AFGHANISTAN: Food still unaffordable for millions

KABUL, 12 March 2009 (IRIN) - Wheat flour, rice and cooking oil prices have dropped by over 15 percent in the past three months but adequate food is still unaffordable for millions of Afghans living on less than US$1 a day, according to officials.

The average price of a 50kg bag of wheat flour was 1,100 Afghanis (about US$21) on 10 March in Kabul, down from $36 in December 2008. A 24.5kg sack of rice has gone down to $25 from $37, and the cost of a 16kg canister of ghee is now $20 instead of $31.

"Prices have fallen considerably compared to six months ago," Abdul Matin, a shopkeeper in Kabul's main food market, told IRIN, citing food aid deliveries by aid agencies and the government, and imports from abroad as the main reasons for the fall in prices.

Food prices, particularly for wheat flour, rose by up to 150 percent in 2008 because of drought, which left a domestic cereal production shortfall of about 35 percent. Export restrictions by Pakistan and other wheat exporting countries exacerbated the problem.

Throughout 2008 spiralling food prices proved disastrous for millions of Afghans who were pushed into high-risk food insecurity.

In a bid to provide a temporary safety net for about five million most vulnerable Afghans, UN agencies and the government launched a joint emergency appeal in April 2008 for over $404 million to procure and distribute 230,000 tonnes of food aid and provide other life-saving assistance.

About 70 percent of the requested funds had been received from donors by February and food aid had reached some of the targeted population, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) said [http://www.irinnews.org

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dpa

Mar 12, 2009, 9:49 GMT

Baghdad - Baghdad's Central Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced the Iraqi television journalist who famously threw his shoes at then-US President George W Bush in December to three years in prison, judicial sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Dubai-based al-Arabiya satellite television network and Baghdad's Voices of Iraq news agency confirmed the reports.

Montadher al-Zaidi, a 30-year-old journalist for the Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya television station, on Thursday entered a 'not guilty' plea to charges of assaulting a foreign head of state.

As al-Zaidi entered the court earlier on Thursday, he wept when told that a cameraman and a reporter from the station were among more than 30 people killed in a bombing in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad on Tuesday.

Al-Zaidi, who became an instant hero in Iraq and across the Arab world for throwing his shoes at the then-US president and shouting 'this is a parting gift, you dog' during a December press conference, had faced up to 15 years in prison

Read more: "Iraqi shoe-throwing journalist gets three years in prison (Extra)" -

dpa
South Asia News

Mar 12, 2009, 6:28 GMT

Washington - US military officials are exploring alternative supply routes for NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan that include Iran, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The Times also reported that the question of the US base in Kyrgyzstan at the Manas base could be revived in the coming days when US negotiators travel there. The Kyrgyz government had cancelled US access to the base.

It has been widely reported that the US was negotiating with Russia and other countries for an expanded supply route into Afghanistan as an alternative to the increasing violence faced by transport caravans coming in from Pakistan.

But the suggestion that Iran might also be under consideration is new.

The officials told the Times that the US would not consider sending American supplies via Iran. Rather such a route could be discussed in bilateral supply talks conducted on an ongoing basis between individual NATO members and Iran.

Pentagon and NATO planners have looked at paths across Iran from the port of Chabahar, on the Arabian Sea, to a new road built by India in western Afghanistan, the Times reported.

US President Obama has signalled interest in opening talks with Iran. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has proposed a conference on Afghanistan that would include Iran.

On the Kyrgyz issue, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was quoted as saying by the Times late Wednesday that the Kyrgyz government had agreed to meet with American negotiators in the coming days to extend access rights to the Manas base.

Read more: "Report: US looks for Afghan supply routes even in Iran" -

Taliban set to burn the Reichstag?
By Pepe Escobar

For those wondering where United States Vice President Joe Biden bides his - vast - spare time, he has just spent quite an eventful Tuesday both at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brussels.

Biden's message to Europeans in panic with the financial crisis (but reluctant to bail out Eastern Europe) was, well, comforting: "It is worth engaging and determining whether or not there are those who are willing to participate in a secure and stable Afghan state."
This was designed to stress the prime (revolutionary?) US counter-insurgency tactic in the increasingly tumultuous Afghanistan-Pakistan theater: the urgency in launching a "good" Taliban talk show.

As if NATO's top brass hadn't noticed - and maybe they didn't - following the example of their troops who'd rather buy carpets in Chicken Street in Kabul than face a mujahid - Biden stressed the situation in the South Asian theater was getting worse.

