Taliban Foreign Minister Joins Regional Huddle on Afghanistan

·

Muttaqi

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
April 13, 2023

ISLAMABAD — Uzbekistan is hosting a conference Thursday of foreign ministers of regional countries, including Russia and China, to review the situation and cooperation with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The event in the Uzbek city of Samarkand comes as the United Nations reviews its presence in the strife-torn South Asian nation after the radical Taliban barred female staff from working for the world body, the latest in a series of curbs placed on Afghan women.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is attending Thursday’s meeting with counterparts from Russia and six neighbors of Afghanistan, including China, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

Muttaqi’s office confirmed his arrival in Samarkand on Twitter, saying Uzbek officials received him “warmly.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, earlier also arrived in Samarkand to attend the meeting.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement said Wednesday that participants at the Samarkand huddle “will focus on the development of regional economic integration and the implementation of transport and energy projects involving Kabul under earlier agreements.”

On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, responding to criticism of the Taliban’s restrictions on women and lack of political inclusivity, told reporters Beijing supports “the Afghan government in adopting moderate, prudent and inclusive policies.”

Wang said his government had maintained contact with the Taliban government to help them and the Afghan people overcome reconstruction, economic development, and security-related challenges.

“China stands ready to step up coordination and cooperation with Afghanistan’s neighbors and the rest of the world to help Afghanistan embark on a path of stability and development,” he said.

Beijing and Moscow have stepped up engagements with the Taliban since they seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S.-led Western troops withdrew after 20 years of war.

China’s Policy

Analysts say Beijing’s growing engagement with Kabul stems from potentially vital economic opportunities and to expand Beijing’s regional influence. They see Afghanistan’s largely unexplored mineral wealth and the presence of anti-China militants in the country as the main drivers behind the increased Chinese diplomatic outreach.

The impoverished nation, reeling from years of war and natural calamities, links West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia countries. China has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure and economic development projects in these countries under its global Belt and Road Initiative, hoping to make Afghanistan part of it.

“China welcomes Afghanistan’s participation in Belt and Road cooperation and supports Afghanistan’s integration into regional economic cooperation and connectivity that will transform Afghanistan from a ‘land-locked country’ to a ‘land-linked country,'” the Chinese foreign ministry said in its Afghan policy document released on Wednesday.

China and Russia are among several regional and neighboring countries that have kept their embassies in Kabul after the Taliban takeover. But no foreign government has recognized the Taliban authorities, citing curbs on Afghan women and concerns stemming from other human rights abuses.

“We hope the Afghan interim government will protect the basic rights and interests of all Afghan people, including women, children, and all ethnic groups, and continue working actively to meet Afghan people’s interests and the international community’s expectations,” the Chinese foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The United Nations has condemned the “unlawful” ban on hundreds of its Afghan female staff, imposed a week ago, and warned it could push the global organization to stop operations in the country.

The Taliban on Wednesday defended their decision to forbid Afghan women from working for the U.N., saying it is an internal matter that all parties should respect.

Afghanistan is home to one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, where the United Nations says 28.3 million people, or two-thirds of the population, need humanitarian assistance, with 6 million people on the brink of famine.

Related

Pakistan Will Hit Terror Hideouts Inside Afghanistan, Defense Minister Warns Kabul

·

Khawaja Muhammad Asif

Sarah Zaman
VOA News
April 12, 2023

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, has said that Islamabad has warned the Afghan Taliban it will strike terrorist hideouts inside Afghanistan if the de facto rulers in Kabul are unable to rein in anti-Pakistan militants.

In an exclusive interview with Voice of America, Asif said in his late-February visit to Afghanistan that he reminded Taliban leaders to live up to their cross-border security commitments forbidding terrorists from using Afghan soil to plan and conduct attacks on Pakistan or Islamabad will take action.

“If that is not done, at some point we’ll have to … resort to some measures, which will definitely — wherever [terrorists] are, their sanctuaries on Afghan soil — we’ll have to hit them,” he said. “We’ll have to hit them because we cannot tolerate this situation for long.”

Since the Afghan Taliban’s August 2021 takeover of Kabul, Pakistan has seen a resurgence in terror attacks led by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP, an ideological offshoot and ally of the Afghan Taliban.

