Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Martine van Bijlert

Strangers kicking in your door

Martine van Bijlert •

“Hello, I am calling from Kandahar. I got your number from a friend. One of my employees, a driver, was arrested a month ago. ISAF forces came to my house at night and took three people away. They also almost took me. They are still holding the driver, the ICRC says he is in Bagram. […]

War and Peace Read more

Voices from Zabul

Martine van Bijlert •

Just got back from a short visit to Zabul, the largely forgotten province that is surrounded by Kandahar, Uruzgan, Ghazni, Paktia and Pakistani Baluchistan. I was curious how things had developed since my last visit three years ago. The governor had been changed – and so had the Taliban governor – some provincial department heads […]

Political Landscape Read more

Dreaming of a pliable parliament and a ruling family

Martine van Bijlert •

President Karzai has changed the electoral law, driven by anger over an in his eyes over-interfering ECC, the desire to have a pliable parliament and a sense that it his right as a president to be in charge. The substantive changes in the electoral law have, as a result, focused on roughly four areas: gaining […]

Political Landscape Read more

Wondering where all of this is going

Martine van Bijlert •

Back in Kabul, I am struck by the sense underlying most conversations that things are happening above people’s heads, out of their reach and largely unseen. The London conference seems to have confused more than it has clarified and the questions that are always latently present are becoming more pronounced: What are the foreigners doing? […]

International Engagement Read more

Rules and Empty Promises

Martine van Bijlert •

I have finally arrived in Kabul, after spending several days travelling half the world to get a visa for Afghanistan. My quest started in Dubai, where in the past it had been relatively easy to get multiple entry, multiple months. I had heard about a new system that involved getting a “Mofa number” (i.e. a […]

Context and Culture Read more

London Conference (2): Peace, Reconciliation and Reintegration

Martine van Bijlert •

The London Conference and the media chatter around it has put the subject of reintegration and negotiations with the Taliban firmly on the agenda. Although both issues had been repeatedly raised by Afghan government and international officials over the last few years, the media and wider public still seemed to be taken by surprise. A […]

International Engagement Read more

London Conference (1): Calling for Afghan ownership and Afghan leadership

Martine van Bijlert •

The London conference has come and gone. World leaders gathered to try to create a sense of momentum and partnership and to persuade sceptical audiences that there is a plan and an end in sight. There were several messages, but the one that was drowned out in the media coverage surrounding on what to do […]

International Engagement Read more

The Cabinet vote: Fourteen in, eleven to go

Martine van Bijlert •

The Parliament has voted for the second time. Seven out of seventeen ministers were approved this time. We have a Cabinet of fourteen now, still eleven to go (we’re still waiting to see who is going to be introduced as Minister of Energy and Water). And though the dust has not settled yet, a few […]

Political Landscape Read more

So where are we with the 2010 elections?

Martine van Bijlert •

Despite what logic and reason tell us, all indications are still that the IEC is getting ready for a parliamentary election in May 2010. The date was announced on 2 January, the electoral calendar was presented on 7 January and the government’s intention to press ahead was confirmed in a 12 January press release from […]

Political Landscape Read more

Hope has returned to Afghanistan, or so they say.

Martine van Bijlert •

There is something strange about opinion polls in Afghanistan. They always seem to have been done in a parallel universe, where things are less bleak and people are more confident that all will be well. Ever since the first poll results were published in 2004 there has been this glaring gap between the relatively upbeat […]

Political Landscape Read more

Parliament votes off most of Karzai’s Cabinet

Martine van Bijlert •

After over two weeks of listening to presentations by the candidate ministers and being subjected to lobbying and negotiations, the Lower House of Parliament finally voted. And only seven out of twenty-four ministers were passed. It can be no coincidence that six of them were sitting ministers about which the internationals had made it quite […]

Political Landscape Read more

Afghanistan´s Second Presidential Vote; How to Deal with a Flawed Election

Martine van Bijlert •

Martine van Bijlert, In: Afghanistan 1979-2009: In the Grip of Conflict (e-book), Middle East Institute, Washington, December 2009. The chapter Afghanistan´s Second Presidential Vote; How to Deal with a Flawed Election can be found on the MEI website. Full text of the chapter is also available here on the AAN website.

External publications Read more

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