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Afghan lawmakers block law on women's rights
By KAY JOHNSON | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience.
The fierce opposition highlights how tenuous women's rights remain a dozen years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime, whose strict interpretation of Islam once kept Afghan women virtual prisoners in their homes.
Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative lawmaker for Herat province, said the legislation was withdrawn shortly after being introduced in parliament because of an uproar by religious parties who said parts of the law are un-Islamic.
"Whatever is against Islamic law, we don't even need to speak about it," Shaheedzada said.
The Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women has been in effect since 2009, but only by presidential decree. It is being brought before parliament now because lawmaker Fawzia Kofi, a women's rights activist, wants to cement it with a parliamentary vote to prevent its potential reversal by any future president who might be tempted to repeal it to satisfy hard-line religious parties.
The law criminalizes, among other things, child marriage and forced marriage, and bans "baad," the traditional practice of exchanging girls and women to settle disputes. It makes domestic violence a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and specifies that rape victims should not face criminal charges for fornication or adultery.
Kofi, who plans to run for president in next year's elections, said she was disappointed because among those who oppose upgrading the law from presidential decree to legislation passed by parliament are women.
Afghanistan's parliament has more than 60 female lawmakers, mostly due to constitutional provisions reserving certain seats for women.
There has been spotty enforcement of the law as it stands. A United Nations analysis in late 2011 found only a small percentage of reported crimes against women were pursued by the Afghan government. Between March 2010 and March 2011 — the first full Afghan year the decree was in effect — prosecutors filed criminal charges in only 155 cases, or 7 percent of the total number of crimes reported.
The child marriage ban and the idea of protecting female rape victims from prosecution were particularly heated subjects in Saturday's parliamentary debate, said Nasirullah Sadiqizada Neli, a conservative lawmaker from Daykundi province.
Neli suggested that removing the custom — common in Afghanistan — of prosecuting raped women for adultery would lead to social chaos, with women freely engaging in extramarital sex safe in the knowledge they could claim rape if caught.
Another lawmaker, Mandavi Abdul Rahmani of Barlkh province, also opposed the law's rape provision.
"Adultery itself is a crime in Islam, whether it is by force or not," Rahmani said.
He said the Quran also makes clear that a husband has a right to beat a disobedient wife as a last resort, as long as she is not permanently harmed. "But in this law," he said, "It says if a man beats his wife at all, he should be jailed for three months to three years."
Lawmaker Shaheedzada also claimed that the law might encourage disobedience among girls and women, saying it reflected Western values not applicable in Afghanistan.
"Even now in Afghanistan, women are running from their husbands. Girls are running from home," Shaheedzada said. "Such laws give them these ideas."
More freedoms for women are one of the most visible — and symbolic — changes in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led campaign that toppled the Taliban regime. While in power, the Taliban imposed a strict interpretation of Islam that put severe curbs on the freedom of women.
For five years, the regime banned women from working and going to school, or even leaving home without a male relative. In public, all women were forced wear a head-to-toe burqa, which covers even the face with a mesh panel. Violators were publicly flogged or executed.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, women's freedoms have improved vastly, but Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative culture, especially in rural areas.
Saturday's failure of the legislation in parliament reflected the power of religious parties but changed little on the ground, since the decree is still the law of the land, however loosely enforced. Kofi said the parliament decided to send the legislation to committee, and it could come to a vote again later this year.
"We will work on this law," she said. "We will bring it back."
Some activists, however, worry about potential changes to the law. Bringing the legislation before parliament also opened it up to being amended, leaving the possibility that conservatives will seek to weaken it by stripping out provisions they dislike — or even vote to repeal it.
"There's a real risk this has opened a Pandora's box, that this may have galvanized opposition to this decree by people who in principle oppose greater rights for women," said Heather Barr, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.
That's true for lawmaker Rahmani, who said President Hamid Karzai should never have issued the decree and wants it changed, if not repealed.
"We cannot have an Islamic country with basically Western laws," he said.
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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed in Kabul.
Obama seeks to cut Afghan war spending by 10 pct
Reuters By Mark Felsenthal May 17, 2013
President Barack Obama on Friday trimmed his funding request for the war in Afghanistan and other overseas operations by 10 percent, reflecting his plans to wind down the U.S. presence in that country.
The president asked for $79.4 billion to fund so-called overseas contingency operations in fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1, down from his original $88.5 billion request, a White House aide said. Obama made the request in a letter to Congress.
The U.S. chief executive has said he plans to draw down troops in Afghanistan after 2014 but has not specified by how much.
"The president is still reviewing options from his national security team and has not made a decision about the size of a possible U.S. presence after 2014," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
"The lower request reflects our transitioning role in Afghanistan," she said.
The president is due to announce in the next few weeks how many combat troops the United States will leave in Afghanistan next year, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday.
The president has set 2014 as the target for withdrawing most of the troops but the decision is a delicate one as sufficient forces must stay behind to train and support Afghan forces and carry out some operations.
U.S. troops first went to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States to root out al Qaeda and its Taliban protectors.
Men convicted in kidnap, murder of Afghan child executed in Herat
By SADAF SHINWARI - 18 May 2013, 11:24 am Khaama Press
According to reports two kidnappers involved in murder of 11-year-old boy were executed in western Herat province of Afghanistan early Saturday morning.
The execution of the two kidnappes was approved by president Hamid Karzai last week.
Provincial governor spokesman for Herat province Mohiuddin Noori said the execution of the two kidnappers was scheduled for Saturday morning.
Ali Sina, the 11-year-old Afghan boy was kidnapped by two kidnappers recognized as Jalil Ahmad and Abdul Sami few months back and was killed after receiving ransom from his family.
The two kidnappers were reportedly executed inside the Herat jail in the presence of the family of Ali Sina.
Ali Sina belonged to a wealthy Afghan family and one of the prominent merchants of western Herat province. He was killed after his kidnappers received ransom from his family.
Fearing Afghanistan instability, Russia mulls border troops
Reuters By Amie Ferris-Rotman Fri, May 17, 2013
KABUL - Russia, predicting instability once NATO-led troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, is considering deploying border guards on the Tajik-Afghan border, Moscow's envoy to Kabul told Reuters in an interview.
Moscow, still sore from its disastrous, decade-long war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, is increasingly concerned by what it describes as the combined threat of narcotics and terrorism reaching Russia through former Soviet Central Asian countries.
"We prefer to tackle this problem on the Afghan border to stop these threats," Andrey Avetisyan said late on Thursday in the Russian embassy in Kabul.
Its sprawling grounds host a Soviet-built teal Volga car recovered in Afghanistan by embassy staff and a memorial to the 15,000 Soviet lives lost in the war against mujahideen fighters.
"We used to have a serious presence on the Afghan-Tajik border and, at that time, the situation there was much better, so it would be in the interest of both Russia and Tajikistan and even Afghanistan if Russia is present there," he said.
Avetisyan said such a presence would involve Russian border troops, but declined to give a number.
Russian border guards used to patrol the Tajik frontier with Afghanistan but left in 2005, ending a Soviet-era legacy and handing all power over to local authorities. Ex-Soviet Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan also border Afghanistan to its north.
Avetisyan said any agreement on border troop deployment would "of course" have to be agreed upon with Tajikistan.
Intensifying violence across Afghanistan, less than two years before foreign combat troops withdraw, has sent tremors of worry across Russia, which is battling an Islamist insurgency in its North Caucasus as well as widespread use of heroin and a huge increase in the incidence of HIV and AIDS.
