Articles found June 29, 2011
Kandahar governor says ex-Taliban should expect work, not handouts
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By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press 06/28/2011
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Convincing Taliban fighters to lay down their arms and surrender represents Afghanistan's best chance for peace in a generation, says the governor of Kandahar.
But Tooryalai Wesa is warning insurgents who want to sign up for the Afghan government's reintegration plan that it is not a welfare program, and they should not expect perpetual handouts.
"From my perspective, reconcilation is not a blank cheque by the end of the month," Wesa said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.
"Peace in Kandahar is impossible without talk, without sitting with people, without sitting with the insurgency."
The Afghan government's cumbersome, dysfunctional approach to dealing with as many as 3,700 former fighters who've either laid down their weapons or asked to come in from the cold has been a matter of taciturn urgency, especially in some quarters of NATO.
The figure represents about 15 per cent of the Taliban's total fighting strength.
Promised aid and reintegration programs have been slow to arrive at the provincial level, when they get there at all. The district governor in Panjwaii, west of Kandahar city, is paying out of his own pocket to house and feed more than a dozen ex-fighters who surrendered last fall.
After years of hard, ongoing fighting in Kandahar, NATO officials are privately describing the reintegration effort as the "tipping point" where members of a battered and bruised Taliban finally come in from the cold.
The question is whether the Afghan government is capable of winning the peace.
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Afghans lacking 'sense of urgency'
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Self-governance biggest obstacle; Canada's envoy sees improvements but long-term vision for country still missing
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By MATTHEW FISHER, Postmedia News June 29, 2011
As Canadian combat forces leave Kandahar this summer, Canada's man in Kabul also has been saying his goodbyes in the capital.
Bill Crosbie's two-year term as Ottawa's envoy to Afghanistan ends shortly. In a farewell interview with Postmedia News at Canada's new embassy complex in Kabul, Crosbie said that the capital, Kandahar, and the country in general are more secure than when he arrived in 2009.
He was immensely proud of what Canadian diplomats, other public servants and soldiers have achieved so far in Afghanistan in security and with signature projects such as the Dahla Dam, which brings water to farmers in Kandahar.
But the Newfoundlander, who is a cousin of former Mulroney minister John Crosbie, fretted about the country's future because Afghan leaders are not yet seized with the importance of developing national institutions and the rule of law.
"The biggest challenge that remains is governance writ large," Crosbie said.
"I think the difficulty is that it is only a problem that Afghans can address.
"When we speak of governance, what I don't see here is a sense of urgency among the political class - every one, from the warlords to the elders to people in government and (the unarmed) opposition. There is not a strong sense of national unity or consensus about the future of this country. I think that is a part where we really have to help the Afghans to see the urgency of creating a dialogue about the kind of future they want."
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Afghan detainee documents reveal media's role in pushing story
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By Jordan Press, Postmedia News June 28, 2011
Each story about alleged abuse of Afghan detainees received almost the same response from the government: Officials scrutinized every fact of every story to determine what was needed to be done in response to the media coverage.
The facts were laid out in spreadsheets with the claim, its veracity and government response listed. The coverage spurred an official response and that response in turn spurred more coverage.
The tidbits of the role the media played in the Afghan detainee affair are buried within the more than 4,200 pages of documents released last week.
They are also evidence of changes in international reporting that have forced governments to react quicker to stories available immediately to worldwide audiences.
The focus of the original reports was the Afghan detainees and allegations of abuse, not the government response.
"In the past, when everything was print-based . . . and the actual hard copy wouldn't arrive in Moscow until two days later, the parade had marched on," said Jeff Sallot, a journalism professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, who was Moscow bureau chief for the Globe and Mail newspaper during the Cold War.
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Kandahar governor says ex-Taliban should expect work, not handouts
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By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press 06/28/2011
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Convincing Taliban fighters to lay down their arms and surrender represents Afghanistan's best chance for peace in a generation, says the governor of Kandahar.
But Tooryalai Wesa is warning insurgents who want to sign up for the Afghan government's reintegration plan that it is not a welfare program, and they should not expect perpetual handouts.
"From my perspective, reconcilation is not a blank cheque by the end of the month," Wesa said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.
"Peace in Kandahar is impossible without talk, without sitting with people, without sitting with the insurgency."
The Afghan government's cumbersome, dysfunctional approach to dealing with as many as 3,700 former fighters who've either laid down their weapons or asked to come in from the cold has been a matter of taciturn urgency, especially in some quarters of NATO.
The figure represents about 15 per cent of the Taliban's total fighting strength.
Promised aid and reintegration programs have been slow to arrive at the provincial level, when they get there at all. The district governor in Panjwaii, west of Kandahar city, is paying out of his own pocket to house and feed more than a dozen ex-fighters who surrendered last fall.
After years of hard, ongoing fighting in Kandahar, NATO officials are privately describing the reintegration effort as the "tipping point" where members of a battered and bruised Taliban finally come in from the cold.
The question is whether the Afghan government is capable of winning the peace.
More on link
Afghans lacking 'sense of urgency'
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Self-governance biggest obstacle; Canada's envoy sees improvements but long-term vision for country still missing
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By MATTHEW FISHER, Postmedia News June 29, 2011
As Canadian combat forces leave Kandahar this summer, Canada's man in Kabul also has been saying his goodbyes in the capital.
Bill Crosbie's two-year term as Ottawa's envoy to Afghanistan ends shortly. In a farewell interview with Postmedia News at Canada's new embassy complex in Kabul, Crosbie said that the capital, Kandahar, and the country in general are more secure than when he arrived in 2009.
He was immensely proud of what Canadian diplomats, other public servants and soldiers have achieved so far in Afghanistan in security and with signature projects such as the Dahla Dam, which brings water to farmers in Kandahar.
But the Newfoundlander, who is a cousin of former Mulroney minister John Crosbie, fretted about the country's future because Afghan leaders are not yet seized with the importance of developing national institutions and the rule of law.
"The biggest challenge that remains is governance writ large," Crosbie said.
"I think the difficulty is that it is only a problem that Afghans can address.
"When we speak of governance, what I don't see here is a sense of urgency among the political class - every one, from the warlords to the elders to people in government and (the unarmed) opposition. There is not a strong sense of national unity or consensus about the future of this country. I think that is a part where we really have to help the Afghans to see the urgency of creating a dialogue about the kind of future they want."
More on link
Afghan detainee documents reveal media's role in pushing story
Article Link
By Jordan Press, Postmedia News June 28, 2011
Each story about alleged abuse of Afghan detainees received almost the same response from the government: Officials scrutinized every fact of every story to determine what was needed to be done in response to the media coverage.
The facts were laid out in spreadsheets with the claim, its veracity and government response listed. The coverage spurred an official response and that response in turn spurred more coverage.
The tidbits of the role the media played in the Afghan detainee affair are buried within the more than 4,200 pages of documents released last week.
They are also evidence of changes in international reporting that have forced governments to react quicker to stories available immediately to worldwide audiences.
The focus of the original reports was the Afghan detainees and allegations of abuse, not the government response.
"In the past, when everything was print-based . . . and the actual hard copy wouldn't arrive in Moscow until two days later, the parade had marched on," said Jeff Sallot, a journalism professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, who was Moscow bureau chief for the Globe and Mail newspaper during the Cold War.
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