Thursday, March 1, 2012
Why We Couldn't Change Afghanistan
The West's military engagement in Afghanistan is entering its eleventh year and has another two years to go before the end of combat operations in 2014. Whatever the result of the international conferences that began last year in Istanbul and Bonn to elicit support for a successor state, one thing is clear: after Western forces draw down, Afghanistan won't bear much resemblance to the Western vision that fueled the intervention in the first place. However effective Western military organizations are in transitioning to Afghan control, the country's future will not be decided primarily by the residual structures and legacies of Western involvement, the current Taliban insurgency or even any formal process of reconciliation. Rather, it will be decided more by the country's ethnic character, the particular nature of local and national governance, and the influence of neighboring powers with enduring geopolitical and strategic imperatives in the region far stronger than those of the West.In other words, the future of Afghanistan will be determined by forces that antedate the latest Western effort to direct a turbulent area--and which probably will long survive this and future efforts to dominate the country. (An analysis closer to ground reality)...Continue Reading...
Incoming - Afghan Ski Challenge!
Second running of ski-touring race in war-torn Afghanistan supported by Canadian outdoors brand, Arc'teryx
by Jon
We doubt many of you are about to down tools and fly out to Afghanistan for the second Afghan Ski Challenge next weekend, but it's kind of uplifting to learn that the war-torn country is hosting a ski touring race in the Bamiyan region.
Bamiyan was once known worldwide for its giant statues of Buddha, but since they were destroyed and despite the war not affecting the region otherwise since 2001, the area has lost its tourist income and become desperately poor with visitor numbers shrinking from 150,000 per year to virtually nil.
It does, however, have perfect ski conditions and last year a small team formed from employees at Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper and local ski enthusiasts from Afghanistan decided to found the Bamiyan Ski Club and launch the first Afghan Ski Challenge – a backcountry ski touring race.
Last year ten locals learned to ski and competed in the first Afghan Ski Challenge, but this year, the event is open to international competitors for the first time with an entry fee of $500 which will be donated to local sports and educational projects in Afghanistan. You do get a limited edition event jacket though.
There's no mobile phone coverage or mountain rescue and local facilities are best decribed as basic, with 'rustic accommodation' and poor medical back-up and it's a long way to go for a 5km ski race, but it should be something you'll never forget.
The Afghan Ski Challenge takes place on 2 March, 2012 and you can find full details at www.afghanskichallenge.com.
Outdoor Magic
by Jon
Bamiyan was once known worldwide for its giant statues of Buddha, but since they were destroyed and despite the war not affecting the region otherwise since 2001, the area has lost its tourist income and become desperately poor with visitor numbers shrinking from 150,000 per year to virtually nil.
It does, however, have perfect ski conditions and last year a small team formed from employees at Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper and local ski enthusiasts from Afghanistan decided to found the Bamiyan Ski Club and launch the first Afghan Ski Challenge – a backcountry ski touring race.
Last year ten locals learned to ski and competed in the first Afghan Ski Challenge, but this year, the event is open to international competitors for the first time with an entry fee of $500 which will be donated to local sports and educational projects in Afghanistan. You do get a limited edition event jacket though.
There's no mobile phone coverage or mountain rescue and local facilities are best decribed as basic, with 'rustic accommodation' and poor medical back-up and it's a long way to go for a 5km ski race, but it should be something you'll never forget.
The Afghan Ski Challenge takes place on 2 March, 2012 and you can find full details at www.afghanskichallenge.com.
Outdoor Magic
Afghanistan avalanches kill at least 36 in central regions
By GHANIZADA - Wed Feb 29, 10:12 am
According to local officials in central Bamiyan and Daikundi provinces of Afghanistan, at least 36 Afghans were killed following winter freeze and avallanche incidents in these regions.
Provincial governor for Daikundi province Salman Ali Uruzgani said, at least 11 people were killed and 5 others were injured following avalanche breakups in various regions of Daikundi province.
He also added, two Afghan women and eight Afghan kids were also killed following winter feeze in this province.
Daikundi provincial governor Salman Ali Uruzgani also said, the highway between Daikundi to Neeli was closed until Tuesday.
In the meantime Bamiyan provincial governor Habiba Surabi said, at least 15 people suffered from avalanche in this province.
