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15 years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban are still strong
This month marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The war has claimed the lives of over 31,000 Afghan civilians, and over $783 billion has been spent attempting to push the insurgents out, instill a sustainable democracy, and build civic institutions. Fifteen years later, the Taliban contest or control more territory than at any point since the U.S. invasion. VICE News correspondent Ben Anderson, reporting from Kabul, spoke to people who’ve fled from Helmand, a province in on the southern border of Pakistan. This article originally appeared on www.news.vice.com, 22, October, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.
Pakistan to be commended to managing Afghan refugees for 30+ years; Germany dealing with massive refugee crisis of 21st century: German envoy Ina Lepel
Pakistan has shown great solidarity and resilience in managing the Afghan refugee crisis. For well over 30 years, Pakistan has spent vast amount of resources to accommodate their neighbors, and must be commended. However, what has changed recently is surprising, and understanding the root causes would be critical to a balanced approach forward. These remarks were made by Ina Lepel, the honorable German Ambassador to Pakistan, during the closing ceremony of Pakistan Center of Excellence’s (PACE) collaborative workshop; a three day residential training program between October 22 and 24, 2016, organized by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). She also spoke about the refugee crisis in Germany. She said that simplifiers and populists have tried to oversimplify a very complex problem by blaming the others and inciting fear into the resident population. Inconvenience or fear is no excuse for not following the rule of law, or not keeping your international commitments, she said. Germany is spending vast amount of resources not only to integrate the migrants, but also to educate the resident population to be tolerant. The more educated the person, she stressed, the easier it is for them to integrate, or be accepting of the outsiders. The resource persons and public intellectuals who interacted with the participating university lecturers and professors from different universities across Pakistan included award-winning photojournalist Ms. Sara Farid, Dr. Zubair Ghouri, Mr. Safiullah Gul, Dr. Qibla Ayaz, Dr. A. H. Nayyar and Ms. Humaira Masihuddin. The discussion themes included rule of law, tolerance, respect for diversity, fundamental human rights, equal citizenry, democracy and governance, media ethics, and perhaps most importantly, the importance of questioning the narratives that are presented before us. Mr. Imtiaz Gul, Executive Director CRSS, said that the basis of a progressive society is equal citizenry and strict adherence to the rule of law. He...
Pak-Afghan Trade Halves ‘Due To Transit Trade Glitches’
Former deputy trade minister of Afghanistan Muzamil Shinwari has said that bilateral trade with Pakistan has gone down substantially due to ‘problems’ in transit trade. “If these problems are not addressed, bilateral trade could witness further decline,” warned Shinwari, who was the chief negotiator for the 2010 Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA). “The Pak-Afghan trade volume was $2.5 billion in 2010 which has now come down to $1.8 billion,” Shinwari told The Express Tribune in an interview. He was in Pakistan to attend a two-day unofficial dialogue between MPs, politicians, ex-servicemen, civil society members and media persons. “There could be further decrease in bilateral trade if transit trade through Pakistan is not facilitated,” he said. Pakistani officials would earlier say that Afghanistan imports nearly 60% of items from Pakistan; however, diplomatic tension has badly affected trade relations. “If the transit trade is affected, it would have a direct impact on bilateral trade as both are inter-linked,” Shinwari argued. “Afghan traders, involved in transit trade, used to buy goods in markets in Karachi, Lahore, and Faisalabad. But now they would divert to Iran where they can buy goods in Zahidan, Mashhad and Tehran,” he said. Shinwari claimed that Pakistan had agreed during the APTTA negotiations in Islamabad to allow Afghanistan use the Wagah border with India in the presence of then US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. “Pakistan had sought time for the implementation of the agreement but assured us that Afghanistan would start imports from India via Wagah in the near future, which never happened,” Shinwari said. “We allow Pakistani goods to be transported via Afghanistan to Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and even Russia and Europe. If Pakistani goods are exported to Central Asia, Afghanistan has the right to use Pakistan’s territory for trade with South Asia,” he insisted. This...
Situation In Afghanistan Dependent on Its Regional Dynamics: US
Regional dynamics does play a role in Afghanistan, the United States has acknowledged after former Afghan President Hamid Karzai's remarks that situation in the country is dependent on America and Pakistan's interest along with the two nations' relations with India. "Well, as much as you know, regional dynamics play into any country's domestic situation, there's an element of truth to that, which is why we're always working hard to push Pakistan to go after those terrorist groups that seek safe haven on their territory," State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on Tuesday. "We are pushing for more dialogue between Pakistan and India, which we believe will help reduce tensions in the region. We have seen India play a more supportive role with regard to Afghanistan and support for the Afghan government," he said. Toner noted that for the conflict in Afghanistan, there's a range of different regional dynamics that play into "It's just a matter of fact. But our goal is to continue to support the Afghan military as it steps up its fight against the Taliban and pushes much needed reforms in the economy and the democratic system," he said, adding the US supports an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process. Toner was responding to a question on Karzai's latest statement that America and Pakistan's interests and the two countries' relations with India determine events in the war-torn Afghanistan. "I think a combination... of the two, of the US interests in the region and Pakistani interests in Afghanistan and the nature of their relations with India has been determining events in Afghanistan - negatively, unfortunately," Karzai told RT in an interview. The deputy spokesman said America is supportive of the peace process and is not looking to engineer it, even as he refused to say anything on its role in the latest talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban in Qatar. "I'm not going to speak about what our role may or may not be with regard to...
