CIVIL - MILITARY FUSION CENT RE

Afghanistan Review Week 25 19 June 2012 Comprehensive Information on Complex Crises

This document provides a weekly overview of developments in from 12 – 18 June 2012, with INSIDE THIS ISSUE hyper-links to source material highlighted in blue and underlined in the text. For more information on the Economic Development 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 he Afghan Central Bank, known as Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), was the subject of DISCLAIMER two recent media reports. Firstly, Noorullah Delawari, DAB’s governor, says that laws permitting the issuance of Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, will soon be presented to the The Civil-Military Fusion Centre T Afghan parliament, according to Pakistan Today. Such bonds would then be introduced in ear- (CFC) is an information and ly 2013. Sergey Dergachev, a German asset manager specialising in developing countries, says knowledge management organisa- that, following the introduction of sukuk, Afghanistan’s “dependence on foreign grants will be tion focused on improving civil- lowered, and a new market will appear on the map for sukuk investors that will provide inter- military interaction, facilitating esting diversification opportunities”. Afghan bankers also suggest that the Sharia-compliant information sharing and enhancing nature of sukuk may allow these bonds to draw in Afghans who have formerly shunned what situational awareness through the they considered to be forms of investing banned by Islam. CimicWeb portal and our weekly and monthly publications. Secondly, Khan Afzal Hadwal, DAB’s deputy governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the Afghan government would be inviting bids from firms and investors interested in purchasing CFC products are based upon and New Kabul Bank in August. New Kabul Bank was established based on the remnants of Kabul link to open-source information Bank, which had nearly collapsed in 2010 following mismanagement and fraud among senior from a wide variety of organisations, executives and shareholders. Afghan officials have attempted to re-claim Kabul Bank’s miss- research centres and media outlets. ing assets, which total more than USD 900 million; only USD 128 million in outstanding loans However, the CFC does not endorse have been recovered, and the Central Bank has reportedly been unable to identify the location and cannot necessarily guarantee of more than USD 400 million in Kabul Bank’s missing assets. the accuracy or objectivity of these sources. Chinese investment in Afghanistan was also the subject of a number of articles this past week. Afghanistan’s cabinet has authorised Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an CFC publications are inde- agreement with China which will give the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) pendently produced by Desk rights to oil and gas in a small part of the Amu Darya basin in northern Afghanistan, writes Pa- Officers and do not reflect jhwok. Under the agreement, CNPC should initially invest approximately USD 400 million in NATO or ISAF policies or posi- oil exploration. Once drilling begins, the deal is anticipated to generate USD 7 billion in reve- tions of any other organisation. nues for the Afghan government over the 25-year duration of the lease. Experts told BBC News that oil and gas would not ultimately be extracted for five to 10 years given the time involved The CFC is part of NATO Allied in exploration and preparation. Command Operations. An article from the Asia Times raises ques- tions about CNPC’s plans to extract oil Visit the CFC’s New and gas from northern Afghanistan. Ten- sions have reportedly escalated between Tokyo Conference Page CNPC and influential figures in areas The CFC has established a page dedicated to where the Chinese firm hopes to operate. the July 2012 Tokyo Conference on Afghani- CONTACT THE CFC Chinese engineers have reportedly been stan. At that page you will be able to read news intimidated by local power holders, and pertaining to conference preparations and the For further information, contact: President ’s attempts to in- on-going transition process in Afghanistan Afghanistan Team Leader vestigate the intimidation have allegedly along with relevant research reports and previ- [email protected] put him into conflict with powerful figures ous international agreements on Afghanistan.

formerly associated with the Northern Al- This page builds upon the success of the CFC’s The Afghanistan Team liance, according to the Asia Times. page on the December 2011 Bonn Conference. [email protected]

