Khaama: At least two Iranian border guards and one Taliban security force have been killed after clashes between Taliban and Iranian forces at the border crossing point, according to a Taliban spokesperson and Iranian state media on Saturday. The incident, which also resulted in several injuries, occurred amid tensions between the two countries over water rights, although the exact cause was not immediately known. Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News: The health department of Balkh province reported that in the past week 10 positive cases of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) have been recorded in north region of the country, and two people have died. Local Balkh officials said that incidents of this illness were rising in the country’s north, and they urged religious leaders and the media to warn people about the dangers associated with the disease’s spread. Click here to read more (external link).
Other Health News
Protest against Taliban (file photo)
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
May 26, 2023
A new legal assessment says the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan “amount to the crime against humanity of gender persecution” and should be investigated under international law, according to two human rights groups.
Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) released their joint 62-page report on Friday, saying the Taliban have stripped women and girls of their “basic rights and freedom” since retaking control of the country nearly two years ago.
The document urges International Criminal Court prosecutors to include the “egregious human rights violations” in their ongoing investigation into the situation in conflict-ridden Afghanistan.
“Let there be no doubt: this is a war against women — banned from public life; prevented from accessing education; prohibited from working; barred from moving freely; imprisoned, disappeared, and tortured, including for speaking against these policies and resisting the repression, said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general at Amnesty International.
She said the “organized, widespread and systemic” Taliban curbs against women are “international crimes.”
The fundamentalist former insurgent group seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, when U.S.-led Western troops terminated their involvement in the war with the Taliban and departed the country after almost two decades.
The de facto Afghan authorities have since imposed sweeping edicts and regulations on women, excluding them from most public sectors and political roles and barring girls from receiving an education beyond primary school.
Friday’s joint assessment lamented that the Taliban had turned Afghan females into “second-class citizens.” They have arbitrarily arrested women for so-called “moral crimes” and for their participation in peaceful demonstrations against the curbs, it noted.
“The Taliban’s campaign of gender persecution is of such magnitude, gravity and systematic nature that, cumulatively, the acts and policies form a system of repression which aims to subjugate and marginalize women and girls across the country,” said ICJ Secretary General Santiago Canton.
The report also urged other states to exercise universal jurisdiction or other lawful means to bring to justice Taliban members suspected of responsibility for crimes under international law.
“This should send a clear message to Taliban leaders and members that their discriminatory policies against women and girls are not and never will be tolerated.”
The two top global organizations called on Taliban authorities to remove the ban on girls’ education beyond primary school and allow women working for the government and elsewhere to return to work.
The Taliban have yet to immediately comment on the assessment.
The international community has not formally recognized the Taliban as the official government, mainly because of human rights concerns and the treatment of women.
The Taliban defend their governance as aligned with Afghan culture and Sharia, or Islamic law, ruling out any compromise.
The United Nations and other aid groups say that the restrictions on their Afghan female staff have undermined their work in a country where 28 million people are in urgent need of assistance.
Related
Khaama: The European Census Bureau has said that asylum interests to the EU member states at the beginning of the current year has increased by 40 percent compared to last year. According to the European Census Bureau reports, more than 9,000 Afghan citizens have applied for asylum applications in the EU member state over the past month – a record-high number of asylum applications by any single country. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Sources in Kabul city have reported that the Taliban have arrested two former government army officers in the country’s capital. These individuals, named Muslim and Beryalai, were apprehended on Tuesday, May 23rd, in the second district of Kabul. The detained individuals are brothers and originally hail from the village of Pojava in the Dara district of Panjshir province. Click here to read more (external link).
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Bhutto
Tolo News: The Pakistan Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said that if the issue of terrorism is not taken seriously, it could lead to disaster. Referring to the issue of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Zardari said that Islamabad hopes the Afghan interim government will treat the issue as its own core issue. “In the 600 days to the lead-up to the fall of Kabul, there were a total of five terrorist incidents in Pakistan, on Pakistani soil, conducted by these groups. 600 days past the fall of Kabul, that number went up to 50,” Zardari told a Pakistan Senate committee. Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: Afghanistan defeated Lebanon 3-2 in the first futsal friendly match in Beirut on Thursday. Reza Hussain Pur, Ali Amiri and Farzad Mahmoodi were the goal-scorers for the Afghan team in the match. Afghanistan’s National Futsal team arrived in Beirut on Tuesday for three friendly matches. Click here to read more (external link).
