Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: July 2013

War Intensifies with More Civilian Casualties: the half-yearly UNAMA report

Kate Clark •

UNAMA’s six monthly report on how civilians are faring in the war (Mid-Year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict) shows a reversal in last year’s trend of fewer civilian casualties. Comparing the first half of 2013 with the first half of 2012, a fifth more civilians were killed or injured in the fighting. […]

War and Peace Read more

Nicht ganz unabhängige Kommission: Afghanistan bereitet Wahlen vor

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 31 July 2013 In this article for the Berlin daily (in German), AAN’s Thomas Ruttig analyses the appointment of the nine new members of Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, saying that it has ‘a professional varnish’ but that, finally, “the interests of networks close to ‘the Palace’ have gained the upper hand’ in its ranks. […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Why a dam in Afghanistan might set back peace

admin •

Christian Science Monitor, 30 July 2013 Article about the regional political economy of Herat province’s Salma Dam on Harirud River, ‘a $200 million project paid for and built by India, yet delayed by Afghanistan’s turbulent history of occupations, civil war, and insurgency’. The dam will more than double cultivatable land in the area, while it […]

Recommended Reads Read more

A Hasty Process: New Independent Election Commission announced

Gran Hewad • Martine van Bijlert • Thomas Ruttig •

While the passing of the election-related laws took months, the selection and appointment of the crucial new Independent Election Commission (IEC) was finished within days. Although time was pressing, the haste raises doubts about the thoroughness of the process and the balance of the new nine-member body announced on Monday, 29 July 2013. AAN’s analysts […]

Political Landscape Read more

Mit Drogenbaronen gegen die Taliban

AAN • aaneditor •

RBB-Inforadio, 30 July 2013 Within its two-day series titled ‘The Global Drugs Trade: From the Carbean to Berlin’s Hasenheide’, the regional radio station for Berlin and Brandenburg states interviewed AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on the latest surge in Afghanistan’s opium production and its causes (here a summary on the station’s website in German). Ruttig argues that […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Mali, Afghanistan – Conflicts Worlds Apart? Parallels and Lessons to be Learnt

Thomas Ruttig •

When jihadist groups took over the northern half of Mali last year and French troops intervened in January this year, a discussion ensued in the media and among analysts about whether Mali was, or would become, a ‘second’ or ‘African’ Afghanistan. Most found a comparison ludicrous. With Mali’s presidential election coming up on today, 28 […]

International Engagement Read more

Afghanistan’s New Electoral Laws: Changes and red flags

Martine van Bijlert •

With last week’s ratification of the two electoral laws, Afghanistan finally knows which laws will govern its upcoming election. The new legislation clarifies how the elections are to be conducted, by whom and how they are to be appointed. Compared to the often tumultuous process that shaped them, the laws are fairly balanced and workable, […]

Political Landscape Read more

EEUU sigue administrando la prisión de Bagram

AAN • aaneditor •

HispanTV, 26 July 2013 The Americas-wide TV network put a summary of Kate Clark’s AAN dispatch about the ‘Black Jail’ at Bagram on its website: ‘Estados Unidos sigue manteniendo una cárcel secreta en la base aérea de Bagram, en Afganistán, en la cual torturan a los prisioneros afganos, ha revelado este viernes la Red de […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Soldierless Jihad: How the Withdrawal Undermines the Taliban’s Case for War

admin •

Foreign Affairs, 26 July 2013 The Afghan Taleban movement might become the victim of its own propaganda, writes Michael Semple in his latest piece for Foreign Affairs magazine. Reporting meetings at the funeral of a killed Taleb from a prominent Paktia family that took place in a Pakistani city and summarising discussions held there, he […]

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How Much Has Really Changed at America’s ‘Black Prison’?

AAN • aaneditor •

Foreign Policy, 26 July 2013 Foreign Policy reports on AAN’s latest dispatch on Bagram detention centre, describing how AAN has found that the US military continue to hold and interrogate Afghan detainees in Afghanistan, including at the notorious ‘Black Prison’ on Bagram Airbase, and continue to practice sleep deprivation. The author, Elias Groll, asks how […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Afghanistan Analysts Network: US holds inmates in Bagram’s secret jail

AAN •

FreeDetainees.org, 26 July 2013 The website quotes from an AAN dispatch about the US-run Black Jail at Bagram: The Afghanistan Analysts Network says it has found that the U.S. is running a secret jail at Bagram Airbase in which Afghan inmates are being tortured. In March 2013, the U.S. military said it handed over the […]

AAN in the Media Read more

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ 6: Afghans still struggling for sovereignty at Bagram

Kate Clark •

It is exactly four months since the US military officially handed over its detention facility on Bagram Airbase to the Afghan Ministry of Defence. Whatever agreement was made between the two governments, it has never been made public. However, from speaking to detainees who have been released since the handover, AAN has been able to […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

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