Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Thomas Ruttig

Hollow Excuses

Thomas Ruttig •

We apologize. It was a mistake. We regret the loss of innocent life.’ How often have I heard these sentences after operations of NATO troops had caused – what a horrible trivialisation – ‘collateral damage’. How often have I heard these sentences after operations of NATO troops had caused – what a horrible trivialisation – […]

War and Peace Read more

An election observer speaks out

Thomas Ruttig •

‘Really widespread fraud‘ has happened during the Afghan presidential election, says Gunter Mulack, a former German diplomat and director of the German Orient Institute in Hamburg; until a few days ago he was the chief political analyst of the EU election observer mission… … led by MEP Phillipe Morillon, a former French general. Mulack added […]

Political Landscape Read more

Another Day without an Orange Revolution

Thomas Ruttig •

Quite some people here in Kabul – maybe internationals more than Afghans – had been looking forward to the day that just passed with mixes feelings. It was 9/9 – and eight years ago Ahmad Shah Massud, the leader of the Northern Alliance mujahedin was killed … … during a fake interview in Khwaja Bahauddin […]

Context and Culture Read more

Flash from the Past: Elections under Fire (12 Sept 2008)

Thomas Ruttig •

All sides involved – the Kabul government, its Western allies, donors and the United Nations – pretend that almost everything’s in order at the Hindukush, apart from small hick-ups. The reality, however, looks different. In the coming year, Afghans are supposed to elect a president for the second times since the fall of the Taleban […]

Political Landscape Read more

UNODC Sees Afghan Drug Cartels Emerging – With One Eye Closed

Thomas Ruttig •

U.N. Sees Afghan Drug Cartels Emerging’, reads a headline in the 2 September issue of the New York Times. Now the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) got it. Or did it? The headline reminds of a 2008 World Bank paper (William A. Byrd, Responding to Afghanistan’s Opium Economy Challenge, The World Bank, South Asia […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

AAN Election Blog No. 29: ‘A fraud would go unnoticed’

Thomas Ruttig •

Imagine it is election-day and someone else casts your vote. It is possible because in many polling stations no one will ask for your ID card. Malalai Nassir (not her real name) was flabbergasted. When she went to the ballot box on election-day, the electoral staff did not check her ID card. No, that’s not […]

Political Landscape Read more

AAN Election Blog No. 28: Two Paktias?

Thomas Ruttig •

A member of the US PRT in Paktia also experienced that amazingly brilliant blue sky over Paktia. But the elections she saw were quite different from what I have experienced there. When I went to the polling site in Tandar village in Paktia, some 22 kilometres away from the provincial capital Gardez, on election-day on […]

Political Landscape Read more

Präsident Karzai vor zweiter Amtszeit? Sicherheitsprobleme und Legitimitätsdefizite bei den Präsidentschaftswahlen in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Thomas Ruttig. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik: Berlin, SWP-Aktuell 2009/A, August 2009 (President Karzai before a second term? Security problems and legitimacy deficits of Afghanistan‘s presidential elections – in German) Incumbent Hamed Karzai aims at a second term of office in Afghanistan‘s presidential elections on 20 August. A lack of alternatives, his astute positioning and use […]

External publications Read more

Epistemology of Reconciliation

Thomas Ruttig •

Read a report by Aunohita Mojumdar about the AIAS/USIP 26 August 2009 Kabul launch of Michael Semple’s book ‘Reconciliation in Afghanistan’ with Nader Nadery from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and Thomas Ruttig from AAN on the podium under ‘past events’. For the full report click here.

Recommended Reads Read more

AAN Election Blog No. 25: Balm for Election Sores

Thomas Ruttig •

The partial results presented by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) in a well-attended press conference today in Kabul are mainly meant to calm down the tense atmosphere of accusations and counter-accusations that has developed since E-Day by applying a dose of transparency. It does not say much about what the outcome of the elections will […]

Political Landscape Read more

AAN Election Blog No. 24: Stuffing and Counting in Paktia

Thomas Ruttig •

A few days after the election, Paktia is in counting mode. Results from the districts trickle in and are collected and reconcilied by the different candidates’ campaigns. Also reports about a lot of irregularities are coming in, despite the low coverage of independent election observers. On the first two days after the election, Afghans in […]

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A clarification

Thomas Ruttig •

Some German-language media have quoted me over the past days as saying that the turn-out during the Afghan presidential elections was ‘low except in the urban centres’. This seems to indicate that I spoke about all of Afghanistan. In fact, I said that this assessment only referred to South-Eastern Afghanistan, with the four provinces of […]

Political Landscape Read more

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