Officials: Taliban Brief Pakistan About Talks With Kabul
Three senior Taliban members traveled to Pakistan this week and held a series of meetings with Pakistani officials in Islamabad, mainly to brief them about the recent talks held in Qatar between the Taliban and Kabul, a senior Taliban official, an Afghan diplomat and a Pakistani official said Saturday. The Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, said he was aware of the meetings but refused to offer details. "We know about these recent meetings but we don't know what was discussed between the Taliban and Pakistani officials," he said. According to a senior Taliban official, the Taliban who were sent to Pakistan were Mullah Salam Hanifi and Mullah Jan Mohammed, both former ministers in the Taliban government, and Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. A senior Pakistani security official confirmed the latest meetings between the Taliban and Pakistani authorities, saying Islamabad is playing its role to ensure peace in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan has repeatedly said it will support any effort aimed at bring peace in Afghanistan. "We will keep making efforts to facilitate talks between Kabul and the Taliban, as we did in July 2015, but the world knows who scuttled the peace process at the time and we do not want to discuss those bitter things," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media on the record on the issue. Pakistan arranged the first ever face-to-face talks between Kabul and the Taliban in 2015, but the peace process broke down after the Afghan government announced the death years earlier of the Taliban's one-eyed founder and leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. In the time since, a leadership struggle within the Taliban's ranks broke into the open and Omar's successor was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan. The latest development came after Taliban and Afghan government officials held new secret talks in Qatar aimed at restarting peace negotiations...
Afghanistan’s Opium Cultivation Jumps 10 Percent In 2016
Afghanistan's cultivation of opium poppy has risen by 10 percent in 2016, according to a new report released by the United Nations. According to the key findings of its annual Afghanistan opium survey, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the total area of land devoted to poppy cultivation had risen 10 percent in 2016 to 201,000 hectares. The jump in cultivation is due to the favorable weather, the government’s loosening grip on security, and a drop in international support for counternarcotics operation, the UN report said. "The survey shows a worrying reversal in efforts to combat the persistent problem of illicit drugs and their impact on development, health and security," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said in a statement. "Eradication has dropped precipitously to 355 hectares -- a fall of some 91 percent," Fedotov said. The report also said cultivation was also spreading to new areas, as the number of poppy-free provinces fell to 13 from 14 out of a total of 34. "It is very disturbing to see a considerable increase in poppy cultivation in the north, which may be linked with a deteriorating security situation in the region," said Andrey Avetisyan, head of UNODC in Afghanistan. The UN also said there has been a 30 percent increase in the estimated yield from poppy cultivation. Poppy farmers in Afghanistan are often taxed by the Taliban, which uses the money to fund their insurgency against the government and NATO forces. General Mohammad Ahmadi, deputy interior minister for the counternarcotics police, said his forces had conducted 1,263 operations this year, in which they arrested 1,408 opium traffickers including government employees and foreigners, confiscated just over 238 tons of opium, and destroyed at least 35 labs across the country. Billions of dollars have been spent on counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan in the past decade, including programs encouraging farmers to switch to other cash crops like wheat, fruit, and saffron. But...
Afghanistan Agony for Returning Refugees
At Kabul airport on Tuesday, I met a group of Afghans – three women and 10 men – who had just arrived from Turkey. It was not a joyous homecoming. They had joined the waves of several hundred thousand Afghans whose bid for safer lives abroad in the face of worsening insecurity at home ended in limbo in Turkey, blocked from claiming refugee status or continuing onward to Europe. They told me that to encourage them to return, Turkish government representatives had given each of them US$25 and promised they would receive more financial aid upon arrival in Kabul. When I met them, a representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had just dashed those hopes by informing them that no such payment would be forthcoming from any government or aid group. When I left them, the group was still struggling to accept the false promises that led them back into the chaos of Afghanistan. Their plight is far too common. Since July 2016, police and provincial authorities in Pakistan have intensified pressure on Afghans living in the country in what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency, has called “a concerted push” to repatriate large numbers of Afghan refugees before the end of the year. Between July 1 and October 15, 370,000 Afghans returned, nearly 220,000 of them registered refugees, with a record 52,000 coming last week alone. Many returned after spending decades abroad, some even having been born in Pakistan, after their families fled Afghanistan as refugees in the 1980s and 1990s. This is not because the situation in Afghanistan has improved – quite the contrary. In Pakistan, the UNHCR office attributes this surge to deteriorating conditions and “decreased acceptance” for Afghans in several areas of Pakistan, in particular Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This week, Pakistani authorities launched an operation to seize “shops, property, cars and other belongings” of unregistered Afghans. Returnees have told...
