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Karzai Orders Removal Of Pakistani Border Gate
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan April 15, 2013
KABUL -- Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi has accused Pakistan of violating “international norms” by installing a border gate and checkpoint along a disputed border line between the two countries.
Azimi told reporters on April 15 that Kabul will consider "all options" to remove the installations.
In a national security council meeting on April 15, Karzai instructed his ministries of Defense, Interior, and Foreign Affairs to take "immediate action" to see the removal of the installations along the British-drawn Durand Line.
Karzai also sought clarification from the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan on whether it assisted Pakistan in the building of the installations.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said of the new border gate that it was erected without coordination with Kabul.
"Establishing a gate or any other construction must be in conformity of both sides," Azimi said. "Without conformity, establishing a gate on the Durand Line and inside Afghanistan is against all international norms and it's against all the roles and relations of both sides."
He added: "We have all options at hand to remove this [Durand Line] gate and protect Afghanistan's sovereignty."
Pakistan views the Durand Line -- established by British India and the Kingdom of Afghanistan in 1893 -- as an international border.
Kabul, however, has consistently refused to recognize the Durand Line, a boundary that cuts through the ethnic Pashtun heartland.
The United States also considers the Durand Line the modern-day border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The arrival of the British in northern India in the 19th century posed a major challenge to the Afghan and Turkic powers that had dominated the subcontinent for centuries. After losing a major war to the Afghans in 1842, the British eventually captured parts of Afghanistan and formally annexed them through an arbitrary treaty in 1879. Their forces occupied Kabul at the time.
The contentious 1893 treaty between Afghan King Amir Abdur Rahman and Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of British India, formalized the areas under the control of the two governments.
With additional reporting by khaama.com and online.wsj.com
Pakistani army says differences with Afghanistan resolved over border post construction
ISLAMABAD, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani army said on Monday that differences with Afghanistan over the construction of a border post were resolved in a meeting of military officials of the two countries.
Afghan defense minister earlier protested against what it called the "unilateral construction of facilities" by neighboring Pakistan along its eastern border.
Afghan Defense Ministry Spokesman General Zahir Azimi told reporters at a joint press conference in Kabul that the recent construction of a gate and other facilities along the border took place without any coordination with Afghanistan.
Pakistan army said that a high-level Afghan military delegation met with Pakistani officers in Rawalpindi and all ongoing cross border coordination issues including Border Post construction in Mohmand Agency were "discussed and amicably resolved."
A military statement said that both sides agreed on continuation of such bilateral interactions to enhance border coordination and reduce space for detractors.
A delegation of Afghan army officials, headed by Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Afghan National Army Major General Afzal Aman, met Major General Ashfaq Nadeem Ahmed, Director General Military Operations Pakistan Army for talks over border coordination with Pakistani officers.
Pakistan earlier rejected Afghan government's claim that Pakistani military had started unilateral construction and was engaged in physical reinforcement activities along the bordering areas.
Pakistan also stated their forces were renovating an old border post and had also informed Afghan authorities.
In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai ordered the country's defense and interior ministries to take immediate action to remove a newly constructed gate, checkpoints and other installations recently built by Pakistan along the border in Goshta district in the eastern province of Nangarhar with Jalalabad as its capital, 120 km south of Kabul.
Azimi said Afghanistan will use all options to prevent such issue as he said according to agreements between the two countries, before constructing any facilities closer to border areas, the two sides must inform each other.
Seven members of Afghan family killed in roadside bomb blast
Press TV April 15, 2013
Seven members of an Afghan family have been killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Mali Zai region of Zabul Province in southern Afghanistan.
The family was travelling in a trailer towed by a tractor when their vehicle hit the bomb just after the daybreak on Monday, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Four other people were also injured during the incident, the statement said.
No group has yet assumed responsibility for the incident, though the ministry has blamed the explosion on Taliban.
Roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices are by far the most lethal weapons Taliban militants use against Afghan forces, foreign troops, and civilians.
Violence continues to plague Afghanistan despite the presence of thousands of foreign forces, more than a decade after the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.
In the first six months of 2012, over 1,140 Afghan civilians were killed and around 2,000 were wounded, mostly by roadside bombs, according to statistics released by the United Nations. Thirty percent of the casualties were women and children.
Conflicts, blasts claim 30 lives in Afghanistan in 2 days
KABUL, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Continued skirmishes and violent security incidents have claimed the lives of 30 people including Taliban fighters and police since Sunday in the conflict-ridden Afghanistan, officials confirmed Monday.
As part of mounting pressure, Afghan and the NATO-led forces launched mop-up against Taliban militants in Bati Kot district of the eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday. The operation which concluded Monday had left 19 militants including a senior commander Jamal Farouqi dead.
"Afghan National Security Forces (Special Units) and Coalition Forces conducted a clearance operation in Chaharda village, Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province Sunday. During the operation which concluded Monday leaving a senior commander of Taliban named Jamal Farouqi along with his 18 fighters dead," Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Monday.
Five Taliban militants sustained injuries and 10 others were arrested with 15 PK machine guns and 40 AK-47 rifles, the statement contended.
Elimination of Farouqi is a major setback to the Taliban militants, according to the statement.
Taliban militants who have been fighting the Afghan and NATO- led troops are yet to make comment.
Earlier, on Sunday, the Afghan security forces backed by the NATO-led troops targeted and killed a Taliban key commander Safiullah alias Shafiq in Wardak province 35 km west of Kabul, spokesman for Wardak provincial administration Ataullah Khogyani confirmed.
The official described Shafiq's elimination as a major blow to the Taliban militants in Wardak province, but the outfit has yet to confirm the claim.
Six more Taliban militants lost their lives in Naw Bahar district of Zabul province on Sunday as their explosive device went off accidentally, deputy to Zabul provincial governor, Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar said.
The militants, he said, were planting the explosive device on a road to target security forces but the device exploded prematurely killing six on the spot.
Meantime, a roadside bomb organized by Taliban outfit struck a police van in Musa Qala district of Helmand province Sunday killing four police and injuring three others, Nimatullah, governor of Musa Qala district said Monday.
UN: Opium Production on the Rise in Afghanistan
VOA News April 15, 2013
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says opium cultivation has increased in Afghanistan for the third year in a row, and the nation could account for as much as 90 percent of the world's supply of heroin.
The UN released the news in a report Monday saying opium production is particularly high in the most unstable areas of Afghanistan, where the U.S. troop surge helped beat back Taliban influence.
The report says insurgents took advantage of insecurity in those areas -- Helmand and Kandahar provinces, in particular -- to win over popular support and assist opium farmers with their crops.
It says poor weather and blight led to a reduction in supply of opium last year and correspondingly higher prices. The report notes that the higher price of opium makes it an even more attractive crop to grow now.
The UN says this is the third year in a row that opium poppy-growing has increased in Afghanistan, reversing gains from a decade of efforts by the Afghan government to reduce the nation's share in the drug trade.
3rd int'l Afghan-Turkish exhibition kicks off in Kabul
KABUL, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The third International Afghan- Turkish Exhibition kicked off here Monday with an aim to promote local products and advance economic ties between the two countries.
"Afghanistan welcomes the third International Afghan-Turkish Exhibition which opened today in Kabul," Deputy Director of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce & Industries (ACCI) Hatiqullah Nasrat told Xinhua.
According to Nasrat, the Afghan traders will display their products in 40 booths while 35 booths will showcase different Turkish products.
The four-day display which is held in the City Star Hall near Kabul international airport was organized by ACCI and the Afghan- Turkish Industrialists & Traders Association (ATSIAD).
"The objectives of the exhibition are boosting business relationship between the two countries, finding market for Afghan and Turkish quality products in both countries, rising awareness of traders on current market and investment circumstance in two countries and encouraging policymakers to pave essential grounds," the ACCI said on its website.
The exhibition is expected to attract 10,000 visitors.
The Afghan economy was badly affected by decades of war and neglect. Presently around 3,000 small and medium plants are operating in the country which produce light items such as biscuits, macaroni, tissue papers, medicines, soaps, washing liquid, drinking water, juice, soft drinks and other products, according to officials.
According to the agreement signed by ATSIAD and ACCI, the two government-backed agencies will be organizing such exhibitions in the next 10 years in Afghanistan.
