Hazara Reparations Saga Continues: Nawur District Residents Forced to Pay Five Million Afghanis to Kuchi Nomads

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A Kuchi camp (file photo)

8am: Following the Taliban’s coercion of Hazara people to pay reparations to the Kuchis (nomads), residents of three villages in Nawur District, Ghazni Province, are now compelled to pay five million Afghanis each. This decision was made based on the claims of a Kuchi individual who alleges that ten years ago, 230 of his sheep went missing in the border areas of Nawur and Jaghatu districts, and the residents of these three villages were involved in the incident. Subsequently, the Taliban arrested and tortured 17 individuals from these villages. Sources report that the Taliban have been holding these individuals in humid places, subjecting them to daily beatings. Now, the residents are forced by the Taliban to pay five million Afghanis to the Kuchi individuals to resolve this issue. It is worth noting that Hazara communities have previously been coerced into paying substantial reparations to Kuchis through various means of intimidation. Click here to read more (external link).

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Afghanistan loses millions as Torkham crossing remains closed for 3rd day

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Ariana: Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) says the closure of Torkham crossing into Pakistan has cost the economy millions of afghanis (AFN) over the past three days. The closure of the border came at a crucial time specifically for exporters of fresh produce, especially fruit. The ACCI said the longer the trucks sit at the closed crossing the more produce perishes. “This is not the first time that we are treated like this at the border. We request the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to find a solution to this issue,” said Khanjan Alkozi, a member of the ACCI. Click here to read more (external link).

Two Years Under Taliban Rule: How Many More?

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8am: The Taliban are heavily influenced by Pashtunwali (a Pashtun code of conduct) that considers Pashtuns as the supreme race and women as the property of men, ignoring their rights. They are also greatly influenced by Deobandi, a radical version of political Islam that considers other religions heresy subject to eradication. These two factors hinder the Taliban from reconciling with Afghan society and limit their ability to establish relations with transnational actors. Click here to read more (external link).

Rights Group Claims Taliban Committing Gender Persecution Against Afghan Women, Girls

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VOA News
September 8, 2023

Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday it “has concluded” that Afghanistan’s Taliban is committing the crime against humanity of gender persecution against Afghanistan’s women and girls.

Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, it has been widely reported that the group has sought to deny women and girls basic human rights and to remove them from public life.

According to Afghanistan Under the Taliban: The Crime Against Humanity of Gender Persecution, Taliban bans on Afghanistan’s females include restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and association; restrictions on employment; restrictions on dress; bans on education; and arbitrary arrests and violations of the right to liberty.

Crimes against humanity can be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court, the report says, but they can also be prosecuted in “ad hoc international courts that have jurisdiction, the domestic courts of the country where the crimes took place, and in other countries’ courts in which the principle of universal jurisdiction applies.”

Human Rights Watch is urging the Taliban to dismantle all forms of repression and discrimination that result in the denial of the basic human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

The organization is not alone in its criticism of the Taliban, earlier this year, a report from the United Nations Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on Afghanistan said the country’s rulers may be “responsible for gender apartheid,” exacerbating the plight of women and girls under its austere version of law.

The Taliban has accused the United Nations and Western institutions of spreading “propaganda” against their administration, arguing that Islamic laws are being implemented in Afghanistan and that any opposition is a problem with Islam.

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Thousands Stranded Along Closed Border Crossing Between Afghanistan And Pakistan

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RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
September 8, 2023

Pakistan’s main border crossing with Afghanistan remained shut on September 8, stranding thousands of civilians and halting hundreds of vehicles carrying goods between the two countries.

Islamabad closed the Torkham border crossing following a clash with Taliban forces three days earlier.

The move has left thousands of civilians, mostly Afghans, waiting to cross and largely stalled trade between the countries as hundreds of trucks, some carrying perishable goods such as fruits and vegetables, wait on both sides of the Torkham crossing.

“We are trapped here,” said Nabiullah, an Afghan man returning to his country after receiving medical treatment in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

“We are in trouble and waiting for the border crossing to reopen,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal.

Radio Azadi has learned that a Taliban border guard and a civilian were killed in the shooting.

Taliban officials in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where Torkham is located, say high-level talks continue with Pakistan to reopen the crossing. Pakistani officials have not commented on the issue.

In Landi Kotal, a Pakistani town near Torkham, stranded Afghans said the closure is preventing the repatriation of two dead bodies to Afghanistan for burial.

“People here are facing great difficulties,” Imran, one of the stranded Afghans, told Radio Azadi.

“There are many Afghan patients, women and children here.”

The September 6 clash followed a large incursion of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants into the remote northwestern Pakistani district of Chitral, which borders eastern Afghanistan some 400 kilometers north of Torkham.

Relations between erstwhile allies Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban rulers have rapidly deteriorated after the TTP ended a cease-fire with Islamabad last November. The TTP, an ideological and organizational ally of the Taliban, has been bolstered by the return of the militants to power in Afghanistan two years ago.

“Deteriorating political relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are also resulting in declining trade and economic ties between them,” Abdul Naseer Rashtia, the head of an Afghan trading association, told Radio Azadi.

“This causes Afghan investors to suffer greatly and badly affects their trade and transit,” he added.

Torkham and other border crossings between the two neighbors have been frequently closed because of clashes or political disagreements over the past two decades.

Islamabad has fenced most of its more than 2,500-kilometer border with Afghanistan. Closing the border with its landlocked neighbor remains a significant lever to pressure Kabul during crises.

