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The Ghosts of Afghanistan’s Past
New York Times By WILLIAM DALRYMPLE Opinion April 13, 2013
ON March 10, Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, shocked Western leaders by declaring that recent attacks proved that the Taliban “are at the service of America.” The implication was clear: terrorists were colluding with the United States to sow chaos before America’s planned withdrawal in 2014. American and European leaders, mindful of the blood and treasure they’ve expended to defend Mr. Karzai’s government, were baffled and offended.
But to students of Afghan history, Mr. Karzai’s motivation for publicly spurning foreign powers was quite obvious. A Taliban news release on March 18, which received little notice in the Western press, declared: “Everyone knows how Karzai was brought to Kabul and how he was seated on the defenseless throne of Shah Shuja,” referring to the exiled Afghan ruler restored to the throne by the British in 1839. “So it is not astonishing that the American soldiers are making fun of him and slapping him on the face because it is the philosophy of invaders that they scorn their stooge at the end ... and in this way punish him for his slavery!”
The Taliban inadvertently put their finger on a key factor in understanding Mr. Karzai’s psychology. After all, as an elder of the Popalzai tribe, Mr. Karzai is the direct tribal descendant of Shah Shuja ul-Mulk, Britain’s handpicked ruler during the first Western attempt at regime change in Afghanistan in the mid-19th century.
And although few in the West are aware of it, as the United States prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan, history is repeating itself. We may have forgotten the details of the colonial history that did so much to mold Afghans’ hatred of foreign rule, but the Afghans have not.
Today, Shah Shuja is widely reviled in Afghanistan as a puppet of the West. The man who defeated the British in 1842, Wazir Akbar Khan, and his father, Dost Mohammed, are widely regarded as national heroes. Mr. Karzai has lived with that knowledge all his life, making him a difficult ally — always keen to stress the differences between himself and his backers, making him appear to be continually biting the hand that feeds him.
In 2001, top Taliban officials asked their young fighters, “Do you want to be remembered as a son of Shah Shuja or as a son of Dost Mohammed?” As he rose to power, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar deliberately modeled himself on Dost Mohammed, and, as he did, removed the Holy Cloak of the Prophet Muhammad from its shrine in Kandahar and wrapped himself in it to declare jihad, a deliberate historical re-enactment, the resonance of which all Afghans immediately understood.
The parallels between the current war and that of the 1840s are striking. The same tribal rivalries exist and the same battles are being fought in the same places under the guise of new flags, new ideologies and new political puppeteers. The same cities are being garrisoned by foreign troops speaking the same languages, and they are being attacked from the same hills and high passes.
Not only was Shah Shuja from the same Popalzai sub-tribe as Mr. Karzai, his principal opponents were Ghilzais, who today make up the bulk of the Taliban’s foot soldiers. Mullah Omar is a Ghilzai, as was Mohammad Shah Khan, the resistance fighter who supervised the slaughter of the British Army in 1841.
The same moral issues that are chewed over in editorial columns today were discussed in the correspondence of British officials during the First Afghan War. Should foreign troops try to “promote the interests of humanity” and champion social reform by banning traditions like the stoning of adulterous women? Should they try to reform blasphemy laws and introduce Western political ideas? Or should they just concentrate on ruling the country without rocking the boat?
As the great British spymaster Sir Claude Wade warned on the eve of the 1839 invasion, “There is nothing more to be dreaded or guarded against, I think, than the overweening confidence with which we are too often accustomed to regard the excellence of our own institutions, and the anxiety that we display to introduce them in new and untried soils.” In this early critique of democracy promotion, he concluded, “Such interference will always lead to acrimonious disputes, if not to a violent reaction.”
Just as Britain’s inability to cope with the Afghan uprising of 1841-2 stemmed from leadership failures and the breakdown of ties between the British envoy and Shah Shuja, the strained and uneasy relationship of NATO leaders with Mr. Karzai has been a crucial factor in America’s failures in the latest imbroglio.
Afghanistan is so poor that the occupation can’t be financed through natural resource wealth or taxation. Today, America is spending more than a $100 billion a year in Afghanistan: it costs more to keep Marine battalions in two districts of Helmand than America is providing to the entire nation of Egypt in military and development assistance. And then, as now, the decision to withdraw troops has turned on factors with little relevance to Afghanistan, namely the state of the occupier’s troubled economy and the vagaries of politics back home.
History never repeats itself exactly, and there are some important differences between what is taking place in Afghanistan today and what took place during the 1840s. There is no unifying figure at the center of the resistance, recognized by all Afghans as a symbol of legitimacy and justice: Mullah Omar is no Dost Mohammed or Wazir Akbar Khan, and the tribes have not united behind a single leader as they did in the 1840s.
Moreover, the goals of the conservative, defensive tribal uprising that brought colonial rule to an end were very different from those of today’s Taliban, who wish to reimpose an imported Wahhabi ideology on Afghanistan’s diverse religious cultures. And most important, Mr. Karzai has tried to establish a broad-based, democratic government, which, for all its many flaws and prodigious corruption, is still much more representative and popular than the regime of Shah Shuja ever was.
Mr. Karzai is keen to learn the lessons of his forebears’ failures. When my book came out in India in January, he got hold of a copy and read it. “Our so-called current allies behave to us just as the British did to Shah Shuja,” he told me. “They have squandered the opportunity given to them by the Afghan people.”
Mr. Karzai believes that Shah Shuja didn’t stress his independence enough, and he made clear that in his own last year in office he is going to act in such a way that he will never be remembered as anyone’s puppet.
William Dalrymple is the author, most recently, of “Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42.”
Afghanistan survivor turns lens on horrific injuries in Syrian conflict
After stepping on a Taliban landmine and losing three limbs, Giles Duley now documents an all-too-familar tale of suffering on the border of Jordan and Syria
The Guardian By Peter Beaumont 13 April 2013
Giles Duley, the award-winning photojournalist who escaped with his life but lost three limbs after stepping on a landmine in Afghanistan in 2011, recently returned to Kabul to document amputee victims of the war. Now he has turned his attention to Syrian war victims in Jordan, many of whom have suffered horrendous injuries during the conflict.
