Afghan Insurgent Leader Calls for New Anti-Taliban ‘Political’ Front

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Massoud

AFP: Afghan insurgent group leader Ahmad Massoud on Friday urged the diaspora to unite to find a political solution to end Taliban rule, describing his appeal as the beginning of a new phase. Massoud, who heads the National Resistance Front (NRF), an armed group waging an insurgency in Afghanistan’s northern Panjshir Valley, said it was time to try to bring the Taliban back to the negotiating table. “We want to unify the diaspora … and slowly expand the dialogue and reach to the point where we have a road map for the future of Afghanistan,” he told a conference in Vienna. Click here to read more (external link).

Public Education in Afghanistan Faces Collapse, for Boys and Girls

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
September 16, 2022

Caught between the Taliban’s gender politics and a lack of foreign funding, the public education sector in Afghanistan faces the risk of collapse, aid agencies warn.

At least $1.5 billion is required annually to keep public schools open for millions of students, to pay salaries and provide other essential educational resources, but the war-torn country is unable to provide that amount on its own.

Facing international sanctions, Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban government has set a national budget of about $2.6 billion this year, which already suffers from a nearly $500 million deficit.

“Approximately 187,000 teachers will need salary support to avoid a total collapse of the education system,” Ashiqullah Mandozai, a spokesperson for Save the Children in Afghanistan, told VOA.

“The new MoE [Ministry of Education] has indicated that they can only pay salaries for 30% of the current work force, which underlines a precarious position for public infrastructure without development funding,” Mandozai said.

Foreign donors have stopped development funding for Afghanistan, including to the public education sector, since the Taliban seized power last year but have maintained humanitarian assistance, mostly to avert mass hunger in the country.

Donors also strongly disagree with the Taliban’s educational policies, particularly with the closure of secondary schools for girls.

“Between the Taliban’s bad politics and a lack of donor funding, Afghanistan’s education system is being decimated,” said Ghulam Mohammad Fida, director of Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow, a California-based nongovernmental organization.

The U.N. says Afghanistan’s education system has been devastated by decades of sustained armed conflicts, and almost 4 million Afghan children are already deprived of schooling.

In January and February, the U.N. children’s agency (UNICEF) paid Afghan teachers a support salary of $100 per person but stopped the payments after the Taliban reneged on their pledge to reopen secondary schools for girls in March.

“The system is undoubtedly strained, and the increased demand for education across the country will require additional support to ensure that children are able to access learning,” Joe English, a UNICEF spokesperson, told VOA.

Schools closed, transformed

Secondary schools for girls in most parts of Afghanistan have been closed for more than a year as Taliban authorities say they are waiting for a verdict from religious scholars on the reopening of schools for all girls.

Despite widespread domestic and international condemnation, the Taliban have not indicated when or whether these schools will reopen.

“Depriving girls of secondary education translates to a loss of at least $500 million to the Afghan economy in the last 12 months,” UNICEF said last month.

Moreover, the Taliban are increasingly transforming public schools into religious seminaries by overhauling the educational curriculum, hiring clerics as teachers and principals, and discouraging female participation in the educational system.

The “USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] also expressed concern about the conversion of public school buildings, specifically technical and vocational education and training centers and teacher-training colleges, to madrassas. Hours of instruction allocated to religious studies have also reportedly been increased during the quarter,” the U.S. government’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported to Congress in July.

Senior Taliban officials, such as the minister for higher education, have publicly berated modern education and have vowed for a strict Islamization of Afghanistan’s educational system.

Made up entirely of male Islamic clerics, the Taliban’s de facto government has failed to earn recognition from any country in the world as it faces universal condemnation for its extremist policies.

In response, Taliban leaders say they are accountable only to God and that the leadership will never budge on its pure Islamic governance.

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Amnesty Confirms Fresh Videos Show Taliban Executing Resistance Fighters

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 16, 2022

Amnesty International says its initial investigation validates the authenticity of videos shared on social media depicting what appears to be extrajudicial executions carried out by the Taliban of members of a resistance group operating mainly out of the Panjshir Valley.

