Interview: Afghan expert eyes at China to help bring peace to Afghanistan
Xinhua: An Afghan expert and researcher on China’s foreign policy has termed China as a good neighbor of Afghanistan and seeks its support to help Afghans succeed during the ongoing peace process and bring about lasting peace and stability to Afghanistan. China, as a good neighbor of Afghanistan and a country that seeks to build a community of shared future for mankind, can play its due role in helping Afghans find a negotiated settlement and bring about lasting peace to the country, Nazari Pariani told Xinhua recently. Click here to read more (external link).
Study Ranks Afghanistan As World’s Least Peaceful Country, Points To ‘De-Escalation’ In Ukraine
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 12, 2019
According to a new study, the world became “very slightly” more peaceful for the first time in five years, but remains “considerably less peaceful now” than a decade ago due to conflicts in the Middle East, a rise in terrorism, increasing numbers of refugees, and other factors.
The Institute for Economics and Peace’s annual Global Peace Index published on June 12 ranked Iceland as the world’s most peaceful country for the 11th year in a row.
The country is joined at the top of the index by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, and Denmark.
Afghanistan is at the bottom of the index, replacing Syria, which is now the second-least peaceful country in the world, according to the Australia-based think tank. They are followed by South Sudan, Yemen, and Iraq.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban and other militant groups continue to launch near-daily attacks on Afghan security forces, government forces, and civilians, even as peace efforts have been gaining momentum to put an end to the almost 18-year-long war.
Mohib Iqbal, a research fellow at the institute, told RFE/RL that Afghanistan “is now the world’s most violent conflict with the highest number of deaths from war and terrorism” after Syria “experienced a decrease in violence after the defeat of [the extremist group Islamic State] and the localization of the ongoing conflict in the country.”
The Institute for Economics and Peace said the greatest increase in peacefulness occurred in the Russia and Eurasia region, where “the number of deaths from conflict declined, owing to the de-escalation of violence in Ukraine,” which rose two places to rank 150th out of 163 countries in the 2019 Global Peace Index.
Since April 2014, some 13,000 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the Russia-backed separatists who control parts of Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk peace accords have contributed to a decrease in fighting but have failed to hold.
Last year, Ukraine “had the third-largest reduction in internal-conflict deaths,” Iqbal said.
He also cited “reductions in population displacement, incarceration, the impact of terrorism and especially, political terror,” but added that “these improvements were partially offset by a deterioration in political instability, reflecting uncertainty about the 2019 elections.”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy was elected president with more than 70 percent of the vote in an April runoff election.
“Providing his lack of political experience does not undermine his policymaking, he may be able to improve unity and stability in the country,” according to Iqbal.
The economic impact of violence on the global economy in 2018 represented 11.2 percent of the gross world product, according to the study.
The index is based on 23 indicators that included internal and external conflicts, military spending, terrorism, murder, and other crime rates.
With reporting by Frud Bezhan
Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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1TV Afghanistan Dari News – June 11, 2019
Taliban, US Welcome Release of Insurgent Prisoners by Kabul
Taliban fighters (file photo)
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 11, 2019
ISLAMABAD – The government in Afghanistan has unilaterally initiated a process of releasing hundreds of Taliban prisoners, a move being hailed both by the insurgent group and the United States amid a renewed push for finding a political settlement to the deadly Afghan war.
Last week, President Ashraf Ghani had ordered nearly 900 prisoners to be freed within the next two months in a goodwill gesture. Officials asserted that most of the detainees are Taliban fighters and dozens of them have since been set free.
No official figures were immediately available, but Afghan media reported authorities would have released around 300 prisoners by the end of Tuesday.
A Taliban statement confirmed its prisoners are being set free from different Afghan jails, calling it a “positive step” and urging the government to continue the process.
The insurgent group, however, asserted only 261 Taliban members were on the list of detainees President Ghani has promised to release. The rest, it said, are non-combatants and were rounded up by local forces and their American partners allegedly during night raids against civilian homes.
U.S ambassador to Afghanistan Johan Bass welcomed the releasing of insurgent prisoners by Kabul, saying it would improve “the climate for a political settlement” to the conflict. “Lasting peace will be rooted in reconciliation and forgiveness by all,” Bass tweeted Tuesday.
The ambassador, however, criticized the Taliban for not releasing government prisoners. He praised Afghan security forces for freeing hundreds of detainees in recent raids against insurgent-run jails.
U.S. and Taliban negotiators are scheduled to hold another round of peace talks in Qatar later this month, but the dialogue process has failed to persuade the insurgents to cease hostilities and engage in intra-Afghan talks to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
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- Concerns Growing Over Release of Taliban’s Prisoners – military analysts say the released prisoners may join Taliban ranks in the battlefields
- US Envoy Working On Four ‘Pillars’ For Afghan Peace
- Military Pressure On Taliban Necessary For Peace: RS Official
- Questions Raised As High Profile Taliban Member Goes Missing
Dozens Of Inmates Rescued From Taliban-Run Prison
By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
June 11, 2019
KABUL — Afghan special forces have rescued 44 people from a Taliban-run prison in the northern province of Baghlan, local officials say.
Baghlan district Governor Khanzad Mazlomiyar said on June 11 that civilians and members of the security forces were among those freed during the operation, which took place the previous day.
The Taliban has yet to comment on the raid.
Last month, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that Afghan captives held by the militant group had been subjected to “ill-treatment and actions that may amount to torture.”
UNAMA made its assessment after interviewing 13 detainees from a group of 53 rescued in April by Afghan forces from a Taliban-run detention facility in the southern province of Uruzgan.
It quoted the detainees as saying that the Taliban killed some of their captives.
Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Six Afghan Civilians Killed In Roadside Bomb Blast
By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan
June 11, 2019
KABUL — Six civilians have been killed in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar after a roadside bomb ripped through the vehicle they were travelling in, officials say.
Provincial police spokesman Qasim Afghan said the explosion occurred in Dand district on June 11, killing all passengers inside the vehicle.
Four children were among those killed in the blast, Afghan said.
All the victims were said to be members of one family.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Dand district Governor Haji Abdullah said the bomb was placed by the Taliban on a road frequently used by foreign and Afghan security forces.
On June 9, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it “remains troubled that civilians are being killed in high numbers” in the Afghan conflict, and urged all parties to protect civilians from harm.
A statement said that “anti-government elements deliberately and knowingly targeted civilians” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, adding that attack in Kabul alone had caused more than 100 civilian casualties.
“I condemn these deliberate attacks on civilians that signal a disturbing intent to spread fear; they delegitimize the perpetrators, depriving them of any claim to represent the people of Afghanistan,” UNAMA head Tadamichi Yamamoto said.
With reporting by AFP
Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
1TV Afghanistan Dari News – June 10. 2019
Umer Daudzai to quit as head of peace council secretariat
Daudzai
1TV: Daudzai is expected to act as chief of President Ashraf Ghani’s campaign ahead of election in September… Click here to read more (external link).
ISIL expands its reach in Afghanistan, threatening the West
ISIS trainees
Al Jazeera: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group is expanding its footprint in Afghanistan “with thousands and thousands” of fighters after losing its so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq. The armed group is recruiting new soldiers and plotting attacks on the United States and other Western countries, US and Afghan security officials say. ISIL is seen as an even greater threat than the Taliban because of its increasingly sophisticated military capabilities and its strategy of targeting civilians, both in Afghanistan and abroad. Click here to read more (external link).
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