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The Growth of Neo-radicalism: Neo-Salafism and Sectarianism

There are indications about the involvement of neo-radical – both neo-Salafist and Iranian-inspired Shia – groups in the Ashura clashes that occurred last November at Kabul University. AAN has recently reported about the events. In a follow-up article, our guest blogger Abbas Daiyar(*) argues that an increase of the activities comes in the wake of […]

25 Jan 2013 Abbas Daiyar • War and Peace

UN Torture Report: still no accountability for torture

UNAMA’s new report on the torture of ‘conflict related detainees’ makes bleak reading and not only because of the scale and weight of evidence against Afghan intelligence and the police. UNAMA reported that more than half of those interviewed had experienced torture or ill-treatment. They included children as young as 14. The UN also says […]

21 Jan 2013 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

Striking at Kabul, in 2013: the attack on the traffic police HQ

Just before dawn, the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) premises on the Deh Mazang roundabout in West Kabul came under attack. After a massive car bomb detonated in front of the building, an insurgent commando of five men tried to enter the traffic police headquarters. Two of them eventually made their way inside, and holed […]

21 Jan 2013 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

AAN Occasional Paper on the Pre-1979 Causes of the Afghan Conflict

For most people, it was the Soviet invasion over Christmas 1979 that put Afghanistan on the political map when, in the very last days of the 1970s, the Soviet leadership made the central Asian country the arena of the hottest conflict in the last part of the Cold War. As a result, the internationalised Afghanistan […]

19 Jan 2013 AAN • admin • Events

How It All Began: Pre-1979 Origins of Afghanistan’s Conflict

For most people, it was the Soviet invasion over Christmas 1979 that put Afghanistan on the political map when, in the very last days of the 1970s, the Soviet leadership made the central Asian country the arena of the hottest conflict in the last part of the Cold War. As a result, the internationalised Afghanistan […]

19 Jan 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Special Reports

Where Many Streets Have No Name: One for the Freedom of Speech?

Afghan journalists want to rename a street in central Kabul ‘Freedom of Speech Street’ to honour the many colleagues who have sacrificed their lives in this cause over the past ten years. Their initiative has met some resistance – not because of the content but because the street already bears the name of an independence […]

18 Jan 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Rights and Freedoms

AAN Reportage: What Sparked the Ashura Day Riots and Murder in Kabul University?

Last November, on the day of Ashura, a Muslim religious day with particular importance for Shias who mourn the martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson Hussain, clashes erupted between Sunni and Shia students in the dormitory of the Kabul University. The campus was literally turned into a battlefield. One student was killed and more than a […]

17 Jan 2013 Borhan Osman • War and Peace

The Taliban in Zabul and Uruzgan / Negotiations with the Taliban

AAN’s Martine van Bijlert and Thomas Ruttig both contributed a chapter to this edited volume on the Taleban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, based on earlier publications for the New American Foundation. Click Here for more

14 Jan 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Martine van Bijlert • External publications

A New ‘Foundation Force’? The ever murkier future of Afghan Special Operations Forces

One of the outcomes of the current US-Afghan summit in Washington reported by Afghan media is the apparent emergence of a new Afghan special operations force, the “Foundation Force for Afghanistan”. Still there is no official confirmation of this. Our guest blogger Gary Owen(*) writes, however, that this would be very much in line with […]

13 Jan 2013 Gary Owen • War and Peace

The January 2013 Obama-Karzai meeting: sovereignty in exchange for immunity

The words of Presidents Karzai and Obama, who met in Washington, are now being weighed and scrutinised in an attempt to determine what they are planning for Afghanistan over the next few, crucial years. The headline news was ISAF moving to a support and advisory role sooner than planned, with phase 5 of the security […]

12 Jan 2013 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Zero or Zero Plus? US-Afghan negotiations over the war

Presidents Obama and Karzai are due to start the wrangling over their countries’ post-2014 military relationship during the Afghan president’s current visit to Washington. US soldiers, bases, training, equipment, money, immunity all need to be hammered out, although no-one is expecting results just yet. Figures floated in recent days by US government and military officials […]

11 Jan 2013 Kate Clark • War and Peace

E-tazkera: relieving pre-election tension or adding to the confusion?

