Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Sudhansu Verma

Afghanistan to Disband Irregular Police Force Set Up Under NATO

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New York Times, 27 December 2011 ‘President Hamid Karzai has taken steps to disband a little-known, irregular police force financed by the American military with members in at least four northern provinces’, reports the NYT, ‘known as the Critical Infrastructure Police’ in Balkh, Kunduz, Jowzjan and Faryab as well as possibly in Sarepul provinces. And […]

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‘Former Taliban’ in the Afghan peace puzzle

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al-Jazeera, 26 December 2011 A detailed analysis of which role, how differently, the former Taleban residing in Kabul play in the peace process, with some interesting quotes about their relationship with the Taleban movement and Karzai’s mistrust about Zaeef and Mutawakkel for perceived closeness with the US and Britain.

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U.S. deal with Taliban breaks down

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Washington Post, 23 December 2011 Karen DeYoung reports that a ‘tentative accord’ with Taliban negotiators that would have included the transfer of five Afghans from U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay to house arrest in Qatar, where the Taliban planned to open an office, and the Taliban’s public renunciation of international terrorism has broken down. Reasons […]

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Outspoken Afghan Rights Official Ousted

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New York Times, 23 December 2011 ‘Mr. Karzai and his closest aides have forced out AIHRC commissioner Nader Nadery of the Afghan indepedent human rights commission, according to Afghan rights activists and Western officials. The final straw for the Karzai administration appeared to be a report that he has championed, which exhaustively details atrocities committed […]

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Keeping control of bad choices

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AfPak Channel, 20 December 2011 ‘The Pentagon has just quietly released the redacted results of an inquiry into allegations of human rights abuses by U.S.-sponsored armed groups in Afghanistan’, the so-called ALP and others, writes Rachel Reid, co-author of Human Rights Ratch’s report ‘Just Don’t Call it a Militia’, published this past September. And she […]

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Rescuers find 13 on island off East Java

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Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 2011 A report about the latest case of an under-reported story: the often fatal attempts of Afghan and other refugees to reach a life of freedom in Australia, using ramshackle boats departing from Indonesia..

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Licensed Banditry in Helmand: Armed employees of local security firms accused of robbery and worse

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IWPR, 19 December 2011 In Helmand, people interviewed say they were tired of the men working for commercially-run security firms who were making their lives a misery because they ‘seemed to be above the law’. In return, PSC owners accuse local officials of forcing bribes out of them.

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America’s mini-city on the Tigris

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Al Jazeera, 16 December 2011 What leaving looks like: The new billion-dollar US Embassy in Baghdad will house up to 17,000 employees (now 8,000); a $1.5 dollar contract to secure the diplomatic staff in 2012 is awarded to Triple Canopy; and a $1 billion programme to train the Iraqi police (in 2011 just 12% of […]

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13 December: New AAN Report about the Taleban and State Education

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The new AAN report ‘The Battle for Education: The Taleban and State Education’ by authors Antonio Giustozzi and Claudio Franco looks at the Taleban’s changing attitude towards state education. In the last two years, the Taleban have increasingly allowed schools to operate in areas under their control or influence, but this has come at a […]

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Report on ‘more peaceful’ Afghanistan doesn’t tell the whole story

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Globe and Mail, 13 December 2011 NATO media officers in Afghanistan ‘have gotten very excited on Twitter about an article posted Monday on the website of Foreign Policy magazine’, writes Graeme Smith, that ‘pulls together what sounds like a rational case for optimism after a decade of war in Afghanistan, compiling all kinds of data […]

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US Leaving Iraqi Comrades-in-Arms in Limbo

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New York Times, 13 December 2011 What leaving looks like: The Iraqi government wants the US-supported Sunni Awakening militias to disband by 31 December, now that the US is leaving,but it is doubtful that most of them will give up their weapons. An estimated 50-80,000 are still organised in irregular tribally-based units.

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US cuts put British-backed Afghan hydropower project in doubt

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Guardian, 12 December 2011 Jon Boone reports about further possible set-backs for one of the signature infrastructure projects in southern Afghanistan.

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