Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: March 2012

Yakaolang’s historical fort on verge of destruction

admin •

Pajhwok News Agency (Kabul), 31 March 2012 The priceless ancient Kushan Chehel Burj fort with its 40 surviving towers is on the verge of being lost due to natural and human influences, but local and foreign archeologists remain silent on the issue, the Kabul-based agency reports.

Recommended Reads Read more

Afghanistan in World Literature (III): Kabuliwalas of the Latter Day

Fabrizio Foschini •

To inaugurate the new course of our Chat Mat column, here we resume our old series aimed at unearthing precious Afghan gems from the stockpile of world literature. Having presented some Victorian pearls earlier in the series, it is time to move to closer quarters, to India and to what was arguably its most anglicised […]

Context and Culture Read more

18 April 2012: New AAN report: Legal Aid in Afghanistan: Contexts, Challenges and the Future

AAN • admin •

In this new AAN report, lawyer and legal aid expert Sarah Han looks at the historical, legal and political context to the provision of legal aid and describes the efforts of the international community over the past five years to developing funding streams for the accused. In doing so, the author commends the modest but […]

Events Read more

‘Pashto Mashto? Nakhair, Chat Mat.’

AAN Team •

Dear readers of Pashto Mashto, As you may have noticed already, with the new year has come a new name for this series, although the content will go on as usual. Here is why. The inaugural blog of this series, back in January 2010, has proven prophetic when it said the series would not, ‘try […]

Context and Culture Read more

The Trouble with Torture: NDS, Special Forces and the CIA

Kate Clark •

Fresh evidence of abuse in more than a dozen NDS and police facilities has been presented in a report by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and Open Societies Foundations (OSF). The allegations, which include testimony of security detainees being beaten, given electric shocks and having their genitals wrenched, were described by NDS as […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Ahmed Rashid in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

admin •

Comedy Central, 28 March 2012 Ahmed Rashid tells the Americans what they apparently did not realise: there are two different Talebans – the Afghan and the Pakistani and answers the questions why, despite the Hellfire they let rain on Pakistan, no one loves them there.

Recommended Reads Read more

Why the aid drawdown in Afghanistan could be a good thing

admin •

IRIN, 26 March 2012 The gradual drawdown of US-NATO troops, and the planned handover of full security responsibilities to Afghan forces in 2014, has had the aid community worried about a corresponding drop in aid funds. But many aid workers also see the transition as an opportunity to reset aid delivery in Afghanistan, which for […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Torture By Music

admin •

BBC, 26 March 2012 A British citizen who was released after two years in Guantanamo, and never charged with any crime thereafter, reports that the tirture technique he feared most was being tortured with music. Listen to a documentary that charts the progress of him, alongside other ex-detainees, campaigners and psychologists, as they attempt to […]

Recommended Reads Read more

12 April 2012: Our World in Transition: Impact on Human Security and EU Response

AAN • admin •

AAN’s Sari Kouvo chairs a panel on Afghanistan’s transition at the international student conference organised at the Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS). Read more about the conference here.

Events Read more

Militiamen including commander join Taliban

admin •

Pajhwok News Agency (Kabul), 23 March 2012 Five members of a tribal militia, ‘drug addicts who belong to one family, [and] had been appointed directly by US Marines’, according to the district governor, have defected to the Taleban in Marja district, Helmand province.

Recommended Reads Read more

The ‘Other Bagram’ (1): A Memorandum for handover

Kate Clark •

President Karzai’s legal advisor, Nasrullah Stanekzai, has confirmed to AAN that there will be detention without trial of Afghans by Afghans when the Detention Facility at Parwan (DFIP), also referred to simply as ‘Bagram’, is handed over to Afghan government control, at the latest, on 8 September 2012. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Karzai’s team clash over relations with US

admin •

al-Jazeera, 21 March 2012 The Qatar-based channel reports how on 8 March members of Karzai’s team clashed, involving physical violence and mutual accusations of spying, over the strategic agreement with the US during a meeting in the presidential place and in the presence of US diplomats and military who had to separate them.

Recommended Reads Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up