AFGHANISTAN

CMYK
B4
AFGHANISTAN
THURSDAY
MARCH 5, 2015
BRIEF
Talks underway with
Chinese officials on
Wakhan corridor: Ghani
KABUL
121 insurgents killed in
fresh clearance operations
KABUL
Qaisar-Laman
highway
contractor
asks for more
President Ashraf Ghani met a delegation
of tribal elders from
northeastern Badakhshan
province on Monday evening, a
statement issue by presidential
palace said. The members of delegation
discussed the issues of security,
unemployment, revival of
Silk Road, construction of Kokcha
hydro-power reservoir, illegal extraction
of mines by mafia groups,
and representation for
Badakhshan in the national unity
government, the statement added.
During the meeting, President
Ghani said the talks are underway
with the Chinese government officials
on revival of Wakhan corridor.
He said the government is
working to link Central Asia with
China through railroad that connects
Wakhan with eastern Herat
province. Underling the importance
of water management, President
Ghani said that a committee
has been assigned to assess
Kokcha hydro-power reservoir.
On Badakhshan’s azure mines,
President Ghani said the government
for the first time has been
able to collect taxes from mine extractors.
On the issue of security
in Badakhshan, the President
Ghani said China and Tajikistan
have pledged to cooperate with
Afghanistan in protecting borders
of Badakhshan province. President
Ghani, according to the
statement, said all measures
would be taken to ensure the
educated and skilled people
from Badkhshan are considered
for work in various government
offices. —FP Monitoring
Operation to rescue
hostages underway
ZABUL
The military operation that began
on Monday night in Khak-i-
Afghan District of southern Zabul
province for releasing the 30 abducted
passengers is still ongoing.
Mohammad Sarwar Danish,
2nd vice president of Afghanistan
says that over 100 members of
the group that is responsible for
kidnapping the 30 passengers
have been killed in the operation
so far. According to him, Mullah
Himat Manan had led the terrorist
operation of kidnapping the
30 passengers in Shah Joy District
of Zabul province is among
the ones killed. Danish has written
on his facebook page that
Mullah Himat Manan has killed
himself through blasting his
own explosives. As per the
Afghan culture, local elders tried
to negotiate the release with the
abductors but it did not give
any result. —FP Monitoring
KABUL
121 insurgents have been killed in
fresh clearance operations across the
country. A statement issued by the
Ministry of Interior on Wednesday
states that the operations were conducted
in past 24 hours. According to
the statement 23 foreign fighters were
among those killed.
The statement further states that
nine insurgents were also wounded in
the operations carried out separately in
Nangarhar, Takhar, Kunduz, Sar-i-
Pul, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Ghazni,
Herat, Ferah and Helmand provinces.
A number of different types of Improvised
Explosive Devices (IEDs) were
also discovered and defused by the security
forces during the operations, the
statement adds. Among the ongoing operations
one is Operation Zulfiqar in
Helmand province in which hundreds
of soldiers are taking part. The operation
begun in Sangin District but later expanded
to other adjourning areas.
The operation is the largest operation
being conducted independently by Afghan
National Security Forces after taking the
Afghan airstrike
kills 21 Taliban
miscreants
KUNDUZ
An Afghan airstrike in Kunduz province
has reportedly killed 21 Taliban insurgents
on Tuesday, local officials have
confirmed Wednesday.
The incident took place in Imam Sahib
district of Kunduz province, where the
Afghan Air Force bombarded Taza Quli
village, said District Governor Imamuddin
Quraishi.
According to Quraishi there were no
civilian and Afghan forces causalities
in the operations. It was reported
that the terrorists had established
their haven at there for carrying out
their activities. The Taliban insurgents
have not yet commented about the operation.
—FP Monitoring
KABUL
After the 9/11 the US and NATO intervened in
Afghanistan, toppled down the Taliban regime
and established interim government which
paved the way for democracy, economic and social development
in the country. United States and NATO
hugely invested in various sectors in Afghanistan. Yet
after 13 years of their involvement and billions of dollars
investment the image of Afghanistan has improved
little among those living outside Afghanistan. Many
people outside Afghanistan still believes that the
Afghanistan’s economy lay in ruins, large parts of the
country are still under the control of Taliban and the
full responsibility of the security from
NATO forces at the start of this year. At
the end of the year 2014 NATO winded
Has Afghanistan achieved in 13 years?
country is still an orphaned conflict. It is precisely because
of the imbalanced news reported by international
media from Afghanistan. Such kind of one sided news
not only questions the US-NATO mission in
Afghanistan but it also gives a harsh image of
Afghanistan. While many people watching the news
about Afghanistan, the typical questions they asks is:
what has Afghanistan achieved in the past 13 years?