Furthermore, copper mining at Mes Aynak faces repeated delays and complications, demonstrating the challenge involved in extract- ing valuable resources from Afghanistan, writes The Wall Street Journal. Afghans relocated from Aynak several years ago face harsh living conditions in areas where the Afghan government helped them settle. “This mine is not going to thrive if these communities fail,” Michael Stanley, the lead mining specialist the World Bank told The Wall Street Journal. “The No. 1 risk is the social license to operate,” he continued, referring to the local support needed to enable mining to proceed unimpeded. However, local dissatisfaction is just one problem facing the mine at Aynak, which is located in Logar province. The article notes that the presence of archaeological treasures at the site and the removal of Soviet era landmines have further complicated progress. However, experts on Afghanistan’s mining sector tell The Wall Street Journal that the most significant source of delays may be the Chinese government’s desire to see how the security situation in Afghanistan fares after the withdrawal of the bulk of international troops from Afghanistan in 2014. Not- ing such a concern, Shahrani said that the Mines Ministry is “applying pressure” on the Chinese consortium which was awarded the rights to Aynak in 2007. He stated: “We don’t want the companies to come and sit on our resources and wait it out.” The Indian, US and Afghan governments will be engaging in a series of trilateral consultations to promote cooperation regarding is- sues such as agriculture, mining, energy, capacity building and infrastructure, reports The Hindu Business Line. India has increasingly taken steps to support development in Afghanistan and later this month is organising a conference to promote linkages between Af- ghan and Indian enterprises. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, announcing the trilateral consultation process alongside India’s External Affairs Minister, stated the following: “We very much appreciate India’s commitment to help build a better future for the Afghan people and helping them with more than $2 billion for development, supporting the New Silk Road Initiative, hosting the in- vestment conference, providing security, training, and support.” Afghanistan and Russia are working to establish a joint commission to promote trade and economic cooperation between the two na- tions, according to Khaama Press. Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal has reportedly been in Moscow recently in order to sign a deal to establish the commission with the Russian authorities. A spokesman for the Afghan Finance Ministry, Aziz Shams, says that the commission would also facilitate Russian assistance to Afghanistan. Up to 140 projects would emerge or benefit from the Afghan- Russian agreement and commission, says Khaama Press. Pajhwok notes that Afghan Foreign Minister and Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov signed an agreement aimed at promoting economic cooperation between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. The agreement, which was signed on 13 June, sig- nalled both countries’ intent to collaborate on issues such as a trans-central railway, trade, agriculture and mining. Saffron cultivation is reportedly helping to replace poppy cultivation in western Afghanistan, where farmers package the high-value spice in tins or perfume-type bottles, according to CNN. “Herat province has been cleaned of 99% of its poppy cultivation,” Basheer Ahmad Ahmadi, the agriculture chief in Herat, told CNN. Many Afghans reportedly support saffron cultivation given that it fetches a high price on Afghan and international markets and because, unlike poppies, it is legal and not in conflict with Islam’s ban on drugs. Yet some farmers note that saffron cultivation is not without challenges. One farmer, Hajji Ibrahim Aadil, said that he was robbed and physically abused by Taliban members for promoting saffron. He tells CNN: “I walked for days with my eyes wrapped with a piece of cloth. I was kept in a well for two days. Finally, they told me to stop promoting the cultivation of saffron.” In addition, weak farm-to- market linkages mean that some Afghan farmers have trouble exporting their saffron abroad, where it fetches a far higher price than in Afghanistan. In addition, the Afghan government and international community’s saffron promotion efforts could reportedly result in excess supply and, hence, drive down prices. In other news, wheat yields, the number of kilogrammes produced per hectare, are up 20% relative to last year in both Nangarhar and Laghman provinces in eastern Afghanistan, according to Pajhwok. Nangarhar Agriculture Director Mohammad Hussain Sapi says that wheat was grown on 70% of all agricultural land in the province. Sapi credits the increase in part to higher-quality seeds and fertilisers distributed by both the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) and by the Food and Agricultural Organiza- tion (FAO) of the United Nations. In addition, the distribution of food to food insecure communities in eastern Afghanistan also pre- vented families from eating the wheat seeds to stave off hunger before they could be planted. One farmer interviewed by Pajhwok says he hopes the Afghan government will purchase some of the excess wheat produced this year in order to harvest the seeds for use dur- ing the next growing cycle. Lastly, the price of petrol dipped from AFN 65 per litre to AFN 60, and the price of die- Do You Have Too sel similarly declined from AFN 62 to AFN 58 per litre over the course of the past week. The value of gold rose, and the value of the afghani currency dropped slightly. One Much to Read? gramme of Arabian gold now costs AFN 2,200 as opposed to last week’s price of AFN 2,150. In addition, one US dollar now trades for AFN 50.8 instead of last week’s AFN Listen to the CFC Afghanistan 50.2, a decline in value of the 1.2% for the Afghan currency. Prices of some foods, such Review Podcast on your computer, as rice and sugar, also rose; traders say a 3.45% week-on-week rise in the price of rice smartphone, tablet or other device. results from shortages of the staple food item, most of which is imported from Pakistan. Click here to access the podcasts. The reason for the shortage is not specified.

