Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday reported that 48 new cases of the coronavirus were positive out of 468 samples tested over the last 24 hours. In the last 24 hours, the ministry also reported five new deaths from COVID-19 and 57 recoveries. The number of total cases is now 37,599, the total reported deaths is 1,375, and the total recoveries is 27,223. Click here to read more (external link).
US Asks Afghans to Swiftly Begin Peace Talks to Deter Spoilers
Khalilzad
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 16, 2020
ISLAMABAD – The United States has called on Afghanistan’s warring sides to start negotiations without further delay to deter “those who seek to disrupt the peace process.”
U.S. special envoy to the war-torn country Zalmay issued the call in response to Friday’s attempt on the life of a prominent female member of the Afghan national team designated to negotiate peace with the Taliban insurgency.
“We condemn the attempt on @FawziaKoofi77’s life…; a cowardly and criminal act by those who seek to delay and disrupt the #AfghanPeaceProcess,” Khalilzad said in a series of tweets.
Afghan officials said Fawzia Koofi, a 45-year-old former parliamentarian and advocate of women’s rights, was returning to Kabul from northern Parwan province Friday evening when unknown gunmen attacked her vehicle near the capital city. She escaped without serious injury.
No one has claimed responsibility for what senior Afghan officials denounced as an assassination attempt on Koofi. The Taliban denied involvement in the attack, fueling suspicions militants linked to the Islamic State group could be behind it.
“I call on all sides who seek peace to not only condemn the attack but to accelerate the peace process and start intra-Afghan negotiations ASAP [as soon as possible],” Khalilzad stressed.
The negotiations, known as intra-Afghan talks, are a product of a deal the U.S. sealed with the Taliban in February to extricate American troops from the nearly 19-year Afghan war.
A series of high-profile unclaimed deadly attacks in and round Kabul in recent weeks have targeted religious leaders, human rights defenders and legal experts associated with the U.S.-brokered peace process, prompting concerns anti-peace forces are trying to derail the Afghan talks.
Critics say that despite its public pledges to investigate and expose perpetrators of these attacks, the Ghani government has not reported any progress so far.
Khalilzad, who negotiated and signed the pact with the Taliban, has since repeatedly urged Afghan rivals to promptly launch the long-hoped-for direct talks, warning “spoilers”, including Islamic State militants, could try to disrupt the peace effort.
But the peace talks are linked to the completion of a controversy-marred prisoner swap between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) after a meeting with Qatar-based Taliban leaders on Saturday indicated that peace talks may take place this week.
“UNAMA officials met the Taliban Political Commission in Doha today, expressing support for direct intra-Afghan talks starting this week. Reduced violence is required to improve atmosphere for negotiations,” said the mission in a post-meeting tweet.
On Friday, Kabul released the first 80 of a last group of 400 “hard-core” Taliban prisoners to move a step closer towards the intra-Afghan negotiations expected to take place in Doha, Qatar, where the U.S.-Taliban deal was inked. The insurgents maintain their political office in Doha.
The months-long prisoner swap has seen the release of up to 4,700 insurgents by Kabul from a Taliban list of 5,000 inmates. In return, the militants have freed 1,000 government security personnel as stipulated in the deal with the U.S.
The move, however, has prompted France to ask the Afghan government not to proceed with the release of several Taliban inmates convicted of killing French soldiers and citizens in Afghanistan.
“France is particularly concerned by the presence, among the individuals liable to be released, of several terrorists convicted of killing French citizens in Afghanistan,” the French foreign ministry said on Saturday.
“It firmly opposes the liberation of individuals convicted of crimes against French nationals, in particular soldiers and humanitarian workers,” it said.
Australia also has made a similar demand earlier this month.
The Taliban has rejected allegations against its remaining prisoners and denounced recent public remarks by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that the detainees are a threat to both Afghanistan and international community.
“Such irresponsible remarks on the verge of intra-Afghan negotiations show that the Kabul administration is still trying to create hurdles for the peace process and seeks to arouse global emotions through propaganda,” the insurgent group said in a statement on Saturday.
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Attacked Female Negotiator Still Committed to Afghan Peace
Koofi
Tolo News: Two days after the attack on peace negotiator Fawzia Koofi, there isn’t any information about the perpetrators of the incident. Koofi, however, who is under treatment at a hospital in Kabul, said on Sunday that she will continue defending women’s rights and working for peace in the country. Click here to read more (external link).
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IMF to Extend Afghan Credit Line if Anti-Corruption Reforms Implemented
Michael Hughes: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Afghan authorities reached an agreement that would provide the country access to $364 million in credit over the next 3.5 years if actions are taken to improve transparency and reduce corruption.
The announcement comes as the Afghan government is under fire again for rampant corruption, including allegations of abusing COVID-19 funding. Last week, the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) said corruption in Kabul is on the rise and has reached the highest levels of government. Click here to read more.
