The Afghanistan page - 2005 - news archive

The UK is about to take the lead role in trying to stabalise/occupy Afghanistan. We all know the stories of the Taliban/al Qaeda insurgency that seems to be gathering pace there, but not that much has been said on the subject that will impact on most people in relation to Afghanistan – drugs. Smack, Brown, Skag – whatever you call it, 60% of the Afghan economy is based on Heroin. I suspect a significant, though much lower percentage of Bristol’s economy is also based on drugs.

Dwarfed by the air conditioned sprawl of the nearby US airbase, the barracks of the Afghan National Army's 205th "Atal" (Hero) corps outside Kandahar are, to put it politely, extremely basic. There is none of the shopping mall consumption that characterises the neighbouring US base. No DVDs, "air con" or golf buggies to transport soldiers to the groaning trolleys of the mess hall. The ANA soldiers take their water from the non-potable tap that feeds the toilet block; they have not received mineral water or canned drinks for months. They wash their dishes in the showers, outside which a green pool of sewage festers. Their food comes topped with buzzing clouds of flies.
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All is not well with the Afghan National Army's southern command, which was first deployed last September. What is clear is that morale is low. "Everyone wants to run away," said one sergeant. "We cannot tolerate this."

Security is deteriorating and many internationals are predicting a year of increasing violence. Armed robberies are increasing with criminal gangs. Unofficially there were seven kidnap attempts before the Italian girl was kidnapped. There is credible evidence that a suicide bomber or BBIED around. There are reports of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) on the main Jalalabad road where most UN staff work and people are advised to drive in the middle of the road. There was a car bomb there this week. Internationals are getting nervous and many are leaving soon and many others seriously thinking of it. Elections that are very late in the organizational plan and complicated plus the poppy eradication and anger at American illegal prisons in Cuba and Afghanistan mean it does not look good. See security reports attached. Life is more restricted with restaurants and public places off limits under UN security regulations. Most people seem to be worried about going out anyway.

Shocking and detailed accounts have emerged of how two Afghan prisoners were tortured to death by American interrogators and prison guards at Bagram air base, outside Kabul.

A 2,000-page report on an internal investigation by the US military leaked to The New York Times and published yesterday provides exhaustive detail on how the two were kept chained in excruciating positions and kicked to death.

A leaked report on a military investigation into two killings of detainees at a US prison in Afghanistan has produced new evidence of connivance of senior officers in systematic prisoner abuse.

The investigation shows the military intelligence officers in charge of the detention centre at Bagram airport were redeployed to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003, while still under investigation for the deaths of two detainees months earlier. Despite military prosecutors' recommendations, the officers involved have yet to be charged.

The Bagram case also suggests that some of the prison guards were given little if any training in handling detainees, and were influenced by a White House directive that "terrorist" suspects did not deserve the rights given to prisoners of war under the Geneva convention.

The bodies of hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Uzbekistan are scarcely cold, and already the White House is looking for ways to dismiss them. The White House spokesman Scott McClellan said those shot dead in the city of Andijan included "Islamic terrorists" offering armed resistance. They should, McClellan insists, seek democratic government "through peaceful means, not through violence".

But how? This is not Georgia, Ukraine or even Kyrgyzstan. There, the opposition parties could fight elections. The results were fixed, but the opportunity to propagate their message brought change. In Uzbek elections on December 26, the opposition was not allowed to take part at all.

We knew that this year was not going to be a peaceful one in Afghanistan with elections and the poppy eradication and now the desecration of the koran has added to the hot mix.

