Today's Afghan News

Friday, February 3, 2012


Vulnerable Afghans
struggle to survive harsh winter

by Abdul Haleem, Yangtze Yan

KABUL, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- "I am a mother of three and have nothing to keep my hut warm," a destitute woman appealed to passersby for alms in downtown Kabul.

Sitting alongside a snowy street and holding up an umbrella to keep herself and two kids from heavy snowfall, the dejected lady said that the continued cold spell and snowfall had doubled her pains.

"I have no choice but to beg, I have three children and no proper food and shelter," the upset mother told Xinhua on Friday.

Nevertheless, the begging but shy woman refused to disclose her name, saying that "I need assistance and not talking to people."

Inquiring women's name in the conservative Afghanistan sometimes creates problem for the questioners as many Afghan women do not like to reveal their names to others other than their close relatives.

The impoverished lady is not alone that has been living on charity provided by passersby and relief agencies.

Begging, particularly by women, is a taboo in Afghanistan. However, the continued instability and extreme poverty have forced many to beg on streets.

Almost in every street of the war-battered yet under- construction capital city and other Afghan cities, the begging men, women and children often disturb the attention of onlookers.

Grabbing her two children on arm in the snowy day, another woman was also busy in seeking handout to survive.

"Please help me as much as you can. I am in urgent need of firewood, food and money," said the woman dressed in tatters.

To cope with the poverty and assist the needy Afghans in 2012, the government of Afghanistan and the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) appealed for 437 million U.S. dollars on Jan. 28.

"The appeal is a total of 437 million U.S. dollars," UN Humanitarian Coordinator Michael Keating told a joint press conference with Afghan Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development Jarullah Mansoori.

At the press briefing, the UN official said that 8.8 million Afghans are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2012 and over 187,000 people were displaced in 2011, mostly due to security incidents.

Unprecedentedly in couple of years, the current chilly winter, accompanied by heavy snowfalls, has been hitting most parts of the mountainous Afghanistan over the past month. The snow depth marked up to 60 centimeters in Kabul and adjoining provinces since Thursday.

More than 40 people have lost their lives in avalanche and snowfall some two weeks ago in the northeast Badakhshan province and scores others sustained injuries, according to officials.

"Please help me to buy a few nan and feed my children tonight," said a 39-year-old man who introduced himself as Karim outside a roadside hotel.

Nan is a flat bread and the most affordable food item that Afghan families often put on their dining tables during mealtime.


ISAF Joint Command
morning operational update

NATO News Release

KABUL, Afghanistan (Feb. 03) –

Afghan hostage rescued by combined Afghan Force

A combined Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation freeing a kidnapped Afghan citizen in Khoghjani district, Ghazni province, Wednesday.

During the operation, the security force rescued one hostage and detained several insurgents connected with the kidnapping. The insurgents revealed that a second hostage had escaped one day prior and admitted they planned to kill the remaining hostage that day.

The security force also seized multiple small arms, ammunition and tactical vests during the operation.

The insurgents were detained by Afghan security forces for further questioning. The rescued hostage received medical attention on site and was taken to a coalition hospital for further observation.

No civilians were harmed and no shots were fired during the operation.

In other International Security Assistance Force news throughout Afghanistan:

South

An Afghan and coalition security force captured a Taliban leader during an operation in Nahr-E Saraj district, Helmand province, today. The leader was a Taliban-appointed deputy and head of the insurgent group’s military commission in Badghis province. The captured leader arranged large-scale attacks, distributed weapons and collected taxes. He represented both the Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan groups and was responsible for coordinating insurgent activities in Badghis and Faryab province. One additional suspected insurgent was detained during the operation.

East

In Bakwaw district, Farah province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force discovered a drug and weapons cache during an operation yesterday. The cache consisted of approximately 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of opium, 16 improvised explosive devices, several containers of explosive-making materials, $1.5 million in Pakistan currency and a motorcycle rigged with explosives to be used as a suicide vehicle borne IED. Security forces detained three suspected insurgents and confiscated the drugs and currency. The weapons were destroyed on site without incident.


'NATO set to withdraw troops
from Afghanistan by the end of 2014'

Press TV
February 3, 2012

NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the military alliance will withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, as “originally planned.”

Rasmussen announced the decision at a news conference on Friday after NATO's defense ministers resumed their talks at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

But French President Nicolas Sarkozy had earlier announced that French troops will pull out a year before then.

However, Rasmussen insisted that the handover of combat roles to local Afghan forces would depend on the security situation on the ground.

The NATO ministers convened on Thursday to discuss major changes to the war strategy in Afghanistan during the two-day meeting.

