Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Sudhansu Verma

Afghan Taxes Squeezing Poorest

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IWPR, 6 June 2011 ‘As the Afghan government prides itself on boosting budget revenues, it has been accused of using methods that hurt people on modest incomes while letting large businesses off some or all their taxes’ writes Khan Mohammad Daneshju of the Kabul-based IWPR, another contribution of the institute to the under-reported socio-economic situation […]

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Karzai’s civilian casualties ultimatum

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The AfPakChannel, 2 June 2011 Erica Gaston, a human rights lawyer for the Open Society Foundations,specializing in civilian casualty issues, writes that ‘Karzai’s fundamental demands – a halt to unilateral strikes, particularly inthe form of night raids and airstrikes – are largely non-negotiable issues for the U.S. […] With little wiggle room on this fundamental […]

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Certainly Not the First, Unlikely To Be The Last

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1 June 2011 Daud Khattak’s obituary for his abducted, tortured and killed colleague Syed Saleem Shahzad who is only the last in a growing number of Pakistani journalists murdered, apparently for writing things they are not supposed to write.

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Kabul gold rush: western billions bear fruit in luxury property boom for Afghan capital

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Daily Telegraph, 30 May 2011 ‘In Kabul, a series of luxury apartment blocks and even a skyscraper are planned for those who have made fortunes in the gold rush bought by Nato forces’, writes Ben Farmer and reports Alikozay and Azizi Bank’s forages into the building boom.

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Afghan army salary theft shows fraud widespread

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AP, 28 May 2011 Article describes one of the very few cases of prosecuted corruption in the ANA: a relatively minor salary theft (USD 22,000) that however “occurred in one of the army’s elite commando units — using a system put in place precisely to prevent such fraud.”

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23 May 2011 NAF Report by Thomas Ruttig: Negotiating with the Taleban

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The New America Foundation releases a much-delayed report by Thomas Ruttig: “Negotiations with the Taliban: History and Prospects for the Future”. The paper provides context and clarifies the language of the current debate; it weighs the various reported contacts between insurgents and the Afghan government; it describes the motivations of the main actors, discusses the […]

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How One Op-ed Explains American Ignorance About Afghanistan

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UN Disptach, 22 May 2011 The author, Ahmad Shuja, takes issue with an op-ed written by a former US NSC member – but it can be addressed to many more people working in and on Afghanistan but who have failed to look beyond ‘the wire’ sufficiently to understand that the conflict between modernism and conservatism […]

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Chechens, Cubans and other Mythical Beasts of Afghanistan

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Ghosts of Alexander (blog), 19 May 2011 A very good blog by Christian Bleuer (from ANU) about an issue we wanted to write since a long time: The famous Chechens that are so often reported in AfPak but never seen. ‘Up to that point there had not been a verified Chechen in the country post […]

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Afghanistan: Local Reconstruction Effort Goes Awry

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IWPR, 17 May 2011 An Afghan reporter tells the story how CDCs in Kapisa province – one of the often unquestioned ‘success stories’ of Afghanistan – are being controleld by ex-commanders and how these embezzle money by allocating projects to themselves. Not an argument against CDCs in general, but one for looking at them carefully, […]

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U.S. speeds up direct talks with Taliban

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Washington Post, 17 May 2011 According to this report, the US government is holding ‘direct talks with the Taliban, initiated several months ago, that U.S. officials say they hope will enable President Obama to report progress toward a settlement of the Afghanistan war when he announces troop withdrawals in July’. The article refers to an […]

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18 May 2011: Cul-de-sac Afghanistan? Panel discussion in Frankfurt

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While the European public is mainly concerned about the growing number of killed ISAF soldiers in Afghanistan and the debate is dominated by the troop withdrawal question – what about the people who ISAF was supposed to protect and defend? What would it mean if security responsibility is transferred to a government that is notorious […]

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Kandahar Prison Escape: the Taliban’s Tale

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Alex’ Blog, 15 May 2011 Alex Strcik van Linschoten publishes the translation of two articles from the Taleban magazine al-Somood describing their version of the Big Kandahar prison break.

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