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Somehow for a moment I thought situation in Afghanistan was getting better. Or so I thought. This is perhaps the most striking article so far, I had to re-read it several times. Make your own conclusions, I wont bother ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...fghanistan/home
Reversal of fortune leaves Kabul under Taliban's thumb
quote:
October 14, 2008 at 12:31 PM EDT
KABUL � At a gas station on the outskirts of Kabul, lounging in the shade of a transport truck, Mohammed Raza describes how he escaped death.
Last month, a U.S. contractor promised him $10,000 if he'd drive a truck full of diesel from Kabul to Kandahar, offering seven times more than he could earn by transporting his usual shipments of sugar. But the Taliban forbid drivers from carrying fuel to the foreign troops, he said, and the insurgents run checkpoints on the road between Afghanistan's two largest cities. He rejected the offer. One of his friends took the assignment, he said, and the Taliban cut off his head.
�Many drivers now are selling their lives,� the 25-year-old said, nervously twisting the fringe of his beard.
The Taliban are isolating Afghanistan's capital city from the rest of the country, choking off important supply routes and imposing their rules on the provinces near Kabul. Interviews suggest that the Taliban have gained control along three of the four major highways into the city, and some believe it's a matter of time before they regulate all traffic around the capital.
That marks a shocking reversal of the insurgents' fortunes. Taliban were fleeing along the highways out of Kabul less than seven years ago, abandoning their government offices, dying under a hail of U.S. air strikes as they scrambled to flee. Now the Taliban and their allied militias are creeping back up the same roads, quietly showing their presence on the outskirts of the city.
Kabul itself is heavily guarded, and nobody expects a frontal assault.
But the insurgents don't need to attack the capital; by hobbling the government's ability to reach its own citizens beyond the city gates, security analysts say, the Taliban make the rulers of Kabul irrelevant in broad swaths of the country. It's more than a propaganda victory; the insurgents are grabbing the same political high ground the Taliban exploited during their previous sweep to power in the 1990s, by positioning themselves as the best enforcers of security in rural Afghanistan.
The roadblocks have also started to pinch the foreign troops. Military bases find themselves running short of fuel and other supplies.
Commercial aircraft were repeatedly warned this summer that they would not be able to purchase fuel at Kandahar Air Field, and the airfield shut down some facilities to reduce electricity needs during the peak fighting season. The insurgents have also targeted aid shipments, with 800 tonnes of food stolen from World Food Program truck convoys in the first half of the year � only about 0.5 per cent of the WFP's average food deliveries in Afghanistan for a six-month period � but still enough to feed 80,000 people for a month during a food crisis in which the WFP says it's facing a vast shortfall in supplies.
Figures obtained from Afghanistan's Interior Ministry show the government's count of major attacks on supply trucks around Kabul has increased sharply this year, with 80 incidents in the first six months as compared with 45 over the entire previous year. Analysts say those numbers are conservative, but even so, the official statistics illustrate how strikes on supply routes are growing faster than the general rise in violence.
People who work for the government, or have any association with the foreign presence, now travel covertly on the main highways of southern, central, and eastern Afghanistan. They disguise themselves as rural peasants, carry no identification cards, and erase numbers from their cellphones that might connect them with the government.
Some devise even more elaborate strategies for dealing with Taliban checkpoints, arranging for friends to impersonate religious figures who can vouch for them if they're stopped by the insurgents.
Truck drivers often leave a rear door open at the back of their tractor-trailers, securing their cargo with a spider web of ropes, so that Taliban can easily look inside and check the shipment for anything forbidden by the insurgency. The Taliban even scrutinize the drivers' customs paperwork to certify that the goods are destined for non-military consumers.
The problem of Taliban influence on the southern highways grew especially acute this summer, said Brigadier-General Richard Blanchette, NATO's chief spokesman in Afghanistan.
�There was this saying, that the insurgency begins where the highway finishes,� Gen. Blanchette said, referring to a popular aphorism among the foreign troops. �Well, for a while it was almost the opposite.�
The Taliban make a point of allowing ordinary Afghans to drive the roads without harming them, but Gen. Blanchette said their actions are starting to affect the average traveller.
�We had the infrastructure attacked � which was a first, you know, the insurgents had not destroyed bridges before,� he said. �The farmers couldn't bring their products any more, and it choked the economy.�
He added that NATO has recently successfully countered the Taliban strategy by devoting more aircraft, surveillance, and Afghan troops to patrolling the highways south of Kabul. The result has been a drop in insurgent attacks on those routes in the final weeks of summer, he said, although he acknowledged that the slowing violence may represent a seasonal trend; attacks always decrease as winter approaches. He added that patrolling the highways has been difficult for Afghan troops because they're spread thin.
Not only do the Afghan security forces lack numbers, but they're also corrupt and even colluding with the insurgents, said Colonel Asadullah Abed, chief of the criminal investigation division for the 10 central provinces around Kabul.
The 40-year-old policeman says he's no friend of the Taliban, and has a sheaf of threatening letters from the insurgents to make his point.
But he worries that his colleagues at small posts outside the city are not so devoted to the government's cause.
