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British Soldiers, Afghans Killed In Roadside Bombs
May 1, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Three NATO soldiers killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand have been identified as British.
Britain's Ministry of Defense says their armored vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device on April 30 while on a routine patrol in Nahr-e Saraj district.
More than 440 British service personnel have died since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001.
Nine Afghans were killed in separate attacks on April 30.
In southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials say a roadside bomb in the Shah Wali district of Kandahar Province killed three Afghan civilians and wounded five.
Another roadside bomb in the southern province of Uruzgan killed four Afghan civilians and wounded two.
And in the northern Kunduz Province, a roadside bomb targeted local police commander Miran, killing him and his driver.
Two other police officers were reported wounded in the explosion.
With reporting by AFP and AP
Taliban kill senior peace envoy in south Afghanistan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters killed a senior member of Afghanistan's peace council on Wednesday, officials said, dealing another blow to nascent peace efforts with the insurgency.
President Hamid Karzai formed a 70-member High Peace Council in 2010 in a bid to reach a peace settlement with the insurgents, but little has been achieved, with the Taliban saying they will not talk with the Afghan government.
Malim Shahwali, the council's chief in the southern province of Helmand, was traveling to the violence-plagued Gereshk district when insurgents ambushed his convoy, said the provincial governor's spokesman, Omar Zwak.
"First an explosion hit his convoy and then the Taliban gunmen opened fire, killing Malim Shahwali and two bodyguards," Zwak told Reuters.
Three policemen and an Afghan soldier were wounded, Zwak said.
The attack came a day after three British soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Helmand.
In 2011, a suicide bomber disguised as a peace envoy killed the then chairman of the peace council, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
In May last year, gunmen in Kabul assassinated Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban minister turned peace negotiator.
Helmand, which is the largest producer of opium in Afghanistan, has been the scene of the some of the fiercest fighting between NATO-led foreign forces and their Afghan government allies and the Taliban.
Fear is mounting that Afghanistan could be engulfed in turmoil after the pullout of most NATO combat troops by the end of 2014. A presidential election is also due that year.
NATO and its partners are training Afghanistan's 350,000-strong security forces, though questions remain over how well the Afghans will be able to tackle the insurgency.
Last week, the Taliban vowed to start a new campaign of suicide attacks on foreign military bases, diplomatic areas as well as the "Karzai regime" as part of their spring offensive.
(Reporting by Mohammad Sarwar; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Afghan Schoolgirls Hospitalized After Suspected Poisoning
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 1, 2013
KABUL -- A number of girls appear to have been poisoned at a school in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
A teacher at the Sultan Razia High School told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that students fell ill after smelling some kind of gas when they entered their classrooms on May 1.
The Education Ministry said that 20 schoolgirls have been hospitalized.
However, a doctor -- who gave his name as Amin -- at the Kabul hospital that received the patients told the Reuters news agency that 150 girls had been admitted and 10 were in critical condition.
Hospital officials also told Reuters that the girls may have become ill from something they drank.
There have been false alarms in the past, but there have also been many substantiated cases of such attacks by religious conservative elements opposed to education for girls.
High Peace Council Member Killed In Ambush
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, officials have announced that a member of the country's High Peace Council has been killed in an ambush by militants in the south of the country.
A spokesman for Helmand Province's governor told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that Malim Shawali, his driver, and two bodyguards died in the attack in the Greshk district on May 1.
Spokesman Omar Zwak said Shawali's convoy was first hit by an explosion, and then "Taliban gunmen opened fire."
A number of others were wounded.
The High Peace Council was established in 2010 by President Hamid Karzai to engage in peace negotiations with Taliban leaders.
On April 30, three British soldiers were also killed in Helmand Province.
Britain's Ministry of Defense says their armored vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device while on a routine patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district.
Nine Afghans were killed in separate attacks around Afghanistan on the same day.
With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa
Afghanistan's Civil Society Blossoms
The fight for democracy and stability can succeed, but short-term deals with the Taliban would hurt the effort.
The Wall Street Journal By Nader Nadery Opinion 30 April 2013
Kabul - President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan finally seems to be losing patience with Pakistan and the Taliban. He lashed out at Pakistan this month for its unilateral installation of gates at a disputed borderline and condemned recent Taliban attacks on civilians as "un-Islamic" and "inhuman."
After years of warm entreaties to his "brothers," it seems that Mr. Karzai finally understands what many Afghans, including myself, have been arguing for years: Talks are futile as long as Pakistan isn't cooperating faithfully and the Taliban is waging its war of terror.
One hopes that Mr. Karzai's meeting in Brussels last week with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Pakistani officials will yield results, but for the past six years the Afghan government has tried unsuccessfully to make inroads with the Taliban and its supporters.
In December, I participated in a rare meeting in Chantilly, France, which brought together Taliban representatives and Afghans representing a broad spectrum of political leaders, government officials and parliamentarians.
The gap between the perceptions of the Taliban and the rest of the participants was stark. The Taliban representatives' remarks focused mainly on war, while the other participants talked of Afghanistan's democratic future rooted in the rule of law, elections and accountable government. The meeting reflected the dual reality in Afghan life today. From the most remote places in Urozgan province to vibrant cities like Jelalabad and Herat, I see this contrast. There are small but highly visible groups of Taliban who are rooted in the country's past—a past wracked by repression, lawlessness and a painful isolation from the rest of the world.
But a growing majority of Afghans has left that past behind. While suicide attacks and violence still make the headlines, most Afghans are now focused on jobs, the rule of law, accountability and the coming elections in 2014.
There is a new generation of social and political movements springing up—including political and civic groups like Afghanistan 1400 and A3, which stands for Afghanistan Analysis and Awareness—led by young, diverse and independent thinkers and activists. They show a vision, a confidence and seriousness of purpose that stand in contrast to Afghanistan's slowly withering older parties.
The foreign press doesn't give the story enough attention, but the international investment in Afghanistan over the past 12 years—particularly in its civil society—is now paying dividends.
The women's political movement, for example, is no longer a few courageous activists standing up to violence. Today, a diverse range of Afghans, including community elders, members of the local media and government, speak out against violence toward women, including sexual abuse and rape, and are demanding greater accountability and justice.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission recently held a series of public hearings across the country on so-called honor killings, the horrid practice of murdering a wife, daughter or sister for supposedly bringing shame to the family.
Survivors of attempted honor killings spoke out, and in response received pledges from government officials that they would fight against this stain on our society. Ten years ago, public meetings of that sort on such a sensitive matter would have been unthinkable.
While the international community often despairs about widespread corruption here, there are signs that Afghan civil society is gaining the strength to fight back. The Free and Fair Election Foundation, which I head, is pushing for electoral transparency and demanding accountability of parliamentarians to their constituencies.
But we're by no means alone. Watchdog groups like Afghan Anti Corruption Network, Integrity Watch, and Equality for Peace and Democracy, as well as newspapers such as Hasht-e-Sobh, have become bold advocates for cleaner, more transparent government. Their advocacy recently triggered a parliamentary effort to impeach a minister accused of corruption.
These are remarkable gains, made possible by Afghans' deep sense of commitment to a better future and the generous support of the U.S. and other partners.