According to the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, the country recorded at least 262 terror attacks in 2022, of which the TTP was responsible for at least 89. Last November, the group ended a unilateral cease-fire after talks with Islamabad broke down. Since then, the country has seen near-daily lethal attacks, most of them targeting members of the military and police.

Pakistan alleges TTP leadership is operating from Afghanistan after Pakistani military operations in the border areas a few years ago forced it to flee along with thousands of fighters.

When asked if he believed the Afghan Taliban’s assertion that the TTP is not operating from Afghan soil, Asif said, “they still operate from their soil.”

Asif claimed Taliban leadership “responded very well” to the recent warning. He said he believes that the Afghan Taliban are trying to “disentangle” from the TTP, after receiving support from the group to fight the U.S.-led coalition troops.

Last April, Pakistan struck what it claimed was a TTP outpost in eastern Afghanistan. However, a large number of civilian deaths in the operation led to a strong reaction by the Afghan Taliban.

Asif said he hopes the security threat to his country will not escalate to a point where “we have to do something which will be not to the liking of our neighbors and our brothers in Kabul,” whom he said Pakistan “wished well” in their efforts to establish their writ across Afghanistan.

But Asif also criticized former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and the previous military and intelligence leadership for allowing thousands of Taliban fighters and their families to return to Pakistan in a bid to continue negotiations with the militants. Intelligence reports say that allowed the terrorists to regroup.

In a recent interview with VOA, Khan defended that decision, saying Pakistan did not have many options.

“Should we have just lined them up and shot them or should we have tried to work with them to resettle them?” Khan said, accusing Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies of negligence as terrorists reorganized.

Pakistani government and security officials allege TTP fighters attacking Pakistan are using arms and equipment left behind by U.S. troops at the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet told VOA in February that U.S. officials do not have an independent assessment of that claim.

Asif said the TTP was using light weapons, assault rifles, ammunition, night vision goggles and sniper rifles that U.S. troops left behind. When asked if Pakistan had shared any evidence with Washington, Asif questioned how that would help Islamabad as “Washington left … that sort of hardware on foreign soil because they couldn’t carry it.”

Alluding to the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan after two decades of fighting U.S. and coalition troops, Asif questioned Washington’s ability to fight terrorism successfully or the need to request its help to fight terrorism in Pakistan.

“I do not see any logic in that,” he said. “My personal view is that we can take care of this … menace ourselves.”

After conducting two large-scale military operations against terrorists in 2014 and 2017, Pakistan is once again contemplating a comprehensive plan, including a possible military operation in areas bordering Afghanistan. But Pakistan is also in the throes of an economic crisis as the threat of a default looms due to mounting external debt payments, dwindling foreign reserves and stalled bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.

Asif said the economic crisis is the biggest threat for the country right now and the military, which receives the largest chunk of the annual federal budget, is looking at curtailing its expenses. However, he refused to specify where the cuts would be made.

He also did not elaborate on where the finances would come from if Pakistan decided to conduct a new military operation.

Pakistan’s military has a history of meddling in politics, a fact the previous army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, admitted publicly last year. Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan accuses the army of orchestrating his ouster a year ago, while his opponents accuse him of coming to power on the military’s back.

Asif believes the military will uphold its latest pledge of staying out of politics.

“I am 100% sure that the next election will … be [without] any interference,” he said.

Despite facing a trifecta of crises—political instability, an economic meltdown and rising terrorism—Asif said he has “absolutely no doubt” that Pakistan’s defense is stable.

Young Man’s Suicide Adds to Rising Suicide Rates in Bamyan Province

·

8am: According to local sources, the young man, who was known to be a hardworking employee of a private company in Bamyan city, hanged himself on Thursday, 13 April, in the village of Siyah-Khak, in the Fuladi valley of Bamyan center. In recent months, the suicide rate among young people in several provinces of the country has increased. Poverty, unemployment, hopelessness, domestic violence, and restrictions imposed by the Taliban are cited as reasons for the increase in suicide among young people. Click here to read more (external link).

‘Nothing Left’ For Herat Shopkeepers After Taliban Bans Music, Foreign Films, Video Games

·

By Shahpoor Saber
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
April 12, 2023

Twenty-eight-year-old Humayun invested his entire savings of $10,000 to open his own arcade in the western Afghan city of Herat nearly four years ago.

The investment initially paid off as the powerful gaming consoles in his shop attracted young Heratis who spent considerable amounts of money to play the latest versions of the most popular video games.

