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:: AFGHANISTAN |
UN Decries Taliban Raids on Aid Workers
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.N. on Monday accused militants and criminals of killing 34 aid workers in Afghanistan this year and urged armed groups to stop attacking humanitarian convoys so food can reach millions of poor Afghans.
Foreign fighters strengthen Taliban
GARDEZ, Afghanistan -- Mercenaries from as far as Siberia are strengthening the ranks of the Taliban in Afghanistan, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Japan set to end Afghan mission despite global appeals
TOKYO - Japan's two largest parties failed to agree Tuesday on continuing a naval mission in the Indian Ocean, meaning the close US ally will at least temporarily end its support for the "war on terror."
Integrated approach for peace in Afghanistan required
A need for an integrated approach for peace in Afghanistan, consisting of security, reconciliation and reconstruction was highlighted by Pakistan at a discussion organised by South Asia and Middle East Forum on Afghanistan at the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Foreign fighters seen on the rise in Afghanistan
Foreign fighters are entering Afghanistan from Pakistan in greater numbers than at any time since the Taliban was ousted in 2001, Afghanistan's defense minister said yesterday.
Afghanistan struggles to preserve rich past despite ongoing war
Hedayatullah Ahmad Zai slaps his hand against one of the ancient mud brick walls that separate this historic neighbourhood from the rest of Kabul, a bustling city now despite the remnants of war.
Afghanistan: Six years of war
Almost exactly six years ago, on 7 October 2001, the United States started the war to terminate the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. By mid-November the regime had disappeared from Kabul, and victory over an enemy which had harbored the al-Qaida movement responsible for the 11 September 2001 atrocities seemed complete.
‘Afghanistan may be lost forever’
A US congressional panel was warned on Thursday that the Bush administration’s Afghan policy had totally failed and Afghanistan was on its way to be lost forever.
An elusive quest for justice in Afghanistan
Afghanistan's latest National Human Development Report has called for a new and hybrid justice system that will bring together modern formal justice systems and the local traditional shuras and jirgas that have functioned as dispute-resolution mechanisms.
Bush, Karzai agree to agree on Afghanistan
President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed Wednesday on the need to work jointly to fight narcotics trafficking, terrorism and a resurgent Taliban, and on the necessity of international help with energy needs, a White House official said.
Effective security strategy most urgent priority for Afghanistan: Ban Ki-moon
As Afghanistan continues to grapple with an ongoing insurgency, weak governance and a growing narcotics industry, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has cited an effective plan to ensure security as the war-torn nation’s most pressing need.
Afghan govt and Taliban strike rare deal on health
Afghan health officials said on Friday they had brokered a deal with Taliban leaders to allow the immunisation of children in rebel-held areas in a rare sign of cooperation between the warring sides.
Quitting Afghanistan early a moral betrayal, diplomats say
Countries that pull their troops out of Afghanistan prematurely would be guilty of a moral failure, senior Canadian and United Nations diplomats warned Thursday.
Deep flaws in Afghan peace drive
This might look like the finest hour in the foreign-policy record of the George W Bush administration. Officials from Washington are camping in the leafy US Embassy compound in Islamabad, painstakingly putting together a new power structure for Pakistan.
Afghanistan 'sliding further into war'
AFGHANISTAN is sliding ever further into conflict with more than half of the country affected and several regions out of reach of humanitarian aid, a senior international Red Cross official warned today.
Tapping into Afghanistan's Wealth of Gems
Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations in the world. Yet the mountains blanketing this central Asian nation hide one of the world's biggest treasure chests. There are gemstones, precious metals, coal and even oil.
Germany fears it's being targeted in Afghanistan
Germany fears its peacekeepers and aid workers in Afghanistan have become targets of the Taliban and other insurgents who want to force Berlin to pull its soldiers and citizens out of the country.
Leaving Afghanistan is no answer
As opposition politicians scramble to score political points on Afghanistan, Stephane Dion's position bears the most scrutiny because his party has the only chance of replacing the government.
Challenges Mount in Afghanistan
An Afghan police officer leaned over a tray laden with pistachios and cubes of chilled watermelon to make his point to NATO's supreme commander.
US may rethink its policy on Afghanistan in new conditions: Tanveer
ISLAMABAD, Aug 13 (APP): Endorsement of grand Pak-Afghan jirga by the United States may be taken as indication that the superpower wants to rethink its policy with regard to Afghanistan, said former Foreign Secretary Tanveer Ahmed Khan.
How a ‘Good War’ in Afghanistan Went Bad
A year after the Taliban fell to an American-led coalition, a group of NATO ambassadors landed in Kabul, Afghanistan, to survey what appeared to be a triumph — a fresh start for a country ripped apart by years of war with the Soviets and brutal repression by religious extremists.
One Step Forward Two Steps Reverse
The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after five years of Taliban removal still are not capable to prevent terrorism activities and to restore peace and stability in the region. The extremist activists whom are not only undermining the United States sponsored Afghan government but also have killed thousands of innocent civilians' across Afghanistan so far. The Bonn conference's promises to bring stability and prosperity in Afghanistan remained just a dream and many dilemmas which needed to be addressed accurately remained limited to paper work and unresolved.