19 June 2012 Page 2

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

n international media advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders (RWB), alleges the Afghan government has censured local

media after reporters exposed a bribery scandal involving prominent lawmakers, states Pajhwok Afghan News. RWB raised

concerns after the Media Offences Commission, which is part of Afghanistan Ministry of Information and Culture, asked the A Attorney General’s Office to probe those media outlets that published the bribery allegations. Several Afghan news organisations could face criminal charges for having reported the scandal, according to The Guardian. Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch reports that researchers have also said their access to government figures and information has been curbed. “There have been a growing num- ber of worrying incidents of the government maligning or even seeking to prosecute journalists, blocking access to information, and obstructing reporting and research,” she said. “None of this bodes well for human rights in Afghanistan post-2014.” The Afghan government may have temporarily suspended a political party for the first time since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, ac- cording to The Guardian. However, Pajhwok cites the Minister of Justice as saying that the suspension had not been implemented. Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said that the Meshrano Jirga, the upper house of the country’s parliament, had demanded the sus- pension of the Solidarity Party but that action had not yet been taken. The Solidarity Party reportedly caused concern amongst some influential politicians with a demonstration in late April in which they accused numerous current and former Afghan officials and mi- litia commanders of committing war crimes over the past three decades. According to The Guardian the demonstrators called for those responsible to be brought to justice. The letter of suspension sent to the political party says the party had “violated article 59 of the constitution”, which concerns damage to national sovereignty or unity. Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said the following regarding the suspension: “How this case will be handled by the Afghan authorities will show how much the rule of law in Afghanistan has evolved”. Members of the Solidarity Party reportedly hope the suspension will be overturned once the investigations by the Afghan government are complete, but party leaders are preparing to continue with political activities regardless of the findings. Hafiz Rasiq, a member of Solidarity’s leadership, says the group has had strong support from Afghan civil society and hopes for more political support from the international community. Details of a draft electoral law were outlined by Pajhwok this past week. Under the new law introduced by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), political parties will compete for one third of seats in the parliament; independent candidates will compete for the remaining two thirds of seats. One article of the draft law says that if a member of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house of the Afghan par- liament), provincial council, district council, municipality or local council dies, a by-election will take place to fill the vacant seat. Under the law, an Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), re- ferred to as the Elections Complaints Commission in previous leg- Humanitarian Update islation, would be created and would include two members of the

Supreme Court, two representatives from the United Nations and According to the UN’s “Annual Report of the Secretary- one member from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights General on Children and Armed Conflict” for 2012, there Commission.1 The draft law reportedly states that any decision were 316 reported cases in which children were recruited made by ESC regarding electoral complaints will be final. Mean- into insurgent forces in 2011. Under-age combatants were while, Pajhwok states that a number of analysts say draft electoral primarily recruited to conduct suicide attacks and transport law should have been discussed with civil society groups, political goods. The report further notes 1,325 Afghan children were parties and election watchdogs before being sent to the Ministry of killed or injured by conflict-related violence in 2011; 30% of Justice for vetting. fatalities among children were due to improvised explosive devices placed by armed groups. The number of children Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (REF/RL) reports that President killed by pro-government forces’ airstrikes doubled com- Karzai’s elder brother, Abdul Qayum Karzai, is planning to run for pared to the same period in 2011. The report also notes con- the Afghan presidency. Mahmoud Karzai, another brother of the cerns regarding the detention of children by the Afghan au- Afghan president, confirmed that Abdul Qayum Karzai was prepar- thorities. Specifically, the United Nations documents inci- ing to run in 2014. Mahmoud Karzai said President Karzai has so dents of ill-treatment, including beatings, electrical shocks far not indicated whether he will support his brother’s candidacy. and threats of sexual violence, against children in govern- Abdul Qayum Karzai has reportedly been involved in back-channel ment custody. The report also details efforts undertaken by talks with the Taliban. the Afghan government to implement a 2011 action plan on First Vice-President Mohammad Qasim Fahim urged others in the the recruitment of children into armed groups. For instance, Afghan government to give disgruntled former “jihadi” leaders, the Ministry of Interior trained more than 150 Afghan Na- those who had previously provided local security in parts of the tional Police (ANP) staff on age-assessment procedures and country during past phases of conflict, political representation. launched a nation-wide awareness campaign. Moreover, the Fahim says that discontentment among such individuals could con- ANP and Afghan National Army (ANA) granted the United tribute to insecurity if the government does not reach out to them, Nations unimpeded access to their recruitment and training states Pajhwok. Fahim suggested the estranged jihadi leaders be centres.