Then came a downturn after the fundamentalist Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Mounting unemployment and a sharp economic downturn took a heavy toll on all Afghans, including potential customers among the city’s half a million or so people.

Then suddenly, last week, it was “game over” for Humayun and other enterprising shopkeepers.

That’s when authorities shuttered his arcade and hundreds of other businesses after the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice banned video games, foreign films, and music in Herat, branding them as un-Islamic.

“This business was my life,” Humayun told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “I no longer have a source of income or a livelihood.”

The Taliban’s prohibition, which came without warning, has forced more than 400 businesses in Herat to close.

It followed crackdowns on other forms of leisure and entertainment that clash with the Taliban’s extremist interpretation of Islamic Shari’a law. Earlier this month, also in Herat, the Taliban closed restaurant gardens for women and families.

In October, the group shut cafes offering hookahs — the smoking of which is a popular pastime among Afghan men — across the country. In May, the Taliban banned men and women from eating together in Herat’s restaurants and shut down women-owned and women-run restaurants in the city.

The hard-line Islamist group has aggressively reimposed draconian restrictions on how Afghans can appear in public and how men and women interact, reminiscent of its brutal reign through the late 1990s before it was displaced by a U.S.-led military invasion and a UN-backed government for two decades.

The impact of Taliban restrictions on businesses is conspicuous in Herat, an ancient center of cultural and intellectual life in the Muslim world that lies at a strategic crossroads leading to Iran and Turkmenistan.

In the years before the Taliban retook power in August 2021, Hazratha Market was the center of video gaming in Herat. Scores of shops lining narrow corridors also sold foreign films and TV serials on DVD. They offered Indian, Iranian, and Western music on CDs and cassettes.

But the once-teeming market that echoed with Afghan and Iranian music has now fallen silent and almost all its shops are closed.

“I have nothing left here, and now I must move to another country,” said a former shopkeeper named Fakhruddin. His store sold movie posters, DVDs, and music CDs.

He says his nearly $3,000 investment in the business is doomed. “I am providing for an 11-member family, and this shop was my only livelihood,” he told Radio Azadi.

The officials of the Taliban’s morality police in Herat are adamant that closing game arcades and movie and music shops was the right thing to do.

Mawlawi Azizurrahman Mohajir, the provincial head of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, said the authorities closed the gaming parlors after many families complained that their children were wasting time there.

“These shops were selling films that depicted and promoted Indian and Western values and culture, which are very different from Afghan culture and traditions,” he told Radio Azadi.

Mohajir, too, repeated the familiar Taliban argument that it considers such everyday leisure activities un-Islamic.

“The films they were selling did not have women in hijab, which is against Shari’a,” he said, referring to the strict interpretation of the Islamic dress code that the Taliban insists be followed in Afghanistan. “This is why the sale of such films is prohibited.”

Since assuming power, the Taliban has attempted to recreate its hard-line, mostly unrecognized emirate from the 1990s and abrogated promises of moderation, tolerance, and openness that their leaders had made in recent years. Perhaps nowhere has the recent crackdown been more severe than in strictures on women and girls, including bans on education and many jobs that the United Nations and countless rights groups have condemned.

But leisure time has been another major target of Taliban restrictions. The group has banned Afghan women from public parks and bathhouses. It has forbidden live music and has publicly beaten and humiliated Afghan musicians. Afghan television stations can only broadcast programming approved by the Taliban, which has forced female news presenters to cover their faces by wearing masks.

Beyond declaring such activities off-limits to tens of millions of Afghans, the bans and restrictions have a crippling effect on thousands of businesses across the country.

“The closure of one business sector in a city can directly impact hundreds of families or indirectly affect hundreds more,” Abdul Qudous Khatibi, an economist in Herat, told Radio Azadi.

An association of audio and video shops in Herat said the ban has closed more than 350 businesses there. Arcade owners estimate there were more than 60 such gaming centers in the city.

Since he’s had to close his shop, Humayun said he is exploring his options for the dangerous and illegal journey into one of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries.

“I now face a real game of life and death,” he said.

