Month: April 2022

Conviction of an Afghan War Criminal: A trial years later and far from the scene

Ehsan Qaane •

A 76-year old Afghan has been convicted of war crimes in a Dutch court for crimes committed when he was a senior figure at the notorious Pul-e Charkhi prison in the 1980s. The court sentenced Abdul Razaq Arif to twelve years imprisonment for the crimes of arbitrary detention, cruel and inhuman treatment and assault on the personal […]

27 Apr 2022

The Fourth Wave of Covid-19 Hits Afghanistan: “According to Sharia keeping yourself healthy is a must”

Rohullah Sorush • Thomas Ruttig •

Another wave of Covid-19 struck Afghanistan early in 2022 with doctors throughout the country reporting a rise in cases from January onwards. The devastation suffered by the Afghan health system since the suspension of most foreign aid following the Taleban takeover left it wholly unprepared to deal with the wave. While cases are now tailing […]

20 Apr 2022

Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars:
Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones

Costs of War Project, 1 September 2021 In case you missed it, too: the figures from Afghanistan & Pakistan (Oct. 2001 – Aug. 2021); Iraq (March 2003 – Aug. 2021); Syria (Sept. 2014 – May 2021); Yemen (Oct. 2002-Aug. 2021) and Other Post-9/11 War Zones by the Brown University/Watson Institute’s Costs of War Project.

19 Apr 2022

Poppy farmers face uncertain future as Taliban cracks down on opium trade

Daily Telegraph, 19 April 2022 The British daily quotes from an AAN report, about the macro-economic context of the Taleban’s latest ban on opium poppy cultivation: A recent report by the Afghanistan Analysts Network said: “Afghanistan has already lost most of its other foreign income in the form of on and off-budget support, both civilian […]

19 Apr 2022

Afghan Farmers Fear For Livelihoods As Taliban Bans Opium

Gandhara, 14 April 2022 The RFE/RL Afghanistan report quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig: Thomas Ruttig, [former] co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank, says most farmers grow poppies to stay out of poverty. “This ban might push them back into poverty, which might have consequences,” he told RFE/RL. He says the Taliban won the […]

14 Apr 2022

The New Taleban’s Opium Ban: The same political strategy 20 years on?

Jelena Bjelica • Kate Clark •

Seven and a half months after they took power in Afghanistan, the Taleban have officially banned opium. Observers had been waiting to see if they would implement their promise to ban narcotics made shortly after they captured Kabul. The ban has come at the beginning of the opium harvest and at a time when Afghans […]

14 Apr 2022

Crops not Watered, Fruit Rotting: Kandahar’s agriculture hit by war, drought and closed customs gates

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon •

Farmers across Afghanistan have been hit hard by drought and fighting in recent years. In this report, we look at how this has affected agriculture in one province, Kandahar, famous for its fruit production. Much of the fruit crop is – or should be – exported, yet the frequent and unpredictable closure of crossings into […]

7 Apr 2022

بررسی اقتصاد افغانستان در شش ماه نخست حاکمیت رژیم طالبان (A study of the Afghan economy in the first six months of the Taliban regime)

Hasht-e Sobh, 17 Hamal 1401 (6 April 2022) Although based on World Bank, UN data and western media reporting, this is an interesting summary as it comes from an Afghan angle.

6 Apr 2022

Why Now? — The Afghanistan-Ukraine Nexus

Australian Institute of International Affairs, 5 April 2022 Prof. Bill Maley’s commentary, culminating in the following statement: … the invasion of Ukraine arguably reflected […] the failure of general deterrence — that is, the creation through word and deed of apprehension in the mind of an aggressive autocrat that a democratic superpower such as the United States […]

5 Apr 2022

Taliban versuchen Medien auf Linie zu bringen

Deutsche Welle, 4 April 2022 In this article about the situation of the media under the Taleban, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted extensively (in German), beginning with saying that the closure of many media was not only the result of Taleban restrictions but also of the long-term drying out of international funding: Dies gehe allerdings […]

4 Apr 2022