1 The article says that the ESC would be authorised if the draft electoral was passed but that the ESC would not be established until the Afghan presi- dent issued a decree creating it. See the source article in Pajhwok for further information.

19 June 2012 Page 3 wooed into mainstream politics lest they side with insurgents and engage in anti-government activities.

The Afghan government hosted foreign ministers from 14 regional countries at the Heart of Asia Conference on 14 June in Kabul, says the Associated Press (AP). Representatives of countries outside of the region also attended, as did personnel from various interna- tional organisations. Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister and co-chairman of the event, noted the following: “In order to build confidence, one needs to commit to working together, to leave past negative memories behind and positively reconstruct future expectations”. Afghanistan’s foreign minister reportedly hailed the conference as a success, and said participants had agreed on seven confidence-building measures in areas such as terrorism, drug trafficking and trade, according to Pajhwok. The resulting “Conference Declaration” also notes the participating countries’ broad support for reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan. The US government is withdrawing a team that tried for more than a month to negotiate a re-opening of blocked Pakistani supply routes into Afghanistan, according to the AP. The US government recalled the team after a senior Pakistani military officer refused to meet with a representative of the US Defense Department. A senior US official familiar with the negotiations said the Pakistanis were holding out for an apology for the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers by a US airstrike last year. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s foreign minister denied reports that Pakistan was demanding high tariffs on Afghanistan-bound goods in exchange for re-opening the border crossing, Reuters reports. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that “Pakistan is not in any sort of price-gouging debate right now.” The Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN) is striving to engage religious scholars and prayer leaders in tackling the challenge of nar- cotics in Afghanistan, officials tell Pajhwok. Counter-Narcotics Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbil acknowledged the Ulema Council’s positive role in anti-drug campaigns and urged them to help raise awareness about the dangers of drugs.

Security & Force Protection Mark Checchia ► [email protected]

resident Hamid Karzai says he is confident Afghanistan can complete the transition of security responsibility to the Afghan Na- tional Security Forces (ANSF) by next year despite rising Taliban violence, Reuters reports. Recent attacks have raised fears P that Afghan forces will struggle with security when foreign forces withdraw in 2014. President Karzai said the following at the Heart of Asia international conference on 14 June: “We are certain that this transition will be completed in 2013 whereby the entire country […] will be handled by the Afghan government alone.” On a similar note, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on 14 June that the professionalism of the ANSF and their suppression of Taliban attacks in Kabul in May give him confidence that the Afghan forces will be ready to handle their nation’s secu- rity by 2014, CBS News says. Rasmussen made the statement in Australia, where he had travelled to sign an agreement to continue Australian military cooperation with NATO beyond the current mission in Afghanistan. Under the agreement, NATO and Australia will work together against common threats, including terrorism, piracy and cyber-attacks. Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan and is the biggest non-NATO military contributor to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). As part of the on-going security transition, a British Army unit, the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, turned over control of Patrol Base Silab in Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province to the Afghan National Civil Order Police, according to a UK Ministry of Defence statement. Patrol Base Silab is the first outpost to be transferred to the ANSF in Nad-e Ali. The statement says that the hand- over of the base marks a key point in the continuing shift to complete Afghan security control. The transition began last winter in in the district, which sits between the urban centres of Gereshk and Lashkar Gah. Further checkpoint handovers are expected as the ANSF takes on more security responsibility in the area. At least 30 Taliban militants were killed in military operations during a 24-hour period on 11-12 June, according to Khaama Press. An Afghan Ministry of the Interior (MoI) press release said that Afghan National Police completed six operations in cooperation with the Afghan National Army, the Afghan intelligence service and ISAF. MoI officials said actions took place in Baghlan, , Zabul, Logar and Ghazni provinces. Afghan and ISAF forces also seized drugs, weapons, ammunition, explosives and vehicles used by the insurgents. In addition, on 18 June, Bakhtar News Agency reports that military operations in seven different provinces led to the killing of 42 in- surgents and the capture of 37 more in another 24-hours period of time. The Afghan MoI stated on 17 June that the ANSF and ISAF “launched several joint clearance operations in Nangarhar, Laghman, Balkh, Kandahar, Helmand, Khost and Ghazni provinces over the past 24 hours”, resulting in the aforementioned insurgent losses and in weapons seizures. Afghan forces defused four remote- controlled mines in Baghlan province, according to the MoI source. An explosion in a market in Kapisa province on 18 June killed as many as six people and wounded 17, Agence France-Presse reports. Among the dead are a police commander, his son and two bodyguards, the MoI said in a statement. The MoI blamed the Taliban for the attack. The bomb is suspected to have been planted in the busy market and detonated by remote control, according to CNN. Two bombings killed at least eight people in Afghanistan on 12 June, According to Radio Netherlands. A suicide bomber on a bicycle targeted a police patrol in Balkh province, police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzi told Agence France-Presse. A statement from the Afghan MoI confirmed that the incident killed three civilians; five police officers were wounded in the blast. A few hours earlier, a

