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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

Afghanistan’s Parliament or How to Hold on to Your Seat

Parliament has decided to postpone its regular recess. It was supposed to start today, but the Parliamentarians just don’t want to go yet. They spent most of their last session discussing how they hadn’t properly started their work and how they wouldn’t be able to face their constituents if they went home. And that they […]

6 Jun 2011 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

Towards a More United Voice of Afghan Civil Society: Step Two

During the last week of May a delegation of Afghan civil society activists visited Italy in a follow-up to the Kabul conference of two months ago, by the title ‘Promoting Dialogue and Peace in Afghanistan: Strengthening Afghan Civil Society’. AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini followed to Rome the members of the steering committee composed of several Afghan […]

5 Jun 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • International Engagement

AAN Reads: The Soviets in Afghanistan, In Their Narrative

Rodric Braithwaite’s ‘Afgantsy’ has already deservedly been widely praised for its Soviet and Russian sources-based account of the Soviet intervention years in Afghanistan. AAN’s Senior Analyst Thomas Ruttig joins in, but finds that Artemy Kalinovsky’s ‘The Long Goodbye’ is a more than worthy addition on this issue. Rodric Braithwaite’s book has already deservedly been reviewed […]

3 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

The Enteqal Seven (4): Herat, the Seeds of Fear

Herat was a logical choice for the transition: rich, cultivated, well-connected, Herat makes the kind of city that can stand on its own feet without much effort. But of course, transition comes with a price. As it seems more and more apparent, the insurgents are keen on targeting these new would-be symbols of success for […]

2 Jun 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • International Engagement

Kill or Capture 3: When the International Military Says ‘Sorry’

President Karzai has said he will no longer allow NATO airstrikes on houses because they are causing too many civilian casualties. The president’s ultimatum follows the pictures shown on Afghan TV on 29 May of distraught villagers in Helmand carrying the bruised and dusty corpses of their small children who had been killed in an […]

31 May 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace

The Killing Continues – the Taloqan attack (Updated)

The impact of yesterday’s suicide attack in Takhar, which killed the police commander of the northern zone General Daud and six others, is wide ranging. The international security forces and those counting on a smooth transition have lost an important partner. The Jamiat-based networks have lost a battlefield commander. The (northern) youth have lost a […]

29 May 2011 Martine van Bijlert • War and Peace

The Enteqal Seven (3): Lashkargah – Southern Poster Child for Transition

The choice of Lashkargah as one of the first areas to be transferred into Afghan security responsibility was a surprise but can be explained: It is to give credence to the fulsome ISAF reports and certain sections of the media that peace, hope, and stability are just around the corner in this troubled corner of […]

27 May 2011 Jen Mackenzie • War and Peace

Afghanistan’s not-so-hermetic rural-urban divide

Rural vs urban areas, traditionalists vs modernists, Kabul vs the mountains – these are only a few of many simplifications that are used to explain Afghanistan. Such simplifications are repeated so often that they affect political decision making, to the detriment of those Afghans who support reform, argues AAN Senior Analyst Thomas Ruttig. He advocates […]

26 May 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

Walking the Kabul Wall, Looking into History

From the roof of one of the newest buildings in Kabul, the AAN office, you can see the oldest surviving, above-ground structure in the Afghan capital, the Kabul Wall. It snakes along the Sher Darwaza mountain, now green after the spring rains. AAN Senior Analyst, Kate Clark tells some stories from the Wall: of spring […]

25 May 2011 Kate Clark • Context and Culture

Kill or Capture 2: Another Takhar Night Raid Fans Ethnic Discontent

The repercussions of a night raid by US Special Forces and Afghan police, which left two men, a woman and a girl dead in Takhar a week ago (whether they were civilians or insurgents, depends on whose version of events you believe) are still being played out. The provincial council has gone on strike in […]

25 May 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace