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Tracing corruption in the national army
Posted: Sat, 21 May 2011 08:25:07 +0000
Corruption, embezzlement and abuse of authority are allegedly prevalent among the top echelons of the Afghan National Army (ANA) but Generals blame their subordinate soldiers for most of the problems. Army corruption cases rarely leak outside and even the reported cases disappear in the stringent bureaucratic procedures. Over six months ago, Lieutenant General Ahmad Zia Yaftali, director of ANA's medical department, was officially accused of embezzling over US$24 million worth of ANA medical and pharmaceutical supplies. Apart from sacking the General, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has ... -
Mixed signals from Washington
Posted: Sat, 21 May 2011 08:18:49 +0000
John Kerry, an influential U.S. Senator and head of the Senate's Foreign Relation Committee, breached a diplomatic nicety during his 14-15 May visit to Afghanistan: he first flew to the northern Mazar city to shake hands with Governor Atta Mohammad Noor and then came to Kabul to meet President Hamid Karzai. Standing alongside President Karzai in a press conference on 15 May, Kerry said Kabul's reconciliation with the Taliban "has to be further defined". He warned that the reconciliation should not come at the cost of giving up hard-won rights for women and "other sectors of ... -
Young and old gold hunters in Kokcha
Posted: Sat, 21 May 2011 08:07:57 +0000
There are about 400 tunnels, some of them as deep as 700 meters, in Kokcha District in the northeastern Takhar Province where thousands of people are involved in unsafe and illegal mining, a Killid investigative report reveals. The gold miners, 6-75 years age, use different primitive tools to dig holes inside the risky tunnels and extract precious stones and crude gold. "I don't measure the space I excavate but I dig up as far as I can see - perhaps 700-800 meters - and then I pile up the debris and carry them to the river where I wash away the gold," said Sirajuddin, a gold ... -
Reasons for slow governance in provinces
Posted: Sat, 21 May 2011 08:05:26 +0000
Most government officials in the provinces are appointed by the central government in Kabul but provincial authorities have limited latitude in executing various governance and administrative affairs which undermine sub-national governance, officials tell Killid. Marking the accountability week, the governor of Herat Province, Dawood Saba, said the provincial government under his leadership was performing slow because he was bound to numerous bureaucratic bottlenecks mostly linked to Kabul. "Nepotism in the recruitment of provincial positions, absence of an effective administrative ... -
Imports hit almond prices
Posted: Sat, 21 May 2011 08:03:34 +0000
Almonds produced in Afghanistan are popular around the world for their high quality, taste and organic nature but massive importations of low quality almonds from abroad have hit the prices of Afghan almonds in the local dry fruits markets, according to traders, farmers and officials interviewed by Killid. "A few months ago, I was selling 7kg of unshelled almonds on 2,500 Afghanis (US$55) but due to large-scale imports of almonds from other countries over the past six months now I am selling the same quantity of almonds on 2,000 Afghanis," said Mustafa, a dry fruits vendor in the ... -
Land dispute in Nangarhar
Posted: Sat, 21 May 2011 08:01:10 +0000
Disputes over the ownership of thousands of hectares of rain-fed agriculture land between two tribes in Shinwari District in the eastern Nangarhar Province have erupted violent repeatedly over the past one year but the government's efforts to put an end to the looming crisis have been unsuccessful so far. Each of the two rival tribes, Saipai and Alisherkhail, claim that the barren lands belong to them but government officials reject and say the disputed land is state property. The tribes have even engaged in sporadic armed clashes resulting in up to 30 deaths and injuries over the past two ... -
Malaria victims rising in the West
Posted: Sat, 21 May 2011 07:59:24 +0000
The number of malaria patients who sought treatment at health centers in the western Herat Province has gone up by at least 20 percent over the past one year, provincial health officials have told Killid. "About 3,000 patients were diagnosed with malaria in 2009 but the number increased to over 3,635 in 2010," said Mohammad Yonus Nadim, director of the provincial malaria and leishmaniasis department. Officials warned that the exact number of malaria patients could be significantly higher than the recorded figures show as some patients, particularly in rural areas, were not seeking ... -
Kandahar mocks Petraeus's victory claims
Posted: Sat, 14 May 2011 06:07:32 +0000
Kandahar city was paralyzed for at least two days, 7-8 May, when an unspecified number of Taliban insurgents infiltrated several schools, a hotel and other locations, launched brazen attacks on government offices and challenged 20,000 U.S. troops. Dozens of people, most of them police and army soldiers, were killed and wounded and government officials alleged that most of the attackers were also killed - but no precise figures were provided. It was unclear what exactly the Taliban wanted to achieve with such a spectacular operation which raged for 2 days. Was it a sheer terror campaign, a ... -
The 'Northern' Taliban insurgents
Posted: Sat, 14 May 2011 06:04:36 +0000
The rise of the Taliban, the self?abandonment of the Afghan government and the effects of ISAF's 'capture?and?kill campaign'. Taliban not only want to fight the Afghan government but to replace it.Until recently, it was believed that the Northern provinces were immune from Taliban infiltration, mainly due to two reasons: --The Taliban were perceived as a purely Pashtun movement by some foreign and Afghan analysts who thought the insurgency could only sustain in the predominantly Pashtun areas in the south and east;--In practice, the level of Taliban infiltration from southern Afghanistan ... -
Flawed government, flawed opposition
Posted: Sat, 14 May 2011 06:01:58 +0000
It has become an endemic culture among our political elite to reject all criticisms and laud government as long as they have ministerial and other high-profile portfolios but the day they lose their posts they form "opposition" fronts and start a campaign of lambasting criticisms. When in the government, these politicians always say "our government" and never talk about the opposition. For them, the government equals Hamid Karzai - if they are in good terms with Mr. Karzai they are also happy with the government but if they have an issue with President Karzai then they ...
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