Akmal Dawi
VOA News
May 25, 2023
WASHINGTON — Among a small number of ambassadors who remain in Kabul, Wang Yu, Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, appears the busiest.
This week, Wang met with three Taliban ministers, two of whom are particularly shunned by Western diplomats — Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister who has a $10 million terrorism bounty over his head from the United States, and Nida Mohammad Nadem, the higher education minister who has closed universities for Afghan girls.
Like his counterpart in Kabul, Sayed Muhayuddin Sadaat, the Taliban’s ambassador in Beijing, maintains a busy schedule meeting nationwide with Chinese government and corporate officials.
China is among a small number of countries that host a Taliban charge d’affaires. Short of a formal recognition, Beijing has practically treated the Taliban regime as not only Afghanistan’s legitimate government but also a trade, investment and security partner.
“A crucial driving factor behind China’s shift lies in its preference for political systems that guarantee longer-term predictability in bilateral relationships, even if led by Islamist groups like the Taliban,” Javid Ahmad, a former Afghan ambassador, told VOA.
“The Chinese leaders operate under the assumption that their success in the competition with the West hinges on their leverage over smaller intermediary states like Afghanistan.”
3-3 policy
Even while sharing a rugged and always closed 92-kilometer-long border with Afghanistan, China has traditionally treated the country distantly, saying it follows a policy of “3 Respects” and “3 Nevers.”
“China respects the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, respects the independent choices made by the Afghan people, and respects the religious beliefs and national customs of Afghanistan,” reads a policy statement issued by China’s foreign ministry on April 12.
Perhaps it is out of that respect that China has failed to take any punitive action against the Taliban, which, according to the United Nations and other independent human rights groups, has imposed a nationwide gender-apartheid regime denying women the most basic human rights.
“China never interferes in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, never seeks selfish interests in Afghanistan, and never pursues so-called sphere of influence,” the policy statement continues.
Lithium deposits
Around the world, Beijing has been accused of maintaining a highly exploitative policy toward low-income countries in Asia and Africa, where Chinese companies have invested in mine extraction and large construction projects.
After signing an oil extraction contract with a Chinese firm earlier this year, Taliban officials now say China is interested in investing in lithium mining in Afghanistan.
Landlocked Afghanistan reportedly has more than $1 trillion worth of precious minerals, including the highly sought-after lithium deposits used in rechargeable batteries.
“Part and parcel of the way they [China] approach a bilateral relationship is extractive, literally and figuratively extractive, looking for advantages that they can take from a bilateral relationship, including the potential for critical minerals,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, told reporters Wednesday in response to a VOA question about recent rapprochements in China-Taliban relations.
Chinese interests in Afghanistan’s natural resources are not new, as it signed a multibillion-dollar copper mining contract with the former Afghan government in 2007, though the project never started.
The recent oil deal signed with the Taliban “is the same one CNPC [China National Petroleum Corporation] reached back in 2011. The regime asked the Chinese to sign a new deal, or the project would not be allowed to continue,” Yun Sun, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center, told VOA.
China is still concerned about instability in Afghanistan and is unlikely to invest in mining there in the near future, she said.
Targeting Uyghurs
Accused of torturing minority Muslim Uyghurs in indoctrination camps, Chinese communist leaders have voiced concerns about allowing safe havens for Uyghur militants in neighboring Afghanistan.
“China’s main concern is possible arms sale to Uyghurs and the group reorganizing to establish tactical partnerships with other militants,” said Ahmad, the former Afghan ambassador.
The Taliban say no terrorist group will be allowed to use the Afghan territory against other countries, including the Uyghur dissident group, the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement.
“Within the Taliban, the Haqqani faction manages Uyghur affairs, and they have traded certain concessions to the Chinese in exchange for surveillance systems and cash,” Ahmad said.
Under an agreement made with the United States in 2020, the Taliban pledged they would not permit safe havens for al-Qaida and its affiliates in areas under the group’s control — a commitment U.S. officials say the Taliban broke by hosting former al-Qaida leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri in downtown Kabul.
“[The] Taliban’s religious conviction determines it cannot abandon its Muslim brothers,” Sun said.
Condemned and sanctioned by the Western countries, the Taliban regime appears desperate for approval from regional countries in exchange for mining deals and security assurances.
By Abubakar Siddique
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
May 25, 2023
Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamist Taliban rulers are keen on showcasing their government’s military prowess by frequently displaying repaired helicopters and planes from the country’s inventory of aging aircraft.
