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Bargaining over US bases: Will they stay or will they go?

US intentions – what it wants or plans or thinks it might possibly do in Afghanistan after 2014 – are again in the news. Will Washington want bases? Will US soldiers ‘just’ be training Afghan troops or participate in fighting? And how many soldiers might remain in Afghanistan? On the Afghan side, both President Karzai […]

12 Dec 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Guest Blog: Andkhoi between Drought and Insurgency

The sale of government jobs, unexplained killings, abductions by the Taleban and a severe drought that has resulted in a nearly complete crop failure this year. It is difficult to say what is worse for the people in Andkhoi, the security situation or economic crisis, our guest blogger Marga Flader who works for a German […]

9 Dec 2011 Marga Flader • War and Peace

Berlin, 8 December 2011: After Bonn2 – podium with AAN participation

‘Wie weiter am Hindukusch? Zehn Jahre danach: Afghanistan nach der Bonner Außenministerkonferenz’: AAN’s Thomas Ruttig and Bente Scheller, the Boell Foundation’s outgoing head of office in Kabul, will discuss the outcome of the 5 December international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, the role of Afghan civil society and perspectives for Afghanistan (in German). Time: Thursday, […]

8 Dec 2011 AAN • admin • Events

Guest Blog: Bonn 2 – Summit of Two Media Realities (with links to official docs)

The Bonn 2 Afghanistan Conference was not only revealing in what was said in the non-binding final statement* of the meeting, but also on how differently journalists worked and observed the event for much of the day. Our guest blogger Martin Gerner, a freelance German author and correspondent who also had organized an international seminar […]

8 Dec 2011 Martin Gerner • International Engagement

Ashura Attacks (3): A new type of violence in Afghanistan

One of the last taboos of violence in Afghanistan was broken by yesterday’s suicide attacks on the Ashura commemoration in Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif. Historically, sectarian tensions or conflicts have occasionally been seen in Afghanistan, but they have usually been stirred up and leveraged by politics or war. Sectarian hatred has never enjoyed public recognition […]

7 Dec 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Ashura Attacks 2: Flash from the Past, Ashura 2002 (amended)

The bombs which ripped through Ashura processions in Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif and likely targeted – futilely – a ceremony in Kandahar killed dozens, raising the spectre of sectarianism in Afghanistan. Every year since 2001, says Kate Clark, the Ashura ceremonies have become larger and more public as the Afghanistan’s Shi’a communities have grown in […]

7 Dec 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Ashura Attacks (1): Playing with Fire

Attacks have targeted Shi’as in two of Afghanistan’s major cities as they gathered for Ashura, to lament the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and members of his family in Iraq in 680 AD. The attack in Kabul was particularly serious and left dozens dead. Such violence is a new phenomenon, says Kate Clark, deeply troubling and […]

6 Dec 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace

AAN Live: Reading between the lines of Bonn 2

The Bonn 2 conference was huge – with 100 delegations, it was quantitatively the biggest ever on Afghanistan. Yet expectations had grown progressively more limited over the past few months and the speeches, this morning, from the main protagonists delivered few surprises. President Karzai was particularly bland, repeating again his ‘continued’ commitment to fighting corruption […]

5 Dec 2011 Thomas Ruttig • International Engagement

From Bonn 1 to Bonn 2: Afghanistan’s missed opportunities

The author, Francesc Vendrell served in Afghanistan as both the Personal Representative the UN Secretary-General and the EU Special Representative. He looks back on the past decade, describing the pre-Bonn attempts at a political settlement, the first Bonn conference and the opportunities that were missed since then. Prolonged conflicts are particularly difficult to resolve, often […]

4 Dec 2011 Francesc Vendrell • International Engagement

Afghan Civil Society Forum in Bonn (2): A Day of Messaging

The discussion about a possible peace process that would include the Taleban dominated the discussions on day 2 of the Afghan Civil Society Forum in Bonn on Saturday. While it became obvious that the Afghan organisations still have to do some homework, they professionally reacted to a smear campaign at home declaring that they do […]

3 Dec 2011 Thomas Ruttig • International Engagement