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How to Read the Presidential Ruling

On Wednesday morning, 10 August 2011, the Palace issued presidential ruling no. 3607 “Regarding the settlement of the 1389 electoral dispute”. It is a remarkably complicated and opaque legal text, which has led to a wide variety of conflicting interpretations. The confusing language and the silence on the side of the palace on what it […]

Martine van Bijlert Political Landscape

Conflict going East, conflict going on

The US-led Coalition has declared that its troops’ new strategic focus will be on eastern Afghanistan, after its claims of gains made in southern Afghanistan last year. Although the bad security situation in the East is not new, the recent emphasis on it may be mainly linked to the increased interest (and concern) of the […]

Fabrizio Foschini War and Peace

Ten Killed in Badakhshan: One year on

A year ago today, in one of the worst attacks on humanitarian workers of the war, ten medical workers and their support staff were murdered in Badakhshan. They had just trekked across 5000m passes to one of the remotest areas of the country: the Parun valley of Nuristan to give out free eye care, dental […]

Kate Clark War and Peace

Guest blog: Being a journalist in Uruzgan

Martin Gerner, a freelance correspondent in Afghanistan for German radio and national print media, has been training and mentoring Afghan journalists since 2004. One such training course took place only few weeks ago with a group of journalists from Tirinkot. The then BBC/Pajhwok stringer, Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak, had actively helped to bring the training group […]

Martin Gerner War and Peace

Killings keep leaders at home

The goal of the attack on Tirinkot on 31 July, said the Taleban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, was ‘to make the government collapse.’ Those actually killed by the Taleban were not ‘the government’ but mainly civilians, including three women and the BBC/Pajhwok journalist, Ahmed Omaid Khpalwak. But the attack could easily have resulted in the […]

Kate Clark War and Peace

Talibanrörelsens uppkomst och drivkrafter: en bakgrund inför Bonn II-konferensen om Afghanistan i december 2011

Ann Wilkens, FOI (Stockholm), background paper FOI-R–3243–SE, August 2011 (in Swedish) From the summary: The aim to this study is to give an in depth description of those destructive forces, inside and outside of Afghanistan, that oppose the international intervention and contend its goals. Over the last few years, the Afghan Taliban have expanded their […]

Ann Wilkens External publications

Death of an Uruzgan Journalist

Last Thursday, 28 July, the capital of the southern province of Uruzgan saw the most devastating Taleban attack so far this year. Although it did not achieve its declared aim, to kill local strongmen Matiullah, and the far less influential governor Omar Sherzad and his deputy Khodai Rahim, a lot of civilians were killed. Susanne […]

Susanne Schmeidl War and Peace

Malalai’s wayward sisters

Being a woman criminal in Afghanistan may not lead to wide public recognition as it does in neighbouring India, but Afghan ladies actually have a very respectable tradition of being ‘bandit queens’. In the event of a newly reported instance of this type, AAN’s archival team looks at a couple of memorable past characters. A […]

AAN Context and Culture

Reading newspapers on an airplane (2)

After another longer stay in Kabul, reading newspapers on an airplane brings one back into the news mainstream – because, while in Afghanistan, you simply are overwhelmed by events there and develop some kind of tunnel vision. This time, it was particularly dreadful: with the series of political assassinations, both in northern and southern Afghanistan, […]

Thomas Ruttig War and Peace