Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: October 2015

Homeless and Unwanted: How Kabul’s drug users are driven from place to place

Jelena Bjelica • Qayoom Suroush •

The 2015 summer campaign to push drug users out from under the bridge in Pol-e Sokhta and close the ‘addict town’ there has turned into a public spectacle with groups of drug addicts being herded around by the police. Complaints by the surrounding community had forced the police to act, resulting in the partial dispersal of […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

España pone fin a su misión en un Afganistán sumido en el caos

Thomas Ruttig •

Vice News (Spanish), 29 October 2015 In this article by  Mònica Bernabé about the end of the Spanish military mission in Afghanistan, there is a long quote by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on the fixed US withdrawal date, now extended already twice: “Establecer una fecha [para la retirada], primero en 2014 y después en 2016, fue […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Flüchtlinge aus Afghanistan: De Maizières dilettantischer Ausflug in die deutsche Entwicklungshilfe

Thomas Ruttig •

Flüchtlingsrat Niedersachsen, 29 October 2015 The Refugee Council of the German federated state of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) cites Thomas Ruttig in a press release on the refguee situation in Germany on the balance of the ISAF mission, from his article “Militarisation of Development Aid”.

AAN in the Media Read more

In Afghanistan, a strongman [militia commander Nabi Gechi] rises in battle against a resurgent Taliban

AAN •

Washington Post, 29 October 2015 Portrait of militia leader Nabi Gechi, who “is not just the general [but also] the judge, the police chief and the tax collector” in Kunduz’ Qala-ye Zal district “where U.S. troops left long ago and there are no soldiers or police” and where Gechi is “accepting protection money from the […]

Recommended Reads Read more
Emomali Rahmon, President of Tajikistan. Credit: Kate Dixon (Flickr)

Attack on the Opposition in Tajikistan: Afghan concerns and comparisons

Christian Bleuer •

Despite its 1300 kilometre-long border with Tajikistan, Afghanistan is rarely worried by the internal political strife and occasional violence to its north. The situation is, however, worsening. The Dushanbe government’s relentless attack on its domestic political (non-military) opposition, including the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), threatens to undo the relative peace and prosperity of […]

Regional Relations Read more

Kunduz regroups — under a cloud of fear

AAN •

Washington Post, 22 October 2015 Excellent reportage from Kunduz: university looted, shops destroyed in fighting, civilians killed in the crossfire and a harrowing story how Taleban killed  a former bodyguard of Mir Alam – but “in many other areas, the insurgents left residents alone” and “some allegations of abuses committed by the Taliban were false” […]

Recommended Reads Read more

The 2015 insurgency in the North (4): Surrounding the cities in Baghlan

Gran Hewad •

During the recent two week Taleban occupation of Kunduz city, the strong insurgent presence in the province immediately to the south, Baghlan, was of huge importance to the insurgents. By blocking the key north-south road which goes through the heart of the province, they prevented ANA reinforcements from the capital from reaching Kunduz for several days. The movement […]

War and Peace Read more

[Kunduz:] Ein doppelter Erfolg für die Taliban

Thomas Ruttig •

Wochenzeitung, 21 October 2015 Op-ed commentary by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the two-weeks Taleban takeover of Kunduz (in German). He argues that it was a multiple propaganda victory for the insurgents: first, they showed that they can take an important provincial capital (for the first time since they fell from power); secondly, they forced their […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Female Afghan Governor Won’t Back Down Amid Threats, Controversy

AAN •

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 19 October 2015 In an article about Afghanistan’s only current female provincial governor, the website quotes biographical background from AAN: Her career path, according to the Afghan Analysts Network, included working as a high-school teacher in the provincial capital; a stint at the governor’s office, and participation as a civil-society activist […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Quarter of a Century of War in Pictures: Exhibition at ACKU

Kate Clark •

An exhibition of war photographs taken in Afghanistan over the last quarter of a century is currently showing at the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University and will thereafter be available in its archive. American photographer Robert Nickelsberg has been visiting the country since 1988, catching moments on film that are variously historic, unsettling and tender. […]

Context and Culture Read more

America Failed Kunduz Long Before It Bombed a Hospital

AAN •

Vanity Fair, 16 October 2015 Anand Gopal, who reports about an embed with Afghan militias in Kunduz province, quotes an AAN guest dispatch: As Bethany Matta reported for the Afghanistan Analysts Network, the new governor was at odds with his own deputy, who told the AFP, “There is no such thing as good militia or bad militia. […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Assertive Russia Weighs Afghan Perils, Past And Present

Thomas Ruttig •

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 16 October 2015 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted on the direction of Afghan-Russian relations: “I think Russia will not get more involved in Afghanistan directly, but it is already increasing its role as supplier of military hardware,” says Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank in […]

AAN in the Media Read more

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