Month: March 2010

The only rockers in Afghanistan

admin •

Guardian, 31 March 2010 A report on the first Afghan indie rock band – you can listen to a few songs of them on MySpace or Youtube

31 Mar 2010

The Taliban Arrest Wave in Pakistan: Reasserting Strategic Depth?

Thomas Ruttig •

Thomas Ruttig, in: CTC Sentinel, March 2010, vol. 3 issue 3 This article analyses the recent arrest wave of Afghan Taleban leaders in Pakistan and its implications for further attempts on talking to the Taleban The full pdf can be found here: The Taliban Arrest Wave in Pakistan: Reasserting Strategic Depth? 

28 Mar 2010

PEACE JIRGA BLOG 1: How serious is the Peace Jirga?

Martine van Bijlert •

While the press makes it sound like a deal with Hekmatyar is just around the corner now that a 15-point plan has been presented, and while the Taliban continue to deny their involvement in any kind of talks and continue to adapt to the twin pressures of military operations in Afghanistan and high-level arrests in […]

28 Mar 2010

Flash from the Past: Islamic Order à la Hekmatyar

Thomas Ruttig •

The following statement was broadcast by HIG’s radio Payyam-e Azadi (Message of Freedom) in Pashto on 9 December 1994. Statement of the Military Command of Hezb-e Islami Afghanistan and Sepah-e Nur [Hezb’s military forces]. To the attention of all shop and restaurant owners and the noble population of Chahrasyab [a district capital in the South […]

24 Mar 2010

Gulbuddin ante portas – again (Updated)

Thomas Ruttig •

After the Soviet troop had withdrawn in early 1989, leaflets turned up in Kabul signed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar announcing that he would ride into Kabul on the back of a white horse and pray in Pul-e Kheshti mosque. That made many Kabulis shiver. They said that the mujahedin leader was ‘worse than the Russians’ and […]

22 Mar 2010

21 March: AAN wishes everybody a happy, peaceful and safe 1389!

AAN • admin •

21 Mar 2010

26-28 March 2010, Bonn: Conference ‘Who Are the Taliban?’

AAN • admin •

The conference jointly organized by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Afghanistan (Afghanistan Working Group of German academia) and Evangelische Akademie im Rheinland is designed to shed light on the background of the Taleban phenomenon. The main presentations (in German) are given by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (‘Organisational Structures of the Afghan Taleban’) and Jochen Hippler (‘Pakistan’s Taleban’) For more information […]

20 Mar 2010

Afghan Ghosts: American Myths

admin •

World Affairs, March/April 2010 Jonathan Steele looks back on his reporting during Soviet rule in Afghanistan and considers the parallels with the current situation.

10 Mar 2010

The AfPak Strategy: Reactions in Pakistan

Karl Fischer •

Viewing Pakistan in a historical and geostrategic context, this paper by eminent Pakistan and India expert Karl Fischer highlights those aspects of the new United States strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan (formerly termed ‘the AfPak Strategy’) that are more relevant for Pakistan and shows predominant Pakistani reactions to these issues. The selection is limited to […]

9 Mar 2010

Days of the Living Dead

Mathieu Lefevre •

I have just returned home after three weeks in Afghanistan doing research in Kabul and Kandahar on a forthcoming report for AAN on local defence forces. I’m just starting to work on the paper, but perhaps a few quick facts that I came across during my research might be of interest to readers of the […]

9 Mar 2010

New troops too late for Badghis?

Monica Bernabe •

Inactive foreign troops and gross human rights violations with an ethnic bias have made the population of Badghis ‘poor, fed up and completely alienated from the government’, an ideal breeding ground for the Taleban and an eight-fold increase of poppy cultivation. A rare glimpse into one of the most neglected provinces of Afghanistan. By Mònica […]

7 Mar 2010

How ‘neo’ were the ‘Neo-Taleban’?

Thomas Ruttig •

Since the Taleban’s quick resurgence after the fall of their regime in 2001, their insurgency often is described with the term ‘Neo-Taleban’. Here it is argued, though, that there was more continuity than change from the pre-9/11 to the post-9/11 Taleban movement. The real ‘neo-Taleban’ might emerge now – after the arrest of accommodation-inclined Taleban […]

5 Mar 2010