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AFGHANISTAN UPDATE12 July 2007 No. 8/9: 28 June - 11 July 2007 If you would like to receive this update, please email basic-wash at basicint.org with the phrase "subscribe to Afghanistan Update" in the subject line. Feedback on format and content is also gladly received. In particular we are keen to hear feedback of how useful you find this update. Please contact Cameron Scott by email at cscott at basicint.org with comments or suggestions. Previous editions of BASIC's Afghanistan Update are available here. Summary:
Road-side and suicide bombings wrought a heavy toll in southern Afghanistan in the last fortnight, killing scores of civilians and security force personnel. At least 17 people, including 13 school children, were killed and over 30 injured when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of Dutch soldiers in Dehrawood, Oruzgan province on Tuesday 9 July. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack. The loss of life inflicted by the bombing ranks it among the deadliest to have occurred in Afghanistan since 2001. Kandahar was also hit by several recent incidents. A suicide bombing at a police checkpoint in Spin Boldak on 5 July killed ten people including nine Afghan police, while separate road-side bombings in the Zhari district claimed the lives of six Canadian soldiers and their interpreter on 4 July and seven Afghan policeman on 2 July. The U.N. Special Representative in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, criticized the Taliban for showing a "staggering disregard" for civilian life that was tantamount to "mass murder," while President Hamid Karzai called the attacks "cowardly" for killing children and accused insurgents of donning burqas to escape capture. Meanwhile the criticism of international forces for their own failure to prevent civilian deaths continued, as aerial bombing has again caused casualties among non-combatants. An airstrike in Helmand on Friday 29 June killed 62 insurgents and 48 civilians, according to local officials, prompting President Karzai to dispatch a team to investigate the incident. Airstrikes by NATO forces were also responsible for civilian casualties in eastern Konar province on Thursday 5 July, where senior Afghan officials confirmed that 27 civilians were killed. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilizad, called the recent spate of non-combatant deaths "unfortunate," and said that while international forces take precautions to avoid such incidents, insurgents have deliberately endangered civilians by hiding amongst them and using them as shields. Khalilizad's comments came during a conference in Rome on 2-3 July designed to address the issue of judicial reform in Afghanistan. Officials from more than 20 countries participated in the meeting and sought to create a strategy to combat the high levels of crime and corruption that have contributed to the insecurity in Afghanistan. President Karzai identified particular problems such as low salaries, poor infrastructure and a lack of training among judiciary officials as hindering efforts at reform, and the United States led international efforts to address these issues by pledging $360 million. The high-profile incidents of civilian deaths caused by international forces overshadowed the conference, however, and the summit ended with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon calling on international forces to make greater efforts to fulfill their promise to avoid civilian casualties. Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission issued a similar statement on 2 July and called on international forces to increase their contribution of ground forces rather than relying on airpower. Afghanistan's counter-narcotics minister, Habibullah Qaderi, resigned on Sunday 8 July, following the recent harvest of a poppy crop that may exceed 2006's record production. President Karzai has not yet named a replacement for Qaderi, whose tenure from 2004-2007 saw opium production rise dramatically. Meanwhile Afghanistan's international allies continue to disagree over an appropriate counter-narcotics strategy. The U.S. State Department continues to place pressure on the U.S. military to include eradication in its counter-insurgency efforts, but methods such as aerial spraying have been resisted by others including the Afghan government. The Afghan government has also previously rejected other means of control including legalization schemes proposed by groups such as the Senlis Council, whose advocacy of such means resulted in suspension of their activities in Afghanistan by the Afghan parliament last autumn. Yet in his first speech in the House of Lords, Sir Mark Malloch-Brown, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, suggested that legalization for medicinal use would be examined "hard and seriously." German participation in the NATO led ISAF mission and the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom has been the subject of much domestic scrutiny and debate in recent weeks. At present, Germany has some 3,000 troops stationed in northern Afghanistan along with six Tornado reconnaissance aircraft, which were deployed in April. A recent legal challenge to the Tornado deployment by the Left Party was dismissed by the Federal Constitutional Court, which disagreed with the Left Party in finding that the NATO mission retained its "peacekeeping orientation." There has also been significant criticism from the Left Party and others of continued German participation in the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) mission, but Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung stated at a conference in Berlin on 3 July that German KSK Special Forces troops will continue to work within OEF, according to the German news agency DDP. However, there are elements within the governing coalition, particularly from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), that are growing increasingly sympathetic towards calls for withdrawal from OEF. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, an SDP member and proponent of German involvement in Afghanistan, admitted recently that the autumn may bring a reassessment of the current deployment. Other ISAF member states have continued to pledge their support to the Afghan mission. New Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose commitment to foreign ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan has been questioned, promised President Karzai during a telephone conversation on 6 July that British troops would remain in Afghanistan, adding that "security for Afghanistan means security for the world." The Sunday Times reported on 1 July that Britain's deployment to the front line in Helmand will increase by 25% in expectation of heavy fighting in the autumn. The increase would bring Britain's total troop levels in Afghanistan to 8,500. Prime Minister Stephen Harper also vowed to maintain a presence in Afghanistan, committing Canadian troops to the Afghan mission until at least 2009 a day after six Canadian soldiers died in a road-side bombing. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also reiterated his country's commitment, saying that Australia's relationship with Afghanistan was "a strong one" during a visit to Kabul on Saturday 30 June. Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop told reporters on 29 June that an extension of the current mandate was being considered, but that it may be reduced from the current level of 2,200 troops. Cameron Scott
Stories and Links: A world awash in heroin; the opium economy, The Economist,
28/6 Stage managing disaster, Institute for War and Peace Reporting,
29/6 'Abu Henry' and the mysterious silence, The Independent,
30/6 Bomber's end: Flash of terror, humble grave, The New
York Times, 1/7 Afghanistan is moving backwards, Asia Times Online,
3/7 U.N., U.S. action sometimes at odds on Afghan policy, The
Washington Post, 5/7 Western forces hooked on air power in Afghan war, Reuters,
5/7 Taliban, farmers digging in, The Washington Times, 7/7 http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070707/FOREIGN/107070029/1003 Afghan civilian casualties as information warfare? New claims
say 133 killed, The Associated Press, 7/7 Afghanistan: Time to review our presence as two more soldiers die, The Independent, 8/7 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2745079.ece Elusive victory, U.S. News and World Report, 9/7
The Taliban's opium war, The New Yorker, 9/7 In Afghan effort, wins and losses recounted, The Boston
Globe, 10/7 As war enters classrooms, fear grips Afghans, The New
York Times, 10/7 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/world/asia/10afghan.html?ex=1341720000&en=ea4ed84b2bdbaa21&ei=
Editorials, Transcripts and Reports: NATO Didn't Lose Afghanistan, The New York Times,
10/7 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/opinion/10chayes.html?n=Top%2FOpinion%2FEditorials DoD News Briefing with Col. Ives and Lt. Col. Kim at the Pentagon,
U.S. Department of Defense, 28/6 DoD News Briefing with Col. Bulen at the Pentagon, U.S.
Department of Defense, 29/6 'Successes and Deficits' in Afghanistan: Interview with German
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Der Spiegel,
9/7 NATO in Afghanistan, Journal of International Peace Operations,
July/August 2007 Getting the fundamentals right: The early stages of Afghanistan's
WTO accession process, Oxfam International, 28/6
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