Provincial officials in Bamiyan province earlier also announced at least 30,000 Afghan families in 240 villages were threatened by shortage of drinking water.
Bamiyan governor Habiba Surabi warned of a catastrophe in this province if the central government does not take actions.
She urged the Natural Disasters Department to step up actions for resolving the issues of this province but officials in Natural Disasters Department said the such issues will be resolved by Rural Development Ministry.
According to reports, highways between Daikundi and Bamiyan provinces have been blocked due to heavy snow fall, which has affected the food prices as well.
Khaama Press
According to local officials in central Bamiyan and Daikundi provinces of Afghanistan, at least 36 Afghans were killed following winter freeze and avallanche incidents in these regions.
Provincial governor for Daikundi province Salman Ali Uruzgani said, at least 11 people were killed and 5 others were injured following avalanche breakups in various regions of Daikundi province.
He also added, two Afghan women and eight Afghan kids were also killed following winter feeze in this province.
Daikundi provincial governor Salman Ali Uruzgani also said, the highway between Daikundi to Neeli was closed until Tuesday.
In the meantime Bamiyan provincial governor Habiba Surabi said, at least 15 people suffered from avalanche in this province.
Provincial officials in Bamiyan province earlier also announced at least 30,000 Afghan families in 240 villages were threatened by shortage of drinking water.
Bamiyan governor Habiba Surabi warned of a catastrophe in this province if the central government does not take actions.
She urged the Natural Disasters Department to step up actions for resolving the issues of this province but officials in Natural Disasters Department said the such issues will be resolved by Rural Development Ministry.
According to reports, highways between Daikundi and Bamiyan provinces have been blocked due to heavy snow fall, which has affected the food prices as well.
Khaama Press
Mullah Omar Farman Plans to Destroy the Hazara Cultural and Historical Monument of the Buddahs of Bamiyan
Mullah Omar’s Farman (Official Order) to Taliban – A copy of this document (written in Pushto) was secured from Taliban’s Dept of Interior Ministry after US bombing in late 2001. The document is an order/policy by Mullah Omar to the Taliban commanders. Read the original order copy and translation on Afghanistan Press...
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Unreported Suicides in Central Afghan Province
Women take poison to escape family troubles or forced marriage
By Jawed Bakhtari
Ghulam Rasul, 71, a short man with stooped shoulders had come to the marketplace in Nili, the main town of Daikundi province in central Afghanistan, to buy sugar, matches and candy. As he sat against the mud wall of a grocery shop under the hot sun, he told an IWPR reporter about three women in his village who had consumed rat poison in the past year. Two survived, and one died.
His village, Khalbarg, is in the Sang-i Takht district 150 kilometres from Nili. It took Ghulam Rasul, an influential figure in his village, about four hours to drive to Nili market in his aging Kamaz vehicle.
Ghulam Rasul said every year, several women in his village of about 500 households try to commit suicide, and often succeed. He said the government is never notified because most of the villagers are illiterate, do not have phones, and their only way of getting to Nili is by donkey or mule, a 24-hour trip.
An investigation report by IWPR suggests that at least 200 women commit suicide annually within the nine districts of Daikundi province. The data gathered by IWPR reporters indicates that the main factors are family violence and forced marriage.
The issue that has not been heavily researched either by the the government or by non-government organisations advocating for women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Ghulam Rasul did not give the name of the woman who died recently, but she was in her mid-twenties and recently married. He said she was the daughter of one Rauf Karbalai, and the wife of a man called Panahi, who had taken a second wife a year previously.
“These two wives were fighting each other every day in the house,” Ghulam Rasul said. “This is why Karbalai’s daughter finally ate rat poison.”
Ghulam Rasul said Panahi had been paying more attention to his second wife, aged 18, and had handed over management of the household money to her. He said he had heard from village women that this became intolerable for the first wife.
One day, a fight erupted between the two wives. According to Ghulam Rasul, “A few hours after the violence, a female neighbour, Zainab, entered the Panahi house to call on Karbalai’s daughter. Panahi’s second wife of Panahi told Zainab that Karbalai’s daughter had gone to her room and had been silent for the last few hours.”