Duley came across 24-year-old Lubna during a visit to the Zaatari camp while documenting the work of Handicap International. He was struck by the plight of Lubna, who has been told she will not walk again.
He also photographed children who had lost legs, and a widowed mother of 10 who had lost a leg and is now living in a tent. Such victims of the Syrian conflict often face an agonising journey as they are carried in wheelchairs across the border to safety.
"Lubna was a student at Damascus University and was married," said Duley. "She had been travelling on a bus when it was attacked by the Syrian army. She was shot in the spine, and others on the bus were killed. It took three hours for her to be rescued, because snipers were shooting and killing people trying to approach the bus."
When Lubna did manage to reach hospital, medical staff were afraid to treat her, so she was smuggled across the border. Since arriving in Jordan she has been told she will not walk again. To compound her problems, her husband – a policeman – has divorced her after she told him that she would not return to Syria.
Others Duley encountered, both war victims and those with long-term disabilities, are facing similar problems. In Syria they had access to free healthcare, including prescriptions. But for the many war amputees displaced to Jordan – where the number of refugees is expected to reach one million later this year – the problems they face are complex.
While Handicap International is often able to help with wheelchairs, crutches and therapy, the rents charged in private homes have trebled in some cases, and those with disabilities have found themselves confined in rooms in flats that can be reached only by stairs. "Unlike the victims of war I saw in Afghanistan," said Duley, "these people are not in their home country. There are so many refugees that Jordan is struggling to cope."
Afghan president blames Taliban and US for airstrike that left 17 dead, including 12 children
Associated Press April 13, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Both Taliban insurgents and the U.S. military were to blame for an airstrike a week ago that killed 17 people, including a dozen children, during a fierce battle in eastern Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said Saturday.
Karzai made his comments after an Afghan investigation into the April 6 attack raised the civilian death toll from 11 to 17, including 12 children, four women and one innocent man. An American civilian adviser was also killed during the fighting.
The Afghan report says the U.S. strike occurred after the Afghan intelligence service came under attack by militants during an operation to arrest two insurgent commanders in the Shigal district of Kunar province. The area is a major infiltration route for insurgents from sanctuaries in northwestern Pakistan to Afghanistan.
The U.S.-led coalition has confirmed that it launched airstrikes in Kunar province that day but it has not confirmed civilian casualties, saying the investigation is ongoing.
Afghan forces came under fire with heavy and light weapons as they were about to leave the area. It was in that fighting that the American was killed, causing the Americans to call for air support to move the body from the area at the same time houses believed to be containing suspected insurgents were bombarded for hours from the air, according to the report.
It said most of the houses were made of wood and mud and collapsed under the shock of the airstrikes, causing the deaths.
The death of Afghan civilians caught in crossfire has been a major point of contention between international forces and the Afghan government. Earlier this year, Karzai banned his troops from requesting coalition airstrikes following another deadly airstrike in Kunar.
While he said that airstrikes on residential areas were unacceptable, he also strongly condemned insurgents for taking cover in civilian houses during the battle.
Karzai also ordered government officials to offer immediate help to the families who were harmed in the attack, the statement said, without elaborating.
The investigation was carried out by a government delegation sent from Kabul that worked with 75 tribal elders in the area.
Afghan forces have been increasingly taking the lead in combat operations as international forces move to complete their withdrawal by the end of 2014. But U.S. and other foreign troops still participate and provide air support as they try to clear areas of insurgents and prepare the Afghans to take control.
In other violence, Taliban militants fired rockets at the coalition-controlled section of the airport Saturday in Jalalabad, 125 kilometers (78 miles) east of Kabul, damaging a helicopter.
Coalition spokesman Maj. Adam Wojack confirmed in an email that the air base came under fire by rockets or mortar shells and said one civilian helicopter was damaged. No coalition aircraft were damaged and no casualties were reported, he added.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said militants fired three rockets at the air base “and reports show one American helicopter was destroyed and other damage was caused.”
News Analysis: Killing of civilians by U.S.-led NATO forces could jeopardize signing of security pact
Xinhua By Abdul Haleem April 13, 2013
KABUL - The killing of innocent civilians, including women and children, in recent attacks by U.S.-led coalition forces against the Taliban insurgents has generated anti- American sentiments among Afghans and could jeopardize the signing of the proposed bilateral security agreement (BSA) between Kabul and Washington.
In the coalition air strikes on April 6 in the eastern province of Kunar, 11 Afghan children were reported to have been killed and six women injured.
President Hamid Karzai has denounced the killing of civilians by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and warned that repeated killing of Afghan civilians could negatively impact Afghan-U.S. relations.
A statement released by the president's office said that Karzai has expressed to U.S. President Barak Obama his grave concerns over continued civilian casualties, particularly referring to the deaths of children in the recent ISAF military operation in Kunar province.
The statement said that Karzai told Obama on Tuesday that the continuation of such incidents could jeopardize the signing of a bilateral security pact that is aimed at allowing continued but limited U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after the pullout of all foreign troops from the country in 2014.
"There is no doubt that the killing of civilians by NATO troops would have an adverse impact on the people's perception of the intent of the foreign forces and has damaged the credibility of government in protecting its citizens in the protracted war on terror," Pariani Nazari, editor-in-chief of the Daily Mandegar, an Afghan newspaper, said.
Nazari also lashed at the Taliban for using civilians as shield in the fight against the NATO forces, saying it is the responsibility of NATO, the government, and the Taliban to protect the lives of innocent civilians, especially children and women.
Residents of Shalton area of Shigal district in Kunar province, where the 11 children were killed, brought the bodies of their dead to the district headquarters last week. They demanded that the government bring to justice those responsible for the carnage.
Civilian casualties by the ISAF has served as a source of tension between Kabul and Washington.
Karzai has said on several occasions that war against terrorists in Afghan villages is not a correct approach since, according to him, the actual sanctuaries of the Taliban and other armed insurgents are not inside but outside Afghanistan, referring to the border areas inside Pakistan. Pakistan, however, has denied claims that the Taliban is based on Pakistani soil.
In March, Karzai's chief spokesman Aimal Faizy described NATO- led forces' war on terror in Afghanistan as "aimless and unwise," adding that most Afghans believe that this war should be discontinued.