The reality in Afghanistan today is that civil society is blossoming. Our fight for a stable and democratic Afghanistan seems achievable. We cannot allow this progress to be undermined by hasty decisions or short-term deals with the Taliban in anticipation of the 2014 elections and the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
The Taliban and their supporters in Pakistan would not only undermine these gains, they would make Afghanistan once again a haven for terrorists. Two decades of experience teach us that even if the Taliban can be persuaded to negotiate, their murderous instincts are not a thing of the past.
The Afghan government and its international partners should do more than promise that talks with the Taliban won't compromise our hard-earned gains in human rights, women's rights, civil society and democracy. The government and its partners should instead boldly declare that they will be pursuing an accountability agenda, led by an international criminal-justice mechanism, designed to finally end the Taliban's appalling crimes against the civilian population. That, perhaps more than anything, would help Afghans continue their brave struggle to build a stable democracy.
Mr. Nadery is the executive chairman of the Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan.
A version of this article appeared May 1, 2013, on page A17 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Afghanistan's Civil Society Blossoms.
Brawl Shuts Pakistani-Afghan Border Crossing
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan April 30, 2013
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Pakistan has closed its main border crossing with Afghanistan along the highway linking Kabul and Islamabad.
The crossing is at Torkham, a town straddling both sides of the border within the Khyber Pass.
A Pakistani border official told RFE/RL that the April 30 closure was ordered because an Afghan border guard brawled with a Pakistani official.
On April 29, Islamabad tightened entry requirements in connection with May 11 parliamentary elections, ordering that only Afghans with valid documents could cross into Pakistan.
Before the tightening, crossing the border without travel documents was routine.
As a result of the change, four Afghans trying to reach a Peshawar hospital were held up at the border on April 29 and died early the next day.
The brawl that led to the border closure broke out shortly after the four Afghans died.
Russia looks ahead to the new Afghanistan
Yevgeny Shestakov is confident that Russia isn’t going to send its troops to Afghanistan after the coalition forces withdraw in 2014.
Telegraph.co.uk By Yevgeny Shestakov, special to RBTH 30 Apr 2013
Will Russia send its troops to Afghanistan after the coalition forces withdraw in 2014? The subject was brought up after media reports cited Russian Defence Ministry representative Sergei Koshelev as saying Russian repair bases may be established in Afghanistan. The Defence Ministry and the Foreign Ministry subsequently denied the reports, however.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich insisted: “Moscow’s position, that a return of the Russian military to Afghanistan is impossible, remains unchanged.” He said the speculation was the “fruit of someone’s sick imagination”.
While we know there’s no smoke without fire, we can be confident that Russia isn’t going to send its troops to Afghanistan. So far as I know, there are no such plans within the CIS or the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, either.
At the same time, let’s not forget that Moscow and Kabul have a military and technical co-operation agreement, under which, among other things, Russian specialists repair Afghanistan’s Russian-made military equipment. It’s possible that the media mistook some of this work in Afghanistan as a preparatory step towards the establishment of Russian bases.
But the pull-out of a considerable portion of the peacekeeping forces from Afghanistan in 2014 is forcing Moscow to re-evaluate the threats that will emerge on the borders of CIS countries.
The situation appears even more uncertain given Afghanistan’s presidential elections scheduled for April 2014, in which the two-term president, Hamid Karzai, is constitutionally barred from standing. This election could lead to new instability, especially taking into account Mr Karzai’s recent statements about the possibility of letting the Taliban ideologue Mullah Omar take part in the election process.
Viktor Ivanov, director of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, told a recent international conference in Moscow on Afghanistan’s future beyond 2014 about an alarming increase in heroin and marijuana production in Afghanistan. He said Afghan narcotics, supplied to 100 countries worldwide, killed about one million people last year.
But the most dangerous thing, Mr Ivanov said, was that the drug trafficking was now fuelling regional tensions. Drug traffickers were actively influencing the country’s political development, turning Afghanistan into a global drugs production centre where the government is forced to serve the interests of criminal cartels.
Western experts see three more or less realistic scenarios in Afghanistan. Under the first scenario, the Afghan government would cling to power, maintain the status quo, and maintain the country’s integrity after the presidential election and the international coalition’s pull-out. Under the second scenario, Afghanistan would split into two parts along ethnic lines.
Kabul would keep the northern part under its control, while the armed opposition would come to power in a new state in the south. British experts have offered a third scenario, which Russia also recognises as being a distinct possibility.
They believe that after the presidential election, a creeping decentralisation will start in Afghanistan. This will result in unlimited autonomy springing up in the country’s southern regions densely populated by the Pashtun people. Some field commanders fighting against Kabul have already supported this plan.
In answer to the question about the steps the CIS countries were planning to take to adapt to changes in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the future of Afghanistan had been discussed at a meeting of CIS foreign ministers on April 5 in Uzbekistan.
Mr Lavrov said: “The Collective Security Treaty Organisation has a common strategy vis-à-vis Afghanistan, there are relevant plans within the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, and there are joint efforts of special services at the anti-terrorist centre that exists as part of the CIS.”
He also said all CIS countries agreed it was necessary to secure the borders of Afghanistan’s neighbours, assist Kabul with its efforts to strengthen its security forces, and help Afghanistan resolve its economic problems. Russian experts believe the development of a new economic strategy for Afghanistan will change the course of the country’s development.
Yuri Krupnov, chairman of the Society for Friendship and Co-operation with Afghanistan, said the country would need $50bn (£32bn) for accelerated industrialisation through 2020, of which Russia’s contribution could reach $7bn. Unesco could be in charge of raising the money.
According to Russian experts, the money is needed to launch pipeline transit projects from Turkmenistan to India and from Iran to India
via Afghanistan, as well as for the electrification of the country. But it’s obvious that implementing these plans directly depends on the ability of the new Afghan leadership that will come to power in 2014 to maintain stability.
But the situation on the ground looks like a vicious circle where fully-fledged industrialisation in Afghanistan is impossible without resolving the security issues – and changing the situation with drug trafficking and security is impossible without industrialisation.
So long as this vicious circle remains unbroken, countries that may be willing to contribute financially to the plight of Afghanistan will be less willing year after year to allocate new aid to Kabul. Currently, the chances that the Afghan government will be able to keep the country under control beyond 2014 are looking slim.
Yevgeny Shestakov is international affairs editor at Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Afghan female rock fest triumphs, but anxiety over future looms
By Amie Ferris-Rotman
KABUL (Reuters) - More than 400 Afghan women and girls jumped from their seats, screaming and even headbanging to rock and rap music at an all-female music festival in the capital of Kabul, which organizers say was the largest such event in the country's history.
It may also be one of the last. In ultra-conservative Afghanistan, women's rights remain precarious.
Afghan women have won back hard-fought rights such as education and work since the Islamist Taliban was toppled 12 years ago, but there are fears these freedoms could shrink once NATO-led forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, ending their fight against a Taliban-led insurgency that began in late 2001.
"I'm worried that when the troops leave, we'll be stuck in our homes like we were in the past," said 16-year-old student Shabona Nabizada, shouting above the din of electric guitar.
"As women we're ridiculed and harassed. I feel free being able to come here and leave all that behind," she added with a timid smile.
The rare women's day, part of a multi-day Sound Central concert, was held in a city concert hall on Tuesday and drew a boisterous crowd - mostly teenagers in the high school uniform of grey tunic and white hijab, but also abuse victims from shelters and even a few grandmothers.