The United Nations has already voiced “grave concern” about the videos, which show two groups of men from the National Resistance Front (NRF) squatting on a hillside with their hands tied behind their backs before being shot with automatic rifles by Taliban fighters.

“Amnesty International conducted an initial assessment and can confirm that these are new videos of extrajudicial executions, carried out by the Taliban, of apparent members of the National Resistance Front (NRF) in Panjshir,” the London-based rights watchdog said in a tweet on September 15.

A Taliban spokesman has said authorities were investigating the matter.

Early this week, the Taliban said it had killed at least 40 NRF fighters in the Panjshir Valley.

The UN special rapporteur for Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, in a statement on Twitter voiced deep concern “about latest allegations of extrajudicial summary executions in Panjshir” and called for an “immediate thorough investigation and for perpetrators to be held accountable. I am closely monitoring the situation.”

Sibghatullah Ahmadi, a spokesman for the NRF, called the killings “war crimes” and urged the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to “fulfil its obligations of not only being ‘concerned’ but also gaining the courage to name the Taliban, condemn their crimes and call on the UN security council to take immediate action.”

UNAMA has accused the Taliban of committing hundreds of human rights violations since the militants seized power in August 2021 as international forces left the country.

With reporting by AFP

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

250 companies submit bids for iron, lead mines in Afghanistan

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Ariana: [Taliban] Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said this week that 250 domestic and foreign firms have submitted their bids for the iron mine in Herat and lead mine in Ghor province. Esmatullah Burhan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, said that it is evaluating the bids and will soon announce the winners. The iron ore in Herat’s Ghoryan district is estimated to hold 18 million tons of iron. The lead mine in Ghor is also considered to be one of the largest lead mines in the region. “The [Taliban] government will collect a good amount of revenue from it. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be generated directly or indirectly,” said Burhan. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban War on Civilians: Taliban Extrajudicially Execute Six Hazara People in Ghor, says Amnesty International

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Taliban militants (file photo)

8am: Amnesty International in its latest probe said that on June 26, the Taliban killed at least 6 civilians affiliated with the Hazara community in Ghor province. In the continuation of this report, it is stated that the Taliban have arrested and executed four men in a night operation following the search for a former security officer. The report adds that a woman and a 12-year-old girl were also killed during this attack. According to this organization, traces of torture were found on the body of one of the victims. Click here to read more (external link).

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Native People Stand Against Land Grabbing by Pashtun Nomads in Takhar Province

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8am: Local sources say that the residents of Khwaja Bahauddin district, in cooperation with the residents of other districts of Takhar province, have forced the usurper nomadic families to flee from the area. The armed nomads had usurped the houses of the people of Khwaja Bahauddin, Takhar province by force for several days and the Taliban did not stop them. After the fall of the former republic government and the rise of the Taliban, hundreds of nomadic families from the South and North Waziristan provinces of Pakistan have flowed to this district and claimed ownership of the houses and lands of the sedentary population of this district. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Rebuke US for Afghan Assets’ Transfer to Swiss-Based Trust Fund

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 16, 2022

KABUL — Afghanistan’s Taliban Friday denounced the U.S. decision to transfer $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank reserves to a Swiss-based trust fund, declaring it an “illegal venture” and vowing to impose financial penalties on entities that facilitate it.

Washington said Wednesday it would move the previously frozen financial assets into the newly created Afghan fund in Switzerland to be used to help stabilize the Afghan economy, but the ruling Islamist Taliban will have no role in disbursement.

The Taliban Foreign Affairs Ministry attacked the plan, calling it “unacceptable” and a “violation of international norms.” It renewed the demand for the U.S. to unfreeze the reserves and lift financial sanctions to allow Afghan traders access to the international banking systems to help improve the poverty-stricken country’s economy.

