato Failed in Afghanistan
TOLOnews By Karim Amini 09 April 2013
Atta Mohammad Noor, Balkh provincial governor and possible presidential candidate, on Wednesday said the US and Nato have failed in their mission in Afghanistan, although he conceded that some positives have come as a result of the foreign presence.
In an interview with TOLOnews, Noor said the US-led mission was full of mistakes and so had not reached its desired goals.
"The Nato mission has had a lot of mistakes such as the killing of civilians which is still going on. And compared to the money which has flowed here, not much work has happened. The goal was to bring security and eliminate violence, but this they didn't reach," he said.
Noor criticised the peace process adopted by the Afghan government, saying he did not expect it to yield any results.
"The [High] Peace Council is wasting its time and spending its money. What is the response? Suicide and the killing of our elders and leaders," he said. "Unless Pakistan cooperates honestly, there will not be any lasting peace nor will there ever be a sovereign government in Afghanistan."
Noor said the plan to open an office for the Taliban in Qatar was only done because the Americans first plan had failed.
"The US couldn't provide security and decrease violence and so now, in a second attempt, it is turning to peace talks in order to maintain its hegemony in the region and the world. The US conducted the Qatar process to turn the Taliban into a political movement and bring them onto the scene," he said.
The Taliban has repeatedly refused to enter into peace talks with the Afghan government, but were meeting with the US until the start of 2012.
Noor is not entirely critical of the outcomes of the foreign military presence, pointing out that some good has come as a result.
"But here were positive points too, like the fledgling democracy in the country, in education with most students going to school, and lots of other good things," he said.
"With all this, it must be said that Afghanistan needed the international community, and still needs it."
However, he is opposed to any ongoing military presence.
"I must say that I am against having US permanent bases in the country because we want to stand on our own feet and we should not rely on others," he said.
Uzbek fighters gain support in Afghan north
An al-Qaeda-linked group is increasing its appeal among youth in Takhar, where government dissatisfaction runs high.
AlJazeera By Bethany Matta 10 Apr 2013
Taloqan, Afghanistan - More than a decade ago, the people od the predominately Uzbek province of Takhar in the country's north fiercely resisted the Taliban's desire to impose Sharia on the region.
Indeed, in January 2001, Taloqan, the provincial capital, was the final major Afghan city to fall under Taliban control.
Months later, aerial bombardment by US and NATO forces rid the province of the Taliban, allowing security forces to turn their attention to heart of the insurgency - the Pashtun-dominated south and east.
But if international forces forgot about the Tajik and Uzbek-dominated north, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) - an ethnic Uzbek insurgent group with reported close links to al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency - did not.
"For the past three years, the IMU has become stronger in the north," said General Baba Jan, commander of the 303rd Pamir Police Zone.
As US forces withdraw, joint Afghan and coalition raids targeting the IMU are increasing. In the first three months of 2012, the number of operations targeting the IMU nationwide totalled six, half taking place in the country's northeast. In the January to March period this year, raids doubled, with all but one carried out in northern Afghanistan.
"IMU fighters are the main focus of our special forces operations. They are all over north-eastern Afghanistan," said General Zalmai Wesa, 209th ANA Corps commander in the north. "They train locals in IEDs, suicide attacks and other sophisticated attacks and are behind the assassination of a number of officials and tribal elders.
"They're like a virus, the more they spread, the more they spread the disease."
Striking shift
The growing popularity of the IMU among Uzbeks in the north suggests a striking shift in ideology among a population that previously welcomed the overthrow of the Taliban.
"What's ironic is after ten years, the kids whose fathers and elder brothers fought bravely to keep the Taliban out of Takhar, are now joining the Taliban and IMU," said an Afghan official speaking on condition of anonymity.
This raises questions about the ability of Afghan forces to contain the highly effective, adaptive and growing IMU in a strategic part of the country: the Tajik border on one end, a major narco-hub and gateway into Central Asia, and Kunduz on the other, a key northern province that houses some of the country's largest al-Qaeda and Taliban havens and training centres.
IMU fighters have a shared history with the Taliban that dates back to the early 1990s, when the group's founders, Tohir Yuldeshev and Juma Namangani, sought refuge in the country after fleeing Uzbek president Islam Karimov's crackdown on armed groups.