Russia is involved in a series of ambitious construction projects in Afghanistan, including rebuilding its Soviet-era cultural centre, aimed at fostering stability in the country which produces 90 percent of the world's opium.
Avetisyan, who also worked for the Soviet government in Kabul during Moscow's war, said fighting in northern Afghanistan -- traditional bastions of anti-Taliban power groups -- offers proof of a "general destabilisation of the situation".
COMPARISONS WITH SOVIET CAMPAIGN
Comparisons are being increasingly drawn between the Soviet and NATO-led wars, and the Taliban have repeatedly warned Washington that it will encounter the same fate met by Moscow.
After the dispirited Soviet exit in 1989, the Afghan communist government collapsed, leading to infighting between warlords and a civil war that reduced much of Kabul to rubble and paved the way for the Taliban's rise to power in 1996.
"What have they been doing for the past 12 years?" Avetisyan asked of the current campaign, America's longest war.
"Fighting against terrorism with 150,000 troops without any success," he said, adding that a continued troop presence after 2014 "doesn't make any sense".
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to soon announce how many combat troops Washington will leave after the withdrawal. Many Afghans are eager to know the size of the post-2014 force, fearing chaos and civil war could erupt with no foreign presence.
The United States is widely expected to retain nine bases across Afghanistan after 2014, NATO officials said after Afghan President Hamid Karzai revealed the plan this month.
But Avetisyan said any future U.S. military role in the country must be an international legal arrangement approved by the United Nations Security Council, in which Russia has veto power.
"A long-term or permanent military presence of a foreign force will be a reason of concern for us, especially if they are military bases. We would like to know what the purpose is and we still don't have answers to these questions," he said.
(Editing by Ron Popeski)
Afghanistan turns to Australia for mining expertise
ABC News By Sue Lannin 18 May, 2013
Australia could help Afghanistan develop its fledgling mining industry and tap into mineral and energy reserves estimated to be worth trillions of dollars.
The country is eager to find a new source of revenue when international aid starts to decline and foreign forces withdraw next year.
Afghan mining minister Wahidullah Shahrani, has already met with various Australian Government departments and is attending a mining development conference in Sydney next week.
He says Afghanistan has already benefited from Australia's support, especially in the form of scholarships.
"[Our students] will transfer back to Afghanistan, they will help the ministry of mines and petroleum in Afghanistan to manage the resources in the right way," he said.
Mr Shahrani hopes to strengthen its ties with Australia into the future.
"We have been negotiating right now with the government of Australia on the next phase of their support to Afghanistan," he said.
"I am expecting that by end of June, five or six major concessions will be awarded for iron ore, copper, gold and oil and gas." Industry challenges
Afghanistan's mining industry is threatened by the country's shaky security situation and widespread corruption.
But Mr Shahrani says a strong mining sector will alleviate the threat of a Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgency.
"Security is a concern but it doesn't mean that the entire Afghanistan is insecure," Mr Shahrani said.
"A number of deals which are going to be signed will lead to the investment of billions of dollars.
"The more investment that we will get will also lead to a higher degree of stability once the people realise the benefits of these projects in the form of jobs, welfare, access to income."
The Afghani government has also implemented strategies to limit corruption in the mining industry, including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
"For each and every major deal, from day one when the tender process begins until the conclusion of the contract negotiation and the award of the contract, we have appointed international monitors," he said.
"The government has been very serious in ensuring the highest degree of transparency and efficiency in the development of these resources."
Afghan Police Chief Assassinated
VOA News May 18, 2013
A police chief in Afghanistan's Farah province has been shot to death by unknown attackers.
Officials say Police Chief Abdul Ghani was near his home late Friday when gunmen shot him. No one has been detained in the case.
The Associated Press quotes a local official as saying Ghani had led a crackdown on insurgents in his district of Khaki Safad that resulted in the killing and capture of several Taliban leaders. The spokesman said that made him a target for Taliban attacks.
Afghan Attorney General Seeks Permission to Investigate the Case of Accused MPs
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat 17 May 2013
Afghanistan Attorney General on Thursday asked the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to grant it the permission for investigating the case of six accused MPs.
The Attorney General's office has been stressing on a fair investigation where both the sides are heard. The Attorney General has asked the MPs to send their evidences to take the investigations forward.
Attorney General's Spokesman Basir Azizi said that till the time they don't receive any file from both the sides, nothing can be done.
"Afghanistan's Attorney General sent an official letter to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and asked it to produce all the 6 MPs accused of smuggling and illegal demands at their office," Basir Azizi said.
Mr Azizi said that if the Finance Minister fails to produce any evidence in support of his allegations, he will be prosecuted.
Taking note of the issue, the High Office of Over Sight and Anti-Corruption has asked the judiciary to seriously investigate the case and hear both the sides.
"In the past, the MPs have accused each other of various illegal activities. I think it is a good beginning to start our fight against corruption," Head of High Office of Over Sight and Anti-Corruption Aziz Loudin said.
A number of experts said that even though the disclosures could have been made by some forces out of vengeance but it is a good step to bring reforms.
"The issue should be thoroughly investigated. Otherwise, it will be meaningless to make such a noise about the matter," University lecturer Ahmad Tamim Asi said.
Afghanistan Attorney General added that the Parliament's decision over setting up a commission to investigate the allegations on the MPs is against the Afghanistan Constitution. Attorney General believes that no agency can investigate the issue except its own department.
These comments come in at a time when the Afghan Finance Minister on Monday revealed the names of 6 MPs and accused them of smuggling and raising illegal demands.
Afghanistan starts first commercial oil production in July
By SAYED JAWAD - 18 May 2013, 9:01 pm Khaama Press
The first commercial oil production in the history of Afghanistan is expected to be launched in northern Afghanistan within the next two months.
Afghan mines minister, Wahidullah Shahrani is currently in Australia to for talks with Government officials and to attend mining development conferences in Sydney said, the first major oil production in northern Amu river basin will be started by China National Petroleum (CNPC).
Mr. Shahrani quoted by ABC News said, the oil production will eventually supply oil domestically in a bid to prevent oil import from outside the country.
In the meantime Australia has pledged to provide training opportunities for the Afghan mines officials in a bid to develop the mining sector of the country.
Shahrani quoted by ABC said, “We have got a number of students (who) are studying at Australian universities. They will transfer back to Afghanistan, they will help the ministry of mines and petroleum in Afghanistan to manage the resources in the right way.”
The untapped mineral resouces of Afghanistan estimated to worth up to $3 trillion is considered to play a vital role in the economy of the country as NATO troops are preparing to leave Afghanistan and the international aid is gradually reducing.
Afghan mines minister Wahidullah Shahrani also announced that the government of Afghanistan is due to award five to six major tenders including oil and gas, copper, gold and iron ore within the next one month.
Lion of Kabul recruited for 'clean and green' campaign
BBC News By Bilal Sarwary 17 May 2013
Kabul - Once known as a city of gardens and abundant fruits, Kabul is fighting hard to maintain even a basic level of cleanliness, among its many other problems. Kabul municipality has now recruited a popular cartoon character to encourage children to keep the city clean and green.
Shir Sultan, or the Lion King, has been visiting schools in the Afghan capital to spread the message.
Needless to say, he is a big hit among 400 schoolchildren sitting in the playground of Abdul Ali Mustaghni school in the west of the city, where cheers and claps greet the cartoon character's every move.
The synthetic lion hits it off instantly with his audience when he asks them the question: "Who is a friend of Kabul?"