Over the past year, officials of Afghanistan and the United States have been trying to craft the BSA but apparently still have gotten nowhere.
Washington has insisted on seeking immunity from prosecution for its military personnel who will remain in Afghanistan after 2014, a condition that is a standard provision in all the status of forces agreement (SOFA) that the United States has with other countries.
Karzai has said that the grant of immunity from suit against American servicemen would have to be decided by the Loya Jirga or grand assembly composed of tribal chieftains, notables and functionaries.
Earlier in February, in the wake of complaints from local officials in Wardak province, Karzai ordered the pullout of U.S. special forces from the central province, a decision widely welcomed by the people there.
The risky craft of being an artist in Afghanistan
Afghan artists have enjoyed relative freedom in recent years. But with foreign troops packing up, can it last?
Global Post By Chris Sands April 13, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Despite being about 90 and walking with a severe hunch, Ustad Amruddin will not let anyone else carry his dilruba — a classical stringed instrument that is rarely played in Afghanistan these days.
Over the decades, he has performed concerts for monarchs, communists and warlords, been threatened with arrest and forced into exile. He has no idea what will come next when America and its allies leave.
"All the people are worried and I am too. We were relaxed and comfortable, life in our homes and work was going very well. But when these [foreign troops] withdraw I am not sure if they will still support us," he said.
While much of society here has continued to suffer since the 2001 US-led invasion, artists have undoubtedly benefited from an era that has witnessed significant gains in freedom of expression.
Many of them now wonder if that progress is sustainable. Even in Kabul there are signs of a gradual return to the more conservative and politically fraught past when everyone from painters to poets faced grave risks simply because of their work.
Amruddin first played the dilruba as a child and was soon hired as a musician by what was then Afghanistan's only national radio station. Unlike some of his colleagues, his career prospered during the Soviet occupation of 1979 to 1989 and the civil war that followed.
But after moving to the northern city of Sheberghan, his willingness to perform for just about anyone eventually proved his undoing. Music was banned across the country when the Taliban seized power and most of the instruments Amruddin owned were destroyed.
Worse was to come when the regime discovered he used to stage regular concerts for Abdul Rashid Dostum, a notorious warlord. Fearing arrest, Amruddin tried escaping to Pakistan with a dilruba he inherited from his father. The Taliban briefly stopped him on his journey and deliberately broke the instrument.
"I am [still] angry but because they can kill me now I have pushed my anger into a corner," he said.
Public concerts have become common again in recent years, though not without controversy. One show planned for the southern province of Ghazni was banned last month after local officials reportedly described music as "forbidden.”
Threats are also a fact of life for people who appear on Afghan Star, a TV talent contest for aspiring singers.
Mohammad Qasem Ramishgar, a judge on the program, admitted to being scared by some of the intimidating messages he receives over the phone and internet. But he told GlobalPost that mainstream "fundamentalism" is the real problem, rather than particular insurgent groups.
"In our nation we easily accept the word of a mullah compared to another man," he said.
Although a conservative interpretation of Islam is regarded as the primary challenge to the arts in Afghanistan today, that has not always been the case. Throughout the last three decades of turmoil, a cultural war has been waged alongside the fighting on the battlefield, with all sides in the various power struggles getting involved.
Art was only encouraged during the communist period if it toed the government line, otherwise it was also clamped down upon. Abdul Wasi Rahraw Omarzad, director of the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan, told GlobalPost that was when the current problems truly began.
"The visual arts movement was slow but it could develop. When the Russians came they stopped the movement and said 'make posters and social realism,’" he explained.
"From that time we lost freedom of expression or [the right] to be an individual artist."
Omarzad was jailed for a month in the 1980s for drawing anti-government cartoons. He describes the years since the US-led invasion as the best for the arts that he has known. He admits he has been receiving threats but is reluctant to talk about them in case it frightens others.
"We don't want to think negatively about the situation," he said. "We hope the future will be better."
Just as in previous eras, women with pubic profiles inevitably face the biggest difficulties. In many cases even relatives are unhappy with their fame.
In June 2012, Ghazala Javed, a hugely popular Pashtun singer, was shot dead in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar alongside her father. A second female Pashtun singer, Yasmin Gul, died in mysterious circumstances in Quetta, Pakistan, in 2010. A third, Ayman Udas, was killed in Peshawar in 2009 — allegedly by her brothers.
For Sonia Sarwari, an Afghan film and TV actress in her 20s, the risks are worth taking. She was assaulted in Kabul last year by a man who threw a kind of powder in her eyes in an apparent effort to blind her.
She did not even report the attack to the police because she was sure they could not help.
"We know if the Taliban come back they will kill all of us — the famous people who are on TV — first. Therefore we are worried; not only people working in cinema but all of Afghan society," she said.
Asked if she would carry on acting regardless, she added: "Naturally. I am an Afghan girl and I will not accept failure, so I will continue until my death."
Presidential Candidates Cannot be Rights Violators: AIHRC
TOLOnews By Karim Amini 13 April 2013
Human rights violators must not stand as candidates in the presidential election, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said Saturday, calling for those so charged to be tried in a court of law.
"Ahead of the upcoming election, there must be a solution to prevent those who have violated human rights and those who are war criminals to not participate in the election. We must not let them gain power," AIHRC executive director Mousa Mahmoodi told TOLOnews.
The Independent Election Commission encourages all residents of Afghanistan, including those who are part of armed opposition groups, to participate in the election - as long as they are not recognised as criminals by any court of law and no charges of human rights violations have been proven against them.
"The Independent Election Commission [IEC] wants all residents of Afghanistan to participate in the election. Even armed insurgents are allowed to participate if they put their guns down," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.
"I must say that at the present time there are people in the Afghanistan system that have human rights violation charges but because the court has not recognised them as criminals we are allowing them to participate in the upcoming election," he added.
Human rights groups have often said that many people both inside and outside the Afghan government are guilty of human rights violations and war crimes, but they have never been brought to a court of law because of their influence and power.
Minister: We have a moral responsibility for Afghan interpreters
The Copenhagen Post By Christian Wenande April 13, 2013
Denmark is looking to co-operate with the UK and the US when it comes to the safety of Afghan interpreters.
