Don't forget the horrible things happening in Afghanistan after we overthrew the virtuous Taliban and chased those nice Al Qaida boys out of the country. Why they had a presidential election recently - horrors.
With the excitement of the presidential election now behind, Afghan authorities and political parties are starting to plan for the parliamentary election scheduled for April 2005. The biggest task will involve drawing up the electoral boundaries. In time for the election, Afghanistan's historical census is now near finish. This joint project between the Afghan government and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has so far surveyed 30 out of the country's 34 provinces, with work in southern Paktika, Zabul and Helmand, and the newly established Daikudni province expected to be completed over the next month. Good and accurate information, of course, is necessary for the planning of the parliamentary election:
"There are a total of 249 posts in the new parliament. The provinces which have fewer than half a million population will be given nine posts. The provinces which have between half a million and one million people will get 15 posts. Those with between one and two million people will have 19 posts. The provinces with two to three million people will have 23 posts and those with more than three million will get 29 parliamentary posts."
Meanwhile, an ambitious program is aiming to rebuild the country's devastated local administration:
"The Afghan government has launched a new US $312 million project financed by international donors to centralise and equip the country's fragile district administrations...
"The project, entitled the Afghanistan Stabilisation Programme (ASP), is expected to strengthen the authority of the central government beyond the capital Kabul.
" 'Maintaining proper administration and proper buildings and complexes in districts will bridge the gap between Kabul and local administrations,' deputy Interior Minister Helaluddin Hellal [said]... after launching the main phase of ASP...
"There are 364 districts in Afghanistan's 34 provinces and due to years of devastating conflict the local administrations do not have buildings and other necessary public utilities, Hellal said."
According to the head of ASP, Abdul Malik Sediqi, "six districts have already been covered in the pilot phase and it is expected that 150 districts will be finalised by the end of next year." "We have $36 million in hand and if we obtain the required budget, ASP will take three years to cover all the districts of the country," says Sediqi.
From political reform to spiritual liberation, the Afghans are finally free to celebrate and enjoy religion like it should be:
"Three years after the fall of the hardline Taliban regime, residents of Afghanistan's capital are celebrating the Eid al-Fitr festival in upbeat mood...
"Wearing a newly tailored traditional Afghan shalwar-kameez trouser suit, electronic engineer Qadratullah said the country was 'reborn' when the Taliban were toppled in Kabul in November 2001 by a US-led military campaign.
" 'I am feeling quite good about what we have in this year's Eid. Compared to the past under the Taliban I feel that we have risen to heaven from the depths of hell,' added the 32-year-old as he marked the end of Ramadan.
"Under six years of Islamic fundamentalist rule, Qadratullah was lashed for failing to grow a beard and his wife was beaten for not wearing the all-enveloping burqa."
.......
SECURITY: Afghanistan's militants are suffering a decline; according to security experts the Taliban still pose a threat and continue to enjoy some support in the ethnic Pashtun areas of the country, but "the Taliban movement suffered a serious psychological and military setback after failing to disrupt Afghanistan's presidential election... Experts said the movement was beset by leadership rivalries and internal divisions after a year of revived strength and cohesion. They also said the Taliban was increasingly being squeezed by a new Pakistani military offensive along the border, where many Taliban renegades were believed to be hiding... There are growing signs of a serious, three-way split within a once hierarchical movement dominated by a single religious leader."
There are signs that at least some Taliban members are ready to take up the US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on his offer of amnesty:
"The US-led military in Afghanistan... said it had been contacted by Taliban members willing to lay down their weapons following an arms-for-amnesty offer by the US envoy to Afghanistan. US military commanders operating in south and south-eastern Afghanistan have been contacted by Taliban declaring their desire to 'join the peaceful political process,' US-led military spokesman Major Mark McCann, told a news briefing in Kabul... He also said there had been 'contacts with senior (provincial) government officials and military representatives here in Kabul'."
While the efforts to combat the Taliban remnants continue, on a parallel track to make Afghanistan a safer and more secure place, the disarmament program is also moving ahead: "The multi million-dollar Afghanistan New Beginning Programme (ANBP), the official name for [the UN-backed Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration], is designed to disarmed more than 50,000 former fighters. So far, 22,000 members of Afghanistan's dozens of militia forces have returned to civilian life since the process begun in October 2003."
......
Over just one weekend, a fortnight ago, some 588 fighters gave up their weapons as part of the "New Beginnings Programme." The total of disarmed militiamen now stands at 26,569.
The process of disarmament and "de-warlordisation" is already having positive security and economic effects throughout Afghanistan's regions:
"In northern Afghanistan, the national highway police are now manning security checkpoints once operated by armed militias controlled by of local commanders. The change has come as a big relief to those who regularly travel by road here.