The 2001 US-led invasion killed Namangani and drove Yuldeshev into Pakistan's North Waziristan. Tensions flared when Wazir residents accused the Uzbek fighters of secretly killing tribal elders. Taliban leader Mullah Omar relocated the group to South Waziristan under the control of Baitullah Mehsud, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader. It was, however, a move not without restrictions imposed. Trust between the groups diminished after rumours began to swirl that Yuldeshev had close relations with Pakistan's ISI. Amid tensions and increasing drone attacks, killing both Yuldeshev and his predecessor Usman Adil, many fighters headed back to Afghanistan.
Takhar, according to 2009 provincial reports, was in bad shape. The province had one of the highest illiteracy rates in the north, with poverty rates dropping below the national average. Uzbeks were growing frustrated over a lack of representation in the government and inadequate schooling - the majority still relying on Pakistan's free religious education.
Budding insurgency
Around early 2009, the first signs of a budding insurgency emerged in mosques, said residents. Clerics began preaching an ultra-conservative strain of Islam.
"No one took the group seriously, because the Taliban are usually active in Pashtun areas," said the Afghan official.
"Suddenly, they took up arms. People were like: 'Wow, there's an insurgency emerging.'
"When you are young and uneducated, or educated but no-one in the government gives you a job - and then, on the other hand, you see people who look like you, speaking your language and campaigning against the government, of course you're attracted."
Most here blame both the international community and the Afghan government.
"This is the weakness of the government that al-Qaeda came here. The international community and Afghan government promised to help us build roads and schools, but everything goes to other provinces," said Haji Jamshid, a provincial council representative. "Not even two percent of President Karzai's administration is Uzbek. How can he say we're unified?"
Nearly all official posts, police, intelligence and civil servant positions in the area are held by Tajiks, said observers.
And there is another problem. People here still rely on Pakistan's madrassas, or religious schools, to educate their youth.
Six months ago, Uzbek farmer Dilshod* received a phone call. His cousin, freshly returned from studying in a Pakistani madrassa, had been arrested outside a mosque in downtown Taloqan, holding a jug of explosives - minutes, possibly seconds, before detonating.
"My uncle sent him to study in Pakistan so he could teach children and preach in a mosque," said Dilshod. "He didn't say to become a suicide attacker."
Dilshod's cousin, now 28, is serving out his sentence in Kabul's Pol-e-Charkhi prison.
"My uncle died a month ago because he was so sad about his son's situation," he told Al Jazeera
Reversing the insurgency
In an attempt to reverse the sprawling insurgency, military operations began in the autumn of 2011. "With the help of special forces, we cleaned three districts of insurgents," said the provincial council's Jamshid. "After, the most dangerous Taliban and al-Qaeda came to our area."
Also in 2011, General Daud Daud, commander of the 303rd Pamir Zone of the north, and Abdul Mutalib Bek, a powerful leader, were both killed in attacks bearing the hallmarks of the IMU: suicide bombers targeting officials at large, usually outdoor, gatherings.
The International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, declined to comment on questions regarding the IMU, saying only: "At the tactical level, the insurgency [comprising the IMU, Taliban and al-Qaeda] is considered a single entity."
The response seemingly reflects the changing face of an adaptive insurgency in the north. One in which a growing number of commanders and fighters have ties to a variety of armed groups - many operating in one area for one group, while simultaneously coordinating attacks for another.
"Today, the IMU doesn't have a front," said Mullah Omar, a district governor. "They have presence in smaller groups to avoid special forces."
Uktam*, the son of an Uzbek farmer, is also a university student. Clean-shaven and dressed in a freshly pressed salwar kameez, he is part of this dispersed front Governor Omar speaks of.
"About six or seven of us meet once a week. Sometimes top commanders attend, sometimes the meetings are held for the local community. All the meetings are different; we change times, though it's usually late at night, and places. It's very secretive because NDS [the National Security Directorate, Afghanistan's intelligence agency] is constantly searching for us."
Uktam, however, is not a fighter. He prefers "talking logically" with people, similar to campaigning, he said - telling people why non-Muslims are in the country.
Takhar and Kunduz residents told Al Jazeera that the increase in military operations targeting the group had brought relative stability to the north. Yet last month in Kunduz, a suicide bomber targeting officials at a buzkashi match killed eight. The attack, said officials and experts, was IMU-linked.
