AFGHANISTAN UPDATE

28 June 2007

No. 7: 21 - 27 June 2007

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Previous editions of BASIC's Afghanistan Update are available here.

Summary:

• Anger grows with further civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Pakistan; NATO blames Taliban, accusing insurgents of "illegal and immoral" actions
• United Nations report indentifies Helmand as world's largest drug producer, says opium crop may grow in 2007
• Political developments and deployment updates

President Hamid Karzai blasted international troops as "careless" and stated that "Afghan life is not cheap" after a string of incidents that killed 90 civilians in ten days. An airstrike against insurgents in Helmand province last Friday killed 25 civilians, including a dozen members of one family, according to local officials. Elsewhere in Helmand, local civilians accused ISAF troops of opening fire on a crowd after a British convoy was struck by a road-side bomb on Sunday. One Afghan civilian and one British soldier died in the incident. In eastern Paktika province on Saturday an engagement between NATO forces and insurgents caused civilian casualties in Pakistan; ten were killed when a NATO rocket crossed the border. An Associated Press tally finds that NATO and the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom coalition have been responsible for more non-combatant deaths in 2007 than the Taliban and other anti-government elements have.

NATO has expressed understanding with President Karzai's frustration, but international forces have defended their engagement procedures and accused the Taliban of resorting to "illegal and immoral" methods to wage war. Dutch Gen. Dick Berlijn said that the Taliban had resorted to executing civilians who refused to fight against international forces during a recent engagement, and a six year old boy was found with a suicide vest that he said insurgents had forced him to wear. The Taliban also recently kidnapped seventeen members of a demining squad in Ghazni, in violation of the protected status such workers had previously been given by Taliban leader Mullah Omar. A report on Ariana TV late on Wednesday, however, stated that the hostages had been safely released.

A new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has found that while drug use is falling globally, several areas remain severely challenged by the growth and trafficking of illicit drugs, and none more so than Afghanistan. Soaring opium production in Afghanistan has in fact negated much of the progress made in reducing poppy growth in south-east Asia, while Helmand province has become the largest drug-producing region world-wide. Afghanistan produced roughly 92% of the world's opium in 2006, and Helmand accounted for 42% of that as cultivation in the province saw a massive 162% increase from 2005. 2007 may yield an even bigger crop due to factors such as good weather, according to Christina Gynna Oguz of the UNODC.

Meanwhile a Scottish MP, Bill Wilson, has suggested that Afghanistan's opium crop should be bought in order to help treat Scotland's heroin addicts, who face waits of up to two years for treatment by the National Health Service. This recommendation echoes the argument of a report released on Monday by the Senlis Council, which urges the international community to resist eradication efforts through means such as aerial spraying and instead introduce a scheme for legalized growth to produce morphine and other medicine for international and domestic consumption. Afghanistan too has its share of addicts in need of assistance: according to the UNODC roughly 3.7% of Afghanistan's population, including many women and children, are thought to be addicted to drugs such as opium and hashish. Yet just 22 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces have treatment centers, leaving many without sufficient access to help.

Anger stemming from the knighthood awarded to controversial writer Salman Rushdie spread to Afghanistan in recent days, as the Afghan Ulema Council issued a statement on Afghan state radio on Saturday condemning the action as an attempt to further divide Muslim nations and the west. The Jamiat-e Eslami party issued a similar statement in the Payam-e Mojahed newspaper on Saturday, saying the honor awarded to Rushdie was a deliberate insult to Muslims and called for the writer to be punished.

Several ISAF member states have announced equipment reinforcements for their Afghan missions. The increase in the use of lethal road-side bombs has prompted many militaries to deploy more heavily armored vehicles to Afghanistan, yet the British military has taken an alternative approach and will soon be sending MWMIK 'Supacats' to the frontlines. Like the lightly-armored but nimble WMIK Land Rovers already in theater, these vehicles sacrifice protection for speed, range and armament.

While the British vehicles have proven popular with their crews, other national contingents are demanding greater protection from their vehicles. The PAP news agency of Poland reported on 22 June that efforts will be made to equip Polish troops in Afghanistan with more heavily armored Humvees after several soldiers had to be recalled home to Poland after they refused to go on patrol in vehicles they felt were insufficiently protected. Poland's 1,200-strong deployment to Afghanistan is domestically unpopular; PAP reported that a recent public opinion poll found a scant 17% approval rating, with 48% strongly opposed. Statements by General Marek Tomaszycki on 23 June, however, reiterated Polish commitment; PAP reported that Tomaszycki felt the mission would last at least a decade and that Poland must "stick it out to the end."

Canada's long-term participation in ISAF was cast into doubt following remarks made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last Friday, who pledged to put involvement beyond the current mandate of 2009 to a parliamentary vote. Harper said he would not want to "send people into a mission if the opposition is going to, at home, undercut the dangerous work they're doing in the field." Canada is one of the largest contributors to ISAF, with 2,500 personnel stationed in the volatile southern province of Kandahar. Meanwhile in the United States several lawmakers have stated the U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) said that "…there is no useful purpose for our troops there," and was joined by Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.), who stated the presence of U.S. troops there is "not securing America."

Cameron Scott
BASIC

Stories and Links:

Western forces in Afghanistan; Unfriendly fire, The Economist, 21/6 http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9370785

A counter-insurgency in trouble; Fatal errors in Afghanistan, The Economist, 21/6 http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9366272

Girls fear to go to school after shooting incident, Integrated Regional Information Network, 21/6 http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/TKAI-74E5HX?OpenDocument

Kandahar's streets safer but people scarce, The Washington Times, 21/6 http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070620/FOREIGN/106210002&SearchID=73285360348414

Taliban put up a new fight, Asia Times Online, 21/6
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IF21Df01.html

Taliban losing the will to talk, Asia Times Online, 22/6 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IF22Df01.html

Walking Afghanistan's drugs tightrope, BBC News Online, 22/6 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6222200.stm

The Guardian profile: Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, The Guardian, 22/6 http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,2108871,00.html

Addiction takes hold in the poppy fields of Afghanistan, The Independent, 22/5 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2692474.ece

British fight Taliban to build crucial bridge link, The Independent, 23/5 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2697793.ece

Blood and dust: On the front line with British troops in Afghanistan, The Independent, 24/5 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2701303.ece

Long haul fight to defeat the Taleban, BBC News Online, 25/6 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6237290.stm

Developing hope in Afghanistan, BBC News Online, 25/6 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6237106.stm

Female journalists targeted as violence surges in Afghanistan, The Associated Press, 26/6 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/26/asia/AS-GEN-Afghan-Women-Threatened.php

Aid failings 'hit Afghan progress', BBC News Online, 26/6 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6764345.stm

Terrified and tearful in Helmand, in a conflict that grows more painful each day, The Independent, 26/5 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2710589.ece

Taliban turn gunsights to Afghan police, The Christian Science Monitor, 26/5 http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0625/p06s02-wosc.html

Fast and furious with the Taliban, Asia Times Online, 27/6 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IF27Df01.html

Editorials, Interviews and Reports:

That other noble cause, The Guardian, 21/6 http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/comment/story/0,,2107725,00.html

The first rule of a just war...express your aims, The Independent, 26/5 http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2710592.ece

From liberators to occupiers? The Independent, 26/5 http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2710591.ece

DoD News Briefing with Brig. Gen. Votel from Afghanistan, U.S. Department of Defense, 26/6 http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4001

New Taliban Military Commander Mansour Dadallah: Bin Laden Is Alive and Well, transcript of Al-Jazeera interview with Mansoor Dadullah, The Middle East Media Research Institute, 21/6 http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP163007

Taliban politics and Afghan legitimate grievances, The Senlis Council, 25/6 http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/events/London_event_on_afghanistan/publications/023_publication

Poppy for Medicine, The Senlis Council, 25/6 http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/events/London_event_on_afghanistan/publications/022_publication