The neighbour knocked on the bedroom door, but got no response. She looked into the room through a window and saw Karbalai’s daughter lying on the floor in an unusual position. Nearby was a glass containing a blackish liquid. Then she saw a white package of rat poison.
“The woman screamed, ‘Karbalai’s daughter has taken rat poison!’” Ghulam Rasul said. “Of course, the neighbouring women gathered, screaming and weeping. Meanwhile, a man from the neighbourhood called out, ‘Go and dig the grave and announce at the mosque that Panahi’s wife has passed away’.”
An IWPR reporter spent four months visiting 30 villages around Nili and interviewing more than 100 residents face-to-face, including at least 40 women.
These are mountainous, traditional villages where neither men nor women talk easily about suicide. Some husbands threatened to kill the IWPR reporter if he used their wives’ names in any news story.
The reporter managed to record interviews with 17 women who had attempted suicide in the past 16 months – using either rat poison or insecticide – but had survived. The reporter also talked to relatives of women who had committed suicide, and took photographs of some of their graves.
IWPR’s investigation suggests that since many people do not believe there is rule of law within Daikundi province, people are tempted to commit suicide instead of seeking justice via the legal system.
The Health and Women’s Affairs Department and the local office of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, AIHRC, both say they can count the number of suicide reports they have received on one hand.
The AIHRC’s local officer for advocacy and women’s human rights development, Halima Bashardust, said her office received reports of only four suicide attempts in 2011, in all of which the individuals survived. The four women were upset with their husbands and troubled by family issues, and swallowed rat poison, Bashardust said.
She added that mistreatment following forced marriages was another likely cause of suicide attempts.
Asked why her office did not have more data on the number of females who commit suicide, Bashardust replied that very few women came to her office to file complaints against their husbands. She also admitted that coordination was poor among government agencies in Daikundi.
The IWPR reporter tried four times to contact either the head of the local department for women’s affairs, Khoi Rezai, or her deputy to talk about the issue, but was unsuccessful. A spokesperson for the department, a woman named Hasani, said, “The director is not at her office and we don’t have permission to give interviews.”
Bashardust said the government hospital at Nili was the only credible source for data on suicide attempts. In 2010, the hospital recorded 42 suicides – 25 women and 17 men.
When treating patients, doctors hear from the relatives of victims that many cases of attempted suicide are due to forced marriage, abuse at the hands of husbands, and fighting over household finances, Dr Qasemi, a physician at Nili Hospital, said.
The IWPR reporter spent several weeks walking the corridors of Nili hospital to find patients who had attempted suicide, or relatives.
One morning, he saw a Toyota minibus race to the hospital gate. Two men and three women jumped out of the vehicle carrying a woman wrapped in a blanket and hurried into the hospital.
The reporter tried to follow but could not see what was happening. Thirty minutes later, there were screams from the women inside the hospital, and the reporter realised that the patient had died.
The reporter approached the driver of the minibus, who was cleaning the windshield. “The dead girl was Fatema, an 18 year-old whose parents were living in Iran. She lived with her uncle in the village of Zojok in Shahrestan district,” the driver said.
“As far as I know, the uncle’s wife wanted to engage Fatema to her nephew, but Fatema would not agree to marry the man. Finally, her uncle’s wife made up her mind that Fatema had to be engaged within two days. As a result of that decision, violence erupted between Fatema and her uncle’s wife. In protest, Fatema left home to stay at a neighbour’s house.
“Having stayed the night, in the early morning she quietly took a lot of drugs from her neighbour’s shelf and swallowed them with a few glasses of water. She became unable to speak, and the neighbours took her to hospital.”
Akbar Mujahed, head of the criminal department for the police in Daikundi, said his department had no record of anyone filing a case about a female suicide attempt.
Mujahed did not deny that women attempted suicide, but said most people in Daikundi resolved such matters through community and tribal councils.
When told that Nili Hospital recorded 42 suicides in 2010, Mujahed said: “The police have not received any information in this regard, and this surprises us.”
Haji Daud, 71, is the tribal head of the village of Surma-Sang, near Nili. He usually mediates in disputes among people in the village, with the support of most community members.
The IWPR reporter approached Haji Daud and asked him why people did not believe in the government or the law, and came to him to settle their disputes instead.
