Afghanistan, all quiet
Paul | 15.01.2005 13:26 | Oxford
There seem to be more and more securitymen in the bars of kabul and a growing number of Chinese whores but very few security incidents in the last couple of months. Perhaps the cold weather means people prefer to sit warm around the fire rather than go out and fire rockets that never hit their target.
A friend and collegue of mine has had virtually n sleep for two weeks. He seems to be taking the death threats and the discovery that two of his staff were reporting his movements to Ql Qada rather personally. He does not share the common perception that things are now peaceful.
I met some muslim journalists who the Americans had invited to Afghanistan to do some PR for the US with the muslim world. They had interviews with various government ministers and Khazai. THe latter informed them that the elections (district, provincional and parlementry) would definitely be happening in April or May this year. He also assured journalists last year that the Presedential elections would happen in April and then definitely June. They happened in October. These elections are fara more complicated and just deciding on district boundries will be very contentious. There is of course no money donated for these elections and all the senior election staff have left. UNAMA and the Joint Election management Body (JEMB) who ran th country have declared that they can not do it this one. They came close to messing up the last one. UNOPs, another UN agency, have said they will do it but logistically it is not possible until 2006.So discussions are stil ongoing concerning who will run the elections. Then they have to get the staff before deciding if they have all three, district, provincial and parlementary, elctions at teh same time to save money and effort while increasing the confusion factor dramatically or do they have three seperate elections and much greater cost.Khazai as last time does not know what is involved so is happily telling journalists that they will be in three to four months time.
Kabul at the moment is alternatively mud or ice and snow. I have found that the traditional mud rooves are not built for wet conditions and have a tendancy to leak a lot especially when water soaks into them and then freezes. Very few security incidents recently. Particularly quiet. The international parties, office politics and sucking up to donors continues as usual.
I met some muslim journalists who the Americans had invited to Afghanistan to do some PR for the US with the muslim world. They had interviews with various government ministers and Khazai. THe latter informed them that the elections (district, provincional and parlementry) would definitely be happening in April or May this year. He also assured journalists last year that the Presedential elections would happen in April and then definitely June. They happened in October. These elections are fara more complicated and just deciding on district boundries will be very contentious. There is of course no money donated for these elections and all the senior election staff have left. UNAMA and the Joint Election management Body (JEMB) who ran th country have declared that they can not do it this one. They came close to messing up the last one. UNOPs, another UN agency, have said they will do it but logistically it is not possible until 2006.So discussions are stil ongoing concerning who will run the elections. Then they have to get the staff before deciding if they have all three, district, provincial and parlementary, elctions at teh same time to save money and effort while increasing the confusion factor dramatically or do they have three seperate elections and much greater cost.Khazai as last time does not know what is involved so is happily telling journalists that they will be in three to four months time.
Kabul at the moment is alternatively mud or ice and snow. I have found that the traditional mud rooves are not built for wet conditions and have a tendancy to leak a lot especially when water soaks into them and then freezes. Very few security incidents recently. Particularly quiet. The international parties, office politics and sucking up to donors continues as usual.
Paul