Afghanistan in 2001 was almost bankrupt with
most systems and infrastructure destroyed as result of
civil war. The state institutions were either non-existent
or nonfunctioning. Today, the Afghan economy
is no more a black hole that is sucking in its neighbors,
Afghanistan per capita GDP is at $688 which is five
up its military role in Afghanistan and in
2015 it started a Resolute Support mission
which is aimed at training and assisting
the Afghan National Security
Forces to overcome the security challenges
by themselves. —FP Monitoring
Afghanistan officials sanctioned
murder, torture and rape, says report
KABUL
Human Rights Watch accuses highranking
officials of allowing extrajudicial
killings and brutal practices to flourish
after fall of Taliban
Top Afghan officials have presided
over murders, abduction, and other
abuses with the tacit backing of their government
and its western allies, Human
Rights Watch says in a new report. A
grim account of deaths, robbery, rapes
and extrajudicial killings, Today We
Shall All Die, details a culture of impunity
that the rights group says flourished after
the fall of the Taliban, driven by the
desire for immediate control of security
at almost any price.
“The rise of abusive political and criminal
networks was not inevitable,” the report
said. “Short-term concerns for
maintaining a bulwark against the Taliban
have undermined aspirations for
long-term good governance and respect
for human rights in Afghanistan.”
The report focuses on eight commanders
and officials across Afghanistan, some
ofthemcountedamongthecountry’smost
powerful men, and key allies for foreign
troops. Some are accused of personally inflicting
violence, others of having responsibility
for militias or government
forces that committed the crimes. Kandahar’s
most powerful commander, the
former head of the intelligence service and
a key northern governor are among those
implicated. All of the accused have denied
the allegations against them.
Some have ties to the former president
Hamid Karzai, who as early as 2002
warned that security would be his first
priority. “Justice [is] a luxury for now;
we must not lose peace for that,” the report
quotes him saying soon after coming
to power. While he was in office, a
blanket amnesty law for civil war-era
crimes was passed. Afghanistan is one
of the most corrupt countries in the
world, according to Transparency International,
and the compromised justice
system also badly undermines accountability,
with little sense among ordinary
Afghans that abusers will ever be
held to account. —FP Monitoring
times what it was 13 years ago. Revenues increased
from 3 percent of GDP in 2002 to a peak of 11.6 percent
in 2011 and government tax revenues exceeded
$1bn last year. Trade with Pakistan has increased from
30 million dollars in year to 5 billion dollars per year.
The growth in trade deals with Islamic Republic of Iran,
including transit of goods and fuel products has
reached to $4 billion per year. Afghanistan’s banking
sector has grown drastically from two state owned commercial
banks and four state owned special purpose development
banks to nine privately owned commercial
banks, three state owned commercial banks, and
four foreign commercial banks with more than 400 total
branches across Afghanistan. —FP Monitoring
Deputy Minister of Public Works Ahmad
Shah Wahid said on Monday that the
second round of meetings between the
Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) and
the Turkish-American company ECCI
over the contract for the planned Qaisar-Laman
Road ended without an agreement.
ECCI was reportedly only willing
to commence the project if adequate security
was provided for the company's
personnel and sufficient fund from the
Afghan government backing it.
According to Mr. Wahid, ECCI has
asked the Afghan government for more
money to finish the incomplete highway
project, but the amount is likely out of
Kabul's range at a time when public debt
is at an all-time high and foreign aid is
growing more scarce. "It is very difficult
for the government and Ministry of
Public Works to pay the amount that
they have been asked for," he said.
In addition, Mr. Wahid expressed
concerns over reports of the withdraw
of public protection forces from
Badghis who were assigned the task of
providing security for the highway
construction. Insecurity around the
project sites was the initial factor that
derailed ECCI's work in 2014.
Local officials in Badghis have also
voiced anxiety about the possible withdraw
of public protection force assigned
for security on the Laman-Qaisar highway.
"We created this province after
making heavy sacrifices, and I am very
concerned about the issue, therefore, I
informed the Ministry of Interior and
sent them letters several times," Badghis
Acting Governor Ahmadullah Alizai
said. "But so far I haven't received a response
from them."
In response to the statement, the
Ministry of Interior (MoI) has said
that a final decision has not yet been
made about the withdraw of forces
from Badghis province. "So far we
haven't made a decision, the letter
which was sent by the Ministry of Public
Works to the Department of Public
Protection Forces was indicating the issues
facing them," MoI spokesman
Sediq Sediqi told.
According to Deputy Minister of Public
Works, Mr. Wahid, President Ghani
originally gave a nine month deadline to
complete the high project. Another
meeting with ECCI has reportedly been
scheduled in the coming weeks.