"During 2012, balance trade rate between Afghanistan and Turkey reached 297 million U.S. dollars. Over the past two years, export rate from Afghanistan to Turkey has increased by 30 percent that indicate impact of two previous exhibitions," the ACCI said.
Afghanistan: high expectations of record opium crop
UN report reveals rapid growth of poppy farming as western troops get ready to withdraw, which reflects particularly badly on Britain
The Guardian By Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul 15 April 2013
Twelve years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is heading for a near-record opium crop as instability pushes up the amount of land planted with illegal but lucrative poppies, according to a bleak UN report.
The rapid growth of poppy farming as western troops head home reflects particularly badly on Britain, which was designated "lead nation" for counter-narcotics work over a decade ago.
"Poppy cultivation is not only expected to expand in areas where it already existed in 2012 but also in new areas or areas where poppy cultivation was stopped," the Afghanistan Opium Winter Risk Assessment found.
The growth in opium cultivation reflects both spreading instability and concerns about the future. Farmers are more likely to plant the deadly crop in areas of high violence or where they have not received any agricultural aid, the report said.
Opium traders are often happy to provide seeds, fertilisers and even advance payments to encourage crops, leaving farmers who do not have western or government agricultural help very vulnerable to their inducements.
At the same time the more powerful figures in the drugs trade, from traffickers to corrupt government officials, who take over half the profit from each kilo of opium, have shrinking opportunities to earn money from Nato or international aid contracts – and may be preparing a war chest for upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.
"Opium cultivation is up for the third successive year, and production is heading towards record levels," said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Afghanistan head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. "People are hedging against an insecure future both politically and economically."
Just 14 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces are now "poppy free", down from 20 in 2010. In three provinces, the spring sowing was the first time this decade that farmers had risked an attempt at growing opium.
The only figures showing a fall in cultivation, for western Herat province, may actually be due to a statistics blip. The UN was forced to use external data last year instead of the satellite images that are usually the basis of poppy growing calculations, and local officials protested heavily that the opium crop there had been overestimated.
If this year's poppy fields are harvested without disruption, the country would likely regain its status as producer of 90% of the world's opium. Afghanistan's share of the deadly market slipped to around 75% after bad weather and a blight slashed production over the past two years.
But the decline in opium production also drove up prices, to a record $300 a kilogram. Prices have now slipped by over $100 but are still far above historic levels, helping tempt more farmers to turn land over to poppy.
It seems unlikely that the poor harvests of the last year will be repeated; there have been no reports of blight and the exceptionally bitter winter of 2011-12 was followed this year by a milder one, creating expectations of a large crop.
The increase has come despite a marked improvement in Afghanistan's specialised counter-narcotics units, Lemahieu said. Fear of eradication has become a far more significant reason for farmers to stick to legal crops than in the past, the report found.
But overall the government and aid community has not prioritised efforts to cut back a crop and trade that feeds global markets for heroin, Lemahieu said, despite its corrosive effect on security, corruption and trust in Kabul.
Typical of the official neglect are the 22 "national priority programmes" drawn up by Kabul to focus aid money and diplomatic efforts on its key development concerns including justice and education. Counter-narcotics was not one of them, nor has it been put at the heart of the other programmes.
"We need to have counter-narcotics dealt with seriously by the entire government as well as the aid community," Lemahieu said. "One of the big missing links here is providing for the communities themselves."
Eradication programmes that do not provide farmers with benefits such as healthcare and education, and support growing other crops will just push the Taliban or other insurgent groups that do tolerate or encourage poppy production, he added.
Afghan Interpreters for the U.S. Are Left Stranded and at Risk
The New York Times By Azam Ahmed April 14, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - The first time the Taliban tried to kill him, Sulaiman was driving to his base when his truck was hit by a rocket, knocking him down a cliff.
The insurgents knew his vehicle, its license plate number and, most important, his occupation: a high-value combat interpreter for United States Special Operations troops in Afghanistan.
They left him for dead in that attack, in July 2011, but he got out with a broken collarbone, two broken ribs and a new sense of caution. Since then, he has survived two more attacks.
Sulaiman’s American supervisor no longer lets him travel by car when he leaves his military base to visit his family. But no one feels that is protection enough, given the premium that the Taliban put on killing Afghans who help American forces.
His best hope is one that has remained beyond his grasp despite years of effort: an American visa.
Sulaiman is one of thousands of Afghans who have directly aided the Western military mission here and are waiting to hear from the State Department on the special immigration visa applications. In Iraq, Congressional legislative action helped thousands of at-risk Iraqis get out, but Afghans find themselves in a more difficult situation, with fewer visas and fewer options.
Now, the backlog is growing. As the American pullout hits full pace and bases across the country are shut down, hundreds of Afghans have suddenly found themselves without jobs, leaving them without military protection despite the continued risk of attack by the Taliban.
The danger is especially real for the estimated 8,000 interpreters who have worked for the Americans. Though no one tracks the targeted violence figures, anecdotal evidence is grim — at least a few people are said to be killed each month. In February, two interpreters were gunned down in Logar Province south of Kabul, the same province where Sulaiman was first attacked. In December, an interpreter working in Jalalabad was singled out while heading home on leave. The Taliban killed his two brothers in the attack.
Sulaiman, 26, who asked to be identified only by his first name so as not to put his family at greater risk, is one of the relatively lucky ones. He is still employed, and his American military colleagues are working hard to help him.
But he is still waiting. He believes a 2008 visa application was lost in the bureaucratic ether. A second application, in late 2011, yielded an embassy interview last year. Since then, though, he has received automated responses to his entreaties. The State Department declined to talk about his case.
Several of his Special Operations colleagues have fired off letters imploring the State Department to expedite his application, adding to the stack of recommendations lauding his skills and courage.
“If this takes too long, if there is an error somewhere, he’s compromised and his family is compromised,” said his current supervisor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security reasons. “We kind of feel like we’re watching the clock wind down right now.”
The urgency among Afghans to receive visas mirrors the situation in Iraq on the eve of the American military pullout there. Only in Iraq, the system, while still problematic, has been better equipped to deal with the visa situation brought on by the withdrawal, thanks to the intervention of lawmakers, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts in 2008.
Among the disparities between the programs are the number of visas available — 7,500 in Afghanistan versus 25,000 in Iraq; the family members eligible to join the applicant — strictly wife and dependent children in Afghanistan versus parents, siblings and all children in Iraq. Other differences include the additional avenues for recourse — almost none for Afghans, versus the ability to apply directly to the United States for refugee status as an Iraqi.
So far, about 22 percent of the available visas for Iraqis have been granted, according to a letter to the State Department and White House from concerned members of Congress. The figure is closer to 12 percent for Afghans, the letter states.
“In my opinion, the story in Afghanistan is a sorry, shabby echo of what’s happening in Iraq,” said Kirk W. Johnson, the founder of the List Project, an organization that assists Iraqi refugees in obtaining visas to the United States.
Thousands of Afghan applicants are caught in an approval process that lasts more than two years. As many as 5,000 were waiting to begin the process as of last fall.
The State Department declined to comment on the number of applications submitted, the backlog or any phase of the visa approval process. Privately, some officials say the consular division has doubled resources to increase its processing ability, though that has not been publicly announced or confirmed.
To kick-start the process, some American lawmakers say that as early as this month, they plan to introduce legislation to extend the timeline for visa programs in Iraq and Afghanistan and to broaden the type of family members who can come along.
“The extension and reform of these programs is a matter of national security, and these programs represent an important tool for the U.S. operations in Afghanistan,” according to a March 5 letter sent to the White House and the State Department, signed by 19 members of Congress.
Among the things that will not change is that Afghans who worked for American companies, including the news media and nongovernmental organizations, will still not be eligible for the special visas, even though such Iraqis are eligible. And legislators are not seeking additional visas for Afghans.
As it stands, issuing the available visas has been hard enough.
State Department figures through December suggest the agency would have to grant about 1,200 visas a month to use all 7,500 visas before the so-called Afghan Allies program expires at the end of fiscal year 2013. Put another way, consular officials would need to issue more than four times the visas they did in their most productive year, 2009, every month.
State Department officials say there is no priority given to certain applications — such a measure would be hard to enforce fairly.
Still, Sulaiman’s situation would seem to present a clear-cut case of need.
He has been working with the Americans for 10 years. When he was 16, he caught the attention of a Special Operations team by confronting them in English as they walked through his neighborhood. Amused, they asked him if he wanted a job. He started training immediately.
Since then, he has worked as a combat interpreter for coalition forces in all but four provinces across the country, translating battle strategy to Afghan forces in the middle of firefights and high-level meetings with elders in contested villages, among other efforts. He has been on more than 300 missions, and his ties to Special Operations put him in even more danger than most interpreters.
The job has also cost him a sense of identity. Having spent so much of his adolescent years around American military bases, he struggles to relate to other Afghans. At times, he seems almost startlingly American: he speaks English with a faint Midwestern accent and wears a North Face jacket. Everyone on base calls him Sam. “I’ve spent more time inside the base with Americans than I have with my family,” Sulaiman said. “I feel more at home on the base.”
His commitment, his supervisors say, has never wavered. If he makes it to the United States, he hopes to join the military and attend the Army Ranger School.
“I could ask Sam to do anything tomorrow, and he wouldn’t even blink,” his American supervisor said.
But Sulaiman’s desperation is growing. In December, fearing another attack, he sent another e-mail to the American Embassy in Kabul. In it, he explained that he had not been able to go home for months because of the risk to him and his family, and implored them to look at his visa application again.
An auto-reply arrived in his in-box a few hours later: his application required further processing.
“Individuals who believe they are in peril in their place of residence should consider leaving that location and moving to another nearby safe place, inside or outside the country,” the e-mail said.
Angelina Jolie, beautiful stranger behind Afghan school
AFP 14/04/2013
Jolie, a special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, built the school in Qala-i-Gudar last year and is planning to open more in Afghanistan with profits from a newly-launched jewellery line that she has designed.
The Hollywood star visited Qala-i-Gudar in 2011, and she retains an avid fanbase among residents who have never seen any of her films and have no idea about her global fame as an actress.
Acting is controversial in the country, with many conservative Afghans associating it with un-Islamic behaviour and even prostitution.
Homaira, aged 13, is one of 250 pupils at the all-girls school who has benefited from the new facilities, which opened for their first full academic year last month.
“We used to study in the backyard of the mosque, it was hard,” Homaira told AFP. “Now we are so happy to have a school. It’s a beautiful place.”
Asked who built her school, Homaira smiled and answered, “the beautiful American lady.”
The two-storey building, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Kabul, has large windows and neat rows of desks. On the outside, which is painted light blue, is a plaque proudly boasting of its founder.
“Through the generous contribution of Angelina Jolie UNHCR Special Envoy,” it reads.
Even headmaster Gul Rahmman Ayaz appeared ignorant of Jolie’s superstar celebrity, apparently believing she was a senior UNHCR official.
“Is she?” Ayaz asked doubtfully after learning Jolie was an actress. “Well whatever, she is a great woman, very kind woman,” he added with a smile.
Ayaz recalled Jolie visiting the mosque’s open backyard, which at the time served as a classroom, and sitting cross-legged with villagers discussing her plan to found a modern school.
“She was very humble. She sat on dust. She didn’t behave like a movie star,” Ayaz said, remembering Jolie arrived in a UN-marked vehicle and wore a modest black outfit and brown headscarf.
Sabera, the school’s only female teacher, believed Jolie was a reconstruction expert sent to build schools in Afghanistan as it struggles to emerge from decades of war that left the village in ruins.
“I thought she was an engineer,” said Sabera, 30, who like most Afghans uses only one name. “I have never seen her movies but I hope she comes back.”
Under the hardline Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, cinema was banned and girls were prohibited from attending school.
Qala-i-Gudar was on the frontline in fighting between the Taliban regime in Kabul and Northern Alliance forces.
Today Afghans have a huge appetite for cinema, though they prefer the melodrama and music of Bollywood fare to US blockbusters.
Officials say millions of children, about 40 per cent of them girls, have returned to school — one of the key achievements of the billion-dollar international aid effort since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban.
But, according to Kabir Haqmal, head of public affairs at the education ministry, half of the 10.5 million students still study in the open air or tents, and 50 per cent of about 200,000 teachers are unqualified.
“Anyone investing in Afghanistan’s education is investing in the future of Afghanistan,” Haqmal told AFP. “I know this school was built by Angelina Jolie and we appreciate her work.”
Jolie, partner of Brad Pitt and star of the Lara Croft movies, has a long record of humanitarian work and told the E! News website that she hopes to fund more schools from the proceeds of her new jewellery line called “Style of Jolie”.
In Qala-i-Gudar, as in much of rural Afghanistan, there is little access to television. Out of a dozen girls interviewed by AFP, half don’t have a set at home. Another has one, but says “the aerial has been broken for a year”.
Afghanistan: Challenges of security handover
BBC News By Caroline Wyatt Defence 14 April 2013
As the war in Afghanistan fades from the front pages in the West as fewer international troops die, the human cost of the conflict is increasingly being borne by Afghan forces.
On Friday, the Taliban attacked and killed at least 13 Afghan soldiers in the Naray district of Kunar, an area near the border with Pakistan long contested and used by insurgents and foreign fighters as a transit route.
The insurgents attacked just before dawn.
It was yet another test of Afghan national security forces as Nato steps back from its front-line role, ahead of the withdrawal of coalition combat troops by the end of 2014.
The soldiers killed were in what was deemed to be one of the most effective Afghan fighting units. 'Operational intensity'
The death rate for Afghan forces has risen over the past year or so while the number of deaths among coalition troops - such as the UK's - has fallen.
In the 12 months up to March 2013, 1,170 Afghan soldiers were killed and another 3,000 wounded out of an army of 146,000, according to the Afghan ministry of defence in Kabul.
The Afghan police suffered 1,800 deaths in 2012.
The Afghans put the rate down to a greater number of Afghan troops overall, and the fact that they are now conducting operations on their own with the summer fighting season fast approaching.
For the UK, fatalities peaked in 2009 with 108 British deaths, according to the independent iCasualties website. Most of those were in Helmand.
In 2010, at a time when British forces were still very much in the lead in operations against the insurgency, that figure was 103.
In 2011, as the UK and the rest of the coalition started handing over the security lead to Afghan forces, 46 British troops died. And in 2012, as the handover progressed, there were 44 British deaths.
There has been a similar fall in the number of coalition deaths since 2010, when 711 coalition troops died - compared with 566, in 2011, and 402, in 2012.
And so far this year, three members of the UK military have been killed in Afghanistan, compared with 16 from January-April 2012.
Over the next few months, Afghan forces are expected to take over security across the country, though coalition commanders insist their troops remain on hand as a combat force should they be needed.
The deputy commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), Lt Gen Nick Carter, said he was worried about "the rate of attrition that the Afghan forces are having to cope with presently".
"And that is why it is important that we work closely with them so that they manage this upcoming period of high operational intensity," he told BBC News in Kabul.
"What we can't afford the Afghans to do during the course of this summer is to fail.
"We regard Afghan confidence as our centre of gravity. To that end, if the Afghans need our help we are there."
He said the Afghans taking the lead on security "inevitably means that they are more likely to take casualties than we are".
But he insisted: "They are demonstrably still willing to fight and the Afghan security forces are better and better prepared for what lies ahead.
"But of course the summer is a challenging time." Suicide bombs
The Afghan National Army, which has to replace and train nearly a third of its force every year because of desertion and attrition, is facing an insurgency that has not given up the fight.
The Taliban seem to be focusing more, so far this year, on directly taking on Afghan forces than it did in previous years, when its main tactics included roadside bombs and suicide bombs.
Suicide bombs followed by the use of firepower by insurgents at close range appear to be on the rise - as on 3 April when the Taliban carried out a complex attack in Farah, in western Afghanistan.
It began with a suicide bomb ahead of hostage-taking in a court-house.
That was followed by an all-day gun battle with Afghan national security forces which left more than 40 people dead and injured more than 90 in total.
But the Nato-led coalition says Afghan forces are more than capable of taking on the fight as the west starts to withdraw.
Task Force Helmand outgoing commander, Brigadier Bob Bruce, said Afghan forces in the province have "developed phenomenally, not just in capability but also in confidence".
His successor, Brig Rupert Jones, added: "In areas such as medical support and casualty evacuation, what we need to do over the summer is provide that assistance to Afghan forces, but concurrently develop their abilities."