"The IMU have started spreading their message," said journalist Najibullah Mutahari. "They say: 'We will take over the government when the foreign forces leave in 2014.'"
*Some names in this report have been changed to protect individuals' identity
Success in Taliban stronghold might not be lasting
Stars and Stripes By Josh Smith April 10, 2013
FOB ZANGABAD, Afghanistan - The sniper and mortar teams were just finding their positions when automatic gunfire rang out from a distant tree line. The staccato sounds echoed over rows of mud walls as the soldiers scrambled first for cover, then to spot the source of the shots. Squinting out over the rural Afghan landscape, nobody saw anything, and no more shots were heard.
After the initial excitement, the soldiers, members of Company C, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, went back to setting up their positions perched on the sagging mud roof of an Afghan police fort in the heart of Panjwai District while the rest of their platoon patrolled through a nearby village.
The morning’s gunfire were the only shots heard that day, and even that was unusual.
“Isn’t it crazy how different this place is now?” asked Spc. Damian Trice, as he looked through the scope on his sniper rifle. Just a few months earlier, these soldiers say, they could barely make a move in this area without drawing fire.
The area has long been a fertile recruiting ground for the Taliban, prompting U.S. forces to label Panjwai and other nearby districts the “Birthplace of the Taliban.”
Whether the new relative quiet is indicative of diminished Taliban influence or a strategic move to wait out the departure of foreign troops is a question being asked across Afghanistan as troops prepare to leave security in the hands of local security officials.
In between their routine duties, the men urinate in bottles and politely decline the marijuana joints offered them by Afghan police. One sniper trades a ballpoint pen for a pan of fried potatoes, fresh green onions and flat bread, which are then shared by the soldiers and the police. As the last spring fighting season looms for most foreign troops, U.S. officials are looking to local forces like these police to control the insurgency.
Ominous radio intercepts indicate that Taliban still observe the troops’ positions, but no one comes out to fight. That leaves the soldiers on the rooftop post a little disappointed, but their leaders are hoping that the quiet days indicate their forces have created a level of stability in Panjwai District that will outlast NATO’s dwindling mission. 'Quite a slugfest'
Panjwai is infamous for the the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers outside Camp Belambay, just over a mile from FOB Zangabad, in March 2012. An American soldier, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, has been charged in those killings and is facing a court martial. It’s a memory that Army officers are reluctant to revisit, and it’s only complicated efforts to reach out to Panjwai’s residents.
“It’s been quite a slugfest in Panjwai district since 2006 it’s certainly been the focus of our attention for the last couple of years,” Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of Regional Command South, told reporters last month.
In recent weeks, Abrams and his commanders on the ground have been touting eroding support for the Taliban among local residents as indicated by an “uprising” earlier this year.
“The Taliban, frankly, have been kicked out of all but about four villages left in southwestern and western Panjwai district,” Abrams said. “And I suspect the rest of those villages will fall here in short order.”
Army officers are attributing the Panjwai backlash to a new, more energized local police commander, as well as an incident when young Taliban members humiliated a village elder.
“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Abrams said. “Within 15 minutes, they were on the phone to the district chief of police. And that started a series of ... operations that got us to where we are today.”
Afghan and coalition forces have detained or killed more than three dozen suspected insurgents in Panjwai since the beginning of the year, according to NATO reports. And late last month, they killed the district’s ranking Taliban official.
While the “uprising” is significant for happening in the Taliban’s heartland, the true extent of the anti-Taliban backlash remains to be seen, and similar events have been trumpeted before only to fail to dent a resilient insurgency, said the American Enterprise Institute’s Ahmad Majidyar.
“While the Afghan government and coalition should welcome and support these uprisings, it’s premature to assume that the local uprisings would have a decisive role in defeating the Taliban and ensuring peace and stability,” he said. Local support, local shortcomings
Even in areas where things have calmed down, U.S. troops still face pushback. During a routine patrol into a market just outside the walls of Combat Outpost Talukan near Zangabad, soldiers with Company B dealt with irate villagers who politely but insistently complained about the troops’ efforts to search vehicles and question local men.