The Bride Price: The Afghan Tradition of Paying For Wives
Weddings are hugely expensive affairs in Afghanistan, with excessive costs for wedding halls, lavish meals and usually a bride price. The bride price is the money paid by the groom’s family for the bride to her family. It is a contested tradition that is viewed as having no foundation in Islamic law and does not appear in the new draft marriage law. It is also not to be confused with the dowry (mahr) which should be given to the bride in case her husband dies or divorces her. High bride prices can lead to debt for grooms and their families and early marriage to unsuitable men for the daughters of poor men; fathers of many daughters, however, may benefit from the practice. AAN’s Fazal Muzhary investigates the tradition and finds that current, local attempts to curb high bride prices are proving more successful than previous attempts by the state. Wedding Negotiations and Bride Price Almost all weddings in Afghanistan start with matchmaking. The groom’s family initiates a marriage proposal and it is up to the bride’s family to agree or not. When the families have agreed to the marriage the real negotiations around the wedding and the bride price start and usually take place at the house of the bride-to-be. The negotiations about the actual wedding and its costs, including food and catering, clothes for the bride’s relatives and payment for the imam, who drafts the marriage contract and performs the ceremony, can be quite quick. However, the negotiations about the bride price can be lengthy. The couple are nowadays often consulted about the marriage proposal, but they have a very limited role in the wedding and bride price negotiations and have to accept what their families decide (for detailed information on marriage practices in Afghanistan The father of the bride, or in his absence her oldest brother, specifies how much he would like to receive from the groom’s family for his daughter. The amount is often based on family credentials, education, skills, age,...
UN wWarns of Displacement Crisis in Afghanistan
More than 323,000 Afghans were internally displaced across the country in the first 10 months of this year, according to UN agencies, in a continuation of an upward trend over the last four years. The UN on Thursday warned anew of a deteriorating crisis of displacement in Afghanistan as the conflict escalates, imploring the government and international donors to step up support especially for a “lost generation” of children. “Warnings by humanitarian partners suggest that many more IDPs could be displaced by the end of the year, yet attention and resources allocated to their needs seem to be waning rather than increasing,” UN special rapporteur Chaloka Beyani said in Kabul. “The displacement picture in Afghanistan is changing as the conflict evolves and intensifies. “Displacement is becoming more protracted for more people as the security situation has led many to make the difficult decision not to return to their homes.” Beyani called on the Afghan government and its international partners to step up emergency responses for those in “protracted displacement”. Tens of thousands of Afghans have been uprooted from their homes as the Taliban have stepped up their insurgency across the nation — from Kunduz in the north to Helmand in the south. Children, in particular, have paid a heavy price. “It is no exaggeration to speak of a lost generation of displaced Afghan children deprived of education since children constitute about 56 per cent of the displaced population,” Beyani said. Aid groups have warned that yet more displacement is likely to take place as the conflict intensifies before the onset of winter, when fighting usually tapers off. Afghanistan has been beset by conflict and the crisis of displacement for decades. In September, the UN issued a flash appeal for USD 150 million to meet urgent needs, including winter assistance packages, by the end of the year. “I urge the donor community to respond generously and rapidly to that call,” Beyani said. This article...
China-Russia-Pakistan Axis Looks Real: What Course will Delhi Chart Vis-a-Vis Islamabad?
Before it becomes a 'universal truth', driven by the echo-chamber effects of mass media, it is time to challenge a notion that is of late gaining huge traction in India - that post Uri, Pakistan now lies boxed in a sulky diplomatic corner. Subscribers of this view point to recent Indian success in leading five Saarc nations into boycotting the host Islamabad. The Narendra Modi government's efforts to boost Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative For Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) ties - a regional realignment excluding Pakistan and comprising Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal - and the decision to invite the leaders during the recent Goa Brics Summit have been lauded as a diplomatic masterstroke that further reinforced Pakistan's isolation. Though Brics and Bimstec declarations refrained from taking Pakistan's name, Indian foreign policy experts have pointed to the meaty stress on terrorism, from what are essentially geo-economic alliances and have interpreted these as more proofs of Pakistan's growing ostracisation. If anything, China has masterfully sought to fuel this impression. In its state-run mouthpiece Global Times, it accused India of using Brics-Bimstec Summit to "outmaneuver and force Pakistan into becoming a regional pariah", conveniently forgetting its own role in influencing Russia against checkmating India's almost every move of cornering Islamabad. As usual, the truth is layered and infinitely more complex. Behind India's ceremonial triumphalism and China's smoke-and-mirror game lies the fact that Pakistan is no more isolated on international stage now than it already was before Uri. If anything, the shifting sands of global power and realigning of regional forces indicate that Islamabad now sits more smug than ever due to its close relationship with the world's newest superpower - China. It was seen as little more than a frustrated bluff from Pakistan when one of Nawaz Sharif's 22 envoys recently...
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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.