Pro Pakistan opines: “NATO and Americans have always objected on Pakistan for negotiating with the Talibans but the irony of the matter is that today they are themselves calling for negotiations with the Talibans including Mullah Omer.”

While it may be nice to see the resurgence of news about Afghanistan in the U.S., there remains a great deal of complexity to the country. That isn't even discussing what Azar Balkhi sees as the Coalition's inability to recognize tribal rivalries when calling in air strikes.

It is nevertheless worth considering. The bombing at Shindand is but one problem facing the often neglected west of Afghanistan. Typically thought to be more stable, and more secure, and more prosperous than the rest of the country (it is), Herat nevertheless faces some enormous challenges, starting with the so-called “Tajik Taliban.” As Tim Foxely explains,

The idea that now other ethnic groups are starting to emulate, if not actually join, the Taliban and conduct resistance against the Kabul regime lies somewhere between “a very real cause for concern” and “everybody's worst nightmare”. It evokes the “tipping point” concerns of ISAF commanders past and present that the population might eventually get fed up with tens of thousands of international soldiers charging around dropping bombs on them and a corrupt government that fails to deliver and shift their allegiances elsewhere. The other angle is the very high likelihood that Akbari was sacked from his position for being corrupt or incompetent or both and is therefore having nothing more than a big sulk, Afghan warlord style. As such, it would be a localised and exceptional situation and probably nothing to worry about.

This is an excellent summary of just how difficult it is to determine which problems in Afghanistan require serious consideration and near-panic, and which ones are, for lack of a better term, cyclical variations in a standard conflict pattern.

Kandahar bazaar during Ramadan, courtesy Flickr user Chooyutshing.

This can manifest itself in a couple of ways. Alex Strick van Linschoten, for example, just returned to Kandahar from a few weeks abroad. What has he noticed upon his return?

If there’s one thing two weeks abroad (California and London) does it gives a certain perspective on the things you quickly accept as ‘normal’ when living in Kandahar. If someone would unholster his pistol and place it on the table at Café Nero in London I think they’d have a problem or two, but in Kandahar I don’t blink twice when interviewees or friends come in off the street and lay their AK-47 or even once an RPG next to the wall.

Otherwise the city’s pretty quiet.

Indeed. Further north, Harry Rud wanders through the trash-filled streets of Kabul, and remarks on just how disconnected foreigners can fell when locked inside their armored compounds:

Many foreigners here are not allowed to step foot outside their compounds, have lists of places they can and (more often) cannot go to, and strict rules about how high the walls, how thick the barbed wire, how many armed guards surround them. It is not a situation most want or enjoy. It drives many to distraction. I am lucky to be able to walk a little further, though it gives me no greater feel for the place when I’m too nervous to stop and look around me.

It’s hard to describe the causes of that nervousness. There’s the obvious but unlikely risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then there’s that disconnect; the sense of us and them it breeds, of being so very out of place and watched by an unknown crowd. A bird-like suspicion, to stretch the point.

But this raises the question: just what, exactly, is the West doing in Afghanistan after seven years of occupation? Azar Balkhi notes that in the West, there seems to be mindless panic but no real sense of urgency:

Pakistani Taliban fighters openly flogged two butchers for selling the flesh of animals in the northwestern Swat valley today September 25, and in the same day the Pakistani soldiers fired at American reconnaissance helicopters that were escorting U.S. ground troops along the volatile border Thursday, sparking a five-minute ground battle between the countries.

This is all happening as President Asif Ali Zardari and Hamid Karzai are promising
Washington help in the war on terror and meeting with the top American leaders in New York…

Heavily armed Taliban fighters brought the blindfolded butchers to a crowded market in Kabal sub-district and flogged them in front of a throng of about 200 people. The media was also called by the Taliban to cover the event but there is no any government to stop them.

Which brings us back to where we started: Afghanistan's extreme complexity. The latest meme to be making the rounds of policy offices in London, Washington DC, and Brussels, is negotiating with the Taliban. Christian Bleuer wonders:

* what “Taliban” (Quetta Shura? Local semi-autonomous commanders? Hizb? Haqqanis? Others? all at the same time?)
* and if answer is “Moderate Taliban” then please define who exactly they are.
* don’t you already consider the Afghan government’s reconciliation program to be a form of negotiation?
* do you really not know about the Afghan government communicating/negotiating with insurgents?

All that being said, there remain bright points of life within Afghanistan. Andrea shares just such a moment, and it really cannot be done proper justice through excerpting. It will have to stand on its own.

In 2003, Georgia had its Rose Revolution. In 2004, Ukraine had its Orange Revolution. And in 2005 Kyrgyzstan had its Tulip Revolution.

These “revolutions” managed to shift the politics of their respective countries, and many democracy activists believed the pattern might be extended to other countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. In the end, the new political forces fell into familiar tracks, and the rest of the Central Asian leaders took the lesson that they should crack down on democracy movements before they start (the worst example being the massacre in Andijon, Uzbekistan.)

