Afghanistan this Week

NATO has promised another 2,000 troops but only to the relatively stable north of the country.

Disarmament is much slower than promised. Each combatant who handed in a weapon was given $200 in two installments. Unfortunately often commanders waited outside, had them beaten and the money taken from them. Instead of giving them the money in smaller amounts or as a supplement to jobs they are helped to obtain it was decided to stop giving them the $200 completely. This of course meant that the deal had been broken by those implementing disarmament and trust lost. Now they are thinking of reversing the decision after a few riots but still the trust has been badly damaged.

It is dubious that all the attacks are by the Taliban. I had dinner recently with a media friend of mine who came here 35 years ago as a hippy and stayed. He speaks all the local languages fluently and has seen Afghanistan under the Taliban who he knew well and did not find as bad as the Northern Alliance. He points out that the old Taliban such as Mullah Omar are keeping quiet instead of claiming responsibility and suspects most of the attacks are not Taliban but every attack is reported as Taliban because it suits the government’s and US purpose instead of reporting insurgence from a variety of groups for a variety of reasons. For example 11 Chinese workers were killed in the north. It was not very sensitive, with high unemployment, to bring foreign labourers into Afghanistan. The construction company was asked for $50 a day protection money and when it was not given the men were killed. Another story but uncorroborated is concerning the killing of the 16 men in the south who were killed after they were found to have registration cards for the soon to come elections. The story I heard was that some months ago a local commander wanted a boy from a village (sex with boys is very common in the south especially) and the community refused leading to a gun battle. The commander called in the Americans saying they were fighting Taliban. The Americans bombed and the relatives of those who died are the ones trying to derail the election process in their area. I do not know if this is true but old hand here say it has the ring of truth.

The glut of opium has meant that the prices have dropped and in some areas it is more profitable to grow vegetables. The good old capitalist supply and demand. So what would be the effect of legalizing opium?

Members of the transitional government are now talking openly about the second postponement of the elections. Something everyone knew long ago. It now looks as if they will be in mid October. Any later will be impossible because of snow in the central highlands. They are also now openly talking of only having presidential elections this year and parliamentary next year. This is again anyone working in elections here could have predicted months ago and did.

Choose a few attached articles to look at.

All best,

Paul