Hundreds of supportive hands go up in the air. Some children even stand up to express their commitment to the cause.
"I am going to be sending my son, Sher Bachcha, to this school," a pleased Shir Sultan announces to the further delight of his audience.
By pledging to be friends of Kabul, the children join the city's "Cleaning and Greening" campaign, and in so doing agree to be agents of change.
Decrepit sewer systems
The US Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded campaign was launched last year by Kabul's mayor, Muhammad Yunus Nawandish.
The idea is to encourage students to adopt hygienic habits and help civic authorities keep the city clean and green.
While Shir Sultan is the mascot of the campaign other tactics are also used to generate interest.
Colouring and story books are used to tell the pupils of the best ways to dispose of rubbish, the importance of washing hands and how to water trees.
Last year alone, Shir Sultan was directly introduced to more than 25,000 children, where he distributed about 180,000 story and colour books.
It is a campaign where there is no shortage of challenges - first and foremost Kabul does not have proper sewer systems.
Furthermore, the city's civic system is mostly in decay, eaten up by years of war and the neglect of the authorities.
At the same time the city's rapid pace of construction in recent years has robbed Kabul of much of its green cover, leaving its population of five million with few green spaces.
But the authorities say that things have improved in recent years.
"My aim is to have a dust-free Kabul," says Mayor Nawandish, never a man to avoid the toughest of challenges.
Officials at Kabul municipality hope that initiatives like the USAID one will ultimately help in restoring the city to its past glories.
"We are educating children so that they spread the word in their families, among their friends." says Mohammad Sadiq Sediqi of Kabul municipality.
Because the scale of the challenge is so immense, it is easy to be sceptical about the prospects of such challenges ever succeeding.
But the enthusiasm among the children at the Abdul Ali Mustaghni school is infectious.
"What brings you here?" I ask Farzad, a sixth-grade student.
"I am here to listen and learn," he says with a glint in his eyes. "I want to learn how to keep my home, my school and my city clean."
Why Afghanistan is nervous about the US troop withdrawal
By December 2014 the Afghan National Security Forces that have been built by the US and NATO will be left to largely stand on their own.
The Christian Monitor By Howard LaFranchi May 17, 2013
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghanistan is suffering a crisis of confidence – and given what’s on the horizon, it's not so difficult to see why.
Next year is shaping up to be a perfect storm of security, political, and economic transition. And many Afghans, from shopkeepers to members of Parliament, are uncertain that their fragile ship can withstand the tossing waves.
After more than a decade of a massive foreign military presence and an associated aid effort that have showered tens of billions of dollars on one of the world’s poorest countries, the US and other Western powers are preparing, if not to say goodbye, then to substantially scale back.
Next year will mark the end of NATO’s combat mission in Afghanistan. By December 2014 the 99,000 US and other foreign troops still here will be gone. The Afghan National Security Forces – army and police – will be left to largely stand on their own against a nasty insurgency.
Marking perhaps an even more critical milestone, Afghanistan will hold presidential elections next April, testing the ability of a population deeply divided along ethnic and urban-rural lines to form some level of political consensus, and rally behind a new leader.
On top of the security and political uncertainties, economic activity driven by the large international presence is expected to fall off substantially next year. An economy growing by nearly 10 percent annually in recent years could see the growth tumble by nearly half next year, according to the World Bank.
The coming trifecta of change would challenge almost any of the world’s countries, but for many Afghans – especially urban dwellers who have seen life fast-forward into the 21st century during the past decade, the uncertainty and prospect of regression seem traumatic.
Daydreams of leaving
“We are afraid about our future,” says Fatima Aziz, a surgeon who is a member of Parliament from Kunduz Province. “The ANP [Afghan National Police] is not strong, we don’t know how security will be without the international forces.”
Afghans in and around Kabul reveal anxieties about the US and NATO drawdown, and many say they have daydreams of leaving before chaos sets in – a recent Asia Society survey found that one-third of Afghans would leave the country if they could. Many express fear of the Taliban’s return to power – even though many Afghan experts assert that the country has evolved and modernized too much for that to happen.
Others acknowledge the challenges posed by “the transition,” but they blame the country’s leadership for not addressing the national malaise.
“People are worried, but I blame the government for not preparing themselves for the worst,” says Mustafa Sadiq, chief executive officer of Afghanistan’s largest privately owned fruit processing company, Omaid Bahar. By “the worst” he says he means “the vacuum that will be created when 100,000 troops withdraw.”
Mr. Sadiq, whose company employs 700 people and collects fruit from 35,000 mostly small farmers, says businesses are closing as the foreign presence shrinks and contracts dry up. Unemployment is rising, and real estate prices are plummeting – down 40 percent or more in Kabul, he says.
Even some of Afghanistan’s most prominent leaders acknowledge the public frenzy over the specter of 2014, even as they insist that the solutions exist to carry the country through the storm – perhaps even to come out of it stronger than when it went in.
“There is a problem of confidence – it’s a problem of public psychology, and that public psychology is about 2014,” says Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister who came in fourth in Afghanistan’s 2009 presidential election.
Moving on to a national dialogue
Dr. Ghani, who now heads a national commission focused on the transition (and who swats away queries about whether or not he will again be a presidential candidate in 2014) says Afghanistan needs a “national dialogue” to prepare the country for next year.
That national dialogue would not focus on reconciliation with the Taliban insurgency – a project that has floated around for years without advancing – but rather on creating a national consensus for the April 5 elections.
Ghani rejects the widespread worries about the security transition, citing evidence from the field of the Afghan National Army’s growing effectiveness and surveys showing high public confidence in the military.
“The security piece is largely in place, the key event now is political,” he says.
Some Afghan political and business leaders say nothing could calm the 2014 jitters like an announcement from President Obama of the number of US troops that will remain in Afghanistan after 2014. Speculation has swirled for months that the number will be around 8,000 – for a total international commitment of perhaps 12,000. Mr. Obama has said that the troops he deploys to Afghanistan post-2011 will be “narrowly focused” on training and counterterrorism.
But Ghani says Afghanistan’s “key challenge” is to prepare next year’s election. Nothing would go as far in building the country’s confidence as a well-prepared, transparent, and uncontested election able to “give the next government a mandate.”
Part of the angst about 2014 stems from memories of the 2009 election, which was won by President Hamid Karzai but so stained by fraud and discrepancies that many Afghans dismissed the result as illegitimate.
Ghani’s idea this time: to hold well before the election a “national convention” where a broad spectrum of Afghanistan’s political leadership would debate and agree on “the rules of the road” for next year’s election. Pointing out that the early Americans held more than 100 conventions at various levels before settling on the constitution, Ghani says Afghans would be reassured by a discussion that delivers political consensus.
What about traditional elites?
Yet as soothing as a national dialogue might sound, it will do little to address Afghans’ fears if it is limited to the country’s traditional elites, others say.
Any effort to build confidence in the future must include those who have most at stake in it, and that’s Afghans 25 and under who make up 70 percent of the population, says Parwiz Kawa, editor in chief of Kabul’s Hasht a Subh newspaper.
Afghanistan’s economy poses critical challenges for young people, Mr. Kawa says, but he adds that the “other transitions” take a back seat to the overriding importance of a successful political transition next year.
“We have to have a free and fair election that builds trust and brings back confidence, that’s the most important thing,” he says.
Kawa says he knows many Afghan young people who, though they may be worried about 2014, still see the coming changes, including a smaller foreign footprint, as an opportunity for Afghans to take responsibility for their country.
