Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: December 2010

2010 Elections (40): A clear mess in the Land of the Light

Fabrizio Foschini •

Since Saturday it has become possible to do some real number crunching and to get a detailed analysis of the election results, after the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) finally uploaded the polling results per polling station. For weeks, the web page displayed an ‘Internal Server Error’ message, but a phone call to a senior IEC […]

Political Landscape Read more

The Americans Are in Our House. What Will the Taliban Think?

admin •

New York Times blog, 15 December 2010 Life in troubled Kunduz Province can be summed up in a word: precarious, writes NYT correspondent Alyssa Rubin. One aspect of it: There is a kind of unofficial cease-fire between the Taleban and the local arbaki. ‘Both sides are getting ready to loot ordinary people’, says an American […]

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For Red Cross, Aid Conditions Hit New Low in Afghanistan

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New York Times, 15 December 2010 In a rare press conference, the ICRC raised its ‘extreme’ concerned that yet another year of fighting with dramatic consequences for an ever growing number of people in by now almost the entire country will follow in 2011. Kabul ICRC head Reto Stocker said that the situation has worsened […]

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Reviewing the US in Afghanistan

Martine van Bijlert •

The changes in the US administration after Obama’s election brought a short and rather refreshing burst of frankness on how bleak the situation in Afghanistan was. At the time I mistook this for honesty and a tolerance for complexity, but it turned out to have been a somewhat sophisticated version of ‘slam the predecessor.’ This […]

International Engagement Read more

Guest blog on Reintegration: Anyone want to surrender?

A K Frentzen •

The Afghan government and its international backers, most prominently the Coalition forces, have developed a reconciliation program that aims to entice insurgent fighters to lay down their arms and re-enter normal life. But how is the program viewed by the local population? A recent assessment of local perceptions in West-Afghanistan by A.K. Frentzen, a social […]

International Engagement Read more

Special operations forces deal blows to Taliban’s ranks

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Long War Journal, 9 December 2010 ISAF briefs the Long War Journal on SF operations over the last 6 months: 7100 counterterrorism SF missions, more than 600 insurgent leaders killed or captured, more than 2000 fighters killed and more than 4100 captured, more than 2500 humanitarian operations and a shift from counterinsurgency to counterterrorism operations […]

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Guest blog: Peace on Hold

Naqib Ahmad Atal •

In spring of this year US troops in South East Afghanistan introduced a local peace initiative. It should have been a model for the whole country. Instead, it has ground to a halt, which highlights the huge challenge for the much vaunted reconciliation process. Nangarhar journalist Naqib Ahmad Atal, writing for Afghanistan Today, describes where […]

War and Peace Read more

U.S. Cuts Off Afghan Firm

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Wall Street Journal, 8 December 2010 The U.S. military began the process of blacklisting a major Afghan company owned by relatives of President Hamid Karzai – the Watan Group -, a move U.S. officials describe as a significant step to stop American funds from fueling corruption and bankrolling the Taliban.

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IMU Takes Root In Increasingly Insecure Northern Afghan Provinces

admin •

Radio Free Europe, 8 December 2010 Afghanistan’s deputy national security adviser has confirmed that the IMU is operating on Afghan territory. The Movement appears to be most active in the triangle of Konduz, Takhar and Baghlan.

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The Air Is Getting Thicker in Paktia

Thomas Ruttig •

Some progress on the women’s front but the security situation spiraling further downwards and a population that cannot find anything good in the Americans anymore – these are impressions from a short visit to Gardez this week that was undertaken by AAN’s Senior Analyst Thomas Ruttig, two and a half months after his last trip […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

An inflated claim of health success in Afghanistan exposed

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Christian Science Monitor, 8 December 2010 Anohita Mojumdar’s latest article reveals that the often-heard claim (by internationals) that 85 per cent of Afghans have access to health services is ‘misleading’. The Afghan Minister of Health and WHo clarifiy that the fact that 85 percent of Afghanistan’s districts have at least one basic health facility is […]

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