The defence minister, Nick Hækkerup (Socialdemokraterne), said this week that Denmark has an ethical and moral responsibility to the Afghan interpreters who were employed by the Danish military.
Hækkerup, who has previously ruled out offering asylum for the intepreters, said that he would intensify the dialogue with the US and Britain in order to ascertain how to secure the welfare of the 195 interpreters who have worked for the Danish forces in the Helmand province since 2008.
“We need to understand the fundamental reality that we have promised we will not forsake the interpreters that the Danish forces utilised while in Afghanistan,” Hækkerup told parliament this week.
Denmark has used interpreters contracted by the British defence’s ‘Labour Support Unit’ and the US firm ‘Mission Essential Personnel’, meaning that Denmark has no legal responsibility to the interpreters after allied forces pull out next year.
Hækkerup told parliament that British authorities have asked Denmark to help co-ordinate the handling of the interpreters and, while it is ultimately a parliamentary decision, it looks as though the Danes will co-operate.
“When we have enjoyed a fruitful cooperation as we have with the British forces, then it would be odd to reject their request to co-ordinate on the interpreters,” Hækkerup said.
Hækkerup came under fire last week after a report from the military’s Chief of Defence, Peter Bartam, contradicted Hækkerup's claim that no Afghan interpreters working with the Danes had been killed. The report revealed that five interpreters were killed and 12 others injured while working with Danish forces.
Yet, the governor of Helmand province, Mohammad Naim Kahn, who is visiting Denmark at the moment, contends that the interpreters are not very vulnerable to potential Taleban reprisal attacks.
“I’m not saying that there are no security problems, but the interpreters are not in much danger. It is primarily Afghan security forces and high-level officials that the Taleban target,” Kahn told Berlingske newspaper.
Kahn’s statement conflicts with what former Afghan interpreter, Fareed Ahmad Kabeer, told The Copenhagen Post recently. Reports from the UN and the Danish Immigration Service have also concluded that Afghans who co-operate with NATO forces are particularly under threat from the Taleban.
Furthermore, a report from the Danish Defence Command, Forsvarskommandoen, said that the defence is aware of several instances of interpreters being threatened.
Forsvarskommandoen has also noted that the British Labour Support Unit has in a number of cases recommended interpreters who have worked for them to change their place of residence due to a risk of reprisal.
At the moment, Britain and Sweden are among the countries deciding what to do with their Afghan interpreters, while Norway has given its interpreters the opportunity to apply for asylum at the Norwegian Embassy in Kabul. That initiative has led to 21 Afghan interpreters and their families being granted asylum in Norway in February alone.
The interpreter issue is coming to a head sooner than anticipated, largely thanks to Denmark’s decision to pull out its troops by August this year, a year ahead of the original plan.
Afghan Fruit Business Signs 11 International Contracts
TOLOnews By Zabiullah Jahanmal 13 April 2013
An Afghan businesswoman has made 11 agreements with international companies from Arab and European countries for Afghan fruit exports following her participation at a business fair in Dubai, officials at the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan (EPAA) said Saturday.
As many as 30 Afghans – including six women – were part of Gulfood, an annual food and hospitality show in the Middle East held late February.
Business owner Kamila Seddiqi successfully signed multiple partners to assist in her export business from Afghanistan across the world.
"I participated in Gulfood. From there, we have reached the international markets. We are currently exporting red raisins of Mazar-e-Sharif to Saudi Arabia," Seddiqi told TOLOnews.
Besides Saudi Arabia, Seddiqi said other buyers of Afghan fruit include Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, and Spain.
Pointing out some of the challenges faced by businesswoman across the country, the EPAA suggested they will play an important role for the Afghan economics if they are well supported.
"There are many problems facing businesswomen, such as bureaucracy within the governmental offices, insecurity, and an inappropriate culture, but despite these problems, there are businesswomen who support other women so that they do not stop what they do," said Najla Habibyar, head of the EPAA.
Herat Factories Struggling to Compete with Imports
TOLOnews By Haseeb Maudoodi 13 April 2013
Around 300 factories in Herat have recently gone bankrupt or are headed for bankruptcy of around 400 which used to exist, according to the Herat Industrial Union.
Lack of security, poor facilities, price dumping by neighbouring countries, and high customs tariffs on raw materials are some of the reasons cited for the struggling industrial sector, Herat Industrial Union chief Hamidullah Khadim told TOLOnews.
However, Herat police reject the claim of poor security afflicting business.
"Afghanistan's enemies do not want peace and development but with the relative security that we have, there is still investment opportunities and we are trying to gain more security for our residents and investors," Herat deputy police Gen. Abdulhamid Hamidi told TOLOnews.
The 100 factories still operating in Herat employ around 8,000 residents.
"It will be very difficult if the situation continues like this in Herat industrial city. The problem is not in one place but today Herat industrial city faces dozens of troubles and this can close the doors of these factories and leave the workers jobless," Khadim said.
Business owners are frustrated by the lack of attention given their importance for the economy, citing foreign competition as the main problem.
"I have one question... why are similar goods from foreigners being imported to Afghanistan?" investor Abdul Karim Shirzad told TOLOnews.
A senior employee of one investor company, Noorullhaq Faizi, said the lower prices from imports were of particular concern.
"Strong price dumping policies are continuing from neighboring countries and customs taxes for raw materials are more than taxes for finished materials. So now how is it possible to compete with foreign goods?"
The factories produce a variety of goods including foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, beverages and construction materials.
"The decrease of customs taxes is not a solution for this problem. Aside from the taxes, there must be other facilities for investors," Herat provincial customs chief Mohammad Tamim Kakar told TOLOnews.
The minister of commerce and industry Anwarul Haq Ahadi said that Afghanistan does act against price dumping.
"We have been against price dumping and still we are against price dumping. We are supporting our craftsmen against the region countries' price dumping policies," he said.
The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) said it has set up a network under the organisation to investigate opportunities and advise investors.