The coalition withdrawal from Helmand is gathering pace - of the 37 bases that British forces occupied last year, only 12 remain.
But while Afghan forces are bearing the brunt of the fighting and the dying, a huge number of Afghan civilians - 2,754 - were killed in the conflict.
That makes civilians the greatest casualties of the war, with four out five of those deaths caused by the Taliban.
Lawmakers Approve IEC Structure, Complaints Commission Law
TOLOnews By Abdul Wali Arian 14 April 2013
A joint commission of senators and parliamentarians on Sunday approved the laws governing the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) with only the final consent of President Hamid Karzai pending.
Rafiullah Gul, senate second vice chair, said that this law is separate from the election law and does not need the majority of the parliament or senate approval. "There is no problem. The president might have concerns, but this law is not discussed in parliament or senate," Gul said Sunday. The IEC welcomed the news of the commission's approval but noted that the president's signature was still needed.
"We consider this an effectual step but it should be signed after which the commission will continue its activities," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.
"We should have an Electoral Complaints Commission before the month of Sunbula (August) and have the candidates of presidential and provincial council elections registered. In case the electoral law is not approved we'll have no other option but to hold the elections based on legislative decree by the president," he added.
The joint commission has decided that the two international members of the ECC will be omitted from the law and a separate committee will be set up to select the members of the IEC.
This comes as the electoral law is still wandering between the various parliamentary commissions, causing some distress as the approval delay means the election will be based on a legislative decree by Karzai.
The parliamentary administrative board said the law will be discussed in a meeting next week. "We hope the electoral law will be put on the agenda of the house next week and that it will be approved soon," said Sayed Ikram, first secretary of parliament.
The presidential election slated for April 5 next year is seen as a pivotal event for Afghanistan's near future as the political transition coincides with the security transition. A fair and transparent poll is crucial to the political transition going smoothly.
Afghanistan held hostage by warlords
The use of strongmen to fight Al Qaida and Taliban has fragmented the tribal system and made civil war a real possibility after US forces leave
Gulf News By Lucy Morgan Edwards April 14, 2013
Last week the UK’s defence select committee published a report which concluded that civil war in Afghanistan is likely when international forces leave next year. If the predictions of ‘Securing the Future of Afghanistan’ are correct, the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence share much of the blame. When I returned to Kabul in January and asked an American journalist I’d known in 2001 his view of the situation, he said: “When you look at the facts on the ground, it is hard to believe that civil war is not inevitable.”
The facts on the ground include the militias the West has set up in the countryside in a desperate attempt to shore up the barely legitimate Hamid Karzai regime. Sadly, these militias, plus the many Afghan private security companies, have contributed to a proliferation of armed groups that will be roaming the country after 2014. Ironically, in the MPs’ report, the Foreign Office acknowledges the need to disarm the Taliban, yet omits to mention the problems of re-arming these groups, presumably because they are “the good guys”.
What is so tragic is that back in 2001, the West did have the opportunity to assist Afghanistan on its path to peace. But myopia, jealousy and score-settling took precedence over dealing with the political problems that had led to the arrival of the Taliban. Using the maxim ‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend’, the US military took sides in a continuing civil war and co-opted the strongmen of the Northern Alliance. In theory, this was to reduce the need for American ‘boots on the ground’.
These regional chiefs, or warlords, were mostly brought back from exile. They were unpopular, having committed war crimes during the civil war. But instead of sidelining them, the US and UK re-empowered them with cash and weapons and made them the allies’ sole reference points.
They still are, to the bemusement of ordinary Afghans, many of whom, particularly in rural areas, would have preferred a more genuine engagement with the more legitimate local leadership. Unfortunately, the use of strongmen to fight Al Qaida and Taliban has led to chaos in rural areas and a further fragmentation of the tribal system that the West should have worked with instead.
Political legitimacy
As an election monitor in 2002 when a transitional administration was convened to start the state-building process, I witnessed how the warlords were given political legitimacy. The US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, sidelined the popular former king and made a Faustian bargain with the warlords to allow them into the meeting. This paved the way for them to hijack the state-building process.
The democratically elected Afghans were ignored. The press did not report this, perhaps because it did not fit the narrative of democracy and images of Afghan women putting ballots into boxes. But it marked the end of any pretence that the international community had come here to deliver a ‘liberal peace’ (encompassing democracy and human rights). So the strongmen returned to their fiefdoms empowered, while ordinary Afghans were cowed.
The result — extreme corruption, insecurity, inequality, poverty and violence — is what you see today: a crisis of impunity in Afghanistan. Sadly, our complicity in this is all too often ignored and, instead, analysis centres around historical prejudices: “These Afghans have always fought one another.”
Increasingly, these criminal elements often integrated into international organised networks took ministerial or local government positions. They became the state. Which is why so much money has been poured in but has been lost to corruption.
It is why, however many courthouses the British build, or training we give the Afghan judiciary, there cannot be a properly functioning justice system because there is no impartiality. Because the powerbrokers, having evaded the law themselves, have no interest in strong institutions and a decent justice system.
There can never be true reconciliation in Afghan society until the past is dealt with and those who have committed crimes are made accountable.
By the start of 2001, a famous commander of the 1980s anti-Soviet war, the Pashtun Abdul Haq, had spent two years devising a peace plan aimed at toppling the Taliban. The former king was to be the glue to unify different groups, and Haq engaged Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Northern Alliance leader assassinated in 2001, tribal leaders and Taliban within the regime’s military who were willing to defect. They had held meetings in Bonn and Istanbul. People were willing to work with him because of his history as a guerrilla leader and his record of bridging the ethnic divide. However, in Whitehall and Washington DC, his plan was dismissed.
Today the politicians are hoping that the ‘bad guy’ Taliban will somehow reconcile with the western-backed regime of Hamid Karzai. But the reality is that the Taliban hardliners are controlled by Pakistan, while in Afghanistan many people continue supporting the Taliban because they know they will soon be back. They have already filled a vacuum in providing justice and security in rural Afghanistan, where the government has been corrupt, incompetent or hampered by the US military strategy, which has bred insecurity and chaos.
In reality, the West is using the talks to give itself a chance both to get out of Afghanistan and to claim that the state is stable. For both reasons, Pakistan’s cooperation is needed, and Islamabad is driving a hard bargain with the US, even suggesting that Afghan military officers must be trained in Islamabad. In Kabul this year, several Afghans asked me: “Why is the UK appeasing Pakistan?”
Unfortunately, it looks like the need for a quick exit will mean the West caves in to Pakistan’s demands. At that stage, we will have gone full circle in Afghanistan since 2001, with Pakistan once again back in the driving seat and civil war the only realistic outlook.
Afghanistan Climbs Again in FIFA Rankings
TOLOnews By AbulQasm Foushanji 14 April 2013
Afghanistan has climbed another two places in the global rankings of the international football federation FIFA, reaching its highest rank yet since it has been included in the index.
Afghanistan is now placed 139 for April 2013, following an already dramatic 48-place jump in March after qualifying for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2014 Challenge Cup to be played in the Maldives next year.
The national team defeated both Sri Lanka and Mongolia 1-0, but were held by hosts Laos 1-1. However, it was enough to qualify for the tournament proper as the Group C leaders and one of the seven qualifiers out of 20 teams that competed.
It is ranked 21 out of 46 teams in the AFC groupings.
On the international FIFA scale, teams ranked either side of Afghanistan this month are Moldova (138) after dropping seven places and Thailand on 140 after dropping five places.
FIFA said it is committed to seeing the sport develop further in Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan is a remarkable case of football development," the FIFA director of member associations and development Thierry Regenass said earlier this month in an article on the federation's website. "In spite of the difficult situation the country has been facing throughout the past years, we have noticed a concrete improvement in terms of organisation and participation. We aim at further supporting AFF, particularly in the areas of administration and IT."
According to a FIFA article earlier this month, Afghanistan had 19,781 officially registered players in 2006, but that figure has more than doubled to 54,000, according to the records of the Afghan Football Federation.
The Afghan national football coach Yousuf Kargar has said that the best players of the upcoming 2013 Roshan Afghan Premier League will be selected to play in next year's AFC Challenge Cup.
