Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Taleban

Taleban

24 June 2010: New report – The Northern Front: The Afghan Insurgency Spreading beyond the Pashtuns

AAN • admin •

One of the key developments in Afghanistan during the last year is the expansion of insurgent activity in the northern region. The latest AAN briefing paper analyses this expansion and points to the crucial fact that the Taleban are expanding their constituency into non-Pashtun areas. The paper is authored by Antonio Giustozzi, prominent scholar of […]

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U.S. Hopes Afghan Councils Will Weaken Taliban

admin •

New York Times, 19 June 2010. The US and the UK supporting an effort to establish local councils in 100 districts. The revival of ASOP after all.

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A New Taleban Front?

Thomas Ruttig •

The Taleban successfully have infiltrated Northern and Northeastern Afghanistan and destabilised certain areas, mainly in Kunduz province. Now, there are signs that they might attempt to push forward into mainly Hazara-settled areas the central region. The main road into Jaghori, an important Hazara area, has been blocked raising fears of a new economic blockade or […]

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Taleban Attacks Inflame Anti-Western Feeling

admin •

IWPR, 17 June 2010 Afghan analysts and MPs seem to agree that not only the Taleban but also ISAF forces use Afghan civilians as ‘human shields’. Says one analyst: “If the foreigners want to reduce this hatred, they should […] leave the cities, and stop moving through crowded civilian areas.”

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Reviewing prisoners after the peace jirga

Kate Clark •

AAN has learned that a new committee to review security prisoners – as called for by the peace jirga and decreed by the president on 5 June – has been set up and has held its first meetings. Member and spokesperson for the committee, Professor Nasrullah Stanekzai, told AAN the committee was currently getting lists […]

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Freeing the Prisoners Blog 2: Protecting the Innocent?

Kate Clark •

An unknown number of Afghans are being held in custody suspected of being Taleban or convicted of insurgency-related crimes. Complaints about wrongful arrest, detention without trial, torture and a justice system where influence and money count for more than guilt or innocence are rife – and, of course, not limited to security prisoners. President Karzai’s […]

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Freeing the Prisoners Blog 1: Letting the Guilty Go Free?

Kate Clark •

When the Afghan intelligence boss, Amrullah Saleh, said he could not, in all conscience, carry on in his post if it entailed “negotiating with suicide bombers” he became the first person to take a principled, stand against the way Afghan policy on the Taleban is developing. Saleh is particularly opposed to freeing Taleban prisoners. Yet […]

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PEACE JIRGA BLOG 8: The Afghan jungle’s big beasts and ‘lively debate’

Kate Clark •

The peace jirga has left the older generation of factional leaders nicely split: a few (Sayyaf, Rabbani, Mujadddidi) have been honoured by the president and treated like long-lost brothers by the world’s diplomats; others (Dostum, Mohaqiq, Abdullah) are sitting, Achilles-like, sulking in their tents; while just a couple from the 80s generation of mujahideen stalwarts […]

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PEACE JIRGA (GUEST) BLOG 7: The first day of the peace jirga

Wazhma Frogh •

Chevening Scholar (International Development Law and Human Rights) and civil society activist, Wazhma Frogh, reports on the first day of the Afghanistan Peace Jirga. As expected, hundreds of turbaned and bearded men who have made very critical contributions to the current plight and misery of Afghanistan, arrived in the grand assembly tent of Kabul, a […]

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PEACE JIRGA BLOG 6: An attack on the jirga, an end to peace?

Martine van Bijlert •

It was in the middle of a live radio interview, as we were discussing the basics of the peace jirga that had just kicked off, that the interviewer cut in: “It seems the jirga has been attacked. There was an explosion or shooting. Karzai has been taken away, maybe to hospital. It was probably the […]

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PEACE JIRGA BLOG 5: The Big Karzai Show

Thomas Ruttig •

A first commentary on the beginning National Consultative Peace Jirga in Kabul by Thomas Ruttig The Peace Jirga that began today in Kabul, will fail its declared main aim: to establish a real national consensus on talks with the Taleban. In order to be able to, too many relevant political forces are absent – and […]

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PEACE JIRGA BLOG 4: Who’s come to town… and who’s staying away

Kate Clark •

The peace jirga has begun today without President Karzai’s main rival in last year’s presidential elections, Dr Abdullah, who has announced that he and his supporters are not attending. Abdullah’s party comrade, head of Jamiat-e Islami and former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, however, looks set to chair the jirga – a move which is seen as […]

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