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AFGHANISTAN UPDATE28 September 2007 No. 20: 21- 27 September 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 Chris Lindborg by email at clindborg at basicint.org with comments or suggestions. Previous editions of BASIC's Afghanistan Update are available here. Summary:
On 23 September in New York, the United Nations hosted a meeting on Afghanistan for leaders from key countries and organizations, including NATO. Led by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, attendees reviewed the implementation of the Afghanistan Compact, which is a five-year development plan that was created in January 2006. U.S. President George Bush met with President Karzai for about an hour and highlighted areas of progress in Afghanistan's development during a brief press conference. NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, met with Mr. Ban in New York on 24 September to discuss NATO and U.N. relations, and the subject of Afghanistan dominated their meeting with a focus on international coordination of civilian efforts and police training. Also while Mr. de Hoop Scheffer was in New York, he met with Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, and signed a counter-terrorism agreement between the Alliance and Australia. Although Australia is far from the transatlantic arena, the country has intensified its cooperation with NATO through activities in Afghanistan in recent years. Australia has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan and most of them are located in the more violent south. The agreement will solidify closer intelligence sharing, including classified information. Australia's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties in Federal Parliament must review the agreement before it becomes binding. After the meetings in New York, the U.N. Secretary-General released a report on Afghan security in which he called for a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy, stronger Afghan governance, and an integrated civil-military strategy that deals effectively with Taliban militia, burgeoning opium cultivation and trafficking, and corruption. In Afghanistan, heated clashes near Musa Qala reportedly led to the deaths of about 60 Taliban and one coalition soldier on 25 September. Five Afghan police officers died in a suicide bomb attack on a convoy in Kandahar and a Canadian solider died in the same province in a separate incident. By 26 September, the reported death toll in the same area had reached 100 Taliban fighters (including the previous 60), in what appears to be a sustained level of fighting in the town that had been taken over by the Taliban in February of this year. Also on the 26th, coalition forces killed 65 Taliban insurgents in Uruzgan province. Taliban militia killed two Danish soldiers in Helmand province on 26 September and two Spanish soldiers and an Iranian interpreter died when their vehicle was hit by an explosion near the town of Shewan in western Afghanistan on 24 September. A day earlier, "unidentified gunmen" fired on an Afghan government vehicle traveling from Badakhshan province to Kabul, killing seven policemen and five other government employees. According to the Badakhshan police chief, the unarmed police were being transferred to new posts. A French soldier died as a result of a suicide blast in Kabul on 21 September. According to Agence France Presse on 27 September, 175 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan in 2007 (including these latest deaths), most of them in fighting with Taliban militia. Remarking on the militia attacks of recent months, Dutch General Dick Berlijn said at a press conference on 24 September that Taliban have become more effective in their attacks. General Berlijn added that he expects at least one additional major Taliban attack before winter sets in and thus the Netherlands might send reinforcements. His remarks have come at a time when the Dutch are considering whether to extend their current mission in Afghanistan beyond the existing deadline of August 2008. Four members from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were abducted on 26 September in Wardak province. The ICRC workers were returning from an unsuccessful mission to win the release of a German engineer who has been held hostage by Taliban since July. In another kidnapping episode, two Italian soldiers were taken on 22 September in Herat province, but Italian commandos and NATO forces freed the soldiers two days later. The soldiers were injured and at least nine of the kidnappers were killed during the operation. In political developments, French President Nicholas Sarkozy announced that he will visit Afghanistan in the spring of 2008. France has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan. Canada's Defence Minister, Peter MacKay, said that his country should make a decision on renewing the deployment of its forces in Afghanistan before Canadian representatives attend the NATO Summit in Romania in April 2008. The government has been under pressure by the opposition to announce that Canada will conclude its military operations in Afghanistan in 2009. In an interview with The Globe and Mail (Canada), Norway's Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said that he understood Canada's frustration with the sense of having to carry a disproportionate responsibility in Afghanistan. He said that Norway has not decided on whether to move its 700 troops from the relatively less violent north and center of the country to the more dangerous south, where the Canadians are deployed. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked the U.S. Congress for $190 billion in funding for Fiscal Year 2008 for conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The hearing, which took place on 26 September before the Appropriations Committee, may be viewed through the Committee's Website here. A day later, Mr. Gates said that he was worried about NATO failing to meet requirements for operations in Afghanistan and expressed his concerns about weakening political and public support in Europe for the mission. Chris Lindborg and Candice Boyer, BASIC
Stories and Links: Bush, Karzai agree to agree on Afghanistan, James Gerstenzang,
Los Angeles Times, 27/09 Four ICRC staff kidnapped by Taliban, Reuters AlertNet,
27/09 Pulling troops from war zone would end aid effort: official,
Cindy E. Harnett, Times Colonist (Victoria, Canada), 27/09 "Death to Canada," Outraged Afghans chant, The Canadian
Press, via CBC News, 26/09 Effective security strategy most urgent priority for Afghanistan
- Ban Ki-moon, U.N. News Centre, 26/09 In Afghanistan, Anger Grows as Parliament Defies Majority Wishes,
Kirk Semple, The New York Times, 26/09 Kabul residents want NATO to stay, Matthew Fisher, CanWest
News Service, via The Vancouver Sun, 26/09 More than 60 Taliban are killed in firefight, Associated
Press via The Boston Globe, 26/09 Norway won't commit to role in danger zone, Alan Freeman,
The Globe and Mail (Canada), 26/09 Seeing Afghanistan, up closely and darkly, Paul Westmoore,
The Buffalo News (New York), 26/09 Browne signals Iraq pull-out and opens door to Taliban in Afghanistan,
Deborah Summers, Haroon Siddique and agencies, Guardian,
25/09 Emboldened Taliban Reflected In More Attacks, Greater Reach,
John Ward Anderson, The Washington Post, 25/09 NATO's Afghan force short of helicopters, troops, Agence
France Presse, 24/09 Afghan government and people want talks with Taliban, U.N. envoy
says, U.N. News Centre, 21/09 Editorials, Transcripts and Reports: Is the 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan coming full circle?
I. Ramamohan Rao, ANI via Yahoo! News, 26/09 Partisan politics wreck Afghan war debate, James McNulty,
The Vancouver Province, 26/09 President Bush Meets with President Karzai of Afghanistan,
Transcript/Office of the Press Secretary, The Waldorf-Astoria, New
York, 26/09 Weak rule of law hinders human development in Afghanistan,
U.N. Development Programme, 26/09 The Situation in Afghanistan and its implications for peace
and security, Report of the Secretary-General to the U.N. Security
Council, (A/62/345-S/2007/555) 21/09 Afghanistan: Post-War Governance, Security and U.S. Policy,
Congressional Research Service Report, Updated 10/09 (version posted
recently on the Website of the Federation of American Scientists)
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