The Europeans were not impressed - ie, no more forking out troops. Biden said the current mess "poses a security threat ... not just to the United States, but to every single nation around this table". There's still no credible evidence the Taliban want to cruise the Brandenburg Gate in their Toyota Land Cruisers - or set the new, post-modern, Sir Norman Foster-redesigned Reichstag alight (again).

The hunt for the 'good' Taliban
A French/EU strategist confirmed to Asia Times Online that Biden and his eminent NATO round table simply couldn't agree on which "good" Taliban to talk to. A Skype conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai would not enlighten matters. A phone call to the puppet across the border, Benazir Bhutto's widower President Asif Ali Zardari, might.

Contrary to a female member of the Afghan parliament in Kabul who summed it all up so nicely last week ("Send us 30,000 scholars instead. Or 30,000 engineers. But don't send more troops - it will just bring more violence"), Afghan president - they call him the mayor of Kabul - Karzai remains isolated, thus he has chosen to stick to his guns trying to anticipate the outcome of elections set for August.

Afghans didn't fall for it. The gang of neo-liberal realists of US President Barack Obama's foreign policy team also didn't fall for it. True, they'd rather have another Afghan puppet as soon as possible, but for the moment, everyone waits for the August elections.

As for Zardari, he is after all the go-to guy in the theater as far as hugging a Taliban is concerned. He made a deal with Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Tehrik-i-Taliban in Pakistan. He made a deal with the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) which led to the release of its leader, the intractable Sufi Mohammad. On February 16, the government of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) signed the Swat peace deal; this means that TNSM will enforce sharia law in the valley and will not attack Zardari's troops.

This is the model for other tribal areas as well. Two weeks ago the Taliban and the Pakistani government in Bajaur declared a truce - and that will certainly lead to yet another peace deal. Immediately afterwards three key Taliban factions - the Mehsud group, the Gul Bahadur group and the Mullah Nazir group - declared they were forming a tight alliance in Waziristan to fight not Zardari and the Pakistani feudalistic power elite, but NATO, the Americans, their "war on terror" and foreign occupation in general.

United States Central Command chief General David "I'm positioning myself for 2012" Petraeus, Pentagon supremo Robert Gates, Obama, Biden, the NATO round table, everybody now is on message. The problem is how to locate these oh-so-elusive "good" Taliban.

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by Can Merey and Kristina Dunz Mar 13, 2009, 4:31 GMT

Kabul - Roads were cordoned off in Kabul this week for the heavily armed convoy of visiting German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung.

To spend as little time as possible on the dangerous streets, the 18 armoured jeeps negotiated them at high speed, leaving behind thick clouds of dust.

The speed was necessary because if the convoy moved too slowly, it could be attacked.

The clearing of the streets for Jung's convoy highlights a trend in Kabul: Ordinary Afghans can no longer move freely about in their own capital. Kabul has been transformed into a fortress.

Blast walls have grown higher and higher and have encroached further into Kabul's streets as the number of checkpoints has increased dramatically.

Because of security concerns, many roads have been permanently closed to most traffic, causing traffic jams on other streets and adding to the growing annoyance of the population.

More than two years ago, the government, pressured by the National Assembly, ordered a dismantling of the barriers, which primarily protect ministries, military installations and foreign embassies.

But instead, more have been added, including around the National Assembly building itself, which is now protected by a metre-high blast wall.

Recently, the road in front of the German embassy was closed after a suicide attack in January that killed five people. The bombing happened after embassy personnel had been ordered last year to move their households onto the legation's compound - into a new, secure building

Several other embassies have implemented similar measures and are no longer allowing their staff to live outside their embassies' walls.

The measures have embittered many Afghans because the countries that originally stepped in to provide security and stability are now barricading themselves behind thick walls.

People are also outraged about the behaviour of foreign troops in the capital.

An incident that happened three weeks ago near the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) illustrated the reason for the discontent.

A taxi had stopped at a checkpoint there while armoured vehicles manned by US troops approached from behind but didn't slow down.

The vehicles instead scraped along the side of the taxi as they passed and tore off one of its bumpers.

A US soldier simply smiled at the Afghan security guards manning the checkpoint and showed them his ISAF pass as the convoy continued on its way.

Such behaviour is 'unacceptable' and erodes the image of the foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan, ISAF spokesman Richard Blanchette said.

He produced a flyer that the ISAF had distributed to soldiers after the incident.

'We can't win if you drive recklessly - think about it,' it said. 'We do not own the road.'

But such incidents like the one at the checkpoint continue to erode the popularity of the foreign troops.

A recent survey conducted by the BBC and German television ARD revealed that not even one in three Afghans perceived foreign troops' achievements in a positive light.

