CIVIL - MILITARY FUSION CENT RE

Afghanistan Review Week 12 20 March 2012 Comprehensive Information on Complex Crises

This document provides a weekly overview of developments in from 13 – 19 March 2012, INSIDE THIS ISSUE with hyper-links to source material highlighted in blue and underlined in the text. For more information

Economic Development on the topics below or other issues pertaining to events in Afghanistan, contact the members of the Afghanistan Team, or visit our website at www.cimicweb.org. Governance & Rule of Law Security & Force Protection Economic Development Steven A. Zyck ► [email protected] Social & Strategic Infrastructure ccording to The Hindu, India is looking to launch a proposed Partnership Council with DISCLAIMER Afghanistan in order to deepen economic ties between the two countries following the A establishment of a bilateral cooperation agreement late last year. The Partnership Coun- The Civil-Military Fusion Centre cil, which will be chaired by both countries’ foreign ministers, will promote cooperation be- (CFC) is an information and tween Afghanistan and India in areas such as capacity building in the security, education and knowledge management organisa- civil society sectors and mining. India won the rights to the Hajigak iron ore deposit in central tion focused on improving civil- Afghanistan last year and is currently planning to pursue oil and gas deposits in the North of military interaction, facilitating the country as well as a number of copper deposits. information sharing and enhancing situational awareness through the Pakistan Observer says the Board of Directors of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of CimicWeb portal and our weekly Commerce and Industry met for the first time between 12 and 16 March in Karachi. The meet- and monthly publications. ing was considered a foundational one in establishing the Joint Chamber and addressed issues such as the roles and responsibilities of the body’s president and vice-president. The Joint CFC products are based upon and Chamber of Commerce and Industry is intended to boost bilateral trade between Afghanistan link to open-source information and Pakistan. Senior Pakistani officials tell the Business Recorder that they hope the Joint from a wide variety of organisations, Chamber will help facilitate Pakistani businesses’ access to Central Asian markets. Afghan research centres and media outlets. President also welcomed the formation of the joint chamber. However, the CFC does not endorse and cannot necessarily guarantee In other regional economic news, the Bernama news agency says that the Iranian North Khora- the accuracy or objectivity of these san Chamber of Commerce and the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) sources. signed 20 memoranda of understanding (MoUs). These MoUs, first reported by Iranian state- run news agency IRNA, concern issues such as agriculture, food, petrochemicals, metals and CFC publications are inde- construction materials. Afghan businesses and traders reportedly require materials produced in pendently produced by Desk Iran. Trade between Khorasan province in Iran and Afghanistan is estimated to have been val- Officers and do not reflect ued at USD 17 million over the past 12 months. NATO or ISAF policies or posi- On the subject of Iran, officials from Afghanistan’s Central Bank indicated that Afghans’ de- tions of any other organisation. posits in the Afghanistan branch of Iranian Aryan Bank are safe despite the fact that the Iranian The CFC is part of NATO Allied government has withdrawn the bank’s license, according to Khaama Press. The deputy head of Command Operations. the Central Bank indicated that Afghans’ money will not be lost given that Afghanistan has implemented a depositors’ insurance programme. However, Afghan finance experts expressed doubts that the insurance arrangements would function in practice should a bank collapse and take depositors’ money with it.

Continuing a story which emerged three weeks ago, the deputy governor of Afghanistan’s Cen- tral Bank, Khan Afzal Hadawal, tells Reuters that wealthy Afghans are taking approximately USD 8 billion out of the country each year on flights to Dubai and other foreign destinations. CONTACT THE CFC This figure is substantially higher than that released by the Central Bank last month. On 22 For further information, contact: February, The Wall Street Journal reported that at least USD 4.6 billion had been flown out of Afghanistan in 2011. Hadawal says the Central Bank’s new regulations – which prevent Af- Afghanistan Team Leader [email protected] ghans from taking more than USD 20,000 out of the country at a time – “will not stop the money from going out”. Hadawal also told Reuters that the country’s economy may decline

The Afghanistan Team significantly as international forces depart and foreign aid flows decline, particularly given a [email protected] lack of inward investment to offset the on-going capital flight. He further noted that “[a]t this stage you see we are dependent on foreign aid. If it stops and security does not improve, the economy will not be sustainable.”