The 2014 winners of the AFC Challenge Cup will participate in the AFC Asian Cup 2015 to be held in Australia.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan April 15, 2013
KABUL -- Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi has accused Pakistan of violating “international norms” by installing a border gate and checkpoint along a disputed border line between the two countries.
Azimi told reporters on April 15 that Kabul will consider "all options" to remove the installations.
In a national security council meeting on April 15, Karzai instructed his ministries of Defense, Interior, and Foreign Affairs to take "immediate action" to see the removal of the installations along the British-drawn Durand Line.
Karzai also sought clarification from the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan on whether it assisted Pakistan in the building of the installations.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said of the new border gate that it was erected without coordination with Kabul.
"Establishing a gate or any other construction must be in conformity of both sides," Azimi said. "Without conformity, establishing a gate on the Durand Line and inside Afghanistan is against all international norms and it's against all the roles and relations of both sides."
He added: "We have all options at hand to remove this [Durand Line] gate and protect Afghanistan's sovereignty."
Pakistan views the Durand Line -- established by British India and the Kingdom of Afghanistan in 1893 -- as an international border.
Kabul, however, has consistently refused to recognize the Durand Line, a boundary that cuts through the ethnic Pashtun heartland.
The United States also considers the Durand Line the modern-day border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The arrival of the British in northern India in the 19th century posed a major challenge to the Afghan and Turkic powers that had dominated the subcontinent for centuries. After losing a major war to the Afghans in 1842, the British eventually captured parts of Afghanistan and formally annexed them through an arbitrary treaty in 1879. Their forces occupied Kabul at the time.
The contentious 1893 treaty between Afghan King Amir Abdur Rahman and Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of British India, formalized the areas under the control of the two governments.
With additional reporting by khaama.com and online.wsj.com
Pakistani army says differences with Afghanistan resolved over border post construction
ISLAMABAD, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani army said on Monday that differences with Afghanistan over the construction of a border post were resolved in a meeting of military officials of the two countries.
Afghan defense minister earlier protested against what it called the "unilateral construction of facilities" by neighboring Pakistan along its eastern border.
Afghan Defense Ministry Spokesman General Zahir Azimi told reporters at a joint press conference in Kabul that the recent construction of a gate and other facilities along the border took place without any coordination with Afghanistan.
Pakistan army said that a high-level Afghan military delegation met with Pakistani officers in Rawalpindi and all ongoing cross border coordination issues including Border Post construction in Mohmand Agency were "discussed and amicably resolved."
A military statement said that both sides agreed on continuation of such bilateral interactions to enhance border coordination and reduce space for detractors.
A delegation of Afghan army officials, headed by Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Afghan National Army Major General Afzal Aman, met Major General Ashfaq Nadeem Ahmed, Director General Military Operations Pakistan Army for talks over border coordination with Pakistani officers.
Pakistan earlier rejected Afghan government's claim that Pakistani military had started unilateral construction and was engaged in physical reinforcement activities along the bordering areas.
Pakistan also stated their forces were renovating an old border post and had also informed Afghan authorities.
In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai ordered the country's defense and interior ministries to take immediate action to remove a newly constructed gate, checkpoints and other installations recently built by Pakistan along the border in Goshta district in the eastern province of Nangarhar with Jalalabad as its capital, 120 km south of Kabul.
Azimi said Afghanistan will use all options to prevent such issue as he said according to agreements between the two countries, before constructing any facilities closer to border areas, the two sides must inform each other.
Seven members of Afghan family killed in roadside bomb blast
Press TV April 15, 2013
Seven members of an Afghan family have been killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Mali Zai region of Zabul Province in southern Afghanistan.
The family was travelling in a trailer towed by a tractor when their vehicle hit the bomb just after the daybreak on Monday, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Four other people were also injured during the incident, the statement said.
No group has yet assumed responsibility for the incident, though the ministry has blamed the explosion on Taliban.
Roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices are by far the most lethal weapons Taliban militants use against Afghan forces, foreign troops, and civilians.
Violence continues to plague Afghanistan despite the presence of thousands of foreign forces, more than a decade after the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.
In the first six months of 2012, over 1,140 Afghan civilians were killed and around 2,000 were wounded, mostly by roadside bombs, according to statistics released by the United Nations. Thirty percent of the casualties were women and children.
Conflicts, blasts claim 30 lives in Afghanistan in 2 days
KABUL, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Continued skirmishes and violent security incidents have claimed the lives of 30 people including Taliban fighters and police since Sunday in the conflict-ridden Afghanistan, officials confirmed Monday.
As part of mounting pressure, Afghan and the NATO-led forces launched mop-up against Taliban militants in Bati Kot district of the eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday. The operation which concluded Monday had left 19 militants including a senior commander Jamal Farouqi dead.
"Afghan National Security Forces (Special Units) and Coalition Forces conducted a clearance operation in Chaharda village, Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province Sunday. During the operation which concluded Monday leaving a senior commander of Taliban named Jamal Farouqi along with his 18 fighters dead," Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Monday.
Five Taliban militants sustained injuries and 10 others were arrested with 15 PK machine guns and 40 AK-47 rifles, the statement contended.
Elimination of Farouqi is a major setback to the Taliban militants, according to the statement.
Taliban militants who have been fighting the Afghan and NATO- led troops are yet to make comment.
Earlier, on Sunday, the Afghan security forces backed by the NATO-led troops targeted and killed a Taliban key commander Safiullah alias Shafiq in Wardak province 35 km west of Kabul, spokesman for Wardak provincial administration Ataullah Khogyani confirmed.
The official described Shafiq's elimination as a major blow to the Taliban militants in Wardak province, but the outfit has yet to confirm the claim.
Six more Taliban militants lost their lives in Naw Bahar district of Zabul province on Sunday as their explosive device went off accidentally, deputy to Zabul provincial governor, Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar said.
The militants, he said, were planting the explosive device on a road to target security forces but the device exploded prematurely killing six on the spot.
Meantime, a roadside bomb organized by Taliban outfit struck a police van in Musa Qala district of Helmand province Sunday killing four police and injuring three others, Nimatullah, governor of Musa Qala district said Monday.
UN: Opium Production on the Rise in Afghanistan
VOA News April 15, 2013
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says opium cultivation has increased in Afghanistan for the third year in a row, and the nation could account for as much as 90 percent of the world's supply of heroin.
The UN released the news in a report Monday saying opium production is particularly high in the most unstable areas of Afghanistan, where the U.S. troop surge helped beat back Taliban influence.
The report says insurgents took advantage of insecurity in those areas -- Helmand and Kandahar provinces, in particular -- to win over popular support and assist opium farmers with their crops.
It says poor weather and blight led to a reduction in supply of opium last year and correspondingly higher prices. The report notes that the higher price of opium makes it an even more attractive crop to grow now.
The UN says this is the third year in a row that opium poppy-growing has increased in Afghanistan, reversing gains from a decade of efforts by the Afghan government to reduce the nation's share in the drug trade.
3rd int'l Afghan-Turkish exhibition kicks off in Kabul
KABUL, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The third International Afghan- Turkish Exhibition kicked off here Monday with an aim to promote local products and advance economic ties between the two countries.
"Afghanistan welcomes the third International Afghan-Turkish Exhibition which opened today in Kabul," Deputy Director of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce & Industries (ACCI) Hatiqullah Nasrat told Xinhua.
According to Nasrat, the Afghan traders will display their products in 40 booths while 35 booths will showcase different Turkish products.
The four-day display which is held in the City Star Hall near Kabul international airport was organized by ACCI and the Afghan- Turkish Industrialists & Traders Association (ATSIAD).
"The objectives of the exhibition are boosting business relationship between the two countries, finding market for Afghan and Turkish quality products in both countries, rising awareness of traders on current market and investment circumstance in two countries and encouraging policymakers to pave essential grounds," the ACCI said on its website.
The exhibition is expected to attract 10,000 visitors.
The Afghan economy was badly affected by decades of war and neglect. Presently around 3,000 small and medium plants are operating in the country which produce light items such as biscuits, macaroni, tissue papers, medicines, soaps, washing liquid, drinking water, juice, soft drinks and other products, according to officials.
According to the agreement signed by ATSIAD and ACCI, the two government-backed agencies will be organizing such exhibitions in the next 10 years in Afghanistan.
