Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: November 2012

Put Principles Back at Centre-Stage: Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

Ann Wilkens •

While the international community focuses on transition and disengagement from Afghanistan, women´s rights – invoked to justify the 2001 anti-Taleban intervention and thereafter used whenever handy – have again been relegated to the back burner. The continued prioritisation of prosecuting women for ‘moral crimes’ while – despite some recent high-profile cases – under-emphasising rape cases […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Karzai’s mullah council pushes disturbing agenda

AAN Team •

Examiner, 12 November 2012 The Examiner, a website reviewing different topics, summarises Borhan Osman’s AAN blog about the Afghan Council of Ulama.

AAN in the Media Read more

Insurgency encroaching on central Afghanistan

admin •

Long War Journal, 12 November 2012 New Zealand forces in Bamyan ‘have quietly and permanently closed two of their forward operating bases’ in Kahmard district, including forward operation base (FOB) Romero in the Do-Ab area, in early October.

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Twelve Veterans Days: Push To Stretch Afghan Presence Ignores Past

admin •

Defense News, 12 November 2012 A very strong, US military soldier’s perspective on the xbox mentality of those wanting to keep troops in Afghanistan post-2014. Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who has served more than 20 years in the U.S. Army, has been deployed to combat zones four times, twice to Afghanistan, and won the 2012 […]

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After planned cuts, some fear Afghans could become willing recruits for insurgent groups

AAN Team •

Stars and Stripes, 11 November 2012 Afghan politicians raise fears about a possible Taleban recruitment of ANSF personnel to be decreased after 2014. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted as saying that militias are already recruiting those who wash out while trying to join the military and that the new militiamen have been shaking down villagers: […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Legal, illegal: Militia recruitment and (failed) disarmament in Kunduz

Gran Hewad •

Kunduz has a long and troubled history of militia presence. In addition to militia units developed by the Ministry of Interior (MoI), the provincial National Directorate for Security (NDS) also recruited some, starting in late 2008. Then, starting last year, the provincial security officials attempted to disarm some militias again, in response to complaints by […]

War and Peace Read more

9 November 2012, Stockholm: SCA report release ‘Missing the Target’

AAN • admin •

The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), the Kvinna till Kvinna (Women to Women) Foundation and Operation 1325 are releasing ‘Missing the Target – A report on the Swedish commitment for women, peace and security in Afghanistan’ in Sweden’s capital Stockholm on 9 November, authored by Ann Wilkens, a former Swedish ambassador to Pakistan and Afghanistan […]

Events Read more

Days of Horror and Grief: Reporting the Panjwai Massacre

admin •

NYT At War blog, 9 November 2012 In March, US soldier Staff Sgt. Robert Bales went on a rampage in a village in Kandahar’s Panjwayi district and killed 16 civilians. He is in a US military court now for multiple murder. New York Times reporter Taimoor Shah recalls how he went to the scene of […]

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UN imposes sanctions on Haqqani network

AAN Team •

Deutsche Welle (online), 7 November 2012 Quotes by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on the new UN sanctions against the Haqqani network: ‘Of course, they [the Haqqani network] do not get arms from UN member states and their governments. [But] Pakistan is constantly accused of covertly supporting the Haqqanis, who operate out of Waziristan, which is Pakistani […]

AAN in the Media Read more

UN-Sanktionen gegen Taliban-Gruppe: Warnsignal für Pakistan

AAN Team •

tageszeitung (Berlin), 7 November 2012 In hi article for the Berlin daily, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig describes the background of the Haqqani network; he sess the newly imposed sanctions as a follow-up to the similar US decision two months earlier, which in turn was imposed on Obama by the Republican-dominated Congress, and will make talks with […]

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ARTE Journal: US Elections and Afghanistan

AAN Team •

ARTE (French-German TV), 6 November 2012 The evening news draw a balance of Obama’s Afghanistan policy, and AAN’s Gran Hewad is on air, saying that the US have early on given away the chance for an honest state-building process, have practically excluded civil society forces and instead re-empowered people who have committed war crimes (His […]

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Saudi Arabia Positions Itself For Larger Afghan Role

AAN Team •

RFE/RL, 6 November 2012 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is extensively quoted on Saudi Arabia’s recent efforts to play a greater role in Afghanistan. “There are very strained relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Both those countries will be competing for influence in Afghanistan, with the sectarian differences between both sides in the background,” Ruttig says. “So […]

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