• Main talk in Kabul is the kidnap threat to Internationals. I wondered why it was very quiet in a restaurant Saturday night until I saw the emails this morning saying the restaurant is off limits because of an attempted kidnapping there the previous night. Apparently a criminal gang member has been arrested and the gang is looking for an international to bargain for his release. I now have to go around even Kabul in a two car convoy. One international with two large white land cursers is not exactly low profile.
• Love marriages are becoming more popular in Kabul. Bollywood movies freely available on DVDs and very popular have been blamed.
• Heavy rain again this week. Seven years drought is definitely over. Mud everywhere.
• Abduction threat warning because a member of the criminal gang that kidnapped three UN workers last year has been captured. Intelligence says they gang will kidnap an international to exchange.
• Women protest the government’s inactivity over the rape and killing of three women for NGO activity and another stoned for adultery.
• An Afghan friend told me a story of a friend of theirs who lived in the north and married an Indian girl who converted to Islam. His family approved but the community did not and they whole family had to leave under threat of death.
• It is reported that Laura Bush found Afghanistan progressing well and did not see one woman n a burka. Not sure where she went!! I know she visited a beauty shop which had been funded by USAID (US government aid arm) through IOM who I work for. This time they did it directly although it does not comply with grant criteria. But as long as Laura’s happy.
• More violence as weather becomes warmer. Criminal gangs are an increasing problem with police shootouts reported. Passers by are common victims.
• Walking home the other evening I stopped at a cross roads to see a traffic jam with a Dutch man in trousers and shirt sleeves and no uniform directing the traffic by jumping in font of vehicles shouting and pointing a machine gun strapped to this arm at the driver. No idea that he worked for and what authority if any he had to direct traffic and point guns at people. I waited to see if any Afghan would shoot him.
• An English female producer (ex Cheltenham Ladies College) told me of the security man she had been recommended. The first thing he did was to show her his guns and ask her if she wanted to try one. He works for himself and wears army uniform. He demonstrated his fold up baton to an international audience but could not open it. She suspects this dangerous joke was at most a northern pub bouncer. She managed to survive despite him.
• The Independent Human Rights Commission (IHRC) confirmed this week that private Afghan prisons exist and are often run by local commanders. Forced marriages to commanders are still going on also.
• Karzai called some NGOs corrupt. They avoid taxes by being NGOs. Also there is criticism of Afghan aid money being spent on lavish life styles for International NGO staff instead of going to the Afghan people. International NGOs say this is not based on research or facts and off the record many do not trust the government employees not to pocket as much as they can or to use it for individual political reasons.

Just back from a break in the UK and catching up with what is new. I have put it in bullet points below:

• A controversial Disco Restaurant has recently opened in Kabul. While many Afghans like to drink alcohol there is a strong conservative reaction to it. Afghans are not allowed into places serving alcohol aimed at the internationals.
• Youth culture his also coming up against conservatives with Tolo TV, the first private station. Entertainment and investigative journalism. The women’s tennis has been branded pornography. As satire is planned of Charles’ wedding. Why did he marry an older women Afghans wonder? The journalism tackles real problems full on such as pedophile and is very popular with the youth but not the conservatives who view it as corrupting.
• There are still 18,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting the war on terror. Surprisingly not all of them are popular. Underground jails where people are kept in cages without trial and human right violations tend to upset some over sensitive people.
• Elections are very complicated. Most of the international election staff do not know what is happening or understand the process. God help an illiterate farmer. Serious trouble is likely when the results are released. For example one ethnic group could be in the majority in one area and field a large number of parliamentary and provincial candidates while a minority only fields a few. For exactly this reason the minority group could win the seat. One can imagine the out cry. Opposition leader Mohammed Younis Qanuni is already talking of warning elections.
• More Taliban attacks in south and east now weather has improved. Any of these could be anyone disgruntled with heavy handed US troops rather than Taliban but calling them Taliban serves a purpose for the US and Taliban.
• In Jalalabad 3,000 people complained to the authorities about unfair detentions by US troops. Breaking into homes searching for militants and drug runners and not making many friends.
• Reports of car bombs being found and dismantled. More concerted effort against urban areas, district centres and Kabul expected.
• The drug trade will inevitably cause corruption, crime and violence. Paying Afghan farmers not to produce might be more effective. US and UK farmers are so why not? Look at the lack of success in Columbia in 22 years.
• US troops are needed, in the eyes of most Afghans in the short term but there is a great deal of unease about them long term. Help with security is wanted but they do not want another occupier. Kharzai said,’ We do not want only bases’. US have built permanent bases.
• The first woman since the Taliban was stoned to death for adultery recently. The man was whipped 100 times and released. Religious and customary practices are still used to violate women’s rights.

There is no better example of the utter failure of the so-called war on drugs than how Afghanistan, under American and British control, has returned to being the world's number one narcotics producer.

"Washington likes to hold up Afghanistan as an exemplar of how a rogue regime can be replaced by democracy. Meanwhile, human-rights activists and Afghan politicians have accused the US military of placing Afghanistan at the hub of a global system of detention centres where prisoners are held incommunicado and allegedly subjected to torture. The secrecy surrounding them prevents any real independent investigation of the allegations. "The detention system in Afghanistan exists entirely outside international norms, but it is only part of a far larger and more sinister jail network that we are only now beginning to understand," Michael Posner, director of the US legal watchdog Human Rights First, told us."