The villagers were joined in their dissent by Hbib Gul of the Afghan Civil Order Police, who leads a small contingent of police from a tiny, ramshackle checkpoint.
Voicing concerns on behalf of some of the villagers, Gul also aimed his criticism at Afghan national leaders, who he said have practically abandoned them. “We are not getting help from [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai,” he said.
His criticism highlights one of the more intractable problems faced by coalition forces as they prepare to leave. Local Afghans may be turning away from the Taliban, but that doesn’t mean they will automatically support the national government. As NATO troops pull out, it will be up to the Afghan government and local forces to earn the backing of their countrymen.
In February, President Barack Obama announced that half of the 68,000 American troops still in Afghanistan will leave by February 2014. The rest of the combat forces will be withdrawn after the 2014 Afghan National Elections.
Analysts say it is almost impossible to truly determine the security situation based on current unclassified reporting, and Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that the Taliban and other groups have few incentives to meet NATO forces head-on at this point.
“Rather than attempt to win tactical battles, these groups can wait out the departure of most ISAF forces, concentrate on building influence, carry out politically high profile attacks designed to accelerate ISAF’s withdrawal, intimidate Afghans, and focus on softer Afghan government and ANSF targets,” he wrote in a draft report released in March.
Long-term success, Cordesman wrote, will come not from pitched battles with the Taliban, but from more nuanced political successes like winning over local populations.
Col. Michael Getchell, who oversees the forces in Panjwai as commander of 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, said he’s convinced that a “certain amount” of violence is because of the U.S. presence.
At a recent weekly meeting with Panjwai District Governor Haji Faisel Mohammad, Getchell was told about efforts to boost involvement with the national government while there is continued American support in the district. “We need to take this fight to the Taliban, but we need your cooperation,” Mohammad told Getchell.
Mohammad said it is important to reach out to those Afghans who may be supporting or fighting for the Taliban out of a need for food and money, or out of a hatred for Americans or the national government, rather than because of a radical ideology.
Battalion commander Lt. Col. James Dooghan, based out of FOB Zangabad, attributes much of the progress in his corner of Panjwai to expanded Afghan police presence. Still, he admits that local police influence often only extends a few hundred yards from their checkpoints.
Local police have been involved in several recent extrajudicial killings, Dooghan said, and the long-term challenge will be to professionalize the security forces. It’s because of these well-known shortcomings that officials were encouraged when villagers turned to the police when they became angry with the Taliban.
Getchell also acknowledged that “there are a few Tony Sopranos” among the local Afghan leaders, but he said success in Panjwai will depend on local leaders who know the area, have deep connections, and have a lasting interest in its security. “I think we tend not to give the Afghans their due,” Getchell said. “They’re running a marathon while we’re sprinting.”
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Afghanistan, the drug addiction capital
BBC News By Tahir Qadiry 10 April 2013
Kabul - Afghanistan produces 90% of all opiate drugs in the world, but until recently was not a major consumer. Now, out of a population of 35 million, more than a million are addicted to drugs - proportionately the highest figure in the world.
Right in the heart of Kabul, on the stony banks of the Kabul River, drug addicts gather to buy and use heroin. It's a place of misery and degradation.
In broad daylight about a dozen men and teenage boys sit huddled in pairs smoking and injecting. Among them are some educated people - a doctor, an engineer and an interpreter.
Tariq Sulaiman, from Najat, a local addiction charity, comes here regularly to try to persuade addicts to get treatment.
"We are already losing our children to suicide attacks, rocket and bomb attacks," he says. "But now addiction is another sort of terrorism which is killing our countrymen."
At the age of 18, Jawid, originally from Badakhshan in the north of Afghanistan, has already been hooked on heroin for 10 years. His uncle introduced him to drugs when he was a small child, to make him work harder on the land.
"I hate my life. Everyone hates me. I should have been at school at this age, but I am a junkie," he says.
His father is dead. His disabled mother worries about her son constantly. All she wants from life is for him to get clean, but she begs on the streets to pay for his daily dose to prevent him stealing.
"I always tell Jawid if I die, he will end up sleeping under the bridge with other addicts," she says.
This is the fate of the most hardcore addicts, whose fires can be seen at night. Police regularly beat and disperse them, and sometimes throw them in the river.
The reasons why so many Afghans are turning to drugs are complex. It's clear that decades of violence have played a part.