That didn't stop Dodojon Atovulloev/Atoullo, a Tajik journalist who has published a Tajik-language newspaper in Russia since the 1990s, from declaring in 2007 that he was forming a new movement called “Vatandor” (”Patriot”) which he hoped would would eventually result in a “Violet Revolution.” He claimed he would be able to challenge the Rahmon government by appealing to the thousands of Tajiks living and working in Russia. Those expat Tajiks contribute a significant portion of the economy of Tajikistan through their remittances.

The state prosecutor of Tajikistan recently announced charges of slander and “destabilizing the country,” and there was speculation that the charges would become a pretext to request Atovulloev's extradition from Russia.

Atovolloev, who had resided in Moscow but possessed a residency permit for Germany, fled Moscow on a plane to Paris. In an interview with Darius at A Dervish [tj], he explains that he chose a flight to Paris because he thought that the Russian government might be expecting him to fly to Germany. Western press agencies were also invited to videotape his departure, in the hope that their presence would prevent his arrest or detention.

The journalist has had his ups and downs with the government of Tajikistan. In 1992, the government sought to prosecute him for meetings with the opposition coalition that fought against Rahmon in the Tajik civil war of the 1990s. In 1998, the prosecutor charged him with libeling the president. In 2001, Atovulloev was arrested at the airport in Moscow, although he was later released.

Then, in 2002, as part of a general amnesty, the Tajik government pardoned Atovulloev and invited him back to Tajikistan as part of an effort to promote reconciliation and garner international credibility. He cut his first visit back to Tajikistan short, claiming that he had been followed and threatened. He returned to Moscow and continued to publish his newspaper, “Charogh-i Ruz” (”Daily Beacon”).

In his most recent interview, Atovulloev says that the Tajik government tried to woo him back to Tajikistan, but that he refused:

Atovullo revealed that representatives of the Rahmon administration approached him in 2007 to explore a political deal. “Last year, Rahmon’s closest aids negotiated with me almost for six months,” he said. “They tried to convince me to return to Tajikistan, to get a portfolio or pocket a huge sum of money in exchange for my silence. After I gave them cold shoulder they resumed my criminal case.”

Also in his interview with Darius, he asserts that democratic voices are the only thing that can restrain a religious backlash:

Another misfortune is that if the remaining democratic forces in Tajikistan are defeated, there's a 100% chance of a Tajik Taliban entering the political arena, or that they would win a victory. Today we see that the youth of Tajikistan don't have anywhere to go but to the mosque to sit at the foot of demagogic mullahs. This is a lost generation.

As of today, there is little evidence of a wide-scale Islamic political movement in Tajikistan, mostly because of the strict measures the Rahmon regime has applied to the religious establishment. How accurate Atovulloev's assessment is, and how influential his voice is, is hard to gauge. But the Rahmon government clearly sees him as a large enough threat to direct so much public attention at him.

The greatest of all our problems is that although God is our primary need, we are faced with an impossible dilemma : Sin separates us from God’s presence and His gifts to us. The results of sin can be seen everywhere. I worked in a hospital at one point in my life. I saw health problems that resulted from sin. Gun shot victims in the Emergency Room. Murder, rape, selfishness, idolatry and many other things are all around us to point to the fact that man is sinful. The New Testament tells us that the results of sin in our lives is death – Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 6:23 says the wages or payment of our sin is certain death... And Galatians 6:7, what we sow we will reap. Iran Afghanistan Iraq peace war Hindu Orissa India USA England Muslim Jehovah Yahweh Allah Sarah Palin John McCain Barak Obama Sania Mirza George Bush Kidnapped tourists taken to Libya Lebanon to remove political banners Israel denounces Iran 'fanaticism' Iraq passes provincial election law Iran warns West on al-Quds day Day to express solidarity with Palestinians marked across Muslim world. US stocks fall amid global sell-off Dow Jones falls below 10,000 points after slides in European and Asian stock markets. Fury over Lehman's executive pay Indonesia leader calls crisis talks Germany bails out mortgage giant The Dalai Lama: The devil within Tunnels feed besieged Gaza UK commander backs Taliban talks Lula blames rich nations for crisis Palin says Obama has terrorist ties Stocks slide despite reassurances Smith orders police race review Markets need morals, says Brown 'Tattoo gay men' writes priest Wife forgives dead police chief Hells Angel 'shot dead by rivals' Glenrothes by-election date set Soldier inquest told of map error add a Story to this feed Remove a story from this feed Croatia 'mafia hit' spurs sacking Mubarak pardons health-row editor EU's climate package 'in crisis' Menezes ...

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Envoyé : 07 octobre 2008
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Hasnain's Life reports that the Talibans had imposed an economic blockade on Shias in Parachinar, a town of Upper Kurram Agency in Pakistan which led to a humanitarian crisis.