Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: December 2016

Over Half a Million Afghans Flee Conflict in 2016: A look at the IDP statistics

Jelena Bjelica •

In 2016, more than half a million Afghans fled conflict to places of safety inside Afghanistan’s borders. Over a third of the yearly total fled in just one month – October. This mass movement was caused by heavy fighting between government and insurgent forces. At the year’s end, AAN’s Jelena Bjelica looks at the statistics of Afghanistan’s […]

Migration Read more

Afghanistan funds abusive militias as US military ‘ignores’ situation, officials say

AAN •

The Guardian, 26 December 2016 Sune Engel Rasmussen on commander Perim Qul’s militia in Rustaq in the northern province of Takhar, paid by the Afghan intelligence service and – indirectly – its donors, that include the CIA.

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How Peace Between Afghanistan and the Taliban Foundered [and Norway’s peace diplomacy]

AAN •

The New York Times, 26 December 2016 Mujib Mashal has located the Norwegian diplomat, a former missionary in Pakistan, who told him how he built relations of trust to Pakistani and Afghan clerics, among them Taleban, and opened up a channel for Norway’s peace diplomacy that attempted to bring about direct Kabul-Taleban talks and peace […]

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What Links Sarajevo to Kabul? Impressions from the western end of the Persianate world

Thomas Ruttig •

Sarajevo and Kabul lie over 4,000 kilometres apart. One feature that connects the two cities, however, is that both were destroyed during civil wars in the last decade of the twentieth century. Earlier this year, when AAN’s co-director Thomas Ruttig visited Sarajevo and other parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia during a vacation, he came across […]

Context and Culture Read more

Die Bilanz des Kriegs in Afghanistan

AAN •

dpa/Badische Zeitung, 23 December 2016 The daily from southern Germany takes stock of the war in Afghanistan, based on material of the German news agency dpa which, in turn, quotes AAN (on IS activity in Afghanistan).

AAN in the Media Read more

Is Pakistan punishing refugees for Afghanistan’s friendship with India?

AAN •

IRIN, 23 December 2016 The news agency has put Jelena Bjelica’s AAN dispatch about the return of many Afghan refugees from Pakistan and its background(s) into its picks of the week: Pakistan has historically been a refuge for millions of Afghans who fled war over the past few decades. But the government pushed more than […]

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Caught Up in Regional Tensions? The mass return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan

Jelena Bjelica •

More than half a million Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan since July 2016, a huge number, on a scale not seen for a decade. United Nations agencies and human rights organisations have blamed fear of harassment and oppression by the Pakistani authorities, or in the case of undocumented refugees, fear of expulsion for the […]

Migration Read more

Afghanistan-Experte Thomas Ruttig spricht über die Situation in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Radio Corax, 21 December 2016 Listen to a longer audio of a live interview of the non-commercial local radio station in the Eastern German city of Halle (Sachsen-Anhalt) with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, discussing the first deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers from Germany by a charter flight and the situation in Afghanistan into which the non-voluntary […]

AAN in the Media Read more
constituencies - two complicated and politically fraught tasks. Photo: Martine van Bijlert

Update on Afghanistan’s Electoral Process: Electoral deadlock broken – for now

Ali Yawar Adili • Martine van Bijlert •

Afghanistan’s electoral reform process, a major part of the National Unity Government’s programme, has been slow and painful with its high stakes and divided government positions. But over the last few months two significant hurdles have been taken: the new electoral law has finally been passed, and the new electoral commissions have been appointed. Although […]

Political Landscape Read more

Abschiebung nach Afghanistan: “Afghanistan ist zweifelsfrei kein sicheres Herkunftsland”

Thomas Ruttig •

Süddeutsche Zeitung, 16 December 2016 Interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in one of the largest German dailies, discussing the first German forced returns of Afghan rejected asylum seekers and the security situation in the country. Conclusion: “Afghanistan is definitely not a safe country. And there are only more or less insecure areas.”    

AAN in the Media Read more

Trump Inherits the ‘Good War’

Thomas Ruttig •

The Atlantic, 16 December 2016 A short quote from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in this article reviewing the situation in Afghanistan before Trump’s takeover of the US presidency (also on the DefenceOne website): Nearly 70 percent of Afghanistan’s annual income is from international donors. Washington itself “is by far the largest spender on the Afghan armed forces and […]

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Why is Guantanamo Still Open?

AAN •

BBC, 15 December 2016 Listen to a 50 minutes Newshour Extra programme, “Why is Guantanamo Still Open?” with AAN’s Kate Clark featuring as one of the discussion participants (half way in with an interview on the Afghan cases).

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