Many of those who fled during the violence of the last 30 years took refuge in Iran and Pakistan, where addiction rates have long been high. They're now returning and bringing their drug problems with them, officials say.
Unemployment - which currently stands at nearly 40% - is also taking its toll.
"If I had a job, I wouldn't be here," says Farooq, one of the addicts by the river, who has a degree in medicine and once worked as a hospital manager.
He says he takes drugs "to be calm and to relax" - but that he would prefer to be dead than a junkie, as he now is.
Another factor is the increasing availability of heroin, which over the last decade has begun to be refined from raw opium in Afghanistan itself.
To buy heroin in Kabul is "as easy as buying yourself something to eat", addicts say. One gram costs about $6 (£3.91), and it's available in every corner of the city.
"Traditionally, what we tend to argue is that the demand causes the supply," says Jean-Luc Lemahieu, regional representative of the UN drugs agency UNODC - one of the few organisations working on drug eradication in Afghanistan.
"What we have forgotten, though, is that the sheer appearance of that product on the market causes a local demand."
When foreign troops arrived in Afghanistan in 2001, one of their goals was to stem drug production. Instead, they have concentrated on fighting insurgents, and have often been accused of turning a blind eye to the poppy fields.
Opium has been around in Afghanistan for centuries, used as a kind of medical cure-all.
In a hospital in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, I met an Afghan woman, Fatima, who had taken opium while suffering from bleeding after childbirth, because it was cheaper than going to a doctor.
Then she gave it to her baby to stop her coughing during breastfeeding - and now both are addicted.
Women and children account for 40% of the country's drug addicts.
While Fatima and her baby are getting treatment at a public hospital, few Afghan addicts get any help at all.
All told, the health ministry runs 95 addiction treatment centres around the country, with enough bed space for 2,305 people.
Its entire budget for treating the country's one million drug addicts is just $2.2m (£1.4m) per annum - a little over $2 per addict, per year.
Jawid alone consumes heroin worth about three times that every day.
While I was in Kabul, he got a place at the centre run by Tariq Sulaiman's Najat charity. The treatment consists of going "cold turkey" for 72 hours.
The participants began by getting their heads shaved. After one day, Jawid was in pain, but he could deal with it. Then, on the second night, he started shouting and crying and banging his head against a wall.
When I met him on the street, he denied that he was back on heroin, but his glazed eyes and rambling speech told a different story.
As he disappeared into the snowy twilight, his chances of kicking his habit seemed bleak.
And as Afghanistan faces so many problems on so many fronts, its chances of winning the wider war on drugs seem equally uncertain.
Karzai Promises Obama to Keep Dangerous Detainees in Prison
TOLOnews.com 10 April 2013
President Hamid Karzai spoke by telephone with his US counterpart Barack Obama on Tuesday, whereby Karzai pledged to not release dangerous detainees from Afghan prisons, the White House said in a statement.
More than a year after signing an agreement to transfer Bagram prison from US to Afghan control - and two weeks after the final handover took place - US concerns about the release of some detainees remain high.
According to the White House statement, the two leaders agreed that officials from the US and Afghanistan would strive to "keep dangerous detainees off the battlefield, and work in partnership at the facility, consistent with Afghan sovereignty".
More than 1,376 detainees have been released from the prison since September when the Afghan government took control of most of the facility, the attorney general's office told TOLOnews on Sunday.
Karzai and Obama also discussed the upcoming presidential and provincial polls during which Karzai affirmed his support for fair and inclusive elections, the White House said.
The two leaders also discussed progress in transferring responsibility for security to Afghan forces from the US-led coalition, with both "looking forward" to Afghan security forces taking the lead role, the statement said.
Obama welcomed Karzai's meetings last month with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, to advance peace talks with the Taliban, the statement added.
Their conversation comes a month after the tense visit of the US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel to Kabul when Karzai suggested the US were meeting with the Taliban secretly.
US Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to Kabul two weeks later and soothed the strained relationship with messages of understanding for Karzai and speeches that pledged the two countries will come to an agreement on some US forces remaining after 2014.
Obama has pledged to bring most US troops home from Afghanistan by the end of next year. Around 10,000 US troops may remain although this is still to be confirmed via an agreement between the two nations.