Increasing insecurity is deterring some women from pursuing work outside the home, and rights workers accuse the government of not doing enough to safeguard women - claims that President Hamid Karzai's administration denies.
The women-only festival kicked off the 4-day Sound Central rock fest, now in its third year, featuring acts by Afghan-American singer Ariana Delawari and Kabul-based expat rockers White City, whose British lead singer Ruth Owen sent the crowd into a frenzy.
The number of women attending the women's day more than doubled from last year's debut event, said its founder, Australian multimedia producer Travis Beard. He publicized the concert by sending out fliers and teams of women to schools to convince teachers and parents that the festival would cause young women no harm.
"Women's day is the most significant part of the festival. Just having this kind of attendance for the first time in the country, at a rock concert, is groundbreaking," Beard said.
As local rap artist Ramika took to the stage, dressed in turquoise leggings and an oversized t-shirt, several wide-eyed Afghan soldiers guarding the event crept in to steal a look at the show, which only female press members were allowed to cover.
To one side of the audience sat a small, solemn group of young women from shelters that give refuge to abuse victims, many of whom have escaped violent homes and unhappy arranged marriages. The unmarked and often hidden shelters around the country face an uncertain future, with recent government attempts to bring them under their control.
Last year, Justice Minister Habibullah Ghaleb called the shelters houses of "prostitution and immorality", provoking a barrage of condemnation from Afghan women.
One shelter director, who only gave her first name, Horshid, said coming to the music festival was a way to "temporarily bring the girls back to life".
Horshid, who runs a shelter attached to the Afghan Women's Skills Development Center, a non-governmental organization, said women are increasingly concerned by the government's attempts to establish peace talks with the Taliban.
"If the Taliban regain any power, our rights will be the first sacrifice," she said.
(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Elaine Lies)
Washington fuelling rampant graft in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle By Spencer Kimball 30.04.2013
Washington has long maligned Kabul for being weak on corruption. But the Central Intelligence Agency has reportedly been buying access to President Hamid Karzai's inner circle for a decade.
The United States and its NATO allies have complained for years about rampant corruption in Afghanistan, voicing frustration with President Karzai's inability - or perhaps unwillingness - to fight graft and improve the rule of law.
But according to a report published by the New York Times on Monday, Washington may be one of the biggest contributors to that very corruption. The Central Intelligence Agency has reportedly been dropping off suitcases stuffed full of American dollars at the office of the Afghan president for years, in an effort to buy influence in Kabul.
The British Guardian reported on Tuesday that the United Kingdom's MI6 also may have made cash payments to Karzai's office, in an effort to promote meetings between the Taliban and the Karzai government.
The alleged CIA bribes have supposedly amounted to tens of millions of dollars over the past decade. Much of the money was reportedly distributed to warlords and politicians, in an effort to buy their loyalty.
US 'biggest source of corruption'
There were similar reports in 2010 that Iran had sought to gain influence among Karzai's closest advisors through cash payments. At the time, then White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs denied that the US was involved in similar practices.
The Islamic Republic reportedly stopped the payments after the US and Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2012. But the CIA allegedly continued to funnel money to the Afghan president's office.
"The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United States," an unnamed American official was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Karzai confirmed on Monday that his National Security Council had regularly received CIA money, saying that it was used for "operation objectives, helping wounded and sick and for house rents and other objectives."
"Yes, the office of national security has been receiving support from the United States for the past 10 years," Karzai told reporters during a trip to Helsinki, Finland on Monday. "Not a big amount - a small amount, which has been used for various purposes."
'Ghost money' vs. aid
But what Karzai publicly describes as aid money - whether big or small - could very well be corruption by other standards. According to Namatullah Ibrahimi with Afghanistan Watch, a Kabul-based non-governmental organization, drawing a clear distinction between clean and dirty money in the country is a difficult task. Corruption is often a matter of perception.
"It is very difficult under the circumstances of Afghanistan to draw a line between what can be described as official aid money from a donor government to the Afghan government, and the kind of ghost money which is distributed by certain governments outside of Afghanistan to ensure influence on certain levels of the Afghan government," Ibrahimi told DW.
Speaking with the New York Times, Karzai's former chief of staff Khalil Roman called the payments "ghost money," saying that the cash "came in secret and left in secret."
Since the US-led invasion in 2001, Washington and its allies have pumped large amounts of money into the country, often with poor coordination and little oversight, lining the pockets of some Afghans working with the international coalition.
"There was a sudden influx of huge amounts of cash in the country by different actors spent for different purposes with different tactics," Ibrahimi said. That encourages "corruption when you pump so much money into the hands of a few individuals or groups and who become very rich in a matter of a few years."
'Historically unprecedented' According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), corruption in Afghanistan is a big and growing problem, amounting to $3.9 billion (2.9 billion euros) in 2012, an estimated 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The UNODC said that corruption in Afghanistan increased by 40 percent between 2009 and 2012.
Transparency International ranks Afghanistan as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Only North Korea and Somalia suffer from more graft, according to Transparency's 2012 corruption perceptions index. Some 61 percent of Afghans reported paying a bribe in 2010.
"The scale of corruption you've got in Afghanistan today is historically unprecedented, and it's largely a product of the way the West has thrown around large amounts of money," Stephen Biddle, an expert on the conflict in Afghanistan, told DW.
Greasing the gears of war
President Karzai has long accused Washington of fuelling graft through the haphazard way in which the war in Afghanistan has been waged since 2001. In particular, he has said that much of the corruption is a product of US defense contracts.
"The contracts are not issued by the Afghan government," Karzai told American broadcaster NBC in a December 2012 interview. "The contracts are issued by the international community, mainly by the United States."
"Now whether this corruption in Afghanistan is an accident, a by-product of the situation in the past 10 years, or is it perpetrated also on purpose, is today my main question," Karzai said.
'Rule of law remains poor'
According to Biddle, Washington has often sacrificed the long-term goal of good governance by cutting corners in the pursuit of short-term security gains, tolerating some graft in the process if it helps get the job done.
"In the short-term it can look like a great idea to accept some corruption in order to get that well dug tomorrow, or to fund a warlord who in the long term is bad government, but in the near term will put a militia on the ground and keep the Taliban out of a neighborhood you want to remain safe," said Biddle, a professor at George Washington University in Washington D.C.
While some actors in Afghanistan have made big profits off the non-transparent distribution of foreign funding, Ibrahimi cautions that the money is not the only problem.
"It's also caused by a big government which has not been in a position to control or hold people accountable here," he said. "The rule of law generally remains very poor in Afghanistan, and we are facing a hugely corrupt and dysfunctional court system in the country."
Karzai Violated National Sovereignty by Receiving Cash From CIA: Senators
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi 30 April 2013
Afghan senators, in reaction to remarks by the Afghan President confirming receiving cash from CIA, said Tuesday that "the president has violated national sovereignty and the country's constitution."
The head of the Afghan senate house also said that the foreign media is trying to mislead the Afghan public by releasing such stories ahead of signing the bilateral security agreement between the US and Afghanistan.
"Such kind of money has been given since 11 years ago. Why didn't the foreign media release any report on it? What this report aims is misleading the public and inconsideration towards President Karzai's demands for signing the security agreement," said Fazlulhadi Muslimyar, head of the senate.