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.

Gen. McKenzie calls delayed Afghanistan exit as ‘American Arrogance’

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McKenzie (file photo)

Khaama: During an interview with Fox News, General Frank McKenzie, the head of United States Central Command during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, expressed regret over the U.S. decision to remain in Afghanistan until the very end. He highlighted that this choice had sometimes led and did lead the country into an “extremist situation.” “I think it is a case of American exceptionalism or American arrogance, depending on your perspective, to believe that you can actually withdraw, beaten from the field of battle, and still maintain a large political platform in the country you are retreating from,” McKenzie said. Click here to read more (external link).

Haqqani Asks Mohaqiq, Khalili to Return to Afghanistan

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Sirajuddin Haqqani

Tolo News: “Those influential leaders who are living abroad, such as Instructor (Mohammad Mohaqiq) and Mr. Karim Khalili — I would say that it is bad. They have their tribes and nations and should come back and live as leaders in their own country. Through your address (for your sake), I call on them, that if they consider their tribe and people, as the elders who are sitting here consider them as their own people, and they have respect and honor here– they will give a peaceful message to the people and strengthen the unity of Afghanistan (by returning),” Haqqani said. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Sell Afghanistan’s Mines Despite Sanctions

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
September 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Taliban, facing international sanctions and a dire economic outlook at home, have intensified efforts to leverage Afghanistan’s vast natural resources.

From oil to copper, gold and lithium, the Islamist leadership, unrecognized by any nation as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, has inked multibillion-dollar mining deals with Chinese and other foreign companies.

The landlocked country has plunged deep into economic trouble since Western donors cut off all development assistance, amounting to several billion dollars annually, after the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

Donors have also slashed humanitarian funding for Afghanistan, prompting aid agencies to suspend critical funding for about 10 million Afghans facing acute food insecurity.

Taliban officials contend they are using domestic sources to try to bridge the chasm left by the withdrawal of foreign aid. Critics, however, contend that the Taliban have other intentions.

“What the Taliban see in these contracts is both cash and a diplomatic link to the Chinese government,” said Arian Sharifi, a lecturer at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Afghanistan’s untapped mineral wealth, estimated to be worth trillions of dollars, has historically struggled to attract foreign investment because of security concerns and a lack of infrastructure.

Work under a $3 billion contract signed in 2007 between China Metallurgical Group Corp. and the Afghan government for copper mining has yet to commence, despite a 25-year time frame.

This past January, another Chinese company, Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company, pledged a $540 million investment until 2026 for oil extraction in northern Afghanistan.

Evading sanctions?

For over three decades, numerous Taliban leaders have remained on the United Nations’ terrorism sanctions list, barring them from foreign business and travel.

Several Western countries, including the United States, Canada and various European nations, have also imposed economic, banking and political sanctions on Taliban individuals and entities.

Spokespersons at the U.S. State and Treasury departments did not answer questions on whether the Taliban’s mining contracts with Chinese companies violated the existing sanctions regime.

“U.S. sanctions generally require U.S. persons and some foreign persons to comply,” said Alex Zerden, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

“A foreign company could be violating U.S. sanctions if the company engages in a transaction or dealing with a designated person and the transaction or dealing has a nexus to the United States,” Zerden told VOA.

U.S. sanctions do not necessarily apply to Chinese companies doing business with the Taliban as long as they avoid going through U.S. financial systems, experts say.

“When it comes to bilateral sanctions from the U.S. side, it’s basically that no U.S. entity, be it a company or an individual, is able to do anything with the Taliban. And that has nothing to do with other countries, because other countries don’t abide by bilateral sanctions,” said Princeton’s Sharifi.

China, however, has supported U.N. Security Council Resolution 1988 (2011), which calls on all member states to freeze Taliban assets and economic resources, deny their entry and transit, and prevent the sale, supply and transit of weapons to them.

The U.N. resolution, experts say, needs urgent revisions to respond to the realities in Afghanistan, where the Taliban function as the only governing body.

Like other regimes facing sanctions, the Taliban claim U.N. and U.S. sanctions primarily hurt ordinary people by limiting and weakening the national economy.

Stability

Last year, the U.S. government issued exemptions allowing certain commercial transactions with Afghanistan’s governing institutions, except those directly benefiting sanctioned Taliban individuals.

Graeme Smith, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said as long as revenue from a business or contract does not go directly into the pockets of sanctioned Taliban officials, fees, taxes or royalties can be paid to the de facto Afghan government.

“In early 2022, the U.S. government specifically clarified that such agreements are permitted under American law,” Smith said, adding that Washington and its allies have strategic interests in the stability of the region, including in the economic revival.

Smith said the lingering effects of sanctions and other economic pressures have hobbled the Afghan banking system, complicating large-scale investments in mining and other sectors.

“Mining requires heavy investment up front, with years of work before profits flow. So, the investors are taking a risk, and making the assumption that the Taliban will guarantee stability and keep their side of the bargain,” he told VOA.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington and the foreign ministry in Beijing did not respond to requests for comment.

While pressing the Taliban on women’s rights and other governance issues — in addition to terrorism-related sanctions — the U.S. government has refrained from supporting anti-Taliban groups that seek to topple the Taliban.

Weakening the Taliban could risk internal war in Afghanistan, thereby giving terrorist groups opportunities to flourish and target other countries, experts say.

“America and its allies have strategic interests in the stability of the region, and that requires economic revival,” said Smith.

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