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Guest Blog: Amrullah Saleh’s new language on the Taleban

Former NDS chief, Amrullah Saleh, wrote an op-ed article on Bloomberg.com in which he tacitly agreed to the idea of negotiations with the Taleban and called for a truth commission as a way of reconciliation. Saleh, it seems, is rebranding himself outside Afghanistan as a pragmatic opposition leader open to concessions, writes our guest blogger […]

19 Jun 2011 Ahmad Shuja • War and Peace

Taleban Contacts between Smoke and Mirrors: Karzai’s 18 June speech

Nothing is what it appears in the T2T drama series. Talking to the Talebs is a cabinet of mirrors. The mirrors make it appear that smoke is rising from one place while the fire is burning at another. And it is not even clear whether this is real smoke and fire, or just Javanese-style shadow […]

19 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

Deaths Not in the News (amended)

Some TV stations have a programme called ‘No comment’. They just show pictures, without any explanation. Here, we just use words to report an incident from Logar, without any comment. It is from the Afghan War’s small print. Case 1 On Tuesday 14 June, around 1:30 pm, a mine went off in De Ahmadzaio Kala’s […]

16 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • International Engagement

Old Traditions and New Virtuosos in Kharabat

On 14 June, the day marking the anniversary of both birth and death of the Afghan song genius, Ahmad Zahir, reflectors may have been pointed to his grave in Shuhada-ye Salihin, where commemoration and musical events took place. But not too far from there, in Kucha-e Kharabat, the musicians’ quarter in the Old City, another […]

16 Jun 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • Context and Culture

A War of Letters between Special Court and Parliament

With reports that the Special Election Court will call 53 ‘sitting’ MPs to court over alleged fraud during the 2010 elections, the tug-of-war between the Court (with the President in the background) and Parliament goes into another round. The MPs, already in a protest against Karzai’s failure to fill the remaining cabinet posts, answer with […]

15 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

What the US Senate’s report on Afghanistan does and doesn’t say

Last week the US Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations released its evaluation of US foreign assistance to Afghanistan. The report received a lot of attention, mainly as a result of the power and urgency of its message: that much of US assistance is expensive, unsustainable and based on shaky premises. These issues warrant all the […]

13 Jun 2011 Martine van Bijlert • Economy, Development, Environment

Innovative Loya Jirga-ism

President Karzai announced during a press conference on 31 May that a Loya Jirga was due ‘in the coming days’ (my emphasis) to discuss ‘the strategic relationships with the U.S., [that] all the people of Afghanistan from all different parts will gather together[,] view their options and the final decision will be made by Afghans’. […]

13 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

How the West Contributed to the ANSF’s Dire State

The Independent on Sunday came out today with an article highlighting the dire state of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The article’s headline is self-explanatory: ‘After 10 years, no security unit is fit to take over from coalition in Afghanistan’. Indeed, there are grave concerns whether the ANSF can fully take over by 2014 […]

12 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • International Engagement

The Peace Process in Nangrahar; what people say

It has been a year since the Peace Jirga in Kabul endorsed the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program, APRP (still only a draft then), and the start of the peace process with the successive creation of the High Peace Council. We have been hearing almost everything about it, good or bad, in Kabul. But what […]

11 Jun 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • Political Landscape

When Rumour Replaces Logic – The Takhar Killing

When General Mohammed Daud Daud, the highest police officer of the northeast and commander of the Pamir region, was killed by a meticulously prepared bomb in the Takhar governor’s office on May 28th, one thing at least seemed to be clear: who was behind it – in particular after the Taleban proudly announced their responsibility. […]

8 Jun 2011 Christopher Reuter • War and Peace