Afghanistan has significant marble deposits in Herat province in the western part of the country, but the marble sector faces challeng- es, claims an article in Frontlines magazine, which is published by the Agency for International Development (USAID). Dynamite continues to be one of the chief approaches to extraction despite the fact that dynamite destroys some marble, reduces “stone size” (and hence value) and leads to cracking and breaks during processing. However, little marble processing takes place in Afghanistan; the country exports raw blocks of marble without adding value or gaining the full value of the stone. To address this challenge, USAID, the private sector, industry bodies and the Afghan government began collaborating to modernize Herat’s marble sector. This process has involved the organising of marble conferences and the promotion of diamond-wire cutting methods of extract- ing and shaping marble. USAID and its partners are also working to improve processing. The marble industry in Herat province alone is expected to provide jobs for an additional 4,000 Afghans over the coming five years.

Governance & Rule of Law Stefanie Nijssen ► [email protected]

resident Hamid Karzai announced that international forces in Afghanistan will be required to restrict themselves to major bases and “leave Afghan villages” by next year, The New York Times reports. He also stated that the Afghan government and interna- P tional military forces should “work on a plan to complete the security transition process by 2013 instead of 2014”. Reports linked President Karzai’s announcement with the killing of 16 Afghan civilians, allegedly by a US soldier, last week. The accused soldier was attached to a small Special Forces compound located nearby the village where the Afghan civilians were killed. According to Reuters, President Karzai said the shooting had hurt Afghans’ trust in foreign forces. On 17 March, US President Barack Obama telephoned President Karzai to discuss the future role of US troops in Afghan villages, Pajhwok Afghan News states. Meanwhile, Brit- ish Prime Minster David Cameron joined President Obama in stating that NATO forces would hand over the lead combat role to Af- ghan forces in 2013, according to the Associated Press (AP). President Obama said he still plans to gradually withdraw American forces from Afghanistan throughout 2014 and that there would not be “any sudden, additional changes” in the pace of withdrawal. In related news, Afghanistan’s Minister of Defence, Abdul Rahim Wardak, told Tolo News that Germany has pledged to support Af- ghanistan beyond its withdrawal of troops in 2014 and that this support would be the subject of a strategic partnership agreement be- tween the two countries. According to the AP, the have suspended peace talks with the United States, accusing the US government of failing to deliver on past promises, including the transfer of Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar, and making new demands in the talks. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland insisted that the US government had not previously agreed to transfer the prison- ers. The Taliban will also forego opening a political office in Qatar, the group said in a statement on 15 March. Hundreds of students in the city of Jalalabad staged the first significant protest on 13 March in response to the killing of 16 Afghan civilians in , says the AP. Hundreds of Afghans in Zabul province also protested on 15 March, officials told Tolo News. The protesters gathered in the provincial capital of Qalat where they chanted slogans such as “Death to America”, local police told Tolo News. While Afghan security forces were deployed to ensure order during the protests, there were no reports of violence. According to the AP, Afghan officials and villagers say that members of a high-level delegation sent by President Karzai to investigate the killings have helped to prevent demonstrations thus far by calling tribal leaders and urging them to help calm the situation. In related news, the US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar province has been flown to a US military prison at Fort Leavenworth and could potentially face the death penalty, according to the AP. US Defense Department spokesman Captain John Kirby said the suspect was moved because “we do not have an appropriate detention facility in Afghanistan”. Tribal elders of Panjwa- yi district in Kandahar, where the shootings took place, tell Pajhwok that they want the US soldier to be tried in an Afghan court. Ab- dul Ghani, a tribal elder from the area where the shootings occurred, warned the move to transfer the suspect would cause “people to rise up and increase the hostility between Afghanistan and America”. However, an American official told the AP that President Hamid Karzai was informed of and had approved the suspect’s removal from the country. The Afghanistan National Front (ANF), a political coalition which opposes President Karzai’s administration, has said the current government lacks the legitimacy necessary to sign a strategic partnership agreement with the United States. Hence, the ANF says that negotiations over such an agreement should be postponed until after the next round of presidential elections in 2014, Outlook Afghani- stan reports. Analysts cited by Outlook Afghanistan believe opposition political parties, particularly the ANF and the National Coali- tion, might form an alliance which would allow them to play a leading role in Afghanistan in and after 2014. Incidents of violence against journalists in Afghanistan increased by 38% in 2011, media support organisation Nai told Pajhwok. “On average, three journalists have been killed in Afghanistan every year. In the most recent case, the manager of Melma radio station was murdered in Paktika province,” the group said. Nai reports that there is a lack of punishment for those who attack and kill journalists. According to The New York Times, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and George Soros’s Open So- ciety Foundation (OSF) published a report describing how US government personnel have continued to transfer detainees to Afghan prisons despite the fact that the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) ordered a halt to such transfers last year over concerns about torture at Afghan detention centres. The had previously reported evidence of torture at Afghan government-run

20 March 2012 Page 2 prisons, prompting the NATO-led coalition to cease transferring detainees to 16 Afghan prisons in mid-2011. Of those 16 facilities, 14 have rectified their problems and are again receiving detainees from ISAF. Afghan and American officials, all of whom were shown copies of the AIHRC-OSF report weeks ago, have claimed to have taken actions to address the problems the report raises. Afghani- stan’s National Directorate of Security has now given the AIHRC access to its main counter-terrorism detention centre.