"We have established an organisation under AISA to investigate investment opportunities in Afghanistan and to share with investors so before starting any activity we will give them advice of which field of investment is profitable," AISA chief Wafiullah Aftakhar told TOLOnews.
www.afghanistanewscenter.com
New York Times By WILLIAM DALRYMPLE Opinion April 13, 2013
ON March 10, Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, shocked Western leaders by declaring that recent attacks proved that the Taliban “are at the service of America.” The implication was clear: terrorists were colluding with the United States to sow chaos before America’s planned withdrawal in 2014. American and European leaders, mindful of the blood and treasure they’ve expended to defend Mr. Karzai’s government, were baffled and offended.
But to students of Afghan history, Mr. Karzai’s motivation for publicly spurning foreign powers was quite obvious. A Taliban news release on March 18, which received little notice in the Western press, declared: “Everyone knows how Karzai was brought to Kabul and how he was seated on the defenseless throne of Shah Shuja,” referring to the exiled Afghan ruler restored to the throne by the British in 1839. “So it is not astonishing that the American soldiers are making fun of him and slapping him on the face because it is the philosophy of invaders that they scorn their stooge at the end ... and in this way punish him for his slavery!”
The Taliban inadvertently put their finger on a key factor in understanding Mr. Karzai’s psychology. After all, as an elder of the Popalzai tribe, Mr. Karzai is the direct tribal descendant of Shah Shuja ul-Mulk, Britain’s handpicked ruler during the first Western attempt at regime change in Afghanistan in the mid-19th century.
And although few in the West are aware of it, as the United States prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan, history is repeating itself. We may have forgotten the details of the colonial history that did so much to mold Afghans’ hatred of foreign rule, but the Afghans have not.
Today, Shah Shuja is widely reviled in Afghanistan as a puppet of the West. The man who defeated the British in 1842, Wazir Akbar Khan, and his father, Dost Mohammed, are widely regarded as national heroes. Mr. Karzai has lived with that knowledge all his life, making him a difficult ally — always keen to stress the differences between himself and his backers, making him appear to be continually biting the hand that feeds him.
In 2001, top Taliban officials asked their young fighters, “Do you want to be remembered as a son of Shah Shuja or as a son of Dost Mohammed?” As he rose to power, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar deliberately modeled himself on Dost Mohammed, and, as he did, removed the Holy Cloak of the Prophet Muhammad from its shrine in Kandahar and wrapped himself in it to declare jihad, a deliberate historical re-enactment, the resonance of which all Afghans immediately understood.
The parallels between the current war and that of the 1840s are striking. The same tribal rivalries exist and the same battles are being fought in the same places under the guise of new flags, new ideologies and new political puppeteers. The same cities are being garrisoned by foreign troops speaking the same languages, and they are being attacked from the same hills and high passes.
Not only was Shah Shuja from the same Popalzai sub-tribe as Mr. Karzai, his principal opponents were Ghilzais, who today make up the bulk of the Taliban’s foot soldiers. Mullah Omar is a Ghilzai, as was Mohammad Shah Khan, the resistance fighter who supervised the slaughter of the British Army in 1841.
The same moral issues that are chewed over in editorial columns today were discussed in the correspondence of British officials during the First Afghan War. Should foreign troops try to “promote the interests of humanity” and champion social reform by banning traditions like the stoning of adulterous women? Should they try to reform blasphemy laws and introduce Western political ideas? Or should they just concentrate on ruling the country without rocking the boat?
As the great British spymaster Sir Claude Wade warned on the eve of the 1839 invasion, “There is nothing more to be dreaded or guarded against, I think, than the overweening confidence with which we are too often accustomed to regard the excellence of our own institutions, and the anxiety that we display to introduce them in new and untried soils.” In this early critique of democracy promotion, he concluded, “Such interference will always lead to acrimonious disputes, if not to a violent reaction.”
Just as Britain’s inability to cope with the Afghan uprising of 1841-2 stemmed from leadership failures and the breakdown of ties between the British envoy and Shah Shuja, the strained and uneasy relationship of NATO leaders with Mr. Karzai has been a crucial factor in America’s failures in the latest imbroglio.
Afghanistan is so poor that the occupation can’t be financed through natural resource wealth or taxation. Today, America is spending more than a $100 billion a year in Afghanistan: it costs more to keep Marine battalions in two districts of Helmand than America is providing to the entire nation of Egypt in military and development assistance. And then, as now, the decision to withdraw troops has turned on factors with little relevance to Afghanistan, namely the state of the occupier’s troubled economy and the vagaries of politics back home.
History never repeats itself exactly, and there are some important differences between what is taking place in Afghanistan today and what took place during the 1840s. There is no unifying figure at the center of the resistance, recognized by all Afghans as a symbol of legitimacy and justice: Mullah Omar is no Dost Mohammed or Wazir Akbar Khan, and the tribes have not united behind a single leader as they did in the 1840s.
Moreover, the goals of the conservative, defensive tribal uprising that brought colonial rule to an end were very different from those of today’s Taliban, who wish to reimpose an imported Wahhabi ideology on Afghanistan’s diverse religious cultures. And most important, Mr. Karzai has tried to establish a broad-based, democratic government, which, for all its many flaws and prodigious corruption, is still much more representative and popular than the regime of Shah Shuja ever was.
Mr. Karzai is keen to learn the lessons of his forebears’ failures. When my book came out in India in January, he got hold of a copy and read it. “Our so-called current allies behave to us just as the British did to Shah Shuja,” he told me. “They have squandered the opportunity given to them by the Afghan people.”
Mr. Karzai believes that Shah Shuja didn’t stress his independence enough, and he made clear that in his own last year in office he is going to act in such a way that he will never be remembered as anyone’s puppet.
William Dalrymple is the author, most recently, of “Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42.”
Afghanistan survivor turns lens on horrific injuries in Syrian conflict
After stepping on a Taliban landmine and losing three limbs, Giles Duley now documents an all-too-familar tale of suffering on the border of Jordan and Syria
The Guardian By Peter Beaumont 13 April 2013
Giles Duley, the award-winning photojournalist who escaped with his life but lost three limbs after stepping on a landmine in Afghanistan in 2011, recently returned to Kabul to document amputee victims of the war. Now he has turned his attention to Syrian war victims in Jordan, many of whom have suffered horrendous injuries during the conflict.
