Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: AFG17438 Country: Afghanistan Date: 3 August 2005 Keywords: Afghanistan – Paktia Province – Taliban – Pashtuns – Sunnis – Karzai Government – Najibullah Government This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Questions 1. Has Afghanistan generally been traditionally, and does it remain, a society divided deeply between mutually antagonistic tribal/religious/political groupings? 2. What is the general security situation and control by the government now? 3. Are there independent assessments available to indicate whether the security situation at present is improving, stable or deteriorating? 4. With regard to Khankhail, Saidkaram, Paktia, can you indicate on a map where this is? 5. What is the general security situation and control there by the government now, and is it an area marked by Taliban activities? 6. Are there independent assessments available to indicate whether the security situation at present is improving, stable or deteriorating? 7. What is the situation there for Pashtuns? 8. What is the situation there for Sunnis? 9. What is the situation there for functionaries of the Karzai government and their families? 10. With regard to Ghardez, where is it (please include map)? 11. Are there indications the Taliban are active there? 12. Are there reports of retribution having being taken, and still being taken, against people (and their family members) associated with the former Najibullah government? 13. Is there any evidence of people being targeted by the Taliban generally, or in Khankhail, Saidkaram, Paktia, for having come from, or being associated with, Australia? RESPONSE Note: As there are spelling variations translating into English, for the purposes of this RRT Country Research Response the spelling is as per the source document. 1. Has Afghanistan generally been traditionally, and does it remain, a society divided deeply between mutually antagonistic tribal/religious/political groupings? Information on the Norwegian Refugee Council’s database states: • Afghanistan has a long history of internal strife due its geographical and ethnic fragmentation "[F]or decades, Islamic movements, communists and tribal warriors have struggled for control of a nation that is geographically and ethnically fragmented. Afghanistan is still largely a tribal society, divided into many tribes, clans and smaller groups. Considerable variation in the types of terrain, and obstacles imposed by high mountains and deserts, account for the country's marked ethnic and cultural differences. Muslims comprise 99 per cent of the population of Afghanistan, approximately 80 per cent of them Sunni and the remainder Shi’a followers. The Shi’a minority is concentrated in central and western Afghanistan. The Pashtuns (also called Pathans) are the largest single ethnic group constituting some 40% of the population of Afghanistan. They are predominantly Sunni Muslims and live mainly in the center, south and east of the country. The British-drawn Duran Line of 1893 demarcated the border of modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan with little or no thought to the Pashtun people who lived on either side. The Tajiks are the second largest group, whose language is Persian. Most of them are Sunni Muslims, but Shi’a Muslim Tajiks are also found in the West of the country (around and in the city of Herat), and in Kabul. The Hazaras are of Eastern Turkic origin and followers of the Shi’a Muslim confession using Farsi as their lingua franca. The Uzbeks and Turkomans are followers of the Sunni Muslim tradition and are ethnically and linguistically Turkic. Other Afghan Turkic groups include the Kypchak, Kazakh, Aimaq, Wakhi and Kirghiz. The Nuristanis live in the middle of the Hindu Kush mountain range in four valleys, with each valley having its own district language/dialect - Kati, Waigali, Ashkun and Parsun. The Baluchis and Brahuis practise Sunni Islam and their languages are Brahui and Baluchi." (FAS September 1998) (Norwegian Refugee Council/Global IDP Project 2004, Profile of Internal Displacement: Afghanistan, 25 October, p.13, 200 – Attachment 1). The UK Home Office quotes a range of sources relating to ethnic groups (UK Home Office 2004, Afghanistan Country Report, April, paras. 6.114-6.120 – Attachment 2). Saikal has concluded in his book Modern Afghanistan: Afghanistan’s politics and society in modern history have been shaped by interaction between variables with which few other countries have had to cope. The variables royal polygamy, major power rivalry and ideological extremism, which underlined the themes of this book, have not all been of equal weight with equal impact in the process. However, their confluence, in conjunction with certain peculiar geo-strategic aspects of Afghanistan as a traditional, ethno-tribal and a crossroad, landlocked Muslim country, has played a determining role in the evolution of the Afghan state and politics and in influencing the material life and psyche of its citizens as well as the country’s relevance to the outside world…(Saikal, Amin 2004, Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival, I. B. Tauris, London, p.231 – Attachment 3). Rubin writes: The territory of today’s Afghanistan consists of a major mountain range, the Hindu Kush, with its fertile but isolated valleys, and the deserts and river valleys that flank it. This territory spreads over many geographical and ecological zones, and its peoples and societies are correspondingly distinct. Only their incorporation into a state has made them into a single society (Rubin, Barnett R. 2002, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System, Yale University Press, 2nd ed. New Haven, p.22 – Attachment 4). Maley mentions: …Afghanistan has encompassed a kaleidoscopic collection of ‘micro-societies’ (often identified by the label qawm, or ‘network’), with porous and flexible boundaries. One scholar even went so far as to dub Afghanistan a ‘Nation of Minorities’ (Jawad, 1992). Ethnicity, religion, occupation, and gender have historically offered to Afghans a range of bases upon which they may seek to identify with their fellows, and while some of these are effectively ascriptive – that is, unchangeable, or changeable only at enormous social cost – the relative emphasis given to one over another is frequently a matter of strategic choice…(Maley, William 2002, The Afghanistan Wars, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, p.8 – Attachment 5). Hamid Hussain describes how ethnicity affects the political question (Hussain, Hamid (undated, after 2002), ‘Ethnic factor in Afghanistan’, Afghanology website http://www.afghanology.com/ethnicfactor.htm - Accessed 26 July 2005 – Attachment 6). 2. What is the general security situation and control by the government now? In January 2005 Griffin wrote in the Jane’s Intelligence Review that there are “fiefdoms controlled by regional and district commanders, not the government” and: These commanders range from former communists, such as Abdul Rashid Dostum in the northern city of Shiburghan, to relative newcomers like Jalalabad's Hazrat Ali, a former chef who rose to power on the springboard of the US war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and his home province's opium-rich economy. Until recently, commanders also included leading figures in Karzai's administration, such as Mohammed Fahim, Minister of Defence, who is from the Panjshir Valley; Karim Khalili, the Hazara Vice-President; Gul Agha Shirzai, Minister of Public Works; Sayeed Hussain Anwari, Agriculture Minister; and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the Pashtun leader of the Ittehad-i-Islami faction, whose informal role in government extends to control of the Supreme Court (Griffin, Michael 2005, ‘Hard road ahead for Afghan leader’, Jane’s Intelligence Review, 1 February – Attachment 7). A February 2005 United Nations Development (UNDP) press release notes on security and civil rights: Security and Civil Rights: Positive: Afghanistan successfully elected a president for the first time in history. The new Constitution and upcoming parliamentary elections – though postponed – should yield increased government accountability, a forged link between the people and their government, better-trained and more centralized state security, and separation of civilian and military policing. Negative: “Factional elements” are still in power in many areas, with their own privatized security forces, outside of central government control. Physical violence by armed militias continues, as does torture by security forces, deadly attacks by Taliban, hostage taking, street gangs, and domestic violence against women and children (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2005, ‘Afghanistan’s future holds promise and peril’, Press Release, 21 February http://www.undp.org/dpa/pressrelease/releases/2005/february/pr21feb05.html# - Accessed 27 July 2005 – Attachment 8). A March 2005 United Nations report states: 15. The overall security situation has been relatively calm for almost four months. The severe winter season has presented a significant impediment to the operations of extremists, terrorists, factional forces and criminal (including narcotics) elements. In areas least affected by winter conditions (particularly