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Over Half a Million Afghans Flee Conflict in 2016: A Look At The IDP Statistics
In 2016, more than half a million Afghans fled conflict to places of safety inside Afghanistan’s borders. Over a third of the yearly total fled in just one month – October. This mass movement was caused by heavy fighting between government and insurgent forces. At the year’s end, AAN’s Jelena Bjelica looks at the statistics of Afghanistan’s internally displaced persons (IDPs). The newly displaced: facts and figures More than 580,000 people – 84,257 families – had been displaced within Afghanistan by mid-December 2016, the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported. (For background on how IDPs are counted and recorded, statistics, see footnote (1)). More than half of the newly displaced population – 56 percent – were children under 18 years of age. In all but three of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, UNOCHA recorded some level of forced displacement, while all 34 provinces hosted the displaced. Kunduz, Uruzgan, Farah and Helmand produced the highest numbers of displaced people in 2016, while those receiving the most were Helmand, Takhar, Farah, Kunduz, Kandahar. That the same or nearby provinces appear in both lists show that many people seek safety near their homes. October was the worse month. There were simultaneous assaults by the Taleban on several provincial capitals: on Kunduz city (see AAN reporting here), Farah city in the west, Faryab’s Maymana in the north and Helmand’s Lashkar Gah in the south. Over a third of the yearly total fled in this month alone, with 213,000 people (31,402 families) on the move. (More in-depth information on displacement is available from an interactive UNOCHA ‘dashboard’ . The northeast The highest number of displaced persons was recorded in the northeast region (Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz and Baghlan), where over 198,000 people – 28,354 families, fled from conflict. Almost half of them – 93,500 people – fled their home province in October 2016. However, there were other monthly peaks – 30,000 in...
President Ghani Thanks Govt. Entities for Security, Defense Forces Support
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, in a meeting of different government entities, thanked them for extending their full support to the country’s security and defense forces. He said: “This doesn’t mean that we have been facing no crisis, but we could overcome the crises successfully.” Following management of the crisis, for strengthening of the country’s security and defense forces, based on the country’s national interests and strategic cooperation between Afghanistan and the US, we could restore friendly relations and international consensus about Afghanistan, said the president. “In a government to government talks, when I arrived in a Pakistani military base, roughly all the people criticized me, as they had only realized a single perspective of the issue, they had not differed between talk and the assessment, when I told them Pakistan is posed in an unannounced war against Afghanistan and I made them to accept the definition.” He said if he was not behaving them as deserved he couldn’t reject their fund. “I rejected their fund and asked to spend their announced money in war on terrorism in their own soil. He said as the country’s armed force commander in chief, would continue supporting them until the last moment, as he said 2015 was the year of their survival as each week, there was crisis and lack trust atmosphere, but the country’s true children would defend the country. The president praised the country’s security forces of being successfully deployed in 15 battlefields of war and added that a work could complete in one week, now being done in a single day. “The upcoming year was the year of our success and capability and this land [Afghanistan] would reach stability. The country’s security and defense forces and our next three years of plan would help us access big achievements,” said the president. According to the president, in the last 14 years, Afghanistan safety had been depended on the security forces, but in the next three years, the responsibility...
Pakistan Backed HIA-Kabul Talks, Says Hekmatyar’s Aide
A senior leader of the Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) has said that Pakistan has neither interfered nor opposed its peace talks with the administration of President Ashraf Ghani. “Pakistan had supported the HIA-Kabul negotiations which led to the signing of a peace deal in September,” Dr Ghairat Baheer, the head of HIA’s political affairs committee, told The Express Tribune in an exclusive interview. Afghan diplomatic sources endorsed Dr Baheer, saying that Pakistan had not interfered in peace talks with the HIA. “It’s a fact that no one from Pakistan has ever dissuaded us from peace negotiations with Kabul. Conversely, Islamabad fully supported the peace process,” said Dr Baheer, who is now part of a six-member committee that oversees the implementation of the agreement that allows the HIA to play an active role in politics. On the Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions, he called for an end to hostile statements by leaders from the two countries which, according to him, increase mutual mistrust. “If there is war or instability in Afghanistan, it will naturally affect Pakistan,” he said. “Therefore, the two governments should pursue a policy that can bring their peoples closer.” When his attention was drawn to the Taliban’s demands for peace talks with Kabul, Dr Baheer said neither side should set any preconditions for dialogue. “All sides should put their conditions on the table,” he said and referred to the unconditional talks between the HIA and the Kabul administration. The Taliban have long asked for the reopening of their political office in Qatar and lifting of international sanctions on their senior leaders before they could think about sitting across the table with Afghan negotiators. “Those who do not join the peace process will stand isolated,” the HIA leader said in a veiled reference to the Taliban. Asked to comment on the impression created by some circles that Kabul has made peace with the HIA to make it join the fight against the Taliban, Dr Baheer said...
