Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: March 2015

Post Runners, Aerogrammes and the Big E-Mail Challenge: Scenes from 135 years of Afghan postal service

Thomas Ruttig •

Calling the pre-email postal service (hand-written letters, you remember, and postcards) “snail mail” has been appropriate for Afghanistan for most of the past century, and even before. Established in 1878, it took Afghanistan’s service half a century to become part of the international postal system. After that, it was cut off during long years of […]

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What the Right Wing Gets Wrong About Bowe Bergdahl

AAN •

The Rolling Stone, 26 March 2015 In an article on the Us discussion about ex-Taleban prisoner and accused deserter Bowe Bergdahl, AAN’s Kate Clark is quoted on the five Taleban prisoners against which Bergdahl was swapped: Bergdahl was traded for five Taliban figures of varying importance. “Of the five, four were high-ranking Taleban officials, while […]

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The Unity Government’s First Six Months: Where is the governance?

Thomas Ruttig •

After six months of Afghan Unity Government – what has been achieved? President Ghani, some say, has been ruling with a ‘two-man government’ (him and Hanif Atmar, head of the National Security Council), leading many to feel left out. ‘Strategic silence’ has become a somewhat mocking term for Ghani’s style of government – or is he […]

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Norway Taliban-Afghan government move interesting, says analyst

AAN •

The Foreigner (Norway), 26 March 2015 AAN country director Kate Clark comments on the invitation by Norwegian authorities of three Taleban members together with representatives of the Afghan government for a peace seminar at Oslo for a peace negotiations course, looking also at ceasefire agreements: “I think reports of the Taliban having attended the seminar are credible,” Kate Clark, […]

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Taliban på hemmelig fredskurs i Norge

Thomas Ruttig •

Dagbladet, 25 March 2015 The Norwegian daily also picks up the story of Taleban (and Kabul government) representatives taking part in a peace building course in Oslo organised by the Norwegian government – with a quote of AAN’s Kate Clark: Interessant. Hvis Taliban og afghanske myndigheter var på dette kurset, er det fascinerende, sier Kate […]

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Finally Towards a Complete Afghan Cabinet? The next 16 minister nominees and their bios (amended)

AAN Team •

Six months after the inauguration of the National Unity Government and two months after the last attempt to introduce cabinet members to the parliament, there is now a new list of nominees. It contains 16 names for almost all remaining cabinet positions. AAN’s Christine Roehrs, Qayoom Suroush, Naheed Esar, Ehsan Qaane and Obaid Ali have gathered […]

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26 personer arrestert etter at Farkhunda (27) ble slått, sparket og brent i hjel

AAN •

Aftenposten, 24 March 2015 AAN’s Kate Clark is quoted in the Norwegian daily about the lynching of an Afghan women in Kabul that sparked widespread protests: Vold, overgrep og undertrykking er en del av hverdagen til afghanske kvinner, og det vil ta lang tid før situasjonen blir bedre, mener journalist og analytiker Kate Clark. – […]

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The Kabuliwala of Kolkata: Photo exhibition about a community longing for Afghanistan that once was home

Nazes Afroz •

In the suburbs of Kolkata, India, lives, in seclusion, a little known community of migrants who once came from Afghanistan – the first of them around the year of 1840. Kabuliwala they are called, and the today 5000 people have managed to preserve the way of life they brought from Paktia, Paktika and Ghazni. Inspired […]

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Lynchmord in Afghanistan: “Die Polizei hat tatenlos zugesehen”

Thomas Ruttig •

Deutschlandradio-Kultur, 21 March 2015 Full transcript plus audio of an interview (in German) with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the killing of a young woman – who allegedly had burnt a Quran, an accusation later denied by the ministry of religious affairs – by  a lynch mob. That the police did not do its job, and […]

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Happy Nawruz! A blessed year 1394 to our readers – and a few poems for the occasion

AAN Team •

Dear readers and friends, the AAN team wishes you a blessed, healthy and hopefully more peaceful Afghan year 1394. Should you be in Afghanistan (and allowed out), try and visit one of the many Nawruz fairs that are happening across the country (see a picture of a merry-go-round for children during a fair in Mazar-e Sharif […]

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The Islamic State Threat in Central Asia: Reality or Spin?

Thomas Ruttig •

Jamestown Terrorism Monitor, 20 March 2015 Finally, a non-alarmist analysis of the IS threat emanating from Afghanistan to Central Asia, by Ryskeldi Satke, Casey Michel and Sertac Canalp Korkmaz, which also quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig: At present, the threat from Islamist extremism in Central Asia appears significantly more modest than is painted by both regional […]

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