Each of the four major gateways into Kabul are guarded by Afghan police, soldiers, and intelligence officers, Col. Abed said, but the insurgents easily bribe their way through. People with loyalties to the insurgents have also infiltrated the ranks of Afghanistan's security establishment, he added: �They're not working honestly.�
Col. Abed paused to look at a reporter's military-issued accreditation card, and noted that the small piece of identification would be a death warrant on most highways outside the city. �You're a foreigner travelling with this,� he said, pointing to the ID badge, �and you can travel the Shomali road okay, but any other road they will capture you after one kilometre.�
The colonel may have been exaggerating for effect, but it's widely accepted that the road to the Shomali plains now serves as the only genuinely safe passage out of the capital. Even foreigners drive the road for fun, roaring up the paved highway that crests the ridges north of Kabul and enjoying a picnic by the river, or meandering up the scenic Panjshir valley.
But at a bus stop on the dusty edge of the Shomali plains, drivers and ticket-sellers say even this road is getting worse.
�Only one road remains now, this road, but in a year you won't be able to travel even this one,� said Nafis Khan, 36, a ticket vendor.
�The Taliban are not the problem,� he added. �When people saw the bad behaviour of the foreigners and government, the Taliban stood up to protect them. Day by day, their power increases.�
Still, insurgent leaders admit they still don't have a choke hold on the city. The Globe and Mail sent a researcher to the mountains of Nirkh district in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, where a large group of Taliban often gather to raid the main highway between Kabul and Kandahar.
Wearing a black turban, surrounded by heavily armed men, the Taliban commander bemoaned the fact that his power is vastly greater on the Kandahar road than the Shomali road. He claimed that his men ambush vehicles three times a week on the Kandahar road, but such brazen acts are not possible on the northern road.
�Only the Shomali road is safer than others, because the influence of Taliban is less,� he said, in a video-recorded interview. �Those are Farsi-speaking people [on the Shomali road], so for Taliban it's difficult to enter that area, and that road is the only one secure for government and their convoys.�
The Taliban's struggle to gain control of Shomali road reflects the insurgents' broader effort to get a foothold outside of their traditional ethnic group. In recent years, most of the Taliban's support has come from Pashtun tribesmen, and during the previous Taliban government the Pashtun-dominated regime fought bitter wars against the Farsi-speaking Tajik and Uzbek warlords of the north.
One of the ways the Taliban are trying to broaden their appeal is by proving themselves better than the government at providing road security. It's a propaganda move aimed at people such as Del Aga, 40, a bus driver, who says the police have robbed him more often than bandits or insurgents. He usually doesn't slow his bus for men with guns because he's afraid of criminals, he said, but he feels obligated to stop for uniformed police with marked police trucks. �I stop for the police, and they rob my passengers,� he said.
Even when the police aren't directly implicated in the shakedowns, Afghans often blame the government forces for failing to stop them.
Nasar Ahmed, 38, said his bus was ransacked by bandits only a short distance from a police checkpoint, leaving him with the impression that the local authorities were either neglecting their duties or helping the robbers. He has been working as a bus driver for 14 years, mostly on the road between Kandahar and Kabul, and he says security on the highways has reached its worst point since the civil wars of the early 1990s.
The major exceptions to the worsening trend are the zones where the Taliban have completely seized control, Mr. Ahmed said. Buses frequently had trouble with a large band of thieves in Nimroz province until the Taliban drove them away, he said.
�The areas that belong to the government are less secure than the Taliban areas,� said the big-bearded driver.
In areas of Wardak province described by locals as dominated by the insurgents, only 30 kilometres' drive away from Kabul, shopkeepers told The Globe and Mail's researcher that security has largely improved since the Taliban took over.
�Our security is better, we don't have any problem with Taliban, and the government is far from us,� said the keeper of a mud-walled shop selling dry goods and hardware.
That's the impression that Taliban say they're trying to create. An insurgent commander emphasized that the Taliban do not demand road tolls and refrain from attacking vehicles not associated with the government or the International Security Assistance Force.
�Local traders' vehicles can go and transport every kind of thing that they need to carry,� the commander said, surrounded by fighters on a riverbank about two kilometres from the government centre for Wardak province. �And the tankers or vehicles that belongs to ISAF or government, we shoot them and burn them.�
Despite the insurgents' claims of bringing security for ordinary people, however, the highways in Taliban territory are still rife with stories of banditry. Mohammed Amin, 52, a shopkeeper, said he was driving on a winter morning toward Kabul from Kandahar in a convoy of five buses when they were stopped by a roadblock. Criminals searched all the buses, he said, taking money, cellphones, and other valuables from the passengers. A man sitting beside him lost all the money he'd saved from working six months in Pakistani coal mines.
�The thieves did their work very slowly and with confidence, because they weren't afraid of anybody,� Mr. Amin said.
Taliban checkpoints also terrify many travellers, if they have the slightest connection with the government or reason to worry that the insurgents might get suspicious.
A man who identified himself only as �Matin� said he was riding a bus to Kabul from Kandahar with friends when the vehicle was pulled over by insurgents.
�My friend looked like a military guy, because he was tall and clean-shaven,� the young man said. �The Taliban pulled me aside with my friend. When the bus was driving away, I slipped back into the crowd and got inside the vehicle. My friend was captured.� His friend worked for a logistics company and the Taliban eventually released him, after local notables petitioned for his freedom.
Many others aren't so fortunate. Taliban have executed so many suspected collaborators on the highways this year that local truck drivers held a protest at the Spin Boldak border crossing in Kandahar in late June, refusing to work until the government gave them better security on the roads.