China, Pakistan, Russia to Meet on Afghanistan, Angering Kabul Leaders
Top Foreign Ministry officials from China, Pakistan and Russia will meet in Moscow on Tuesday to review what they perceive as a "gradually growing" threat to their frontiers posed by Islamic State extremists in Afghanistan. "This is an existing forum for undertaking informal discussions on issues of regional peace and stability, including the situation in Afghanistan," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria told VOA. Pakistan's foreign secretary, Aizaz Chaudhry, will lead Islamabad's delegation, he added. Officials say future meetings could include Iran. Chinese, Pakistani and Russian officials say they were driven to joint action by the efforts of IS affiliates to establish a foothold in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's national unity government has reportedly questioned the motives of the trilateral dialogue, which will take place without Kabul being represented. Russian officials maintain the "working group on Afghanistan" is one of several initiatives Moscow has undertaken with regional countries, including Afghanistan, to develop a "wider partnership" for containing IS influence. Beijing, Islamabad and Moscow say the three-way talks will also explore ways to bring the Taliban to the table for peace talks with the Afghan government. All three governments maintain overt contacts with the insurgent group. Russia and officials in Pakistan argue that military operations by the U.S.-led international forces and their Afghan partners have not weakened the Taliban but instead created ungoverned areas where terrorist groups like IS, also known as Daesh, can establish a foothold. Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, told the U.N. Security Council last week that the deteriorating security situation has encouraged IS militants fleeing Syria and Iraq to look at Afghanistan for shelter. He said they will eventually pose a threat to Russia through neighboring central Asian states. Using another acronym for IS, he said, "There...
How Peace Between Afghanistan and the Taliban Foundered
At a corner table of the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital, an emissary from the Taliban’s supreme leader arrived with a message of peace. It was 2007, as the Afghan Taliban insurgency was growing bolder. The United States-led international coalition was fixated on defeating the Taliban militarily, and that mission would only intensify when President Obama sent in tens of thousands more troops starting in 2009. But that evening at the Marriott in Islamabad, the talk was about diplomacy, and there were no Americans in the room. Alf Arne Ramslien, a senior Norwegian diplomat who had cultivated relationships and trust within the Taliban for years, was meeting with a confidant of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the movement’s reclusive founder, who was directing the insurgency from exile in Pakistan. The Taliban emissary gave Mr. Ramslien a list of five names that Mullah Omar had tasked with exploring the possibility of peace talks. They needed the help of a facilitator, he said, and Mr. Ramslien was it. Continue reading the main story That exchange would initiate an intense, secretive process that over three years involved two or three meetings a month between Norwegian diplomats and fugitive Taliban representatives across cities in Asia and Europe, including Karachi, Bangkok and Oslo. Astoundingly, the diplomats said they even had one direct, late-night audience with Mullah Omar himself — years after even senior Taliban leaders said they had last been in a room with him. The Norwegian peace track overlapped with efforts by other countries to bring the Taliban to the table, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, and for years seemed to be making the most progress toward bringing the Taliban and Afghan officials together. But it all eventually fell apart under the weight of military and intelligence maneuvering and of distrust among a host of countries that were taking a hand in Afghan affairs. Mr. Ramslien maintains that Pakistan, in particular, has been a central...