In a loud voice, he replied that he was unable to talk to the media. “You broadcast my voice and story on the radio, yet these words that people speak with me are confidential. When people hear me speak in the media, they will never come to me,” he said.
More than a year has passed since the death of Karbala’s daughter. Now Panahi treats his second wife the same as he did with his first, according to neighbours.
Karbala’s daughter is buried on a hill where two winters have all but destroyed the grave. People from the village say none of her relatives has ever come to say prayers for her.
Mohammad Reja is an IWPR-trained reporter in Afghanistan
RAWA
By Jawed Bakhtari
Ghulam Rasul, 71, a short man with stooped shoulders had come to the marketplace in Nili, the main town of Daikundi province in central Afghanistan, to buy sugar, matches and candy. As he sat against the mud wall of a grocery shop under the hot sun, he told an IWPR reporter about three women in his village who had consumed rat poison in the past year. Two survived, and one died.
His village, Khalbarg, is in the Sang-i Takht district 150 kilometres from Nili. It took Ghulam Rasul, an influential figure in his village, about four hours to drive to Nili market in his aging Kamaz vehicle.
Ghulam Rasul said every year, several women in his village of about 500 households try to commit suicide, and often succeed. He said the government is never notified because most of the villagers are illiterate, do not have phones, and their only way of getting to Nili is by donkey or mule, a 24-hour trip.
An investigation report by IWPR suggests that at least 200 women commit suicide annually within the nine districts of Daikundi province. The data gathered by IWPR reporters indicates that the main factors are family violence and forced marriage.
The issue that has not been heavily researched either by the the government or by non-government organisations advocating for women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Ghulam Rasul did not give the name of the woman who died recently, but she was in her mid-twenties and recently married. He said she was the daughter of one Rauf Karbalai, and the wife of a man called Panahi, who had taken a second wife a year previously.
“These two wives were fighting each other every day in the house,” Ghulam Rasul said. “This is why Karbalai’s daughter finally ate rat poison.”
Ghulam Rasul said Panahi had been paying more attention to his second wife, aged 18, and had handed over management of the household money to her. He said he had heard from village women that this became intolerable for the first wife.
One day, a fight erupted between the two wives. According to Ghulam Rasul, “A few hours after the violence, a female neighbour, Zainab, entered the Panahi house to call on Karbalai’s daughter. Panahi’s second wife of Panahi told Zainab that Karbalai’s daughter had gone to her room and had been silent for the last few hours.”
The neighbour knocked on the bedroom door, but got no response. She looked into the room through a window and saw Karbalai’s daughter lying on the floor in an unusual position. Nearby was a glass containing a blackish liquid. Then she saw a white package of rat poison.
“The woman screamed, ‘Karbalai’s daughter has taken rat poison!’” Ghulam Rasul said. “Of course, the neighbouring women gathered, screaming and weeping. Meanwhile, a man from the neighbourhood called out, ‘Go and dig the grave and announce at the mosque that Panahi’s wife has passed away’.”
An IWPR reporter spent four months visiting 30 villages around Nili and interviewing more than 100 residents face-to-face, including at least 40 women.
These are mountainous, traditional villages where neither men nor women talk easily about suicide. Some husbands threatened to kill the IWPR reporter if he used their wives’ names in any news story.
The reporter managed to record interviews with 17 women who had attempted suicide in the past 16 months – using either rat poison or insecticide – but had survived. The reporter also talked to relatives of women who had committed suicide, and took photographs of some of their graves.
IWPR’s investigation suggests that since many people do not believe there is rule of law within Daikundi province, people are tempted to commit suicide instead of seeking justice via the legal system.
The Health and Women’s Affairs Department and the local office of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, AIHRC, both say they can count the number of suicide reports they have received on one hand.
The AIHRC’s local officer for advocacy and women’s human rights development, Halima Bashardust, said her office received reports of only four suicide attempts in 2011, in all of which the individuals survived. The four women were upset with their husbands and troubled by family issues, and swallowed rat poison, Bashardust said.
She added that mistreatment following forced marriages was another likely cause of suicide attempts.
Asked why her office did not have more data on the number of females who commit suicide, Bashardust replied that very few women came to her office to file complaints against their husbands. She also admitted that coordination was poor among government agencies in Daikundi.
