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

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Afghanistan Review Week 12 20 March 2012 Comprehensive Information on Complex Crises 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 Afghanistan 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 Hamid Karzai 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 United States 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 Taliban 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 Kandahar, 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.
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