Mohammed Naim, 40, a ticket seller for a bus company in Kabul, said the situation has become so well known that he doesn't bother warning most passengers about the likelihood of hitting a Taliban checkpoint.
If you are a foreigner or a person of a different faith and living in Afghanistan, you will almost certainly require protection, armed convoys and such because life in Afghanistan would otherwise result in your untimely death.
And also - Kabul is a HEAVILY defended city. How come its STILL not safe enough? Arent hundreds of NATO troops stationed there enough, along with thousands of Afghan troops?
http://www.thehamiltonspectator.com/article/453429
quote:
Christians in Kabul will be targeted, officials warn
October 22, 2008
The Independent, London
KABUL, Afghanistan (Oct 22, 2008)
Kabul's Christian community is on high alert amid claims that their congregations are under surveillance by Taliban agents after Monday's killing of Gayle Williams.
The Christian charity worker was shot dead in the street by two men on motorcycle while on her way to work. The city of 2.5 million has Sikh, Hindu and Muslim citizens and is diverse culturally.
Afghan intelligence officials have warned missionaries they may be followed home from church. Investigators say they were considering the possibility Williams knew her killers.
Friends revealed that Gayle had asked to be buried in the Christian cemetery in Kabul. Her body is being kept in a makeshift morgue until her London-based mother, and her sister who lives in South Africa, arrive for the funeral.
Speaking to The Independent yesterday, her mother Pat Williams said: "I am still trying to cope with what happened and it is very hard. The only thing that gives me comfort is knowing that she was doing what she loved most when she was taken from us.
"I have heard that Gayle was thinking of coming to see me for Christmas, but she did not tell me that so it must have been meant as a surprise. I say to myself that at least Gayle is with our Lord."
Yesterday, police were patrolling the road where Williams lived and the street where she was shot. A regular churchgoer in the same neighbourhood said his staff had been warned not to walk outside because of threats against Christians.
He said: "All of us are having to be careful about what we do, where we go and what we say."
Sayed Ansari, a spokesman for the secret police, said officials would try to protect Westerners, but he warned: "People need to be vigilant when they leave their homes, especially if they are on foot."
A coffee shop close to where Gayle was killed, which was popular with missionaries, was closed yesterday "until further notice". Staff at Chai La, in Kart-e Char, said they did not want Westerners congregating in one place while security was sketchy.
The Taliban said they murdered Williams because they claim she was converting people from Islam, a capital offence under Afghan law.
The South African aid worker, who had moved to Britain, was volunteering for Serve Afghanistan, a UK-based Christian charity. Staff insisted she was running a project to help disabled children and had never tried to proselytize.
A typical day in Afghanistan this week ...
http://www.thespec.com/article/465279
quote:
Suicide truck bomb rocks Kandahar, girls attacked with acid
November 12, 2008
The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan � Six people were killed and 42 hurt when a suicide bomber at the wheel of a tanker truck blew himself up today outside a provincial council meeting in Kandahar city � an assault one senior Canadian military official denounced as an attack on "the weak and the innocent."
The explosion, which rocked the downtown core, occurred near the provincial council offices and the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence agency. The blast in this former Taliban stronghold also flattened two nearby homes and damaged the NDS office.
"They're reverting back to the pure terror tactics that they used to exercise here a couple of years ago," said Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, commander of Canada's land force, who is on a visit to Kandahar Airfield.
"For a while they tried to take us on in a toe-to-toe confrontation and now they're going back to terrorizing their own population," he added.
A group of Canadian soldiers rushed to the scene of the explosion from the nearby Provincial Reconstruction Team at Camp Nathan Smith to lend assistance.
Canadian Maj. Don Schell, head of medical services at Kandahar Airfield, said initial reports indicated there might be 300 or 400 injured.
All medical staff were called to "mass casualty stance" as personnel there braced for the worst, but the toll was much lower and the Canadian hospital received just two victims of the attack.
In a separate incident today, a group of girls on their way to Mirwais Minna Girl's School in Kandahar were attacked when two men on a motorcycle sprayed them with acid. All were taken to hospital but only one sustained serious injuries.
Schoolgirls in Afghanistan's second-largest city are easily identified by their uniform � black pants, a white shirt, black coat and white head scarf.
Bibi Athifa, one of the girls who suffered acid burns to her face, said she and her friends were walking to school when two armed gunmen on a motorbike stopped.
"One guy squirted acid from a bottle on us," she said. "Nobody warned us. Nobody threatened us. We don't have any enemies," said Athifa, who added that she is now afraid to go back to school.
Under the Taliban's hardline regime from 1996 to 2001, girls were banned from schools and women were not allowed to leave the house without a male family member escorting them.
"This story will spread through Afghanistan and the Taliban, our foe, will not win any friends by the tale of two young thugs scattering acid on two young girls trying to get an education," Leslie said.
"There's no upside for them on this so it's an act of desperation," he said.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, giving the name of the man behind the wheel of the tanker. But a spokesman denied the group had anything to do with the acid attack on the school girls.
"We totally deny it. We didn't do this thing," said Qari Yousaf Asmazi. "I don't like these incidents to occur with civilians.
The commander of the International Security Assistance Force, Gen. David McKiernan also condemned the incidents saying that only ``the most despicable of people" would resort to these kind of attacks.
"The insurgents are not only cowards, but liars," added McKiernan. "The insurgents seek to create fear and panic because they cannot compete with hope."
Leslie agreed.
"What's happened over the last year is that the foe has elected not to take on the well-trained, well-equipped ISAF and NATO forces and so they're reverting more and more to... targeting the weak and the innocent."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is on a visit to New York to attend a United Nations conference on culture for peace, offered his condolences and sympathies to the families of today's victims.
"These are the ruthless acts by the enemies of peace and prosperity in Afghanistan," he said in a statement.
Ahmed Wali Karzai, chairman of Kandahar's provincial council, was in a meeting when the explosion occurred behind the council building.
"I was in the compound and we were discussing our problems," said the council chairman, who is also Karzai's younger brother. ``Suddenly I heard a big explosion."
"Most of the casualties went to the civilians. It was a cowardly act by the Taliban."
| quote: |
| Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN self-determination for women is "nothing" ?? |
Even when it comes to heritage and respect for other cultures, America doesn't give a rats ass.
Going to Iraq with this story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4177577.stm
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Lemonad Even when it comes to heritage and respect for other cultures, America doesn't give a rats ass. Going to Iraq with this story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4177577.stm |
| quote: |
"Any of the excavations or earth work that we have done in order to do our operations... was done in consultation with the Babylon museum director and an archaeologist." |
how about this then
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4908940.stm
US troops building a helipad on those ancient ground.
On the news it showed that one of the troops even scribed his named into the walls.
yep... pretty bad.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Lemonad how about this then http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4908940.stm US troops building a helipad on those ancient ground. On the news it showed that one of the troops even scribed his named into the walls. yep... pretty bad. |
these are the same assholes that cry about the cause of terrorism.
OK, so now even the British say that democracy is no longer achievable in Afghanistan. Now its just the drug trade and NATO control over the turbulent country.
Is this what dozens of my fellow Canadian troops have died for, this stupid new "realism" and waste of so many resources and lives?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7747145.stm
quote:
New realism in Afghanistan rhetoric
When the commander of British forces in Afghanistan tells you that "good enough" is the best that can be achieved here, you have to sit up and listen.
Brigadier Gordon Messenger is every inch a military man, which makes it all the more surprising to hear him settle for something that sounds suspiciously close to second best.
He would deny that characterisation of his words, but accepts there are limits to the Afghanistan project.
The Afghanistan British troops leave behind - and no-one is willing to commit to any timeline other than to repeat the mantra that it will take "many years" - is going to be an imperfect state.
Parts of it may well remain beyond the reach of central government in Kabul, and some of those responsible for the mayhem of the last 30 years could well retain much of their power and influence, perhaps even their militia.
New realism
It is a far cry from the beacon of democracy some had hoped for.
"I don't think it will be recognisable in Western Europe, but Afghanistan will be something which will provide good enough security for the people. I think good enough should be what we look for," the brigadier said.
"It's not second best, it's realistic."
Security remains an urgent concern for Afghans
There is a new realism in the air. In fact, all that has happened is that the rhetoric is finally catching up with what is actually happening on the ground.
My guess is that ordinary Afghans have known for some time that the liberation of 2001 offered more promise than delivery.
While on a foot patrol with British troops in Lashkar Gah, I spoke to Javed Ameri and his brother Sharaga. Their verdict on life in Afghanistan was gloomy.
"It is less good now than it was five years ago," I was told. "Travelling on the roads there is no safety."
And it was not just the bandits they were worried about. "At night, even the police ask for money," they said.
While there has been genuine progress in retraining the Afghan National Army, the police force remains far more susceptible to local politics and is notoriously corrupt.
Further down the street, doctors at the busy Ibn Sina clinic told me the Taleban - supposedly vanquished in 2001 - were targeting medics.
Health care has proved to be one success story in Afghanistan
"The government cannot give us the protection we need," one said.
"Government forces and the international troops are just in the city but outside it is different."
The Taleban may not rule in Kabul, but in large parts of this vast country - notably in the south - they remain a threat and retain the power to disrupt people's lives.
They have largely given up the full-scale attacks on coalition positions - the assault on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah in October was stopped by a pre-emptive operation by Afghan forces and the British - and switched to attacks designed to undermine the government.
Clinics are an obvious choice, especially as health care represents a genuine success story.
According to figures published by the UN and the Kabul government, 85% of the population now have access to some form of basic health care - defined as having a clinic within two hours walking distance.
It has to be said that any attempt to calibrate progress in this way is fraught with difficulties.
Nobody actually knows how many people there are in the country. There has not been a census for decades and the one planned by the UN has been postponed to 2010 at the earliest. Security may be an issue.
Malcontents
The ultimate test of the mission in Afghanistan is the extent to which there is tangible change in the quality of life for ordinary Afghans.
That is how the military mission is now defined. No-one talks about a victory over the Taleban.
Indeed, the Taleban were never the only enemy. Afghanistan's fractured and violent history means there are any number of people with the power to take up arms. It is time to dismantle the insurgency by opening up a dialogue
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles
British ambassador
The old warlords who reduced parts of this country to rubble in the 1990s, the al-Qaeda networks with sanctuary in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and criminal elements comprise an explosive mix of malcontents confronting Hamid Karzai's government in Kabul.