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – August 15, 2020
Female Afghan Peace Negotiator Survives Assassination Bid
Koofi
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 15, 2020
ISLAMABAD – Officials in Afghanistan said Saturday a prominent female peace negotiator had survived an assassination attempt ahead of U.S.-brokered negotiations with the Islamist Taliban.
Fawzia Koofi, a 45-year-old former Afghan parliamentarian and a renowned human rights activist, was returning to Kabul from the neighboring northern Parwan province Friday evening when unknown gunmen ambushed and attacked her vehicle in a marketplace near the capital city.
Koofi was “slightly” wounded but she was in “good health,” tweeted Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, the head of a 21-member national team designated to negotiate a political settlement to the country’s long conflict with the Taliban.
No one claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani denounced as a “cowardly” act.
“I strongly condemn the assassination attempt on Ms Fawzia Koofi @FawziaKoofi77 and call upon the government to identify and apprehend the culprits and possible motive for the attack,” tweeted Abdullah Abdullah, who is overseeing the national political reconciliation process with the Taliban.
The Taliban denied its involvement in the attack saying the group had “nothing to do with it.”
Koofi has served as the first woman deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament and is known as a vocal critic of the Taliban. She has survived several previous assassination attempts allegedly plotted by the insurgents.
A series of recent high-profile attacks in an around Kabul have gone unclaimed, though militants loyal to the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group have taken credit for plotting some of them.
The Ghani-led government has promised to investigate and expose perpetrators of those attacks but no progress has been reported so far.
The proposed Afghan-Taliban talks are an outcome of a deal the United States signed with the Islamist insurgency in February to extricate American troops from the nearly 19-year Afghan war and promote a peaceful settlement of decades of hostilities.
The Afghan government Friday released the first 80 of a last group of 400 Taliban prisoners ahead of the talks expected to begin later this month in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where the U.S.-Taliban deal was signed and which hosts the insurgents’ political office.
The prisoner swap is part of the pact and a Taliban condition for starting much-hoped-for peace negotiations. It calls for the insurgents to release the 1,000 Afghan security personnel they held captive and for the Kabul government to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners.
Friday’s attack on Koofi came hours after a group of United Nations rapporteurs in a joint statement called on Afghan authorities to take “early decisive action” to prevent killings of human rights defenders in the country.
“The killing of one human rights defender is a tragedy for society; the death of nine defenders since the beginning of this year shows the emergence of a truly alarming trend,” Mary Lawlor, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, said, according to a U.N. release.
“Already by August, Afghanistan has far exceeded last year’s figures,” she said.
The statement noted that investigations in many cases have not yielded any results and lamented that “impunity” allowed the perpetuation of such crimes.
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Taliban Doesn’t Recognize Afghan Govt: Statement
Ashraf Ghani
Tolo News: On the threshold of the intra-Afghan talks, which are expected to be held on Doha in the near future, the Taliban on Saturday issued a statement saying the group does not recognize the Afghan government as a legitimate system. The statement was apparently issued in response to a recent statement by the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and one of his advisers on the peace process with the Taliban. Click here to read more (external link).
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Backed by ISI, Haqqani Network is making a game-changing move in Afghanistan
Hindustan Times:According to officials, the ISKP can front attacks for the Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). ISKP leader Aslam Farooqi, a Pakistani national with links to LeT and Pakistan’s Tehrik-e-Taliban was arrested by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security along with 19 other terrorist cadres on April 5. The Pakistani deep state is pushing the Haqqani Network to increase its stake in so-called Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) to retain its leverage on Afghanistan irrespective of the on-going peace process and maintain plausible deniability in future terror attacks in Af-Pak region, according to senior counter-terrorism officials. Click here to read more (external link).
Afghanistan: More action needed to stop killings of human rights defenders
UN: The death of nine human rights defenders since the beginning of this year marks “the emergence of a truly alarming trend”, an independent UN rights expert said on Friday, calling on Afghanistan to prevent any further killings. “Already by August, Afghanistan has far exceeded last year’s figures”, said Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. She issued a joint statement with three other UN Human Rights Council-mandated Special Rapporteurs, saying that “impunity allows the perpetuation of such crimes and implies a lack of recognition for human rights defenders’ role in society”. Noting that investigations in many cases have not yet yielded any results, they spelled out: “There needs to be full accountability for such egregious violations of human rights”. Click here to read more (external link).
Bodies of 3 Captured, Tortured, Executed ANA Soldiers Found
Tolo News: The dead bodies of three members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) have been found in Khak-e-Jabar district of Kabul province, the family members confirmed on Thursday. The family members of the dead soldiers said that the three were taken hostage by the Taliban and were “brutally tortured” by the group before being shot. Sherullah was one of the ANA soldiers who was killed alongside his two colleagues. Click here to read more (external link).
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