Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Sudhansu Verma

In Kabul’s ‘Car Guantánamo,’ Autos Languish and Trust Dies

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New York Times, 17 February 2013 Just a brilliant reportage: ‘Residents here call it Car Guantánamo. Behind these walls are thousands of cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles and even bicycles, lined up in vehicular purgatory after falling afoul of the Kabul traffic police. Things that have landed cars in the slammer: illegal left turns, parking violations, […]

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Afghan refugees leave Iran for Turkey

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The National (UAE), 17 February 2013 More Afghan refugees – most not directly from the country but from Iran – are arriving in Turkey, after Iranian authorities did not extend papers, in some cases to people who lived there for decades. Reportage about a group of Afghan refugees living in a basement of an Istanbul […]

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Kabul räumt erstmals Folter ein

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Tageszeitung (Berlin), 11 February 2013. After the Karzai government’s enquiry confirmed an UN report about torture in Afghan jails, AAN’s Kate Clark comments: ‘I am glad that the UN report was confirmed. The problem is simply to big for a denial. Now it is important to draw the consequences.’.

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Giles Duley: ‘I lost three limbs in Afghanistan, but had to go back … ‘

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The Observer, 10 February 2013 The story of a British war photographer, his way back to life and his engagement for Afghans maimed like himself.

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Analysis – Afghan government promises rethink on IDPs

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IRIN, 8 February 2013 Another often overlooked – and growing – problem: internal displacement, with now more than 460,000 IDPs.

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Welcome to Kabul: Here are some brass knuckles

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Global Post, 6 February 2013 A bit over-dramatised headline, but good report about a part of Kabul that is ‘slipping into lawlessness’, highlighting not a new, bit largely overlooked problem and concentrates on a multi-layered neighbourhood, the Company area..

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So, this is the office that will investigate Afghanistan’s Kam Air?

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Christian Science Monitor
, 6 February 2013 Following his article a day earlier, CSM’s Dan Murphy asks ‘key questions about the credibility of the Afghan attorney general’s office as it prepares to investigate accusations that Kam Air is involved in drug-smuggling’.

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Taliban Peace Talks Flounder as Troops Draw Down

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AP, 3 February 2013 Kathy Gannon’s analysis of where things stand: mistrust and ‘fragile egos’ among the key players US, Afghanistan and Pakistan, competing backdoor channels (Taleban members ‘in contact with representatives from 30 to 40 different countries’) and the latest addition to the list of preconditions: President Karzai wants the Taleban ‘to publicly announce […]

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Afghans Gird to Go It Alone As U.S. Shuts Down Bases

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Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2013 Excellent report about the ups and downs for Afghan forces in Khaneshin district (Helmand) when Marines will withdraw in a month. With a worrying statement of the Marine commander: Afghan troops don’t have to be perfect; ‘we just want them to be a little bit better than the Taliban’.

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‘Talibanistan’, new book with AAN contributors, gets excellent review

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‘Talibanistan: Negotiating the borders between terror, politics, and religion’, edited by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, brings together a number of (updated) policy papers written for the New America Foundation’s (NAF) ‘The Battle for Afghanistan’ and ‘The Battle for Pakistan’ since 2010. The NAF calls the authors ‘an unparalleled group of experts offer a nuanced […]

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30-31 January 2013, Barcelona: AAN speakers at Conference on Afghanistan Legacy

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The international intervention in Afghanistan started in October 2001. The aim was not only to bring down the Taleban regime, but to capture Osama Ben Laden, the leader of al-Qaida, and to save women from the fundamentalists. During more than a decade of international presence, billions of dollars have been invested in Afghanistan and nearly […]

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