"For years, travellers not only had to pay out 'fees' levied by the militias, but also faced the risk of being accosted and robbed - even beaten or killed - when they drove along the major highways between northern cities. But now uniformed members of Afghanistan's central police have replaced the militia gunmen, whom drivers referred to as 'highway bandits'.
"Sarajuddin, driving a Toyota Corolla, said he has travelled the main road from Mazar-e-Sharif to Sheberghan for the last 13 years. He said motorists were regularly charged illegal 'road taxes' during the day - and ambushed and robbed by night - at checkpoints run by gunmen. 'Those who controlled the checkpoints taxed passengers and drivers under pretexts such as "chai puli" [tea money], "jeb kharchi" [pocket money] and lunch costs, and if someone didn't pay, he would be beaten and robbed,' said Sarajuddin.
" 'We didn't mind paying those taxes, but the most frightening thing was that the armed men who controlled the checkpoints by day became looters at night... and they would even kill someone if they didn't like him. For all those reasons, I haven't driven at night for the last few years.'
"For Sarajuddin, the deployment of national police meant that 'last week I travelled safely with four passengers during the night'."
As the Taliban threat recedes and the influence of private militias slowly wanes, the building of the national security forces continues apace. According to Bob Sharp, Chief of Staff of Office Military Cooperation in Afghanistan, the Coalition forces and the local authorities are on schedule to create the Afghan armed forces of some 70,000 soldiers by 2007: "There are almost 18,000 soldiers in the ANA. More than 15,000 trained soldiers in the field and about 3,000 in training... Of those 70,000 troops, 43,000 will be the ground combat forces and the rest will comprise the sustaining institutions such as the Recruiting Command, the Logistic Command, the Air Corps, etc."
.....
With the Taliban and al Qaeda threat diminishing over time, more attention is now being given to other security issues in Afghanistan: "The Bush administration has devised a more aggressive counternarcotics strategy aimed at greater eradication of poppy fields, promotion of alternative crops and prosecution of traffickers. The plan, a mix of stronger carrots and sticks, attempts to bring more coordination, more money and more muscle to Afghan and international programs launched over the past three years that have not made much of a dent in the lucrative drug business."
Other foreign assistance for the anti-drug campaign is starting to flow into Afghanistan, with Canada, Australia (the third largest humanitarian donor to Afghanistan with its A$83 million [$60 million] contribution so far), and Great Britain providing help. Great Britain is expected to provide $960 million over five years (until 2007 on the Afghan counter-narcotics efforts, and has already been instrumental in establishing the Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan.
On a smaller scale, "Britain has pledged more than £3,5 million [$6.7 million] for a project to help Afghan farmers grow alternative crops in place of opium poppies, a UN agency said today. The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation said the project will encourage the production, marketing and processing of crops, including vegetables, nuts and dried fruits."
Dr Iain Wright, the chief executive of the commercial arm of the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, an expert on agricultural land use, is touring Afghanistan "to meet partners in a pioneering project aimed at identifying a range of viable livelihoods for farmers in the country's poorest rural regions." In order to convince farmers to replace opium growing with legal agricultural use, Dr Wright is suggesting alternatives such as cashmere goats, which can bring quite significant financial returns.
Afghan farmers are also encouraged to replace opium poppies with roses and "distil rose oil, a key component of perfume, by planting 40,000 Bulgarian rose plants. The oil-producing species were brought from Bulgaria by the German non-governmental organization Agro Action and the United Nations Development Program last month."
In other recent security successes throughout Afghanistan: the arrest by Afghan police of 16 suspected Taliban militias accompanied by the seizure a large amount of arms and ammunitions in central Afghanistan during the Eid festival; turning in by Afghan civilians of a weapons cache near Shkin; and the find of a giant arms cache by Romanian troops (four cannons, 98 grenade launchers, and dozens of machine guns and rifles, found in two containers buried underground).
And in recent security successes in neighboring Pakistan, which will have positive impact on Afghan security: the Pakistani armed forces have killed around 40 militants and demolished terrorist hideouts in an offensive along the Afghan border; meanwhile, "thousands of Pakistani troops backed by helicopter have succeeded in bringing all inaccessible areas of South Waziristan tribal area under its control in the ongoing operation against Al-Qaeda linked terrorists"; and the troops have dismantled a terrorist training camp and seized 1,700 kilograms of explosives and large quantities of arms in southern Waziristan, near the Afghan border.
......
chrenkoff.blogspot.com
But don't give up, leftists, if you can get America to withdraw from Iraq, it can replace Taliban ruled Afghanistan as a base for terrorists. That's what your hero insurgents are fighting for. |
