Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: September 2014

Elections 2014 (49): Still deadlock, make or break

Kate Clark •

It has become difficult to write about the Afghan elections, not because nothing happens, but because it rarely amounts to anything significant enough to move things on. There are talks between the candidates, press conferences with little news, an audit nearing completion, phone calls from the American president, rumours and unease. The optimism of the […]

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Afghans question prisoner releases amid violent fighting season

AAN •

Stars and Stripes, 12 September 2014 AAN’s Kate Clark is quoted here on the many ways one can be arrested – and released – as a ‘terrorist’ in Afghanistan: “There are ways to release people if you’ve got money or influence. That’s always been the case,” said Kate Clark, a researcher with the Afghanistan Analysts […]

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Elections 2014 (48): Key documents underwriting the electoral audit

Martine van Bijlert •

While the Abdullah team has already dismissed both the audit and its outcome, the IEC still needs to finalise the process to arrive at a new result. As a background to the audit and its tumultuous history, AAN has gathered a number of key documents in one place. These include the three main IEC decisions […]

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The Study and Understudy of Afghanistan’s Ethnic Groups: What we know – and don’t know

Christian Bleuer •

From voting blocs to the share of power in government ministries to the composition of the insurgency, references to ethnic groups are frequently made in reporting and analysis. Accurate analysis requires a careful look at the complicated social lives and local politics in which members of these ethnic groups operate. But what is actually known […]

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Afghans back U.S. pact but worry it won’t end violence

AAN •

Los Angeles Times, 7 September 2014 AAN’s Obaid Ali is quoted here on Iran’s role in Afghanistan: Obaid Ali, an analyst for the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network, said Washington hopes the long-term agreement will signal to Iran that it should not attempt to destabilize Afghanistan, its neighbor to the east. “The Saudis and Pakistanis are […]

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Nog geen nieuwe president in Afghanistan

AAN •

Radio 1 (Netherlands), 4 September 2014 Listen to an 11:50 minute audio in Dutch on the Afghan elections stalemate, featuring AAN’s Martine van Bijlert and EU chief observer Thijs Berman.

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Afghan presidential election votes audit completed

AAN •

PanArmenian, 5 September 2014 The short item about the Afghan audit indirectly quotes an AAN information that “a few hundred boxes of votes have been completely invalidated so far but many more could be partly invalidated.”

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Die Taliban sind zum großen Sturm bereit

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung (Berlin), 4 September 2014 Guest article (in German) by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the security situation in Kunduz province, five years after a German PRT commander ordered an airstrike against alleged Taleban who turned out to be mostly civilians, not engaged in fighting. The strategic aim behind the German airstrike and later operations – […]

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Afghanistan's electoral audit enters its final, critical phase. Photo: Martine van Bijlert, Kabul, August 2014.

Elections 2014 (47): Audit enters its final precarious phase

Martine van Bijlert •

While the two teams are trying to revive the political negotiations, the electoral audit is both nearing its end –with around 95 per cent of the ballot boxes reviewed– and moving into its most critical phase: deciding on the findings and arriving at a new result. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has already convened five […]

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Truck bombs in Afghanistan kill 33, wound scores more

AAN •

Los Angeles Times, 4 September 2014 Covering the truck bomb attack against Ghazni province’s intelligence HQ, correspondent Ali Latifi, a former AAN colleague, quotes AAN’s Borhan Osman: “Attacks of this nature are meant to send a message to the government that the opposition can infiltrate the centers of their security apparatus,” said Borhan Osman, a […]

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Snow [Might Prove] Profitable Resource in [Khost]

AAN •

IWPR, 3 September 2014 For hundreds of years, people in Afghanistan have stockpiled winter snows in specially-dug pits so they can use it during the scorching summer months. Now, residents and officials in the mountainous southeasterb province of Khost say storing and selling snow could provide a viable alternative to the illegal logging which has […]

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Das Nato-Projekt Afghanistan ist brüchig

AAN •

Hamburger Abendblatt and Die Welt, 3 September 2014 In this article reviewing the post-election situation, AAN’s Martine van Bijlert is extensively quoted on fraud (“part of the competition … on both sides” bur proof for “industrial scale” still lacking) and on the plans for a unity government (establishment of a prime minister/CEO and leader of o […]

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