19 June 2012 Page 4 minibus in Wardak province encountered a mine, which killed five civilians on board, including women and children, and injured two others, according to provincial spokesman Sahidullah Shahid.

Robots are being used to do more dangerous tasks in Afghanistan and are increasingly being repaired rather than discarded once they become damaged, according to The Wall Street Journal. A dedicated robot repair detachment at Bagram Airfield is taking robots damaged in operations, evaluating their viability and repairing them if possible for a return to service. Robots can range in cost from USD 9,000 for a small reconnaissance model to USD 250,000 for one which clears mines. Lieutenant Colonel Douglas King, who commands the Bagram repair facility, says robot development is now focused on durable rather than disposable machines. Robots can do many dangerous tasks that reduce the need for a soldier to be exposed to harm. According to US military statistics, more than 750 robots have been destroyed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Social & Strategic Infrastructure Rainer Gonzalez ► [email protected]

he World Bank has announced it is restructuring the CASA-1000 project, which will link Pakistan and Afghanistan with ener- gy from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, reports The News. Diep Nguyen-van Houtte, the World Bank’s senior operating officer for T South Asia, said that the feasibility studies for the energy corridor from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan have been completed and the four countries are currently in negotiations to determine who receives how much of the 1,400MW to be imported under the project. Nguyen-van Houtte said the cost of CASA-1000 is estimated at USD 953 million and will take around five years to complete. She added that the World Bank’s financial contribution to the project has not been decided but noted that it will likely be substantial. Richard Spencer, the World Bank’s team leader in Afghanistan for the CASA-1000 project, said that the energy corridor will provide the Afghan government with revenue in the form of transit fees. In other energy news, the Kyrgyz government has approved a resolution to export oil products by road and rail to Afghanistan through Tajikistan, says Trend. Kyrgyz officials be- lieve that this new venture will create hundreds of jobs and additional income for Kyrgyzstan. According to Pajhwok Afghan News, some individuals have been illegally collecting money from residents of Kabul province in ex- change for promising to solve power-supply problems. Some community leaders reportedly collected USD 40 two years ago and USD 30 two months ago from each family in certain parts of Kabul, according to residents. Abdul Wakil Nasiri, the Kabul power depart- ment director, acknowledged that community leaders had been illegally collecting money from residents. He asked residents to stop payments to community leaders and tribal elders given that fixing the power supply is the sole responsibility of the Afghan govern- ment’s state-owned utility, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS). He stated: “We didn’t direct anybody to collect money from people. No one can either misuse or damage the image of DABS.” The Kunduz airport inaugurated new facilities funded by the German Agency for International Cooperation at a cost of USD 500,000, reports Pajhwok. The new facilities include a new meeting hall, 66 freight containers and a new parking lot. The projects took four months to complete. The Kunduz airport has a single runway and is mainly used for military purposes; security at the airport is main- tained by Afghan and German troops. Arson and poison attacks on schools, particularly those attended by girls, in Afghanistan have led schools to have students conduct body searches of their fellow pupils and others, notes Reuters. The article illustrates the case of the Habiba High School in Kabul where a group of six students and a teacher patrol the grounds, supplementing a police checkpoint outside of the school. Recently, schools have been burnt and hundreds of children have been hospitalised after mass poisonings allegedly perpetrated by the Taliban. Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, accuses the Taliban of having used children to poison fellow pupils. They point to the case of Sima Gul, a 12th-grade student who was paid USD 1,000 and threatened with death to compel her to slip a toxic powder into the water tank at her school. The Taliban denies accusations that they are behind these sorts of attacks, saying that they were instead perpetrated by government militias in order to tarnish the Taliban’s reputation. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said that the insurgent group is not opposed to education. So far, attacks have led to the closure of more than 550 schools in 11 provinces, leaving 200,000 children, mostly girls, without access to education. In other education news, the Japanese government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are supporting the construction of child-friendly schools in Afghanistan, reports a UNICEF press release. The press release illustrates the case of Abdullah, a father of three children who did not have access to education given that the nearest school was located several miles away. Abdullah is donating a portion of his land to the community to construct a school with the financial support of Japan and UNICEF because he wants his children to have a better life than he had. He said: “I worked as a shepherd and have lived a hard life. Now I am proud of my children and the children of the community as they can continue their education. I don’t want these children to lead the hard life that I led.” Japan and UNICEF will finance the construction of schools with proper classrooms which will be provided with trained teachers, writ- ing materials and hygiene facilities that will make these schools “child-friendly”. The partnership between these two agencies will facilitate access to education for more than 50,000 children.