Afghanistan has become one of the
world’s orphaned conflicts. The world has
turned away from Afghanistan, allowing
civil war, ethnic fragmentation and polarization
to become state failure. The
country has ceased to exist as a viable
state and when a state fails civil society
is destroyed. Generations of children
grow up rootless, without identity or reason
to live except to fight. Adults are traumatized
and brutalized, knowing only
war and the power of the warlords. The
entire Afghan population has been displaced,
not once but many times over.
The physical destruction of Kabul has
turned it into the Dresden of the late
twentieth century. —FP Monotoring
C
M
Y
K
Building trust between police and people with community outreach programs
To develop trust and understanding between
Afghan National Police (ANP) and
the communities in which they serve,
Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA) has started
sports tournaments and community outreach
programs in 15 provinces across the country
To facilitate better relations and greater cooperation
between police and public, Afghan government
has come up with many innovative initiatives.
Besides enabling better police-public contact,
these initiatives also seek to address the issue
of rising crimes in society.
The Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA) recently
launched “Radio Police” program to enable
smooth communication between police
and public in Kabul and adjoining areas.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, acting Minister
for Interior Affairs, Ayoub Salangi said the
main purpose of this program is to strengthen
relations between police and public”. “The
idea is to bring them closer so that they can together
help in averting the incidents of violence
and crime,” he said.
Radio Police program comes after MoIA’s
119 emergency helpline, which is already operational
in six provinces across the country
and has proved instrumental in thwarting
small and big crimes. The 119 helpline was first
started in 2009 in Kabul for public to receive
and give information about emergency security
issues. The 119 helpline was designed to
facilitate better ties between police and public
and break the iron curtain between them.
The public awareness about this helpline,
however, was not helping the cause. In October
2014, Ariana TV and Awaz Production
took it upon themselves to raise awareness
about this program through as show called
‘Show Reaction 119’. “The 119 helpline has
proved immensely helpful in restoring our
confidence and faith in security institutions,
especially in the cases of emergency situations,”
says Baseer Khan, a resident of Kabul.
“Earlier, very few people knew about this program,
but now a large percentage of people are
aware of it and understand its importance.”
Jalaluddin, a resident of Kabul, says it has built
a bridge between police and public and helped
in thwarting many sinister plots of terrorists and
criminals. “It is our duty as responsible citizens
to cooperate with police in combating crime and
terrorism,” he says. Radio Police program comes
after MoIA’s 119 emergency helpline, which is already
operational in six provinces across the
country and has proved instrumental in thwarting
small and big crimes
As part of the Afghan National Police Community
Outreach Program, the Afghan government
has also started sports competitions in at
least 15 provinces to pave ground for closer and
stronger ties between police and community.
The primary goal is to develop trust and understanding
between police and people in reporting
criminal activities to their respective ANP
headquarters and the 119 Emergency Services
Call Center. Gen. Hikmat Shahi, a senior official
in the Ministry of Interior Affairs, says the program
has had a positive impact so far. The outreach
program is conducted under the aegis of
Sport Youth Development Organization (SYDP),
which is funded by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
The 15 provinces where this outreach program
is underway include Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand,
Paktiya, Wardak, Khost, Nangarhar,
Laghman, Logar, Panjshir, Kunduz, Faryab,
Ghazni, Herat, and Baghlan. The outreach program
is being conducted in coordination with the
Ministry of Interior Affairs and consists of
sports tournaments and interactive sessions
between Afghan police and members of the local
community where they serve.
“Afghan police has managed to foil many terror
plots since this program has come into
force, as it has allowed people to report directly
to ANP headquarters through helpline number,”
says Mr. Shahi.
Zia Dashti, head of SYDP, says the chief aim of
this program is to develop trust and understanding
between Afghan Police and the communities
in which they serve. “We have seen remarkable
results over the past two years and this
year we have expanded it further,” says Mr.
Dashti. “It includes sports training and community
outreach events, which can help people
and police develop strong bond.”
The primary goal is to develop trust and understanding
between police and people in reporting
criminal activities to their respective ANP
headquarters and the 119 Emergency Services Call
Center Sediq Sediqi, spokesperson in the Ministry
of Interior affairs, says these programs are very
effective in forging strong people-police ties.
“We are planning to extend it to other provinces
as well.” Farkhunda Arezo, who participated in
a volleyball tournament organized by SYDP recently,
says she is happy to have participated in
it. “We are seeing the results, like one female participant
from western Kabul called police a few
days ago and informed about a case of theft in her
neighborhood,” says Mr. Alimi. –FP Monitoring