The challenge will be to convince more Afghans that their country can withstand “the transition,” but accomplishing that will likely require a focused effort from Afghanistan’s leaders.
As Ghani says, “The test of Afghan leadership is to create confidence in the future.”
Flying with the Afghan Air Force
By Kristina Wong The Washington Times May 17, 2013
It will take nearly five years for the Afghan Air Force to become fully capable of flying all types of missions, but some of its pilots are testing out the skies today.
The Washington Times flew on an Afghan-piloted Cessna 208, a small, single-engine plane that seats approximately eight passengers, earlier this week.
The flight, from Shindand Air Base in western Afghanistan to Kandahar Air Base in southeastern Afghanistan, lasted for approximately an hour and a half and spanned roughly 240 miles of Afghanistan’s mountainous and arid terrain.
During the flight, there appeared to be no visible place to land if the aircraft malfunctioned or the pilot committed a major error.
Fortunately, there seemed to be no problems during the flight, which was piloted by 34-year-old Afghan Air Force1st Lt. Mohammad Tawfiq.
Lt. Tawfiq has flown for about a year since graduating from Undergraduate Pilot Training at the Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas in 2011.
Asked why he wanted to join the Afghan Air Force, Lt. Tawfiq replied in English, “A soldier works on the ground. I like being in the air.”
He had no prior English-speaking skills until he joined the Air Force and began taking English classes.
Sitting next to Lt. Tawfiq was Air Force pilot Capt. Jason Star, who is an adviser with the Air Force’s 538th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron. Capt. Star advised Lt. Tawfiq during the flight.
Afghan Taleban Fighters Turn on Pakistan
“The true face of our enemy has now been revealed,” says one commander.
IWPR By Mohammad, Mina Habib 17 May 13
Afghanistan - Some Taleban fighters in the Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan say they are ready to switch sides out of anger with recent actions by the Pakistani military.
They made the offer after hearing of skirmishes in neighbouring Nangarhar province, sparked when Pakistani troops built a frontier post and other military installations in the Goshta district. Officials in Kabul say the area involved lies well inside Afghanistan.
President Hamed Karzai ordered Afghan troops to take “immediate action” to remove the structures, and accused Islamabad of trying to pressure his government to accept a border to which it would never agree.
Kabul said nine Pakistani soldiers and one Afghan were killed in an initial clash at the beginning of May. Further exchanges of fire took place a few days later when Pakistani units tried to rebuild the checkpoint.
The clashes are only the latest manifestation of the long-running mistrust between the two countries, which plays out both at government level and in incidents along their long common frontier. Kabul has blamed Islamabad’s army rather than militants for continual bombardment of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nurestan over the past two years. (See for example Afghans Say Pakistan Behind Cross-Border Fire.)
The “Goshta incident” has galvanised Afghans’ resentment at what they see as a sustained campaign of intimidation, also including covert Pakistani assistance for the Taleban.
Political and ethnic differences were set aside as demonstrations took place around the country, young men volunteered for the fight against the Pakistanis, and convoys of people travelled to Goshta to visit the troops and express their solidarity.
Even Taleban commanders took offence. In Kunar, local government officials, provincial assembly members, and tribal elders said they were contacted by insurgents in the area.
Provincial council member Hajji Nasrullah Khan Sapai said messages had come in from insurgents in various parts of Kunar, transmitted through tribal and religious leaders.
“The Taleban told them that if the government allows them to, they are prepared to fight the Pakistanis and defend their land,” Sapai said, adding that he sent a message back urging the insurgents to halt all attacks on government troops.
A tribal elder in the Naray district, Hajji Sher Mohammadi, said, “The message says the Taleban have defended Islam and the country all their lives, and they are ready to fight any foreigner who attacks Afghanistan today.”
Mohammadi said the insurgents had vowed to capture three times as much Pakistani territory as the land occupied in Nangarhar.
A Taleban commander in Kunar’s Pech valley, who wanted to remain anonymous, told IWPR “We will fight anyone who attacks the Afghan people and soil, be it the Americans or the Pakistanis. I ask the Afghan government to provide us with equipment, and then we will destroy all the checkpoints the Pakistanis have built and drive them out.”
Kunar resident Zia ul-Haq was among those who saw the Taleban offer as a potential turning-point.
“This is a very good opportunity for the Taleban. They must stop following orders from the Pakistani ISI [intelligence service]. They must not destroy their own country because others have told them; they must fight against those who have occupied their land,” he said.
Suspicions that Islamabad is trying to push into Afghan territory are closely connected with the lack of a mutually agreed border between the two states.
In 1893, a line drawn on a map by Sir Mortimer Durand was declared the outer frontier of British India. The line divided the Pashtun people into populations living in two different states. Pakistan recognised the “Durand Line” as its border when it emerged as a state from the 1948 partition with India, but Afghanistan has never accepted its status as an international boundary. In any case, the 120-year-old dividing line is not clearly demarcated on the ground.
Commenting on events in Goshta, President Karzai said Islamabad’s real aim was to force Kabul to discuss the Durand Line and acknowledge it as legitimate.
“But they will never succeed,” he added. “The people of Afghanistan have never accepted the Durand Line since the British created it.”
The Pakistani foreign ministry responded by saying that the Durand Line was already a fait accompli.
Other Afghan politicians suggested that the West was at least partly to blame for the Pakistani encroachment. The speaker of the upper house of parliament, Fazel Hadi Moslemyar, said the site of the contested checkpoint was earlier held by United States forces, which ceded it to the Pakistanis when they withdrew.
Matters were not helped when US officials reiterated that Washington recognised the Durand Line as the border.
Some Afghan analysts believe the response to the Goshta clashes has revealed fault lines in the Taleban’s ranks.
Wasef Wasefi, spokesman for Kunar’s governor, said insurgent activity had declined in the province.
“Since the war in Goshta, the number of Taleban attacks on Afghan forces has decreased significantly. It is hoped that many of the Taleban will soon enter the peace process,” he said. “After the Goshta incident, a group of 16 Taleban members from the Dewgal valley in Chowki district joined the peace programme”.
The commander of the group involved, Mohammad Isa Jaan, told IWPR it was time to stop fighting the government.
“We did not know our enemy before. The true face of our enemy has now been revealed – it is Pakistan. We have decided not to trust the words of this enemy any more. We will not kill one another any more; we must unite against this enemy,” he said.
“I call on other Taleban members not to be deceived by the words and the Islam of the Pakistanis. They should cease internecine fighting, and join the peace programme in order to be united in this national cause – Pakistan’s aggression in our land.”
The official response from the Taleban leadership was more equivocal. In a statement issued on May 13, the group condemned any attack on Afghanistan and pledged to defend its territorial integrity. But it did not pin the blame squarely on Islamabad, instead describing the trouble in Goshta district as “a planned neo-colonial conspiracy” and an attempt to distract people’s attention from “American occupation” and from “the weakness of the puppet regime” in Kabul.
Wahid Mozhda, an Afghan political analyst, welcomed the new sense of national unity that had come out of the clashes in Goshta, but cautioned against falling for what might just be a new tactic from Islamabad.
Referring to Pakistan’s historical fears of a united Pashtun nation, he said, “Pakistan’s goal is to spark war between the tribes living on either side of the Durand Line, and then claim that these tribes are enemies of each other. That would pave pave the way for recognition of the Durand Line.”
Mohammad is an IWPR-trained reporter in Kunar province. Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained journalist in Kabul.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By KAY JOHNSON | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience.