Nadery Counted Among World Leaders for Human Rights
TOLOnews.com 10 April 2013
Afghanistan's former human rights commissioner Nader Nadery has been profiled alongside the world's leaders in human rights in a book titled "Justice" as compiled by photographer Marianne Cook.
Nadery, currently the chief of the Fair and Free Election Foundation of Afghanistan, is counted among internationally renowned leaders and activists profiled in the book, including Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition politician, and Nobel Peace Prize recipients Kofi Anan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Jimmy Carter former president of the US, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African anti-apartheid activist.
"I am honored to be in the company of these great individuals who have made such contributions to make our world a better place. Some of whom, like Aung San Suu Kyi and Desmond Tutu, have been my heroes," Nadery told TOLOnews via an email from New York where he is for the book launch.
Cook, who both photographed and wrote the profiles of the personalities in "Justice", describes her interest in Nadery's personal story.
"What I want to know is why he is the only one of his nine siblings who has not left Afghanistan. Why does he choose to remain at risk with his wife and young child? His brothers and sisters grew up with the same parents in the same period of history in the same country—what is it that makes him stay and fight?" She states in a quote from the book.
Nadery was Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commissioner for five years until December 2011.
Distribution of Electronic IDs to Begin Next Week
TOLOnews By Azem Arash 10 April 2013
The distribution of electronic national identification cards will begin by Thursday next week, the Ministry of Interior said Wednesday, with as many as 18 million Afghans expected to be issued the new cards ahead of the upcoming presidential and provincial elections.
"The distribution of the electronic ID cards will begin by next Thursday (April 18). Our people are confident that we will distribute 12 to 18 million electronic ID cards within one year," said Mohammad Masoom Farhad, Interior Ministry's general director for distribution of the electronic ID cards.
Many political parties and civil society organisations have hailed the electronic ID cards as a way to reduce fraud in the elections, but had sought it for each voting citizen – a plan quashed by the government as impossible to achieve by the April elections next year.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MOCIT), all of the equipment and materials for printing, distributing, and identifying the citizens are ready and available for the task ahead.
"All the equipment needed for the distribution of the electronic ID cards have been provided by the ministry to the joint committee of the distribution of ID cards," said Bariyalai Hussam, deputy minister MOCIT.
Some have objected that the new cards do not indicate the tribe of the card holder, claiming that the current version – which only states nationality as "Afghan" – is just as divisive because a certain pronunciation of the word is understood to only refer to the Pashtun tribe.
"My family and I might not accept the electronic ID card if the tribe and nationality are not mentioned in it," said Atta Mohammad Noor, Balkh provincial governor.
In order to meet the quota for the new cards, the machines will make produce up to 80,000 cards a day with each machine able to print 400 an hour, the interior ministry said.
Figures suggest that distribution of the electronic national ID cards – aimed to eventually reach all 30 million citizens – will cost about US$120 million.
MPs Seek Ministries to Disclose Corrupt Lawmakers
TOLOnews By Rafi Sediqi 10 April 2013
Lawmakers on Wednesday called on the government ministries to reveal the names of the members of parliament who accepted money for votes during last week's attempt to impeach ministers.
During Wednesday's parliamentary session, MPs repeated the accusations which began last week that some lawmakers sought money from the ministers who were summoned for questioning to parliament in return for their vote of confidence.
They called on the government ministers to reveal the names of these MPs in order for them to be introduced to the judicial organs.
"The ministers should makes reports to reveal which lawmakers went [to the ministries], how many times they went to the ministries, and for what purpose in order to find the names of those lawmakers who are going for personal purposes," Kabul MP Baktash Siyawash said.
"Not all lawmakers should be blamed for taking money [as bribes]. It should be clear which lawmakers got money and have made the house unpopular," MP Ghulam Hussain Nasiri said.
"The corrupt lawmakers should be identified and introduced to the attorney general," MP Ramazan Bashardost said.
Eleven government ministers were summoned to parliament last week to explain their ministries apparent failure to spend more than 50 percent of their allocated development budget in solar year 1390 (March 2011-March 2012).
The ministers did answer the summons, but the plan to dismiss most of them was stopped in some cases before the vote was even taken amid claims that lawmakers had taken money in order to guarantee their vote of confidence for the ministers when the time came.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com