Women visiting relatives at a men’s prison run by the Afghan government near have in recent weeks been subjected to invasive body-cavity searches to keep out contraband, international and Afghan officials tell The New York Times. Most male visitors to the Pule-Charki prison gain access to the facility after being patted down. However, nearly every female visitor to the facility undergoes a vaginal search. US officials and some Afghan government personnel have repeatedly but unsuccessfully called on the Afghan authori- ties and prison leadership to stop the practice. Subsequently, the United States cut off financing to the facility until US government personnel could confirm that the invasive searches have stopped. Afghan and American officials tell The New York Times that General Amir Jamshid, who heads all of Afghanistan’s civilian prisons, has tried and failed to stop the invasive searches of women. However, his objections had reportedly been overridden by Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi. Rights advocates are viewing this situation as a troubling indication that women’s rights may be in jeopardy as the Afghan government takes on new roles and responsi- bilities from the international community. The Supreme Court’s high council has recommended that the Presidential Palace create a special court to investigate corruption alle- gations against an unnamed cabinet minister, Supreme Court’s spokesman Abdul Walkil Omari told Pajhwok. Article 78 of the Af- ghan constitution states that “whenever a minister is charged with national treason or other kind of crimes, the accused shall be re- ferred to a special court”. Last year, Attorney General Mohammad Ishaq Alako said 25 high-ranking government officials, including ministers, provincial governors and district chiefs, were involved in various corruption cases. Gulbahar Habibi, a prominent Afghan businessperson, and two other associates have each been sentenced to six years in prison for corruption, according to Tolo News. They were found guilty of falsifying government documents in order to facilitate construction of a massive business centre and shopping mall in Kabul. The forger who physically created the false paperwork was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the scheme. Some Wolesi Jirga lawmakers told President Karzai that strongmen continue to construct illegal towns and grab private and state- owned lands, the President’s Office told Pajhwok. A report by the Wolesi Jirga’s complaint commission detailed how 25,000 acres land were illegally seized using fake documents. Lawmakers had reportedly sent 1,260 letters of concern to relevant departments and had personally travelled to various provinces to address land-grabbing. President Karzai reportedly assured lawmakers that he would discuss their concerns with the relevant departments and ministries. According to Outlook Afghanistan, the Wolesi Jirga rejected the budget for the fiscal year which starts this week in Afghanistan. Members of parliament (MPs) reportedly objected to two elements of the proposed budget, a USD 80 million “bailout package” for Kabul Bank and the uneven distribution of funds among the country’s 34 provinces. Responding to criticism from MPs who felt that some provinces were ignored, Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal noted that the country could not afford to undertake major infrastruc- ture projects such as roads and electricity supply in all provinces simultaneously, Khaama Press reports. The negotiations on the EU-Afghanistan Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development were officially launched on 12 March at the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says Outlook Afghanistan. According to Outlook Afghanistan, the US Embassy in Afghanistan announced plans to provide Afghanistan with USD 238 million for the continuation of key rule of law and counter-narcotics programmes.

Security & Force Protection Mark Checchia ► [email protected]

Turkish military helicopter crashed into a house on the outskirts of Kabul on 16 March, Sky News reports. The Turkish general staff confirmed the death of 12 soldiers aboard the Sikorsky aircraft, which was on a mission for the International Security As- A sistance Force (ISAF) when it hit a multi-level home in Bagrami district, east of Kabul. The Afghan Interior Ministry said two girls were killed in the incident and a woman and a child were injured. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said it appeared that the aircraft crashed during an emergency landing and that the pilot had tried to avoid residential areas. The death toll is believed to be the heaviest encountered so far by the Turkish Army during its Afghanistan mission. Turkey has approximately 1,800 troops in Afghanistan but does not take part in combat operations and limits its actions to patrolling. An Afghan soldier was killed and two others were wounded when militants fired on an Afghan government delegation in Kandahar province on 13 March, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports. The delegation, which included two of President Hamid Karzai’s brothers and other senior officials, was attending a memorial service at a mosque in the village where a US soldier is suspected of kill- ing 16 Afghan civilians. The Afghan government has granted extensions allowing some companies to continue using private security companies (PSCs) for a period ranging from a few weeks to 90 days, the Associated Press (AP) reports. The deadline was 21 March for companies using PSCs to switch to the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF), an Afghan government entity. The APPF will be obliged to take over the role currently filled by 11,000 PSC personnel. However, a range of factors led to the extensions. Most notably, only 16 out of an estimated

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75 private development contractors have thus far complied with the 21 March deadline and signed contracts with the APPF. These companies had previously stated that they may need to cease operations if they were not permitted to continuing using PSCs, jeopard- ising billions in aid to Afghanistan. A NATO official told the AP that private companies involved in reconstruction and development projects received 30-day extensions while companies involved in security for vehicle convoys received 90-day extensions. Jamal Ab- dul Naser Sidiqi, the head of the APPF, said the extensions represent a “revised implementation plan” rather than a policy shift.

An Afghan interpreter at Camp Bastion in Helmand province stole a pickup truck, injuring a British soldier in the process, and drove near a runway where a plane carrying US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was set to land, says BBC News. The attacker appeared to be trying to run down a group of US Marines waiting to welcome Panetta when his truck ran into a ditch. The driver was engulfed in flames when he emerged from the vehicle. UK Royal Air Force firemen on the airfield responded to the fire, but the man died from his injuries before he could be questioned. Bakhtar News Agency is reporting that Afghan security forces are involved in an operation against a Taliban sanctuary in Uruzgan province. Uruzgan’s Chora district has the largest number of armed Taliban insurgents in the area and is described as being a strategic centre for assembling homemade mines and roadside bombs. Local police report serious fighting between police and Taliban resulted in the death one Afghan police officer and two Taliban fighters as of 19 March. Police officials say the operation will continue until the area is cleared of armed Taliban. A roadside bomb killed at least 10 people, including four women and six children, in Uruzgan province on 15 March, Tolo News says. In a similar event, on 14 March in Helmand province, eight Afghan civilians were killed when their car struck a landmine.

Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the AP that an agreement permitting the United States to use a Russian air base in Ulya- novsk for transporting troops and military cargo to Afghanistan will soon be considered by the Russian Cabinet. While had already provided the United States and other NATO members with air corridors and railway routes for carrying supplies to and from Afghanistan, this new agreement marks the first time that the US military has been given permission to set up a logistics facility for troops and cargo on Russian territory.

Social & Strategic Infrastructure Rainer Gonzalez ► [email protected]

he Industrial and Commercial bank of China, China’s largest bank, has withdrawn from a deal to finance the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, reports The Los Angeles Times.1 Pakistan, which is facing energy shortages, reportedly sees the IP pipeline as an T alternative to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas project, particularly in the short term. The TA- PI pipeline is not expected to be completed until at least 2017 (see the CFC report entitled “TAPI Natural Gas Pipeline: Status & Source of Potential Delays”). The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China pulled out from consortium that would finance the USD 1.6 billion portion of the IP gas pipeline in Pakistan. The bank did so, according to The Los Angeles Times, out of concern that finan- cial support for the project could run it afoul of American and European sanctions against companies doing business with Iran. Paki- stani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar declared that Pakistan will go ahead with the IP pipeline project and noted that “there are always a multiplicity of funding sources which are available for any project”. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly threatened Pakistan with “damaging consequences” if the country proceeds with the IP project. The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) released a new report titled “Lessons from Women’s Programs in Afghanistan and Iraq”. According to the report, women’s rights and opportunities in Afghanistan are vulnerable and Afghan women continue to be excluded from reconciliation efforts with the Taliban. Accordingly, the report suggests that the content of negotiations between the Afghan gov- ernment and the Taliban could undermine advances achieved by women since 2001. USIP provides a number of recommendations based on lessons identified in the report. These include, for instance, empowering civil society, building trust between women at the national and provincial levels and utilising media to enhance women’s role in peace-building. Officials in Faryab province are concerned about the alarming increase in drug use in the province, reports Pajhwok Afghan News. Mohammad Maroof Samar, who works in one of the drug rehabilitation centres in the area, told Pajhwok that a recent survey revealed more than 30,000 drug users in the province and that this number is growing. The article cites risk factors which may lead some Af- ghans to begin using illicit drugs, including unemployment and migration to neighbouring countries, where Afghan youth may be fur- ther exposed to drug abuse. According to the survey, 8,000 drug users – 60% of whom are women or children – were found in And- khowi, Qurumul, Ghorghan and Sancharak districts. Pajhwok notes that drug use is partly related to the carpet-weaving business. Some carpet weavers reportedly provide drugs to their children, which puts them asleep, so that they can focus on their work. Accord- ing to a recent CFC report entitled “Drug Abuse and Treatment Facilities in Afghanistan”, there is only one drug treatment facility in Faryab. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has awarded the first 3G license to Etisalat, a United Arab Emirates-based company, says Pajhwok. The contract between the MCIT and Etisalat is worth USD 25 million. The services will be

1 The Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline is at times also referred to as the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline.