The fierce opposition highlights how tenuous women's rights remain a dozen years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime, whose strict interpretation of Islam once kept Afghan women virtual prisoners in their homes.
Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative lawmaker for Herat province, said the legislation was withdrawn shortly after being introduced in parliament because of an uproar by religious parties who said parts of the law are un-Islamic.
"Whatever is against Islamic law, we don't even need to speak about it," Shaheedzada said.
The Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women has been in effect since 2009, but only by presidential decree. It is being brought before parliament now because lawmaker Fawzia Kofi, a women's rights activist, wants to cement it with a parliamentary vote to prevent its potential reversal by any future president who might be tempted to repeal it to satisfy hard-line religious parties.
The law criminalizes, among other things, child marriage and forced marriage, and bans "baad," the traditional practice of exchanging girls and women to settle disputes. It makes domestic violence a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and specifies that rape victims should not face criminal charges for fornication or adultery.
Kofi, who plans to run for president in next year's elections, said she was disappointed because among those who oppose upgrading the law from presidential decree to legislation passed by parliament are women.
Afghanistan's parliament has more than 60 female lawmakers, mostly due to constitutional provisions reserving certain seats for women.
There has been spotty enforcement of the law as it stands. A United Nations analysis in late 2011 found only a small percentage of reported crimes against women were pursued by the Afghan government. Between March 2010 and March 2011 — the first full Afghan year the decree was in effect — prosecutors filed criminal charges in only 155 cases, or 7 percent of the total number of crimes reported.
The child marriage ban and the idea of protecting female rape victims from prosecution were particularly heated subjects in Saturday's parliamentary debate, said Nasirullah Sadiqizada Neli, a conservative lawmaker from Daykundi province.
Neli suggested that removing the custom — common in Afghanistan — of prosecuting raped women for adultery would lead to social chaos, with women freely engaging in extramarital sex safe in the knowledge they could claim rape if caught.
Another lawmaker, Mandavi Abdul Rahmani of Barlkh province, also opposed the law's rape provision.
"Adultery itself is a crime in Islam, whether it is by force or not," Rahmani said.
He said the Quran also makes clear that a husband has a right to beat a disobedient wife as a last resort, as long as she is not permanently harmed. "But in this law," he said, "It says if a man beats his wife at all, he should be jailed for three months to three years."
Lawmaker Shaheedzada also claimed that the law might encourage disobedience among girls and women, saying it reflected Western values not applicable in Afghanistan.
"Even now in Afghanistan, women are running from their husbands. Girls are running from home," Shaheedzada said. "Such laws give them these ideas."
More freedoms for women are one of the most visible — and symbolic — changes in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led campaign that toppled the Taliban regime. While in power, the Taliban imposed a strict interpretation of Islam that put severe curbs on the freedom of women.
For five years, the regime banned women from working and going to school, or even leaving home without a male relative. In public, all women were forced wear a head-to-toe burqa, which covers even the face with a mesh panel. Violators were publicly flogged or executed.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, women's freedoms have improved vastly, but Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative culture, especially in rural areas.
Saturday's failure of the legislation in parliament reflected the power of religious parties but changed little on the ground, since the decree is still the law of the land, however loosely enforced. Kofi said the parliament decided to send the legislation to committee, and it could come to a vote again later this year.
"We will work on this law," she said. "We will bring it back."
Some activists, however, worry about potential changes to the law. Bringing the legislation before parliament also opened it up to being amended, leaving the possibility that conservatives will seek to weaken it by stripping out provisions they dislike — or even vote to repeal it.
"There's a real risk this has opened a Pandora's box, that this may have galvanized opposition to this decree by people who in principle oppose greater rights for women," said Heather Barr, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.
That's true for lawmaker Rahmani, who said President Hamid Karzai should never have issued the decree and wants it changed, if not repealed.
"We cannot have an Islamic country with basically Western laws," he said.
___
Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed in Kabul.
Obama seeks to cut Afghan war spending by 10 pct
Reuters By Mark Felsenthal May 17, 2013
President Barack Obama on Friday trimmed his funding request for the war in Afghanistan and other overseas operations by 10 percent, reflecting his plans to wind down the U.S. presence in that country.
The president asked for $79.4 billion to fund so-called overseas contingency operations in fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1, down from his original $88.5 billion request, a White House aide said. Obama made the request in a letter to Congress.
The U.S. chief executive has said he plans to draw down troops in Afghanistan after 2014 but has not specified by how much.
"The president is still reviewing options from his national security team and has not made a decision about the size of a possible U.S. presence after 2014," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
"The lower request reflects our transitioning role in Afghanistan," she said.
The president is due to announce in the next few weeks how many combat troops the United States will leave in Afghanistan next year, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday.
The president has set 2014 as the target for withdrawing most of the troops but the decision is a delicate one as sufficient forces must stay behind to train and support Afghan forces and carry out some operations.
U.S. troops first went to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States to root out al Qaeda and its Taliban protectors.
Men convicted in kidnap, murder of Afghan child executed in Herat
By SADAF SHINWARI - 18 May 2013, 11:24 am Khaama Press
According to reports two kidnappers involved in murder of 11-year-old boy were executed in western Herat province of Afghanistan early Saturday morning.
The execution of the two kidnappes was approved by president Hamid Karzai last week.
Provincial governor spokesman for Herat province Mohiuddin Noori said the execution of the two kidnappers was scheduled for Saturday morning.
Ali Sina, the 11-year-old Afghan boy was kidnapped by two kidnappers recognized as Jalil Ahmad and Abdul Sami few months back and was killed after receiving ransom from his family.
The two kidnappers were reportedly executed inside the Herat jail in the presence of the family of Ali Sina.
Ali Sina belonged to a wealthy Afghan family and one of the prominent merchants of western Herat province. He was killed after his kidnappers received ransom from his family.
Fearing Afghanistan instability, Russia mulls border troops
Reuters By Amie Ferris-Rotman Fri, May 17, 2013
KABUL - Russia, predicting instability once NATO-led troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, is considering deploying border guards on the Tajik-Afghan border, Moscow's envoy to Kabul told Reuters in an interview.
Moscow, still sore from its disastrous, decade-long war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, is increasingly concerned by what it describes as the combined threat of narcotics and terrorism reaching Russia through former Soviet Central Asian countries.
"We prefer to tackle this problem on the Afghan border to stop these threats," Andrey Avetisyan said late on Thursday in the Russian embassy in Kabul.
Its sprawling grounds host a Soviet-built teal Volga car recovered in Afghanistan by embassy staff and a memorial to the 15,000 Soviet lives lost in the war against mujahideen fighters.
"We used to have a serious presence on the Afghan-Tajik border and, at that time, the situation there was much better, so it would be in the interest of both Russia and Tajikistan and even Afghanistan if Russia is present there," he said.
Avetisyan said such a presence would involve Russian border troops, but declined to give a number.
Russian border guards used to patrol the Tajik frontier with Afghanistan but left in 2005, ending a Soviet-era legacy and handing all power over to local authorities. Ex-Soviet Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan also border Afghanistan to its north.
Avetisyan said any agreement on border troop deployment would "of course" have to be agreed upon with Tajikistan.
Intensifying violence across Afghanistan, less than two years before foreign combat troops withdraw, has sent tremors of worry across Russia, which is battling an Islamist insurgency in its North Caucasus as well as widespread use of heroin and a huge increase in the incidence of HIV and AIDS.