Senator Rafiullah Haidari said "Why wasn't it revealed in the past years that the CIA paid cash to the presidency? The aim behind such reports is clear, the foreign media want to make problems in Afghanistan in the interests of their countries."
The Afghan senators suggested that the people of Afghanistan should be enlightened on how the funds from CIA were spent.
"Receiving CIA money by the presidency is an insult to the country and it's a national betrayal. This issue should be clarified," said Senator Hedayatullah Rahayee.
The given cash is illegal, the senators said, pointing out that the issue is raising many questions.
"The president has confirmed that he has received the money from the CIA. The country's first man should be committed to the constitution. Receiving this money is violating the constitution," Senator Ali Akbar Jamshidi said
Some senators said that the CIA money to Afghan presidency did not have to be veiled and that the people of Afghanistan had to be told about the matter if it is wasn't illegal.
The comments come as, the Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed on Monday that his National Security Council was receiving money from the US for many years, but he did not comment whether the cash was coming directly from the CIA.
The New York Times in an article revealed that several Afghan officials at President Karzai's office have been on the CIA's payroll since the beginning of the war twelve years ago.
Speaking at a press conference in the Finland's capital Helsinki, President Karzai said the money was spent for military and logistical purposes and he thanked the US for the support.
"The National Security Council (NSC) has received supports from the US government over the past ten years, not in large amounts but in small amounts," President Karzai said.
"The money has been used for different purposes such as in operations, assisting wounded Afghan soldiers and paying rents. The assistance has been very useful and we are thankful to them."
President Karzai's former Deputy Chief of Staff, Khalil Roman, who was quoted in the New York Times article confirming the payments, told TOLOnews on Monday that "the money was delivered to President Karzai's house without revelation of where it came from."
However, President Karzai's National Security Advisor, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, who accompanies the president in the Europe trip, told TOLOnews that he was not aware of any payments from the CIA to the NSC.
"I, personally, as the National Security Advisor [to President Karzai] don't have any information about such payments and how they are spent. I just learnt today that such payments were made to the presidential palace," Spanta told TOLOnews on the phone from Helsinki.
The New York Times reported that for more than a decade, wads of US dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices in the presidential palace.
All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the CIA to the presidential office, according to the New York Times.
MI6 Paid Afghan President As Well: Guardian
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry 30 April 2013
British intelligence agency the MI6 has as well provided money to the office of Afghan president, however it has been on a smaller scale, British newspaper The Guardian wrote Tuesday, after a report by the New York Times suggested the US intelligence agency had funded the president in large amounts.
According to The Guardian, British Secret Intelligence Service – known as the MI6 – gave secret money to the president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai for influencing into his Presidential Palace.
"Sources said the MI6 aid was on a smaller scale, and much of it was focused on trying to promote meetings between Karzai's government and Taliban intermediaries, as was embarrassingly the case in 2010 when MI6 discovered a would-be Taliban leader in talks with Karzai was an impostor from the Pakistani city of Quetta," the British newspaper wrote.
Previously, there were antithesis remarks from the Afghan Presidential Palace on the funds from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) it had received.
President Karzai has said that most of such money has been spent for the office of national security advisor as well as for cases including operations, helping out the injured, providing health services, and paying house rents within the government's frame.
National security advisor Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta told TOLOnews that the money was provided to the office of President Karzai for operational purposes, stressing that he had no information on the source and the amount of money, and on how it was spent.
Former Afghan minister of commerce and industries Amin Farhang said that "the Afghan government should respond for where this money was spent."
"When I was serving for the government, I was aware that the British intelligence agency was giving money to National Security Council," he said.
Afghan pundits remarked as well that the circumstances of spending such large amounts of money should be clarified.
"This harms Afghanistan's sovereignty," said Abbas Noyan, political expert, "The government of Afghanistan should make it clear for the people, where all this money was spent."
Meanwhile, the National Front of Afghanistan has released a statement, asking President Karzai for accountability and clarification of "illegitimate" money from the intelligence agencies.
The amount of money CIA and MI6 have provided to Karzai's office, and what the intelligence agencies gained in return are not yet clear.
Reports have suggested that the main goal for CIA and MI6 to pay such money was to keep access to President Karzai and internal circle of the Afghan government.
Mass Grave Discovered in Northern Parwan
TOLOnews.com By Jawid Stanikzai 30 April 2013
A mass grave containing remains of 25 bodies has been discovered in Bagram district near the US-run Airbase in northern Parwan province Tuesday, local officials said.
The local officials said that the mass grave and testimonies show that the victims had first been blindfolded and tied up, and then buried alive.
The provincial governor General Abdul Baseer Salangi said that primary investigations show that the bodies were buried 30 years ago in the mass grave.
"They [communists] called them bandits and had taken them to the desert and buried them using cranes and bulldozers during the night," Salangi said.
Meanwhile, some residents of the Bagram district believe that the perpetrators of this massacre are currently in Kabul and the government should prosecute them."
"We are unhappy with all government including governor and district governor. They could at least come here and share our grief. We ask Mr Karzai to punish all those perpetrators who have committed these crimes," Nasratullah, a resident of the district said.
Some residents thought remains of their relatives were also in the mass grave.
"Eight persons from my family including my father, uncles and two cousins have been martyred here," Mumtaz Ahmad a resident of Bagram district said.
The residents buried the remains in a separate grave.
Officials said that the mass graves which have so far been discovered in the country, have been opened by local residents unprofessionally, adding that all signs of crimes in the bodies have been erased making investigation more difficult.
The Law Governing IEC, ECC to Be Resent to National Assembly
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi 30 April 2013
Office of the Administrative Affairs as well as the secretariat of Council of Ministers have sent the law governing the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) to the ministry of parliamentary affairs after additional views and comments were made over the law.
Following the approval by the National Assembly, the law was sent to the president to be signed, however, the president did not sign the law and it is to be resent to the National Assembly for a second approval with considerations over the views from the Supreme Court, Independent Commission of Overseeing the Implementation of Constitution (ICOIC), and Ministry of Justice.
The organisations have urged, through their suggestions, that in accordance with the Afghan constitution, the IEC is founded for administrating and supervising any elections within the country while founding the ECC is in contradiction with the constitution.
It is not legal to have Supreme Court representatives at the ECC when the commission is carrying out non-judiciary tasks, the organisations have suggested.
They have further said that founding a committee for selecting the members of IEC and ECC is not cited in the constitution and it's implementable; founding such committee is in contradiction with the principle of dividing the three branches of government and it would as well cause limitations to the president.
A number of political parties and coalitions warned that the president has no intention to sign the law.
"There could be no justification for the law not to be signed," said Tahir Zaheer, member of People's Islamic Unity of Afghanistan, "After the approval by the National Assembly, the president should sign it very soon."
Member of National Front Fazlurrahman Oria said "If the president wants the law to be sent to Supreme Court, it would mean he wants the elections to be held with a legislative decree following which we will not have elections but selections."
TOLOnews contacted the president's office, but officials refused to comment.
There are fears that in case the law governing the IEC and ECC is not signed by the president, the elections will not be free, fair, and transparent.
The upcoming presidential election of Afghanistan – which is planned to be held on May 5, 2014 – is looked at as the most prominent and effective event to the country's future.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
May 1, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Three NATO soldiers killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand have been identified as British.
