1 – An anthology of articles about the Afghan conflict (in German):
Afghan trade union May Day demonstrators demand jobs. Photo: Pajhwok.
„The Great Unrest: Afghanistan and its neighbours” is the title of an anthology of articles (all in German) that has been published today by Edition Le Monde diplomatique in cooperation with Berlin daily Tageszeitung (taz).
It includes articles that have been published in both newspapers over the past 14 years as well as some new ones. It covers a wide range of issues: peace and Taleban; Afghanistan’s mineral wealth; the drug economy, the situation of women and in the health sector; human rights violations by the various sides; the role of madrassas; Afghan refugees; the influence of Pakistan, India and China, the Kabul Bank scandal; the so-called “Pashtun issue.” It also covers Pakistan’s internal conflicts.
Among the authors is a number of well-known ones: William Dalrymple, Ahmed Rashid, Michael Semple, Owen Bennett-Jones, Jamie Doran and Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad who was killed in his country in 2011, most likely by the intelligence agency. There are also some Afghan and Iranian authors (resp. with Afghan or Iranian background) including Saghar Chopan-Daud, Lisa Akbary and Marmar Kabir.
AAN’s Thomas Ruttig – a frequent guest author for taz – contributes two articles: “Inaccessable Riches” (about Afghanistan’s mineral resources and attempts to extract them; published in Le Monde diplomatique in October 2014 (see here, with English summary) and a balance of 13 years of the NATO/ISAF “Militarisation of Aid”. The latter article is based, among others, on two AAN dispatches, an analysis of the first six months of the Afghan national unity government (here) and the 2013 year-ender (updated, of course, here).
The anthology is completed by articles dealing with attempts to bind in the Taleban into a peaceful settlement, while still in power in the 1990s, by an oil and gas pipeline projects, a look back at the PDPA regime, a chronology of events and twelve short portraits: the independence war hero Malalai, King Amanullah, Ahmad Schah Massud; the new President Ashraf Ghani, hic deputy Abdul Raschid Dostum, his CEO Dr Abdullah and his predecessor Hamed Karzai; his adversaries, Taleban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; Sima Samar, Malalai Joya and late King Zaher Shah.
The anthology was compiled by taz’ asia editor Sven Hansen who also has written for AAN (see here).
Die große Unruhe – Afghanistan und seine Nachbarn, brochure, 112 p., taz-Verlag, Berlin 2015, 8,50 Euro.
ISBN: 978-3-937683-49-2
Order via: taz shop oder Tel. 0049-(0)30-25902138
2 – An anthology about Afghan civil society (in Norwegian):
Liv Kjølseth and Terje Skaufjord, from the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC), one of the oldest international NGOs working in Afghanistan, have edited this anthology. Authors include Elizabeth Winter from BAAG, Afghan journalists Najiba Ayubi, Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar and Abdul Samay Hamed, Open Society’s Afghanistan country director Shaharzad Akbar, Torunn Wimpelmann from the Norwegian think tank CMI, the Afghan poet Gulabuddin Sukhanwar as well as NAC’s Terje Skaufjord, Heidi Sofie Kvanvig and Merete Taksdal.
AAN’s Thomas Ruttig has contributed an article about Afghanistan’s trade union movement, based on an earlier AAN dispatch (here).
Copies via: [email protected] or phone: +78770653737.
See a PDF version here.
Revisions:
This article was last updated on 9 Mar 2020
Tags:
Civil Society
conflict
natural resources
Pakistan
trade unions
