Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: April 2013

Over-promising, Under-delivering: The Outcome of the Afghanistan Conference in Kazakhstan

S Reza Kazemi •

The third Afghanistan-focussed ‘Heart of Asia’, also known as Istanbul Process, ministerial conference came to an end on 26 April 2013 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. At least three issues stood out: (1) the growing importance the Afghan government attaches to the regional initiative towards and after 2014, (2) the major conflicts involving some of the prominent […]

International Engagement Read more

Recommended Reading – April 2013

admin •

Balkh newspapers struggling to survive Pajhwok News Agency (Kabul), 30 April 2013 ‘The newspaper industry in Balkh province is struggling to survive in the face of security concerns, declining readership and self-censorship. … Qayyum Babak, whose daily Jehan-i-Naw was shut down four years ago, said newspapers began losing their ground with a rapid increase in […]

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Militia Disbandment and Peace Building: AAN republication of a 2008 paper

Barbara Stapleton •

Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) was the name of a crucial programme in the post-Taleban years in Afghanistan that ran from 2006 to 2011. As the successor to the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) programme, it was designed to disband those remaining armed groups in the areas of the country not covered by DDR […]

Special Reports Read more

What exactly is the CIA doing in Afghanistan? Proxy militias and two airstrikes in Kunar

Kate Clark •

AAN has discovered that the NATO airstrike on Kunar on 13 April 2013 which killed as many as 17 civilians was the second strike on almost the same location to have been requested by the same mixed Afghan/CIA force. President Karzai’s spokesman has reported the president’s assertion – and anger – that the Afghan unit […]

War and Peace Read more

Passing the Electoral Law: Four Controversies Down, Seven More to Go

Martine van Bijlert •

The Wolesi Jirga has started to tackle the Electoral Law and is now going through the remaining controversial articles. The discussions so far have included shouting matches and near-fights, providing a taste of what may still come, particularly as the session inches towards what held the Parliament hostage for weeks in 2008: the issue of […]

Political Landscape Read more

A New Round of Anti-Sherzai Protests In Nangarhar

Obaid Ali • Fabrizio Foschini •

In a five day-long protest in the Nangarhar provincial centre of Jalalabad, thousands of demonstrators have demanded the immediate dismissal of governor Gul Agha Sherzai for alleged involvement in corruption, embezzlement of development funds, illegal land grabs and for failing to protect Afghan territory from Pakistani inroads. The protestors were led, among others, by MP […]

Political Landscape Read more

Afghanistan Conference in Kazakhstan: Will the ‘Heart of Asia’ Start Throbbing?

S Reza Kazemi •

The ‘Heart of Asia’ process that was launched in November 2011 in Turkey aims to galvanise regional co-operation for security and development in Afghanistan and its near and extended neighbourhood. Approximately a year and a half has passed, with a hard-to-track number of conferences and meetings. The latest is to take place on 26 April […]

International Engagement Read more

The Making of Another ‘Uprising’: The ALP in Panjwayi

Borhan Osman •

The US government and US media are upbeat about a new ‘uprising’ against the Taleban in its heartland in Kandahar. Such a revolt in Panjwayi district would be of particular importance given the area’s status as the birthplace of the Taleban leadership. AAN’s Borhan Osman who has travelled to the area finds, however, that what […]

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Operation Resolute Restraint: The German Troop Offer for Post-2014

Thomas Ruttig •

The German government has surged ahead by offering concrete troop numbers for the ISAF successor mission to begin in January 2015. What is sold as taking the lead is mainly dictated by domestic considerations (general elections in September) and the urge to stay in the comparatively calm north of Afghanistan to avoid casualties. AAN’s Senior […]

War and Peace Read more

Now ‘Informal’, Soon Illegal? Political parties’ existence threatened again (amended)

Thomas Ruttig •

The Afghan government has started another attempt to make life difficult for the country’s political parties. One year after a disputed re-registration of all parties ended, it threatens them now with suspension because, it says, none of them have a sufficient presence in the required minimum number of provinces as stipulated in a by-law to […]

Political Landscape Read more

AAN in the Media – April 2013

AAN Team •

Ghost money from MI6 and CIA may fuel Afghan corruption, say diplomats The Guardian, 30 April 2013 This article refers to Kate Clark’s AAN blog on CIA operations in Afghanistan: ‘A report on Monday by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a thinktank in Kabul, said the latest such NDS-CIA operation, in Kunar province on 13 April, […]

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