Saturday, July 7, 2012
"I Love You, But I'm Leaving": Afghanistan's Alimony
Posted: 07/06/2012 5:44 pm
The World Bank forecast approximately US $7.8 billion will be required annually to finance the non-security aid gap in Afghanistan for the decade post-2014. Last year, I was involved in collecting some of the data that eventually filtered into this projection. My colleague and I drove around the Bamiyan valley, back and forth past the hollowed Buddhas, pressing local government officials to produce tallies of their operation budgets and assets. I left disillusioned. The Bamiyan Department of Justice was whittled down to two rooms in an entire complex of un-plastered pillars. We were told construction was paused years ago. Their function appeared equally paused. The local Department of Interior was frustrated by the lack of water to supply their offices. Apparently, inside deals had led to a line of administrative offices being perched upon a barren plateau. Yet, as I think back in the midst of the stampede to rush out of Afghanistan, I am reminded of children pacing the lush fields putting lessons to memory, farmers tending to crops, the bustling single-street bazzar. Suddenly, beneath the encumbrance of cynicism, the task in Afghanistan has begun to seem monumental but not Sisyphean. It is our abandonment that will make it the latter...Continue Reading...
The World Bank forecast approximately US $7.8 billion will be required annually to finance the non-security aid gap in Afghanistan for the decade post-2014. Last year, I was involved in collecting some of the data that eventually filtered into this projection. My colleague and I drove around the Bamiyan valley, back and forth past the hollowed Buddhas, pressing local government officials to produce tallies of their operation budgets and assets. I left disillusioned. The Bamiyan Department of Justice was whittled down to two rooms in an entire complex of un-plastered pillars. We were told construction was paused years ago. Their function appeared equally paused. The local Department of Interior was frustrated by the lack of water to supply their offices. Apparently, inside deals had led to a line of administrative offices being perched upon a barren plateau. Yet, as I think back in the midst of the stampede to rush out of Afghanistan, I am reminded of children pacing the lush fields putting lessons to memory, farmers tending to crops, the bustling single-street bazzar. Suddenly, beneath the encumbrance of cynicism, the task in Afghanistan has begun to seem monumental but not Sisyphean. It is our abandonment that will make it the latter...Continue Reading...
Friday, July 6, 2012
PAKISTAN: Killings of Shiite Muslims under the very nose of the military -- the 'independent judiciary' turns a blind eye while the government continues its policy of appeasement
July 4, 2012
The killings of the Shiite Muslims continue un-abated in those areas under the control of the military and Para-Military forces where the banned Muslim organizations operate freely and without hindrance.
In the latest killings on June 28 at least 13 pilgrims were martyred and several others injured in a bomb blast attack on Zaireen's bus in Hazar Ganji, Quetta, the capital of Balochistan where the city remains under the tight control of the Frontier Corp (FC), a unit of the Pakistan Army. In the city it is not possible for anyone to move without being body searched by the FC and other law enforcement agencies yet the militants pass freely. The reports say that a police officer was also killed in the attack.
The bus carrying at least 40 persons from a Shiite religious group was coming from Taftan, Pakistan's border city with Iran. The pilgrims had gone to Iran on a pilgrimage tour. The banned organization, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has claimed responsibility for the massacre.
During the month of June alone, 31 Shiites were killed in the Quetta and Mand areas of Balochistan by the LeJ bomb blasts and target killings. All of them were from Hazara ethic groups who are associated with the Shiite sect of Islam.
More than 600 persons from the Shiite sect of Islam have been killed during the past four years. According to the provincial home department report more than 400 Shiites and Hazaras had been killed in more than 200 incidents in the four-year span through 2011 and about 100 pilgrims had been killed in the first half of this year alone.
Balochistan province, the Gilgit and Baltistan and Kurram agency of northern area, is well known as a Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and has become a killing ground for the Shiite sect that consists of 24 percent of the Muslim population in Pakistan. These are the places where the contingents of the Pakistan army, its Para-Military forces and the Frontier Corps (FC) are stationed and control all the roads, besides having check posts all around the major cities. In the same areas the banned militant groups are operating along with the military organizations and in these areas the military provide safe passage to them. There is also a huge presence of spies from the infamous intelligence agency, the ISI. As a result banned Islamic militant organizations feel at liberty to operate freely under the patronage of the law enforcement agencies.
