Asia Security
Monitor
No. 54, November 14, 2003 AFGHANISTAN
INTO THE ABYSS;
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November 6: U.S. authorities have released former Taliban Foreign Minister Waki Ahmed Mutawakil, reports United Press International. Mutawakil had been held for 18 months as part of a strategy to recruit former Taliban members into the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Afghan and Pakistani officials say that Karzai has been in discussions with Mutawakil, attempting to encourage elements of the Taliban to join the Western-installed government. The move represents a dramatic reversal of U.S. policy, which previously sought to keep Taliban members out of the Karzai regime. [Editor: Karzai is a Pashtun tribe member, as are the majority of the Taliban. However, Karzai’s recruitment of Taliban personalities demonstrates his failure to gain significant support from most Pashtuns, including those who opposed the Taliban. It also illustrates the ethnic divide and distrust that permeates the current Kabul regime.] November 10: According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan is once again the world’s leader in opium production. Three-fourths of the opium and heroin consumed illegally in the world is produced in 28 of Afghanistan’s 32 provinces, reports The Washington Post. Opium production has increased to ten times the amount produced prior to the 2002 establishment of the Karzai government. “There is palpable risk that Afghanistan will again turn into a failed state, this time in the hands of drug cartels and narco-terrorists,” wrote Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN’s anti-drug program. November 11: The Associated Press reports that U.S. and Afghan government forces have launched a new military campaign in the eastern Nurestan and Konar provinces. The campaign, called Operation Mountain Resolve, seeks to destroy a network of Taliban, al Qaeda, and Hizb-i-Islami insurgents loyal to warlord Golbuddin Hekmatyar. In southern Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents have continued attacks, and militants in Zabol province - 60 miles from Kandahar near the Pakistan border - have conducted a series of bombings, ground attacks and kidnappings. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the UN Security Council’s mission in Afghanistan has stated that the lives of women there are showing scant signs of improvement. November 12: A terrorist car bomb exploded outside a United Nations office in Kandahar, reports Reuters. All UN international staff in Kandahar were ordered to their guest houses, and local staff have been sent home until further notification. The New York Times reports that German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, who led the Security Council mission, said that terrorism, drug-related crimes and factional fighting threaten and undermine the effort to rebuild Afghanistan. Adolfo Zinser, the Mexican ambassador in the delegation, stated that there is a wide gulf between the Karzai government’s views that “things are under control” and the views held by others. “Civic organizations and NGOs consider that there is a high degree of impunity, and Karzai’s ability to exercise his authority is eroding,” Zinser said. In addition, Amb. Pleuger described frequent death threats against women’s rights activists and a high rate of suicide among women. Agence France Presse reports that Afghan women’s rights groups are stepping up their call for equal rights and a greater role in political life. A women’s working group has drawn up a list of recommended changes to the draft constitution and presented them to Mrs. Mahbuba Hoqugmai, the State Minister for Women’s Affairs. Last month Amnesty International issued a report, titled “Justice Denied to Women,” which states that “Nearly two years [after the end of Taliban rule], discrimination, violence and insecurity remain rife, despite promises by world leaders that the war in Afghanistan would bring liberation for women... Unfortunately, Afghan women still face a pattern of rape, domestic violence, forced marriage and the routine denial of justice.” November 14: Pakistan is providing free rein to Taliban leaders, who have been moving openly in Pakistani cities, giving media interviews and calling for holy war against the West, said Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah in a public speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, reports United Press International. Although Pakistani leaders claim that there are no Taliban in Pakistan, media reports cite Taliban leaders openly recruiting in the Pakistani city of Quetta. Mr. Abdullah stated that in Quetta, the Taliban purchase ammunition, hold Cabinet meetings and conduct press conferences, as well as recruit Pakistani volunteers to attack Western and government forces in the Kandahar region. |
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Copyright
© 2003, American Foreign Policy Council.
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