Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Thomas Ruttig

Unter der Brücke: Drogenelend am Platzspitz von Kabul

AAN •

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 16 April 2016 In his reportage about drug users from Kabul, the NZZ correspondent quotes AAN’s Jelena Bjelica about the supply side and the influence of Afghan returnees from Iran who became addicted there: «Die grosse Verfügbarkeit der Ware ist einer der Hauptgründe für die hohe Zahl Abhängiger», erklärt Jelena Bijelica vom […]

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Eskalation in Afghanistan: Die Taliban schlagen wieder los

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 13 April 2016 Thomas Ruttig’s op-ed (in German) about the Taleban’s announcement of this year#s spring offensive and its possible impact on peace talks in the Berlin-based daily.

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Why Don’t the Candidates Talk About Afghanistan?

AAN •

Huffington Post, 12 April 2016 An almost forgotten issue: The Post looks at what Clinton and Trump say about Afghanistan during the continuing primaries.

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Taliban making a comeback in Afghanistan [Helmand]

Thomas Ruttig •

ORF (Austrian radio), 11 Apil 2016 Interview (in English) with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the situation in Helmand after the US sent new troops to the embattled province (available for another six days).

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Afghanistan’s internal refugee crisis

AAN •

al-Jazeera, 11 April 2016 “Save money [to pay a smuggler]? What money? There’s no money to save. … Our only option is to go across the border into Pakistan only to be caught and brought back to the border.” For the poorest of the poor – Afghan IDPs –, prohibitive costs bar the way for them to […]

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MPs Approve Interior Minister And Attorney General

Thomas Ruttig •

ToloNews, 9 April 2016 In its reporting about the approval by parliament of the new interior minister and attorney general, the news agency used  “additional information from www.afghanistan-analysts.org.”

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Abschiebungen: “Deutschland hat eine politische Verantwortung”

Thomas Ruttig •

Weser-Kurier, 9 April 2016 Full interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (in German) about the issue of “secure zones” in Afghanistan (to which deportations would be possible) and the situation in Afghanistan in the Bremen-based daily.

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Afghan parliament will vote on 9 April about a new interior minister, among others, after the previous one, Nur-ul-Haq Ulumi (here on a 2005 election poster in Kandahar) stepped down. Photo: Thomas Ruttig.

Filling NUG Vacancies: Parliament to vote on Interior Minister and Attorney General

Ehsan Qaane • Salima Ahmadi • Thomas Ruttig •

With two international conferences that will decide about future support levels for Afghanistan at the horizon, and a surprisingly high number of key positions still held by caretakers or politically vulnerable individuals, the NUG has moved to fill two posts that are central to the government’s key undertakings: Interior Minister, which plays an important role […]

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Another mysterious death in Kandahar, and allegations of official torture

AAN •

Los Angeles Times, 7 April 2016 After another disappeared young Afghan was found dead with torture wounds in Kandahar, an occasional journalist and web author, described by some government sources as a Taleban member or sympathiser, criticism has come up again against the Kandahar police chief’s conduct of the fight against the Taleban. In this […]

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On the Trail of the Islamic State in Afghanistan

AAN •

Foreign Policy/South Asia Channel, 5 April 2016 A short quote from an AAN dispatch by Kate Clark and Borhan Osman, referring to reasons why the Afghan IS chapter is particularly strong in eastern Afghanistan: (…) the Afghan Analysts Network stated in a report that the insurgency is much more fractured in eastern than southern Afghanistan, making the […]

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پیشرفت در گفت و گوهای صلح میان حکمتیار و دولت افغانستان [Progress in peace talks between Hezb-e Islami and Afghan government]

AAN •

BBC (Persian service), 5 April 2016 Interview (in Dari) with Amin Karim, leader of a Hezb-e Islami negotiations delegation in Kabul, that is about to start a third round of talks with the Afghan government (apparently through the High Peace Council). He says that his party has opted for talks “after 95 per cent of […]

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Thousands of Afghan migrants have hit a dead end in Turkey

AAN •

The Economist, 5 April 2016 The weekly reports from the eastern Turkish town of Van where Afghan migrants, after crossing the border from Iran, having been “beaten and extorted by smugglers and middlemen,” but were at least “expecting refuge. Instead they found a long queue to nowhere.” Of the 98,000 Afghan asylum-seekers registered in Turkey by […]

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