The talks have also been discussing how to pay a yearly 4.5 billion euros for Afghanistan's security forces once they take over from the alliance in 2014.

It is unlikely a final decision will emerge before NATO's summit in Chicago in May, while austerity budget cuts in a crisis-hit eurozone have made it difficult to reach agreement on future funding.

In 2001, the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan under the pretext of removing Taliban militants from power.

Insecurity, however, continues to rise across Afghanistan despite the presence thousands of US-led troops in the war-weary nation.

Meanwhile, a recent NATO report leaked to the media suggested that Afghan militants are confident they can defeat the coalition.


Interview: Rashid On 'Bad Timing' Of
NATO Report On Pakistan And Taliban

February 1, 2012
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Ahmed Rashid, a journalist and the well-respected author of several books on the Taliban and militant Islam, answers questions about the impact of a leaked NATO report that alleges that Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency is "intimately involved" with the Afghan insurgency. Rashid spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique.

RFE/RL: Is the revelation in this NATO report about Islamabad's support for the Taliban news to you?

Ahmed Rashid: It's very well known amongst NATO militaries [and] amongst the U.S. military. I was told by senior American generals that they approached [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld back in 2005 about the support that the Taliban were getting from Pakistan. But it was ignored by Bush at that time.

So this is nothing new, I think, for anyone. But the fact that it should be leaked and that it should come in such language, I suppose, is going to create quite a furor.

RFE/RL: How do you read the timing of this leak, then, given that all sides are now pushing for a negotiated settlement?

Rashid: Well, the timing obviously is very bad because this is precisely the time that Pakistan needs to be wooed and Pakistan needs to come on board this peace process with the Taliban, be it American or German or Qatari-led -- whatever.

Certainly, what you see now happening is that Pakistan is going to go its own way. It's not going to cooperate with the Americans or with NATO. And this kind of leak that has happened is going to make things much more difficult for Pakistan to accept an American negotiated end to the war.

RFE/RL: So, if they go their own way, does that mean we are back to square one?

Rashid: Certainly, there is a danger of that. I think the timing could have been connected to the fact that today the Pakistani foreign minister was expected to visit Kabul and hold talks with [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai. So there will be a lot of suspicion in Islamabad that the Americans deliberately leaked this at this particular movement to perhaps sabotage Pakistan's effort [to reach an understanding with Afghanistan].

RFE/RL: There is a lot of uncertainty around the future of international efforts in Afghanistan. France, for instance, has already announced that they are going to leave a year early. Could something like this prompt others to follow suit?

Rashid: There is an enormous diplomatic effort right now to try to persuade other NATO countries not to leave early. But the possibility, of course, exists that some countries with some of the smaller contingents of troops could decide to leave early.

Certainly, the Americans don't want to announce anything more until the NATO summit in Chicago in May, in which things might become clearer. And where you might see the Americans themselves bring the date forward for their exit from 2014 to perhaps a few months earlier.


Pakistan, UNHCR agree new
regional approach to Afghan refugees

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency Thursday called for additional international solidarity with Pakistan and Iran which continue to host large numbers of Afghan refugees after more than 30 years.

There are currently 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Since 2002, more than five million Afghan refugees have already left for home, the majority with assistance from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

In 2011 just over 50,000 Afghan refugees returned home from Pakistan, down from nearly 110,000 thousand in 2010. Despite the decline, the number of Afghan returns last year still represented the largest refugee repatriation programme in the world.

"At a time when many countries are closing their doors to those fleeing violence and persecution, the generosity of the people and the government of Pakistan towards Afghan refugees deserves greater recognition and support on the part of the international community,"UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ant nio Guterres told a news conference in Islamabad.

During his visit Mr Guterres also met with Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. Central to their talks was an agreement reached in Dubai earlier this week between Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and UNHCR to pursue a regional strategy aimed at finding durable solutions to the Afghan refugee situation.

The new strategy will be presented at an international conference to be held in Switzerland in early May.

The conference will seek international support for programmes inside Afghanistan that will increase the attractiveness and sustainability of returns while providing additional support to communities that continue to host Afghan refugees.

"The priority now," said the UNHCR chief, "is to create conditions inside Afghanistan that will allow for large scale voluntary repatriation." Afghan refugees will be more ready to go home once the right conditions are in place inside Afghanistan, he added.

Mr Guterres also commended the government for reaffirming its commitment to the voluntary and gradual return of Afghan refugees.

He thanked Pakistan for its hospitality towards Afghan refugees while praising its continued commitment to finding lasting solutions to the situation.

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