Afghanistan Update
11
April 2008
No.
33: 22 March - 10 April 2008
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Summary:
- NATO summit generates additional troop commitments
- New U.N. envoy vows to improve coordination
- Over 20 militants killed in separate clashes in S. Afghanistan
- U.S. Army suspends supplier of munitions to Afghan soldiers
- Western aid to Afghanistan "falling short," report says
NATO summit generates
additional troop commitments
President Sarkozy announced at
last week's NATO summit in Bucharest that France would deploy
a battalion of 700 extra troops to assist U.S. forces in the
east of Afghanistan. The French deployment will allow an equivalent
number of U.S. troops in the east to re-deploy to southern
Kandahar province to reinforce Canadian troops fighting in
the area. The offer of troops parallels Sarkozy's recent pledge
to bring France closer to NATO's integrated military structure.
Other notable contributions include 400
troops from Georgia, eight helicopters and 400 soldiers from
Poland, 120 Czech Special Forces, and training teams for the
Afghan Army from Italy, Romania, and Greece.
NATO leaders also adopted an "ISAF Strategic Vision"
statement which sets out the rationale and objectives of NATO's
engagement in Afghanistan. The statement reaffirms NATO's
long-term commitment to Afghanistan and emphasizes the need
for greater in-country ownership, improved civil-military
coordination, and political outreach to Afghanistan's neighbors.
NATO allies also reached a formal agreement with Russia to
transport non-lethal supplies, including food and certain
kinds of military equipment, through Russian land corridors
to forces in Afghanistan.
New
U.N. envoy vows to improve coordination
Armed with a sharper mandate than his predecessor, U.N. Special
Representative for Afghanistan Kai Eide arrived in Kabul
last week to begin work on improving international coordination
with President Hamid Karzai’s government. “I think we have
all seen these days, [it is] still too fragmented
to have the effect that we want to have on the ground,” Ambassador
Eide said Wednesday in his first address to media since assuming
the new post. Eide emphasized the need for a political
solution to the problem of Afghanistan and pledged to
maintain the United Nations’ neutrality in his efforts to
coordinate international aid and development efforts.
Over
20 militants killed in separate clashes in S. Afghanistan
NATO and Afghan troops killed 15 Taliban militants
on 6 April in two separate clashes in southern Kandahar province.
Ten Taliban militants were killed in a combined operation
by Afghan and NATO-led forces in Zhari district, with another
five rebels killed in a similar raid in another part of the
district. Also on Saturday, Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry
reported that police arrested Taliban commander Abdul Jabar,
former deputy to captured militant leader Mullah Mansoor Dadullah. The Taliban dismissed the
report.
On 8 April, Afghan and U.S.-led coalition
forces launched a series
of airstrikes in northeastern Afghanistan intended to
target a meeting of Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar loyalists and Nuristani
based Taliban fighters. At least 16 people were killed.
In
other violence, insurgents attacked and killed 17
road workers and wounded 16 others in Zabul’s Shinkay
district on 8 April. Afghan and international security forces
killed seven militants and wounded 12 in response, according
to an Interior Ministry spokesman.
U.S. Army suspends
supplier of munitions to Afghan soldiers
The U.S. Army
suspended
the principle supplier of munitions to Afghan soldiers last
week after U.S. Army investigators discovered evidence of
fraud during a visit to an Afghan ammunition storage site
in January. The visit revealed that 28 pallets of ammunition
for Afghanistan certified as Hungarian were, in fact, decades-old
Chinese cartridges of questionable origin. An examination
of the company’s business records yielded further information
regarding possible links with federal entities suspected of
illegal arms trafficking. Representative Henry A. Waxman, Chairman of
the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will
hold a hearing on 17 April to review federal contracts awarded
to AEY Inc. and its President, Efraim E. Diveroli.
In other developments,
Amnesty International released a report
last week detailing the dangers of small arms proliferation
in Afghanistan. Available data suggests that over 400,000
small arms have been imported into Afghanistan since 2002,
while there are only 182,000 members of the Afghan security
forces. The report recommends that NATO leaders redouble their
efforts to ensure stockpile security and adequate training
for Afghan security forces in human rights law before authorizing
further arms exports to Afghanistan.
Western
aid to Afghanistan “falling short,” report says
The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), an
umbrella organization for 94 non-governmental organizations
working in Afghanistan, released a report
last week exposing the gap between pledged and committed assistance
to Afghanistan. The report, entitled “Falling Short,” states
that Western governments have failed to deliver up to $10
billion, or 40 percent, of promised aid to Afghanistan since
2001. The United States has delivered only half of the $10.4
billion of pledged aid until 2008, and the European Commission
and Germany have delivered less than two-thirds of their respective
commitments. The report attributed the shortfalls, in part,
to “challenging operating conditions, high levels of corruption
and weak absorption capacities.” With just 20 percent of Afghanistan’s
population having access to potable water and only five percent
to electricity, the report called on international donors
to increase the volume, quality, distribution, and transparency
of their foreign assistance.
In related news, the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) expressed concern over the worsening humanitarian situation
in Afghanistan and the rapid spread of armed conflict
throughout the country. “There is
growing insecurity and a clear intensification of the armed
conflict, which is no longer limited to the south but has
spread to the east and west,'' Jakob Kellenberger, the president
of the ICRC, said in a recent press release. During his seven-day
visit to Afghanistan, Kellenberger will discuss the protection
of non-combatants with the commander of the NATO-led International
Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) and assess the treatment
of detainees at the U.S. military prison at Bagram airfield.