In Karachi alone, which is not considered a military zone, not a month passes without target killings of Shiites and the militant organisations overtly take collections from the streets to fund their operations.
The civilian intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), in its latest report has warned that organisations such as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jundallah are more powerful now than they were in the '80s and '90s when they wreaked havoc across the country through sectarian attacks.
"Even today they pose a challenge as big as al Qaeda and they are getting more powerful. Imagine where they will be in a couple of years," said an official who was a member of the IB team that prepared the report. Some of the contents of the report were shared with The Express Tribune, which stated that the SSP and LeJ had already extended their network outside their traditional strongholds in South Punjab, the southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Pakhtun belt of Balochistan, including Quetta.
"Now they are everywhere…from interior Sindh to the base of the Himalayas," added the official. The SSP and LeJ were among several outfits that were banned by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf back in 2002, but their infrastructure and manpower remained untouched.
An activist of the SSP who would only give his last name said, "We went into hiding for some years but our system was very much there,"
The killings of Shiites, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus and other communities from religious minority groups are of no concern to the state as a whole and the elected representatives of the assemblies including the governments of Pakistan and the provinces. Massacres are taken, nowadays, as routine issues and the main concern is the numbers of deaths. If the body count is lower than the previous one it is generally thought that it was not so important.
The so-called 'independent judiciary' turns a blind to these massacres though it is famous for taking Sou-Moto action in politically sensitive cases. In fact, the courts have released many militants, at least one of which has spoken in public calling for the killing of Shiites in the service of Islam.
In one instance, a militant, Malik Ishaq, filed action in the session court of Rahim Yar Khan calling for the banning of the Shiite Azan (the call for prayers). The court issued notice to the police to take action on the plea even though it was beyond its authority to do so.
This is just further proof of the appeasement attitude of the government and the courts towards the militants and terrorists. Where is the protection guaranteed in the Constitution of Pakistan for freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions? Section 20 (b) states:
Every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.
Furthermore, Pakistan has ratified the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its article 18 which binds the state parties to:
....assure freedom of thought on all matters, personal conviction and the commitment to religion or belief, whether manifested individually or in community with others.
The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the government of Pakistan and its parliament to bring to an immediate halt the targeted killings of Shiites and all other minority and religious groups. The government must also conduct independent enquiries into the massacre of Shiites and provide special attention to the killings of persons from religious minorities. Legal action must be taken against the perpetrators of the violence and also the police and judicial officers that turn a blind eye to these atrocities.
Document Type :
Statement
Document ID :
AHRC-STM-136-2012
Countries :
Pakistan
Issues :
Extrajudicial killings, Military
The killings of the Shiite Muslims continue un-abated in those areas under the control of the military and Para-Military forces where the banned Muslim organizations operate freely and without hindrance.
In the latest killings on June 28 at least 13 pilgrims were martyred and several others injured in a bomb blast attack on Zaireen's bus in Hazar Ganji, Quetta, the capital of Balochistan where the city remains under the tight control of the Frontier Corp (FC), a unit of the Pakistan Army. In the city it is not possible for anyone to move without being body searched by the FC and other law enforcement agencies yet the militants pass freely. The reports say that a police officer was also killed in the attack.
The bus carrying at least 40 persons from a Shiite religious group was coming from Taftan, Pakistan's border city with Iran. The pilgrims had gone to Iran on a pilgrimage tour. The banned organization, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has claimed responsibility for the massacre.
During the month of June alone, 31 Shiites were killed in the Quetta and Mand areas of Balochistan by the LeJ bomb blasts and target killings. All of them were from Hazara ethic groups who are associated with the Shiite sect of Islam.
More than 600 persons from the Shiite sect of Islam have been killed during the past four years. According to the provincial home department report more than 400 Shiites and Hazaras had been killed in more than 200 incidents in the four-year span through 2011 and about 100 pilgrims had been killed in the first half of this year alone.
