Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Reports

Reports – previously known as dispatches – are the flagship of the AAN website and our main type of publication. AAN reports are based on extensive desk and field research and provide timely and in-depth information and analysis.

Germans at the Front

Thomas Ruttig

“It couldn’t have come worse. It is mid-August 2009. American pilots bomb an Afghan village, many women and children die. The target for the attack was provided by the Germans.” [The German parliament is currently in the decision-making process about sending AWACS surveillance planes to Afghanistan.] “Two days later, three German Bundeswehr soldiers publicly brag […]

International Engagement Read more

Theatre about conflict – and how we all have to relate to it

Sari Kouvo

Mid-June, I had the opportunity see the revival performance of a play entitled ‘AH 7808’ that toured most Afghan regional capitals in 2008. The play is an adaptation of an Irish script addressing conflict and each individual’s responsibility to overcome it. Through the play, the audience gets to take part in one man’s struggle to […]

International Engagement Read more

A few thoughts on the UN Human Rights Council and its review of the Afghan government’s periodic report

Sari Kouvo

On 7 May 2009, the Afghan government presented its first report to the UN Human Rights Council. If I am rightly informed, the Afghan government received around one hundred recommendations that should be discussed, refused or adopted. If adopted, the Afghan government should by the time of the next review show if and how it […]

International Engagement Read more

Teeth, flowers and another tale of violence

Martine van Bijlert

Every day in Afghanistan is full of stories. Most of them with a fair share of bad luck and wry humour and usually quite a bit of violence. This story is about – let’s call him Hamidullah. Hamidullah comes from a place not far from Kabul. It is commander country. In the past he fought under […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Modest beginnings

Martine van Bijlert

April 2009. After having worked out of the EUSR office in Kabul for almost five years I am suddenly institutionally homeless. I borrow a spare office in an NGO compound, so that I can at least offer people a quiet place and a cup of tea. The walls are bare, the couch sags and the […]

Context and Culture Read more