Britain's Ministry of Defense says their armored vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device on April 30 while on a routine patrol in Nahr-e Saraj district.
More than 440 British service personnel have died since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001.
Nine Afghans were killed in separate attacks on April 30.
In southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials say a roadside bomb in the Shah Wali district of Kandahar Province killed three Afghan civilians and wounded five.
Another roadside bomb in the southern province of Uruzgan killed four Afghan civilians and wounded two.
And in the northern Kunduz Province, a roadside bomb targeted local police commander Miran, killing him and his driver.
Two other police officers were reported wounded in the explosion.
With reporting by AFP and AP
Taliban kill senior peace envoy in south Afghanistan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters killed a senior member of Afghanistan's peace council on Wednesday, officials said, dealing another blow to nascent peace efforts with the insurgency.
President Hamid Karzai formed a 70-member High Peace Council in 2010 in a bid to reach a peace settlement with the insurgents, but little has been achieved, with the Taliban saying they will not talk with the Afghan government.
Malim Shahwali, the council's chief in the southern province of Helmand, was traveling to the violence-plagued Gereshk district when insurgents ambushed his convoy, said the provincial governor's spokesman, Omar Zwak.
"First an explosion hit his convoy and then the Taliban gunmen opened fire, killing Malim Shahwali and two bodyguards," Zwak told Reuters.
Three policemen and an Afghan soldier were wounded, Zwak said.
The attack came a day after three British soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Helmand.
In 2011, a suicide bomber disguised as a peace envoy killed the then chairman of the peace council, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
In May last year, gunmen in Kabul assassinated Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban minister turned peace negotiator.
Helmand, which is the largest producer of opium in Afghanistan, has been the scene of the some of the fiercest fighting between NATO-led foreign forces and their Afghan government allies and the Taliban.
Fear is mounting that Afghanistan could be engulfed in turmoil after the pullout of most NATO combat troops by the end of 2014. A presidential election is also due that year.
NATO and its partners are training Afghanistan's 350,000-strong security forces, though questions remain over how well the Afghans will be able to tackle the insurgency.
Last week, the Taliban vowed to start a new campaign of suicide attacks on foreign military bases, diplomatic areas as well as the "Karzai regime" as part of their spring offensive.
(Reporting by Mohammad Sarwar; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Afghan Schoolgirls Hospitalized After Suspected Poisoning
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan May 1, 2013
KABUL -- A number of girls appear to have been poisoned at a school in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
A teacher at the Sultan Razia High School told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that students fell ill after smelling some kind of gas when they entered their classrooms on May 1.
The Education Ministry said that 20 schoolgirls have been hospitalized.
However, a doctor -- who gave his name as Amin -- at the Kabul hospital that received the patients told the Reuters news agency that 150 girls had been admitted and 10 were in critical condition.
Hospital officials also told Reuters that the girls may have become ill from something they drank.
There have been false alarms in the past, but there have also been many substantiated cases of such attacks by religious conservative elements opposed to education for girls.
High Peace Council Member Killed In Ambush
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, officials have announced that a member of the country's High Peace Council has been killed in an ambush by militants in the south of the country.
A spokesman for Helmand Province's governor told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that Malim Shawali, his driver, and two bodyguards died in the attack in the Greshk district on May 1.
Spokesman Omar Zwak said Shawali's convoy was first hit by an explosion, and then "Taliban gunmen opened fire."
A number of others were wounded.
The High Peace Council was established in 2010 by President Hamid Karzai to engage in peace negotiations with Taliban leaders.
On April 30, three British soldiers were also killed in Helmand Province.
Britain's Ministry of Defense says their armored vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device while on a routine patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district.
Nine Afghans were killed in separate attacks around Afghanistan on the same day.
With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa
Afghanistan's Civil Society Blossoms
The fight for democracy and stability can succeed, but short-term deals with the Taliban would hurt the effort.
The Wall Street Journal By Nader Nadery Opinion 30 April 2013
Kabul - President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan finally seems to be losing patience with Pakistan and the Taliban. He lashed out at Pakistan this month for its unilateral installation of gates at a disputed borderline and condemned recent Taliban attacks on civilians as "un-Islamic" and "inhuman."
After years of warm entreaties to his "brothers," it seems that Mr. Karzai finally understands what many Afghans, including myself, have been arguing for years: Talks are futile as long as Pakistan isn't cooperating faithfully and the Taliban is waging its war of terror.
One hopes that Mr. Karzai's meeting in Brussels last week with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Pakistani officials will yield results, but for the past six years the Afghan government has tried unsuccessfully to make inroads with the Taliban and its supporters.
In December, I participated in a rare meeting in Chantilly, France, which brought together Taliban representatives and Afghans representing a broad spectrum of political leaders, government officials and parliamentarians.
The gap between the perceptions of the Taliban and the rest of the participants was stark. The Taliban representatives' remarks focused mainly on war, while the other participants talked of Afghanistan's democratic future rooted in the rule of law, elections and accountable government. The meeting reflected the dual reality in Afghan life today. From the most remote places in Urozgan province to vibrant cities like Jelalabad and Herat, I see this contrast. There are small but highly visible groups of Taliban who are rooted in the country's past—a past wracked by repression, lawlessness and a painful isolation from the rest of the world.
But a growing majority of Afghans has left that past behind. While suicide attacks and violence still make the headlines, most Afghans are now focused on jobs, the rule of law, accountability and the coming elections in 2014.
There is a new generation of social and political movements springing up—including political and civic groups like Afghanistan 1400 and A3, which stands for Afghanistan Analysis and Awareness—led by young, diverse and independent thinkers and activists. They show a vision, a confidence and seriousness of purpose that stand in contrast to Afghanistan's slowly withering older parties.
The foreign press doesn't give the story enough attention, but the international investment in Afghanistan over the past 12 years—particularly in its civil society—is now paying dividends.
The women's political movement, for example, is no longer a few courageous activists standing up to violence. Today, a diverse range of Afghans, including community elders, members of the local media and government, speak out against violence toward women, including sexual abuse and rape, and are demanding greater accountability and justice.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission recently held a series of public hearings across the country on so-called honor killings, the horrid practice of murdering a wife, daughter or sister for supposedly bringing shame to the family.
Survivors of attempted honor killings spoke out, and in response received pledges from government officials that they would fight against this stain on our society. Ten years ago, public meetings of that sort on such a sensitive matter would have been unthinkable.
While the international community often despairs about widespread corruption here, there are signs that Afghan civil society is gaining the strength to fight back. The Free and Fair Election Foundation, which I head, is pushing for electoral transparency and demanding accountability of parliamentarians to their constituencies.
But we're by no means alone. Watchdog groups like Afghan Anti Corruption Network, Integrity Watch, and Equality for Peace and Democracy, as well as newspapers such as Hasht-e-Sobh, have become bold advocates for cleaner, more transparent government. Their advocacy recently triggered a parliamentary effort to impeach a minister accused of corruption.
These are remarkable gains, made possible by Afghans' deep sense of commitment to a better future and the generous support of the U.S. and other partners.