Only three years earlier, more than two-thirds of the respondents were satisfied with the soldiers' work.

Read more: "Barricades, foreign troop behaviour raise hackles in Kabul" (Feature)"

ok I have not read the report yet, but this sounds too simplistc

Afghanistan: New U.S. Administration, New Directions
13 Mar 2009 13:24:55 GMT
Source: Crisis Group

Kabul/Washington/Brussels, 13 March 2009: Jihadi extremism in Afghanistan cannot be defeated unless the Obama administration adopts new political, economic and military policies that empower Afghan civilian institutions.

Afghanistan: New U.S. Administration, New Directions,* the latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the situation in Afghanistan after seven years of U.S.-led intervention and highlights what should be done and what should not be done for the country to find a path to stability. A policy review by the Obama administration has reopened debate about how to defeat the forces of violent global jihadism – al-Qaeda and its Taliban protectors – in Afghanistan and in neighbouring Pakistan.

“The Afghanistan crisis is the outcome of decades of internal conflict”, says Crisis Group President Gareth Evans. “No short-term solution will resolve the crisis overnight. Time and patience are needed to build the infrastructure and institutions to stabilise the Afghan state and root out or neutralise jihadi influence.”

“The Taliban today is not a standing army but rather a disparate network of groups”, says Joanna Nathan, Crisis Group Senior Analyst. “It does not have significant public support among a population tired of war, and the vast majority of people remain far more fearful of what would happen if foreign troops were to leave rather than stay.”

Because the Bush administration’s “war on terror” put short-term efforts to the fore, after seven years, Afghanistan lacks robust representative Afghan institutions. This is partly a result of the U.S. administration leaving the agenda too much in the hands of the U.S. military. Civilian institutions must now reassert their authority in Washington. The new administration should learn from past mistakes and above all focus U.S. efforts on enabling the Afghan government to expand its reach and legitimacy through the provision of security, rule of law and public services to its citizens.

What is needed in Afghanistan itself is the creation of a resilient state, which will only emerge if moderate forces and democratic norms are strengthened. It requires robust institutions that can uphold, and are accountable to, the rule of law. Only when citizens perceive the state as legitimate and capable of delivering security, good governance and rule of law, will Afghans be able to resist jihadi pressures and overtures.

“The Obama administration must also send clear signals to the Pakistani military that there will be a very high price to pay for tacit or explicit support for jihadis, local or regional”, says Samina Ahmed, Crisis Group’s South Asia Project Director. “This is the minimum necessary to dissuade Pakistani spoilers from trying to destabilise the Afghan enterprise.”

Contacts: Andrew Stroehlein (Brussels) +32 (0) 2 541 1635
Kimberly Abbott (Washington) +1 202 785 1601
To contact Crisis Group media please click here
*Read the full Crisis Group briefing on our website: http://www.crisisgroup.org

from your Escobar piece:

Contrary to a female member of the Afghan parliament in Kabul who summed it all up so nicely last week ("Send us 30,000 scholars instead. Or 30,000 engineers. But don't send more troops - it will just bring more violence"),

* Story Highlights
* Top Taliban commander issues threat to execute foreign aid workers
* Mohammed Ibrahim Hanafi said intelligence wing was gathering information
* Hanafi repeated Taliban's pledge to keep girls out of public schools
* Commander gave exclusive telephone interview Friday night to CNN

By Paula Newton
CNN

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A top Taliban commander has issued a new threat to foreign aid workers, saying that under the insurgent group's new "constitution" they will execute them as spies or hold them in exchange for the release of Taliban fighters.

In an exclusive telephone interview Friday night with CNN, Mohammed Ibrahim Hanafi said the Taliban intelligence wing was actively gathering information on foreign aid workers. "If we get someone, that is how we will deal with it under our new constitution," he said.

He added that he was telling "Afghan brothers not to work with NGOs."

In the 15-minute interview, arranged by an intermediary for CNN, Hanafi repeated the Taliban's pledge to keep girls out of public schools.

"Our law is still the same old law which was in place during our rule in Afghanistan," he said. "Mullah Mohammad Omar was our leader and he is still our head and leader and so we will follow the same law as before."

"In my opinion," he added, "Taliban aren't allowing girls to go to schools because Taliban want women to preserve their respect by staying in their homes, not to work as laborers for others."

Dozens of crimes across the country, especially acid attacks, have marred the opening of the new school year in Afghanistan. Afghan girls have been burned and scared randomly with acid as punishment for going to school. More than 600 schools did not open this year because of security issues, according to the Afghanistan Education Ministry

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