But the once ragtag militant group that relied on small arms, rocket launchers, roadside bombs, and suicide bombers to wage war for a quarter century is struggling to get its dreams of building a modern air force off the ground.
On May 21, two pilots were killed after their U.S.-made helicopter crashed in the northern province of Samangan. The MD-530 multi-mission military aircraft was on patrol when it plunged to the ground after hitting an electricity pylon, according to the Taliban.
It was the latest of at least five verified military aviation accidents recorded since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. All involved helicopters from the previous government’s patchwork fleet of mostly U.S.- and Russian-built aircraft, with pilot error considered the likely causes.
While the Taliban has shown it can make use of helicopters and some leftover planes in response to humanitarian disasters or for show, it is seen as being far from re-creating a functional air force capable of securing the skies in the event of foreign incursions or domestic insurgencies.
“I don’t see the Taliban air force as something to worry about,” said Amin Tarzi, director of Middle East Studies at the U.S. Marine Corps University. “If anything, it can become more symbolic.”
Tarzi, an Afghanistan expert, says that the Taliban would need to conduct a significant amount of training for pilots and develop strategies for communication and coordination with ground forces, to build a viable air force.
“Despite the Taliban propaganda, this air force won’t become a major threat to anyone in the region,” he said. “For whatever reason, they think the air force makes you a more formidable or formal force.”
In November, Taliban military officials claimed to have repaired some 70 helicopters and military planes. Taliban officials said their amnesty scheme for former Afghan military pilots and ground crews attracted more than 40 pilots and technicians to return and work for the Taliban’s Defense Ministry.
The Taliban inherited more than 100 aircraft, most of which were inoperable, when it returned to power.
The Western-backed Afghan republic had 162 aircraft. Of these, 131 were airworthy just before the government’s collapse in August 2021, according to the U.S. Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
Some 25 percent of the aircraft were flown to neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as Taliban fighters advanced on Kabul. Dozens more were rendered inoperable as Western forces headed for a final exit. Fearing Taliban reprisals, hundreds of former pilots and ground crew fled Afghanistan.
Tarzi says that even before the United States indicated it wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan by signing a peace agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, the Afghan Air Force was an anemic institution. He pointed out as critical deficiencies its overreliance on Western support, a lack of discipline, and an incapability to operate independently.
“The idea that the Afghan Air Force was intact and operational was erroneous,” he said.
Afghanistan’s first modern air force emerged under King Zahir Shah in the 1960s with Soviet aircraft. During the Soviet occupation, the pro-Moscow socialist government established a formidable air force with hundreds of Soviet jets, cargo planes, and helicopters.
But the air force split into several rival aviation units controlled by warring warlords. During the Taliban’s first stint in power in the 1990s, its air force possessed some jets and helicopters operated by Afghan pilots and technicians who had defected to the group.
Author Lukas Muller’s book, Wings Over The Hindu Kush, documents the history of the Afghan air force between 1989 and 2001. He says that currently only a small number of Taliban fighters serve in the air force, which is mainly manned by pilots and technicians trained by the United States and its allies. Some were even trained during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The Taliban is attempting to train new pilots but has not released figures showing the number of pilots and technicians it has, suggesting a shortage of qualified personnel.
Muller says that, based on photos and videos, the Taliban now has approximately 50 operational planes and helicopters.
“They consider their air force a crucial part of their military strength and openly boast about their accomplishments in repairing additional aircraft,” he said.
The Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopter, in several subtypes, is the most widely used Taliban helicopter. The group also has a small fleet of airworthy U.S.-made Black Hawk multi-mission helicopters, as well as U.S.-made MD-530s. Some A-29 attack fighters, a turboprop plane provided by the United States to the former Afghan government for air support and training, are believed to be serviceable. And the Taliban also possesses Russian Antonov transport planes and U.S. C-208 and AC-208 cargo aircraft.
Muller said that while the Taliban has utilized its planes and helicopters for transporting troops, military and humanitarian cargo, and regime officials, the actual deployment of combat aircraft remains unverified.
He says that the Taliban has not deployed its combat helicopters, such as the MD-530s or Russian-made Mi-35s, to actively engage opposition forces in the northern province of Panjshir, which has been a hotbed of anti-Taliban armed resistance.
“In essence, the Taliban’s air force has yet to prove itself in combat,” he said.