Russia is involved in a series of ambitious construction projects in Afghanistan, including rebuilding its Soviet-era cultural centre, aimed at fostering stability in the country which produces 90 percent of the world's opium.
Avetisyan, who also worked for the Soviet government in Kabul during Moscow's war, said fighting in northern Afghanistan -- traditional bastions of anti-Taliban power groups -- offers proof of a "general destabilisation of the situation".
COMPARISONS WITH SOVIET CAMPAIGN
Comparisons are being increasingly drawn between the Soviet and NATO-led wars, and the Taliban have repeatedly warned Washington that it will encounter the same fate met by Moscow.
After the dispirited Soviet exit in 1989, the Afghan communist government collapsed, leading to infighting between warlords and a civil war that reduced much of Kabul to rubble and paved the way for the Taliban's rise to power in 1996.
"What have they been doing for the past 12 years?" Avetisyan asked of the current campaign, America's longest war.
"Fighting against terrorism with 150,000 troops without any success," he said, adding that a continued troop presence after 2014 "doesn't make any sense".
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to soon announce how many combat troops Washington will leave after the withdrawal. Many Afghans are eager to know the size of the post-2014 force, fearing chaos and civil war could erupt with no foreign presence.
The United States is widely expected to retain nine bases across Afghanistan after 2014, NATO officials said after Afghan President Hamid Karzai revealed the plan this month.
But Avetisyan said any future U.S. military role in the country must be an international legal arrangement approved by the United Nations Security Council, in which Russia has veto power.
"A long-term or permanent military presence of a foreign force will be a reason of concern for us, especially if they are military bases. We would like to know what the purpose is and we still don't have answers to these questions," he said.
(Editing by Ron Popeski)
Afghanistan turns to Australia for mining expertise
ABC News By Sue Lannin 18 May, 2013
Australia could help Afghanistan develop its fledgling mining industry and tap into mineral and energy reserves estimated to be worth trillions of dollars.
The country is eager to find a new source of revenue when international aid starts to decline and foreign forces withdraw next year.
Afghan mining minister Wahidullah Shahrani, has already met with various Australian Government departments and is attending a mining development conference in Sydney next week.
He says Afghanistan has already benefited from Australia's support, especially in the form of scholarships.
"[Our students] will transfer back to Afghanistan, they will help the ministry of mines and petroleum in Afghanistan to manage the resources in the right way," he said.
Mr Shahrani hopes to strengthen its ties with Australia into the future.
"We have been negotiating right now with the government of Australia on the next phase of their support to Afghanistan," he said.
"I am expecting that by end of June, five or six major concessions will be awarded for iron ore, copper, gold and oil and gas." Industry challenges
Afghanistan's mining industry is threatened by the country's shaky security situation and widespread corruption.
But Mr Shahrani says a strong mining sector will alleviate the threat of a Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgency.
"Security is a concern but it doesn't mean that the entire Afghanistan is insecure," Mr Shahrani said.
"A number of deals which are going to be signed will lead to the investment of billions of dollars.
"The more investment that we will get will also lead to a higher degree of stability once the people realise the benefits of these projects in the form of jobs, welfare, access to income."
The Afghani government has also implemented strategies to limit corruption in the mining industry, including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
"For each and every major deal, from day one when the tender process begins until the conclusion of the contract negotiation and the award of the contract, we have appointed international monitors," he said.
"The government has been very serious in ensuring the highest degree of transparency and efficiency in the development of these resources."
Afghan Police Chief Assassinated
VOA News May 18, 2013
A police chief in Afghanistan's Farah province has been shot to death by unknown attackers.
Officials say Police Chief Abdul Ghani was near his home late Friday when gunmen shot him. No one has been detained in the case.
The Associated Press quotes a local official as saying Ghani had led a crackdown on insurgents in his district of Khaki Safad that resulted in the killing and capture of several Taliban leaders. The spokesman said that made him a target for Taliban attacks.
Afghan Attorney General Seeks Permission to Investigate the Case of Accused MPs
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat 17 May 2013
Afghanistan Attorney General on Thursday asked the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to grant it the permission for investigating the case of six accused MPs.
The Attorney General's office has been stressing on a fair investigation where both the sides are heard. The Attorney General has asked the MPs to send their evidences to take the investigations forward.
Attorney General's Spokesman Basir Azizi said that till the time they don't receive any file from both the sides, nothing can be done.
"Afghanistan's Attorney General sent an official letter to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and asked it to produce all the 6 MPs accused of smuggling and illegal demands at their office," Basir Azizi said.
Mr Azizi said that if the Finance Minister fails to produce any evidence in support of his allegations, he will be prosecuted.
Taking note of the issue, the High Office of Over Sight and Anti-Corruption has asked the judiciary to seriously investigate the case and hear both the sides.
"In the past, the MPs have accused each other of various illegal activities. I think it is a good beginning to start our fight against corruption," Head of High Office of Over Sight and Anti-Corruption Aziz Loudin said.
A number of experts said that even though the disclosures could have been made by some forces out of vengeance but it is a good step to bring reforms.
"The issue should be thoroughly investigated. Otherwise, it will be meaningless to make such a noise about the matter," University lecturer Ahmad Tamim Asi said.
Afghanistan Attorney General added that the Parliament's decision over setting up a commission to investigate the allegations on the MPs is against the Afghanistan Constitution. Attorney General believes that no agency can investigate the issue except its own department.
These comments come in at a time when the Afghan Finance Minister on Monday revealed the names of 6 MPs and accused them of smuggling and raising illegal demands.
Afghanistan starts first commercial oil production in July
By SAYED JAWAD - 18 May 2013, 9:01 pm Khaama Press
The first commercial oil production in the history of Afghanistan is expected to be launched in northern Afghanistan within the next two months.
Afghan mines minister, Wahidullah Shahrani is currently in Australia to for talks with Government officials and to attend mining development conferences in Sydney said, the first major oil production in northern Amu river basin will be started by China National Petroleum (CNPC).
Mr. Shahrani quoted by ABC News said, the oil production will eventually supply oil domestically in a bid to prevent oil import from outside the country.
In the meantime Australia has pledged to provide training opportunities for the Afghan mines officials in a bid to develop the mining sector of the country.
Shahrani quoted by ABC said, “We have got a number of students (who) are studying at Australian universities. They will transfer back to Afghanistan, they will help the ministry of mines and petroleum in Afghanistan to manage the resources in the right way.”
The untapped mineral resouces of Afghanistan estimated to worth up to $3 trillion is considered to play a vital role in the economy of the country as NATO troops are preparing to leave Afghanistan and the international aid is gradually reducing.
Afghan mines minister Wahidullah Shahrani also announced that the government of Afghanistan is due to award five to six major tenders including oil and gas, copper, gold and iron ore within the next one month.
Lion of Kabul recruited for 'clean and green' campaign
BBC News By Bilal Sarwary 17 May 2013
Kabul - Once known as a city of gardens and abundant fruits, Kabul is fighting hard to maintain even a basic level of cleanliness, among its many other problems. Kabul municipality has now recruited a popular cartoon character to encourage children to keep the city clean and green.
Shir Sultan, or the Lion King, has been visiting schools in the Afghan capital to spread the message.
Needless to say, he is a big hit among 400 schoolchildren sitting in the playground of Abdul Ali Mustaghni school in the west of the city, where cheers and claps greet the cartoon character's every move.
The synthetic lion hits it off instantly with his audience when he asks them the question: "Who is a friend of Kabul?"