"During 2012, balance trade rate between Afghanistan and Turkey reached 297 million U.S. dollars. Over the past two years, export rate from Afghanistan to Turkey has increased by 30 percent that indicate impact of two previous exhibitions," the ACCI said.
Afghanistan: high expectations of record opium crop
UN report reveals rapid growth of poppy farming as western troops get ready to withdraw, which reflects particularly badly on Britain
The Guardian By Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul 15 April 2013
Twelve years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is heading for a near-record opium crop as instability pushes up the amount of land planted with illegal but lucrative poppies, according to a bleak UN report.
The rapid growth of poppy farming as western troops head home reflects particularly badly on Britain, which was designated "lead nation" for counter-narcotics work over a decade ago.
"Poppy cultivation is not only expected to expand in areas where it already existed in 2012 but also in new areas or areas where poppy cultivation was stopped," the Afghanistan Opium Winter Risk Assessment found.
The growth in opium cultivation reflects both spreading instability and concerns about the future. Farmers are more likely to plant the deadly crop in areas of high violence or where they have not received any agricultural aid, the report said.
Opium traders are often happy to provide seeds, fertilisers and even advance payments to encourage crops, leaving farmers who do not have western or government agricultural help very vulnerable to their inducements.
At the same time the more powerful figures in the drugs trade, from traffickers to corrupt government officials, who take over half the profit from each kilo of opium, have shrinking opportunities to earn money from Nato or international aid contracts – and may be preparing a war chest for upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.
"Opium cultivation is up for the third successive year, and production is heading towards record levels," said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Afghanistan head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. "People are hedging against an insecure future both politically and economically."
Just 14 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces are now "poppy free", down from 20 in 2010. In three provinces, the spring sowing was the first time this decade that farmers had risked an attempt at growing opium.
The only figures showing a fall in cultivation, for western Herat province, may actually be due to a statistics blip. The UN was forced to use external data last year instead of the satellite images that are usually the basis of poppy growing calculations, and local officials protested heavily that the opium crop there had been overestimated.
If this year's poppy fields are harvested without disruption, the country would likely regain its status as producer of 90% of the world's opium. Afghanistan's share of the deadly market slipped to around 75% after bad weather and a blight slashed production over the past two years.
But the decline in opium production also drove up prices, to a record $300 a kilogram. Prices have now slipped by over $100 but are still far above historic levels, helping tempt more farmers to turn land over to poppy.
It seems unlikely that the poor harvests of the last year will be repeated; there have been no reports of blight and the exceptionally bitter winter of 2011-12 was followed this year by a milder one, creating expectations of a large crop.
The increase has come despite a marked improvement in Afghanistan's specialised counter-narcotics units, Lemahieu said. Fear of eradication has become a far more significant reason for farmers to stick to legal crops than in the past, the report found.
But overall the government and aid community has not prioritised efforts to cut back a crop and trade that feeds global markets for heroin, Lemahieu said, despite its corrosive effect on security, corruption and trust in Kabul.
Typical of the official neglect are the 22 "national priority programmes" drawn up by Kabul to focus aid money and diplomatic efforts on its key development concerns including justice and education. Counter-narcotics was not one of them, nor has it been put at the heart of the other programmes.
"We need to have counter-narcotics dealt with seriously by the entire government as well as the aid community," Lemahieu said. "One of the big missing links here is providing for the communities themselves."
Eradication programmes that do not provide farmers with benefits such as healthcare and education, and support growing other crops will just push the Taliban or other insurgent groups that do tolerate or encourage poppy production, he added.
Afghan Interpreters for the U.S. Are Left Stranded and at Risk
The New York Times By Azam Ahmed April 14, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - The first time the Taliban tried to kill him, Sulaiman was driving to his base when his truck was hit by a rocket, knocking him down a cliff.
The insurgents knew his vehicle, its license plate number and, most important, his occupation: a high-value combat interpreter for United States Special Operations troops in Afghanistan.
They left him for dead in that attack, in July 2011, but he got out with a broken collarbone, two broken ribs and a new sense of caution. Since then, he has survived two more attacks.
Sulaiman’s American supervisor no longer lets him travel by car when he leaves his military base to visit his family. But no one feels that is protection enough, given the premium that the Taliban put on killing Afghans who help American forces.
His best hope is one that has remained beyond his grasp despite years of effort: an American visa.
Sulaiman is one of thousands of Afghans who have directly aided the Western military mission here and are waiting to hear from the State Department on the special immigration visa applications. In Iraq, Congressional legislative action helped thousands of at-risk Iraqis get out, but Afghans find themselves in a more difficult situation, with fewer visas and fewer options.
Now, the backlog is growing. As the American pullout hits full pace and bases across the country are shut down, hundreds of Afghans have suddenly found themselves without jobs, leaving them without military protection despite the continued risk of attack by the Taliban.
The danger is especially real for the estimated 8,000 interpreters who have worked for the Americans. Though no one tracks the targeted violence figures, anecdotal evidence is grim — at least a few people are said to be killed each month. In February, two interpreters were gunned down in Logar Province south of Kabul, the same province where Sulaiman was first attacked. In December, an interpreter working in Jalalabad was singled out while heading home on leave. The Taliban killed his two brothers in the attack.
Sulaiman, 26, who asked to be identified only by his first name so as not to put his family at greater risk, is one of the relatively lucky ones. He is still employed, and his American military colleagues are working hard to help him.
But he is still waiting. He believes a 2008 visa application was lost in the bureaucratic ether. A second application, in late 2011, yielded an embassy interview last year. Since then, though, he has received automated responses to his entreaties. The State Department declined to talk about his case.
Several of his Special Operations colleagues have fired off letters imploring the State Department to expedite his application, adding to the stack of recommendations lauding his skills and courage.
“If this takes too long, if there is an error somewhere, he’s compromised and his family is compromised,” said his current supervisor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security reasons. “We kind of feel like we’re watching the clock wind down right now.”
The urgency among Afghans to receive visas mirrors the situation in Iraq on the eve of the American military pullout there. Only in Iraq, the system, while still problematic, has been better equipped to deal with the visa situation brought on by the withdrawal, thanks to the intervention of lawmakers, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts in 2008.
Among the disparities between the programs are the number of visas available — 7,500 in Afghanistan versus 25,000 in Iraq; the family members eligible to join the applicant — strictly wife and dependent children in Afghanistan versus parents, siblings and all children in Iraq. Other differences include the additional avenues for recourse — almost none for Afghans, versus the ability to apply directly to the United States for refugee status as an Iraqi.
So far, about 22 percent of the available visas for Iraqis have been granted, according to a letter to the State Department and White House from concerned members of Congress. The figure is closer to 12 percent for Afghans, the letter states.
“In my opinion, the story in Afghanistan is a sorry, shabby echo of what’s happening in Iraq,” said Kirk W. Johnson, the founder of the List Project, an organization that assists Iraqi refugees in obtaining visas to the United States.
Thousands of Afghan applicants are caught in an approval process that lasts more than two years. As many as 5,000 were waiting to begin the process as of last fall.
The State Department declined to comment on the number of applications submitted, the backlog or any phase of the visa approval process. Privately, some officials say the consular division has doubled resources to increase its processing ability, though that has not been publicly announced or confirmed.
To kick-start the process, some American lawmakers say that as early as this month, they plan to introduce legislation to extend the timeline for visa programs in Iraq and Afghanistan and to broaden the type of family members who can come along.
“The extension and reform of these programs is a matter of national security, and these programs represent an important tool for the U.S. operations in Afghanistan,” according to a March 5 letter sent to the White House and the State Department, signed by 19 members of Congress.
Among the things that will not change is that Afghans who worked for American companies, including the news media and nongovernmental organizations, will still not be eligible for the special visas, even though such Iraqis are eligible. And legislators are not seeking additional visas for Afghans.
As it stands, issuing the available visas has been hard enough.
State Department figures through December suggest the agency would have to grant about 1,200 visas a month to use all 7,500 visas before the so-called Afghan Allies program expires at the end of fiscal year 2013. Put another way, consular officials would need to issue more than four times the visas they did in their most productive year, 2009, every month.
State Department officials say there is no priority given to certain applications — such a measure would be hard to enforce fairly.
Still, Sulaiman’s situation would seem to present a clear-cut case of need.