One of the ideas to prevent fraud and ensure fairness in future elections is the accelerated introduction of electronic identity cards to Afghanistan. According to the Ministry of Interior it will take at least a decade until all Afghans have the planned new identity cards, but proponents of the e-tazkera believe the project can still […]

7 Jan 2013 Obaid Ali • Political Landscape

6 January 2013: AAN author Thomas Ruttig in Spanish Review

‘Cómo empezó todo: Un breve repaso a los orígenes de los conflictos en Afganistán anteriores a 1979’ (How It All Began: An Introduction into the pre-1979 origins of Afghanistan’s Conflicts) is an article by AAN co-director an senior analyst Thomas Ruttig written for issue 119 of the Spanish review ‘PAPELES de relaciones ecosociales y cambio […]

6 Jan 2013 AAN • admin • Events

Speaking Out for Justice: An Initial Victory for Women Victims of Violence

Recently Afghan TV channels and news agencies have reported on an increasing number of cases of violence against women around the country. Only in the two first weeks of December at least four cases of murder were discussed in the media. In reaction to the violent incidents, civil society organizations and women’s rights activists started […]

6 Jan 2013 Wazhma Samandary • Rights and Freedoms

Qatar, Islamabad, Chantilly, Ashgabad: Taleban Talks Season Again? (amended)

There has again been movement in the positions marking the landscape of ‘reconciliation’ or, more precisely, of contacts and possible negotiations with the Taleban seem to be moving again. A track II meeting, labelled as ‘intra-Afghan’ talks, was held in France and, before that, the so-called ‘HPC roadmap’ leaked, indicating a more active role of […]

31 Dec 2012 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

The ‘Afghanistan 1400’ Movement: Changing Youth Politics in Afghanistan?

Afghanistan 1400, a new civic-political youth organisation, recently declared its existence in what is, in practice, a scattered and largely manipulated youth landscape in Afghanistan. Established by a number of highly educated and diverse young people, the group pursues an ambitious and forward-looking agenda of contributing to the emergence of a ‘prosperous and democratic Afghanistan’ […]

30 Dec 2012 S Reza Kazemi • Political Landscape

Cómo empezó todo: Un breve repaso a los orígenes de los conflictos en Afganistán anteriores a 1979 (How It All Began: An Introduction into the pre-1979 origins of Afghanistan’s Conflicts)

Papeles de relaciones ecosociales y cambio global. (Número 119), Madrid For most people, it was the Soviet invasion over Christmas 1979 that put Afghanistan on the political map again after many decades. But the origins of the internationalised Afghanistan conflict, currently in its 33rd year and often explained through a Cold War perspective only, goes […]

26 Dec 2012 Thomas Ruttig • External publications

Text of Speech Enunciated by Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan at a Research Conference in France

This was used as an annexe to the AAN report “Qatar, Islamabad, Chantilly, Ashgabad: Taleban Talks Season Again?” Monday, 10 Safar 1434 Monday, 24 December 2012 08:16 The full text of speech enunciated by two representatives from Political Office of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mawlawi Shahbuddin Dilawar and Doctor Muhammad Naeem, at research conference in […]

24 Dec 2012 Taleban and related documents

The Refugees and the Christmas Tree: Afghan Asylum Seekers Protest in Berlin

German asylum law has been under fire from human rights campaigners for years, for what its critics call the unfair limitations imposed on refugees. Only in July this year, the German Constitutional Court threw out the German government’s current provisions for social services for refugees as ‘evidently insufficient’ and unconstitutional because they are under the […]

24 Dec 2012 Thomas Ruttig • Migration

Protecting Freedom at the Hindukush: Source of Famous Afghanistan Quote Dies

On Wednesday, former German defence minister Peter Struck died, he who coined the controversial sentence that Germany’s security needs to be defended even ‘at the Hindukush’. Almost no other statement has shaped the Afghanistan-related discussion in Germany like this one. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks back at this debate and finds it being more of a […]

20 Dec 2012 Thomas Ruttig • International Engagement