Given that backdrop, it is not altogether surprising that many more diplomats now accept the possibility of talking to the Taleban - though there are always plenty of caveats and conditions.
"It is time to signal to those prepared to accept the Afghan constitution, lay down their weapons and who are not linked to al-Qaeda that there's a place for them in an Afghan political settlement," says British ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles.
"It is time to dismantle the insurgency by opening up a dialogue."
So that is the prospect. Seven years after the defeat of the Taleban was being trumpeted as a victory over evil, they may once again be a part of the political landscape.
That will send shivers down the spines of all those who suffered at their hands.
Bwahahah, this is so funny. Afghans warlords love Viagra! 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7800549.stm
quote:
'Viagra lure' for Afghan warlords
America's CIA has found a novel way to gain information from fickle Afghan warlords - supplying sex-enhancing drug Viagra, a US media report says.
The Washington Post said it was one of a number of enticements being used.
In one case, a 60-year-old warlord with four wives was given four pills and four days later detailed Taleban movements in return for more.
"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people," the Post quoted one agent as saying.
"Whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra."
'Silver bullet'
The newspaper said the use of Viagra had to be handled sensitively as the drug was not always known about in rural areas.
It quoted one retired agent as saying: "You didn't hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones."
In the case of the 60-year-old warlord - the head of a clan in southern Afghanistan who had not co-operated - operatives saw he had four younger wives.
The pills were explained and offered. Four days later the agents returned.
"He came up to us beaming," the Post quoted an agent as saying. "He said, 'You are a great man.'
"And after that we could do whatever we wanted in his area."
The pills could put chieftains "back in an authoritative position", another official said.
The paper said the CIA had a long line of inducements for the notoriously fickle warlords, including dental work, visas, toys and medicine.
It quoted one private security official as saying that simply handing over large sums of money would raise suspicions about newfound wealth.
Oh dear ... this was definitely hard to read.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7942819.stm
quote:
Afghan women who turn to immolation
Sitting in her family's mud brick home, Shanas recalled the day she set herself on fire.
The 16-year-old doused her legs in petrol and then with a match set the fuel alight.
"The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital surrounded by my family. That was three or four days later."
From what Shanas says it is unclear what drove her five years ago to take such drastic action.
She may have been unhappy about her engagement during that period.
But what is clear is that her story is one that is repeated across Afghanistan.
Lack of freedoms
Self-immolation among women has the highest recorded levels in Herat province (although many other provinces provide no data on the subject).
Most of the women are in their teens or early 20s and are recently or soon-to-be married.
Kandigol
We want to have the same rights as men
Kandigol, women's rights campaigner
Experts suggest that a combination of poverty, illiteracy, domestic violence and lack of freedoms continue to drive this decades-old trend.
While the Afghan constitution - written after the fall of the Taleban in 2001 - enshrines equal rights for men and women, much of the country remains conservatively entrenched.
At the burns centre of the provincial hospital in Herat, Dr Mohammed Jalili knows more than most about this gruesome practice.
He says he has seen more than 80 cases of women committing self-immolation in the past year. The majority of these women have died from their injuries.
"Many of the women and their families say 'it was an accident'," he says. "It's their way of hiding their shame about the act."
But Dr Jalili says the cases are often easy to detect. Apart from the extent of burns, one tell-tale sign of an act of self-immolation is that there are no burns on the arm used to pour the petrol.
Shocking response
At the hospital, Dr Jalili was treating two women. He had operated on 20-year-old Anargol three times, including a skin graft operation on her badly scarred neck.
Art and crafts fair in Kabul to mark International Women's Day
Afghan women rarely get a forum to display their talent
Anargol says she had committed self-immolation after arguing with her husband.
When asked whether she had a message for other women, she had a shocking response.
"Don't burn yourself," she said, lying on her hospital bed. "If you want a way out, use a gun: it's less painful."
It was an absolute cry of despair, and something rarely heard from women in this deeply conservative society.
But according to Soraya Balaigh, director of the provincial department for women's affairs, it is an emotion that many women relate to.
"Pressure is often put on these women by their husbands or the mothers-in-law," she says.
"Violence is common and many women are desperate. I had a woman in this office who begged me to kill her here rather than send her back."
But there are some women who think that small steps are being made in the field of women's rights.
To mark International Women's Day in March, an arts and crafts fair was held in the city, with all the items made and sold by women.
Hundreds of people visited the fair selling an array of items, including jams, oil-paintings, religious sayings carved in wood and wedding cakes bedecked in decorations.
"I wanted to show that women can do some things better than men," says the organiser, Kandigol. "We want to have the same rights as men."
But Kandigol, like many women here, is realistic enough to know that this is wishful thinking at the moment.
Some will continue to feel isolated and desperate. And a few will decide to make a terrible, painful escape - and set themselves ablaze.
^^ a very good reason why we must stay there.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN ^^ a very good reason why we must stay there. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Magnetonium Yeah, right ... like the warlords (former criminals) will let you put to foot the "real democracy" there. By the looks of it, they are all bribed and drugs are allowed to be grown, democracy sacrificed for the sake of regional stability and NATO control. This was never really about democracy. Millions of Europeans, in particularly Russians, are dying from this drug trade - most of the world's opium is from Afghanistan. Yeah, I heard they are making great strides in curbing production of it since 2001, yet 95% of world's opium is still from Afghanistan. And now the rumours are that USA and NATO are going to try to reach compromise with Taliban. Joy to the world! |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN Im really not that concerned about the deaths of drug addicts. You live by the needle� As far as afghanistan goes as a whole, I didn�t say it was one big success story. But the fact of the matter remains that regimes like the taliban deserve constant military attention from the west (or anyone else that gives a damn) if at all possible. Killing taliban fighters is a good thing for the world. Nobody said success in the country would be easy or quick. And even if its impossible, its still a war worth fighting. Unless of course you think giving extreme islam whatever it wants to be a good thing? |
how many troops has canada lost over there?
| quote: |
| Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN how many troops has canada lost over there? |
shit, i didnt realise it was that many. youre right, that's way more than we've lost.
this article i got from IFEX Communique, extremely sad indeed 
2. AFGHANISTAN: 20 YEARS FOR "BLASPHEMOUS" STUDENT JOURNALIST
Afghanistan's Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year sentence for Parwez
Kambakhsh, a student and part-time journalist who was charged with
blasphemy after he emailed friends an article that critically analysed the
portrayal of women in the Quran, report Human Rights Watch, the Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The rights organisations are calling on President Hamid Karzai to pardon
Kambakhsh and secure his safe release. "Kambakhsh has committed no crime.
Now it is up to President Karzai to act on principle and free him," says
Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's Asia director.
Lawyer Azfal Nooristani learned earlier this month that the Afghan Supreme
court secretly upheld Kambakhsh's sentence on 11 February without giving
him the opportunity to defend his client. "I went to the supreme court to
hand in the defence arguments. There, I was told that the court confirmed
the 20-year sentence a month ago and that the case has been already passed
back to the prosecutor," Nooristani told RSF. "How can they reach such a
decision without even waiting to hear what the defence has to say?" The
Supreme Court was Kambakhsh's last hope of receiving a fair hearing in a
case that has flouted both international and Afghan law and has exposed the
lack of independence of the Afghan judiciary.
Kambaksh's brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, has told Human Rights Watch he believes
the trumped-up charges and sentence are in retaliation to stories Ibrahimi
wrote as a reporter for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).
Shortly before the arrest of his brother, Ibrahimi published several
articles exposing human rights abuses by local warlords and militias in
Afghanistan. The National Directorate of Security searched Ibrahimi's home
several times and threatened him on many occasions before arresting
Kambakhsh, Human Rights Watch previously reported. Since Kambaksh's arrest
in October 2007, the combination of the illegal intervention of warlords
and the radical religious conservatism of Afghanistan's judges have stymied
any chance of justice in Kambaksh's case, according to Human Rights Watch.
Kambakhsh, who is in his early 20s, was detained in Balkh province and
accused of writing and distributing the article in question; however, it
has been established that the article came from an Iranian website and
Kambakhsh only downloaded it. The Primary Court in Balkh sentenced
Kambakhsh to death early last year after a sham trial that lasted only
minutes. Evidence against Kambakhsh came from fellow students and teachers
who claimed the journalist asked "difficult questions" in class.
In October last year, the Court of Appeal upheld Kambaksh's conviction and
reduced his sentence to 20 years in prison. During the second trial, the
prosecution's main witness and the only person to directly link Kambakhsh
to the article retracted his statement, saying he was forced to testify by
security forces.
Rights groups are gravely concerned Kambaksh, who says he is being told he
will be transferred, will be sent to Mazar-i-Sharif or to Pul-i-Charki
prisons. Both jails house jihadist inmates who pose a threat to Kambakhsh's
life. "He thinks he will be killed," said Nooristani. "He is an innocent
man, but he did not receive justice in the courts."
In another case representing the political power of religious conservatives
in Afghanistan, journalist Ghows Zalmai faces a 20-year jail sentence for
publishing a translation of the Quran in Dari, one of the languages spoken
in Afghanistan. Zalmai was arrested in November, 2007 and has also been
charged with blasphemy. Conservative religious leaders found his
translation to be "un-Islamic," saying it misinterpreted verses. The
Supreme Court is currently reviewing his case.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by tathi this article i got from IFEX Communique, extremely sad indeed 2. AFGHANISTAN: 20 YEARS FOR "BLASPHEMOUS" STUDENT JOURNALIST Afghanistan's Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year sentence for Parwez Kambakhsh, a student and part-time journalist who was charged with blasphemy after he emailed friends an article that critically analysed the portrayal of women in the Quran, report Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The rights organisations are calling on President Hamid Karzai to pardon Kambakhsh and secure his safe release. "Kambakhsh has committed no crime. Now it is up to President Karzai to act on principle and free him," says Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's Asia director. Lawyer Azfal Nooristani learned earlier this month that the Afghan Supreme court secretly upheld Kambakhsh's sentence on 11 February without giving him the opportunity to defend his client. "I went to the supreme court to hand in the defence arguments. There, I was told that the court confirmed the 20-year sentence a month ago and that the case has been already passed back to the prosecutor," Nooristani told RSF. "How can they reach such a decision without even waiting to hear what the defence has to say?" The Supreme Court was Kambakhsh's last hope of receiving a fair hearing