Balochistan province, the Gilgit and Baltistan and Kurram agency of northern area, is well known as a Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and has become a killing ground for the Shiite sect that consists of 24 percent of the Muslim population in Pakistan. These are the places where the contingents of the Pakistan army, its Para-Military forces and the Frontier Corps (FC) are stationed and control all the roads, besides having check posts all around the major cities. In the same areas the banned militant groups are operating along with the military organizations and in these areas the military provide safe passage to them. There is also a huge presence of spies from the infamous intelligence agency, the ISI. As a result banned Islamic militant organizations feel at liberty to operate freely under the patronage of the law enforcement agencies.
In Karachi alone, which is not considered a military zone, not a month passes without target killings of Shiites and the militant organisations overtly take collections from the streets to fund their operations.
The civilian intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), in its latest report has warned that organisations such as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jundallah are more powerful now than they were in the '80s and '90s when they wreaked havoc across the country through sectarian attacks.
"Even today they pose a challenge as big as al Qaeda and they are getting more powerful. Imagine where they will be in a couple of years," said an official who was a member of the IB team that prepared the report. Some of the contents of the report were shared with The Express Tribune, which stated that the SSP and LeJ had already extended their network outside their traditional strongholds in South Punjab, the southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Pakhtun belt of Balochistan, including Quetta.
"Now they are everywhere…from interior Sindh to the base of the Himalayas," added the official. The SSP and LeJ were among several outfits that were banned by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf back in 2002, but their infrastructure and manpower remained untouched.
An activist of the SSP who would only give his last name said, "We went into hiding for some years but our system was very much there,"
The killings of Shiites, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus and other communities from religious minority groups are of no concern to the state as a whole and the elected representatives of the assemblies including the governments of Pakistan and the provinces. Massacres are taken, nowadays, as routine issues and the main concern is the numbers of deaths. If the body count is lower than the previous one it is generally thought that it was not so important.
The so-called 'independent judiciary' turns a blind to these massacres though it is famous for taking Sou-Moto action in politically sensitive cases. In fact, the courts have released many militants, at least one of which has spoken in public calling for the killing of Shiites in the service of Islam.
In one instance, a militant, Malik Ishaq, filed action in the session court of Rahim Yar Khan calling for the banning of the Shiite Azan (the call for prayers). The court issued notice to the police to take action on the plea even though it was beyond its authority to do so.
This is just further proof of the appeasement attitude of the government and the courts towards the militants and terrorists. Where is the protection guaranteed in the Constitution of Pakistan for freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions? Section 20 (b) states:
Every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.
Furthermore, Pakistan has ratified the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its article 18 which binds the state parties to:
....assure freedom of thought on all matters, personal conviction and the commitment to religion or belief, whether manifested individually or in community with others.
The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the government of Pakistan and its parliament to bring to an immediate halt the targeted killings of Shiites and all other minority and religious groups. The government must also conduct independent enquiries into the massacre of Shiites and provide special attention to the killings of persons from religious minorities. Legal action must be taken against the perpetrators of the violence and also the police and judicial officers that turn a blind eye to these atrocities.
Document Type :
Statement
Document ID :
AHRC-STM-136-2012
Countries :
Pakistan
Issues :
Extrajudicial killings, Military
Thursday, July 5, 2012
سرک ها در بامیان با کیفیت بد ساخته شده اند
دويچه وله دری / گزارش های بازسازی
گزارش های بازسازی
سرک ها در بامیان با کیفیت بد ساخته شده اند
در بامیان هنوز از تطبیق پروژه های بزرگ خبری نیست. آنچه را نمایندگان محلی حکومت در این ولایت "بزرگترین دست آورد انکشافی" طی ده سال گذشته می نامند، قیرریزی بعضی از شاهراه های این ولایت است که کیفیت خوبی ندارند.
از چند سال به این سو کار روی شاهراه کابل - بامیان از دو مسیر دره غوربند و حاجی گگ جریان دارد. اما بخشی از سرک در این مسیر که ازمنطقه شش پل الی دوآب بروله حدود ده کیلومتر فاصله دارد، پس از یک سال تخریب شده است. این فاصله توسط شرکت راه سازی "کابل گروپ" ساخته و سال گذشته به بهره برداری سپرده شد.
نبود سرک مناسب مردم محل را در زندگی روزانه با مشکلات زیاد مواجه می کند. رضا یک موتروان در مسیر کابل بامیان می گوید، ساختن این پروژه درست نبوده و با گذشت یک زمستان تخریب شده است. او از حکومت خواهان ترمیم این سرک به شیوه درست و اساسی است. کاکا شیر، موتروان دیگر در همین مسیر نیز ازهمین ناحیه شکایت دارد.
محمد سجاد محسنی، یک تن از بزرگان بامیان مسوولین حکومت را به بی توجهی در امر نظارت از پروژه ها متهم کرده می گوید:"از پخته شدن این سرک خامه بودن آن بهتر بود، ما رفتیم سرک رادیدیم؛ نه شورای ولایتی، نه والی نظارت نکرده اند."
نبود سرک مناسب مردم محل را در زندگی روزانه با مشکلات زیاد مواجه می کند
این همان مسیری است که مسوولین همواره از آن به عنوان "دهلیز شرق و غرب" یاد می کنند. در صورت بسته شدن تونل سالنگ، برای رفتن به شمال افغانستان نیز از این مسیر استفاده می شود.
درهمین حال، حبیبه سرابی، والی بامیان بی کیفیتی این پروژه را تایید می کند: "این سرک هنوزهم تسلیم گرفته نشده است[رسماً به مقامات حکومتی واگذار نشده است]". به گفته او این سرک از طرف تیم "پی آرتی نیوزلند" مقیم بامیان ساخته شده است و آنها با مسوولین آن در زمینه صحبت کرده اند؛ قرار است آنان روی شرکت فشار آورند تا روی سرک دوباره کار شود. او راه اندازی و طرح پروژه ها را از مرکز(کابل) بدون هماهنگی با مسوولین محلی در راستای ساخت و ساز، یک چالش تلقی می کند.
احمد شاه وحید، معین تخنیکی وزارت فواید عامه دولت افغانستان می گوید:" برای تسلیم گیری پروژه ها ما شرایط و دستورالعمل های خاص خود را داریم. سرک هایی که ساخته می شوند، یک سال گرنتی دارد؛ پس ازیک سال اگرعوارض گیری نشود و یا مشکل تخنیکی درپروژه وجود داشته باشد - تا دوباره ترمیم نگردد، ما تسلیم نمی شویم."
علاوه برتخریب سرک یاد شده، قسمت هایی ازسرک داخل شهر بامیان نیزتخریب شده است که سه تا چهار سال از قیر ریزی آن نمی گذرد.
کریم جاوید، بامیان
ویراستار:مبلغ
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
COMMENT : Denigrating the Hazaras — II — Dr Mohammad Taqi
We have been discussing an op-ed, “Balochistan: sectarian strife or Hazara community targeted?” written by M Surat Khan Marri that appeared in these pages a few days ago. In his condescending piece, Mr Marri has alleged that the Hazaras are Iran’s proxies who are allied with the Pakistani state and are working against the Baloch liberation/autonomy cause. He made a lot of fuss about the Hazara presence in the Pakistan army, calling them akin to gurkhas. Interestingly, the writer could not produce more than two names who made it to the higher ranks in the services. No evidence was produced to show if the Hazara were recruited disproportionately to the armed forces. The fact is that no more than a handful of Hazara officers have served in the military at any given time in our history. Hazaras were no more a collaborator of the Pakistani state than any Baloch, Pashtun or Urdu-speaker has been. If anything, they were under-represented in the civil and military services despite their stellar education rate.
Labelling anyone a collaborator, whether of the Pakistani state or of foreign powers, has very serious consequences, which no one would know better than the Baloch. The 1972 Iraqi arms cache case leading to the toppling of the National Awami Party (NAP) government of Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal and subsequent stigmatisation of the NAP leadership was a sad episode. The blame-game and the personal rivalries that had started with a fateful NAP meeting that kept out Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti resulted in a mess that damaged the Baloch national cause. Selig Harrison records, “One of the few top-ranking Baloch leaders who knew about this scheme, Akbar Bugti, leader of the Bugti tribe, proved to be a turncoat. By tipping off (ZA) Bhutto, Bugti unseated his arch rivals Bizenjo and Mengal...and obtained the governorship for himself.” The Hazaras of Quetta had nothing to do with the Baloch internecine rivalries. If anything, scores of Hazaras were ideologically committed members of the NAP at the time and did not take sides in the intra-NAP bickering. When Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s pilots bombed the Baloch nationalists on ZA Bhutto and Nawab Bugti’s watch, the Hazaras were not the ones collaborating with Iran.
