Articles found July 14, 2012
Afghanistan suicide bomb kills prominent MP at wedding
14 July 2012
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A well-known Afghan politician and around 20 other people have been killed in a suicide attack in the northern province of Samangan, police say.
Ahmad Khan Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek MP, was attending a wedding party for his daughter in the provincial capital, Aybak, when the blast happened.
The attacker, posing as a guest, embraced Mr Samangani before detonating his explosives, a witness said.
A Taliban spokesman denied involvement in the attack.
Ahmad Khan Samangani was a commander in the mujahideen militia during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1980s.
He was known as a supporter of President Hamid Karzai and a rival of Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful civil war commander in the north and currently one of Afghanistan's most prominent Uzbek politicians, the BBC's Bilal Sarwary, in Kabul, says.
Mr Samangani became a member of parliament last year, replacing one of several sitting MPs expelled by the Independent Electoral Commission for alleged electoral fraud in the 2010 parliamentary election.
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Canada’s Afghan legacy: Failure at Dahla dam
Saturday July 14, 2012
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SHAH WALI KOT, AFGHANISTAN—Heavy snow falling high in the Hindu Kush lifts the spirits of farmers far to the south as they scrape out a living in the Taliban’s desert heartland.
The harder winter pounds the distant peaks, the happier they are.
Their fate rides on the rivers of meltwater that flow south each spring, winding through a parched land, filling a network of canals that bring new life to dust-blown furrows.
Kandahar’s dirt-poor farmers feel blessed this year: winter was harsh in the mountains, so spring brought lots of water to give their crops a good start. But now the water is running low as the scorching summer heat rises.
And the farmers worry that most of God’s fleeting gift will hurry past them along the province’s main irrigation system, as it has for decades, leaving crops to shrivel under a punishing summer sun.
Canada had committed $50 million to cleaning up and repairing the irrigation network and the dam that supplies it, but Afghan farmers and officials complain that the project wasted money, taught villagers to expect handouts and lined corrupt people’s pockets.
And after all those costly mistakes, the outdated Dahla Dam’s reservoir is so full of silt that it can’t hold enough water to get crops through the driest months.
“I just want to say to Canadians that if you pave our canals with gold, what can we do with it?” chided Meerab Zakirya, 52, a Mandisar village canal manager. He has to answer to about 1,000 angry Daman district farmers when water runs out.
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Afghanistan funding: Local media already feeling the pinch
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World leaders meeting in Tokyo pledged $16 billion in more aid to Afghanistan today. But an overall decline in foreign spending is already squeezing efforts like independent journalism.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / July 8, 2012
Kabul, Afghanistan
International leaders' pledge this weekend to provide $16 billion in aid to Afghanistan over four years comes as a relief to many Afghans who have long worried that the international community would turn its back on them as happened after the Soviet war.
Though a substantial commitment, $4 billion a year in aid represents a drop in the level of assistance Afghanistan has become used to since the US-led invasion in 2001. Already, the United States has scaled back reconstruction spending in the country by 34 percent, causing a number of Afghan organizations to reconsider their strategies and future sustainability.
Among those already affected is the Afghan news industry. News agencies have been forced to make cuts, cancel programming, and reduce coverage as the tide of international funding recedes. The agencies that remain unaffected are predominantly those backed by political groups, often ethnically based, which predictably produce news with an agenda and protect party elites from scrutiny.
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After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, independent Afghan media was all but nonexistent. For international donors looking to establish an open political culture, supporting a nascent independent media was a clear choice.
“It’s a reality that after 2001, most of the media outlets were established or started through the funding of foreign countries. Until now, they were just looking after foreign funding and they never thought about standing on their own two feet,” says Professor Mohammad Wahid Gharwal, head of the journalism department at Kabul University. “I’m worried that if the international community decreases or stops funding the Afghan media, there won’t be a vibrant situation for the Afghan media in the future.”
One of the most respected new outlets has been Pajhwok Afghan News, an agency with reporters across the country, many of whom international journalists would tap in dangerous areas.
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Once the conflict's center, Kandahar City calms
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The province has seen a 75 percent drop in insurgent attacks and activity compared with the same time last year, according to the Kandahar governor's office in Afghanistan.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / July 9, 2012 Kandahar, Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents attacked the police headquarters and several parts of Kandahar City on Monday afternoon in the sort of attack that's grown less frequent in this once turbulent southern city.
Police managed to kill all 14 suicide bombers involved in the attack, but the fighting left three policemen dead and 18 injured. Six civilians were also injured.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which was part of the group’s regular warm weather offensive, said Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban. He added that the date of this attack was also meant to come near the one year anniversary of the assassination of President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother, Ahmad Wali, formerly one of the most prominent figures in southern Afghanistan. Ahmad Wali was killed by someone from his inner circle on July 12 of last year.
In the wake of Ahmad Wali's death, many Kandaharis were concerned his absence would create a power vacuum that would increase violence here. So far, however, the security apparatus, namely the new police chief, Abdul Raziq, has stepped in to fill the void. While a controversial figure, many locals have attributed Mr. Raziq's aggressive approach with bringing a measure of calm to Kandahar.
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During the past several months, though security incidents remain a part of regular life for residents, most say they have seen a marked improvement in security and now enjoy much greater freedom of movement. Still, residents say that it remains unclear if the security gains will endure beyond the end of the US and NATO combat mission in 2014.
“Compared to last year there is no doubt that the situation is better, but still there are problems. It’s not long-term security. As soon as foreign troops leave, I’m sure there will be insecurity again,” says Ahmad Shah Spar, an independent political analyst in Kandahar. Mr. Spar says that his biggest concern after international forces leave is a civil war.
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Another $16 billion in aid, but Afghan businessmen say help us
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World leaders in Tokyo pledge more aid to Afghanistan. But Afghan businessmen worry that the country is too aid dependent and want help with the private sector.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / July 8, 2012 Kandahar, Afghanistan
International donors representing about 70 countries and organizations met in Tokyo on Sunday to pledge $16 billion to Afghanistan’s reconstruction over the next four years.
The announcement was welcome news for many in Afghanistan, but nearly 11 years into the US-led war many Afghans and international officials have expressed considerable disappointment with an aid effort that they say has fallen short thus far. With these new pledges in place, there is hope that lessons learned will be applied to improve aid spending in the coming years.
Among complaints of fraud, mismanagement, waste, and missed opportunities that Afghans want addressed, many say they would like to see foreign assistance work harder to adequately develop Afghanistan’s private sector so it can begin to create jobs and a sustainable economy.
“The government does not have the capacity to create more jobs. The only way to create more employment opportunities is to support the private sector,” says Mohammad Rahim Rahimi, director of the Ministry of Economics in Kandahar. “We are still asking the international community for support, but if they had spent development money appropriately I’m sure we would be self-sufficient and we would be able to support our economy.”
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Despite the improvements foreign aid has brought to Afghanistan, it’s also managed to place the economy in a perilous position where it is dependent on aid for its existence. Presently 90 percent of the Afghan government’s budget depends on foreign aid and money from the international donor community and military spending makes up about 97 percent of the country’s GDP.
In this climate, a generation of young professionals has come of age only knowing employment in the lucrative non-governmental organization (NGO) sector and is now struggling to find work as donor spending decreases.
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