Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Sudhansu Verma

How German Diplomats Opened Channel to Taliban

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Spiegel, 10 January 2012 The German magazine – in an article co-authored by Christoph Reuter who also has written for AAN – discloses further details on how Germany opened the channel to the Taleban’s Tayyeb Agha: that the original contact was provided by ‘an Afghan exile living in Europe’ to the German intelligence that took […]

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Karzai and the Taliban in a Tizzy Over News of Secret Peace Talks

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The Daily Beast, 10 January 2012 Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau contribute another of their usually very enlightening reports, after talking to a ‘former Taleban diplomat’ (guess who) in Kabul and an active Taleban commander who provides some interesting thoughts and info: that the Taleban negotiators ‘care about only one issue: winning the release of […]

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Electricity only reaches one in three Afghans

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Reuters, 9 January 2012 Only one in three Afghans has access to electricity despite years of spending to improve supply, the head of the country’s state owned power utility DABS says. Kabul is far better than the rest of the country, with around 70 percent of households connected.

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Afghanistan’s poor face difficult decisions amid winter cold

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Los Angeles Times, 9 January 2012 A combination of factors is making this winter harder to bear as the number of displaced soars in Kabul.

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Can Afghan Forces Manage Alone in Helmand?

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IWPR, 4 January 2012 The Kabul-based agency reports people’s perceptions of the security handover in three districts in Helmand. One resident quotes says that the handover was ‘a good thing but had come too soon for Helmand, where the Taleban were fully in control of some areas while the government only held major urban centres […]

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Afghan Taliban announce deal to open political office in Qatar as key step toward peace talks

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AP, 3 January 2012 The Taliban have confirmed officially on Tuesday that they will open an office in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar to hold talks with the United States, an unprecedented step toward a peace process that might lead to a winding down of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

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Rising Opium Production in Helmand

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IWPR, 3 January 2012 Farmers in Afghanistan’s Helmand province say they are determined to grow as much opium poppy as they can this season. Some blame official efforts to encourage them to switch to other crops, which they say have failed to lift them out of poverty. Others say the Taleban intimidate them into colluding […]

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20 January 2012: Two new non-AAN papers by Thomas Ruttig

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Two new papers by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig have been published, one contributed to a conference organised by the Aspen Institute and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Berlin this January and a contribution for the journal of the National Defence Institute of Portugal. Thomas Ruttig, ‘Afghanistan between Democratization and Civil War: Post-2014 Scenarios’, in: Charles King Mallory IV/Joachim Krause […]

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A Year-Ender: The Dummies’ Guide to the Geneva Conventions

Susanne Schmeidl •

While the Taleban have been stepping up their assassination campaign in the past year, another worrying development occurred: There were several cases of international forces, Special Forces in particular, entering NGO-run clinics on pursuit of alleged insurgents, bullying medical staff for treating insurgents or using clinics temporarily as bases. This clearly violates the Geneva Conventions. […]

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AAN wishes everyone a safe, happy and peaceful 2012.

AAN • admin •

With prayers and wishes for steps towards in peace in Afghanistan and happiness for all our readers and friends. May the coming year be better than the last.

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At U.S. Base, Afghan Endgame Begins

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Wall Street Journal, 29 December 2011 Article not only describes how Obama’s decision to withdraw troops puts the brakes on $300 million in projects for FOB Shahrana (Paktika), but also illustrates the contradicitons in US policy; ‘hearts and minds counterinsurgency’, kill/capture, moving the surge to the east, and now ‘rationalising’ and handing over

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UN: Afghan Refugee Strategy a ‘Big Mistake’

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AFP, 28 December 2011 Peter Nicolaus, head of the UN refugee programme in Afghanistan on Tuesday described its strategy in the war-wracked country since 2002 as the ‘biggest mistake UNHCR ever made’. He said the international community had failed to help returnees find a means of earning a living and therefore reintegrating into society and […]

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