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March 11, 2005

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Source: White House Fact Sheet

House Boosts Military Budget, Cuts Afghanistan Aid

WASHINGTON, March 3 (AFP)—The US House of Representatives proposed Thursday to cut foreign aid and State Department funding while allocating 76.8 billion dollars for US defense needs, principally for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to House sources.

The House Appropriations Committee increased by 1.8 billion dollars the White House' request for 75 billion dollars for the military… At the same time, the committee slashed the amounts requested by the government of President George W. Bush for foreign aid and civilian rebuilding jobs in war-torn areas. About 570 million dollars for Afghanistan reconstruction and 45 million dollars for relief in tsunami-stuck countries in South and Southeast Asia was cut from the White House budget request.

"We have reduced roughly half of the net foreign assistance funds in the request either because they were not well-defined or should be considered through the regular budget process," said the committee in a statement.

If this decision is adopted, it's a major blow to Afghanistan's future and American security.

U.S. funding priorities are driven by a narrow view of security interests that is destined to fail in areas like Afghanistan, where security and development are inextricably connected. It's not clear how the House expects that a $1.8 billion increase to an already bloated military budget will increase American security when it simultaneously slashes half of the funds ($570 million) that the White House deemed necessary to rebuild the Afghan army, halt the spread of narcotics, and reconstruct the government's ability to restore order and fight terrorism? Hopefully wiser minds will prevail in the Senate.

Afghanistan set for parliamentary vote in September

KABUL, March 5 (AFP)—Afghanistan's long-delayed first post-Taliban parliamentary polls are likely to be held in mid-September, a source close to the electoral commission told AFP Friday. The vote has been put off repeatedly during the past eight months and hopes that it would take place in April or May have been dashed due to problems with politics, logistics and security.

"We are really on a September timetable now," the source said, adding that the electoral commission had put forward its latest proposal to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet session on Monday. "This past Monday a timetable was given by the chairman of the commission to the cabinet. We are generally talking about the middle of September, a couple of days plus or minus the middle of September."

The latest delay has centered on borders for district elections, which were due to be held in tandem with provincial polls and the parliamentary vote, presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said this week. Up to 50 districts across the country are disputed and must be resolved for the local elections to go ahead. However there were signs the government may put the boundary row to one side, by going ahead with the parliamentary vote and then letting the newly-elected assembly decide the issue.

But the United Nations last week said that was no longer possible as the government had missed a deadline to announce the date 90 days in advance. NATO has already warned that if the vote is not held by the first week of July it will have to be put off until September, because international peacekeepers cannot guarantee security during a change of command this summer. The electoral commission source said they were not considering holding the polls before the command handover.

This is yet another setback for thrice delayed parliamentary polls, which were originally scheduled for June 2004. With numerous problems to iron out before the vote, another delay is far preferable to an electoral fiasco, and will provide more time for Karzai to pursue his reconstruction agenda unhindered by parliamentary spoilers. But how far can this process be stretched?

Killing of British worker heightens security fears in Afghan capital

KABUL, March 9 (AFP)—Foreign aid and reconstruction companies in Kabul were expected to tighten security Wednesday after Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the killing of a Briton which shattered months of fragile calm in the Afghan capital.

Steven MacQueen, 41, an advisor to the war-torn country's Ministry of Rural Development and Rehabilitation, was shot dead in a drive-by shooting late Monday as he drove down a well-lit, well-guarded street in front of a UN guesthouse in the center of Kabul. MacQueen, who was due to finish his work and leave the country this week, was the first foreign national killed so far this year, and it did not appear to have been a robbery, security officials said. The British man was going to become a father within weeks and was due to fly to Washington to join his partner, Kay McGowan.

The latest killing comes a few weeks after the UN and aid agencies lifted curfews imposed late last year following a series of incidents…Foreigners in Kabul have been on guard following a series of incidents late last year, which raised fears that Afghanistan could be hit by a wave of Iraq-style kidnappings and killings. [Afghanistan] has also suffered from increasing violence associated with the booming drugs trade.

While Taliban attacks have subsided since the election, Tuesdays attack suggests a troubling boldness. Click here for a chronology of major attacks on foreigners in Afghanistan in the past three years (courtesy of AFP.)

U.S. Commander Expects Weaker Taliban Spring Offensive

KABUL, March 8 (RFE/RL)—A senior commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan says fugitive Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his inner circle have lost their direct control over most Taliban fighters. U.S. Major General Eric Olson says Taliban militants now lack cohesion and are a fading force in the southern and southeastern Afghan provinces that have been their strongholds in recent years…Olson said he sees a "dramatic decrease" in the number of Taliban attacks in Afghanistan. Still, he says, the U.S.-led coalition forces are preparing operations against what has come to be known in Afghanistan as an annual spring offensive. "There has been an increase in Taliban and enemy activity in the spring [compared to the winter months]. And we anticipate that the enemy has the intention of trying to raise the level of activity this spring." One reason Olson is confident of a weaker Taliban offensive this spring is an amnesty that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government is offering to rank-and-file Taliban fighters.

In addition to the amnesty, the encouraging post-election trends are attributable to several factors: more aggressive measures by Pakistan security forces, the gradual strengthening of the Afghan National Army, and a bitterly cold winter, which has made operations difficult. Nevertheless, Taliban expert Vahid Mojdeh said that the group remains dangerous, and that U.S. success in disrupting coordinated operations may lead to unconventional tactics: "They are operating in a very similar way to Al-Qaeda, meaning they have no central command structure and the different groups in each region work [independently]…It is possible that despair will turn them to actions like the suicide attacks we already have witnessed in a few cases."

Women's Access to Land and Livestock

March 10: Studies by the World Bank and other institutions suggest that when women own and manage assets they tend to use them more productively, investing in education and health, stimulating development, and saving for the future. Ownership of assets also increases women's freedom and decision making power, and provides them with greater security in old age.

Research by the AREU shows that Afghan women are deeply involved in agriculture, but that still very few own land or livestock themselves. This exclusion is "linked to culture and tradition; lack of credit, land and shelter for livestock; and poverty." Those women who do gain rights of ownership are in a tenuous position since it is not clear what these rights confer or what happens to women who step forward to assert them.

The report, "Who Owns the Farm? Rural Women's Access to Land and Livestock", suggests several steps to better support women's claims to ownership of land and livestock:

• Exploring the potential of providing sheep, or other livestock, as payment for work. Livestock has many extra benefits as compared to cash, in terms of animal produce for household consumption, as well as income from the sale of an animal and its produce.
  
• Ensuring, if any land distribution schemes go ahead, that women and widows in particular are included in such schemes.
  
• Coordinating and scaling up a legal rights outreach programme that educates women and men about inheritance rights at the village level.
  
• Establishing family courts in rural areas and training and employing more female judges to adjudicate on inheritance claims cases.
  

• Non-governmental organisations, the government and others can support women's role in agriculture through a number of tasks:
  
• Developing a more nuanced understanding of women's role in agriculture and women who own land and livestock, and use this to inform programme design.
  
• Emphasising the importance of women's agricultural activities to both men and women through extension work.
  
• Incorporating women into agricultural training.
  
• Training more women as basic veterinary workers.
  
• Providing women with adult literacy classes that would enable them to read labels on agricultural inputs, to read wills regarding their inheritance, as well as earn them more respect within the community.
  
• Providing women with credit to: purchase fodder for animals if they do not own land; hire a shepherd if they lack mobility; or enable group rental of land for cultivating crops or for building animal shelter and keeping livestock.
  

Khalilzad says Afghanistan "wise" to co-opt Dostum

The decision to offer the Chief of Staff post to Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek commander accused of human rights violations, has set off widespread criticism. Yesterday Ambassador Khalilzad, at a speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute, defended the choice: "I believe that President Karzai's decision to give a role to General Dostum and give a role to other regional strongmen is a wise policy. I think that's part of the approach to minimize the use of force…You can always threaten people and say, 'You will do this in 24 hours or I am going to come and bomb you'…We try to the maximum degree possible to avoid that ... Keep the use of force in your background but talk to people about the wisdom of this new opportunity."

UN announces end of heavy weapons collection in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley

KABUL, March 6 (UN)—The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today announced the completion of heavy weapons collection in the Panjshir Valley, declaring the area free of all known working or repairable forms of those arms. Originally the region was surveyed to have 110 heavy weapons but five additional ones were found as part of the collection process. Nationwide 8,630 of those arms have been taken, the spokesman told a press briefing in Kabul. [The UN spokesman] added that about 60 heavy weapons are still circulating in Shindand and Farah, while the Kunduz region has 160 to 165 of them. The New Beginnings Programme plans to tackle those areas in the coming weeks.

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Afghanistan Watch is prepared by Carl Robichaud, a program officer at The Century Foundation.

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