Duley came across 24-year-old Lubna during a visit to the Zaatari camp while documenting the work of Handicap International. He was struck by the plight of Lubna, who has been told she will not walk again.
He also photographed children who had lost legs, and a widowed mother of 10 who had lost a leg and is now living in a tent. Such victims of the Syrian conflict often face an agonising journey as they are carried in wheelchairs across the border to safety.
"Lubna was a student at Damascus University and was married," said Duley. "She had been travelling on a bus when it was attacked by the Syrian army. She was shot in the spine, and others on the bus were killed. It took three hours for her to be rescued, because snipers were shooting and killing people trying to approach the bus."
When Lubna did manage to reach hospital, medical staff were afraid to treat her, so she was smuggled across the border. Since arriving in Jordan she has been told she will not walk again. To compound her problems, her husband – a policeman – has divorced her after she told him that she would not return to Syria.
Others Duley encountered, both war victims and those with long-term disabilities, are facing similar problems. In Syria they had access to free healthcare, including prescriptions. But for the many war amputees displaced to Jordan – where the number of refugees is expected to reach one million later this year – the problems they face are complex.
While Handicap International is often able to help with wheelchairs, crutches and therapy, the rents charged in private homes have trebled in some cases, and those with disabilities have found themselves confined in rooms in flats that can be reached only by stairs. "Unlike the victims of war I saw in Afghanistan," said Duley, "these people are not in their home country. There are so many refugees that Jordan is struggling to cope."
Afghan president blames Taliban and US for airstrike that left 17 dead, including 12 children
Associated Press April 13, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Both Taliban insurgents and the U.S. military were to blame for an airstrike a week ago that killed 17 people, including a dozen children, during a fierce battle in eastern Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said Saturday.
Karzai made his comments after an Afghan investigation into the April 6 attack raised the civilian death toll from 11 to 17, including 12 children, four women and one innocent man. An American civilian adviser was also killed during the fighting.
The Afghan report says the U.S. strike occurred after the Afghan intelligence service came under attack by militants during an operation to arrest two insurgent commanders in the Shigal district of Kunar province. The area is a major infiltration route for insurgents from sanctuaries in northwestern Pakistan to Afghanistan.
The U.S.-led coalition has confirmed that it launched airstrikes in Kunar province that day but it has not confirmed civilian casualties, saying the investigation is ongoing.
Afghan forces came under fire with heavy and light weapons as they were about to leave the area. It was in that fighting that the American was killed, causing the Americans to call for air support to move the body from the area at the same time houses believed to be containing suspected insurgents were bombarded for hours from the air, according to the report.
It said most of the houses were made of wood and mud and collapsed under the shock of the airstrikes, causing the deaths.
The death of Afghan civilians caught in crossfire has been a major point of contention between international forces and the Afghan government. Earlier this year, Karzai banned his troops from requesting coalition airstrikes following another deadly airstrike in Kunar.
While he said that airstrikes on residential areas were unacceptable, he also strongly condemned insurgents for taking cover in civilian houses during the battle.
Karzai also ordered government officials to offer immediate help to the families who were harmed in the attack, the statement said, without elaborating.
The investigation was carried out by a government delegation sent from Kabul that worked with 75 tribal elders in the area.
Afghan forces have been increasingly taking the lead in combat operations as international forces move to complete their withdrawal by the end of 2014. But U.S. and other foreign troops still participate and provide air support as they try to clear areas of insurgents and prepare the Afghans to take control.
In other violence, Taliban militants fired rockets at the coalition-controlled section of the airport Saturday in Jalalabad, 125 kilometers (78 miles) east of Kabul, damaging a helicopter.
Coalition spokesman Maj. Adam Wojack confirmed in an email that the air base came under fire by rockets or mortar shells and said one civilian helicopter was damaged. No coalition aircraft were damaged and no casualties were reported, he added.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said militants fired three rockets at the air base “and reports show one American helicopter was destroyed and other damage was caused.”
News Analysis: Killing of civilians by U.S.-led NATO forces could jeopardize signing of security pact
Xinhua By Abdul Haleem April 13, 2013
KABUL - The killing of innocent civilians, including women and children, in recent attacks by U.S.-led coalition forces against the Taliban insurgents has generated anti- American sentiments among Afghans and could jeopardize the signing of the proposed bilateral security agreement (BSA) between Kabul and Washington.
In the coalition air strikes on April 6 in the eastern province of Kunar, 11 Afghan children were reported to have been killed and six women injured.
President Hamid Karzai has denounced the killing of civilians by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and warned that repeated killing of Afghan civilians could negatively impact Afghan-U.S. relations.
A statement released by the president's office said that Karzai has expressed to U.S. President Barak Obama his grave concerns over continued civilian casualties, particularly referring to the deaths of children in the recent ISAF military operation in Kunar province.
The statement said that Karzai told Obama on Tuesday that the continuation of such incidents could jeopardize the signing of a bilateral security pact that is aimed at allowing continued but limited U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after the pullout of all foreign troops from the country in 2014.
"There is no doubt that the killing of civilians by NATO troops would have an adverse impact on the people's perception of the intent of the foreign forces and has damaged the credibility of government in protecting its citizens in the protracted war on terror," Pariani Nazari, editor-in-chief of the Daily Mandegar, an Afghan newspaper, said.
Nazari also lashed at the Taliban for using civilians as shield in the fight against the NATO forces, saying it is the responsibility of NATO, the government, and the Taliban to protect the lives of innocent civilians, especially children and women.
Residents of Shalton area of Shigal district in Kunar province, where the 11 children were killed, brought the bodies of their dead to the district headquarters last week. They demanded that the government bring to justice those responsible for the carnage.
Civilian casualties by the ISAF has served as a source of tension between Kabul and Washington.
Karzai has said on several occasions that war against terrorists in Afghan villages is not a correct approach since, according to him, the actual sanctuaries of the Taliban and other armed insurgents are not inside but outside Afghanistan, referring to the border areas inside Pakistan. Pakistan, however, has denied claims that the Taliban is based on Pakistani soil.
In March, Karzai's chief spokesman Aimal Faizy described NATO- led forces' war on terror in Afghanistan as "aimless and unwise," adding that most Afghans believe that this war should be discontinued.