20 March 2012 Page 4 offered to Etisalat customers during the course of the next month and will be available nationwide within two years. Besides Etisalat, 3G licenses will also be issued to all other major firms in Afghanistan, including Roshan, the Afghan Communication Company, MTN and Afghan Telecom.

In addition, a number of individual projects were reported by the media during the course of the past week: a. An agreement between the government of Japan and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Afghanistan has been

signed, according to a UNFPA press release. Under the agreement, UNFPA will coordinate a socio-demographic and economic

survey of Gohr and Dai Kundi provinces. The survey will cost USD 11.4 million and will be conducted throughout 2012. b. The Asmaee Bridge in Kabul city, funded by the government of Japan and implemented by the United Nations Office for Projects and Services (UNOPS) was inaugurated, says a UNOPS press release. The project is designed to reduce traffic congestion. c. Approximately 3,000 women have completed vocational courses in Jowzjan province, highlights Pajhwok. The courses have been funded by UNOPS and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and include carpet-weaving, dress- making, computer training, embroidery and baking. d. A 13 km canal that will provide irrigation for 1,000 hectares of arable land was inaugurated in Badakhshan province, reports Pa- jhwok. The canal, which will benefit 40 villages, was funded by USAID at a cost of USD 276,000. e. The Ministry of Education (MoE) announced that 11,000 new teachers will be recruited and that 48,000 high school graduates will be trained as teachers in 2012, says Pajhwok. An MoE official announced that 60% of the new recruits would be women. f. The European Union will provide EUR 1.9 million to finance training courses for 1,000 disabled Afghans, reports Pajhwok. The courses will be undertaken throughout 2013 in Ghazni, Wardak, Logar, Nangarhar, Kunduz and Laghman provinces.

Recent Readings & Resources

. “Factsheet: The Fight for Eastern Afghanistan”, Institute for the Study of War, March 2012, Isaac Hock.

. “The Haqqani Network: A Strategic Threat”, Institute for the Study of War, March 2012, Jeffrey Dressler.

. “Factsheet: U.S.-Afghan Strategic Agreement”, Institute for the Study of War, March 2012, Paraag Shukla.

. “Their drill may be out of step, but Afghan army is ready for the fight”, The Telegraph, 11 March 2012, Sean Rayment.

The readings and resources above were brought to the attention of the CFC’s Afghanistan Team during the course of the past several weeks. The CFC does not endorse any of these documents or their content. If you would like to recommend a report or website for this section of the “Afghanistan Review”, please send the file or reference to [email protected]. The CFC welcomes all recommendations but is not obliged to print them.

Afghanistan Events Calendar

. Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan. The fifth Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Af- ghanistan (RECCA) will be held in the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, on 26-27 March 2012. The conference will focus on strategies for enhancing commercial cooperation within Central and South Asia and beyond. President Hamid Karzai will re- portedly be leading Afghanistan’s delegation at the RECCA conference.

. Agricultural Development for Afghanistan Pre-Deployment Training. The United States Department of Agriculture (www.usda.gov) and a consortium of American universities deliver this training. The curriculum will meet the needs of all de- ploying United States Government personnel in support of the USG Agriculture Strategy in Afghanistan. The training is for United States Government personnel and will take place in Fresno, California on the following dates: 26-31 March, 02-07 April and 18-23 June. Participants will be enrolled on a first come first serve basis. Contact Ryan Brewster, US Department of Agri- culture, at [email protected] for further information.

. Field Security Management Course. The Centre for Safety and Development (CSD) will be holding its “Field Security Man- agement” course in Afghanistan from 13-15 May 2012. The course reportedly addresses topics such as the following: security management, context analysis, risk assessment, security strategies and procedures, contingency planning, incident reporting and the development of action plans. Further information is available here. If you are a CFC account-holder and would like your notice to appear here, please send all relevant details to [email protected]. The CFC is not obliged to print any notice that it receives, and the CFC retains the right to revise notices for clarity and appropriateness. Any notices submitted for publication in the “Af- ghanistan Review” newsletter should be relevant to Afghanistan and to the CFC’s mission as a knowledge management and information sharing institution.

ENGAGE WITH US Civil-Military Fusion Centre (CFC) [email protected] www.cimicweb.org

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