Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: April 2018

Photographs of those who disappeared in AGSA custody, placed by family members in the Puligun (Polygon) area of Pul-e Charkhi, where mass graves have been found. Families hold a ceremony every year on 10 December to remember their lost relatives (Photo: Victims’ Families Association, with permission, 2016)

An April Day That Changed Afghanistan 3: The legacy of the Saur Revolution’s war crimes

P. Gossman •

The coup d’etat that brought the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was a watershed for Afghanistan, driving it into a conflict from which it has yet to recover and ushering in a whole new level of violence by the state against its citizens. Forced disappearances, the routine use of torture for punishment as well […]

Context and Culture Read more

Bomben allerorten: Kämpfe in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 30 April 2018 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks at the recent terrorist attacks in Kabul, but also widens the picture and looks at underreported fighting outside the Afghan capital (in German).

AAN in the Media Read more

In pictures: Remembering photographer Shah Marai

AAN •

BBC, 28 April 2018 AAN joins in mourning Shah Marai, the chief photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Kabul, who has been killed in a bombing in the Afghan capital this morning. Here a BBC article presenting a small selection of his work documenting his homeland.

Recommended Reads Read more

Tributes pour in for AFP photographer slain in Kabul

AAN •

AFP, 30 April 2018 The list of entries includes, apart from many Afghan friends, AAN’s Kate Clark and former AAN colleague Christine Roehrs, now at dpa: – Kate Clark, Afghanistan Analysts Network – “It’s unbearable. #Marai a friend and colleague since the 1990s,” tweeted Kate Clark, the co-director of AAN, a long-time friend of Marai […]

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Afghanistan: 40 Years of War

AAN •

BBC, 28 April 2018 Listen to AAN’s Kate Clark on BBC Radio 4’s “From our own correspondents” programme, looking back at 40 years of war in Afghanistan, triggered by the 27 April coup which happened 40 years ago: “This has again become, largely, an Afghan war,” says Kate Clark in Kabul, ” it is now […]

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A Five Afghani postage stamp celebrating the ‘Saur Revolution’ of April 1978.

Thematic Dossier XVIII: The PDPA and the Soviet Intervention

AAN Team •

40 years ago today, the Saur Revolution, as it was called – although it was in reality never anything more than a military coup d’etat – threw Afghanistan into upheaval and subsequently, decades of conflict. To mark the event, we have put together a dossier of AAN dispatches and papers. They include four new dispatches which […]

Dossiers Read more
A day after the PDPA took power, soldiers guard the Arg where Nur Muhammad Taraki is the new president (1978). Photo: Cleric77, Wikipedia - Creative Commons 3.0

An April Day that Changed Afghanistan 2: Afghans remember the ‘Saur Revolution’

Kate Clark •

It is forty years, today, since the coup d’etat which brought the leftist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) to power. That event has had far-reaching consequences, plunging the country into a conflict from which it has yet to emerge and changing the course of almost every Afghan’s life. AAN has been speaking to a […]

Context and Culture Read more

Neue “Territorialarmee” gegen Taliban

Thomas Ruttig •

Deutsche Welle, 27 April 2018 The official German international radio quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in this article about the next generation of Afghan quasi-militias: “Die “Afghan National Army Territorial Force’ soll Gebiete halten, aus denen die afghanische Armee die Taliban oder den IS vertreibt, weil die Armee bisher oft nicht in der Lage war, diese […]

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Abschiebungen: „In Afghanistan gibt es keine sicheren Gebiete“

Thomas Ruttig •

Frankfurter Rundschau, 26 April 2018 An extensive interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig with the German daily, covering issues from the security situation (and why it should not allow deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers) to peace talks (in German),

AAN in the Media Read more
Tanks in front of the presidential palace on 28 April 1978, one day after the Saur coup. Photo: Cleric77, Wikipedia - Creative Commons 3.0

An April Day That Changed Afghanistan 1: Four decades after the leftist takeover

Thomas Ruttig •

Forty years ago, Afghanistan experienced its second military coup d’état within five years. The authoritarian President Muhammad Daud had seized power in 1973 without much attention abroad and even little notice in Afghanistan – Daud was a sardar (prince) and seen as just another new king, although he proclaimed a republic. It was the second […]

Political Landscape Read more

Afghanistan: Intensifying violence a setback for hopes for peace

Thomas Ruttig •

Himal, 25 April 2018 An interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in the Southasian magazine about security situation, latest violence and the responsibilities for civilian casualties in Afghanistan, after latest incidents of civilian casualties caused by all warring sides.

AAN in the Media Read more

28 April 2018, Frankfurt/M: AAN at The (Afghan) Poetry Project

Thomas Ruttig •

Since their arrival in Europe, 14 to 18 year old refugees from Afghanistan and Iran have started writing poetry and working with a group of mentors around Spiegel journalist (and Afghanistan correspondent) Susanne Koelbl. The compose verses about mortal fear, foreignness and longing, allowing insight into the experience of war, becoming a refuge and meeting […]

Events Read more

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