Taliban: Peace Talks Not Possible Until Foreign 'Occupation' of Afghanistan Ends
The Taliban has rejected latest United Nations calls for engaging in peace talks with the Afghan government, and instead demanded the world body pressure U.S.-led foreign troops to end their “occupation” of Afghanistan if the U.N. truly wants an end to the 15-year war. “Our fight is for independence, and as long as foreign occupation forces are present here (in Afghanistan) any talk about peace and reconciliation is meaningless,” Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told VOA Friday. He was responding to a renewed call for Afghan peace talks earlier this week by Tadamichi Yamamoto, who heads the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA. In his quarterly briefing to the Security Council in New York on Monday, Yamamoto urged the Taliban to enter into direct talks with the Kabul government, without preconditions, to prevent further bloodshed in the country. “We all know that the conflict in Afghanistan has no military solution. The Taliban leadership must reconsider the notion that their objectives can only be achieved on the battlefield,” noted the UNAMA chief. However, the Taliban spokesman insisted that all parties interested in resolving Afghanistan's problems should pressure on foreign forces to leave Afghanistan and let its people decide the kind of governing system they need for their country. "Afghans neither like a foreign-imposed regime nor do they accept presence of foreign forces in their country," he said, citing presence of American and NATO in Afghanistan as the main cause of the conflict. The Taliban maintains President Ashraf Ghani’s national unity government is not a “sovereign administration,” alleging it works under U.S. direction. The Islamist insurgency has recently called for direct talks with the U.S. administration to find a solution to the Afghan war. But Washington rejected the offer and reiterated its support for an Afghan-led reconciliation process. “We believe that’s the right approach. We’ve always believed that that’s the...
Taliban: Peace Talks Not Possible Until Foreign ‘Occupation’ of Afghanistan Ends
The Taliban has rejected latest United Nations calls for engaging in peace talks with the Afghan government, and instead demanded the world body pressure U.S.-led foreign troops to end their “occupation” of Afghanistan if the U.N. truly wants an end to the 15-year war. “Our fight is for independence, and as long as foreign occupation forces are present here (in Afghanistan) any talk about peace and reconciliation is meaningless,” Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told VOA Friday. He was responding to a renewed call for Afghan peace talks earlier this week by Tadamichi Yamamoto, who heads the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA. In his quarterly briefing to the Security Council in New York on Monday, Yamamoto urged the Taliban to enter into direct talks with the Kabul government, without preconditions, to prevent further bloodshed in the country. “We all know that the conflict in Afghanistan has no military solution. The Taliban leadership must reconsider the notion that their objectives can only be achieved on the battlefield,” noted the UNAMA chief. However, the Taliban spokesman insisted that all parties interested in resolving Afghanistan's problems should pressure on foreign forces to leave Afghanistan and let its people decide the kind of governing system they need for their country. "Afghans neither like a foreign-imposed regime nor do they accept presence of foreign forces in their country," he said, citing presence of American and NATO in Afghanistan as the main cause of the conflict. The Taliban maintains President Ashraf Ghani’s national unity government is not a “sovereign administration,” alleging it works under U.S. direction. The Islamist insurgency has recently called for direct talks with the U.S. administration to find a solution to the Afghan war. But Washington rejected the offer and reiterated its support for an Afghan-led reconciliation process. “We believe that’s the right approach. We’ve always believed that that’s the...