Over a decade later, Nawab Bugti was to take oath as an elected chief minister of Balochistan. Incidentally, General Musa remained the governor of the province throughout Nawab Akbar Bugti’s tenure. Evidently, the great Baloch nationalist leader neither had a problem working with the Hazara governor nor raised the issue of whether the Hazaras were an indigenous tribe of Quetta. Nawab Sahib, having remained part of the Pakistani establishment, was acutely aware of its machinations to pit leaders against one another and nations against each other. Creating ideological, ethnic, sectarian and personal rifts is the establishment’s time-tested modus operandi. Infiltration within political parties and revolutionary outfits is not unheard of. Seemingly well-meaning people have been duped by this strategy before and, unfortunately, it may be at play in Balochistan again.
The rise of the Baloch national movement — boosted by Nawab Bugti redeeming himself with his blood — and the international support it is gaining has the establishment worried. Playing up the existing fault lines in Balochistan to create a controlled chaos is what they wish to do. Baloch against Pashtun, Sunni against Shia, Baloch against Hazara and everyone against the settlers, has the potential to create a mess to justify a tremendous and prolonged military presence in the province. Additionally, those who could have been opposing the military would end up bleeding each other white. And in no other place can this scenario play out more ominously than in Quetta. As the coveted political prize, Quetta could become Balochistan’s Jerusalem. A stalemate here can effectively throw a wrench in the Baloch liberation struggle and the Pashtun demands for autonomy.
No one is openly talking about it but both Baloch and Pashtun stake a claim to Quetta — historically a Pashtun city. The Hazara claim, if there is one, is perhaps the most benign one, i.e. asking for a right to exist peacefully. They have no irredentist designs or nationalist demands for autonomy or self-determination from Pakistan or its potential successor state(s). The Hazara through their numbers can potentially tip the balance for/against the Pashtun/Baloch and hence the efforts to woo or bully them. The latter has already begun as is evident from the sectarian tirade in Mr Marri’s article. His allegation about the imaginary Iranian support for the Hazaras is a red herring intended to divert attention from the security establishment’s moves to start a three-way Baloch-Hazara-Pashtun conflict in Balochistan.
The creation of new provinces in Pakistan would inevitably lead to the demand for a southern Pashtun province, in which case the demographics of Quetta would become crucial. No leader says it out loud but the status of Quetta is becoming contentious. From the establishment’s standpoint nothing can stall the Baloch liberation struggle more effectively than a direct confrontation between the Baloch and Pashtun over Quetta. The sectarian attacks on and the targeted killings of the Hazaras are designed firstly, to force them into retaliating and secondly, to take sides in the broader conflict that is emerging. The Hazaras, especially, would be well advised to exercise utmost restraint and remain within the framework of secular politics.
It is imperative that the honourable leaders like Nawab Khair Bakhsh Khan Marri, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, Mahmud Khan Achakzai, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Afrasiab Khattak, Sardar Saadat Hazara, Haji Qayyum Changezi and others step forward to discuss what is brewing in Quetta before it is too late. A formula regarding the Quetta issue and the Pashtun access to the port was once discussed, and agreed upon, by Sardar Ataullah Mengal and the late Afzal Bangash. It may serve as a useful template even today.
Mr Surat Khan Marri has tried to muddy the already treacherous waters. It behooves anyone genuinely concerned with the Baloch liberation struggle to steer clear of denigrating any vulnerable populations and many Baloch nationalists were swift to denounce his piece. He may be doing a disservice to the Baloch and Pashtun cause as only the Pakistani establishment stands to gain from chaos in Quetta. But on the bright side, at least we are talking about the real issue and not the red herring Mr Marri wanted us to chase.
(Concluded)
The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/mazdaki
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