Over the past year, officials of Afghanistan and the United States have been trying to craft the BSA but apparently still have gotten nowhere.
Washington has insisted on seeking immunity from prosecution for its military personnel who will remain in Afghanistan after 2014, a condition that is a standard provision in all the status of forces agreement (SOFA) that the United States has with other countries.
Karzai has said that the grant of immunity from suit against American servicemen would have to be decided by the Loya Jirga or grand assembly composed of tribal chieftains, notables and functionaries.
Earlier in February, in the wake of complaints from local officials in Wardak province, Karzai ordered the pullout of U.S. special forces from the central province, a decision widely welcomed by the people there.
The risky craft of being an artist in Afghanistan
Afghan artists have enjoyed relative freedom in recent years. But with foreign troops packing up, can it last?
Global Post By Chris Sands April 13, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Despite being about 90 and walking with a severe hunch, Ustad Amruddin will not let anyone else carry his dilruba — a classical stringed instrument that is rarely played in Afghanistan these days.
Over the decades, he has performed concerts for monarchs, communists and warlords, been threatened with arrest and forced into exile. He has no idea what will come next when America and its allies leave.
"All the people are worried and I am too. We were relaxed and comfortable, life in our homes and work was going very well. But when these [foreign troops] withdraw I am not sure if they will still support us," he said.
While much of society here has continued to suffer since the 2001 US-led invasion, artists have undoubtedly benefited from an era that has witnessed significant gains in freedom of expression.
Many of them now wonder if that progress is sustainable. Even in Kabul there are signs of a gradual return to the more conservative and politically fraught past when everyone from painters to poets faced grave risks simply because of their work.
Amruddin first played the dilruba as a child and was soon hired as a musician by what was then Afghanistan's only national radio station. Unlike some of his colleagues, his career prospered during the Soviet occupation of 1979 to 1989 and the civil war that followed.
But after moving to the northern city of Sheberghan, his willingness to perform for just about anyone eventually proved his undoing. Music was banned across the country when the Taliban seized power and most of the instruments Amruddin owned were destroyed.
Worse was to come when the regime discovered he used to stage regular concerts for Abdul Rashid Dostum, a notorious warlord. Fearing arrest, Amruddin tried escaping to Pakistan with a dilruba he inherited from his father. The Taliban briefly stopped him on his journey and deliberately broke the instrument.
"I am [still] angry but because they can kill me now I have pushed my anger into a corner," he said.
Public concerts have become common again in recent years, though not without controversy. One show planned for the southern province of Ghazni was banned last month after local officials reportedly described music as "forbidden.”
Threats are also a fact of life for people who appear on Afghan Star, a TV talent contest for aspiring singers.
Mohammad Qasem Ramishgar, a judge on the program, admitted to being scared by some of the intimidating messages he receives over the phone and internet. But he told GlobalPost that mainstream "fundamentalism" is the real problem, rather than particular insurgent groups.
"In our nation we easily accept the word of a mullah compared to another man," he said.
Although a conservative interpretation of Islam is regarded as the primary challenge to the arts in Afghanistan today, that has not always been the case. Throughout the last three decades of turmoil, a cultural war has been waged alongside the fighting on the battlefield, with all sides in the various power struggles getting involved.
Art was only encouraged during the communist period if it toed the government line, otherwise it was also clamped down upon. Abdul Wasi Rahraw Omarzad, director of the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan, told GlobalPost that was when the current problems truly began.
"The visual arts movement was slow but it could develop. When the Russians came they stopped the movement and said 'make posters and social realism,’" he explained.
"From that time we lost freedom of expression or [the right] to be an individual artist."
Omarzad was jailed for a month in the 1980s for drawing anti-government cartoons. He describes the years since the US-led invasion as the best for the arts that he has known. He admits he has been receiving threats but is reluctant to talk about them in case it frightens others.
"We don't want to think negatively about the situation," he said. "We hope the future will be better."
Just as in previous eras, women with pubic profiles inevitably face the biggest difficulties. In many cases even relatives are unhappy with their fame.
In June 2012, Ghazala Javed, a hugely popular Pashtun singer, was shot dead in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar alongside her father. A second female Pashtun singer, Yasmin Gul, died in mysterious circumstances in Quetta, Pakistan, in 2010. A third, Ayman Udas, was killed in Peshawar in 2009 — allegedly by her brothers.
For Sonia Sarwari, an Afghan film and TV actress in her 20s, the risks are worth taking. She was assaulted in Kabul last year by a man who threw a kind of powder in her eyes in an apparent effort to blind her.
She did not even report the attack to the police because she was sure they could not help.
"We know if the Taliban come back they will kill all of us — the famous people who are on TV — first. Therefore we are worried; not only people working in cinema but all of Afghan society," she said.
Asked if she would carry on acting regardless, she added: "Naturally. I am an Afghan girl and I will not accept failure, so I will continue until my death."
Presidential Candidates Cannot be Rights Violators: AIHRC
TOLOnews By Karim Amini 13 April 2013
Human rights violators must not stand as candidates in the presidential election, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said Saturday, calling for those so charged to be tried in a court of law.
"Ahead of the upcoming election, there must be a solution to prevent those who have violated human rights and those who are war criminals to not participate in the election. We must not let them gain power," AIHRC executive director Mousa Mahmoodi told TOLOnews.
The Independent Election Commission encourages all residents of Afghanistan, including those who are part of armed opposition groups, to participate in the election - as long as they are not recognised as criminals by any court of law and no charges of human rights violations have been proven against them.
"The Independent Election Commission [IEC] wants all residents of Afghanistan to participate in the election. Even armed insurgents are allowed to participate if they put their guns down," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.
"I must say that at the present time there are people in the Afghanistan system that have human rights violation charges but because the court has not recognised them as criminals we are allowing them to participate in the upcoming election," he added.
Human rights groups have often said that many people both inside and outside the Afghan government are guilty of human rights violations and war crimes, but they have never been brought to a court of law because of their influence and power.
Minister: We have a moral responsibility for Afghan interpreters
The Copenhagen Post By Christian Wenande April 13, 2013
Denmark is looking to co-operate with the UK and the US when it comes to the safety of Afghan interpreters.