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Humanitarian Update

Ninety people were killed after a heavy landslide in Baghlan province, reports Pajhwok. The landslide was triggered by two con- secutive earthquakes measuring 5.4 and 5.7 points on the Richter scale; the epicentre of the earthquakes was located in in the Hin- du Kush mountains in Badakhshan province. The majority of the fatalities occurred in the Mullah Han village, where dozens of houses were destroyed or buried by landslides. Brigadier General Asadullah Sherzad, the police chief, told Pajhwok that he had requested urgent assistance, including equipment such as bulldozers, to help rescue survivors and recover bodies from the rubble; volunteers used spades, pickaxes and their bare hands as part of the recovery efforts. The government of Australia will assist Afghan migrants returning from Pakistan, reports the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Australia’s AUD 800,000 (USD 809,400) contribution will assist up to 10,000 Afghans in returning to Afghani- stan through Torkham border crossing. “Returnees” from Pakistan will receive temporary accommodation, meals, family tracing assistance, kits containing basic essential personal and household items, basic medical care and transport to their intended destina- tion in Afghanistan. This week, several agencies working in Afghanistan have released a series of maps. First, the Afghan National Disaster Manage- ment Authority (ANDMA) published a geographical map with basic data on natural hazards which occurred from March to May 2012. Second, the Information Management and Mine Action Programs (IMMAP) released a map on displacement and population movements in Pakistan. Third, the Nutrition Cluster has published map with data regarding nutrition services provided by the var- ious stakeholders. Finally, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster released two maps, one concerning the WASH Cluster’s presence in Afghanistan and another depicting data such as the numbers of beneficiaries of WASH activities and the levels of humanitarian funding by province. A number of these maps may be accessed by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Recent Readings & Resources

. “Life After Karzai”, Foreign Policy, 13 June 2012, by Michael O’Hanlon. . “Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever outbreak investigation in the Western Region of Afghanistan in 2008”, Eastern Mediter- ranean Health Journal, June 2012, by J. Mofleh and A.Z. Ahmad. . “Rebuilding Pharmaceutical Systems in Afghanistan: Assuring Sustainability by Developing Human Resources”, International Pharmacy Journal, June 2012, by N. Heidarzad, S. Amarkhail, S. Hakimyar, J. Ehsan, N. Ayoobi, S. Wong, M. Morris and T. Wuliju. . “Unleashing Economic Potential through Institutional innovation in Tradition and Uncertain Contexts: The Case of a Women’s Food Processing Enterprise in Afghanistan”, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, The Hague, by Holly A. Ritchie.

. “A Year of Crises”, UNHCR Global Trends 2011, June 2012, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

. “Counternarcotics Policy in Afghanistan: A Good Strategy Poorly Implemented”, Brookings Institution, 10 May 2012, by Van- da Felbab-Brown.

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