This Week in Afghanistan Watch:

• New Resources: Fact Sheets on Terrorist Attacks in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005
• Latest Poll: Americans Pessimistic About Afghanistan
• News: 1,000 Afghan protestors gather in anti-U.S. Riots
• Rumsfeld: "I wouldn't pack your bags"; U.S. bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to stay
• Featured Reports: Are Afghan Elections the Endgame, or a New Beginning?

July 28, 2005

New Resources:

Afghanistan Watch has added three new Fact Sheets comprehensively documenting incidents of terrorism in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005. Download fact sheets in PDF format:

• Terrorism Incidents in Afghanistan (2004)
• Terrorism Incidents in Afghanistan (2005)
• Terrorism Incidents in Kabul (2004)

Latest Poll Findings: (Harris Poll)

• "A plurality (45%) is not confident that U.S. policies in Afghanistan will be successful, compared to 25 percent who are confident. Another 30 percent say they are not sure."
  
  
• "Nearly twice as many U.S. adults feel the situation for U.S. troops in Afghanistan is getting worse rather than getting better (30% vs. 17%)."
  
  
• "While 62 percent of adults say they pay at least a fair amount of attention to what is happening in Afghanistan, more than four-in-five (85%) adults say they do the same for the happenings in Iraq."
  

This week in Afghanistan

Over 1000 gather at Bagram Protest; Chants of "Die America"; U.S. moves to defuse tension
KABUL, July 27 (AP) Amir Shah—U.S. military officials moved to defuse tension after a riot outside their main base by handing six villagers accused of being bombmakers over to local Afghan authorities, officials said Wednesday.

The riot —unusual in an area that has been largely peaceful and pro-American — was sparked Tuesday after U.S. forces detained the suspected insurgents in raids on their homes. Demonstrators said they were angry that U.S. troops arrested the villagers without consulting local authorities.

More than 1,000 protesters chanting "Die America!" and throwing stones tried to break down a gate at the Bagram base, where thousands of U.S. and other foreign soldiers live behind razor-wire fences and land mines left from Afghanistan's civil war. U.S. troops fired in the air, as did Afghan soldiers who also used batons to beat back the demonstrators.

U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts confirmed the six were handed over to Afghan authorities after the provincial governor gave a guarantee to present the men for questioning at any time. Local police chief Abdulrahman Mawlana said the six were transferred to police late Tuesday and spent the night in custody.

However, regional tribal leader Latifullah Rahimi said the men had been allowed to spend the night in their homes and had returned to the police station in the morning. "The power of the people of Bagram won their release," he told the AP in a telephone interview.

Rumsfeld Gets Reassurance on Air Bases in Central Asia
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, July 26 (NYT) by Eric Schmitt—The Pentagon received assurances from two Central Asian states today that it could continue to use their air bases to support humanitarian and counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan.

The two countries, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, had joined Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan earlier this month in demanding that the United States set a deadline for withdrawing from military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan…

"Once there is stabilization, there will be no need," General Isakov said. "But now I agree with Mr. Secretary who mentioned that the situation in Afghanistan is far from stable." General Isakov later added: "The air base in Manas will stay as long as the situation in Afghanistan requires."

As he departed, Secretary Rumsfeld was able to tell Air Force personnel in Kyrgyzstan that "I wouldn't pack your bags." This is not surprising when you consider that Kyrgyzstan receives about $50 million per year from the Pentagon base, and Tajikistan receives tens of millions in U.S. spending, including $28 million for a bridge to Afghanistan and $14 million toward border security and drug control upgrades.

Pakistan claims al-Qaeda command destroyed
July 25, (Financial Times) By Farhan Bokhari, James Blitz,and Steve Negus—General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, claims that the command and control system of al-Qaeda in his country has been destroyed, excluding any possibility that the terrorist network could have carried out this month's bombings in London and Egypt.

Religious campaign for drug demand reduction
KABUL, 27 July (IRIN) — Afghanistan is launching a nationwide religious campaign to reduce addiction in the post-war country, officials at the Haj and Awqaf (Religious Affairs) ministry announced on Tuesday.

Around 500 Afghan religious leaders have participated in a symposium in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to discuss combating drug abuse throughout the country. "As drug abuse is forbidden in Islam, religious leaders can be very effective in the struggle against drug abuse - particularly at the grass roots level," Neyamatullah Shahrani, minister of Haj and Awqaf, said in Kabul.

General: Hard-Hit Taliban Recruiting Kids
KABUL, July 24 (AP) by Daniel Cooney — Fierce fighting in recent months has devastated the ranks of the Taliban, prompting the rebels to recruit children and force some families to provide one son to fight with them, a U.S. commander said Saturday…

"They have been hit so hard they now have to recruit more fighters. They are recruiting younger and younger fighters: 14, 15 and 16 years-old," Kamiya said. "The enemy is having a hard time keeping its recruit rates up." While the rebels have long been thought to have children in their ranks, there have been few reports of wide-scale child recruiting by the Taliban —especially of those as young as 14.

Kamiya's comments come two days after the United Nations said that the majority of an estimated 8,000 child soldiers in Afghanistan—mostly in the ranks of private militias now allied to the government—would have been demobilized and enrolled in education programs by the end of this year….Afghan officials repeatedly have said that many of the Taliban's fighters come from Islamic boarding schools, or madrassas, in Pakistan. But Kamiya said the Taliban was now getting most of its fresh recruits from inside Afghanistan.

Featured Reports:

Reconstructing Afghanistan: Measuring Progress
"With the September parliamentary elections approaching, the CSIS Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project released a report, In The Balance: Measuring Progress in Afghanistan, which examines developments made in Afghanistan's reconstruction over the past three years.

The report also makes recommendations for the way forward. Security is improved, and great strides are being made in governance and social well-being, but economic opportunities and justice lag behind considerably. The report also finds that international engagement underpins the Afghans' sense of public confidence. This report is the result of analysis of information from media, public, and polling sources, as well as interviews with Afghans conducted by CSIS staff and by Afghan interviewers."

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

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