The reality in Afghanistan today is that civil society is blossoming. Our fight for a stable and democratic Afghanistan seems achievable. We cannot allow this progress to be undermined by hasty decisions or short-term deals with the Taliban in anticipation of the 2014 elections and the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
The Taliban and their supporters in Pakistan would not only undermine these gains, they would make Afghanistan once again a haven for terrorists. Two decades of experience teach us that even if the Taliban can be persuaded to negotiate, their murderous instincts are not a thing of the past.
The Afghan government and its international partners should do more than promise that talks with the Taliban won't compromise our hard-earned gains in human rights, women's rights, civil society and democracy. The government and its partners should instead boldly declare that they will be pursuing an accountability agenda, led by an international criminal-justice mechanism, designed to finally end the Taliban's appalling crimes against the civilian population. That, perhaps more than anything, would help Afghans continue their brave struggle to build a stable democracy.
Mr. Nadery is the executive chairman of the Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan.
A version of this article appeared May 1, 2013, on page A17 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Afghanistan's Civil Society Blossoms.
Brawl Shuts Pakistani-Afghan Border Crossing
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan April 30, 2013
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Pakistan has closed its main border crossing with Afghanistan along the highway linking Kabul and Islamabad.
The crossing is at Torkham, a town straddling both sides of the border within the Khyber Pass.
A Pakistani border official told RFE/RL that the April 30 closure was ordered because an Afghan border guard brawled with a Pakistani official.
On April 29, Islamabad tightened entry requirements in connection with May 11 parliamentary elections, ordering that only Afghans with valid documents could cross into Pakistan.
Before the tightening, crossing the border without travel documents was routine.
As a result of the change, four Afghans trying to reach a Peshawar hospital were held up at the border on April 29 and died early the next day.
The brawl that led to the border closure broke out shortly after the four Afghans died.
Russia looks ahead to the new Afghanistan
Yevgeny Shestakov is confident that Russia isn’t going to send its troops to Afghanistan after the coalition forces withdraw in 2014.
Telegraph.co.uk By Yevgeny Shestakov, special to RBTH 30 Apr 2013
Will Russia send its troops to Afghanistan after the coalition forces withdraw in 2014? The subject was brought up after media reports cited Russian Defence Ministry representative Sergei Koshelev as saying Russian repair bases may be established in Afghanistan. The Defence Ministry and the Foreign Ministry subsequently denied the reports, however.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich insisted: “Moscow’s position, that a return of the Russian military to Afghanistan is impossible, remains unchanged.” He said the speculation was the “fruit of someone’s sick imagination”.
While we know there’s no smoke without fire, we can be confident that Russia isn’t going to send its troops to Afghanistan. So far as I know, there are no such plans within the CIS or the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, either.
At the same time, let’s not forget that Moscow and Kabul have a military and technical co-operation agreement, under which, among other things, Russian specialists repair Afghanistan’s Russian-made military equipment. It’s possible that the media mistook some of this work in Afghanistan as a preparatory step towards the establishment of Russian bases.
But the pull-out of a considerable portion of the peacekeeping forces from Afghanistan in 2014 is forcing Moscow to re-evaluate the threats that will emerge on the borders of CIS countries.
The situation appears even more uncertain given Afghanistan’s presidential elections scheduled for April 2014, in which the two-term president, Hamid Karzai, is constitutionally barred from standing. This election could lead to new instability, especially taking into account Mr Karzai’s recent statements about the possibility of letting the Taliban ideologue Mullah Omar take part in the election process.
Viktor Ivanov, director of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, told a recent international conference in Moscow on Afghanistan’s future beyond 2014 about an alarming increase in heroin and marijuana production in Afghanistan. He said Afghan narcotics, supplied to 100 countries worldwide, killed about one million people last year.
But the most dangerous thing, Mr Ivanov said, was that the drug trafficking was now fuelling regional tensions. Drug traffickers were actively influencing the country’s political development, turning Afghanistan into a global drugs production centre where the government is forced to serve the interests of criminal cartels.
Western experts see three more or less realistic scenarios in Afghanistan. Under the first scenario, the Afghan government would cling to power, maintain the status quo, and maintain the country’s integrity after the presidential election and the international coalition’s pull-out. Under the second scenario, Afghanistan would split into two parts along ethnic lines.
Kabul would keep the northern part under its control, while the armed opposition would come to power in a new state in the south. British experts have offered a third scenario, which Russia also recognises as being a distinct possibility.
They believe that after the presidential election, a creeping decentralisation will start in Afghanistan. This will result in unlimited autonomy springing up in the country’s southern regions densely populated by the Pashtun people. Some field commanders fighting against Kabul have already supported this plan.
In answer to the question about the steps the CIS countries were planning to take to adapt to changes in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the future of Afghanistan had been discussed at a meeting of CIS foreign ministers on April 5 in Uzbekistan.
Mr Lavrov said: “The Collective Security Treaty Organisation has a common strategy vis-à-vis Afghanistan, there are relevant plans within the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, and there are joint efforts of special services at the anti-terrorist centre that exists as part of the CIS.”
He also said all CIS countries agreed it was necessary to secure the borders of Afghanistan’s neighbours, assist Kabul with its efforts to strengthen its security forces, and help Afghanistan resolve its economic problems. Russian experts believe the development of a new economic strategy for Afghanistan will change the course of the country’s development.
Yuri Krupnov, chairman of the Society for Friendship and Co-operation with Afghanistan, said the country would need $50bn (£32bn) for accelerated industrialisation through 2020, of which Russia’s contribution could reach $7bn. Unesco could be in charge of raising the money.
According to Russian experts, the money is needed to launch pipeline transit projects from Turkmenistan to India and from Iran to India
via Afghanistan, as well as for the electrification of the country. But it’s obvious that implementing these plans directly depends on the ability of the new Afghan leadership that will come to power in 2014 to maintain stability.
But the situation on the ground looks like a vicious circle where fully-fledged industrialisation in Afghanistan is impossible without resolving the security issues – and changing the situation with drug trafficking and security is impossible without industrialisation.
So long as this vicious circle remains unbroken, countries that may be willing to contribute financially to the plight of Afghanistan will be less willing year after year to allocate new aid to Kabul. Currently, the chances that the Afghan government will be able to keep the country under control beyond 2014 are looking slim.
Yevgeny Shestakov is international affairs editor at Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Afghan female rock fest triumphs, but anxiety over future looms
By Amie Ferris-Rotman
KABUL (Reuters) - More than 400 Afghan women and girls jumped from their seats, screaming and even headbanging to rock and rap music at an all-female music festival in the capital of Kabul, which organizers say was the largest such event in the country's history.
It may also be one of the last. In ultra-conservative Afghanistan, women's rights remain precarious.
Afghan women have won back hard-fought rights such as education and work since the Islamist Taliban was toppled 12 years ago, but there are fears these freedoms could shrink once NATO-led forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, ending their fight against a Taliban-led insurgency that began in late 2001.
"I'm worried that when the troops leave, we'll be stuck in our homes like we were in the past," said 16-year-old student Shabona Nabizada, shouting above the din of electric guitar.
"As women we're ridiculed and harassed. I feel free being able to come here and leave all that behind," she added with a timid smile.
The rare women's day, part of a multi-day Sound Central concert, was held in a city concert hall on Tuesday and drew a boisterous crowd - mostly teenagers in the high school uniform of grey tunic and white hijab, but also abuse victims from shelters and even a few grandmothers.
