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An Update on Voter Registration

Last Thursday, August 12, saw the conclusion of yet another stage on the road to the elections of 18 September. Making sure all those eligible to vote get their voter cards (and one card per voter only) is clearly a major part of any free and fair election. But in what has become something of […]

15 Aug 2010 Fabrizio Foschini • Political Landscape

A Wikileaks Leak and Human Rights Matters

A series of emails sent to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange by human rights groups from or based in Afghanistan has been leaked to the media. The groups ‘called on the whistleblower website to expunge the names of Afghans mentioned in the war logs because of fears that they could be targeted by insurgents’. AAN’s co-director […]

13 Aug 2010 Thomas Ruttig • Rights and Freedoms

Ten Dead in Badakhshan 4: Afghan Reactions (UPDATED)

AAN has been asking for the memories and thoughts of some of the Afghans who knew the members of the eye camp team who were murdered in Badakhshan last week. Initially, we wanted to find out what they thought about the Taleban accusations that the team had been preaching Christianity, but it soon became clear […]

12 Aug 2010 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Ten dead in Badakhshan 3: The Dubious Taleban Claim

The Taleban get in quickly with their claims and they get in dirty. Spy, whore, preacher – Taleban accusations stick, regardless of who they are aimed at, Afghan or foreigner, and regardless of the truth of the matter. In an Afghan context – and it seems, also, this week in an international one – such […]

11 Aug 2010 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Ten Dead in Badakhshan (2)

We follow up our reporting on the murder of ten aid workers on Thursday with two contributions from guest authors, Michael Semple and Christoph Reuter (1). They shed more light on three of the victims, Dan Terry, Daniela Beyer and Karen Woo; Michael additionally analyses the status of the insurgency in the area the killings […]

9 Aug 2010 Christopher Reuter • Michael Semple • War and Peace

Ten Dead in Badakhshan (UPDATED)

Among the party of Afghans and foreigners returning from holding an eye camp for communities in Nuristan and murdered on their way back in Badakhshan were several known to many in AAN. We grieve with their families and friends. Read an obituary by our Senior Analyst Kate Clark (with updates at the end of the […]

8 Aug 2010 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Pakistani Anger with WikiLeaks

Pakistan has remarkably free media. However, this freedom has been limited on a few subjects. Journalists would not touch the Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan during the ‘jihad’ against the Soviet occupation in a critical way, for example. It looked as if the ISI often was dictating the leaders on this subject in at least some […]

7 Aug 2010 Karl Fischer • Ulrike Schulz • Regional Relations

Afghanistan is (still) not Iraq

One of the monsters thought to be slain has raised one of its ugly heads again: the ‘let’s replicate our Iraq success in Afghanistan’ discussion, seasoned with ‘yes we know Afghanistan is not Iraq but…’ attachments. See the surge that supposedly has brought a decrease of violence in Baghdad and elsewhere and has been replicated […]

6 Aug 2010 Kate Clark • International Engagement

Justice in Afghanistan: the Insect and the Elephant

AAN political researcher Gran Hewad attended this week’s opening event of the ‘National Campaign on Supporting Justice in Afghanistan’. He visited the tents, watched the audience and reminisces about the war and the chances of establishing justice. The ‘National Campaign on Supporting Justice in Afghanistan’ is the title of a six day open gathering taking […]

2 Aug 2010 Gran Hewad • Rights and Freedoms

Campaign trail (3): the candidates and their strategies

While half of the world is on holiday and the other half is going through the wiki-leaked documents or is wondering how to follow-up on the successes of the Kabul conference, the electoral campaign in Afghanistan is going ahead – at least in parts of the country. The cities are covered in posters and banners, […]

30 Jul 2010 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape