Moving the presidential vote up to spring from August could undercut opponents, who still have to plan their campaigns
Kabul, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai’s declaration Saturday that Afghan presidential elections should be moved up to April or May has aggravated already tense political divisions in this increasingly unstable country.
The unpopular leader’s decree is at odds with the Independent Election Commission (IEC), which has set Aug. 20 as the date for the polls. The United States reiterated its support Saturday for the later date – a preference shared by other candidates, who say they need more time to plan a campaign.
Karzai’s presidential mandate legally ends in May, which could leave Afghanistan without a head of state for three months if polls were held in August. The president’s supporters say an earlier vote is necessary to avoid such a scenario. Critics say, however, that more than two months are needed to prepare for the elections.
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“The Taliban want to expel foreign troops, not win power.” So says Mullah Salaam Zaif, the movement’s former ambassador to Pakistani, who is now on good terms with the Karzai government.
The Taliban doesn’t want to win power? Are we expecting the Talibs to just go back to their villages and plant wheat once the foreigners leave? Zaif is either lying to Reuters or he is lying to himself. Even most Taliban would probably laugh at this assessment.
Western forces target the Taliban, but for many Afghans the biggest threat comes from criminals and complicitous police
by Mark Sappenfield and Anand Gopal
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Hajji Habib Lal is a successful businessman in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, importing fine ceramic plates from Germany and France. He also owns an AK-47 assault rifle.
Mr. Lal’s son has already been kidnapped once – returned after 13 days for a $20,000 ransom. But Lal still gets death threats by phone, and a few days ago, thieves tried to break into his house. Only a few randomly fired shots from the AK-47 stopped them.
For the Afghans whose hearts and minds America and its allies are trying to win, the greatest enemy in many cases is not the Taliban, but criminals and the police who are often seen as being complicitous with them.
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By Tom Engelhardt
In a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, spoke proudly of how, in July 1979, he had “signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul” and so helped draw a Russian interventionary force into Afghanistan. “On the day that the Soviets officially crossed the border,” Brzezinski added, “I wrote to President Carter, saying, in essence: ‘We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.’” And so they did — with the help of the CIA, Saudi money, the Pakistani intelligence services, and an influx of Arab jihadis, including Osama bin Laden. In fact, their Afghan War would prove far more disastrous for the Soviet Union than defeat in Vietnam had been for the United States. By the time the Soviets withdrew their last troops in February 1989, the economy of the Cold War’s weaker superpower was tottering on the brink. Less than three years later, the Soviet Union itself was no more, even as Washington, at first unbelieving, then celebratory, declared eternal victory.
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From the GSI-IPS Subsidies Series. Part 1, by Ashfaq Yusufzai, is here
KABUL, Sep 30 (IPS) - In a teeming petrol market on the outskirts of Kabul, black market traders sell fuel to everyone from individual customers to large business groups. Although much of this petrol comes from Iran or the Central Asian countries, a good amount also hails from Pakistan, where government subsidies have made the fuel much cheaper than in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government and private businesses generally avoid buying petrol from Pakistan because of the spiraling insecurity on the routes into Afghanistan, but still much petrol manages to get in. How it does so and where it goes illustrates the complicated world of smugglers, border patrol agents and foreign militaries.
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Afghan civilian deaths rise by 39 percent. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pledges to do more to solve the problem.
Kabul, Afghanistan - In a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pledged to do more to prevent civilian deaths from military operations. Mr. Gates’s vow comes on the heels of a new UN report saying that the number of civilian casualties jumped by 39 percent in 2008, fueling controversy about the West’s role in the country.
“While no military has ever done more to prevent civilian casualties, it is also clear that we have to work even harder,” Gates told reporters.
Nearly 1,500 civilians have been killed by either the Taliban or NATO and US forces so far this year, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday. More than half of those deaths are attributed to the Taliban. And US Air Force data suggests that its bombing accuracy is actually improving.
But the UN findings come at a time of rising public criticism after a series of US and NATO aerial bombing raids killed large numbers of Afghan civilians. “Civilian casualties is becoming the main issue in the relationship between the West and Afghanistan,” says Nasrullah Stanikzai, lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Kabul University. If the trend of high levels of casualties continues, he says, it could drive a permanent wedge between Afghans and the US.
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KABUL, Aug 20 (IPS) - The ambush that killed 10 NATO soldiers outside of Kabul on Tuesday, the worst battlefield loss for western forces since the war began, was the capstone in a week of high-profile insurgent activities in Afghanistan.
Although North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces returned fire, killed dozens of rebels and repelled the assault, the attack was a major propaganda victory for the Taliban and highlights a growing predicament faced by western officials: the insurgency appears to be growing in confidence despite losing most battles with international forces.
Nearly 100 rebels ambushed a team of French soldiers with rockets and mortars in a mountain defile near Sarobi, a town about 30 km to the east of the capital city. In addition to the 10 dead, 21 were wounded in what became an hours-long firefight in which the U.S. provided air cover for their beleaguered allies.
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Government agencies are intimidating and arresting journalists. The crackdown marks the decline of a hard-won, post-Taliban achievement: press freedom
Kabul, Afghanistan - Naseer Fayaz, one of Afghanistan’s most famous television presenters, is used to fans and other well-wishers coming by the office. The host of a popular weekly program, “The Truth,” his exposés of government malfeasance have won him awards as well as a devoted following. But after a recent episode of the show that was especially critical of the government, Mr. Fayaz received unexpected visitors: members of the Afghan secret police.
“They questioned me and the next day arrested me,” he says. “I was kept in a cell for two days. They kept telling me I should quit working in the media.”
After protests from numerous Afghan media groups and global organizations, such as Amnesty International, Fayaz was released. But media groups say that the incident is the latest in a trend of increasing intimidation of Afghan journalists by the government.
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KABUL, Aug 14 (IPS) - It used to take Esmazari 15 minutes to cross town in his faded mustard Corolla. But the police shutdown of nearly half of Kabul’s major arteries, in response to a spate of suicide bombings that ripped across the capital city in recent months, means that today Esmazari’s taxi spends a full hour to make the same trip.
“My business has plummeted because of all these blocked roads,” says the taxi driver, who like many Afghans goes by only one name. “The situation is very bad. The whole city centre is clogged and full of checkpoints.”
The state of high alert following a summer of rising insurgent activity is wearing on Kabul citizens, say observers and residents. Many blame the increased checkpoints and closed roads for falling business, yet at the same time some residents say that the heightened security does not make them feel safe.
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KABUL, Jul 24 (IPS) - Dozens of civilians were killed over the weekend in Afghanistan, the latest in the trend of spiraling violence that has engulfed the embattled nation. The civilian casualties, Taliban attacks and troop casualty numbers are putting increasing strain on the Western-led coalition, leading some to speculate that the war is unwinnable.
On Sunday, international forces killed four Afghan police officers and five civilians during a fire-fight in the western province of Farah. In a separate incident that same night, coalition-fired mortar rounds killed at least four civilians in the eastern Paktika province. On Monday, in Laghman province, also in the east, Taliban fighters fired a missile into a fuel truck, killing six civilians.
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