He has been working with the Americans for 10 years. When he was 16, he caught the attention of a Special Operations team by confronting them in English as they walked through his neighborhood. Amused, they asked him if he wanted a job. He started training immediately.
Since then, he has worked as a combat interpreter for coalition forces in all but four provinces across the country, translating battle strategy to Afghan forces in the middle of firefights and high-level meetings with elders in contested villages, among other efforts. He has been on more than 300 missions, and his ties to Special Operations put him in even more danger than most interpreters.
The job has also cost him a sense of identity. Having spent so much of his adolescent years around American military bases, he struggles to relate to other Afghans. At times, he seems almost startlingly American: he speaks English with a faint Midwestern accent and wears a North Face jacket. Everyone on base calls him Sam. “I’ve spent more time inside the base with Americans than I have with my family,” Sulaiman said. “I feel more at home on the base.”
His commitment, his supervisors say, has never wavered. If he makes it to the United States, he hopes to join the military and attend the Army Ranger School.
“I could ask Sam to do anything tomorrow, and he wouldn’t even blink,” his American supervisor said.
But Sulaiman’s desperation is growing. In December, fearing another attack, he sent another e-mail to the American Embassy in Kabul. In it, he explained that he had not been able to go home for months because of the risk to him and his family, and implored them to look at his visa application again.
An auto-reply arrived in his in-box a few hours later: his application required further processing.
“Individuals who believe they are in peril in their place of residence should consider leaving that location and moving to another nearby safe place, inside or outside the country,” the e-mail said.
Angelina Jolie, beautiful stranger behind Afghan school
AFP 14/04/2013
Jolie, a special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, built the school in Qala-i-Gudar last year and is planning to open more in Afghanistan with profits from a newly-launched jewellery line that she has designed.
The Hollywood star visited Qala-i-Gudar in 2011, and she retains an avid fanbase among residents who have never seen any of her films and have no idea about her global fame as an actress.
Acting is controversial in the country, with many conservative Afghans associating it with un-Islamic behaviour and even prostitution.
Homaira, aged 13, is one of 250 pupils at the all-girls school who has benefited from the new facilities, which opened for their first full academic year last month.
“We used to study in the backyard of the mosque, it was hard,” Homaira told AFP. “Now we are so happy to have a school. It’s a beautiful place.”
Asked who built her school, Homaira smiled and answered, “the beautiful American lady.”
The two-storey building, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Kabul, has large windows and neat rows of desks. On the outside, which is painted light blue, is a plaque proudly boasting of its founder.
“Through the generous contribution of Angelina Jolie UNHCR Special Envoy,” it reads.
Even headmaster Gul Rahmman Ayaz appeared ignorant of Jolie’s superstar celebrity, apparently believing she was a senior UNHCR official.
“Is she?” Ayaz asked doubtfully after learning Jolie was an actress. “Well whatever, she is a great woman, very kind woman,” he added with a smile.
Ayaz recalled Jolie visiting the mosque’s open backyard, which at the time served as a classroom, and sitting cross-legged with villagers discussing her plan to found a modern school.
“She was very humble. She sat on dust. She didn’t behave like a movie star,” Ayaz said, remembering Jolie arrived in a UN-marked vehicle and wore a modest black outfit and brown headscarf.
Sabera, the school’s only female teacher, believed Jolie was a reconstruction expert sent to build schools in Afghanistan as it struggles to emerge from decades of war that left the village in ruins.
“I thought she was an engineer,” said Sabera, 30, who like most Afghans uses only one name. “I have never seen her movies but I hope she comes back.”
Under the hardline Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, cinema was banned and girls were prohibited from attending school.
Qala-i-Gudar was on the frontline in fighting between the Taliban regime in Kabul and Northern Alliance forces.
Today Afghans have a huge appetite for cinema, though they prefer the melodrama and music of Bollywood fare to US blockbusters.
Officials say millions of children, about 40 per cent of them girls, have returned to school — one of the key achievements of the billion-dollar international aid effort since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban.
But, according to Kabir Haqmal, head of public affairs at the education ministry, half of the 10.5 million students still study in the open air or tents, and 50 per cent of about 200,000 teachers are unqualified.
“Anyone investing in Afghanistan’s education is investing in the future of Afghanistan,” Haqmal told AFP. “I know this school was built by Angelina Jolie and we appreciate her work.”
Jolie, partner of Brad Pitt and star of the Lara Croft movies, has a long record of humanitarian work and told the E! News website that she hopes to fund more schools from the proceeds of her new jewellery line called “Style of Jolie”.
In Qala-i-Gudar, as in much of rural Afghanistan, there is little access to television. Out of a dozen girls interviewed by AFP, half don’t have a set at home. Another has one, but says “the aerial has been broken for a year”.
Afghanistan: Challenges of security handover
BBC News By Caroline Wyatt Defence 14 April 2013
As the war in Afghanistan fades from the front pages in the West as fewer international troops die, the human cost of the conflict is increasingly being borne by Afghan forces.
On Friday, the Taliban attacked and killed at least 13 Afghan soldiers in the Naray district of Kunar, an area near the border with Pakistan long contested and used by insurgents and foreign fighters as a transit route.
The insurgents attacked just before dawn.
It was yet another test of Afghan national security forces as Nato steps back from its front-line role, ahead of the withdrawal of coalition combat troops by the end of 2014.
The soldiers killed were in what was deemed to be one of the most effective Afghan fighting units. 'Operational intensity'
The death rate for Afghan forces has risen over the past year or so while the number of deaths among coalition troops - such as the UK's - has fallen.
In the 12 months up to March 2013, 1,170 Afghan soldiers were killed and another 3,000 wounded out of an army of 146,000, according to the Afghan ministry of defence in Kabul.
The Afghan police suffered 1,800 deaths in 2012.
The Afghans put the rate down to a greater number of Afghan troops overall, and the fact that they are now conducting operations on their own with the summer fighting season fast approaching.
For the UK, fatalities peaked in 2009 with 108 British deaths, according to the independent iCasualties website. Most of those were in Helmand.
In 2010, at a time when British forces were still very much in the lead in operations against the insurgency, that figure was 103.
In 2011, as the UK and the rest of the coalition started handing over the security lead to Afghan forces, 46 British troops died. And in 2012, as the handover progressed, there were 44 British deaths.
There has been a similar fall in the number of coalition deaths since 2010, when 711 coalition troops died - compared with 566, in 2011, and 402, in 2012.
And so far this year, three members of the UK military have been killed in Afghanistan, compared with 16 from January-April 2012.
Over the next few months, Afghan forces are expected to take over security across the country, though coalition commanders insist their troops remain on hand as a combat force should they be needed.
The deputy commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), Lt Gen Nick Carter, said he was worried about "the rate of attrition that the Afghan forces are having to cope with presently".
"And that is why it is important that we work closely with them so that they manage this upcoming period of high operational intensity," he told BBC News in Kabul.
"What we can't afford the Afghans to do during the course of this summer is to fail.
"We regard Afghan confidence as our centre of gravity. To that end, if the Afghans need our help we are there."
He said the Afghans taking the lead on security "inevitably means that they are more likely to take casualties than we are".
But he insisted: "They are demonstrably still willing to fight and the Afghan security forces are better and better prepared for what lies ahead.
"But of course the summer is a challenging time." Suicide bombs
The Afghan National Army, which has to replace and train nearly a third of its force every year because of desertion and attrition, is facing an insurgency that has not given up the fight.
The Taliban seem to be focusing more, so far this year, on directly taking on Afghan forces than it did in previous years, when its main tactics included roadside bombs and suicide bombs.
Suicide bombs followed by the use of firepower by insurgents at close range appear to be on the rise - as on 3 April when the Taliban carried out a complex attack in Farah, in western Afghanistan.
It began with a suicide bomb ahead of hostage-taking in a court-house.
That was followed by an all-day gun battle with Afghan national security forces which left more than 40 people dead and injured more than 90 in total.
But the Nato-led coalition says Afghan forces are more than capable of taking on the fight as the west starts to withdraw.
Task Force Helmand outgoing commander, Brigadier Bob Bruce, said Afghan forces in the province have "developed phenomenally, not just in capability but also in confidence".
His successor, Brig Rupert Jones, added: "In areas such as medical support and casualty evacuation, what we need to do over the summer is provide that assistance to Afghan forces, but concurrently develop their abilities."