The IWPR reporter tried four times to contact either the head of the local department for women’s affairs, Khoi Rezai, or her deputy to talk about the issue, but was unsuccessful. A spokesperson for the department, a woman named Hasani, said, “The director is not at her office and we don’t have permission to give interviews.”
Bashardust said the government hospital at Nili was the only credible source for data on suicide attempts. In 2010, the hospital recorded 42 suicides – 25 women and 17 men.
When treating patients, doctors hear from the relatives of victims that many cases of attempted suicide are due to forced marriage, abuse at the hands of husbands, and fighting over household finances, Dr Qasemi, a physician at Nili Hospital, said.
The IWPR reporter spent several weeks walking the corridors of Nili hospital to find patients who had attempted suicide, or relatives.
One morning, he saw a Toyota minibus race to the hospital gate. Two men and three women jumped out of the vehicle carrying a woman wrapped in a blanket and hurried into the hospital.
The reporter tried to follow but could not see what was happening. Thirty minutes later, there were screams from the women inside the hospital, and the reporter realised that the patient had died.
The reporter approached the driver of the minibus, who was cleaning the windshield. “The dead girl was Fatema, an 18 year-old whose parents were living in Iran. She lived with her uncle in the village of Zojok in Shahrestan district,” the driver said.
“As far as I know, the uncle’s wife wanted to engage Fatema to her nephew, but Fatema would not agree to marry the man. Finally, her uncle’s wife made up her mind that Fatema had to be engaged within two days. As a result of that decision, violence erupted between Fatema and her uncle’s wife. In protest, Fatema left home to stay at a neighbour’s house.
“Having stayed the night, in the early morning she quietly took a lot of drugs from her neighbour’s shelf and swallowed them with a few glasses of water. She became unable to speak, and the neighbours took her to hospital.”
Akbar Mujahed, head of the criminal department for the police in Daikundi, said his department had no record of anyone filing a case about a female suicide attempt.
Mujahed did not deny that women attempted suicide, but said most people in Daikundi resolved such matters through community and tribal councils.
When told that Nili Hospital recorded 42 suicides in 2010, Mujahed said: “The police have not received any information in this regard, and this surprises us.”
Haji Daud, 71, is the tribal head of the village of Surma-Sang, near Nili. He usually mediates in disputes among people in the village, with the support of most community members.
The IWPR reporter approached Haji Daud and asked him why people did not believe in the government or the law, and came to him to settle their disputes instead.
In a loud voice, he replied that he was unable to talk to the media. “You broadcast my voice and story on the radio, yet these words that people speak with me are confidential. When people hear me speak in the media, they will never come to me,” he said.
More than a year has passed since the death of Karbala’s daughter. Now Panahi treats his second wife the same as he did with his first, according to neighbours.
Karbala’s daughter is buried on a hill where two winters have all but destroyed the grave. People from the village say none of her relatives has ever come to say prayers for her.
Mohammad Reja is an IWPR-trained reporter in Afghanistan
RAWA
Afghanistan stands by bidding process for Hajigak mine
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines on Saturday rejected allegations of problems in the bidding for one of the country's largest mines, calling it "a fair and transparent process."
In a letter to McClatchy, the ministry's director-general for policy and promotion, A. Jalil Jumriany, said that the selection of bids for four blocks of the Hajigak iron ore mine in central Afghanistan was overseen by a team of Afghan government experts, and that a panel of international advisers found that the process was "conducted according to international standards."
However, Jumriany's letter did not challenge the main points in a McClatchy report published Friday, which raised allegations of flaws in the bidding process and that the winning bidders — a state-led Indian consortium and a Canadian firm — hadn't demonstrated that they could meet production targets....Continue Reading....
In a letter to McClatchy, the ministry's director-general for policy and promotion, A. Jalil Jumriany, said that the selection of bids for four blocks of the Hajigak iron ore mine in central Afghanistan was overseen by a team of Afghan government experts, and that a panel of international advisers found that the process was "conducted according to international standards."
However, Jumriany's letter did not challenge the main points in a McClatchy report published Friday, which raised allegations of flaws in the bidding process and that the winning bidders — a state-led Indian consortium and a Canadian firm — hadn't demonstrated that they could meet production targets....Continue Reading....
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