“If the reserves are disbursed without taking into consideration legitimate demands of the Afghans, the Islamic Emirate will be forced to impose fines against, and ban activities of, all individuals, institutions and companies that facilitate this illegal venture and seek to misuse the central bank reserves for humanitarian and other purposes,” the ministry said.

The Taliban, who retook control of Afghanistan a year ago, call their all-male government an Islamic emirate, but the outside world has not recognized it because of human rights and terrorism-related concerns.

The United States froze $7 billion of Afghanistan’s financial reserves in New York immediately after the Islamist group seized power in August 2021, when the internationally backed Kabul government security forces collapsed in the face of the then-insurgent Taliban, and all American as well as NATO troops withdrew from the country. About $2 billion in additional Afghan funds are held in several other Western countries.

In February, President Joe Biden authorized the release of half of the frozen reserves and left the rest for 9/11 victims to pursue through ongoing litigation.

“The Afghan Fund will protect, preserve, and make targeted disbursements of that $3.5 billion to help provide greater stability to the Afghan economy. The Taliban are not a part of the Afghan Fund, and robust safeguards have been put in place to prevent the funds from being used for illicit activity,” the U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday.

Washington has said the fund, managed by a board of trustees, could pay for critical electricity imports, debt payments to international financial institutions, fund the printing of new currency and ensure Afghanistan remains eligible for development aid.

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a letter that sending the money to Afghanistan’s central bank would put the funds at risk of not being used for the benefit of the Afghan people.

Taliban authorities argue they repeatedly have made it clear in direct talks with U.S. officials their readiness to open the Afghan central bank to third-party monitoring of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing programs. Dozens of Taliban leaders are under international sanctions and two hold top positions in the central bank.

Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA that his government, through sustained meetings with U.S. officials over the past year, has “practically demonstrated” the Taliban are addressing U.S. concerns so the two sides can “turn the page of confrontation” and normalize ties.

“But from their side unfortunately, we have not seen any positive reaction so far,” Mujahid said.

China also has criticized the U.S. move, saying the frozen funds are “the national property” of Afghanistan and “the live-saving money” of the people there.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, while addressing a news conference Thursday, urged Washington to fully unfreeze the Afghan assets and lift “unilateral sanctions” on the country.

“They should have been returned to Afghanistan in full at once, should have been handled independently by Afghanistan itself and should have been used to improve people’s livelihood and advance peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan without hindrance,” she said.

The Taliban have barred teenage girls from returning to school across most of Afghanistan and ordered female staff in many government departments to stay home. Women also are required to cover their faces in public and are not supposed to travel beyond 70 kilometers unless accompanied by a male relative.

The Taliban have rejected international calls for removing the school ban and easing restrictions on women, saying their polices are in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law.

The U.N. has warned that the isolation of Afghan financial systems and other sanctions have pushed the national economy to the brink of a collapse, deepening an already bad humanitarian crisis in the country of about 40 million people. More than half of them face acute hunger, according to aid groups.

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Measles Cases Among Children Increases Across Country

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Tolo News: Doctors at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital said that the number of children who are measles-positive has increased nationwide. According to the World Health Organization, more than 3,000 people in Afghanistan had positive test results during January and August of this year. Doctors said the body’s weak immune system, lack of access to adequate food, and lack of vaccination are the main contributors to the rise in cases of this disease. Click here to read more (external link).

Battles in Panjshir, 34 Taliban Fighters’ Bodies Shifted to Uruzgan and Maidan Wardak

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8am: Local sources in Uruzgan and Maidan Wardak provinces say that the bodies of Taliban killed in the Panjshir war have been shifted to these provinces in the last two days. A local source in Uruzgan, who does not want to be named, told Hasht-e Subh on Thursday, September 14, that the bodies of 25 Taliban fighters have been shifted to Trinket, the center of Uruzgan. According to the source, the bodies of these fighters, who were all residents of Trinkot, have been handed over to their families. Click here to read more (external link).