Hundreds of supportive hands go up in the air. Some children even stand up to express their commitment to the cause.
"I am going to be sending my son, Sher Bachcha, to this school," a pleased Shir Sultan announces to the further delight of his audience.
By pledging to be friends of Kabul, the children join the city's "Cleaning and Greening" campaign, and in so doing agree to be agents of change.
Decrepit sewer systems
The US Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded campaign was launched last year by Kabul's mayor, Muhammad Yunus Nawandish.
The idea is to encourage students to adopt hygienic habits and help civic authorities keep the city clean and green.
While Shir Sultan is the mascot of the campaign other tactics are also used to generate interest.
Colouring and story books are used to tell the pupils of the best ways to dispose of rubbish, the importance of washing hands and how to water trees.
Last year alone, Shir Sultan was directly introduced to more than 25,000 children, where he distributed about 180,000 story and colour books.
It is a campaign where there is no shortage of challenges - first and foremost Kabul does not have proper sewer systems.
Furthermore, the city's civic system is mostly in decay, eaten up by years of war and the neglect of the authorities.
At the same time the city's rapid pace of construction in recent years has robbed Kabul of much of its green cover, leaving its population of five million with few green spaces.
But the authorities say that things have improved in recent years.
"My aim is to have a dust-free Kabul," says Mayor Nawandish, never a man to avoid the toughest of challenges.
Officials at Kabul municipality hope that initiatives like the USAID one will ultimately help in restoring the city to its past glories.
"We are educating children so that they spread the word in their families, among their friends." says Mohammad Sadiq Sediqi of Kabul municipality.
Because the scale of the challenge is so immense, it is easy to be sceptical about the prospects of such challenges ever succeeding.
But the enthusiasm among the children at the Abdul Ali Mustaghni school is infectious.
"What brings you here?" I ask Farzad, a sixth-grade student.
"I am here to listen and learn," he says with a glint in his eyes. "I want to learn how to keep my home, my school and my city clean."
Why Afghanistan is nervous about the US troop withdrawal
By December 2014 the Afghan National Security Forces that have been built by the US and NATO will be left to largely stand on their own.
The Christian Monitor By Howard LaFranchi May 17, 2013
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghanistan is suffering a crisis of confidence – and given what’s on the horizon, it's not so difficult to see why.
Next year is shaping up to be a perfect storm of security, political, and economic transition. And many Afghans, from shopkeepers to members of Parliament, are uncertain that their fragile ship can withstand the tossing waves.
After more than a decade of a massive foreign military presence and an associated aid effort that have showered tens of billions of dollars on one of the world’s poorest countries, the US and other Western powers are preparing, if not to say goodbye, then to substantially scale back.
Next year will mark the end of NATO’s combat mission in Afghanistan. By December 2014 the 99,000 US and other foreign troops still here will be gone. The Afghan National Security Forces – army and police – will be left to largely stand on their own against a nasty insurgency.
Marking perhaps an even more critical milestone, Afghanistan will hold presidential elections next April, testing the ability of a population deeply divided along ethnic and urban-rural lines to form some level of political consensus, and rally behind a new leader.
On top of the security and political uncertainties, economic activity driven by the large international presence is expected to fall off substantially next year. An economy growing by nearly 10 percent annually in recent years could see the growth tumble by nearly half next year, according to the World Bank.
The coming trifecta of change would challenge almost any of the world’s countries, but for many Afghans – especially urban dwellers who have seen life fast-forward into the 21st century during the past decade, the uncertainty and prospect of regression seem traumatic.
Daydreams of leaving
“We are afraid about our future,” says Fatima Aziz, a surgeon who is a member of Parliament from Kunduz Province. “The ANP [Afghan National Police] is not strong, we don’t know how security will be without the international forces.”
Afghans in and around Kabul reveal anxieties about the US and NATO drawdown, and many say they have daydreams of leaving before chaos sets in – a recent Asia Society survey found that one-third of Afghans would leave the country if they could. Many express fear of the Taliban’s return to power – even though many Afghan experts assert that the country has evolved and modernized too much for that to happen.
Others acknowledge the challenges posed by “the transition,” but they blame the country’s leadership for not addressing the national malaise.
“People are worried, but I blame the government for not preparing themselves for the worst,” says Mustafa Sadiq, chief executive officer of Afghanistan’s largest privately owned fruit processing company, Omaid Bahar. By “the worst” he says he means “the vacuum that will be created when 100,000 troops withdraw.”
Mr. Sadiq, whose company employs 700 people and collects fruit from 35,000 mostly small farmers, says businesses are closing as the foreign presence shrinks and contracts dry up. Unemployment is rising, and real estate prices are plummeting – down 40 percent or more in Kabul, he says.
Even some of Afghanistan’s most prominent leaders acknowledge the public frenzy over the specter of 2014, even as they insist that the solutions exist to carry the country through the storm – perhaps even to come out of it stronger than when it went in.
“There is a problem of confidence – it’s a problem of public psychology, and that public psychology is about 2014,” says Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister who came in fourth in Afghanistan’s 2009 presidential election.
Moving on to a national dialogue
Dr. Ghani, who now heads a national commission focused on the transition (and who swats away queries about whether or not he will again be a presidential candidate in 2014) says Afghanistan needs a “national dialogue” to prepare the country for next year.
That national dialogue would not focus on reconciliation with the Taliban insurgency – a project that has floated around for years without advancing – but rather on creating a national consensus for the April 5 elections.
Ghani rejects the widespread worries about the security transition, citing evidence from the field of the Afghan National Army’s growing effectiveness and surveys showing high public confidence in the military.
“The security piece is largely in place, the key event now is political,” he says.
Some Afghan political and business leaders say nothing could calm the 2014 jitters like an announcement from President Obama of the number of US troops that will remain in Afghanistan after 2014. Speculation has swirled for months that the number will be around 8,000 – for a total international commitment of perhaps 12,000. Mr. Obama has said that the troops he deploys to Afghanistan post-2011 will be “narrowly focused” on training and counterterrorism.
But Ghani says Afghanistan’s “key challenge” is to prepare next year’s election. Nothing would go as far in building the country’s confidence as a well-prepared, transparent, and uncontested election able to “give the next government a mandate.”
Part of the angst about 2014 stems from memories of the 2009 election, which was won by President Hamid Karzai but so stained by fraud and discrepancies that many Afghans dismissed the result as illegitimate.
Ghani’s idea this time: to hold well before the election a “national convention” where a broad spectrum of Afghanistan’s political leadership would debate and agree on “the rules of the road” for next year’s election. Pointing out that the early Americans held more than 100 conventions at various levels before settling on the constitution, Ghani says Afghans would be reassured by a discussion that delivers political consensus.
What about traditional elites?
Yet as soothing as a national dialogue might sound, it will do little to address Afghans’ fears if it is limited to the country’s traditional elites, others say.
Any effort to build confidence in the future must include those who have most at stake in it, and that’s Afghans 25 and under who make up 70 percent of the population, says Parwiz Kawa, editor in chief of Kabul’s Hasht a Subh newspaper.
Afghanistan’s economy poses critical challenges for young people, Mr. Kawa says, but he adds that the “other transitions” take a back seat to the overriding importance of a successful political transition next year.
“We have to have a free and fair election that builds trust and brings back confidence, that’s the most important thing,” he says.
Kawa says he knows many Afghan young people who, though they may be worried about 2014, still see the coming changes, including a smaller foreign footprint, as an opportunity for Afghans to take responsibility for their country.
