Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Kabul

Kabul

Kabul Conference (4): Don’t Mention the War

Martine van Bijlert •

The Kabul Conference has ended, the foreign ministers have left, the roads have reopened for traffic. Most Afghans seem unimpressed. Several of the ‘big speeches’, and probably quite a few of the ‘smaller’ ones, impressed upon the audience that it was actions, not words that would ultimately count. They are of course right and I […]

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A City Tour for V.I.P.’s Attending the Kabul Conference

admin •

New York Times blog, 21 July 2010 Unfortunately, this tour was virtual only. The NYT’s Kabul bureau chief and her Afghan colleagues Sharifullah Sahak and Abdul Waheed Wafa report what Hillary Clinton and Gen. Petraeus COULD have seen if they had been able to leave the well-protected conference venues: people losing some days’ income because […]

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Kabul Conference (2): How to spend three quarters of a billion dollars

Kate Clark •

AAN has seen and studied the – not yet public – Afghan government’s plan to reintegrate Taleban who lay down their arms. We also took a look at an earlier draft (see an earlier blog) and have been following the process since well before the London conference. Now comes the moment, at the Kabul Conference, […]

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Afghan civil society launches Access to Information campaign

AAN Team •

This morning a large number of Afghan civil society organisations and several media organisations used the media attention surrounding the Kabul conference to launch a campaign highlighting the need for access to information and calling for the necessary legislation to be drafted. The demand is an important one. The pervasive ambiguity, the lack of clarity […]

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18 July 2010: Afghan Civil Society Launches Access to Information Campaign

AAN • admin •

This morning a large number of Afghan civil society organisations and several media organisations used the media attention surrounding the Kabul conference to launch a campaign highlighting the need for access to information and calling for the necessary legislation to be drafted. The demand is an important one. The pervasive ambiguity, the lack of clarity […]

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Gulbuddin ante portas – again (Updated)

Thomas Ruttig •

After the Soviet troop had withdrawn in early 1989, leaflets turned up in Kabul signed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar announcing that he would ride into Kabul on the back of a white horse and pray in Pul-e Kheshti mosque. That made many Kabulis shiver. They said that the mujahedin leader was ‘worse than the Russians’ and […]

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Days of the Living Dead

Mathieu Lefevre •

I have just returned home after three weeks in Afghanistan doing research in Kabul and Kandahar on a forthcoming report for AAN on local defence forces. I’m just starting to work on the paper, but perhaps a few quick facts that I came across during my research might be of interest to readers of the […]

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Elvis Ain’t Dead: The story of Marja

Thomas Ruttig •

He has been spotted in Marja (Helmand, Southern Afghanistan). The only problem is: Marja does not exist. Because it is not on Google Earth. And Operation Moshtarak in Helmand is a fake. But let me start from the beginning. Back in Kabul, as usual the unexpected happened: The rumour of the day did not come […]

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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 […]

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Kabul Diary (2): A Ring of Steel Sheets

Thomas Ruttig •

Finally, the long expected rain is falling in Kabul. But what’s good for next year’s crops makes life miserable for people in the cities. And for the first time, there were hours-long complete traffic break-downs in Kabul yesterday and today afternoon. Although President Obama today announced that he plans ‘to finish the job’ in Afghanistan […]

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Militias – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’s Genies (2): A Look Forward

Thomas Ruttig •

The case of Abdul Razeq’s police-unit-cum-militia (see our recent blog ‘Militias 1’) should send a stark warning to those planning envisaging a new version of ‘community-based’ defence forces. It is not clear yet how this exactly will look like but it seems to be sure that it will come. A few titles, names and concepts […]

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Kabul Diary (1): Glimpses of Kabul, Summer 2009

Thomas Ruttig •

Blue sky over the Spinghar mountains through the airplane window. Small green fields along grey Kabul river. The tin roofs of Pul-e Charkhi reflecting the sun. The first traffic jam at Indira Gandhi hospital. A push-cart with eggfruit stuck amongst taxis and UN cars. Bicycle riders head on in the traffic. Landcruisers with tinted window […]

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