Andrew Imbrie, BASIC
Please note: BASIC does not necessarily endorse comments,
editorials, or reports listed in this update.
Stories
and Links:
Afghan governors meet Bush, discuss concerns, Daily
Times, 10/04
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?
page=2008\04\10\story_10-4-2008_pg4_13
No redeployment of Korean troops to
Afghanistan, Korean
Times, 10/04
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/04/205_22308.html
New U.S. commander vows to stabilize
security, China
View, 10/04
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/10/content_7954641.htm
Al-Qaeda leader al-Masri “dead,”
Afgha.com, 9/04
http://www.afgha.com/?q=node/6872
NATO cancels local Afghan police program
amid sedition fears, David Axe, World
Politics Review, 9/04
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=1914
India rules out military involvement in Afghanistan,
Thaidian News, 8/04 http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/
india-rules-out-military-involvement-in-afghanistan_10035771.html
NATO needs an exit strategy in Afghanistan,
Patrick Seale, Aljazeera,
7/04
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=106311
Winning not a standard of success in
Afghanistan, says general, Matthew Fisher, Canwest
News Service, 7/04
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?
id=1b6b6c80-9bd3-480e-8f3c-c6f02ba98fac&k=19677
More troops to leave for Afghanistan,
NZHerald, 7/04
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10502561
U.K. to send another 450 troops to Afghanistan, David Altaner, Bloomberg, 7/04
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?
pid=20601102&sid=aZSnpmnqSRFg&refer=uk
Karzai hopes Gilani will help in “war on terror,” Dawn, 7/04
http://www.dawn.com/2008/04/07/top13.htm
Taliban: French leader lied about troops levels, Cheragh Daily, 6/04 http://www.cheraghdaily.af/english/spip.php?article601
Putting the Hell in Helmand, Economist, 3/04 http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?
story_id=10971033
Russian bid to replace Pakistan as supply route: War in
Afghanistan, Dawn,
2/04 http://www.dawn.com/2008/04/02/top7.htm
Army General now Central Command chief, United Press International, 28/03 http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/28/
army_general_now_central_command_chief/1688/
Attacks creeping into northern Afghanistan, Matt Dupee, Afgha.com,
28/03 http://www.afgha.com/?q=node/6724
Taliban declares start of new Afghan
offensive, Reuters,
27/03
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnL27199594.html
Afghanistan: Army reaches 70,000 Mark,
as Taliban vows new offensive, Ron Synovitz, Radio Free Europe, 26/03
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/03/
a1b41a7b-9431-4f2c-9c37-bcb389ca5038.html
Turkey chief says sending troops to Afghanistan state policy,
China View, 25/03 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/25/content_7852203.htm
100 Afghan drug police killed,
Daily Times, 25/03
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?
page=2008\03\25\story_25-3-2008_pg4_13
12 insurgents killed in Afghanistan,
Cheragh Daily, 24/03
http://www.cheraghdaily.af/english/spip.php?article570
Editorials, Transcripts and Reports:
Afghanistan: Spring Stalemate,
Dominic Moran, International
Relations and Security Network, 11/04
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18854
The “real” Al-Qaeda, Frederick
W. Kagan, Wall Street
Journal, 9/04
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/
Articles/000/000/014/962sandw.asp
The NATO summit and Afghanistan: Cosmetics
and the slow road to defeat, Anthony H. Cordesman, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 4/04
http://www.csis.org/component/option,com_csis_pubs/task,view/id,4423/
Progress
in Afghanistan: Bucharest Summit April 2-4 2008, NATO, 4/04
http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/epub/pdf/progress_afghanistan.pdf
India
and Pakistan in Afghanistan: Hostile Spots, South Asia
Monitor, 117, Raja Karthikeya and Teresita C. Schaffer, Center
for Strategic and International Studies, 3/04
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/sam117.pdf
The NATO Alliance at War, Greg Bruno, Council on Foreign Relations, 3/04
http://www.cfr.org/publication/15902/nato_alliance_at_war.html?
breadcrumb=%252
Afghanistan:
arms proliferation fuels further abuse, Amnesty
International, 1/04
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA11/004/2008/
en/0869e616-018c-11dd-b95b-f14e309c7fde/asa110042008eng.html
What lies beneath: the future of NATO through the ISAF prism,
Julianne Smith and Michael Williams, Center
for Strategic and International Studies, 31/03 http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/080331_nato.pdf
Seeking
a new international approach on Afghanistan and Pakistan,
Daniel Korski, European Council on Foreign Relations,
28/03
http://www.ecfr.eu/content/entry/commentary_islam_korski_on_afghanistan/
A
ray of light in the dark defile: The State of NATO, Economist, 27/03
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?
story_id=10919203
NATO and the Afghan Insurgency: Looking Ahead
to Bucharest, Andrew Imbrie, BASIC,
25/03
http://www.basicint.org/update/NATOAfghanInsurgencyMarch08.pdf
NATO at a Crossroads, Ian Davis, Foreign Policy in Focus, 21/03
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5086
BASIC's work is
made possible by the generous support of our donors: the Ploughshares
Fund, the Ford Foundation,
the Joseph Rowntree Charitable
Trust, Rockefeller Family Associates, and individual contributors
to BASIC. We are grateful to all of them for their support.
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