Iran, Russia See Opportunity to Encircle The US In Afghanistan
Recent revelations that Iran and Russia have explored further cooperation with the Taliban caught attention in Western capitals. Tehran’s involvement with the insurgent group is old news but Moscow’s carefully orchestrated confession comes at a dangerous juncture for the United States and its war in Afghanistan, Washington’s longest ever. Besides Pakistan, the Taliban’s traditional patron, Washington is in particular concerned about the legitimacy the Taliban are achieving in regional capitals, which will spell disaster for the U.S. presence. Despite the nuclear deal with Tehran, many in Iran believe that Washington cannot be trusted to keep up its part of the deal. This comes on the heels of the election victory by Donald Trump and his hawkish campaign talk vis-à-vis the pact. Trump has frequently said he will scrap the deal on day one. This has raised eyebrows in Tehran and sparked a search for possible contingency plans. With American involvement in Iraq, and now Syria as well, Tehran feels encircled and certainly threatened by the incoming administration. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. The unpredictability of a Trump White House is pushing Tehran to adapt a more conciliatory approach toward the Taliban. When then-Taliban chief Mullah Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike, he was travelling from the southern town of Mashad, Iran to Quetta, Pakistan. The relationship has earned the Taliban’s office in Iran the “Mashad Shura” moniker. However, such ties have largely been ignored due to Tehran’s focus on monetary funding to the group and not so much hosting a physical leadership presence within its boundaries. Iran has now upped the stakes in its relationship with the Taliban. Tehran used to hide visits by the insurgent group but now Iran has openly invited Taliban leaders to an Islamic conference, describing them as “moderate.” Russia, on the other hand, is back to Cold War shenanigans, only the role has been...
Trump’s Nation-Building Pledges To Be Tested In Afghanistan
President-elect Donald Trump’s pledges to end the nation-building missions of the military will be tested in Afghanistan, where President Obama repeatedly came up against the reality of a country unready for U.S. forces to leave. Trump will inherit a military drawing down in Afghanistan to 8,400 troops, well above the 1,000 Obama originally wanted to leave at just the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Obama formally ended the combat mission in 2014, but U.S. troops remain on a dual mission. One is to conduct counterterrorism strikes against groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The other is to train, advise and assist Afghan forces in their fight against the Taliban, a mission critics have called nation-building. Facing a resilient Taliban and recommendations from his military advisors not to withdraw, Obama was twice forced to increase the number of troops he planned to leave in country after this year, first to 5,500 then to 8,400. Trump could likely face the same issue. “Afghanistan is inherently and profoundly mixed as a mission,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “I think in the end, his view, given that it provides a counterterrorism platform, will probably be that it’s worth keeping that level of investment.” In its latest biannual report on the security situation in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said the Taliban is in control of or has influence over 10 percent of the country and is contesting the government for another 20 percent. U.S. officials have said the Taliban holds more ground than at any point since it was ousted from power in 2001. The report, released earlier in December, also said the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) continue to need the help of U.S. and NATO forces. “Although the ANDSF denied the insurgency any strategic successes, the ANDSF have also demonstrated the need for continued U.S. and coalition support to address persistent capability gaps and deficiencies,” the...
CHINA WATCH [DECEMBER 20-26] CALL FOR UNITY
The leading story of this week was the call of the China’s Vice Minister of International Department, Central Committee, Zheng Xiaosong on the Pakistani political parties to come together for the success of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC). Commander, Southern Command, Lt Gen Aamir Riaz has invited India to join CPEC. The central and provincial governments have agreed to jointly attend the upcoming meeting of Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) on CPEC. Acting Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, Muhammad Zhao Lijian, has rejected the anti-CPEC propaganda. Call for Unity: China’s Vice Minister of International Department, Central Committee, Zheng Xiaosong exhorted the Pakistani political parties to come together for the success of CPEC and attainment of the ‘shared goal of development’. He said that “[P]olitical parties in Pakistan have divergent interests. We hope that the political parties can work together to resolve their differences and make CPEC a success.”[1] He added “[W]e are ready to work with Pakistan for consensus and strive jointly for the way forward.” Though all the political groups in Pakistan have supported and welcomed the corridor, there is a palpable lack of consensus over the question of provincial shares in the projects. Even in the past China has made such pleas to Pakistan for a political unity behind CPEC. But the divisions between Pakistan’s political parties with regard to CPEC are going nowhere and that has perturbed the Chinese government. India Invited to Join CPEC: Commander, Southern Command, Lt Gen Aamir Riaz has invited India to shun subversive activities and join CPEC to share the fruits of future development of the project.[2] It is a remarkable development in the sense that the two neighbors have been engaged in historic rivalry. In connection with Islamabad’s invitation to New Delhi, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Hua Chunying said that China wonders “whether the Indian side takes this offer made by the Pakistani...
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I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.