The coalition withdrawal from Helmand is gathering pace - of the 37 bases that British forces occupied last year, only 12 remain.
But while Afghan forces are bearing the brunt of the fighting and the dying, a huge number of Afghan civilians - 2,754 - were killed in the conflict.
That makes civilians the greatest casualties of the war, with four out five of those deaths caused by the Taliban.
Lawmakers Approve IEC Structure, Complaints Commission Law
TOLOnews By Abdul Wali Arian 14 April 2013
A joint commission of senators and parliamentarians on Sunday approved the laws governing the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) with only the final consent of President Hamid Karzai pending.
Rafiullah Gul, senate second vice chair, said that this law is separate from the election law and does not need the majority of the parliament or senate approval. "There is no problem. The president might have concerns, but this law is not discussed in parliament or senate," Gul said Sunday. The IEC welcomed the news of the commission's approval but noted that the president's signature was still needed.
"We consider this an effectual step but it should be signed after which the commission will continue its activities," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.
"We should have an Electoral Complaints Commission before the month of Sunbula (August) and have the candidates of presidential and provincial council elections registered. In case the electoral law is not approved we'll have no other option but to hold the elections based on legislative decree by the president," he added.
The joint commission has decided that the two international members of the ECC will be omitted from the law and a separate committee will be set up to select the members of the IEC.
This comes as the electoral law is still wandering between the various parliamentary commissions, causing some distress as the approval delay means the election will be based on a legislative decree by Karzai.
The parliamentary administrative board said the law will be discussed in a meeting next week. "We hope the electoral law will be put on the agenda of the house next week and that it will be approved soon," said Sayed Ikram, first secretary of parliament.
The presidential election slated for April 5 next year is seen as a pivotal event for Afghanistan's near future as the political transition coincides with the security transition. A fair and transparent poll is crucial to the political transition going smoothly.
Afghanistan held hostage by warlords
The use of strongmen to fight Al Qaida and Taliban has fragmented the tribal system and made civil war a real possibility after US forces leave
Gulf News By Lucy Morgan Edwards April 14, 2013
Last week the UK’s defence select committee published a report which concluded that civil war in Afghanistan is likely when international forces leave next year. If the predictions of ‘Securing the Future of Afghanistan’ are correct, the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence share much of the blame. When I returned to Kabul in January and asked an American journalist I’d known in 2001 his view of the situation, he said: “When you look at the facts on the ground, it is hard to believe that civil war is not inevitable.”
The facts on the ground include the militias the West has set up in the countryside in a desperate attempt to shore up the barely legitimate Hamid Karzai regime. Sadly, these militias, plus the many Afghan private security companies, have contributed to a proliferation of armed groups that will be roaming the country after 2014. Ironically, in the MPs’ report, the Foreign Office acknowledges the need to disarm the Taliban, yet omits to mention the problems of re-arming these groups, presumably because they are “the good guys”.
What is so tragic is that back in 2001, the West did have the opportunity to assist Afghanistan on its path to peace. But myopia, jealousy and score-settling took precedence over dealing with the political problems that had led to the arrival of the Taliban. Using the maxim ‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend’, the US military took sides in a continuing civil war and co-opted the strongmen of the Northern Alliance. In theory, this was to reduce the need for American ‘boots on the ground’.
These regional chiefs, or warlords, were mostly brought back from exile. They were unpopular, having committed war crimes during the civil war. But instead of sidelining them, the US and UK re-empowered them with cash and weapons and made them the allies’ sole reference points.
They still are, to the bemusement of ordinary Afghans, many of whom, particularly in rural areas, would have preferred a more genuine engagement with the more legitimate local leadership. Unfortunately, the use of strongmen to fight Al Qaida and Taliban has led to chaos in rural areas and a further fragmentation of the tribal system that the West should have worked with instead.
Political legitimacy
As an election monitor in 2002 when a transitional administration was convened to start the state-building process, I witnessed how the warlords were given political legitimacy. The US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, sidelined the popular former king and made a Faustian bargain with the warlords to allow them into the meeting. This paved the way for them to hijack the state-building process.
The democratically elected Afghans were ignored. The press did not report this, perhaps because it did not fit the narrative of democracy and images of Afghan women putting ballots into boxes. But it marked the end of any pretence that the international community had come here to deliver a ‘liberal peace’ (encompassing democracy and human rights). So the strongmen returned to their fiefdoms empowered, while ordinary Afghans were cowed.
The result — extreme corruption, insecurity, inequality, poverty and violence — is what you see today: a crisis of impunity in Afghanistan. Sadly, our complicity in this is all too often ignored and, instead, analysis centres around historical prejudices: “These Afghans have always fought one another.”
Increasingly, these criminal elements often integrated into international organised networks took ministerial or local government positions. They became the state. Which is why so much money has been poured in but has been lost to corruption.
It is why, however many courthouses the British build, or training we give the Afghan judiciary, there cannot be a properly functioning justice system because there is no impartiality. Because the powerbrokers, having evaded the law themselves, have no interest in strong institutions and a decent justice system.
There can never be true reconciliation in Afghan society until the past is dealt with and those who have committed crimes are made accountable.
By the start of 2001, a famous commander of the 1980s anti-Soviet war, the Pashtun Abdul Haq, had spent two years devising a peace plan aimed at toppling the Taliban. The former king was to be the glue to unify different groups, and Haq engaged Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Northern Alliance leader assassinated in 2001, tribal leaders and Taliban within the regime’s military who were willing to defect. They had held meetings in Bonn and Istanbul. People were willing to work with him because of his history as a guerrilla leader and his record of bridging the ethnic divide. However, in Whitehall and Washington DC, his plan was dismissed.
Today the politicians are hoping that the ‘bad guy’ Taliban will somehow reconcile with the western-backed regime of Hamid Karzai. But the reality is that the Taliban hardliners are controlled by Pakistan, while in Afghanistan many people continue supporting the Taliban because they know they will soon be back. They have already filled a vacuum in providing justice and security in rural Afghanistan, where the government has been corrupt, incompetent or hampered by the US military strategy, which has bred insecurity and chaos.
In reality, the West is using the talks to give itself a chance both to get out of Afghanistan and to claim that the state is stable. For both reasons, Pakistan’s cooperation is needed, and Islamabad is driving a hard bargain with the US, even suggesting that Afghan military officers must be trained in Islamabad. In Kabul this year, several Afghans asked me: “Why is the UK appeasing Pakistan?”
Unfortunately, it looks like the need for a quick exit will mean the West caves in to Pakistan’s demands. At that stage, we will have gone full circle in Afghanistan since 2001, with Pakistan once again back in the driving seat and civil war the only realistic outlook.
Afghanistan Climbs Again in FIFA Rankings
TOLOnews By AbulQasm Foushanji 14 April 2013
Afghanistan has climbed another two places in the global rankings of the international football federation FIFA, reaching its highest rank yet since it has been included in the index.
Afghanistan is now placed 139 for April 2013, following an already dramatic 48-place jump in March after qualifying for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2014 Challenge Cup to be played in the Maldives next year.
The national team defeated both Sri Lanka and Mongolia 1-0, but were held by hosts Laos 1-1. However, it was enough to qualify for the tournament proper as the Group C leaders and one of the seven qualifiers out of 20 teams that competed.
It is ranked 21 out of 46 teams in the AFC groupings.
On the international FIFA scale, teams ranked either side of Afghanistan this month are Moldova (138) after dropping seven places and Thailand on 140 after dropping five places.
FIFA said it is committed to seeing the sport develop further in Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan is a remarkable case of football development," the FIFA director of member associations and development Thierry Regenass said earlier this month in an article on the federation's website. "In spite of the difficult situation the country has been facing throughout the past years, we have noticed a concrete improvement in terms of organisation and participation. We aim at further supporting AFF, particularly in the areas of administration and IT."
According to a FIFA article earlier this month, Afghanistan had 19,781 officially registered players in 2006, but that figure has more than doubled to 54,000, according to the records of the Afghan Football Federation.
The Afghan national football coach Yousuf Kargar has said that the best players of the upcoming 2013 Roshan Afghan Premier League will be selected to play in next year's AFC Challenge Cup.
The 2014 winners of the AFC Challenge Cup will participate in the AFC Asian Cup 2015 to be held in Australia.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com