The challenge will be to convince more Afghans that their country can withstand “the transition,” but accomplishing that will likely require a focused effort from Afghanistan’s leaders.
As Ghani says, “The test of Afghan leadership is to create confidence in the future.”
Flying with the Afghan Air Force
By Kristina Wong The Washington Times May 17, 2013
It will take nearly five years for the Afghan Air Force to become fully capable of flying all types of missions, but some of its pilots are testing out the skies today.
The Washington Times flew on an Afghan-piloted Cessna 208, a small, single-engine plane that seats approximately eight passengers, earlier this week.
The flight, from Shindand Air Base in western Afghanistan to Kandahar Air Base in southeastern Afghanistan, lasted for approximately an hour and a half and spanned roughly 240 miles of Afghanistan’s mountainous and arid terrain.
During the flight, there appeared to be no visible place to land if the aircraft malfunctioned or the pilot committed a major error.
Fortunately, there seemed to be no problems during the flight, which was piloted by 34-year-old Afghan Air Force1st Lt. Mohammad Tawfiq.
Lt. Tawfiq has flown for about a year since graduating from Undergraduate Pilot Training at the Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas in 2011.
Asked why he wanted to join the Afghan Air Force, Lt. Tawfiq replied in English, “A soldier works on the ground. I like being in the air.”
He had no prior English-speaking skills until he joined the Air Force and began taking English classes.
Sitting next to Lt. Tawfiq was Air Force pilot Capt. Jason Star, who is an adviser with the Air Force’s 538th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron. Capt. Star advised Lt. Tawfiq during the flight.
Afghan Taleban Fighters Turn on Pakistan
“The true face of our enemy has now been revealed,” says one commander.
IWPR By Mohammad, Mina Habib 17 May 13
Afghanistan - Some Taleban fighters in the Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan say they are ready to switch sides out of anger with recent actions by the Pakistani military.
They made the offer after hearing of skirmishes in neighbouring Nangarhar province, sparked when Pakistani troops built a frontier post and other military installations in the Goshta district. Officials in Kabul say the area involved lies well inside Afghanistan.
President Hamed Karzai ordered Afghan troops to take “immediate action” to remove the structures, and accused Islamabad of trying to pressure his government to accept a border to which it would never agree.
Kabul said nine Pakistani soldiers and one Afghan were killed in an initial clash at the beginning of May. Further exchanges of fire took place a few days later when Pakistani units tried to rebuild the checkpoint.
The clashes are only the latest manifestation of the long-running mistrust between the two countries, which plays out both at government level and in incidents along their long common frontier. Kabul has blamed Islamabad’s army rather than militants for continual bombardment of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nurestan over the past two years. (See for example Afghans Say Pakistan Behind Cross-Border Fire.)
The “Goshta incident” has galvanised Afghans’ resentment at what they see as a sustained campaign of intimidation, also including covert Pakistani assistance for the Taleban.
Political and ethnic differences were set aside as demonstrations took place around the country, young men volunteered for the fight against the Pakistanis, and convoys of people travelled to Goshta to visit the troops and express their solidarity.
Even Taleban commanders took offence. In Kunar, local government officials, provincial assembly members, and tribal elders said they were contacted by insurgents in the area.
Provincial council member Hajji Nasrullah Khan Sapai said messages had come in from insurgents in various parts of Kunar, transmitted through tribal and religious leaders.
“The Taleban told them that if the government allows them to, they are prepared to fight the Pakistanis and defend their land,” Sapai said, adding that he sent a message back urging the insurgents to halt all attacks on government troops.
A tribal elder in the Naray district, Hajji Sher Mohammadi, said, “The message says the Taleban have defended Islam and the country all their lives, and they are ready to fight any foreigner who attacks Afghanistan today.”
Mohammadi said the insurgents had vowed to capture three times as much Pakistani territory as the land occupied in Nangarhar.
A Taleban commander in Kunar’s Pech valley, who wanted to remain anonymous, told IWPR “We will fight anyone who attacks the Afghan people and soil, be it the Americans or the Pakistanis. I ask the Afghan government to provide us with equipment, and then we will destroy all the checkpoints the Pakistanis have built and drive them out.”
Kunar resident Zia ul-Haq was among those who saw the Taleban offer as a potential turning-point.
“This is a very good opportunity for the Taleban. They must stop following orders from the Pakistani ISI [intelligence service]. They must not destroy their own country because others have told them; they must fight against those who have occupied their land,” he said.
Suspicions that Islamabad is trying to push into Afghan territory are closely connected with the lack of a mutually agreed border between the two states.
In 1893, a line drawn on a map by Sir Mortimer Durand was declared the outer frontier of British India. The line divided the Pashtun people into populations living in two different states. Pakistan recognised the “Durand Line” as its border when it emerged as a state from the 1948 partition with India, but Afghanistan has never accepted its status as an international boundary. In any case, the 120-year-old dividing line is not clearly demarcated on the ground.
Commenting on events in Goshta, President Karzai said Islamabad’s real aim was to force Kabul to discuss the Durand Line and acknowledge it as legitimate.
“But they will never succeed,” he added. “The people of Afghanistan have never accepted the Durand Line since the British created it.”
The Pakistani foreign ministry responded by saying that the Durand Line was already a fait accompli.
Other Afghan politicians suggested that the West was at least partly to blame for the Pakistani encroachment. The speaker of the upper house of parliament, Fazel Hadi Moslemyar, said the site of the contested checkpoint was earlier held by United States forces, which ceded it to the Pakistanis when they withdrew.
Matters were not helped when US officials reiterated that Washington recognised the Durand Line as the border.
Some Afghan analysts believe the response to the Goshta clashes has revealed fault lines in the Taleban’s ranks.
Wasef Wasefi, spokesman for Kunar’s governor, said insurgent activity had declined in the province.
“Since the war in Goshta, the number of Taleban attacks on Afghan forces has decreased significantly. It is hoped that many of the Taleban will soon enter the peace process,” he said. “After the Goshta incident, a group of 16 Taleban members from the Dewgal valley in Chowki district joined the peace programme”.
The commander of the group involved, Mohammad Isa Jaan, told IWPR it was time to stop fighting the government.
“We did not know our enemy before. The true face of our enemy has now been revealed – it is Pakistan. We have decided not to trust the words of this enemy any more. We will not kill one another any more; we must unite against this enemy,” he said.
“I call on other Taleban members not to be deceived by the words and the Islam of the Pakistanis. They should cease internecine fighting, and join the peace programme in order to be united in this national cause – Pakistan’s aggression in our land.”
The official response from the Taleban leadership was more equivocal. In a statement issued on May 13, the group condemned any attack on Afghanistan and pledged to defend its territorial integrity. But it did not pin the blame squarely on Islamabad, instead describing the trouble in Goshta district as “a planned neo-colonial conspiracy” and an attempt to distract people’s attention from “American occupation” and from “the weakness of the puppet regime” in Kabul.
Wahid Mozhda, an Afghan political analyst, welcomed the new sense of national unity that had come out of the clashes in Goshta, but cautioned against falling for what might just be a new tactic from Islamabad.
Referring to Pakistan’s historical fears of a united Pashtun nation, he said, “Pakistan’s goal is to spark war between the tribes living on either side of the Durand Line, and then claim that these tribes are enemies of each other. That would pave pave the way for recognition of the Durand Line.”
Mohammad is an IWPR-trained reporter in Kunar province. Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained journalist in Kabul.
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