in a case that has flouted both international and Afghan law and has exposed the lack of independence of the Afghan judiciary. Kambaksh's brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, has told Human Rights Watch he believes the trumped-up charges and sentence are in retaliation to stories Ibrahimi wrote as a reporter for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Shortly before the arrest of his brother, Ibrahimi published several articles exposing human rights abuses by local warlords and militias in Afghanistan. The National Directorate of Security searched Ibrahimi's home several times and threatened him on many occasions before arresting Kambakhsh, Human Rights Watch previously reported. Since Kambaksh's arrest in October 2007, the combination of the illegal intervention of warlords and the radical religious conservatism of Afghanistan's judges have stymied any chance of justice in Kambaksh's case, according to Human Rights Watch. Kambakhsh, who is in his early 20s, was detained in Balkh province and accused of writing and distributing the article in question; however, it has been established that the article came from an Iranian website and Kambakhsh only downloaded it. The Primary Court in Balkh sentenced Kambakhsh to death early last year after a sham trial that lasted only minutes. Evidence against Kambakhsh came from fellow students and teachers who claimed the journalist asked "difficult questions" in class. In October last year, the Court of Appeal upheld Kambaksh's conviction and reduced his sentence to 20 years in prison. During the second trial, the prosecution's main witness and the only person to directly link Kambakhsh to the article retracted his statement, saying he was forced to testify by security forces. Rights groups are gravely concerned Kambaksh, who says he is being told he will be transferred, will be sent to Mazar-i-Sharif or to Pul-i-Charki prisons. Both jails house jihadist inmates who pose a threat to Kambakhsh's life. "He thinks he will be killed," said Nooristani. "He is an innocent man, but he did not receive justice in the courts." In another case representing the political power of religious conservatives in Afghanistan, journalist Ghows Zalmai faces a 20-year jail sentence for publishing a translation of the Quran in Dari, one of the languages spoken in Afghanistan. Zalmai was arrested in November, 2007 and has also been charged with blasphemy. Conservative religious leaders found his translation to be "un-Islamic," saying it misinterpreted verses. The Supreme Court is currently reviewing his case. |
So much progress in Afghanistan for women's rights! :sarcasm:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7940527.stm
quote:
Terrifying plight of Afghan actress
Afghan actress Parwin Mushthal's passion for her job has exacted a heavy toll - resulting in the murder of her husband and forcing her to live in hiding with her two children.
Ms Mushthal's career choice appears to have upset the Taleban and their supporters.
She has received threatening telephone calls and abuse in the streets from people telling her to stop acting.
She told the BBC that she believes her continued defiance of those threats resulted in the shooting by unknown gunmen of her 39-year-old husband, a taxi driver, in Kabul in December.
Since then her life has been turned upside down.
Prostitution
Parwin Mushthal's interest in acting stemmed from her days at high school. She has appeared in more than 20 theatre productions and dozens of films and is a regular on Afghan televsion.
She is currently in the television series, Bulbul, and has appeared in numerous adverts.
Her best known performances are in Shakespeare's Love's Labour Lost, which was performed in the Dari language, and in Soeurs (which she co-created). Both productions were in collaboration with Kabul's Foundation for Culture and Civil Society.
But although Ms Mushthal was well known, she had to hide her career from her husband's family, because many people in Afghanistan link acting with immorality. Women who act can find themselves accused of prostitution.
"When his brothers came from the provinces to our home [in Kabul] as guests, we didn't put on the TV because I was always on ads," the 41-year-old told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.
"I was scared that they would see it, so I would just put on a DVD and show them that," she said.
But as her fame grew, so did the level of threats against her. She began to receive warnings from people who recognised her.
"When I was going to work, people were standing in my way waiting for me," she said.
"They were usually on bikes and they were telling me that, 'you women shouldn't be here any more'."
At first she brushed the threats off but then things started to get worse.
"My husband... was getting phone calls from Khost Province asking him why he was letting his wife appear on TV," she said.
Ms Mushthal at first thought that the threats were not serious and could be connected to her choice of clothing, so she started to wear a big scarf.
"Then later, I understood that it was about me working on TV and that I should stop doing so," she said.
'Punched'
Over time, the attacks became more menacing.
"I was walking towards home and then a man came behind me on a bike and punched me in my back," said Ms Mushthal.
"I fell down in the street really badly, I still have a pain in my leg, because he punched me really hard.
"I was with my little son and I was crying and we were running to get home."
Her husband was concerned as to why she was in pain, but she did not want to worry him and just said that she had fallen and hurt her leg.
However, things took a turn for the worst as her husband became the target of a horrific attack.
"That night, this guy who killed my husband had been calling him constantly to come out [of our home]," said Parwin.
"My husband was very tired and he couldn't be bothered to go out. The same guy called the next day at around five o'clock in the evening and asked him to come and meet him.
"My husband went out, I realised that it was a bit late and it was getting dark."
When her husband failed to return home, she tried calling him but his phone was off. It was dark and there was no electricity.
"At eight o'clock, I heard a shooting, I couldn't go out because I was scared and very upset," said Parwin.
"I was alone with my kids as there was no other man in my family. I could feel that something had happened but I didn't know what.
"My children started crying and asking where their dad was. I couldn't do anything so I let them sleep and just said that dad would come."
Ms Mushthal locked the door and stayed awake all night, in fear that someone might come for her and her children, who are eight and nine.
'Our life was happy'
In the morning, she received shocking news from the police that her husband had been killed.
"I saw my husband lying down on the floor, his face was full of blood. They didn't allow me to go near his body but you could see that they had shot him so many times. I was just shouting and crying," she said.
"That day my children were very upset and they were really scared, they kept holding and to me and saying, 'don't go out because they will kill you as well'."
Her husband's family took his body to Khost Province and she has now been in hiding for three months with her two children.
She also has to wear a full-length burka so that no one recognises her.
"I'm still in hiding, no one knows where I am," she said.
"Our life was really happy, we were really close to each other, he really loved me."
Parwin Mushthal is not alone.
Correspondents say there is marked sense of unease among many other working women in Kabul and other Afghan cities as the presence of the Taleban - who have made no secret for of their disapproval of women working - appears to grow ever stronger.
The democracy of Afghanistan is a sham. Go ahead NATO. Keep your troops there. Prolong the inevitable.
It appears that the problems in Afghanistan have been compounded by a profound lack of understanding and comprehension of the sitution by the Biden/Obama camp. Biden expects that Karzai should be accountable and do more about corruption and drug trade. Yeah, like Biden/Obama know much about Afghanistan! Joe Biden made a fool out of himself. No wonder why Karzai got pissed
Karzai's comments on switching allegiance to Moscow really raised eyebrows for me. Looks like Karzai is now done.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7870340.stm
quote:
Nosedive in Afghan-US relations
Relations between President Karzai's Afghan government and Washington are at an all-time low. As Richard Holbrooke - President Obama's envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan - prepares to make his first visit to the region since being appointed, the BBC's Ian Pannell in Kabul looks at why the relationship has soured.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks at news conference in Kabul on February 4, 2009
Mr Karzai has fallen out of favour
Hamid Karzai has become increasingly vociferous in his criticism of American military tactics and has been making half-hearted threats to shift his allegiance to Moscow if he does not get his way.
Washington has yet to publicly declare its hand but a series of well-placed leaks, briefs and snubs have raised the prospect that it could move its support elsewhere in this year's presidential election.
One Afghan newspaper spoke of "a new cold war".
A senior Afghan government official says the new Obama administration has insulted President Karzai and one prominent MP accuses America of "running a shadow-government".
'Narco-state'
The decline in relations began with a visit last year by Joe Biden, now the vice-president, to Kabul.
Joe Biden (centre) arrives for a meeting at the presidential palace in Kabul
Joe Biden's meeting with President Karzai reportedly did not go well
At the time, as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, he attended a private meeting with Mr Karzai.
A well-placed source describes Mr Biden, exasperated at not getting "straight answers" on drugs and corruption, launching into a verbal tirade and storming out of the meeting.
In a country where honour and decorum are second only to God and country, this was less than tactful.
On the campaign trail and more recently in confirmation hearings, senior members of President Barack Obama's team have questioned the effectiveness and honesty of Hamid Karzai's government.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's written statement to Congress during her confirmation hearing called Afghanistan a "narco-state" that was "plagued by limited capacity and widespread corruption".
She may have been wise enough not to use the phrase in her public testimony but by the time it was reported on the front page of the newspapers in Kabul, it did not really make much difference.
'Potential impediment'
Earlier in January the Nato secretary-general wrote an opinion piece about the lack of leadership in the country, laying the blame not at the feet of the Taleban but the lack of governance.
Civilians need better protection, says Mr Karzai
Then there was a recent article in the New York Times. Quoting anonymous "senior administration officials", it said Washington planned to take a tougher-line with Kabul and that Hamid Karzai was now regarded as "a potential impediment to American goals" in the country.
Hamid Karzai is an avid reader of the Western press and is known to be highly sensitive to criticisms they may have of him. Publicly he has not responded but he is now under considerable pressure.
His government's writ is limited to Kabul, the north and a few urban spots elsewhere in the country.
His own popularity has fallen and some whisper privately and mischievously about his "state of mind".
When asked whether the country was heading towards a crisis, one senior political figure responded that the country was already in one.
Old Afghan hand
President Karzai has been holding a series of meetings with former Mujahedeen commanders in the past few weeks amid suggestions that he is trying to align the country with Russia.
US troops in Afghanistan
The president wants new rules of engagement for Nato troops
That has certainly been his public stance. As well as a deliberately leaked "letter of understanding" with Moscow, President Karzai publicly warned America that unless it supplied the military hardware he wanted, he would look to other countries for support.
No-one was in a moment's doubt who this meant. The Russian ambassador, Zamir Kabulov, an old Afghan hand, was seen strutting around parliament last week.
He has warned that the US and Nato are repeating the same mistakes of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. As he was posted to the Soviet Embassy at the time, his opinion is worth considering.
Now President Karzai has sent a document to Nato outlining new "rules of engagement". If implemented they would substantially alter the mandate for foreign forces in the country.
It seems inconceivable that there could be a real and lasting schism between Kabul and Washington. It will be the job of Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, to ensure that does not happen.
But the date has been set for Afghanistan's presidential election and the West's disappointment with Hamid Karzai can no longer be disguised.
A number of challengers are jostling for American support and in the current climate, their chances are starting to improve.
I heard Obama is considering to sit down with the Taliban and talk? Is that how we win wars nowdays? we pay the enemy some money and call it a day?
what is Obama going to tell all those families who have lost their kids in this war?
Afghanistan will always be Afghanistan and not even the US can change that.more men on the ground isnt going to solve a damn thing over there.
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