The defence minister, Nick Hækkerup (Socialdemokraterne), said this week that Denmark has an ethical and moral responsibility to the Afghan interpreters who were employed by the Danish military.
Hækkerup, who has previously ruled out offering asylum for the intepreters, said that he would intensify the dialogue with the US and Britain in order to ascertain how to secure the welfare of the 195 interpreters who have worked for the Danish forces in the Helmand province since 2008.
“We need to understand the fundamental reality that we have promised we will not forsake the interpreters that the Danish forces utilised while in Afghanistan,” Hækkerup told parliament this week.
Denmark has used interpreters contracted by the British defence’s ‘Labour Support Unit’ and the US firm ‘Mission Essential Personnel’, meaning that Denmark has no legal responsibility to the interpreters after allied forces pull out next year.
Hækkerup told parliament that British authorities have asked Denmark to help co-ordinate the handling of the interpreters and, while it is ultimately a parliamentary decision, it looks as though the Danes will co-operate.
“When we have enjoyed a fruitful cooperation as we have with the British forces, then it would be odd to reject their request to co-ordinate on the interpreters,” Hækkerup said.
Hækkerup came under fire last week after a report from the military’s Chief of Defence, Peter Bartam, contradicted Hækkerup's claim that no Afghan interpreters working with the Danes had been killed. The report revealed that five interpreters were killed and 12 others injured while working with Danish forces.
Yet, the governor of Helmand province, Mohammad Naim Kahn, who is visiting Denmark at the moment, contends that the interpreters are not very vulnerable to potential Taleban reprisal attacks.
“I’m not saying that there are no security problems, but the interpreters are not in much danger. It is primarily Afghan security forces and high-level officials that the Taleban target,” Kahn told Berlingske newspaper.
Kahn’s statement conflicts with what former Afghan interpreter, Fareed Ahmad Kabeer, told The Copenhagen Post recently. Reports from the UN and the Danish Immigration Service have also concluded that Afghans who co-operate with NATO forces are particularly under threat from the Taleban.
Furthermore, a report from the Danish Defence Command, Forsvarskommandoen, said that the defence is aware of several instances of interpreters being threatened.
Forsvarskommandoen has also noted that the British Labour Support Unit has in a number of cases recommended interpreters who have worked for them to change their place of residence due to a risk of reprisal.
At the moment, Britain and Sweden are among the countries deciding what to do with their Afghan interpreters, while Norway has given its interpreters the opportunity to apply for asylum at the Norwegian Embassy in Kabul. That initiative has led to 21 Afghan interpreters and their families being granted asylum in Norway in February alone.
The interpreter issue is coming to a head sooner than anticipated, largely thanks to Denmark’s decision to pull out its troops by August this year, a year ahead of the original plan.
Afghan Fruit Business Signs 11 International Contracts
TOLOnews By Zabiullah Jahanmal 13 April 2013
An Afghan businesswoman has made 11 agreements with international companies from Arab and European countries for Afghan fruit exports following her participation at a business fair in Dubai, officials at the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan (EPAA) said Saturday.
As many as 30 Afghans – including six women – were part of Gulfood, an annual food and hospitality show in the Middle East held late February.
Business owner Kamila Seddiqi successfully signed multiple partners to assist in her export business from Afghanistan across the world.
"I participated in Gulfood. From there, we have reached the international markets. We are currently exporting red raisins of Mazar-e-Sharif to Saudi Arabia," Seddiqi told TOLOnews.
Besides Saudi Arabia, Seddiqi said other buyers of Afghan fruit include Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, and Spain.
Pointing out some of the challenges faced by businesswoman across the country, the EPAA suggested they will play an important role for the Afghan economics if they are well supported.
"There are many problems facing businesswomen, such as bureaucracy within the governmental offices, insecurity, and an inappropriate culture, but despite these problems, there are businesswomen who support other women so that they do not stop what they do," said Najla Habibyar, head of the EPAA.
Herat Factories Struggling to Compete with Imports
TOLOnews By Haseeb Maudoodi 13 April 2013
Around 300 factories in Herat have recently gone bankrupt or are headed for bankruptcy of around 400 which used to exist, according to the Herat Industrial Union.
Lack of security, poor facilities, price dumping by neighbouring countries, and high customs tariffs on raw materials are some of the reasons cited for the struggling industrial sector, Herat Industrial Union chief Hamidullah Khadim told TOLOnews.
However, Herat police reject the claim of poor security afflicting business.
"Afghanistan's enemies do not want peace and development but with the relative security that we have, there is still investment opportunities and we are trying to gain more security for our residents and investors," Herat deputy police Gen. Abdulhamid Hamidi told TOLOnews.
The 100 factories still operating in Herat employ around 8,000 residents.
"It will be very difficult if the situation continues like this in Herat industrial city. The problem is not in one place but today Herat industrial city faces dozens of troubles and this can close the doors of these factories and leave the workers jobless," Khadim said.
Business owners are frustrated by the lack of attention given their importance for the economy, citing foreign competition as the main problem.
"I have one question... why are similar goods from foreigners being imported to Afghanistan?" investor Abdul Karim Shirzad told TOLOnews.
A senior employee of one investor company, Noorullhaq Faizi, said the lower prices from imports were of particular concern.
"Strong price dumping policies are continuing from neighboring countries and customs taxes for raw materials are more than taxes for finished materials. So now how is it possible to compete with foreign goods?"
The factories produce a variety of goods including foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, beverages and construction materials.
"The decrease of customs taxes is not a solution for this problem. Aside from the taxes, there must be other facilities for investors," Herat provincial customs chief Mohammad Tamim Kakar told TOLOnews.
The minister of commerce and industry Anwarul Haq Ahadi said that Afghanistan does act against price dumping.
"We have been against price dumping and still we are against price dumping. We are supporting our craftsmen against the region countries' price dumping policies," he said.
The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) said it has set up a network under the organisation to investigate opportunities and advise investors.
"We have established an organisation under AISA to investigate investment opportunities in Afghanistan and to share with investors so before starting any activity we will give them advice of which field of investment is profitable," AISA chief Wafiullah Aftakhar told TOLOnews.
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