What Do they Say about Afghanistan?
Western countries are committed to achieve their political and military goal in Afghanistan. NATO and other involved organizations in Afghanistan still believe that subjugation to Taliban will follow detrimental affect on their credibility and Afghanistan's future.
Aid failings 'hit Afghan progress'
More than five years after the defeat of the Taleban in Afghanistan, the failure of international aid to make a difference to Afghanistan is now having serious security consequences.
Violence against women surges
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Farida Nekzad began receiving menacing calls on her cellphone a half hour after arriving at the funeral of a fellow female journalist assassinated by gunmen.
From liberators to occupiers?
The death of another British soldier in Afghanistan - the 61st to be killed since this nation first sent forces there in 2001 - is a reminder of just how dangerous and costly our commitment has become. The country that saw a series of bloody and disastrous British invasions in the 19th century is now absorbing Britain's largest single military deployment abroad - a total of 7,000 troops, compared with 5,000 in Iraq.
Aid failings 'hit Afghan progress'
More than five years after the defeat of the Taleban in Afghanistan, the failure of international aid to make a difference to Afghanistan is now having serious security consequences.
Afghan Anti-Drug War Makes Achievements
KABUL - The anti-drug war in Afghanistan has made some achievements this year as 27,000 hectares of poppy was destroyed, but it remains a daunting task to eradicate opium in this country amid rising Taliban insurgency, a top Afghan anti- drug official said Wednesday.
6-yr-old sent on Suicide mission
Afghanistan, June 26: The story of a 6-year-old Afghan boy who says he thwarted an effort by Taliban militants to trick him into being a suicide bomber provoked tears and anger at a meeting of tribal leaders.
Taliban turn gunsights on Afghan police
Kandahar: Col. Muhammad Hussein could not hide his frustration with the new recruits.
Insurgency Cannot be Overcome Without Attending to Challenges Rising from Poppy Productions
According to The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, sophisticated laboratories inside Afghanistan are now converting 90 percent of the country's opium into heroin and morphine before smuggling it around the world.
Stoking Talibanisation
Political engineering is a funny business. You aim for one thing and it brings out an entirely different result. In the late 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to reform the Soviet Union through glasnost (liberalization) and perestroika (reconstruction), but it all ended in the crumbling of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new world (dis)order. In the 90s, a ragtag army of madressah students called the Taliban was formed to bring stability in Afghanistan. Mainly originating from NWFP, the tribal areas in Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban went on to conquer Kabul and established their writ over a country ruined by decades of anti-soviet war and infighting among warlords. However, in 2001 the world found out that it was this very ragtag Taliban who were providing safe haven to Al Qaeda --established with a stated aim of toppling pro-west despotic regimes in Muslim countries -- that was behind the blowing up of the twin towers in New York.
Afghan woman determined to heal
Millsaps College's Michael Rhinehard was struck by the young Afghan woman's poise and self-assuredness, even in a culture noted for the dignity of its people.
Deepening Afghan crisis
LATER this week, Presidents Musharraf and Karzai will meet in Ankara at the invitation of Prime Minister Recep Teyyip Erdogan. Turkey has the best of relations with both Afghanistan and Pakistan and in that sense is better suited than most to play a mediatory role. There is no doubt that Turkey’s own interest in promoting reconciliation between Pakistan and Afghanistan is very strong.
Afghan refugees vow to stay put
Mohammad Khalid, 20, has registered himself as an Afghan national with the Pakistani authorities. And this has landed him in a dilemma.
The United National Front: Warlord Redux
A significant political development recently occurred in Kabul under the radar of almost every international news outlet. March 12 marked the public birth of a political group so powerful its very essence dampens the future outlook of Afghanistan’s national security. It is called Jabhe-ye-Motahed-e-Milli, or the United National Front (UNF), and comprises a potpourri of former Mujahideen leaders, Warlords and ex-Communist strongmen.
Lessons from Cheney's escape
There's no similarity between the two happenings in fact or content. But US Vice-President Dick Cheney's declaration that Tuesday's suicide bombing outside the Bagram airbase was the Taliban's attempt to "find ways to question the authority of the central government" is about as convincing as President Bush's comparison last week of himself with "the first George W" -- George Washington, arguably the greatest of all US presidents.
Afghanistan's proxy war
THE PAPERS ARE full of the slow demise of Afghanistan. The Pakistanis are to blame; no, the Afghans; no, the United States. America didn't do enough or did too much. NATO isn't stepping up to the plate, or is it the Germans, or the French people.
Fighting fires
"BUSH Commits One Additional Troop To Afghanistan” read a recent headline in the Onion, an online satirical American newspaper. The satirists nearly got it right: on Thursday February 15th, George Bush confirmed that a mini surge of 3,200 extra troops will be sent. He also called on America’s NATO allies to beef up their own presence there, more than five years after the Taliban were ousted from Kabul.
Slow Progress on Security and Rights
One year after launching the Afghanistan Compact, President Hamid Karzai’s government and its international backers have largely failed to meet the compact’s benchmarks on improving human rights and basic security, Human Rights Watch said. Members of the international community and the Afghan government will meet in Berlin on January 30 and 31 to assess their implementation of the Afghanistan Compact.
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