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The Death of an Uruzgan Journalist: Omaid Never Stood a Chance

42 agonizing days after the death of a friend, the young and gifted Uruzgan journalist, Omaid Khpulwak, during a complex attack on 28 July 2011 in Tirin Kot, NATO has finally finished its investigation and admitted to what his friends and family had said all along, that Omaid was shot dead by US forces. It […]

9 Sep 2011 Susanne Schmeidl • War and Peace

Acting on Old News? NATO Suspends Detainee Transfers in Afghanistan

NATO has temporarily suspended detainee transfers to a number of detention centers in Afghanistan. This decision was taken pending the release of a so far unreleased UN report that is said to document mistreatment and torture in Afghan detention centers. AAN’s Sari Kouvo* ponders how this can be breaking news for NATO and ISAF troop […]

8 Sep 2011 Sari Kouvo • Rights and Freedoms

Where Fear has Replaced Trust: Some Reflections after the World Humanitarian Day in Afghanistan

Probably not so many of us know, but on 19 August, we celebrated the World Humanitarian Day. On that day, AAN’s Sari Kouvo and Naheed Esar Malikzay stumbled into a small ceremony in Kabul celebrating humanitarian work* and were inspired to explore the situation of Afghan humanitarian and development workers.** The stories Sari and Naheed […]

5 Sep 2011 Sari Kouvo • Rights and Freedoms

Nine out, nine in: 240 in between

Yesterday, at the beginning of the first parliamentary session after Eid holidays, the Wolesi Jirga shut its doors to the nine MPs who had been excluded by the Independent Electoral Commission, and part of it welcomed the nine newly declared winners instead. At the same time, part of the MPs protested (outside the Parliament) against […]

4 Sep 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • Political Landscape

Guest blog: Reintegration of Taleban in Badghis: A Success or a Nightmare?

Badghis, in northwestern Afghanistan, is the province where the most Taleban have laid down their weapons and joined the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program (APRP). The Spanish journalist Mònica Bernabé* travelled in June to Qala-e Naw, Badghis capital. By that month, 593 Taleban had laid down their weapons. Last week, the number had grown to […]

2 Sep 2011 Monica Bernabe • War and Peace

Response to Questionnaire: India-Afghanistan relations

Thomas Ruttig, in: FPRC Journal (Foreign Policy Research Centre, New Delhi), No. 7/2011 Answers on questions from ‘Why  Afghanistan is important to India?’ to India’s position on talks with the Taleban. Full paper available below: Response  to  Questionnaire: India-Afghanistan relations

1 Sep 2011 Thomas Ruttig • External publications

Guest Blog: Where Fiction and Reality Meet: A Decade of Afghan Cinema

‘A country which used to produce a revolution as often as a film’, the International Film Guide said about Afghanistan in 1983, pointing to the dearth of film-making in the country. Post-Taleban, this has changed. The past decade, there has been an explosion in Afghan film making, with the production of mostly independently produced, short […]

31 Aug 2011 Martin Gerner • Context and Culture

29 August 2011: New Afghan scenario paper with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig as co-author published

AAN’s Thomas Ruttig and Citha D. Maaß of Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin have co-authored a paper that describes possible scenarios during and after the transition process ‘Afghanistan vor neuem Bürgerkrieg?’ (Afghanistan facing a new civil war?). The paper has been uploaded at the SWP website today in English, the original German version […]

29 Aug 2011 AAN • admin • Events

AAN reads: Junger’s ‘War’

When I read one of the first reportages coming out from the Korengal, not by Sebastian Junger, in early 2008*, my first association was Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’. Later, the first video clips came out that even aggravated this impression. Now the full book is out, and it is as powerful as Norman Mailer’s […]

27 Aug 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

Is Afghanistan on the Brink of a New Civil War? Possible Scenarios and Influencing Factors in the Transition Process

Citha D. Maaß und Thomas Ruttig, SWP Briefing 2011/A 40, August 2011, 4 p. In July 2011, the transition of security responsibility to the Afghan government has begun. While NATO states accompany this process with calculated optimism, the authors write, four rather negative scenarios are looming: continuation of the rule of a ‚power oligarchy’ in […]