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by RFE/RL Radio Azadi correspondent Shahpoor Saber

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

More Economic News

Taliban Fighter Kidnaps a Money Changer in Paktika

·

8am: Sources state that the incident occurred on Wednesday, April 12, in the market of Argun district of Paktika province. According to the sources, the Taliban fighter forcibly tied up the hands of the money changer and drove him away on a motorcycle. Following the incident, the arrival of the Taliban at the scene confirmed that the abductor was one of their fighters. Click here to read more (external link).

What Happened to the Taliban’s Pledge to Fight Terrorism?

·

Foreign Policy: The bodies are piling up in Afghanistan as the Taliban claim to be wiping the country clean of a resurgent Islamic State in a campaign that should be music to the ears of the U.S. military, counterterrorism, and intelligence communities, which regard the Islamic State as a major threat to homeland and global security. But many security experts believe the Taliban’s rampage is just cover for eradicating enemies, including U.S.-trained former military members, while al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and other terrorist groups grow stronger in the absence of any meaningful counterterrorism response from the United States. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Defend Ban on Female UN Staff as ‘Internal Issue’

·

Zabihullah Mujahid

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
April 12, 2023

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban on Wednesday said their decision to forbid local women from working for the United Nations in Afghanistan is an internal matter that all parties should respect.

The fundamentalist de facto authorities issued their first formal response a week after the ban on Afghan women staff from the U.N. went into effect. It also came a day after the U.N. mission office in Kabul renewed its condemnation of the “unlawful” restriction and warned it could push the world body to cease operations in the country.

“The Islamic Emirate does not want to create obstacles for the United Nations,” chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement Wednesday, using the official title for his male-only government.

“Rather, it wants to make it clear that this is an internal issue of Afghanistan, which does not create a problem for anyone and should be respected by all sides,” Mujahid added.

U.N. Deputy-Secretary General Amina Mohammed said Wednesday on Twitter that “Giving up on women’s rights in Afghanistan is simply not an option.”

The mission noted in a statement that its chief, Roza Otunbayeva, had initiated a review of U.N. operations in Afghanistan that could continue until May 5, instructing all staff to stay away from work during this period.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that it could not comply with the ban on its Afghan female staff as it violates its charter and international law.

The U.N. has nearly 4,000 staff members in Afghanistan, of which about 3,300 are Afghans. Among them are about 400 Afghan women and 200 international female staffers.

Last December, the Taliban banned local female employees from working with domestic and international aid organizations, prompting some to suspend their charity work.

The United Nations has said that the Taliban administration would be responsible for “any negative consequences of this crisis” stemming from the ban for millions of Afghans across the country reeling from years of war and prolonged drought.

In his statement, Mujahid instead blamed Western governments for the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, calling it an outcome of international sanctions on the country’s financial and banking system, the freezing of central bank assets overseas, and travel bans on Taliban leaders.

He said removing all restrictions would put Afghanistan on the path to economic and political progress. “Afghans have the capacity to stand on their own feet,” Mujahid said.

Afghanistan is home to one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. The United Nations says 28.3 million people, or two-thirds of the population, need humanitarian assistance. Six million people are on the brink of famine.

This year’s $4.6 billion humanitarian appeal has received little more than $200 million in funding.

The U.N. humanitarian agency warned Wednesday that funding for the Afghan appeal is drying up, putting millions of lives at risk. “If funding is not urgently secured, millions of Afghans will be staring down the barrel of famine, disease, and death.”

Aid workers fear the Taliban’s crackdown on women aid workers could further undermine the U.N. appeal and even force donors to suspend support for the humanitarian assistance program in Afghanistan.

The ban on U.N. female staff is the latest in a series of restrictions the Taliban have imposed on Afghan women since reclaiming control of the country in August 2021. They have barred women from accessing higher education, government jobs, and public spaces. Girls are also not allowed to attend school beyond sixth grade.

The hardline group rejects criticism of its governance, saying it aligns with Afghan culture and Islamic law. The restrictions have kept the world from granting legitimacy to the Taliban rule.

Related

Taliban Steals from Women in Kandahar Province: Reports of Rising Crime Rates and Disturbing Tactics

·

Taliban militants dancing (file photo)

8am: As crime rates increase in Kandahar province, sources report that some Taliban fighters are involved in thefts in this province. On Tuseday, April 11, a Taliban audio message was sent to members of the group’s fighters, where it was revealed that one of their members had stolen valuables from several women in the fifth district of Kandahar city. Click here to read more (external link).