"The winter weather death toll in Afghanistan has exposed the country's acute lack of infrastructure, writes journalist Ahmed Rashid in his latest guest column for the BBC News website.
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The international community pledged $13.4bn at the Tokyo and Berlin reconstruction conferences for the five years starting December 2001. This despite a needs assessment by the Afghan government of $27bn. Yet, according to the Centre on International Cooperation at New York University, until last month only $3.9bn had been given out for reconstruction projects. Of that only $900m worth of projects has actually been completed. "

"Yesterday a Brit was shot dead in Kabul. He was not a close friend but I knew him and he has given me a lift in his car. I saw him last Thursday night. I left UNICA guest house yesterday about 30 minutes before the killing and always walked past the place where he was killed. There is no clear reason for his murder but it was obviously targeted and it was done professionally. I suspect it might be something to do with his involvement in poppy eradication. The large bomb last year targeting Dyna coup not far from my office was as a result of Dyna Coup (private security company) being involved in poppy eradication. IOM, who I work for, has a contract for Alternative Livelihoods concerning giving poppy growers an alternative income. I will not be involved in the programme."

"Afghanistan's delayed parliamentary elections may now take place in September, according to people close to the process. Several Afghan and international sources have told the BBC that election officials have proposed a new date of 17 September. District elections supposed to happen at the same time may well be postponed."

"Britain is facing a massive influx of heroin because Afghanistan has produced its largest crop of opium since the overthrow of the Taliban.
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A UN report, published today, shows that not only did opium production rise by 800 tons last year to 4,200 tons but the area under poppy cultivation rose from 80,000 hectares to 130,000 hectares.
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The annual record for heroin production in Afghanistan is 4,600 tons, set in 1999. But production fell dramatically after poppy cultivation was banned by the deposed Taliban regime. Now the Taliban have gone, the country has re-established itself as the world's leading exporter of illicit drugs."

"Afghanistan's first parliamentary election since the fall of the Taleban will not take place on time, the United Nations has said. The poll was due to take place by 21 May, but logistical and security concerns have prevented President Hamid Karzai making an official announcement. Under Afghanistan's new constitution any poll must be announced 90 days before it is scheduled to take place."

"Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is due to discuss the opium trade with Afghan President Hamad Karzai. Around 90% of the heroin consumed in Britain and Europe comes from Afghanistan's poppy fields. Since allied forces ousted extremist Taleban rulers in December 2001, opium production has increased twentyfold."

"Afghanistan isn't a topic of many Americans' conversations these days - perhaps because it's not the topic of much news coverage. Only three U.S. news organizations - Newsweek, The Associated Press and The Washington Post - had full-time reporters left in Kabul as of January 2004, according to American Journalism Review.

And now it's a year later. Recent news of a Kam Air plane going down east of Kabul raised a short buzz on this side of the pond. Several Americans were aboard. President Bush referred to Afghanistan's successful presidential elections during his State of the Union address Feb. 2, and the country was the good-news half of a military operations briefing on Iraq and Afghanistan before the Senate Armed Services Committee the next day.
But John Q. Schnutz, man on the street, generally thinks the heavy lifting is done in the country that was ground zero for this nation's first attack in the war on terrorism.

Not so."

"KARACHI - After Afghanistan and Iraq, a new phase in the United States' "war on terror" is under preparation in which the military-minded decision-makers in Washington have short-listed various possible targets, including Iran and Syria. In this scenario, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will play a role, as will Pakistan. A legacy of the Cold War is widespread anti-US sentiment in the South and Central Asian regions, including Pakistan, which has strong links to militancy. The US has already drawn Islamabad into its fold, and wants to keep a close eye on it to ensure it remains fully on side, and Washington also wants to be in a position to monitor the region closely. Well-placed sources in Brussels have told Asia Times Online that as a result, a strong NATO base will be established in the Afghan province of Herat, bordering Iran, and a logistics hub for NATO might be established in Pakistan's southern port of Karachi."

"Not many security incidents but intelegence about possible kidnappings. Heavy snow may be factor. Crack down on alcohol and brothels recently. These contributions by the international community not welcome in some quarters."

"With the consolidation of US-backed President Hamid Karzai's position in Afghanistan following elections late last year, the administration in Kabul is seeking to further entrench itself. Evidence of this can be found in the recent release of hundreds of Taliban detainees after local tribes in different areas guaranteed that their men would not volunteer for any anti-US movement in the region. Taking advantage of the Afghan resistance's shattered situation, resulting from a lack of funds, no safe sanctuary and no external help, the US aims to woo as many resistance commanders as it can. However, the real political developments are taking place between the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the US: the HIA, even if Hekmatyar refuses to agree to a ceasefire, will be allowed to participate in the parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year. The HIA, which was once the largest resistance group against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, remains an important component of the current Afghan resistance."

"There seem to be more and more security men in the bars of Kabul and a growing number of Chinese whores but very few security incidents in the last couple of months. Perhaps the cold weather means people prefer to sit warm around the fire rather than go out and fire rockets that never hit their target."