26 Aug 2011 Citha D Maas • External publications

Afghanistan vor neuem Bürgerkrieg? Entwicklungsoptionen und Einflussfaktoren im Transitionsprozess

Citha D. Maaß und Thomas Ruttig, SWP-Aktuell 2011/A 40, August 2011, 4 p. In July 2011, the transition of security responsibility to the Afghan government has begun. While NATO states accompany this process with calculated optimism, the authors write, four rather negative scenarios are looming: continuation of the rule of a ‚power oligarchy’ in the […]

26 Aug 2011 Citha D Maas • External publications

Death of an Uruzgan Journalist: who killed him? (amended)

When the journalist, Omaid Khpulwak, was killed on 28 July 2011 during a Taleban attack, Uruzgan province lost its most gifted reporters. He was one of dozens of casualties that day, including 18 other civilians, 10 of them children, who were also killed. However, there is evidence that Omaid, who worked for Pahjwok News agency […]

24 Aug 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Advice to Libya on advisors: just say no!

Those watching or listening to the news from Libya can only hope for a speedy and peaceful resolution. At AAN, we were concerned to hear that the Libyan people, having suffered more than four decades of dictatorship and now six months of war, are about to be descended upon by western ‘stabilisation advisors’, as AAN […]

24 Aug 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Bad Lieutenants in Nimruz

Nimruz lies at one of the forgotten edges of Afghanistan, so forgotten that it is possibly the province generating the lowest amount of news per square kilometre. A most brutal and brazen episode of violence involving the police there offers AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini the occasion to report on the province and its main feature – […]

23 Aug 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

A new result for the parliamentary election?

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has finally announced its decision: the removal and replacement of nine parliamentarians (eight men and one woman).* This is far fewer than the 62 ordered by the Special Court (and confirmed by the Supreme Court in no uncertain language last week), but obviously more than the ‘no changes at all’ […]

21 Aug 2011 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

The Great Hindukush Gold Rush (2): Afghanistan is not Chad (yet?)

There is plenty of evidence from all over the world that indicates that mineral wealth can easily turn into a curse – environmentally, socially, politically and even economically. It also can exacerbate conflict, instead of alleviating it. A particular example is the Central African country of Chad*, and it should warn both the Afghan government […]

20 Aug 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Economy, Development, Environment

Flash from the Past: Taleban Independence Day 2001 (now with video) (2)

This is a follow-up to Kate Clark’s blog describing how Afghan Independence Days were celebrated during the Taleban rule. In 2001, the Taleban indeed organised some events in order to give Kabulis, who had not experienced much of this under their rule, a rare day of joy, with a small festival, students’ parades, exhibitions and […]

19 Aug 2011 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

Flash From the Past: Afghanistan Independence Day 2001, 2000

In 2000, the Taleban celebrated Afghan Independence Day with military parades and cultural events. A year later, they were focussing heavily on the military. As AAN senior analyst, Kate Clark, (then the BBC Kabul correspondent), reported at the time, during those 12 months, hardliners in the movement had come even more strongly into the ascendant, […]

18 Aug 2011 Kate Clark • Political Landscape

Conflicts in the East, part II

Coalition’s concerns arising from the increasingly aggressive and assertive behaviour of insurgent groups, or from their very identity and international connections, are not limited to Loya Paktia and the locally dominant Haqqani network. Following Petraeus’s guidelines and moving further East, one arrives in what has sometimes been termed Loy Nangrahar (Nangrahar, Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan – […]

17 Aug 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

The Great Hindukush Gold Rush (1): Another Silver Bullet

When last year the not-so-new news hit the headlines that Afghanistan possesses enormous mineral resources, a lot of eyes started to shine with joy. Some Afghan and foreign officials believe that they finally have found the Holy Grail for post-2014 Afghanistan: a resource from which the country can pay its own security and development costs, […]

16 Aug 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Economy, Development, Environment