Increasing insecurity is deterring some women from pursuing work outside the home, and rights workers accuse the government of not doing enough to safeguard women - claims that President Hamid Karzai's administration denies.
The women-only festival kicked off the 4-day Sound Central rock fest, now in its third year, featuring acts by Afghan-American singer Ariana Delawari and Kabul-based expat rockers White City, whose British lead singer Ruth Owen sent the crowd into a frenzy.
The number of women attending the women's day more than doubled from last year's debut event, said its founder, Australian multimedia producer Travis Beard. He publicized the concert by sending out fliers and teams of women to schools to convince teachers and parents that the festival would cause young women no harm.
"Women's day is the most significant part of the festival. Just having this kind of attendance for the first time in the country, at a rock concert, is groundbreaking," Beard said.
As local rap artist Ramika took to the stage, dressed in turquoise leggings and an oversized t-shirt, several wide-eyed Afghan soldiers guarding the event crept in to steal a look at the show, which only female press members were allowed to cover.
To one side of the audience sat a small, solemn group of young women from shelters that give refuge to abuse victims, many of whom have escaped violent homes and unhappy arranged marriages. The unmarked and often hidden shelters around the country face an uncertain future, with recent government attempts to bring them under their control.
Last year, Justice Minister Habibullah Ghaleb called the shelters houses of "prostitution and immorality", provoking a barrage of condemnation from Afghan women.
One shelter director, who only gave her first name, Horshid, said coming to the music festival was a way to "temporarily bring the girls back to life".
Horshid, who runs a shelter attached to the Afghan Women's Skills Development Center, a non-governmental organization, said women are increasingly concerned by the government's attempts to establish peace talks with the Taliban.
"If the Taliban regain any power, our rights will be the first sacrifice," she said.
(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Elaine Lies)
Washington fuelling rampant graft in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle By Spencer Kimball 30.04.2013
Washington has long maligned Kabul for being weak on corruption. But the Central Intelligence Agency has reportedly been buying access to President Hamid Karzai's inner circle for a decade.
The United States and its NATO allies have complained for years about rampant corruption in Afghanistan, voicing frustration with President Karzai's inability - or perhaps unwillingness - to fight graft and improve the rule of law.
But according to a report published by the New York Times on Monday, Washington may be one of the biggest contributors to that very corruption. The Central Intelligence Agency has reportedly been dropping off suitcases stuffed full of American dollars at the office of the Afghan president for years, in an effort to buy influence in Kabul.
The British Guardian reported on Tuesday that the United Kingdom's MI6 also may have made cash payments to Karzai's office, in an effort to promote meetings between the Taliban and the Karzai government.
The alleged CIA bribes have supposedly amounted to tens of millions of dollars over the past decade. Much of the money was reportedly distributed to warlords and politicians, in an effort to buy their loyalty.
US 'biggest source of corruption'
There were similar reports in 2010 that Iran had sought to gain influence among Karzai's closest advisors through cash payments. At the time, then White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs denied that the US was involved in similar practices.
The Islamic Republic reportedly stopped the payments after the US and Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2012. But the CIA allegedly continued to funnel money to the Afghan president's office.
"The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United States," an unnamed American official was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Karzai confirmed on Monday that his National Security Council had regularly received CIA money, saying that it was used for "operation objectives, helping wounded and sick and for house rents and other objectives."
"Yes, the office of national security has been receiving support from the United States for the past 10 years," Karzai told reporters during a trip to Helsinki, Finland on Monday. "Not a big amount - a small amount, which has been used for various purposes."
'Ghost money' vs. aid
But what Karzai publicly describes as aid money - whether big or small - could very well be corruption by other standards. According to Namatullah Ibrahimi with Afghanistan Watch, a Kabul-based non-governmental organization, drawing a clear distinction between clean and dirty money in the country is a difficult task. Corruption is often a matter of perception.
"It is very difficult under the circumstances of Afghanistan to draw a line between what can be described as official aid money from a donor government to the Afghan government, and the kind of ghost money which is distributed by certain governments outside of Afghanistan to ensure influence on certain levels of the Afghan government," Ibrahimi told DW.
Speaking with the New York Times, Karzai's former chief of staff Khalil Roman called the payments "ghost money," saying that the cash "came in secret and left in secret."
Since the US-led invasion in 2001, Washington and its allies have pumped large amounts of money into the country, often with poor coordination and little oversight, lining the pockets of some Afghans working with the international coalition.
"There was a sudden influx of huge amounts of cash in the country by different actors spent for different purposes with different tactics," Ibrahimi said. That encourages "corruption when you pump so much money into the hands of a few individuals or groups and who become very rich in a matter of a few years."
'Historically unprecedented' According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), corruption in Afghanistan is a big and growing problem, amounting to $3.9 billion (2.9 billion euros) in 2012, an estimated 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The UNODC said that corruption in Afghanistan increased by 40 percent between 2009 and 2012.
Transparency International ranks Afghanistan as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Only North Korea and Somalia suffer from more graft, according to Transparency's 2012 corruption perceptions index. Some 61 percent of Afghans reported paying a bribe in 2010.
"The scale of corruption you've got in Afghanistan today is historically unprecedented, and it's largely a product of the way the West has thrown around large amounts of money," Stephen Biddle, an expert on the conflict in Afghanistan, told DW.
Greasing the gears of war
President Karzai has long accused Washington of fuelling graft through the haphazard way in which the war in Afghanistan has been waged since 2001. In particular, he has said that much of the corruption is a product of US defense contracts.
"The contracts are not issued by the Afghan government," Karzai told American broadcaster NBC in a December 2012 interview. "The contracts are issued by the international community, mainly by the United States."
"Now whether this corruption in Afghanistan is an accident, a by-product of the situation in the past 10 years, or is it perpetrated also on purpose, is today my main question," Karzai said.
'Rule of law remains poor'
According to Biddle, Washington has often sacrificed the long-term goal of good governance by cutting corners in the pursuit of short-term security gains, tolerating some graft in the process if it helps get the job done.
"In the short-term it can look like a great idea to accept some corruption in order to get that well dug tomorrow, or to fund a warlord who in the long term is bad government, but in the near term will put a militia on the ground and keep the Taliban out of a neighborhood you want to remain safe," said Biddle, a professor at George Washington University in Washington D.C.
While some actors in Afghanistan have made big profits off the non-transparent distribution of foreign funding, Ibrahimi cautions that the money is not the only problem.
"It's also caused by a big government which has not been in a position to control or hold people accountable here," he said. "The rule of law generally remains very poor in Afghanistan, and we are facing a hugely corrupt and dysfunctional court system in the country."
Karzai Violated National Sovereignty by Receiving Cash From CIA: Senators
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi 30 April 2013
Afghan senators, in reaction to remarks by the Afghan President confirming receiving cash from CIA, said Tuesday that "the president has violated national sovereignty and the country's constitution."
The head of the Afghan senate house also said that the foreign media is trying to mislead the Afghan public by releasing such stories ahead of signing the bilateral security agreement between the US and Afghanistan.
"Such kind of money has been given since 11 years ago. Why didn't the foreign media release any report on it? What this report aims is misleading the public and inconsideration towards President Karzai's demands for signing the security agreement," said Fazlulhadi Muslimyar, head of the senate.
Senator Rafiullah Haidari said "Why wasn't it revealed in the past years that the CIA paid cash to the presidency? The aim behind such reports is clear, the foreign media want to make problems in Afghanistan in the interests of their countries."
The Afghan senators suggested that the people of Afghanistan should be enlightened on how the funds from CIA were spent.
"Receiving CIA money by the presidency is an insult to the country and it's a national betrayal. This issue should be clarified," said Senator Hedayatullah Rahayee.
The given cash is illegal, the senators said, pointing out that the issue is raising many questions.
"The president has confirmed that he has received the money from the CIA. The country's first man should be committed to the constitution. Receiving this money is violating the constitution," Senator Ali Akbar Jamshidi said
Some senators said that the CIA money to Afghan presidency did not have to be veiled and that the people of Afghanistan had to be told about the matter if it is wasn't illegal.
The comments come as, the Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed on Monday that his National Security Council was receiving money from the US for many years, but he did not comment whether the cash was coming directly from the CIA.
The New York Times in an article revealed that several Afghan officials at President Karzai's office have been on the CIA's payroll since the beginning of the war twelve years ago.
Speaking at a press conference in the Finland's capital Helsinki, President Karzai said the money was spent for military and logistical purposes and he thanked the US for the support.
"The National Security Council (NSC) has received supports from the US government over the past ten years, not in large amounts but in small amounts," President Karzai said.
"The money has been used for different purposes such as in operations, assisting wounded Afghan soldiers and paying rents. The assistance has been very useful and we are thankful to them."
President Karzai's former Deputy Chief of Staff, Khalil Roman, who was quoted in the New York Times article confirming the payments, told TOLOnews on Monday that "the money was delivered to President Karzai's house without revelation of where it came from."
However, President Karzai's National Security Advisor, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, who accompanies the president in the Europe trip, told TOLOnews that he was not aware of any payments from the CIA to the NSC.
"I, personally, as the National Security Advisor [to President Karzai] don't have any information about such payments and how they are spent. I just learnt today that such payments were made to the presidential palace," Spanta told TOLOnews on the phone from Helsinki.
The New York Times reported that for more than a decade, wads of US dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices in the presidential palace.
All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the CIA to the presidential office, according to the New York Times.
MI6 Paid Afghan President As Well: Guardian
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry 30 April 2013
British intelligence agency the MI6 has as well provided money to the office of Afghan president, however it has been on a smaller scale, British newspaper The Guardian wrote Tuesday, after a report by the New York Times suggested the US intelligence agency had funded the president in large amounts.
According to The Guardian, British Secret Intelligence Service – known as the MI6 – gave secret money to the president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai for influencing into his Presidential Palace.
"Sources said the MI6 aid was on a smaller scale, and much of it was focused on trying to promote meetings between Karzai's government and Taliban intermediaries, as was embarrassingly the case in 2010 when MI6 discovered a would-be Taliban leader in talks with Karzai was an impostor from the Pakistani city of Quetta," the British newspaper wrote.
Previously, there were antithesis remarks from the Afghan Presidential Palace on the funds from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) it had received.
President Karzai has said that most of such money has been spent for the office of national security advisor as well as for cases including operations, helping out the injured, providing health services, and paying house rents within the government's frame.
National security advisor Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta told TOLOnews that the money was provided to the office of President Karzai for operational purposes, stressing that he had no information on the source and the amount of money, and on how it was spent.
Former Afghan minister of commerce and industries Amin Farhang said that "the Afghan government should respond for where this money was spent."
"When I was serving for the government, I was aware that the British intelligence agency was giving money to National Security Council," he said.
Afghan pundits remarked as well that the circumstances of spending such large amounts of money should be clarified.
"This harms Afghanistan's sovereignty," said Abbas Noyan, political expert, "The government of Afghanistan should make it clear for the people, where all this money was spent."
Meanwhile, the National Front of Afghanistan has released a statement, asking President Karzai for accountability and clarification of "illegitimate" money from the intelligence agencies.
The amount of money CIA and MI6 have provided to Karzai's office, and what the intelligence agencies gained in return are not yet clear.
Reports have suggested that the main goal for CIA and MI6 to pay such money was to keep access to President Karzai and internal circle of the Afghan government.
Mass Grave Discovered in Northern Parwan
TOLOnews.com By Jawid Stanikzai 30 April 2013
A mass grave containing remains of 25 bodies has been discovered in Bagram district near the US-run Airbase in northern Parwan province Tuesday, local officials said.
The local officials said that the mass grave and testimonies show that the victims had first been blindfolded and tied up, and then buried alive.
The provincial governor General Abdul Baseer Salangi said that primary investigations show that the bodies were buried 30 years ago in the mass grave.
"They [communists] called them bandits and had taken them to the desert and buried them using cranes and bulldozers during the night," Salangi said.
Meanwhile, some residents of the Bagram district believe that the perpetrators of this massacre are currently in Kabul and the government should prosecute them."
"We are unhappy with all government including governor and district governor. They could at least come here and share our grief. We ask Mr Karzai to punish all those perpetrators who have committed these crimes," Nasratullah, a resident of the district said.
Some residents thought remains of their relatives were also in the mass grave.
"Eight persons from my family including my father, uncles and two cousins have been martyred here," Mumtaz Ahmad a resident of Bagram district said.
The residents buried the remains in a separate grave.
Officials said that the mass graves which have so far been discovered in the country, have been opened by local residents unprofessionally, adding that all signs of crimes in the bodies have been erased making investigation more difficult.
The Law Governing IEC, ECC to Be Resent to National Assembly
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi 30 April 2013
Office of the Administrative Affairs as well as the secretariat of Council of Ministers have sent the law governing the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) to the ministry of parliamentary affairs after additional views and comments were made over the law.
Following the approval by the National Assembly, the law was sent to the president to be signed, however, the president did not sign the law and it is to be resent to the National Assembly for a second approval with considerations over the views from the Supreme Court, Independent Commission of Overseeing the Implementation of Constitution (ICOIC), and Ministry of Justice.
The organisations have urged, through their suggestions, that in accordance with the Afghan constitution, the IEC is founded for administrating and supervising any elections within the country while founding the ECC is in contradiction with the constitution.
It is not legal to have Supreme Court representatives at the ECC when the commission is carrying out non-judiciary tasks, the organisations have suggested.
They have further said that founding a committee for selecting the members of IEC and ECC is not cited in the constitution and it's implementable; founding such committee is in contradiction with the principle of dividing the three branches of government and it would as well cause limitations to the president.
A number of political parties and coalitions warned that the president has no intention to sign the law.
"There could be no justification for the law not to be signed," said Tahir Zaheer, member of People's Islamic Unity of Afghanistan, "After the approval by the National Assembly, the president should sign it very soon."
Member of National Front Fazlurrahman Oria said "If the president wants the law to be sent to Supreme Court, it would mean he wants the elections to be held with a legislative decree following which we will not have elections but selections."
TOLOnews contacted the president's office, but officials refused to comment.
There are fears that in case the law governing the IEC and ECC is not signed by the president, the elections will not be free, fair, and transparent.
The upcoming presidential election of Afghanistan – which is planned to be held on May 5, 2014 – is looked at as the most prominent and effective event to the country's future.
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